‘Disgusting’: racist, homophobic, antisemitic, and violent private chats of GOP leaders exposed
Jon Queally for Common Dreams
That is just one of the questions being widely asked
after Politico on Tuesday revealed nearly seven months of
grotesque private chats between members of Leaders of Young Republicans, the
party’s batch of up-and-comers, though already in positions of power within the
faction’s ranks.
From praising Adolf Hitler to casual use of racial slurs and
calls for violence against their opponents, the Telegram chat logs obtained by Politico paint a picture
of vile individuals who share a deep loyalty to President Donald Trump and
reveled in sadistic contempt for their political enemies, hatred of minorities,
and lust for power.
They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon
people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They
talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded
Republicans who they believed support slavery.
William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words
“n--ga” and “n--guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in
the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans
at the time, referred to rape as “epic.” Peter Giunta, who at the time was
chair of the same organization, wrote in a message sent in June that “everyone
that votes no is going to the gas chamber.”
Reaction to the leaked private messages was swift and full
of contempt, if not shock.
“Racism, rape, homophobia, antisemitism … Are we greater
yet?” asked Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights. “Feel safer?”
According to Politico, “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.”
The members themselves seemed to recognize that if their free-flowing conversations were ever revealed to the public, it would be bad. “If we ever had a leak of this chat, we would be cooked,” said one member inside one of the chat threads. But as Politico noted, “they kept typing anyway.”
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) came under fire in the
wake of Politico’s reporting, given her vocal support for the New York members
of the group, many of whom were identified and named in the reporting. Just
this summer, Stefanik called them the “backbone” of the Republican Party and
key to its future.
Stefanik’s top allies, noted Addison Dick, a member of the
New York Democrats’ communication team, “praised Hitler, called to put
opponents in gas chambers, and repeatedly used racist and antisemitic hate
speech in leaked chats.” Dick was among those chiding Stefanik for
characterizing the “hit piece” as opposed to more harshly condemning the vile
behavior it exposed among her party’s core of young leaders.
New York Gov. Katherine Hochul, a Democrat, was asked about
the revelations during a Tuesday afternoon press conference, and whether it was
a case of a few “bad apples” or a “deeper toxicity” within the entire
Republican Party.
“And I would say this,” Hochul continued, also calling out
Stefanik as the highest-ranking elected GOP official in the state for her
history of inflammatory and bigoted comments, most notably against New York
City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim, whom Stefanik has called a
“jihadist” and “terrorist.”
Stefanik, said the governor, should do a bit of
self-reflection and “reexamination” of her own “inflammatory words” and of her
broader role in influencing these young members and “normalizing” such thinking
and rhetoric. As for the members exposed in the chats, Hochul said “there’s
gotta be consequences” for their behavior and that everyone in the party, from
Trump on down, should condemn it.
“Kick them out of the party. Take away their official roles.
Stop using them as campaign advisers,” she advised. “This bullshit has to
stop.”
