KIRO NEWSRADIO OPINION

‘Bad leader’: Gee condemns Sheriff Swank after vulgar text messages surface

Dec 18, 2025, 4:53 PM | Updated: 4:57 pm

Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank is facing scrutiny after text messages surfaced during his ongoing court battle that revealed Swank called Pierce County prosecutors “motherf***ers,” a deputy prosecutor “incompetent,” and the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs as a bunch of “libtards.”

Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin, co-hosts of “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, condemned Swank’s comments, calling him a “bad leader,” and debating whether a sheriff should be appointed or elected.

“I’m going to go with the appointed sheriff because of the problems that I see,” Gee said. “It’s no secret I didn’t like the last sheriff, and I don’t like this sheriff. The one thing that I’ll say about the last sheriff, the difference is that the last sheriff did not cause the problems the way that this one does. Keith Swank is causing so many problems for this county. Right now, Pierce County can’t do anything. They are stuck with that bad leader.”

“And why? Because you can’t recall someone just because they have embarrassing behavior, use crude language, or have bad judgment,” Ursula responded. “You have to prove specific illegal actions tied to the job, convince a judge that the case is legally valid, and then collect tens of thousands of signatures, so most recalls go nowhere.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.

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