'Meet the Gun-Toting Influencer Who--Thanks to the Tony Gonzales Scandal--May Soon Be in Congress'
"Brandon Herrera — also known as 'the AK guy' — thanked Trump in an interview with TPM for clearing a path for him to make offensive jokes."
“ 'A guy like me could have never run had we not had a President Trump,' Herrera said in an interview with TPM. 'There’s a lot of things that he would say that a Republican candidate could not have said 10, 12, 15 years ago...We don’t have to pretend to be something we’re not,' he added.
"Some call this 'saying the quiet part out loud,' others decry it as a coarsening of public life that repels most people and makes political participation an endless, cynical slog that finds a way to confuse cruelty for honesty."
"Herrera started off his influencer career focusing mostly on guns. He has a video on how to buy a machine gun legally, and documented the process of designing a large gun he calls an 'AK-50' across several videos. After 2020, he started to delve more into politics. Herrera became an outspoken supporter of Kyle Rittenhouse, the Wisconsin man who shot three people during a 2020 protest. After a jury acquitted Rittenouse of homicide and other charges, Herrera posted a video celebrating the verdict that he began by drinking a chaser of beer and then taking three shots. He called the combo 'The Rittenhouse.'"
More at link:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/meet-the-gun-toting-influencer-who-thanks-to-the-tony-gonzales-scandal-may-soon-be-in-congress