Vice President Vance said on Wednesday he did not want the racist remarks in the explosive Young Republicans group chat to ruin the participants’ lives, dismissing them as “stupid” jokes made by “kids.”
In an interview on “The Charlie Kirk Show” — which is now hosted by allies of the late conservative activist — the vice president doubled down on his viral tweet in which he dismissed “pearl clutching” over the new Politico report.
Vance said he will encourage his kids, “especially my boys,” to be careful of what they post in group chats and on the internet, saying they should assume “some scumbag is going to leak it in an effort to try to cause you harm or cause your family harm.”
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“But the reality is that kids do stupid things. Especially young boys, they tell edgy, offensive jokes. Like, that’s what kids do,” Vance continued. “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.”
Politico published a bombshell report this week, exposing thousands of text messages from a Young Republican group chat in which members played on racial stereotypes, used gay slurs and joked about gas chambers, slavery and rape.
The group chat included messages from about a dozen leaders associated with the Young Republican National Federation — the GOP’s 15,000-member political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40 years old — and spanned more than seven months this year.
A Mother Jones story pushed back on Vance’s characterization of the participants as “kids,” reporting that 8 of the 11 members in the chat spanned the ages of 24-35, while the progressive-leaning magazine said it could not verify the ages of the other three participants. The Daily Beast reported that Peter Giunta, one of the key figures in the chat, is 31 years old.
Members of the chat held various roles in Republican politics, including a Vermont senator, a New York assemblyman’s chief of staff, an official at the U.S. Small Business Administration and a communications staffer in the Kansas attorney general’s office.
The reporting sent waves through political circles, as the Young Republican leaders mentioned in the story — from New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont — drew intense scrutiny and backlash, including from members of the GOP. Some were promptly fired from their positions, while others are facing calls to resign.
Vance, in his Wednesday interview, described the outrage following the Politico report as a form of cancel culture that needs to be stopped.
“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 okay… We’re not canceling kids because they do something stupid in a group chat.”
“And if I have to be the person who carries that message forward, I’m fine with it,” he said.
Vance said he would feel the same way if the participants of the chat were on the other side of the political spectrum.
“And by the way, if they were left-wing kids telling stupid left-wing jokes, I would also not want their lives to be ruined because they’re saying something stupid in a private group chat,” he added.
