- Leaked 2,900-page Young Republican Telegram chat revealed pervasive racist, antisemitic, and homophobic slurs, including references to Hitler and gas chambers.
- Scandal triggered immediate firings, chapter closures, bipartisan condemnation, and could reshape GOP accountability ahead of midterms.
WASHINGTON — In a bombshell revelation that’s sent shockwaves through political circles, a private Telegram group chat among up-and-coming Republican leaders has been exposed, laying bare a torrent of racist, antisemitic, and homophobic vitriol that even the participants seemed to know could end their careers.
The 2,900 pages of messages, spanning seven months and reviewed by Politico, include 251 slurs — everything from the N-word to anti-gay epithets — alongside casual nods to Hitler and gas chambers.
It’s the kind of raw, unfiltered ugliness that makes you wonder how deep these attitudes run in the party that’s been trying to rebrand itself post-Trump.
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The chat, dubbed a strategy hub for an election to chair the Young Republican National Federation — a group with about 15,000 members aged 18 to 40 — quickly devolved into something far darker.
Peter Giunta, a 31-year-old Staten Island operative and until recently the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans, emerges as the ringleader in the logs.
Back in June, as he rallied support for his bid, Giunta texted: “Everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.”
When a colleague quipped about fixing the showers to match the “Hitler aesthetic,” Giunta fired back with a simple, chilling “Great. I love Hitler.”
Details of the Messages
He didn’t stop there. Responding to a query about an NBA game, he wrote, “I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey[s] play ball.”
And in another gem, he advised the group: If you’re boarding a plane and spot a female pilot with skin “10 shades darker than someone from Sicily,” “just end it there. Scream the no-no word.”
Giunta’s barbs targeted Black people repeatedly, dubbing them “the watermelon people” and worse. But he wasn’t alone. William Hendrix, then vice chair of the Kansas Young Republicans, dropped variations of the N-word more than a dozen times, including spellings like “n–ga” and “n–guh.”
In one exchange about a Black man at a chicken restaurant, Hendrix sneered, “Would he like some watermelon and Kool-Aid with that?” He also boasted that Missouri Republicans didn’t like “f–s,” a slur aimed at gay people.
Bobby Walker, another New York State Young Republicans vice chair, chimed in with his own horrors: calling rape “epic,” telling someone to “stay in the closet f—-t” (even as he was often the butt of the same joke), and joking about his Italian ancestors building train tracks “with the Chinese” — prompting a reply of “Let his people go! Keep the ch–ks, though.”
The group even toyed with driving a rival to suicide and celebrated mass rape of Indigenous people as “epic.” Annie Kaykaty, New York’s national committee member, summed up the vibe: “I’m ready to watch people burn now.”
As Walker himself noted in July, “If we ever had a leak of this chat, we would be cooked fr fr.”
Statements
The leak, first detailed by Politico on Tuesday, stems from an intra-party feud between Giunta’s state group and the rival New York City Young Republican Club.
Giunta, in a statement to Politico, claimed the logs might be “doctored” and sourced via “extortion,” but he still apologized: “I am so sorry to those offended by the insensitive and inexcusable language… While I take complete responsibility, I have had no way of verifying their accuracy.”
Walker echoed the regret, calling it “a painful lesson about judgment and trust” and vowing greater “care, respect, and accountability.”
The fallout has been brutal and immediate, rippling from statehouses to Capitol Hill. Giunta, who once served as chief of staff to New York Assemblymember Michael Reilly and was named a “New York City 40 Under 40 Rising Star” by City & State New York in 2019, was fired from that job on Thursday evening.
He’s since gone dark on X and LinkedIn.
Hendrix, a 24-year-old who ran unsuccessfully for Topeka City Council in 2021, lost his gig as a communications specialist in Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office the same day.
Joe Maligno, the New York group’s general counsel, is out at the state unified court system. And in a starker move, the Kansas GOP has shuttered the entire state Young Republicans chapter, declaring it “inactive” after its leaders’ involvement came to light.
Other GOP Members Speak Out
Kansas GOP Chair Danedri Herbert, who is Black, didn’t mince words: “Kansas Republican Party leadership is disgusted by the comments… These few individuals do not represent Kansas, nor do they reflect the values of Kansas Republicans at large.”
