From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is the Daily.

After serious allegations, including sexual misconduct claims, Congress was on the cusp of doing something that has never happened in U.S. history.

Forcibly remove four of its members.

But then, then in about an hour of one another, two of those members resigned.

Today, congressional reporter Michael Gold explains what unfolded on Capitol Hill this week

and what it tells us about how willing Congress is to hold itself accountable.

It's Friday, April 17.

Michael Gold, welcome to the Daily.

Thanks for having me.

It has been, as you know, a very chaotic week on Capitol Hill because, among other things,

it is extremely uncommon for us to see two members of Congress step down within, what,

an hour or two of each other?

And we're going to get to the specific allegations that led to the resignations in a little bit.

But I just want to start by hearing from you about how you're thinking about what we saw unfold this week.

I've been thinking a lot about what's happening on the Hill this week.

And for me, this is a story about the way that Congress chooses or doesn't choose to police itself. I think what we're seeing this week is

extraordinary, two members of the House resigning within an hour of each other after a lot of

pressure. But it took us a while to get to this point. And I think the

way that it happened really says a lot about kind of the intersection between our politics

and the way we expect our politicians to behave once they're in office.

It took us a while to get here. What do you mean by that, Michael?

Yeah. So I'm going to answer your question with another question.

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