To condemn or not to condemn? That is the question for Republican officials after a Young Republicans group chat containing racist and antisemitic messages leaked this week.
While no Republican official has said they support the offensive messages reported by Politico earlier this week — which included messages like “I love Hitler” and those that referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” — there is an open debate on the right about how best to respond, and whether people who express such sentiments have a place in Republican politics.
Some Republicans have no problem strongly disavowing the sentiment and calling for the members of the group to resign their positions.
Others quickly condemn the statements before moving to turn the attention back on shocking statements from Democrats, particularly Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones, whose leaked texts fantasizing about shooting a Republican lawmaker and his children were exposed earlier this month.
And others downplay the significance of the content in the Young Republican group chat.
Vice President Vance has been the loudest and most prominent voice in the latter group. He quickly took to social media to say he would not engage “pearl clutching” over the chat, pointing to the texts revealed to be from Jones. Rep. Michael Rulli (R-Ohio) and prominent MAGA-world consultant Alex Bruesewitz were among those who said Vance was “spot on.”
While Vance described it as a “college group chat,” the Young Republicans is an organization for adults under the age of 40, and the group included individuals working professionally in politics and a Vermont state senator.
Vance expanded on his thoughts in an episode of the Charlie Kirk Show on Wednesday, saying that those getting “distracted” by the group chat need to “grow up.”
And Vance went further, suggesting that the incident should not be career-ending for those who were part of the group.
“We’re not canceling kids because they do something stupid in a group chat,” Vance said.
“The reality is that kids do stupid things. Especially young boys, they tell edgy, offensive jokes. Like, that’s what kids do,” Vance said. “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.”
His position reflects the drastically different political environment for Republicans in President Trump’s second term compared to his first. Republicans have spent years crusading against “cancel culture” and pushing leaders to more aggressively wield power.
They dismiss concerns about falsehoods or offensive statements made by Trump himself — and so it is easier to downplay sentiments expressed in a group chat of young GOP operatives who were, until now, widely unknown in the national political sphere.
Vance was also at the forefront of a push to re-hire Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer Marko Elez, who resigned after his past social media posts espousing racist sentiments were exposed.
But that stance and strategy articulated by Vance has not permeated through the rest of the Republican party.
The Young Republican National Federation, for instance, called for immediate resignations of those involved in the leaked group chat. Some of the members of the group stepped down from their jobs or had job offers rescinded, Politico reported.
Some Republicans are condemning the sentiments in the chat without question.
“Obviously, we roundly condemn any of that nonsense,” Johnson said in a press conference on Thursday.
“Obviously, that is not the principles of the Republican Party. We stand for the founding principles of America,” Johnson said. “You want me to articulate them for you right now? Individual freedom, limited government, rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, human dignity, the things that lead to human flourishing.”
Other Republicans are trumping their condemnation of the group as a way to put pressure on Democrats, particularly on the topic of the Jones, the Virginia Democratic candidate for attorney general.
After the Virginia Democratic Party sent out a release saying that Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears needs to call on those implicated in the group chat to step down from their positions, Sears responded on social media: “Easy, they absolutely must step down.”
“Now it’s your turn, Abigail,” Sears added, in an apparent call for her Democratic gubernatorial opponent Abigail Spanberger to address the messages about violence from Jones. While Spanberger has criticized the texts, she has not called on him to step aside.
The uproar about extremist rhetoric and positions was heightened on Wednesday after news broke of an aide for Rep. Dave Taylor (R-Ohio) being pictured in a videoconference call with an American flag with red stripes altered to form a swastika posted in a cubicle in the background. Taylor called the image “vile and deeply inappropriate,” and said that Capitol Police are investigating the matter.
But that situation quick a strange turn when Taylor said Thursday that the flag was “indistinguishable from an ordinary American flag to the naked eye,” and that his office was targeted as part of a “ruse” with an unidentified sender distributing the flag to multiple GOP offices.
The Hill has confirmed that a similar American flag with a swastika was delivered to at least one other House GOP office earlier this year, which discarded the flag. But The Hill has not seen or inspected the flag in question.
Johnson said that “the congressman did exactly what he should have done,” but declined to comment further pending an investigation.
Vance’s strong stance against “pearl clutching” did ignite some open rebukes from commentators.
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who has been highly critical of Trump and the party’s drift toward nationalism, said that Vance was engaging in “whataboutism,” adding: “You’re Vice President of the United States, who are you accountable to when you make lame excuses for misogyny and racism?”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” posted Jonah Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of Trump-critical conservative outlet The Dispatch. “And someone who refuses to condemn bigotry, even sophomoric bigotry, purely for reasons of partisan loyalty and naked ambition should be ashamed of themselves.”
But after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month, some are digging in their heels against what they see as attempts to fracture the right — even, seemingly, in wake of blatantly racist statements.
On the other side of the right-wing spectrum, commentator Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire asserted in wake of the group chat scandal that the “biggest problem” on the right is that the coalition “doesn’t stick together.”
“Conservatives are quick to denounce each other, jump on dogpiles, disavow, attack their allies. I said a few weeks ago that we all need to band together in the wake of Charlie’s death and the answer I got back from a lot of people on the Right was, basically, no,” Walsh posted on X. “Well okay then, guys. We’ll just lose instead. The Left will keep up the united front and defend their guys no matter what while we keep throwing each other to the wolves at every opportunity. Great plan.”
