‘Fat b*tches’: Videos reveal the extent of GOP candidate’s crude sexual remarks

Editor’s Note: This story contains offensive language.

Brandon Herrera, the Republican nominee for a key Texas congressional district, has repeatedly made vulgar sexual statements and derogatory comments about the appearance and intelligence of women, according to a CNN review of his videos, social media, and podcasts.

Herrera downplayed his controversial comments, which he made as a right-wing online personality known as “The AK Guy,” by describing them as jokes.

But the remarks surfaced by CNN underscore the uncomfortable position top Republican leaders face as they embrace Herrera in a district where the incumbent GOP congressman resigned over sexual misconduct allegations – and where Herrera’s Democratic opponent is a woman.

In the videos and other material reviewed by CNN, Herrera compared feminists’ weight to whales and nuclear bombs, joked that he was irresistible to “fat b*tches” after rubbing ranch dressing on his body, and described liberal women discussing guns as “both fat and wrong.” He also lobbed sexually explicit insults at a gun safety advocate and her children.

Herrera, who has an audience of more than 4 million subscribers on his gun-focused YouTube channel, is seeking to replace GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales, who resigned in April amid a House Ethics Committee probe into his relationship with a former senior aide.

He now faces Katy Padilla Stout in a Republican-leaning district where Democrats believe his controversial past could give them a path to victory. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently added the seat to its “target” list and sent funding to Stout, a former teacher and attorney who has sought to capitalize on Herrera’s past comments.

Republican leaders, meanwhile, including House Leader Mike Johnson and President Donald Trump, have spoken up for Herrera, with Trump promising voters on Truth Social that “HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”

Beyond the political consequences, one expert in online speech who reviewed CNN’s findings described Herrera’s statements as representative of Internet misogyny and said such content can result in real-world damage.

“I think if we want a safer society overall, we should also be worried about candidates like this who help normalize things that we know are reliable predictors of political violence,” said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, who oversees the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University. Miller pointed to research her lab has done suggesting that spreading misogynistic statements can fuel extremists willing to commit real-life violence.

Herrera, in a statement to CNN, characterized his past comments about women as jokes and pushed back on Miller-Idriss’s assertion. He also criticized Stout’s legal work last year on behalf of a father seeking to restore parental rights after a domestic abuse allegation.

“It’s disappointing that CNN would allow someone to allege that jokes about feminism lead to violence when Stout is fighting to return children to the parent convicted of abusing them,” Herrera said.

Stout’s campaign, in a statement to CNN, said that she was appointed by the court to represent the father in an appeals case and that her “ethical obligation was to represent her client,” adding that “there is simply no comparison to the career Katy has dedicated to serving children and families, and the career Brandon Herrera has made mocking them.”

Herrera, 30, is a co-owner of Firearms Direct Club, which sells members weapons at wholesale prices. A self-described Second Amendment “absolutist,” he has also amassed millions of YouTube subscribers by reviewing gun memes, re-enacting historical shootings, and testing and building firearms. He also posts comedic clips performing gun-related gags, like stuffing food into a rifle.

The same edge that made Herrera an online conservative star, though, has dogged him as he’s sought to shift into elected office. When he challenged Gonzales in a primary in 2024 – arguing the incumbent was weak on gun rights for backing a safety bill passed after the school killings in Uvalde, Texas – Herrera’s online jokes about Nazis and veteran suicides emerged as liabilities.

Jessica Phelps/San Antonio Express-News/Getty Images

Herrera described the comments, including a video where he called a Nazi-era gun “the original ghetto blaster,” as part of his comedic persona, posting on X that “I am not, nor have I never been a neo-Nazi.”

But the Republican Jewish Coalition condemned him in the 2024 race, referring to him as “a goose-stepping extremist,” and he narrowly lost a runoff with Gonzales.

This year, Herrera again challenged Gonzales, beating him in the first round of the March primary. Soon after, Gonzales dropped out amid the House Ethics probe.

In his voluminous online content, Herrera took frequent aim at women he politically disagreed with – especially feminists, whom he often refers to as “blue hairs,” and gun safety advocates.