Even the national arm of the Young Republicans fired back hard. Their Board of Directors issued a blistering statement: “We are appalled by the vile and inexcusable language… Such behavior is disgraceful, unbecoming of any Republican, and stands in direct opposition to the values our movement represents.”
They demanded immediate resignations from all involved.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, called the texts “racist, antisemitic, and disgusting,” urging the state GOP to “come clean about the rot within their party.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries amplified Politico’s story on Instagram: “These are sick people. Every single one of these racists and antisemites must be publicly exposed and held accountable.”
Prominent Republicans also rushed to distance themselves.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, who had endorsed Giunta’s chair run and called the state Young Republicans “the backbone of our party,” pulled her support through a spokesperson: She was “absolutely appalled” and demanded those responsible “step down immediately.”
Roger Stone, the GOP strategist who also backed Giunta, condemned the remarks outright. New York State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt labeled the behavior “indefensible,” while state party chair Ed Cox said it had “no place in our party or anywhere in public life.”
Rep. Mike Lawler tweeted that the comments were “deeply offensive and hateful,” calling for resignations and reflection on “how far they have strayed from basic human respect and decency.”
Deep Scrutiny Shuns Racism
The scandal hit Vermont especially hard. State Sen. Samuel Douglass, a 27-year-old first-termer swept in during last November’s GOP red wave, was outed in the chats alongside his wife for using slurs and antisemitic tropes.
Just last week, he’d been nominated for “Legislator of the Year” by the Vermont GOP. Now, Republican Gov. Phil Scott — a moderate voice in a party often pulled rightward — is demanding his resignation, stating, “The vile, racist, bigoted, and antisemitic dialogue that has been reported is deeply disturbing… Those involved should resign from their roles immediately and leave the Republican party — including Vermont State Senator Sam Douglass.”
Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth tied it to broader forces: “The reported racist and antisemitic comments… [reflect] the ugliness and the hateful bigotry of Trumpism… The Vermont GOP must address and reject the largely covert network of hatred that binds them to racist and white nationalist elements nationwide.”
Republicans Who Brushed it Off
Not everyone in GOP circles hit the panic button, though. Vice President JD Vance took to X to downplay it as mere “pearl clutching” over a “college group chat,” pivoting to a texting scandal involving Democratic Virginia AG nominee Jay Jones, whose messages allegedly discussed violence against a GOP lawmaker.
“I refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence,” Vance wrote, adding Jones’s texts were “way worse.”
Some right-wing voices, like influencer Brilyn Hollyhand, echoed the whataboutism. But Vance’s shrug stands in stark contrast to the Trump administration’s January executive order cracking down on antisemitism — a policy the VP helped champion.
This isn’t some isolated frat-house slip-up; it’s a window into a culture where, as Texas A&M sociology professor Joe Feagin put it, the Trump-era “loosening of political norms” has normalized racist “jokes” and cruelty among those eyeing the party’s future.
The chats mixed campaign banter with everyday gripes — church attendance, personal lives — but slurs flowed as freely as strategy tips.
One thread even brainstormed smearing rivals by tying them to white supremacists. Michael Austin, head of the Kansas Black Republican Council, called it a “betrayal of the party’s principles,” urging a return to “integrity, moral courage, and respect.”
Moving Forward
As midterms loom, Democrats are already weaponizing this.
The Battleground New York PAC blasted New York Republicans to “disavow, full stop,” tying the rot to vulnerable incumbents like Lawler.
Hochul’s camp jabbed at Stefanik: “She can’t hide behind staff to denounce the antisemitic, racist, hateful individuals she endorsed.”
In Kansas, Dem gubernatorial hopeful Sen. Cindy Holscher decried the “overt racism, extremism, antisemitism and sexual violence,” warning it’s poisoned the well for bipartisanship.
For now, the Young GOP is in damage control, but the stain lingers. As former Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer put it, “The viewpoints expressed in this chat are not representative of Kansans. Period.”
Whether this forces a real reckoning — or just more finger-pointing — could define how the party courts the diverse coalition it claims to want.
One thing’s clear: In the age of leaked chats, nothing stays private for long.
Also Read: Republicans Face Growing Backlash as Voters Blame Them for Govt. Shutdown
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