Brandon Herrera wants to go to Congress for a district that reaches into San Antonio. On a podcast in 2022, he said he wished COVID-19 had killed more people — as long as they were fat.
The clip resurfaced on September 25, 2026, and the San Antonio Current reported it three days later. Herrera, the gun YouTuber known as "the AK Guy," made the remarks on July 31, 2022, on Elijah Schaffer's Slightly Offensive podcast, roughly a year before his first run for Congress.
What he said
According to the Current, the conversation started with interracial dating. When the host said white men prefer white women over Black women, Herrera offered his own theory:
"I wonder if they're solving for all variables here. Because there's also like an obesity epidemic in the female Black community."
Then another guest went on a rant about fat women. Herrera joined in:
"I'm of the opinion COVID wasn't bad enough, because if you had something that just unfairly targeted fucking fat people, I'm here for it. I would have worn my mask nowhere on purpose."
That is not a joke about weight. It is a man saying a pandemic that killed Americans should have killed more of them, and naming which ones.
Obesity was one of the things that got people killed
Herrera wasn't guessing about who COVID "targeted." Doctors knew. A peer-reviewed study of patients hospitalized with COVID at a Budapest hospital between March 2020 and December 2021 found that obesity raised the risk of dying, of landing in intensive care, and of severe disease. For patients under 65, it was the single most significant risk factor the researchers found — linked to about three times the odds of dying.
So when Herrera said he was "here for" a disease that went after fat people, he was cheering for a disease that actually did. Those were people's parents, spouses and coworkers.
He also called San Antonio ugly
In the same interview, a guest said "ugly people are the new minority." Herrera answered: "I live in San Antonio. They are not the minority." When the host laughed that "San Antonio's a very ugly city," Herrera said, "It's not great."
Texas' 23rd District, the seat Herrera is running for, includes part of San Antonio. The Current, citing Meidas Touch, reported that about 9% of the city's population falls inside the district after last summer's redistricting, along with suburbs and exurbs west of the city.
His Democratic opponent, Katy Padilla Stout, answered on X: "The only thing ugly in San Antonio are the words coming out of this guy's mouth. He'll talk about anything but high prices and rampant corruption. He's unfit for office."
This is a pattern, not a slip
This is not the first time Herrera's old content has come back.
- A CNN review found years of comments mocking women's weight — comparing women to whales, elephants and nuclear bombs. He called those jokes too.
- He filmed himself holding up his copy of Mein Kampf and said he'd read "a good chunk" of it.
- He called a child a "c*m trophy" to insult moms who organize against gun violence.
- He called Social Security "a joke" after his own website promised to protect it.
Every time, the defense is the same: it was a joke, it was an old video, it was just content. But Herrera isn't running for more subscribers. He's running to represent a district that includes the city he called ugly.
Republicans picked him anyway
In 2024, Speaker Mike Johnson backed Herrera's Republican opponent, and a Republican group announced a $400,000 ad buy against him, with an ad saying "Fools like Brandon Herrera who mock veterans do not belong in Congress or Texas." Now Johnson is raising money for him. The party knew what his content library looked like. It nominated him anyway, and Democrats have since put the district in play.
In summary
On a 2022 podcast, Brandon Herrera said COVID "wasn't bad enough" and that he was "here for" a disease that "unfairly targeted" fat people — a group that research shows really did die at higher rates. In the same interview he said most people in San Antonio are ugly. He is now the Republican nominee for a congressional district that includes part of San Antonio.
Source
U.S. House hopeful Brandon 'AK Guy' Herrera says he wishes COVID killed more fat people — San Antonio Current, September 28, 2026.
