Politico publishes racist Young Republican Telegram chat

Politico published excerpts from roughly 2,900 pages of leaked Telegram messages from a group chat created for Peter Giunta’s campaign to chair the Young Republican National Federation, with participants from New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont. The logs recorded Giunta, then chair of the New York State Young Republicans, and other organizers using racist and antisemitic language, including references to gas chambers and the phrase “I love Hitler,” alongside discussion of internal party elections.

Consequences followed within days. Giunta left his position as chief of staff to New York Assemblymember Mike Reilly; Joseph Maligno, who had identified himself as the New York State Young Republicans’ general counsel, was no longer an employee of the New York State Unified Court System, a courts spokesperson confirmed; an offer for Bobby Walker, the chat’s vice chair, to manage a state senator’s congressional campaign was pulled; and William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair at the time of the chat, was no longer employed at the office of Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach. Vermont state Senator Samuel Douglass resigned on 17 October after the governor called for it, and the Kansas Young Republicans disbanded. On 17 October the New York State Republican executive committee voted to suspend the state Young Republicans’ authorization to operate.

Rep. Elise Stefanik called the messages “heinous, antisemitic, racist and unacceptable” and said those responsible should step down. Vice President JD Vance argued that young people telling “edgy, offensive jokes” should not have their lives ruined. Giunta said the logs “may have been deceptively doctored.” Giunta’s own statement was the source of the widely repeated figure of more than 28,000 messages.

The episode illustrated how private messaging apps serve as organizing infrastructure for youth political clubs, and how their contents can contrast with public messaging when disclosed.