Young at Hurt
On Tuesday, Politico published a galling, but sadly not surprising article about a private chat site on the Telegram platform of local leaders of the Young Republicans from New York, Kanas, Arizona and Vermont that revealed massive posts that were sickening in their deep racism and virulent anti-Semitism. The article notes that “The chat offers an unfiltered look at how a new generation of GOP activists talk when they think no one is listening.”
A few things of high note to add to that.
To clarify, these weren’t just random members of the Young Republicans, but high-ranking members of their local groups, including, for example, Kansas Young Republicans chair Alex Dwyer and vice chair William Hendrix.
Also, though this was the “Young Republicans” organization, these weren’t 20-year-old college kids blowing off stupid, offensive, immature steam. Most were between 30-40 years old. (In today’s MAGOP, 40 seemingly qualifies as “young”.)
And this wasn’t a few cherry-picked comments that reporters were able to find. They went through 2,900 pages, and the comments were unrelenting. Politico writes that this is a “trove” of chats over ethe course of seven months --
“The 2,900 pages of chats, shared among a dozen millennial and Gen Z Republicans between early January and mid-August, chronicle their campaign to seize control of the national Young Republican organization on a hardline pro-Donald Trump platform. Many of the chat members already work inside government or party politics, and one serves as a state senator.
“Together, the messages reveal a culture where racist, antisemitic and violent rhetoric circulate freely — and where the Trump-era loosening of political norms has made such talk feel less taboo among those positioning themselves as the party’s next leaders.”
Here’s just one brief exchange between the then-chair of the New York Young Republicans Peter Giunta, the general counsel of New York State Young Republicans, and New York’s national committee member of the Young Republicans.
After the story broke and outraged reaction began pouring in, the national Young Republicans organization released a statement
After they posted this on social media, I replied there that, contrary to what the Young Republicans try to assert here, no, the behavior actually affirms "the values" of the party. In fact, it is a shock only to anyone not looking. After all --
Trump, who is the leader of the party, openly courts white supremacist groups to be part of the MAGOP base. He also met at his home in Mar-a-Lago with white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Further, a MAGOP candidate for Governor of North Carolina last year privately called himself a “Black Nazi” – who Trump endorsed. Trump called Mexicans “rapists.” He called Third World countries "sh*tholes." He used Nazi language saying that immigrants were "vermin" and “poisoning the blood” of Americans. Moreover, vice president “JD Vance”, even after being told by local officials that his statements were untrue, continued to knowingly lie that immigrants in Ohio supposedly stole pet dogs and cats and ate them. In fact, it was “Vance” who at one point called Trump “an American Hitler. And just this week, Trump gave a posthumous medal to Charlie Kirk, beloved by the party despite his words often being racist & anti-Semitic – saying, for instance, how he always checked an airplane’s pilot when he flew to see if the pilot was Black and therefore just a DEI hire and unqualified. And how "My tolerance with the American Jews” was now at the level of “nothing,” adding that "my patience has completely run out” with American Jews. (He even said, rightly, that because of his words, he was sure he would be called an anti-Semite.) And this is the person for whom MAGOPs now want to put up statues in his honor.
And the Young Republican organization want us to believe that these relentlessly vile words from some of their local leaders “stand in direct opposition to the values” of their movement. Unfortunately, no, these words echo those values.
Further, this from National Young Republicans is appallingly empty because it merely calls for local leaders to resign. It doesn’t revoke membership or shut down the local groups. Moreover, this all happened under the leadership of the National Young Republicans – for seven months. And it’s improbable to think that these Young Republicans leaders only held these repugnant views during that period. And only expressed them in this chat room. In many cases, national leadership might resign.
At least the Telegram chat room was closed down.
[UPDATE: And it was announced today that the New York state group will be disbanded. "Will be." Not yet, so we'll see.)
The full Politico article is here.
While there has at least been some responsible reaction by Republicans in official positions, being highly critical for how repugnant and unacceptable the comments were – generally with the disclaimer, “if found to be true” – most of the criticism has come from those directly in contact with the Young Republicans leaders in question. (You can read more extensively about reactions in Politico's follow article.)
One of the few who hasn't fared well in the aftermath is William Hendrix, the Young Republicans vice-chair for Kansas, who was a communications assistant for the state's MAGOP Attorney General Kris Kobach. Among many things he said in the chat room is that he’s drawn to Missouri’s Young Republican organization because “Missouri doesn’t like f*gs.” When contacted by Politico, the Attorney General said that “The comments in the chat are inexcusable. As soon as the office learned of those messages, Will Hendrix’s employment was terminated.”
There hasn’t, though, been a general condemnation by MAGOP leadership -- the few that did mostly tried to distance themselves from the comments
Moreover, not all MAGOPs even criticized the chat room. Which doesn’t come as a total shock either. Especially when one of those was “JD Vance”. Instead, he wanted to divert attention away from the scandal and focus instead on a series of private, truly awful quips by the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor in Virginia, Jay Jones, who had had fantasized to a colleague about a political opponent’s death.
“Vance” wrote in a social media post that – “This is far worse than anything said in a college group chat, and the guy who said it could become the AG of Virginia. I refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence.
This is how low "JD Vance" has sunk. What Jay Jones wrote was absolutely egregious. But no, it wasn't even remotely close to worse than the 2,900 pages on the Young Republicans group chat. What Jones wrote was idiotic, pathetic fantasizing in private, and he should be condemned for it. But he didn't truly want his opponent dead. On the other hand, the Young Republican leaders (who are not a “college” group, but are mature adults 30-40 years old, many with government jobs) were expressing their actual racist and anti-Semitic hatred of Jews, Blacks, LGBTQ and minorities, and their love of Hitler. Over and over and over and over and over.
And whatever “Vance” wants the public to believe what was worse, that doesn’t mean he should let the 2,900 pages of Young Republicans racism and anti-Semitic hatred off the hook without even a word of criticism. And yet that is exactly what he did.
And if anything shows that what was written by the Young Republicans leaders – the future of the party – does not “stand in direct opposition to the values” of their movement, but rather actually affirms "the values" of the party…it is what “JD Vance” wrote. Or more to the point, didn’t write. Which was not a word of criticism.
From the Number Two man in the party.
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