Vice President JD Vance was called out for refusing to condemn Young Republican leaders after their racist, misogynistic and antisemitic group chat was leaked online.
Vance instead took the opportunity to attack Virginia Democrat Jay Jones and shared a screenshot of leaked 2022 texts in which Jones allegedly called for violence against then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert. Jones said Gilbert should get “two bullets to the head.”
Vance said Jones’ comments were “far worse than anything said in a college group chat,” in which Young Republican leaders called Black people “monkeys” and “the watermelon people" and talked about reinstituting slavery. They also praised the genocidal Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, and referenced raping Democrats and gassing them much like the Nazis did to the Jews and others during the Holocaust.
For instance, Joe Maligno, general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans, wrote “Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic." Annie Kaykaty, New York’s national committeewoman, said, "I'm ready to watch people burn now."
The texts garnered the country's attention after Politico published 2,900 pages of leaked exchanges between a dozen state-level Young Republican leaders in different states.
Below, in the image shared by Occupy Democrats, you can see some of the texts in question.
Occupy Democrats
Here are more from Politico.
Politico
Of course, many have condemned the genocidal rhetoric within these texts.
But Vance dismissed what he referred to as "pearl-clutching," tweeting of Jones' texts:
"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."
You can see Vance's post and the text exchange he shared below.
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Vance—who infamously once called President Donald Trump "America's Hitler" but now marches in lockstep behind him—was swiftly criticized.
The Young Republican National Federation is a political group with 15,000 members aged 18–40. Some have already faced consequences for their participation in the chat.
Vermont state Senator Sam Douglass has faced calls to resign—including from Republican Governor Phil Scott—after allegedly using a racist slur about Indian people. Peter Giunta, former chief of staff to Republican New York Assemblymember Mike Reilly, was fired over his participation.
Giunta apologized but claimed the texts were "sourced by way of extortion" and questioned whether they were "deceptively doctored."
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