← Bulwark Takes
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- [00:00]
A
Hey everyone, it's me, Sam Stein, managing editor at the block here. My man Will Sommer, author of the False Flag newsletter. Just, we just published one on MAGA rallying around Andrew Tate. But that's not why we are here, Will. We are here because I am kind of incensed about this. You can tell by how angry I feel. But there is like a real thing going on here, which is that there's a number of Republican candidates for office who have been caught sick, saying depraved things, committing alleged acts of violence, doing the type of stuff that a few weeks ago the entire political universe was rallying around. The idea that Graham Platner was unacceptable for public office because he did similar things or was alleged to have done similar things. So, Will, the thing that really got my goat and the reason I wanted to do this video with you is a guy named Brandon Herrera who is running as Republican in the 23rd district of Texas. Before we get into it, can you talk a little bit about Brandon and, and, and where he comes from and who he is?
- [01:04]
B
Yeah, Brandon Herrera is a, comes from this background is like a gun YouTuber, essentially one of these guys who goes out in the desert, blows up targets with his guns and says, whoa, look at that one. And in this case, he was, he was real, kind of like the far right characters loved him. But he wasn't expected to win this primary until Tony Gonzalez, the San Antonio Inc. Republican. He had to resign from office after an affair with a staffer who later killed herself.
- [01:29]
A
So there you go. There, there is consequences. Tony Gonzalez does prove there are occasionally consequences, but that one took a while for him to resign. But anyways, go on, Brendan.
- [01:37]
B
Yes, and so, so Brendan now has, had, has taken this, you know, he'll, he has the nomination here, but he has a record as a, an edgy, a brash gun YouTuber. Gun YouTube is like, you know, a world I don't super keep up with. But it's, it's like a sort of a crude sort of maga gun YouTube. Those guys are some bad boys. And so I think that's what we're going to find out here.
- [02:01]
A
So yeah, Trump has endorsed this guy. It's kind of, it's, it's a toss up district in Texas. So it's not like this is a safe seat. It's kind of crazy that he's not being thrown or being pushed out by Republicans or not, as many Republicans are turning on him. Among the things that he has said, for instance, if it makes everybody in
- [02:21]
C
the room feel Better. I often think about putting it in my mouth. So I'm basically an honorary veteran.
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A
Jesus.
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D
He.
- [02:32]
A
Let's play the Hitler one. And then we're going to get to the, the, the. The thing about. He said about Shannon Watts, but this is a joke he made in which he implies that Hitler is his personal hero. Let's play that one.
- [02:43]
C
In today's video, we're going to be talking about killing Hitler. You know, I just don't feel like as a country we talk about America's heroes like we used to. I mean, if our children are going to look up to anybody, they should be looking up to somebody like the
- [02:54]
B
guy who killed Hitler.
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C
I may not know his name, but I do know this. The man who killed Hitler has got to be a personal hero of mine.
- [03:04]
A
Yes, Hitler killed Hitler. You get it? Hitler killed himself and therefore he's his personal. So stupid. All right, he says some stupider stuff. I'm not going to go through Lenny. But what really popped yesterday was this clip he said, of Shannon Watts, who is one of these gun control advocates who started Mom's Demand Action. I got to warn you before we play this clip, it's disgusting and grotesque, like, truly beyond the pale. So if you don't, if you have kids in the car or you're just kind of driving, like, don't, you know, cover their ears? Here's Brandon Herrera and Shannon Watts.
- [03:46]
C
Now, directly to Shannon Watts. Hi, Shannon, longtime viewer, first time caller. First off, I want to get it off my chest. I think Moms Demand Action is fucking stupid. Being a mother doesn't make your opinion any more or less valid. Just because you let somebody cream pie you doesn't mean I have to give a shit about your political opinions. The fact that you kept your cum trophy doesn't make you any less wrong about the dumb shit that you say.
- [04:10]
B
Oh, my God.
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A
Oh, my God.
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B
Each time I see it, like, what? He's like, you let someone cream pie you. I like, I cringe all over again.
- [04:21]
A
This guy's gonna be in Congress. This is insane stuff. I mean, truly grotesque to the parents watching with their kids in the car. I apologize, but this is the news. This is the world. We deal.
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B
Yeah, it wasn't our choice to make this guy run for Congress.
