In a stunning moment on CNN Sunday, Jake Tapper confronted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) with footage of a candidate he supports making shockingly crude remarks.
Tapper concluded his State of the Union interview with Johnson by playing a 2023 clip of Brandon Herrera — a House candidate in Texas — making offensive comments about women and children,
“You talked about some of the more extreme DSA-type candidates the Democrats have,” Tapper told Johnson. “Republicans have some candidates like that on their own. For instance, Brandon Herrera, he’s a House candidate in Texas. You have endorsed him. You have fund-raised him for him. Before he started becoming a congressional correspondent, I mean, congressional candidate, he’s a YouTuber, and he has said some offensive, sexually explicit, crude things about women and children. Here’s a little bit of what he said just three years ago. And I want to warn viewers that this language is pretty gross.”
The clip was then played uncensored.
“Just because you let somebody cr**m-p** you doesn’t mean I have to give a sh*t about your political opinions,” Herrera said. “The fact that you kept your c*m trophy doesn’t make you any less wrong about the dumb sh*t that you say.”
Tapper came out of the clip by adding further context.
“That’s him disparaging moms,” Tapper said. “He’s also in a video testing a Nazi-era submachine gun. He called it the ‘original ghetto blaster.’ You see him goose-stepping to a Nazi marching song in a podcast two years ago. He joked, ‘We should abolish old people.’ I have to say, I know you’re not a voter in that district. You didn’t nominate this guy, but I was surprised to see you endorse him and fund-raise for him. What does candidacy say about the Republican Party’s more extreme candidates?”
Johnson condemned the remarks but defended the candidate.
“That’s, look, detestable language,” Johnson said. “You know how I feel about all of that, Jake. But I also know Brandon Herrera has been out running a very effective campaign and explained to people that he has apologized for all that. He was a podcaster and a provocateur and tried to get attention. That’s not the way I speak or think, and that’s not the way most do. But that was his persona online, right? Right now, he’s running as a very serious candidate for Congress and a very thoughtful guy. I was with him at the convention. We talked about all this. I said, Brandon, when you get to Congress, and he will be there, you’re going to join this team and help us to save America to preserve freedom and bring down costs for the American people. That guy’s laser-focused on doing that, and he is far superior to the candidate he is running against down in that district in South Texas.”
CNN has compiled numerous offensive comments from Herrera in recent reporting. In a statement, Herrera told CNN, ““It’s disappointing that CNN would allow someone to allege that jokes about feminism lead to violence when [my opponent Katy Padilla] Stout is fighting to return children to the parent convicted of abusing them.”
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