Young Republicans leaders joke about slavery, rape in private messages: Politico's explosive chat leak

A group of leaked Telegram messages between youth leaders of Young Republicans has shocked people. The messages show them reportedly referring to Black people as "monkeys" and talking about gas chambers.

The Politico-exclusive investigation names William Hendrix, a leader in the organisation's Kansas chapter, Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York chapter, and Peter Giunta as the leaders who used racist slurs and referred to rape as "Epic". According to the outlet, the 2,900 pages of chats involved dozens of millennial and Gen Z Republicans.

What did the texts show?

The outlet reported that the messages exposed a disturbing undercurrent of racism, antisemitism and misogyny. At one point, the group chats also referred to the Epstein Files. A member claimed that US President Donald Trump was allegedly busy suppressing documents that connected him to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his child sex crimes.

"Trumps too busy burning the Epstein files," Alex Dwyer, the chair of the Kansas Young Republicans, wrote in one instance.

According to the outlet, Epithets like "f----t," "retarded" and "n--ga" were used over 200 times in the chat.

How did the young leaders react?

The outlet reported that most of those named in the exposé refused to share a remark. Peter Giunta, however, claimed the leaked chats were a smear campaign against him.

"These logs were sourced by way of extortion and provided to POLITICO by the very same people conspiring against me," he told the outlet. "What's most disheartening is that, despite my unwavering support of President Trump since 2016, rouge [sic] members of his administration — including Gavin Wax — have participated in this conspiracy to ruin me publicly simply because I challenged them privately."

However, he also apologised but added that he cannot verify the accuracy of the messages. "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 that I created during my campaign to lead the Young Republicans," he said. "While I take complete responsibility, I have had no way of verifying their accuracy and am deeply concerned that the message logs in question may have been deceptively doctored."

What did the boards of directors of the youth organisation say?

Taking to X, the organisation shared a tweet calling for the dismissal of those involved in the scandal.

"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. Those involved must immediately resign from all positions within their state and local Young Republican organizations. We must hold ourselves to the highest standards of integrity, respect, and professionalism. - Board of Directors."