Politician caught staring at NSFW photos during flight shares bizarre excuse after embarrassing moment goes viral

A US politician has defended himself after being caught viewing NSFW images on his tablet while on a flight.

California Representative Brad Sherman, 71, was spotted with the images on his device, but has denied that he has a problem with adult content.

Since the incident, a senior figure at the White House has taken to social media to accuse the representative of being a 'gooner', an internet slang term for someone who watches excessive amounts of pornography.

Steven Cheung, who is the communications director for the White House, posted on X (Twitter): "Bruh. What a total gooner."

Rep. Sherman has since released a statement in which he denied the White House allegation.

Sherman was spotted on a flight with his tablet (David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

He said: "If I see a picture of a woman, might I look at it longer than a sunset? Yeah".

In an interview with Punchbowl News, Rep. Sherman claimed that the images of scantily clad women had appeared on the 'For You' tab of his feed on X.

"If you have to fly across the country, you look at a lot of stuff on your tablet," he said.

An image of Rep. Sherman was shared on X, showing him with the tablet on a flight.

The post itself has been viewed millions of times.

It has the caption: "Why did California Congressman Brad Sherman feel it was appropriate to look at porn on his iPad during a flight today?"

Others took to social media to share their thoughts on the incident, with one user writing: "With the screen brightness ALL the way up. Not an ounce of shame."

The post went viral on X (X / @dearwhitestaff)

After Rep. Sherman claimed his 'for you' page was to blame, others said that this page often suggests content which is based on your browsing history on whatever app it is that you are on.

However, this is not entirely correct, as several factors influence what content a social media platform shows you while you are browsing.

The 'for you' page often shows you things from accounts that you don't follow, for example.

On X, the help center says: "For you serves posts from accounts and topics you follow as well as recommended posts."

It added that you can also be shown posts from accounts which you don't follow based on several factors.

This might include content which is generally very popular, with the platform saying it can suggest content based on ‘how popular it is and how people in your network are interacting with it'.

UNILAD has approached representatives of Brad Sherman for comment.