Cover image via @dearwhitestaff / X
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A US politician has found himself in the middle of a viral social media storm after a fellow passenger snapped a photo of him scrolling through explicit images mid-flight
Brad Sherman, a 71-year-old Democratic lawmaker from California, was captured staring at what appeared to be risqué content on his iPad.
The photos were uploaded to X by the account @dearwhitestaff, where they quickly amassed over 15 million views.
The caption on the viral post read, "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!!"
Sherman has since denied that he was intentionally watching pornography. Instead, he blamed Elon Musk and the social media platform's recommendation system.
Speaking to The New York Post, his spokesperson stated, "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."
The politician further clarified to Punchbowl News that the images popped up on his 'For You' feed, a tab known for serving content based on algorithmic guesses rather than accounts a user follows.
Sherman admitted that while he was scrolling through thousands of posts to pass the time during his cross-country flight, some images did catch his attention more than others
"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 told the media outlet.
When asked if the content was appropriate for a public flight, Sherman defended its nature but admitted the setting was wrong.
"Is it pornography? I don't think Elon Musk thinks so. Is it appropriate? No," he said.
The incident drew immediate reactions, including a "Yikes!!!!" from Donald Trump Jr. Sherman responded by posting an edited version of the viral photo, replacing the images on his screen with the text "Release the Epstein files".