At a 2024 event with former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Herrera said that the weight of the world’s population was equivalent to about two dozen feminists, according to the San Antonio Current and other outlets in attendance. Earlier this summer in a YouTube video, he said “when a blue hair on the news says that a semi-automatic AR-15 is an assault rifle, she is both fat and wrong.”

Herrera also denigrated feminists’ intelligence, saying in a 2023 video that a gun range dummy’s empty head was “full of mush – much like the average Austin feminist.”

In one video from 2023, Herrera said that Cold War-era nuclear bombs weigh “approximately four times as much as the average Austin feminist.”

In another 2024 video, Herrera compared the weight of “angry blue-haired” feminists to killer whales and elephants.

He also joked in a podcast appearance that “there’s no ugly women in Norway” because “the Vikings didn’t take the ugly ones.” He went on to say that “is why all the women in Siberia are built like f*cking refrigerators.”

Herrera also made sexually explicit jokes aimed at women’s weight.

In a video from 2021, Herrera suggested his audience was “manning the harpoons” – online slang for sleeping with overweight women after a night of heavy drinking. In another video, Herrera shot at bottles of ranch and rubbed dressing onto his arm, saying it would “make me irresistible to the fat bitches.”

Miller-Idriss argued that the comments went beyond attempts at humor – particularly Herrera’s comparison of women’s weight to animals, which she described as a “way to put women in their place, to diminish their power, their authority, to belittle or degrade.”

She added, “If you’re referred to as an animal, you’re not actually even fully human, right?”

Herrera also employed crass sexual language when discussing women, according to the content reviewed by CNN.

Over the summer, Patriot Takes, a social media channel dedicated to posting old videos of Republicans, resurfaced a 2022 clip of Herrera denigrating gun-safety advocate Shannon Watts by using offensive sexual slang to describe Watts and then saying that her being a mother “doesn’t mean I have to give a shit about your political opinions.” He also used a vulgar term to describe her children – an action he bragged about in a follow-up tweet.

When a reporter from the Austin American-Statesman asked him about the comments earlier this summer, Herrera doubled down — and his campaign responded with a joking photo referring to the vulgar remarks.

Watts and her group Moms Demand Action faced other insults from Herrera, CNN found.

Earlier this year, Herrera referred to the women in the group as “M’s” and not “MILFs,” a slang referring to sexually desirable mothers.

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

In an interview with CNN, Watts said that the online abuse she faces on both sides of the aisle is “worse than it’s ever been” – amplified by social media feeds rewarding inflammatory content like Herrera’s statements.

“When I started Moms Demand Action, I had no idea I would receive threats of death and sexual violence,” she said. “What I noticed right away was the attacks on me were much different than men who supported gun safety. It was obviously very gendered and misogynistic.”

In his videos, Herrera also shared sexually explicit content of women inappropriately using guns, like when he shared a story of an adult content creator who accidentally shot herself in the vagina.

In another video, he told his audience that he named a gun after the adult film star Stormy Daniels, explaining that it’s “because it’s been through so much hell and abuse and we’ve run the shit out of it to just abuse it thoroughly.”

In a separate video posted a few months later, he bragged that his team has buried, blown up, and generally “been an asshole” to the gun, again calling it by the Stormy Daniels name.

Herrera also repeatedly referred to “thots” – a slang term meaning “that ho over there.” In one video from 2019, Herrera said he wore a wedding ring despite being unmarried as “thot repellant.” During one of his “meme review” videos, Herrera responded to a picture of a cartoonishly sexualized young model inside of a gun safe by dramatically shouting “be gone, thot.” He added that “she’s probably got diseases I can’t pronounce.”

And although Herrera at times talked about his respect for female gun owners, he also belittled “gun bunnies” – online slang for scantily clad women who post content with weapons. In videos reviewed by CNN, he joked several times that they would do anything for gun discounts and attention. In another video, he shared an online post saying that “gun bunnies” wore masks to hide herpes.

As he pushes toward the midterm election, Herrera said he expects his online commentary to continue to be an issue.

“For better or worse, my entire life is on the internet. So, I am an open book in that regard,” he said in a recent LA Times interview, arguing that voters will care more about his stances in favor of broader gun rights and tighter border security.

