Unsavory group chat among young Republicans draws bipartisan condemnation

The fallout is mounting after a Politico investigation uncovered offensive text messages exchanged in a group chat for the young Republican. The report details racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic language that was exchanged between about a dozen members over several months. Jeff Bennett spoke with Politico reporter Emily Njoo to discuss what the letters reveal and how party leaders are responding.

Jeff Bennett:

The fallout is mounting after a Politico investigation revealed offensive and profane text messages exchanged in a group chat for the young GOP. The report details racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic language that was exchanged between about a dozen members over several months.

To talk more about what the letters reveal and how party leaders are responding, we’re joined now by Politico reporter Emily Njo, who broke the story.

Thank you for being with us.

Emily Ngo, Politico:

Yes, thanks for having me.

Jeff Bennett:

So, we have screenshots of these respective messages, based on your reporting. Some of what is shown on screen here includes racist and anti-Semitic slurs and homophobic messages. There is talk of political opponents being put in gas chambers, and threats of rape and violence.

This is just a glimpse of what I discovered across thousands of Telegram messages. I understand that many of the people involved have already lost their jobs. What more can you tell us about the fallout and who was affected?

Emily Ngo:

right.

The repercussions were wide-ranging. The story and our reporting have resonated widely across the country. At our last count, we have eight out of 12 members in this chat, which as I said is full of racial epithets and gay slurs and references to violence are out of their jobs, so.

When we started doing our reporting, and we started making calls after putting some of these letters in our drafts, a couple of them were preemptively fired from their jobs or had a job offer rescinded. Shortly after we posted, we saw that others had lost their jobs as well.

Jeff Bennett:

The response reached the highest levels, including the White House.

Here’s what Vice President J.D. Vance had to say about it yesterday.

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The truth is that kids do stupid things, especially little boys. They tell hurtful and offensive jokes. Like, that’s what kids do. And I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid who tells a stupid joke, or tells a stupid joke that’s really offensive, is going to ruin their life.

Jeff Bennett:

So people can read your reports and decide for themselves whether these are kids telling stupid jokes.

But who were the people in this chat and what positions did they hold within the Young Republicans?

Emily Ngo:

right. This is a list of Young Republican Club leaders who were in positions of power and influence.

By Young Republicans, we’re not talking about kids here. We’re talking about a 40-year membership, so, generally speaking, they could be peers of the vice president and peers of a lot of people who work in Congress.

We had senior aides to New York State legislatures. We had a senator from Vermont. And we just had people poised to become the next generation of Republican leaders. We positioned our story and reporting as the way young Republicans speak up when they think no one is listening. This is how they talk in private.

This is the rhetoric of today’s Republicans who will be tomorrow’s party leaders.

Jeff Bennett:

Some Republicans have directly condemned these messages. Others are trying to shift the focus, citing a leaked text from Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones, who appeared to threaten a Republican lawmaker.

How are GOP leaders, for the most part, portraying this moment?

Emily Ngo:

So of course it varies, but we’re seeing now – and this is to be expected in this political climate – a lot of Democrats in Congress and Democrats in New York, including Governor Kathy Hochul, who are seizing on this and exploiting it to use against their Republican rivals, including those who immediately condemned these text messages.

But with this latest set of remarks made by Vice President J.D. Vance, I find myself wondering now whether there’s some kind of permission structure that’s slowly but surely being created to allow some of these Republican leaders to excuse this behavior or at least — at least question why Democrats aren’t condemning similarly violent language from their camp, but particularly from Jones, as you say, in Virginia.

Jeff Bennett:

Tell me more about that. Based on your reporting and conversations you had in connection with this investigative article, to what extent has the current Trump era normalized or even encouraged racist, homophobic, and sexist language and attitudes among some younger conservatives?

Emily Ngo:

right.

So, when reading these 2,900 pages of private chat messages on Telegram, my colleague Jason Beverman and I weren’t just reporting what was inside. And I will point out that we just – we read the whole thing, looked through the whole thing to make sure that some of these qualities were not one-offs and to see if anyone disagrees with that.

This was not the case. These are jokes, black humour, and a kind of casual cruelty that is repeated over and over again in a certain pattern. And we put it in the context of what’s happening now in the political climate, where people are fighting with each other, where, in social media, in podcasting, including podcasts that are very widely listened to and watched, and very popular hosts, this language is being echoed, being reified.

They don’t get this out of nowhere. And it was sort of acceptable in some stratosphere, when it shouldn’t be.

Jeff Bennett:

Politico’s Emily Njo, thanks again for joining us.

Emily Ngo:

Thank you.