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Republicans face fallout from racist and homophobic texts
Some local GOP officials who participated in an online group chat are losing their jobs or being pressured to resign. But top Republicans have been dismissive.
Over seven months, in 2,900 pages of messages sent over Telegram, elected Republicans and the leaders of local groups for young party activists in New York, Vermont, Arizona and Kansas routinely used racist and homophobic language and glibly invoked Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust.
The texts, first reported Tuesday by Politico, have created a firestorm, putting Republican leaders on the defensive. Many state officials have condemned the texts, and some who participated in the chats have lost their jobs or been called on to resign.
But some top Republican leaders, including President Donald Trump, have not weighed in, and others have played down the Republicans’ text messages. Vice President JD Vance compared them to “anything said in a college group chat,” even though they were local party officials and not college students.
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According to the Politico report, Peter Giunta, an aide to a New York Assembly member, posted, “I Love Hitler” and wrote, “If your pilot is a she and she looks ten shades darker than someone from Sicily, just end it there. Scream the no no word.”
Young Republicans in Kansas exchanged racist and offensive comments about gays and Black people. And in Vermont, Samuel Douglass, a state senator, wrote in a derogatory manner about Indian women.
In a text message to The New York Times on Wednesday, Giunta said he took “complete responsibility” and apologized: “I am so sorry to those offended by the insensitive and inexcusable language found within the more than 28,000 messages of a private group chat.”
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In his message to the Times, Giunta said an intraparty squabble in New York and a “year-long character assassination” campaign were to blame for bringing the chats to light.
None of the other officials who participated in the chat responded immediately to calls and emails requesting comment.
On the state level, some participants have faced criticism and repercussions. In New York, Assembly member Mike Reilly fired Giunta as his chief of staff. Rep. Mike Lawler, who is viewed as one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the 2026 midterms, called on any New York Republicans who were involved in the chats to “resign from any leadership position immediately and reflect on how far they have strayed from basic human respect and decency.”
In Kansas, the state Republican Party disbanded its Young Republicans group; one member, who had been an aide to Kris Kobach, the state attorney general, was fired last week. And in Vermont, Gov. Phil Scott, a moderate Republican who voted for Kamala Harris for president, demanded that Douglass step down from the state Senate. (Douglass’ wife, Brianna, an official of the Vermont Young Republicans, was also involved in the chat and posted an antisemitic remark.)
The Young Republican National Federation posted Tuesday that it was “appalled by the vile and inexcusable language” and called the group chat “disgraceful” and “unbecoming of any Republican,” saying the participants should resign.
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But Democrats have lambasted the response from top Republican leadership. In a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader, called Vance’s reaction “outrageous” and accused Vance of condemning violent political discourse “only when it serves his interests.”
“Too many Republicans seem willing to call out violent rhetoric only when it comes from the other side,” Schumer said. “But these same Republicans never seem willing to denounce it when it comes from their own ranks, and that’s dangerous. Violent political rhetoric is an attack on everyone.”
Democrats have their own texting issues. In Virginia, Jay Jones, the party’s candidate for state attorney general, has apologized for a series of messages he sent in 2022 comparing the state’s Republican speaker to Hitler and Pol Pot, and suggesting that he deserved to be killed.
Republicans have demanded that Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate for governor, withdraw her support for Jones. He has vowed to stay in the race.
Vance, in his post, compared Jones’ comments to the Republican text messages. “I refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence,” he wrote.
On Wednesday, Vance doubled down, and said critics should “focus on the real issues” and “grow up.”
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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