Brenda Bazán/For The Washington Post/Getty Images

Cognizant of the razor-thin margins needed to maintain congressional control, the GOP has largely coalesced around Herrera, with major figures like Speaker Johnson rallying with him in San Antonio earlier this summer. In his endorsement of Herrera, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Brandon is strongly supported by many Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in Texas, and Republicans in the US House.”

But some other conservatives have continued to push back – including the Republican Jewish Coalition. The group continues to criticize him, with a spokesperson telling Politico it “has a longstanding policy of speaking out against those who traffic in Nazi ideology, and this is another case.”

Democrats are aiming to turn his work as “The AK Guy” into an electoral liability.

“Brandon Herrera’s disturbing history of extremism … and antisemitic rhetoric puts this open Congressional district squarely in play,” said DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene after announcing her group would financially back his opponent.

Watts, the gun-safety advocate who has sparred with Herrera online, told CNN she hoped his comments about women would resonate with voters.

“The idea to me that this would be a man who had the power and control to take away women’s rights… That should be terrifying to all women,” she said.

CNN’s Morgan Leason contributed to this report

编者按：本文包含不雅语言。

据 CNN 对布兰登·埃雷拉 (Brandon Herrera) 的视频、社交媒体和播客的审查显示，这位共和党候选人曾多次发表粗俗的性言论，并对女性的外貌和智力做出贬损性评论。布兰登·埃雷拉是德克萨斯州一个关键国会选区的候选人。

埃雷拉淡化了他作为右翼网络名人“AK Guy”发表的那些有争议的言论，称它们只是玩笑。

但 CNN 曝光的这些言论凸显了共和党高层领导人面临的尴尬处境：他们在一个共和党现任国会议员因性行为不端指控而辞职的选区，拥抱埃雷拉，而埃雷拉的民主党对手是一位女性。

在CNN审查的视频和其他资料中，埃雷拉将女权主义者的体重比作鲸鱼和核弹，开玩笑说自己在身上涂抹牧场沙拉酱后对“肥婆”有着无法抗拒的吸引力，并称讨论枪支问题的自由派女性“既肥胖又错误”。他还对一位枪支安全倡导者及其子女进行了露骨的性侮辱。

埃雷拉在专注于枪支的 YouTube 频道上拥有超过 400 万订阅者，他正在寻求取代共和党众议员托尼·冈萨雷斯，冈萨雷斯在 4 月份因众议院道德委员会对其与前高级助手的关系进行调查而辞职。

如今，他与凯蒂·帕迪拉·斯托特在共和党占优势的选区展开角逐。民主党人认为，他过往的争议性言论或许能为他们赢得胜利。民主党国会竞选委员会近期将该席位列入“目标”名单，并向斯托特提供了竞选资金。斯托特曾是一名教师和律师，她一直试图利用埃雷拉过去的言论来提升自己的支持率。

与此同时，包括众议院领袖迈克·约翰逊和唐纳德·特朗普总统在内的共和党领导人纷纷声援埃雷拉，特朗普还在Truth Social网站上向选民承诺“他永远不会让你们失望！”

除了政治后果之外，一位审查了 CNN 调查结果的网络言论专家将埃雷拉的言论描述为互联网厌女症的代表，并表示此类内容可能会造成现实世界的损害。

“我认为，如果我们想要一个更安全的社会，我们也应该对这类候选人保持警惕，因为他们助长了那些我们已知会引发政治暴力的言论正常化，”美国大学极化与极端主义研究创新实验室（PERIL）负责人辛西娅·米勒-伊德里斯说道。米勒指出，她的实验室的研究表明，传播厌女言论会助长极端分子实施现实暴力的倾向。

埃雷拉在给CNN的一份声明中称，他过去关于女性的言论只是玩笑，并反驳了米勒-伊德里斯的说法。他还批评了斯托特去年代表一位父亲处理家庭暴力指控后寻求恢复监护权的法律工作。

“令人失望的是，CNN竟然允许有人声称关于女权主义的玩笑会导致暴力，而斯托特正在努力将孩子送回被判虐待儿童的父母身边，”埃雷拉说。

斯托特的竞选团队在给 CNN 的一份声明中表示，她是由法院指定代表父亲进行上诉的，她的“道德义务是代表她的客户”，并补充说，“凯蒂毕生致力于服务儿童和家庭，而布兰登·埃雷拉却以嘲弄他们为生，这两者之间根本无法相提并论。”

