Politico got a hold of a groupchat of leaders of Young Republicans groups across the country—which was teeming with racism, antisemitism, rape jokes, and other filth. Pejoratives like the homophobic f-slur, the n-word, and the r-word appeared more than 251 times combined in the Telegram chat, which contained Young Republican leaders from New York, Kansas, Arizona, and Vermont.
The chat, called “RESTOREYR WAR ROOM,” seemingly included young Republicans aligned with the “Restore YR” faction of the Young Republican National Federation, or YRNF.
Peter Giunta, who at the time was chair of the New York State Young Republicans, was “the most prominent voice in the chat spreading racist messages,” Politico reports. (He apologized for the messages but told the publication he has “no way of verifying their accuracy.”)
In the groupchat, Giunta reportedly referred to Black people as “watermelon people,” and wrote of an NBA playoff game: “I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball.” While discussing his support of another young Republican group, he wrote that “they support slavery and all that shit,” which he approvingly called “Mega based.”
On another occasion, Giunta told his fellow chat members: “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.”
“I love Hitler,” Giunta joked elsewhere. He also said those who voted against his ultimately unsuccessful bid to become YRNF chair would be sent “to the gas chamber,” leading his fellow New York State Young Republicans to crack additional jokes about the Holocaust.
Giunta lost the YRNF chairship in August to Hayden Padgett, whom Giunta referred to as “Hayden F—t.” Numerous other members of the groupchat used demeaning language against Padgett; for instance, Luke Mosiman, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, wrote, “RAPE HAYDEN.”
Another joke about sexual violence, unrelated to Padgett, came from Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans, who called rape “epic” in a separate exchange. (Walker, like Giunta, apologized but told Politico some of the chat could have been “altered, taken out of context, or otherwise manipulated.”)
Another frequent contributor to the chat was William Hendrix, vice chair of the Kansas Young Republicans and, until last week, a communications assistant for Kansas’s Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach. Hendrix reportedly used variations of the n-word more than a dozen times in the chat, in addition to making jokes employing racist stereotypes and approvingly mentioning that the Missouri Young Republicans organization “doesn’t like f–s.”
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