Congressman sparks massive online investigation after appearing to fart on live television

A Democratic congressman appeared to fart while on national television, an incident which he has since denied.

While speaking to MSNBC about the Trump impeachment inquiry, California Rep. Eric Swalwell seemed to briefly pause before a rather loud sound appeared from nowhere.

39-year-old Swalwell was telling host Chris Matthews,

Chris, so far the evidence is uncontradicted that the president used taxpayer dollars to help him cheat an election.

That's exactly when the fart seemed to happen. Undisturbed by the apparent flatulence, Swalwell continued to talk but little did he know that it would become a major viral story even birthing the hashtag #fartgate.

There have been jokes aplenty in the aftermath, with many memes appearing in the replies to Trump's tweets.

Some people even think that the host might have been the one who dealt it.

Predictably there is already a Twitter account dedicated to the fart.

However, the whole thing, which has been blown way out of proportion has been debunked by Swalwell after BuzzFeed reporter Addy Baird text him about the clip.

Swalwell has adamantly claimed that it wasn't him, didn't hear the fart but did find it funny.

In a further twist to this already potent story, Hardball the show that Swalwell was appearing on, has since claimed that the sound wasn't a fart at all.

The culprit?

According to the studio, the suspiciously fart-like sound that was almost certainly a fart, actually emanated from a mug in the studio scraping across a desk. Which sounds exactly like something that someone who farted on live television would say and sounds absolutely nothing at all like, well, the sound of a cup scraping across a desk. But, sure, we'll believe you.

Bloody mugs, eh.

HT BuzzFeed

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