{"id":180146,"date":"2026-03-06T02:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T02:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/180146\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T02:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T02:00:08","slug":"group-chat-allegedly-involving-young-republicans-sparks-investigation-bipartisan-calls-for-accountability-nbc-6-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/180146\/","title":{"rendered":"Group chat allegedly involving young Republicans sparks investigation, bipartisan calls for accountability \u2013 NBC 6 South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

A WhatsApp group chat allegedly involving young Republicans is stirring emotions at Florida International University \u2014 and prompting calls for the resignation of Miami-Dade GOP Secretary Abel Carvajal.<\/p>\n

The Floridian<\/a>, an online publication, was first to report on the chat, posting screenshots that show racist, anti-Semitic, and violent comments. NBC6 has not independently verified the chat.<\/p>\n

According to the report, individuals in the group included Carvajal and students with connections to FIU\u2019s College Republicans and the university\u2019s Turning Point USA chapter.<\/p>\n

Kevin J. Cooper, the chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party, released a statement, condemning Carvajal, writing, \u201cThe majority of our Party\u2019s Board voted to request Carvajal\u2019s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Carvajal has not responded to calls or text messages from NBC6. But he told the\u00a0Miami Herald\u00a0<\/a>that he started the chat after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed, adding,\u00a0\u201che had not seen much of the content in the group chat until he was contacted by the Herald\u2026\u201d\u00a0and was\u00a0\u201cshocked\u201d\u00a0by some of the messages. The Herald\u00a0says it verified the chat with two people in the group.<\/p>\n

The controversy has led some Republicans \u2014 including State Rep. Juan Porras, R-Miami-Dade \u2014 to call for accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter education needs to be done for our youth,\u201d Porras said. \u201cI think they are being misled by some very harmful individuals that are being paid to spew this propaganda by outside sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porras told NBC6 that Republican colleagues in Tallahassee are discussing the matter and want Carvajal to step down. He added that if Carvajal does not resign, other avenues are available.<\/p>\n

Democrats are also weighing in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just another symptom of the same problem we\u2019ve been seeing over and over and over again from the MAGA base,\u201d said Justin Mendoza-Routt, president of the Miami-Dade Young Democrats. \u201cThey are not even keeping it quiet anymore. They are explicitly saying the quiet part out loud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, FIU President Jeanette M. Nu\u00f1ez, confirmed that a criminal investigation is underway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take these allegations very seriously. The alleged conduct continues to be investigated by FIU Police Department in coordination with local, state, and federal law enforcement.\u201d Nu\u00f1ez wrote in a statement. \u201cFIU does not and will not tolerate violence, hate, discrimination, harassment, racism or antisemitism. This is not who we are. This is not what FIU stands for.\u201d<\/p>\n

NBC6 reached out to Turning Point USA but has not received a response.<\/p>\n

In a statement sent Tuesday, the president of FIU College Republicans denounced the chat, writing: \u201cThese actions are not representative of our organization and have no place in our community,\u201d\u00a0adding \u201cThis was not a College Republicans chat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A WhatsApp group chat allegedly involving young Republicans is stirring emotions at Florida International University \u2014 and prompting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124,807],"class_list":["post-180146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}