‘Detestable!’: Mike Johnson Squirms After CNN Host Ambushes Him with Vile Video Clip of Texas GOP Contender, Then Backs Him Anyway
CNN’s Jake Tapper confronted House Speaker Mike Johnson with repugnant video footage of Brandon Herrera, a Republican House candidate in Texas whom the Louisiana Republican is supporting — an ultraconservative gun rights activist and internet personality who has made racist and xenophobic remarks as well as crude comments about women and children.
Johnson condemned Herrera’s remarks on Sunday but blithely defended his candidacy as “effective” and worthy of admiration.
Political observers noted the Speaker is joining other leading Republicans who are selectively choosing what kind of racism and misogyny on the campaign trail to condemn or to ignore, depending on the political stakes.
Tapper wound up his interview with Johnson, Mediaite reported, by noting that the Speaker has criticized the “more extreme DSA (Democratic Socialists of America)-type candidates the Democrats have” while endorsing and fundraising for Herrera, “a YouTuber” who “has said some offensive, sexually explicit, crude things about women and children” just three years before he became a congressional candidate.
Tapper then played an uncensored January 2023 clip of Herrera making offensive comments about gun-safety advocate and Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts as he tried to dismiss the notion that motherhood inherently validates someone’s political opinions on gun control.
“Just because you let somebody cream-pie 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 followed up the clip by adding further context about Herrera’s controversial public statements for Johnson.
“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 fundraise for him. What does candidacy say about the Republican Party’s more extreme candidates?”
Johnson’s take on Herrera before appearing uncomfortable:
“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.”
Johnson then went on to praise Herrera’s recent politicking style.
“I was with him at the [Republican midterm] convention,” Johnson said. “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.”
Katy Padilla Stout, a Hispanic American San Antonio attorney and former teacher, is the Democratic nominee Herrera faces in the general election.
MS NOW described Herrera’s GOP congressional primary campaign as an unfortunate joke. The Republican Party strongly backed incumbent Tony Gonzales, whom many expected to trounce the hard-right longshot candidate.
But in March Gonzales’ career imploded after admitting to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide. The congressman finished second to Herrera in the primary, but skipped the runoff, ended his re-election bid, and then resigned from Congress in disgrace.
In a statement in response to the Tapper segment resurrecting his YouTube comments, Herrera told CNN, “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 was referring to Stout’s record as a defense attorney who fought to restore parental rights for a father after a domestic abuse allegation.
Stout’s campaign told CNN that as a court-appointed attorney her “ethical obligation was to represent her client,” and that there is “no comparison” between her child welfare work and Herrera’s history of offensive online remarks.
A Flippable Red District?
Trump won Texas’ solidly Republican 23rd House District by 15 points in 2024, and Herrera has outraised Stout 10 to 1. Yet Herrera holds only a narrow lead, partly because Hispanic voters’ support for Trump has declined and Herrera’s contentious remarks have fueled discontent, according to the Texas Tribune.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has deemed the 23rd one of its 58 “districts in play” nationwide. Democrats are seeking to flip at least three House seats in Texas in the midterms.
The GOP currently holds a slim majority in the House, with 218 to 214, and Democrats currently have momentum in congressional races, The Hill noted.
A Quinnipiac University poll released on Sept. 10 found respondents preferred Democrats to win over Republicans by 11 points. If the midterms were held today, 49 percent of survey respondents said they would support Democrats, compared with the 38 percent who would back the GOP. Another 13 percent of respondents were unsure.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Christian Martinez said he welcomed the Democrats’ interest in Padilla Stout’s “doomed campaign.”
“National Democrats should by all means continue their financial malpractice and pour money into her socialist train wreck, but all they will buy is another expensive humiliation in November,” Martinez said in a statement.
Selective Criticism of Racist Political Rhetoric
Some political observers have noticed the stark difference in the way top Republicans have reacted to another Texas candidate for statewide office with a penchant for racist remarks.
Bo French, the GOP nominee for the state’s railroad commission, which regulates the gas industry, sparked outrage last weekend after sharing a photo of South Asian students celebrating a comeback victory by the Texas Longhorns at a University of Texas at Austin football game, then writing, “I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now far worse than anyone imagined.”
In a separate post, Axios reported, French wrote that “social media is exposing how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners.”
In that instance, Republicans raced to denounce the xenophobic remarks.
Sen. John Cornyn, who lost the Republican nomination to a Trump-endorsed challenger in May, sharply condemned the post, writing, “Are other Republican elected officials going to condemn the intolerance and racism, or look the other way while it becomes normalized. This is how great political parties self-destruct. Sad.”
Republican state Rep. Lacy French also called out French, writing, “Please delete this. This post breaks my heart,” she posted. “I see college kids cheering on their football team. I see Texans.”
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows critiqued French on X, saying he can “oppose immigration policy without demeaning people because of their race or ethnicity — this post has crossed the line. Delete it,” Mediaite reported.
The Texas Oil and Gas Association, whose political arm endorsed French last week, shared the post by the Texas House speaker on Monday, writing, “We agree with Speaker Burrows.”
And GOP state Rep. Jared Patterson slammed French in a lengthy post where he said his “racist” and “wrong” post was not something a good Christian would do.
“There is absolutely nothing Christian or conservative about looking at a crowd of young Texans at a college football game, seeing the color of their skin, and declaring that they are a ‘problem,’” Patterson posted. “These are 20-year-old kids cheering for their university—not political props and not targets for racial attacks.”
French on Sunday responded to the multiple posts criticizing him by saying, “Generations of Texans have invested billions of dollars into UT. Today it is filled with foreign nationals and Leftists who boo [Republican U.S. Senator] Ted Cruz. John Cornyn says we should accept decline. The voters I talk to want to return our institutions to serving the interests of citizens.”