- [04:39]
A
These are the people who are going to hold elected office. You gotta at least what you're dealing with. Okay, so Brandon said that, and we had our own Brendan go to the Hill to ask lawmakers in the Texas delegation how they felt. Because again, here's why I'm doing. Everyone's going off on Grant Platner for doing horrible things, rightfully so. But like, you know that this stuff that we just played from Herrera seems just as bad and yet no one's condemning him. So we had our own guy go to the Hill to talk to lawmakers to see what they might say if presented with this. And it's really funny.
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E
Congressman, quick Texas question.
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F
Quick.
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E
Representative Brandon Herrera, who's a Republican nominee for House seat in Texas, has called baby's. Just in your home state. Brandon Herrera has referred to babies as cum trophies. I was wondering if you'd share that.
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B
Got a little smile.
- [05:43]
E
No. Congressman, in your home state of there's a Republican Brandon Herrera running for the House. He's referred to babies as cum trophies. I was just wondering if you
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B
just enjoying a cigar, Brendan walks up and asks you about cum trophies.
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A
Well, kudos to Brendan for doing that. I would absolutely have not done it and that's why I don't go to the Hill. I'm not going to ask about come trophies, but what did you make of that? I guess there's nothing else they could say.
- [06:13]
B
Yeah, I mean, I'm glad we did it. I'm glad Brendan did it. I think it's one of these situations where as you said, I mean, a lot was made about Graham Platner's Reddit comments, rightfully so. And yet there's this real asymmetry between the left and the right where eventually Grant Platner was forced to drop out of the race. But, but you have figures all the way up to Donald Trump, people who act heinously on their right. And then you see these congressmen just go, I don't know. I don't know, man.
- [06:40]
A
Yeah, I mean it's true. But this is the thing. It's not the only. Herrera is not the only one here. So there's a couple others. For instance, this past week in Arizona, they had their primaries. Sheriff Mark Lamb won the Republican primary in one of these. Do you want to go on this one? You want to explain who Mark Lamb is?
- [06:58]
B
Mark Lamb's a guy I've had my eye on for many years because he's one of these. So, so he's a, he was sheriff and in Arizona. And he also like sort of tried to claim the Joe Arpaio mantle as like the most famous bad boy sheriff in Arizona. And so he had kind of like a cops type streaming network where, you know, you would get video from his pursuits and what have you. And, and, and yet. And now he is caught up in a swinging scandal.
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A
Can you explain the swinging scandal?
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B
Yeah, so. So Mark Lamb and his wife are Mormons, you know, and as folks who watch Real Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
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A
Which you do.
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B
Which I do. Of course, there's these swinging scandals tend to pop up in the Mormon community every so often. And so in this case, a former friend of Mark Lamb's claimed that Mark had sent him basically had sort of arranged liaisons between this friend and Mark Lamb's wife, and that these things, you know, had gone down, as it were. And. And. And then basically then the friend's wife had found out about it. The guy who, you know, was sort of the. What you might call the bull in. And so basically. Well, yeah, in sort of a cuckold relationship, right? You have the husband, and then the third is the bull. And so the. So, so anywho, I don't know. Mark Lamb is pretty tough guy, maybe I shouldn't be putting in these terms, but basically, then. Then the Mormon Church got involved because Mark Lamb was like a prominent figure in the local church, and his wife, or the friend's wife was like, why is this guy, like, the king of swinging in our county? What's going on here? And then additionally, there'. Apparently, he's been very into sexting women.
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A
Well, I'll read that one. Yeah. So that. So I guess, you know, look, what. What people want to do when in swing and why they want to be the bull or whatever. You know, it is what it is. I'm not gonna be. I'm not gonna kink. Shame. You can do what you want in your. In your household, provided you're not, like, doing something illegal or, you know, putting people in. In places and positions they don't want to be. But this is beyond that because there's a story about what you. What you reference here, which is him using his position of power and authority to threaten women. So here's just reading from it. Lamb, sexual proclivities have followed him since at least 2020, when a political rival complained to the penal County Board of Supervisors that Lamb had targeted women and used his position to cover it up. Lamb once threatened a woman he had sent nudes to, saying he would send state troopers after her if she publicly shared nude photos he had sent her.
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B
It's crazy.
- [09:36]
A
Yeah, okay. He's had. He's traded racist, sexist, and other offensive remarks with a member of the board of the border militia group, Border Narcotics intelligence during his 2016 campaign for sheriff. So, yeah, not a great guy. And yet he's not the only one. There's Corey Mills.