30岁的埃雷拉是“枪械直销俱乐部”（Firearms Direct Club）的共同所有人，该俱乐部以批发价向会员出售武器。他自称是第二修正案的“绝对拥护者”，并通过点评枪支梗图、重现历史枪击事件以及测试和组装枪支，在YouTube上积累了数百万订阅者。他还发布一些与枪支相关的搞笑短片，例如将食物塞进步枪里。

然而，正是埃雷拉身上那种令他成为网络保守派明星的锋芒，却在他试图竞选公职的过程中如影随形。2024年，他在党内初选中挑战冈萨雷斯，指责这位现任议员在枪支权利问题上软弱，因为冈萨雷斯支持了在德克萨斯州尤瓦尔德校园枪击案后通过的一项安全法案。然而，埃雷拉此前在网上发表的关于纳粹和退伍军人自杀的玩笑，却成了他的软肋。

杰西卡·菲尔普斯/圣安东尼奥快报/盖蒂图片社

埃雷拉将这些言论，包括一段他将纳粹时代的枪支称为“原版手提音响”的视频，描述为他喜剧形象的一部分，并在 X 上发帖称“我不是，也从来不是新纳粹分子”。

但共和党犹太联盟在 2024 年的竞选中谴责了他，称他为“一个走鹅步的极端分子”，他在与冈萨雷斯的决选中以微弱劣势落败。

今年，埃雷拉再次挑战冈萨雷斯，并在3月的初选首轮投票中击败了他。不久之后，冈萨雷斯因众议院道德委员会的调查而退出了竞选。

在大量的网络内容中，埃雷拉经常攻击与他在政治上意见相左的女性——尤其是女权主义者（他经常称她们为“老古董”）和枪支安全倡导者。

据《圣安东尼奥时报》和其他在场媒体报道，在2024年与前众议员马特·盖茨共同出席的一次活动上，埃雷拉表示，世界人口的重量大约相当于二十几个女权主义者的体重。今年夏天早些时候，他在一段YouTube视频中说道：“当新闻里一个头发花白的女人说半自动AR-15步枪是突击步枪时，她既胖又错。”

埃雷拉还贬低了女权主义者的智商，她在 2023 年的一段视频中说，射击场假人的空脑袋“里面全是糊状物——就像奥斯汀的普通女权主义者一样”。

在 2023 年的一段视频中，埃雷拉表示，冷战时期的核弹重量“大约是奥斯汀普通女权主义者的四倍”。

在 2024 年的另一段视频中，埃雷拉将“愤怒的蓝发”女权主义者的体重与虎鲸和大象进行了比较。

他还在一次播客节目中开玩笑说，“挪威没有丑女人”，因为“维京人不娶丑女人”。他还说，“这就是为什么西伯利亚的女人都长得像冰箱一样的原因”。

埃雷拉还开了一些针对女性体重的露骨性玩笑。

在2021年的一段视频中，埃雷拉暗示他的观众正在“操控鱼叉”——这是网络俚语，指在豪饮一夜后与身材肥胖的女性发生性关系。在另一段视频中，埃雷拉对着牧场沙拉酱瓶子开枪，并将沙拉酱涂抹在手臂上，声称这会“让我对胖妞们毫无抵抗力”。

米勒-伊德里斯认为，这些评论不仅仅是试图开玩笑——尤其是埃雷拉将女性的体重与动物相提并论，她将其描述为“一种让女性认清自己的位置、削弱她们的力量和权威、贬低或羞辱她们的方式”。

她补充说：“如果你被称作动物，那你实际上甚至都算不上完整的人，对吧？”

据 CNN 查阅的内容显示，埃雷拉在谈论女性时也使用了粗俗的性语言。

今年夏天，一个名为“爱国者视角”（Patriot Takes）的社交媒体频道重新发布了一段2022年的视频，视频中埃雷拉（Herrera）用带有性暗示的粗俗语言贬低枪支安全倡导者香农·沃茨（Shannon Watts），并声称她身为母亲“并不意味着我必须在乎你的政治观点”。他还用粗俗的词语形容了沃茨的孩子——并在随后的推文中炫耀了这一行为。

