
Leaked textual content messages from Younger Republican leaders have created a rising scandal inside the social gathering. The texts, spanning a number of months and a number of states, reveal the younger GOP leaders participating in racism, joking about Holocaust-style violence in opposition to political opponents and interesting in varied different sorts of offensive remarks.
Racism, Holocaust jokes and extra revealed in Younger Republicans’ group chats
Politico revealed the offensive remarks Tuesday, based mostly on textual content message chains from Telegram that had been leaked to the information group. In varied chats are a whole lot of situations of Younger Republicans utilizing racial, ableist and homophobic slurs. For instance, William Hendrix, vice chair of the Kansas Younger Republicans, used the phrase “n***a” and “n****h” a number of occasions, Politico reported. The chat additionally featured quite a few references to different stereotypes about varied teams of individuals, comparable to equating Black folks with monkeys. Members of the chats joked about rape, together with threats to assault members of a rival Republican group. When one member of the chat joked about sending political rivals “to the gasoline chamber,” one other expanded on the Nazi reference by saying, “Can we repair the showers? Gasoline chambers don’t match the Hitler aesthetic.”
Politico reported that the texts originate from a dozen leaders inside the Younger Republicans — a GOP group for Republicans aged 18 to 40 — despatched over a interval between January 2025 and August 2025. The practically 3,000 pages of texts span Younger Republican branches in Arizona, Kansas, New York and Vermont. Peter Giunta, who was fired from his place as chief of workers to New York State Assemblyman Mike Reilly, was essentially the most explicitly racist among the many chat members, calling Black folks “the watermelon folks” and joking “I like Hitler.” Giunta each excused and apologized for his remarks, saying partially, “I’m so sorry to these offended by the insensitive and inexcusable language discovered inside the greater than 28,000 messages of a non-public group chat that I created throughout my marketing campaign to steer the Younger Republicans,” Politico reported. He additionally blamed the leak of the texts on a political rival inside a competing Younger Republican group and recommended that a number of the messages could have been “deceptively doctored.”
Republicans try and distance themselves and deflect consideration
As outrage over the leaked feedback has grown, outstanding Republicans have in flip distanced themselves from the Younger Republicans whereas additionally attempting to vary the topic. New York State Republican Chairman Ed Cox stated, “I used to be shocked and disgusted to study in regards to the stories of feedback made by a small group of Younger Republicans. Simply as we name out vile racist and anti-Semetic rhetoric on the far left, we should not tolerate it inside our ranks,” per Politico. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has related to Giunta and the New York Younger Republicans department, stated by way of an adviser that she “was completely appalled to study in regards to the alleged feedback made by leaders of the New York State Younger Republicans and different state YRs in a big nationwide group chat,” Politico reported. The congresswoman herself posted in regards to the scandal in an extended tweet, trying to shift consideration to offensive feedback by Democratic candidate for legal professional normal of Virginia Jay Jones and throwing accusations in opposition to Democrats comparable to New York Metropolis mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
Vice President JD Vance doubled down on the try and deflect consideration to the Jones race in Virginia.
Democrats, in the meantime, are hammering the GOP over the messages. New York Congressman and Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries tweeted, “Disgraceful New York Republicans Mike Lawler and Elise Stefanik have been palling round with these racist, antisemitic and bigoted ‘Younger Republicans’ for years. Their silence exposes what’s all the time been true — the phony outrage was nothing greater than efficiency.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected the concept that the group chat members had been simply “some unhealthy apples” inside the GOP. “Some unhealthy apples? These are the way forward for the Republican Get together,” Hochul stated whereas answering a reporter’s query, saying that these concerned within the chats ought to undergo penalties. “Kick them out of the social gathering. Take away their official roles. Cease utilizing them as marketing campaign advisers. This bulls**t has to cease.”
As Republicans distance themselves from the group of Younger Republicans implicated within the offensive leaked messages, these instantly concerned are beginning to see that their phrases have penalties. And regardless of efforts by outstanding Republicans to show consideration elsewhere, the outrage about these feedback — and what they could signify in regards to the GOP — has not pale.