On Monday morning, every American considering political office got a lesson in taking caution while posting anything to social media. Mike Webb, Virginia Congressional candidate, inadvertently revealed his taste in porn to Facebook. Initially, Webb had only meant to post a screenshot of phone records, along with a Yahoo search of Curzon Staffing Agency, whom he claims prank called him about a job offer. The candidate's post attracted the attention of the public for an entirely different reason. Before snapping screenshots, Webb apparently forgot to close what appear to be two porn sites. The sites' names, which are truncated by the tab label, read "LAYLA RIVERA TIGHT BO" and "IVONE SEXY AMATEUR."
As opposed to attempting to relate to the fact that every adult has some sort of sex drive, Webb claimed to have been visiting porn sites for research purposes. The posts were removed and can no longer be accessed. However, The New York Daily News has published a screenshot of Webb's original response to the post:
Curious by nature, I wanted to test the suggestion that somehow, lurking out in the pornographic world there is some evil operator waiting for the one in a gazillion chance that a candidate for federal office would go to that particular website and thereby be infected with a virus that would cause his or her FEC data file to crash the FECfile application each time that it was loaded on the day of the filing deadline, as well as impact other critical campaign systems.
According to this reasoning, Webb would not be concerned about the "evil operator" attempting to crash his Federal Election Committee data file unless he had made himself vulnerable to it by visiting porn sites in the past. Furthermore, the concern was not entirely born out of curiosity. Arlington, Virginia's local ARL Now reported in April that Webb failed to file his quarterly campaign finance report and blamed the tardiness on a "cyber attack." His most recent post implies that he believes his visiting porn sites could have caused that "crash."
In short, Webb is going to have a hard time digging himself out of this hole if he wishes to continue running as a conservative Christian.
This is not how Webb planned on utilizing social media. On Dec 22, 2015, the New Jersey native published a press release in which he promised to use the platform to challenge political opponents like no one has done before. According to the statement, Webb can reflect the "responsiveness and accountability" that Virginia's residents allegedly want to see in politics:
One way to do that is to personally respond on social media. Talk and engage with people. Joke and chide. Engage in dialogue. That is what it is all about.
He may not be as open to discussing his most recent social media misstep. The politician's official website, MikeWebbForCongress2016.com, shut down shortly after the incident.
Image: Facebook/Mike Webb for Congress (1, 2)
