California Dem Congress"man" Swallowell Loose As a Goose?

NYPost |  A congressman from California became the butt of everyone’s joke for appearing to fart on live television Monday night.

Rep. Eric Swalwell was mid-sentence on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” when it sounded like he let ‘er rip.

“Chris, so far the evidence is uncontradicted that the president used taxpayer dollars to help him cheat —” Swalwell says with a pause, as the noise is clearly heard, “— an election.”

But the 39-year-old Democrat, who’s been in Congress since 2013 and sits on the House Judiciary Committee, was quick to deny the apparent tummy troubles.

“It was not me!!!!!” he texted a BuzzFeed News reporter. “Ha. And I didn’t hear it when I was speaking.”

Twitter users cried foul.

“It is real you can tell the pause he takes to push it out,” one person wrote.

Another noted, “The slight pause as he realizes he can’t hold it in any longer is pure gold.”

“Hardball” issued its own cheeky explanation, blaming the fart faux pas on a production snafu.

“Sorry to disappoint the conspiracy theorists – it was the #hardball mug scraping across the desk,” the show’s Twitter page posted. “Get yours today and let’s get back to the news!”

By Tuesday morning, #fartgate was trending on social media.