Va. Candidate Blames His Porn Tabs on Research

It happened in Germany, and was only a matter of time before it happened stateside. A candidate mounting an independent bid for Congress in Virginia's 8th District on Monday morning posted screenshots to Facebook while discussing a weird experience he had while attempting to land a temporary job. Except Mike Webb's screenshots showed tabs other than the Yahoo search page that was displayed: one reading "IVONE SEXY AMATEUR" and a second "LAYLA RIVERA TIGHT BOOTY." Gawker confirmed via Google search that both are porn videos. Here's the explanation Webb—a self-described conservative Republican who ends his Facebook posts with the lines "I am Mike Webb, and I am running for US Congress. Honest"—gave to WUSA9.

"What happened is actually kind of interesting. I initially got hit with a cyberattack on my (Federal Election Commission) data file and there was a lot of, I guess, speculation in terms of where we got it." A trip to Best Buy revealed his computer had 400 viruses, he says, with the store's technicians telling him porn sites were the most likely source. Except, he says, he doesn't visit porn sites, so he says he visited those to "test their theory," as WUSA puts it. A Facebook post later that evening kicked off with "THANKS FOR THE TAB CHECK, RANGER BUDDIES!", quoted scripture, and marveled at the power of "viral infection," noting his post (which appears to be down) had reached 200,000 people. (More pornography stories.)