{"id":14441,"date":"2025-10-15T01:46:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T01:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/its-revolting-more-young-republican-chat-members-out-of-jobs-as-condemnation-intensifies\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T01:46:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T01:46:46","slug":"its-revolting-more-young-republican-chat-members-out-of-jobs-as-condemnation-intensifies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/its-revolting-more-young-republican-chat-members-out-of-jobs-as-condemnation-intensifies\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s revolting\u2019: More Young Republican chat members out of jobs as condemnation intensifies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Two more members of a Young Republican group chat strewn with racist epithets and hateful jokes stepped down from their jobs Tuesday after Blue Light News published an exclusive report on the Telegram exchanges.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Peter Giunta\u2019s time working with New York Assemblymember Mike Reilly \u201chas ended,\u201d the Republican lawmaker said. Giunta served as chair of the New York State Young Republicans when the chat took place. Joseph Maligno, who previously identified himself as the general counsel<\/u><\/a> for that group, is no longer an employee of the New York State Unified Court System, a courts spokesperson confirmed.<\/p>\n

Another chat member, Vermont state Senator Sam Douglass, faced mounting calls for his resignation as well, including from the state\u2019s Gov. Phil Scott<\/u><\/a>, a Republican, and Douglass\u2019 fellow Republican lawmakers<\/u><\/a>, who called his statements \u201cdeeply disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue Light News\u2019s in-depth look into how one group of Young Republicans spoke privately was met Tuesday with widespread condemnation in New York, Washington and beyond. The members of the chat \u2014 2,900 pages of which were leaked and reviewed by Blue Light News \u2014 called Black people monkeys, repeatedly used slurs for gay, Black, Latino and Asian people, and jokingly celebrated Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n

In a bipartisan outcry, members of Congress and other political leaders from around the country said they were appalled by the contents of the group chat. The board of directors of the National Young Republicans said every member of the chat \u201cmust immediately resign\u201d their state organization.<\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor, described the chat as \u201crevolting\u201d and \u201cdisgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this report is accurate, every single Republican leader from President Trump on down \u2026 ought to condemn these comments swiftly and unequivocally,\u201d Schumer said.<\/p>\n

Vice President JD Vance had a different view and broke with Republicans who broadly condemned the comments within the chat.<\/p>\n

On X Tuesday night,<\/a> Vance drew attention to Democratic candidate for Virginia attorney general Jay Jones, who texted a colleague<\/a> about shooting the then-Republican House speaker and wishing harm on his children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is far worse than anything said in a college group chat, and the guy who said it could become the AG of Virginia,\u201d Vance wrote with a screenshot of the text exchange. \u201cI refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fallout over the Telegram group chat comes after two others in the slur-laced private exchanges saw their job statuses change before the article even published. William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans\u2019 vice chair<\/u><\/a> at the time of the chat, is \u201cno longer employed\u201d at Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach\u2019s office. Bobby Walker, who was chair of the New York State Young Republicans as of Tuesday, will not be brought onto New York congressional candidate Peter Oberacker\u2019s campaign as originally planned.<\/p>\n

Maligno and Douglass did not respond to repeated requests for comment. In separate statements, both Giunta and Walker apologized for the messages they wrote in the chat but questioned whether they had been altered or taken out of context. They also attempted to blame the release of their chat on the New York Young Republican Club, a political group that operates at the city level and which is often at odds with the state group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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 Republicans,\u201d Giunta said. \u201cThese logs were sourced by way of extortion and provided to Blue Light News by the very same people conspiring against me in what appears to be a highly-coordinated year-long character assassination led by Gavin Wax and the New York City Young Republican Club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walker struck a similar tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no excuse for the language and tone in messages attributed to me. The language is wrong and hurtful, and I sincerely apologize,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s troubling that private exchanges were obtained and released in a way clearly intended to inflict harm, and the circumstances raise real questions about accuracy and motive but none of that excuses the language. This has been a painful lesson about judgment and trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wax declined Blue Light News\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

New York Republican leaders, including Rep. Elise Stefanik, state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt and state party chair Ed Cox, had preemptively denounced the chat as Blue Light News reported out the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are appalled by the vile and inexcusable language revealed in the Blue Light News article published today. Such behavior is disgraceful, unbecoming of any Republican, and stands in direct opposition to the values our movement represents,\u201d the National Young Republicans group said Tuesday in a statement posted on X<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

New York Democrats piled on after the conversations became public.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake them out of the party, take away their official roles, stop using them as campaign advisers. There needs to be consequences. This bullshit has to stop,\u201d Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters.<\/p>\n

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted an image of Blue Light News\u2019s article on Instagram and wrote<\/u><\/a>: \u201cThese are sick people. Every single one of these racists and antisemites must be publicly exposed and held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, quoted from the article \u2014 \u201cMonkeys\u201d \u201cWatermelon people\u201d \u201c1488\u201d \u2014 and added on X,<\/u><\/a> \u201cBut when we say white supremacy is thriving on the right, they call us reactionary\u2026 Give me a break. The future of the Republican Party proudly embraces bigotry that belongs in the past, and every American needs to recognize how dangerous that is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Grace Meng, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said in a statement that \u201ctheir willingness to engage in such vile rhetoric behind closed doors speaks volumes to their character and the tone set by our nation\u2019s leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue Light News\u2019s reporting on the thousands of messages shared among a dozen Young Republican club members between January and August also reverberated Tuesday in one of the country\u2019s most contentious congressional battlegrounds.<\/p>\n

The Democrat-aligned House Majority PAC shared photos<\/u><\/a> of Giunta and Walker with vulnerable New York GOP Rep. Mike Lawler at local GOP events. And some of Lawler\u2019s Democratic challengers, including Beth Davidson, Cait Conley and Mike Sacks, amplified the connection between the New York Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are the company you keep,\u201d Conley wrote on X.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Lawler, who represents the suburbs north of New York City, disavowed the chat members and called for their resignations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deeply offensive and hateful comments reportedly made in a private chat among members of the New York State Young Republicans are disgusting,\u201d his spokesperson Ciro Riccardi said in a statement. \u201cThey should resign from any leadership position immediately and reflect on how far they have strayed from basic human respect and decency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of next year\u2019s midterms, the union- and Democrat-backed Battleground New York PAC ramped up the pressure on the state\u2019s GOP representatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese racist, anti-Semitic, and disgusting texts need to be disavowed, full stop, by New York Republicans,\u201d the group\u2019s spokesperson Andrew Grossman said. \u201cThen, New York Republicans need to come clean about the rot within their party that even led to this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Two more members of a Young Republican group chat strewn with racist epithets and hateful jokes stepped down from their jobs Tuesday after Blue Light News published an exclusive report on the Telegram exchanges. Peter Giunta\u2019s time working with New York Assemblymember Mike Reilly \u201chas ended,\u201d the Republican lawmaker said. Giunta served […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}