Mr. Vice President, I Rewrote Your Racist, Apologist Statement for You
J.D. Vance unsurprisingly failed to condemn the bigotry and sexual violence of Young Republicans
When the Telegram chat history of a dozen Young Republican leaders in New York, Kansas, Arizona, and Vermont exposed their own racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and violence over seven months of messaging, the vice president of the United States failed to unequivocally condemn their bigotry.
“We are appalled by the vile and inexcusable language revealed in the Politico article published today. Such behavior is disgraceful, unbecoming of any Republican, and stands in direct opposition to the values our movement represents,” the Young Republican National Federation’s board of directors publicly responded the same day.
New York legislators Rep. Elise Stefanik and state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, among other prominent Republicans quickly denounced the group chat. Senator Ortt officially called for the resignations of all involved.
J.D. Vance did not. Instead, he defended the rising party leaders who glibly promoted slavery, rape, gas chambers, bullying, racial slurs, homophobic slurs, and burning people. The tone is friendly and casual. Their messages are horrifying:
“Great. I love Hitler”
Rape is “epic”
“I’m ready to watch people burn now”
“I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball”
“ … fat stinky Jew”1
“But the reality is that kids do stupid things. Especially young boys, they tell edgy, offensive jokes. Like, that’s what kids do. And I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke — telling a very offensive, stupid joke — is cause to ruin their lives,” Vance said after assuring the public that he warned “his boys” about communicating with digital paper trails because “some scumbag is going to leak it in an effort to try to cause you harm or cause your family harm.”2
Mr. Vice President, the problem is not the leaking of “jokes”, the problem is the moral rot these party leaders are glibly sharing with each other. In what’s becoming a Republican trend, the egregious offense is not the bigotry, it’s having your bigotry exposed. Or in the case of the Charlie Kirk aftermath, saying bigoted things is free speech but quoting someone’s bigoted statements is political persecution.
“At some point, we’re all going to have to say, ‘Enough of this BS. We’re not going to allow the worst moment in a 21-year-old’s group chat to ruin a kid’s life for the rest of time. That’s just not OK. … We’re not canceling kids because they do something stupid in a group chat,” Vance said of the Young Republican leaders.3 “And if I have to be the person who carries that message forward, I’m fine with it.”
These “kids” range in age from 26 and 33 years old.
Vance defended these adults like they were children who didn’t know better. And then positioned himself as the anti-cancel culture stalwart.
Below is what the second most powerful man in the world should have said instead.
“I stand before you today, not just as a public servant, as your vice president, but as a man, a husband, a father, and a Republican. Although my Christian faith shapes my values, good people of all faiths and none are unafraid to confront the hatreds, violence, and bigotry that still plague this land of the free.
As a Republican I am appalled that 11 Young Republicans entrusted with the leadership of some 15,000 rising party members so flippantly revealed themselves to have hearts full of hate.
As a proud Appalachian I believe in hard work, grit, and integrity. And I believe in consequences.
As a Christian I believe in redemption. But forgiveness must be earned. Trust must be rebuilt from the ground up.
Republicans do not believe in ‘get out of jail free cards.’ We believe in accountability. Trying to dismiss rape, slavery, and genocide as ‘just jokes’ is not exculpatory. It’s the kind of cheap tricks and easy shortcuts that those who lack character exploit to avoid accountability.
We won’t stand for it.
We, the Republican Party call on these ‘leaders’, these grown, educated, influential adults to resign immediately. They did not accidentally use words they didn’t know were offensive. For almost 3,000 pages worth of messaging, they chose to entertain each other with vile content. They squandered their leadership positions by indulging their ugly hatreds instead of inspiring the young minds they were called to lead.
Positions of power are not permanently endowed. Positions of power are earned. And these people failed to lead with integrity and decency.
We applaud the institutions that held their employees accountable for the choices they made on their own free will in a group chat for Young Republican leaders. Firing people for their lack of moral fiber and basic human decency is not “cancel culture”, it’s consequence culture. It’s accountability culture.
The Republican Party espouses traditional values. Like respect. Like integrity. Like accountability. These leaders show none of these traits that we hold as foundational.
Hateful people do not represent what’s best in this great country. And these ‘leaders’ were not fired by overreacting hypersensitive liberals. These weak-minded, cold-hearted people forfeited their own roles, influence, and respect by betraying our shared values.
As every proud American knows, everyone is entitled to constitutionally protected free speech in this country. But no one should be free of consequences.
It is my sincere hope that these misguided souls will seek the help they need, including professional and spiritual counseling so that they might learn to recognize and respect the humanity of our fellow human beings.
Whether they do or not is between them and their Maker. If they continue to harm their own hearts with hateful rhetoric and egregious disrespect of the catastrophic suffering of others, we as proud Republicans have at least made sure that they no longer have the access or influence to cause greater harm or promote bigoted ideologies.
My fellow Americans, Young Republicans need to be the future of our party. Those perpetuating the worst torches of our dark past are relics. We will move forward without them as we continue to lead this great country of ours toward even greater prosperity.”
The names, ages, and post-scandal employment status of the Young Republican leaders
Michael Bartels, 32, is no longer a senior adviser in the office of general counsel within the U.S. Small Business Administration but still affiliated with the Trump administration
Samuel Douglass, 27, Vermont state senator, resigned as head of Vermont’s Young Republicans after pressure from Gov. Scott
Alex Dwyer, 28, was the chair of the now disbanded Kansas Young Republicans
Peter Giunta, 31, fired by Republican New York state Assemblymember Mike Reilly as his chief of staff
William Hendrix, 26 (former) communications assistant for Kansas’ Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach, now fired from the AG’s office
Rachel Hope, 29, Arizona Young Republicans events chair, has not been terminated
Annie Kaykaty, 27, New York’s national committee member, fired from her job at Xaverian Private Day School
Joe Maligno, 33 general counsel for the now disbanded New York State Young Republicans; no longer a New York State Unified Court System employee
Luke Mosiman, 30, still Arizona Young Republicans chair; resigned from staff position at Center for Arizona Policy
Bobby Walker, 28, (former) vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans, offer to work for New York congressional candidate Peter Oberacker’s campaign rescinded
Gavin Wax, 29, still employed as a staffer in Trump’s State Department
We haven’t forgotten. Release the full and un-redacted Epstein files.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/14/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146?fbclid=IwY2xjawNd40tleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHgwnxCnMCu13VGy5qCZL7n1oFyoI1Fj6ufeecwUtcFjT086Im9mVqHuHXEbU_aem_0os5Vnocuu5O3g1fFkBDtQ
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5558156-vance-defends-young-republicans-group-chat/
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5558156-vance-defends-young-republicans-group-chat/