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F
Oh.
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A
I mean, where do you even start with Corey Mills?
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B
I don't know.
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G
I.
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B
The one I always jump to is how he's like, maybe. Maybe like a secret Muslim who got married. A hardcore, like, extremist mosque.
- [10:07]
A
Yeah, that's a weird one. A woman called once called 911 from the D.C. wharf in 2025, alleging that Mills had assaulted her. Officers found her tearful, showing bruising on her arms and face, which she said Mills had caused. Initially said Mills had caused. Police were serious enough about arresting him that they called for a police transport van during the counter. Police the received a phone call, after which she changed her story. Okay. Police decided not to arrest Mills on the spot, with Lieutenant saying, quote, I don't see the value of making the arrest of a simple assault if we have a complainant who is working against us. Mills has been accused of threatening to release revenge porn against a former partner. Nice guy, bad partner. Was granted restraining order against Mills in October 2025. The Florida judge concluding that the complainant had reasonable cause to believe she was in imminent danger. Mills was caught with sex workers in Georgia. Not the state, the country. While he and a group of individuals were en route to Afghanistan to perform a rescue mission following Joe Biden's withdrawal from the country. Those he was traveling with were furious, given the mission was already sensitive and they feared that the sex workers were Russian. Oh, my God. And yet this guy still serves.
- [11:11]
B
Yeah. So as you said, the whole key thing there, they're doing this rescue mission, and they're like, we got it. Lay low. They can't know that a bunch of Americans are hanging out in the Caucasus region. And then Corey's like, hey, I got the chicks.
- [11:28]
A
You know, has. So then there's Max Miller, another one, another gem who was accused by an ex girlfriend of physical mental abuse, which he denied. I should say Mills has denied a lot of this stuff, too. Miller was accused by his ex wife, Emily Marino, who is the daughter of the senator Bernie Marino, of physical abuse during legal proceedings around the couple's custody of the couple's daughter. There is a defamation lawsuit that Miller has filed against his now ex wife. There's a clip I think we should play where. Where Max Miller is confronted with this. Let's play that. This is actually not funny. This is quite deranged.
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F
So when. When does the gun come into play? When I'm changing. And what does he do? Holds it. Me? Holds it on you. Okay. Can you show me where he Held it to you. No, hey, it's. It's okay. Okay, that's fine. That's fine. Like I said, that's a hard thing to talk about. How do you respond to that allegation?
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D
I don't have a weapon that's even easily accessible in my home like that. What we're dealing with, unfortunately, is something that many families go through, Lauren, which is a very nasty divorce. And in the process, allegations get made that are completely fabricated and are not true.
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F
So you're saying this incident never happened in any form?
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D
Not at all.
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F
Do you have guns in the house?
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D
Always in a safe. Do I have weapons? Absolutely. I have weapons. But are they always locked up? Absolutely.
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A
I just point out, he's like, oh, I don't have guns that are easily accessible like that. It's like, you have a safe of guns. How hard is it to access?
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B
Yeah, like the idea that, you know, if he was in some murderous rage, he couldn't go down to the safe and get the guns. I mean, it's. Did they make him, you know, do a captcha or all these complex things?
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A
Where is the safe? Safe in, like, some vacation house. Like, what are you talking about? It doesn't make sense.
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B
His tone there is so strange. This might be a deep poll, but, Sam, are you familiar with the comedian Joe Para? He's kind of like a Tim Robinson. He has this voice that is this very kind of like, puts you to sleep voice that seemed like a very rehearsed, like. Of course I have guns in a safe, but I wouldn't use them on anyone.
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A
Not at all.
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D
Not at all.
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A
Didn't do it. Yeah.
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B
He also was lot to. It's a rich text there when he says, you know, this is what a lot of people in divorces go through. And essentially he's saying, a lying ex wife who's, you know, making all this stuff up.
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A
Where's Bernie Marino in all this? Has he said anything? It's his daughter.
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B
Yeah. I'm not sure, honestly. I think he might have, yeah.
