SAN ANTONIO, TX— Rep. Tony Gonzales, an establishment Republican, held onto his Texas Congressional seat by approximately 400 votes in the 2024 runoff with Second Amendment YouTube creator and podcast host Brandon Herrera, and is being challenged by him once again in the 2026 GOP Primary. Herrera announced his candidacy before the Gun Owners of America’s (GOA) GOALS event on August 9th. Since then, Gonzales has promptly begun to emulate his opponent, according to Herrera, by deeming a recent El Paso Gun Buyback event “retarded,” a phrase that Herrera, his co-hosts, and guests on the ‘Unsubscribe Podcast’ have liberally used, citing their fundraising over $100,000 for autism research to rebut critics.
In the August 17th episode of the ‘Unsubscribe Podcast,’ Herrera discussed the launch of his 2026 campaign and openly mocked Gonzales with his co-hosts.
After Herrera noted, “The only problem I have with Tony, truly, like I… the only problem I have is the voting record and I think that’s the only thing that matters to be honest,” co-host Cody “Donut Operator” Garrett pointed out the sudden change in Gonzalez’s rhetoric almost blurting out: “Tony Gonzalez said retard!” to a gale of laughter from Herrera and co-host Eli Cuevas.
Cuevas commented, “I just… him doing the edgy sh*t is the most wild thing to see. It’s like, yo, homie. Wait, you haven’t said this. Seeing this and then knowing what is the last time he’s ever said this period f***ing ever on his internet career?”
To which Herrera replied: “Never. Which, don’t get me wrong, I agree with the sentiment. No, like it’s talking sh(t about gun buybacks. Gee, you wonder who’s done that before? Uh, could you also put in the video of me, and Cody, and Eli going to gun buybacks and talking about how stupid they are? And also the fact that, uh, my boy Wes Virdell has put legislation forward that passed that actually banned state-funded gun buybacks in the state of Texas. So, this is going to be the last taxpayer-funded gun buyback in the state. As it should be, as it should be because they’re stupid and they don’t work or ‘retarded’ if uh that’s Tony Gonzales they were tax funded taxpayer funded or taxpayer subsidized at least a slot of them were.”
Garrett chimed in saying, “Well I want to press on that in here in a second about the gun buybacks but first I’m not going to leave this alone. Tony thought he could be edgy and it just didn’t work out according to the internet um
This was what two days after I announced?” Herrera asked. “Two days after you announced,” Garrett continued, “like you know we say retard cuz we… It’s in our vocabulary. We say it sometimes. We never stopped saying it even when it was cancelled.”
“We grew up in the early 2000s. It’s just the way you talk,” Herrera agreed.
“Yeah. It was just funny,” Garrett said. “Someone who has never said that before was like, “’ Oh, this gun thing is retarded. This is retarded.” It’s like, ‘Ah, you’re trying to out-edge Brandon.’ That was the first thing I was thinking. It’s like, ‘You met an edgy internet guy who ran it up against you and almost won last time, but now you’re trying to say retarded?”
Cuevas then suggested, “Can we start the Brandon or uh Tony hates retards campaign? Cuz, he’s never used it.
“Oh my God,” Herrera answered. “He’s never donated to the cause,” Cuevas continued. “He’s did the same to you with the veteran side. But now we just start this entire campaign against him for anything. It’s like he hates special needs and autism,” he added.
The ad campaign referenced by Cuevas referred to 2024 mudslinging, which falsely depicted Herrera as mocking the epidemic of veteran suicide.
Herrera answered as if to Gonzales, “That’s how it feels, motherf***er!”
Garrett joked that there could be “the scathing commercial that says Tony said retarded!
Herrera continued, “And I honestly thought like, cuz you know, obviously that’s something that we all care about. Like, we have you know, autism that you know is impacting our families. Like, that’s something that we’ve raised a lot of money for. It’s something that, like all jokes aside, we genuinely care about in this community.
But again, if you clip little sh*t out of context, if you’re a piece of sh*t that doesn’t care about the truth, and you just want to hurt your political adversaries. Yeah. That’s something that I was like, ‘Yeah, man. They’ll probably bring that up this time around.’ And here comes Tony with a steel chair, taking away like 20% of his own ammunition. I’m like, “Okay, sure, brother. Whatever. Whatever floats your f***ing boat.”
Herrera noted, “God, it’s just so funny cuz so many people text me after that like in the… in the political realm, were just like, ‘Oh my God, he’s trying to be you.’”
Herrerra, Garrett and frequent guest Ethan “Habitual Linecrosser” Long replied to Gonzales via X writing, “Trying to be edgy will not save you;” “lol are you trying to out-edge Brandon?” and “Its just sad,” respectively.
Commenter Adam Johnson, “The Lectern Guy,” recalled that Gonzales was among 14 Republican Congressmembers who voted to support the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” in 2022, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden and expanded background checks, provided $750 million in grants to states to implement or enhance “red flag” laws, enabling gun confiscation. Johnson quipped, “This you retard?”
Addressing media coverage of his use of the word “retard” Gonzales commented via X, “The last worthless gun buyback event in El Paso is off to a killer start. Anxious to see how many non-working muskets get flipped for cash in the name of Justice.”
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