- Brad Sherman was caught looking at explicit images on his iPad during a flight.
- The images went viral on X, gaining over 15 million views and widespread attention.
- Sherman denied watching porn, blaming Elon Musk's X algorithm for showing content.
Brad Sherman, a politician in the United States, has responded after being caught staring at explicit images on an electronic device during a flight. The images, taken by fellow passengers, went viral on social media.
The images of 71-year-old Democratic lawmaker watching "porn" were shared on X by an account named Dear White Staffers (@dearwhitestaff), and the post gained more than 15 million views, thousands of reposts and likes.
"Why did California Congressman Brad Sherman feel it was appropriate to look at porn on his iPad during a flight today? His district deserves better representation than this!!" the caption of the post read.
Sherman responds
The politician denied watching porn and also blamed Elon Musk for the algorithm of X (formerly Twitter) for showing such explicit media more on the social media platform.
"This was nothing more than scrolling through Twitter - and unfortunately Elon Musk has ruined the Twitter algorithm to give people content that they don't ask for or subscribe to," his spokesperson told The Post.
Sherman reflected on the issue as he spoke to Punchbowl News, saying that the images appeared on his X feed under the "For You" section of X.
"This was on Twitter. These pictures came up on 'For You,'" Sherman told the media outlet.
"If you have to fly across the country, you look at a lot of stuff on your tablet," he said.
"I must've looked at more than 1,000 posts. If I see a picture of a woman, might I look at it longer than a sunset? Yeah.
He was further asked about the content and whether it should be viewed openly on a plane. He responded, "Is it pornography? I don't think Elon Musk thinks so. Is it appropriate? No."
Reaction to the incident
Reacting to the incident, Donald Trump Jr wrote, "Yikes!!!!" Sherman fired back with an edited version of the pictures with his iPad screen replaced with the words, "Release the Epstein files."
Representative Nancy Mace said on X: "I don't want to hear a single peep from anyone in/around Congress, or the media, abt how I stroll through an airport ever again."
Mace was recently surrounded by controversy when she was accused of berating police officers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel at a South Carolina airport. She later shared surveillance video from the airport on X and accused reports of being "fake news".
