The usual right-wing US pundits have set a new low by defending deeply racist messages leaked from a group chat of young GOP leaders.
Last week, an array of racist, misogynistic, and hate-speech-filled messages were leaked from a Telegram group chat featuring notable leaders of Young Republican groups across the US.
According to a Politico exclusive, the group chat, which featured GOP leaders from Young Republican organisations in New York, Kansas, Arizona, as well as state senators, included messages referring to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people.” On several occasions, members discussed driving their political opponents to suicide and sending them to “gas chambers.”
One of the members, former chair of the New York State Young Republicans Peter Giunta, is believed to have written: “I’m going to create some of the greatest physiological torture methods known to man. We only want true believers.”
According to Politico, Annie Kaykaty, a committee member for New York State Young Republicans, responded: “I’m ready to watch people burn now.”
However, instead of condemning the messages expressing a love for Adolf Hitler, as well as calling for opponents to president Donald Trump to be put in a “gas chamber,” Republicans and right-wing pundits have instead downplayed them as locker room banter from a group of young men.
Vice president JD Vance insisted that people should not “focus on what kids say in group chats,” glossing over the fact that the chat participants were aged between 24 to 35. He also called the leaker a “scumbag.”
Other notable right-wing pundits, including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, dismissed the leaks as “edgy jokes.”
“So these are Young Republicans from across the country texting each other,” Carlson said. “These are mildly or, in some cases, more than mildly edgy, and they’re kind of showing off to each other.”
The “more than mildly edgy” jokes Carlson is referring to includes plans to link an opponent in the Arizona Young Republicans race, which took place earlier this year, to white supremacist groups.
Luke Mosiman, chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, then realised the plan could backfire by causing Kansas Republicans to favour the opponent.
Slurs, including “f****t” and “n***a” appeared more than 251 times, including in one messages which read: “Stay in the closet f****t.”
Republican group chat members included state senator
Other right-wing names, including former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, said the leaks didn’t matter because they consisted of “no-name” Republicans.
“Some no-name so-called Young Republicans – literally who none of us has ever heard of – were on some derelict text chain using racial slurs and bad-face jokes about, I’ll be Hitler if it’s going to get me more right-wing votes,” she said. “Whatever.”
The group chat’s members appear to include Vermont State senator Samuel Douglass and his wife Brianna. Prior to his resignation over the leaked messages, Douglass represented the Orleans District in the Vermont Senate, which represents over 109,300 people according to the 2024 census.
Several of the members represented Young Republicans groups that date as far back to the 1800s. Two of the group chat’s members, William Hendrix and Alex Dwyer, represented the Kansas Young Republicans, which was founded in 1861, four years before Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
In a statement to Politico, Giutna, who apologised for the messages, claimed the leaks were part of a “highly-coordinated year-long character assassination” led by rival Republicans.
“These logs were sourced by way of extortion and provided to Politico by the very same people conspiring against me,” he said. ““What’s most disheartening is that, despite my unwavering support of President Trump since 2016, rouge [sic] members of his administration — including Gavin Wax — have participated in this conspiracy to ruin me publicly simply because I challenged them privately.”
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