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Who is Benny Johnson? Columnist’s fundraiser for viral Cincinnati mob attack victim raises over $250,000

Last month, a video showing a crowd assaulting a White couple in Cincinnati went viral.
posted by Nirali Sheth
Monday 8/4/2025 at 12:57AM EDT
  • Benny Johnson with his family (Photo: Instagram/ @bennyjohnson)
    Benny Johnson with his family (Photo: Instagram/ @bennyjohnson)

    Conservative influencer Benny Johnson recently celebrated his fundraiser for the Cincinnati mob attack victim, raising over $340,000. Taking to his X on Sunday, August 3, 2025, Johnson revealed the campaign was trending at #1 on GiveSendGo.

    For context, last month, a video showing a crowd assaulting a White couple went viral. It saw a man being punched and repeatedly kicked by multiple Black people. Meanwhile, the woman was punched and knocked to the ground. Witnesses claim the couple hurled racial slurs, prompting the altercation.

    A week after the brutal attack, one of the victims, Holly, spoke up for the first time. In a video posted to her social media, showing Holly with visible injuries to her face, she provided an update on her condition, stating:

    "I want to say thank you to everyone for all of the love and support. It's definitely what's keeping me going. And you have just brought back faith in humanity. It's been very, very hard, and I'm still recovering. I still have a very bad brain trauma."

    Benny Johnson later started a GiveSendGo campaign to help raise money for her medical and legal expenses, as well as temporary finances due to the loss of work as she heals. The influencer described Holly as a "single, working-class mother" who suffered "severe concussion and hemorrhaging."

    BuzzFeed fired Benny Johnson in July 2014 over plagiarism

    Benny Johnson is an influencer turned political journalist hailing from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He holds a degree in psychology from the University of Iowa. Following graduation, he began contributing to right-wing outlets like Breitbart and TheBlaze.

    The influencer rose to fame as an editor for BuzzFeed under the moniker BuzzFeed Benny. However, in July 2014, the company sacked him after finding he plagiarized sentences and phrases "word for word" from other sites. Per the Guardian, an internal review revealed at least 41 instances of appropriation over his 500 posts on the BuzzFeed website.

    Benny Johnson briefly served as the digital director of the National Review before becoming the creative content contributor at the Independent Journal Review in 2015, according to Famous Birthdays. Per the Washington Post, the IJR suspended the journalist for publishing a conspiracy theory about Barack Obama. A couple of years later, he joined The Daily Caller.

    Sometime in the late 2010s, Benny Johnson began his association with Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a nonprofit organization that advocates for right-wing ideals in schools, colleges, and universities. According to The Hill, he became its chief creative officer in 2019. He founded TPUSA Productions.

    Benny Johnson runs a successful podcast, The Benny Show. He also hosts other channels on YouTube, namely Benny Johnson, Benny On The Block, and Benny Brews. He currently boasts over five million subscribers.

    Johnson is married to a nurse and health influencer, Kate Johnson. The couple shares four kids, their youngest being born this January.

    Holly is one of six victims injured in the Cincinnati brawl. As of this writing, local authorities have arrested four of the six alleged assailants, namely Jermaine Matthews, 39, Dominique Kittle, 37, Montianez Merriweather, 34, and Dekyra Vernon, 24. According to Fox News, at least one of the two remaining suspects was on the run.

    TOPICS: Benny Johnson, Turning Point USA, Buzzfeed, Cincinnati


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