STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Assemblymember Mike Reilly has fired his chief of staff due to alleged comments made in a text thread among a group of young Republican leaders from across the country.
Peter Giunta, who had worked for Reilly since the South Shore Assemblymember was elected in 2019, was exposed by Politico for alleged leaked texts where he said “everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.”
The text was in reference to an election for chair of the Young Republican National Federation — an organization that boasts 15,000-members between the ages of 18 and 40 years old — in which he was a candidate.
“Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic,” said Joe Maligno, previously identified by Politico as the general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans, in an alleged message.
An alleged text on the thread from Bobby Walker, former vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans, said, “When do we start bullying dude?”
Another alleged text from Giunta read: “Im [Sic] going to create some of the greatest physiological [Sic] torture methods known to man. We only want true believers.”
Reilly said he was fired as a result of the texts.
“The comments shared in the group chat that have been reported are extremely troubling and disappointing. They do not align with my values. As a result, Mr. Giunta’s assignment in my office has ended,” he said.
Giunta issued the following statement to the Advance/SILive.com:
“I am so sorry to those offended by the insensitive and inexcusable language found within the more than 28,000 messages of a private group chat that I created during my campaign to lead the Young Republican National Federation. While I take complete responsibility, I have had no way of verifying their accuracy and am deeply concerned that the message logs in question may have been deceptively doctored,” he said.
Giunta alleged that people have been conspiring against him “in what appears to be a highly-coordinated year-long character assassination” by members of the New York City Young Republican Club.
“I have withstood a constant barrage of slanderous accusations as well as the dissemination of ai-generated social media posts to falsify past statements I’ve been accused of making…”
Racist, homophobic, misogynist messages
Other alleged texts exchanged via Telegram chats obtained by Politico over a seven month period include racist, homophobic, misogynistic and antisemitic statements.
“They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery,” wrote Politico.
“…The chat offers an unfiltered look at how a new generation of GOP activists talk when they think no one is listening,” wrote Politico.
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