A pro-2nd Amendment Republican Texas congressional candidate triggered CNN over what were described as “crass and degrading” comments about women, including joking about “fat b*tches” and likening them to whales and elephants.
YouTuber Brandon Herrera, who goes by the moniker the “AK Guy,” hosts a channel with more than four million followers and is running for the seat in Texas’ 23rd congressional district, which was previously held by GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales, who stepped down earlier this year amid a House ethics probe for allegedly having an affair with a staffer.
The left-leaning cable network is seeking to manufacture another scandal that could benefit Democrats in the upcoming election, combing through years of Herrera’s videos and social media activity to cherry-pick what it portrayed as insulting and misogynistic views by the GOP House hopeful.
CNN’s liberal “journalists” get butt hurt over guntuber and GOP congressional nominee Brandon Herrera (@TheAKGuy) making jokes about fat, blue-haired feminists.
In a possibly defamatory statement, they suggest that Herrera fits the patterns of someone who will become a domestic… pic.twitter.com/WrowVCfMZ8— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) September 9, 2026
The network even admitted that the outrage that it is helping to gin up could boost Democrats in the battle for control of the House.
“Given the razor-thin margins in the House of Representatives, Democrats are hoping that the controversy surrounding Herrera may help to provide a path to victory in this red-leaning district,” the host said before turning the floor over to crack CNN investigator Allison Gordon, who laid out the case against him.
According to the report, the candidate once joked that rubbing ranch dressing on his body made him irresistible to “fat b*tches,” that a gun range dummy had a head “full of mush – much like the average Austin feminist;” that Cold War-era nuclear bombs weighed “approximately four times as much as the average Austin feminist,” and likened fat chicks to elephants and whales.
“So when a blue hair on the news says that a semi-automatic AR-15 is an assault rifle, she is both fat and wrong,” he said in one clip featured by the network.
But the report may have crossed a line by insinuating that his jokes about women could inspire domestic terrorists.
“When looking back at folks who commit political violence and extremism, if you look at their search history on the internet, it’s often because they’ve been consuming a lot of misogynistic online content, whether that be on YouTube, podcasts, or social media. There’s often that connective through line,” she said.
Herrera reacted to the hit job by explaining that his remarks were made in jest.
He also called out the network’s hypocrisy in a post to X.
Man, I forgot I was this funny.
What’s funnier though, is the same people who celebrated Charlie Kirk’s murder saying that me joking about “fat blue haired feminists” is “political violence.”
This is why CNN+ failed so bad they had to shut it down. https://t.co/AT6fTzQ50v
— Brandon Herrera (@TheAKGuy) September 9, 2026
“Man, I forgot I was this funny,” he wrote. What’s funnier though, is the same people who celebrated Charlie Kirk’s murder saying that me joking about ‘fat blue haired feminists’ is ‘political violence.’ This is why CNN+ failed so bad they had to shut it down.”
Herrera is facing Democrat Katy Padilla Stout in November, with the winner getting a two-year trip to Washington, D.C.
“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,” he told CNN.