今年夏天早些时候，当《奥斯汀美国政治家报》的一名记者就这些言论询问埃雷拉时，埃雷拉变本加厉——他的竞选团队则以一张玩笑照片回应，照片中提到了这些粗俗的言论。

CNN发现，沃茨和她的组织“妈妈们要求行动”还遭到了埃雷拉的其他侮辱。

今年早些时候，埃雷拉称该团体中的女性为“M”，而不是“MILF”，后者是用来指代具有性吸引力的母亲的俚语。

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

在接受 CNN 采访时，沃茨表示，她面临的来自两党的网络暴力“比以往任何时候都更加严重”——社交媒体鼓励发布像埃雷拉言论这样煽动性的内容，加剧了这种情况。

“我创立‘妈妈们要求行动’组织时，完全没想到会收到死亡威胁和性暴力威胁，”她说。“我很快注意到，针对我的攻击与那些支持枪支安全的男性所受到的攻击截然不同。这显然带有强烈的性别歧视和厌女倾向。”

在他的视频中，埃雷拉还分享了一些女性不当使用枪支的露骨性内容，例如他分享了一个成人内容创作者不小心用枪射中自己阴道的故事。

在另一段视频中，他告诉观众，他以成人电影明星斯托米·丹尼尔斯的名字命名了一把枪，并解释说这是“因为这把枪经历了太多苦难和虐待，我们把它用得面目全非，彻底虐待了它”。

在几个月后发布的另一段视频中，他吹嘘他的团队已经掩埋、炸毁了这把枪，并且“对它进行了各种恶劣的对待”，再次用斯托米·丹尼尔斯的名字称呼它。

埃雷拉还多次提到“thots”——这是一个俚语，意思是“那边那个荡妇”。在2019年的一段视频中，埃雷拉说他虽然未婚，但戴着结婚戒指是为了“驱赶荡妇”。在他一段“表情包点评”视频中，埃雷拉看到一张卡通化的年轻模特被放在枪支保险箱里的照片，夸张地喊道“滚开，荡妇”。他还补充说，“她可能得了些我念不出名字的病。”

尽管埃雷拉有时表示尊重女性枪支拥有者，但他同时也贬低“枪兔女郎”（gun bunnies）——这是网络上对衣着暴露、发布持枪照片的女性的俚语。在CNN审查的视频中，他多次开玩笑说，她们为了枪支折扣和博取关注什么都做得出来。在另一段视频中，他分享了一则网络帖子，称“枪兔女郎”戴口罩是为了掩盖疱疹。

随着中期选举的临近，埃雷拉表示，他预计自己的网络评论仍将是一个问题。

“不管好坏，我的整个生活都在互联网上。所以，在这方面，我坦诚相待，”他在最近接受《洛杉矶时报》采访时说道，并认为选民会更关心他支持扩大枪支权利和加强边境安全的立场。

布伦达·巴赞/华盛顿邮报/盖蒂图片社

共和党深知维持国会控制权所需的微弱优势，因此基本团结在埃雷拉周围，包括众议院议长约翰逊在内的重要人物都在今年夏天早些时候在圣安东尼奥与他一同集会。特朗普在Truth Social网站上为埃雷拉背书时写道：“布兰登得到了德克萨斯州许多备受尊敬的‘让美国再次伟大’（MAGA）战士以及美国众议院共和党人的强力支持。”

但其他一些保守派人士仍在继续反击，其中包括共和党犹太联盟。该联盟持续批评他，其发言人告诉Politico，“该联盟长期以来一直反对那些散布纳粹意识形态的人，而这又是另一个例子。”

民主党人试图将他作为“AK男”的经历变成选举中的包袱。

“布兰登·埃雷拉令人不安的极端主义历史……以及反犹太主义言论，使得这个空缺的国会选区成为各方争夺的目标，”民主党国会竞选委员会主席苏珊·德尔贝内宣布该组织将为他的对手提供资金支持后说道。

曾与埃雷拉在网上交锋的枪支安全倡导者沃茨告诉 CNN，她希望埃雷拉关于女性的言论能够引起选民的共鸣。

“对我来说，想到这个人竟然有能力剥夺女性的权利……这对所有女性来说都应该感到恐惧，”她说。

CNN的摩根·利森对本报道亦有贡献。