- [14:00]
A
All right, which brings me to my point. You have. We've just listed, what, four examples. Mills, Miller, Lamb, Herrera. Herrera. That's four right there. Two are trying to be members of the House. Two are members of the House. All of them with incredibly troubling allegations, some more substantiated than others. I mean, Brendan Brandon Herrera is literally on tape talking about come trophies. I mean, that's not an allegation. That's what he's talking about. All this is happening, and yet there's not even anything close to the national tension or public outcry or political demand that these people be thrown out of office or dropped from the race. And we just went through an entire multi week news cycle around Grand Platinum. Rightfully so. Again, rightfully so. But I find this disparity unconscionable. Now, Mike Johnson was asked about this and this is what he had to say.
- [15:05]
H
Well, these past two weeks, Democrats ditched Graham Platinum from their ballot after sexual assault allegations. Two members of the conference, Max Miller and Ford Mills, face domestic violence allegations. Why would Republicans keep them in the conference whereas Democrats are dropping somebody accused of crippling because of sexual harassment?
- [15:24]
G
Well, the key word there is allegation. We a have process here. The House Ethics Committee works on those things. If, if allegations are made, they work through a process. So I'm not in the business of commenting on investigations as they, as they're in process. And we'll see how that shakes out. That's how this always works. And by the way, it's done for Rs and these on both sides of the aisle.
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A
What do you make of that?
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B
I mean, I think it's a dodge. I mean, obviously, you know, it's like Republican, you know, for some of these people, like someone like Brandon Herrera or these people who are running, you know, for, for, for office for the first time. I mean, there is no ethics process for them. I mean, I think. And also we've seen that these ethics, you know, the cases can really drag on.
- [16:03]
A
It's definitely a dodge for a couple reasons. One is allegations. He seems to be like, well, you know, these are just allegations. They were just allegations against Platinum too. I mean, they were, I happen to think they were fairly well substantiated. And by the time he dropped out, it seemed pretty clear that there's a pattern there. But if you're resting on this idea that it's just allegations and you got to go through a. Well, that's the case with Platner. That was the case. He denied it. Platner denied all that stuff. He denied even knowing about his Nazi tattoo, which seemed totally ridiculous. But it was an allegation by definition. And no one seemed to have, you know, I don't recall Johnson ever saying, hey, hold on, this guy should, you know, be allowed to sort through the process. Two, maybe there's a distinction between a sitting lawmaker versus someone on the campaign show. And I understand that you're a sit in lawmaker. You have an ethics process that you should go through. To your point, it should work much more quickly and efficiently. But maybe that's the case. That doesn't account for two candidates now who are accused of this type of stuff, Lamb and Pereira. So that does seem totally inconsistent to me. Which gets me to this idea that there's a hat gap, which I've talked about a lot, which is that there are just, you know, on the Republican side of the ledger, conservative side, magic side, people are more willing to accept this type of and, and be more hackish about it than I think liberals and progressives are. Which is not to say that there aren't hacks among progressives and liberals. I just think there's a gap there.
- [17:35]
B
I think that's very real. You know, you just have people who are willing to just hammer these things. I think in the media or in, you know, whether it's kind of liberal cable news. I think there's more of an emphasis placed on novelty and kind of being like, all right, we're over this. Talk about the next thing. Whereas you know, on Fox News you can have someone who's just going to hit, you know, Zoran Bondami is out of control, you know, every single day in this case. You know, I wanted to add, it strikes me that actually the evidence in some of these cases in terms of like being through an actual court, being through police, is actually I think given a higher credibility than, than the, the Platner allegations, which as you said, I think are credible. But like, you know, these are calls to police, police reports, you know, 911 calls. You know, Corey Mills went through a whole harassment thing in Florid. But that stuff is like court record. That is real.
- [18:23]
A
I mean Herrera is literally on video talking about, you know, come trophies. I can't believe it. Yeah, it, I totally agree. I mean there's you allegations are one thing, but someone coming out and talking that way and then actual police files, totally different thing. And then you have with, with Max Miller, his ex wife is on tape talking to a police officer. So it is, it is a remarkable disparity and it's very frustrating. But at least we got some hilarious video of our guy Brendan going up to the Hill and talking about.
- [18:58]
B
Yeah, he's really salvaged this moment for me. You know, I, I, I feel a lot better about, you know, the come trophy situation. He, he made lemonade out of lemons.
- [19:06]
A
Yes, I agree. And look, if you're watching this and you support this type of journalism where we can send people on the Hill to ask uncomfortable questions, you do need to subscribe to the Bullock and you need to subscribe to our YouTube page. All right, well, thanks a lot, buddy. Really appreciate this. For those who are watching, as I just mentioned, please do subscribe. Talk to you later.