Arkansas Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaking with attendees at the 2026 Women's Leadership Summit at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter on the River Walk in San Antonio, Texas, Image via Gage Skidmore.
MAGA devotees aren't happy with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-Ark.) after she released an ad calling out young white men who sit around playing video games all day while collecting welfare checks.
In a video posted to X, Sanders showcased "Brad," a young man sitting on a beanbag chair playing video games. Brad reaches with his "claw" to grab himself a chip from a far away table.
The video of "Brad" was enough to offend at least one of the far-right, white, conservative podcasters. Reposting it on X, Matt Walsh attacked Sanders for the ad, saying, "This Republican ad calling out welfare leeches uses a young white male named 'Brad' as the villain. Meanwhile, back in reality, women are significantly more likely to be on welfare than men. And black people are astronomically more likely to be on welfare than white people. So the number of single young white male 'Brads' abusing the welfare system is minuscule. Practically non-existent. But of course Republicans don't have the balls to do this ad with 'Shaniqua' as the villain. Even though that would actually be an accurate portrayal of the problem at hand."
In fact, according to the most recent USDA report covering fiscal year 2023, the vast majority of recipients of welfare are white people (43 percent).
About 19 percent of those on food stamps are the elderly while about 39 percent of SNAP participants are children. Nearly 10 percent are disabled people. There was a huge uptick in food stamp use during the pandemic, when many people were laid off and were unable to find other jobs, the Pew Research Service showed.
Crooked Media host Jane Coaston mocked Walsh saying, "the results of the financial necessities of right-wing media remain extremely funny."
Right-wing online personality and political scientist Richard Hanania similarly blasted Walsh for being offended. "This is so pathetic," Hanania wrote. "An ad portraying a white loser makes Matt Walsh feel affronted due to his sense of racial honor. I don’t know, maybe they didn’t use a black single mother because then viewers would be more sympathetic to welfare users? What a way to go through life."
One person pointed out, "Matt has spent his entire career mocking white males that enjoy video games, anime, comics, etc. He then pretends to be shocked when political ads attack white men playing video games. Cognitive dissonance."
Another quipped, "Thank you Matt, I'm sure voters will reward Republicans for going after single mothers instead of the avatar eating cheese puffs and playing video games."
