{"id":203666,"date":"2025-10-16T07:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T07:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/203666\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T07:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T07:20:11","slug":"jd-vance-brushes-off-racist-texts-by-adults-in-republican-group-chat-as-what-kids-do-jd-vance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/203666\/","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance brushes off racist texts by adults in Republican group chat as \u2018what kids do\u2019 | JD Vance"},"content":{"rendered":"

JD Vance sought to downplay the revelation that leaders of a group called the Young Republicans<\/a> exchanged hundreds of racist, sexist text messages \u2013 including one in which rape was called \u201cepic\u201d, and another in which someone wrote \u201cI love Hitler\u201d \u2013 as youthful indiscretions.<\/p>\n

Vance, speaking on a new episode<\/a> of the Charlie Kirk Show, the podcast run by colleagues of the late conservative activist, suggested that the participants in the leaked chats were much younger than they in fact are. Some of the participants are barely younger than the 41-year-old vice-president.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys,\u201d Vance said. \u201cThey tell edgy, offensive jokes. That\u2019s what kids do. And I really don\u2019t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke \u2013 telling a very offensive, stupid joke \u2013 is cause to ruin their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Politico obtained months of exchanges<\/a> from a Telegram conversation between leaders and members of the Young Republican National Federation and some of its affiliates in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont.<\/p>\n

Mother Jones reports<\/a> that public records indicate that eight of the 11 Republican operatives who took part in the offensive chat appear to range in age from 24 to 35.<\/p>\n

The revelations have prompted bipartisan calls for those involved to be removed from or resign their positions.<\/p>\n

The Young Republican National Federation, the GOP\u2019s political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40, called for those involved to step down from the organization. The group described the exchanges as \u201cunbecoming of any Republican\u201d.<\/p>\n

Vance, however, scolded Democrats and the media for paying too much attention to \u201cwhat a bunch of young people, a bunch of kids, say in a group chat, however offensive\u201d.<\/p>\n

He suggested that the racist texts from Republicans were a distraction from offensive texts sent by a Democratic candidate for attorney general of Virginia, Jay Jones, who joked that he would prefer to kill a Republican colleague than Hitler or Pol Pot.<\/p>\n

Jones has since said he has taken \u201cfull responsibility\u201d for his comments and offered a public apology to Todd Gilbert, who then was speaker of Virginia\u2019s house of delegates.<\/p>\n

Vance expressed irritation at people he said had allowed themselves to be distracted from the Democrat\u2019s \u201cincredible endorsement of political violence \u2026 by focusing on what kids are saying in a group chat\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrow up,\u201d the vice-president said to those people concerned more about the racism in his party than the joking about violence in the other party. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, focus on the real issues, don\u2019t focus on what kids say in group chats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance said he grew up in a different era where \u201cmost of what I, the stupid things that I did as a teenager and as a young adult, they\u2019re not on the internet\u201d.<\/p>\n

The father of three said he would caution his own children, \u201cespecially my boys, don\u2019t put things on the internet, like, be careful with what you post. If you put something in a group chat, assume that some scumbag is going to leak it in an effort to try to cause you harm or cause your family harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t want to 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,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n

Other Republicans demanded more immediate intervention. Republican legislative leaders in Vermont, along with governor Phil Scott \u2013 also a Republican \u2013 called for the resignation of Sam Douglass, a state senator, revealed to be a participant in the chat.<\/p>\n

Saying she was \u201cabsolutely appalled to learn about the alleged comments made by leaders of the New York State Young Republicans\u201d, congressperson Elise Stefanik of New York called for those involved to step down from their positions. Danedri Herbert, chair of the Kansas GOP, said the remarks \u201cdo not reflect the beliefs of Republicans and certainly not of Kansas Republicans at large\u201d.<\/p>\n

Democrats have been more uniform in their condemnation. On Wednesday, California governor Gavin Newsom wrote to James Comer, the House oversight committee chair, asking for an investigation into the \u201cvile and offensive text messages\u201d, which he called \u201cthe definition of conduct that can create a hostile and discriminatory environment that violates civil rights laws\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Senate floor, the Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York on Tuesday described the chat as \u201crevolting\u201d, calling for Republicans including Trump and Vance to \u201ccondemn these comments swiftly and unequivocally\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about the reporting, New York governor Kathy Hochul called the exchanges \u201cvile\u201d and called for consequences for those involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cKick them out of the party. Take away their official roles. Stop using them as campaign advisers,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cThere needs to be consequences. This bullshit has to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JD Vance sought to downplay the revelation that leaders of a group called the Young Republicans exchanged hundreds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-203666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}