Two more members of a Young Republican group chat room pelted with racist epithets and hateful jokes resigned Tuesday after POLITICO published an exclusive report on the exchange of telegrams.
Peter Giunta’s time with New York Assemblyman Mike Reilly is “over,” a Republican lawmaker said. Giunta was serving as the New York State Young Republicans chairman when the interview took place. Joseph Maligno, who previously described himself as the group’s general counsel, is no longer an employee of the New York State Unified Court System, a court spokesman confirmed.
Another member of the panel, Vermont state Sen. Sam Douglass, also faced mounting calls for his resignation, including from the state’s governor, Phil Scott, a Republican, and Douglass’ fellow Republican lawmakers, who called his comments “very troubling.”
POLITICO’s in-depth investigation into how a group of young Republicans spoke privately drew widespread condemnation Tuesday in New York, Washington and elsewhere. In the 2,900-page conversation, which was leaked and reviewed by POLITICO, members called black people monkeys, repeatedly denigrated gays, blacks, Latinos and Asians and mockingly celebrated Adolf Hitler.
Amid bipartisan outrage, members of Congress and other political leaders across the country said they were appalled by the content of the group chat. The National Young Republicans Board of Directors said each member of the conversation “must immediately resign” from their state organization.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the conversation as “rebellious” and “disgusting.”
“If this report is accurate, every Republican leader, from President Trump to … should swiftly and unequivocally condemn these comments,” Schumer said.
Vice President JD Vance took a different view, breaking with Republicans who largely condemned the conversation’s comments.
On Tuesday night, Vance took aim at Democratic candidate for Virginia attorney general Jay Jones, who texted a colleague about shooting the then-Republican speaker of the House and intending to harm his children.
“This is way worse than anything said in a college group chat and the guy who said it could become the AG of Virginia,” Vance wrote along with a screenshot of the text of the exchange. “I refuse to join the clutches of pearls when powerful people call for political violence.”
The fallout from the Telegram group chat comes after two other people involved in the lewd private exchange noticed their job status had changed before the article was published. William Hendrix, the vice chairman of the Kansas Young Republicans at the time of the interview, is “no longer working” in the office of Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach. Bobby Walker, who led the New York State Young Republicans on Tuesday, will not be involved in New York congressional candidate Peter Oberaker’s campaign as originally planned.
Maligno and Douglass did not respond to repeated requests for comment. In separate statements, Giunta and Walker apologized for the messages in the conversation, but questioned whether they were altered or taken out of context. They also tried to blame the Young Republicans of New York, a political group that operates at the city level and is often at odds with the state group, for publishing their conversation.
“I deeply apologize to those who were offended by the insensitive and inexcusable language found in more than 28,000 messages in a private group chat I created during my campaign to lead the Young Republicans,” Giunta said. “These logs were extorted and provided to POLITICO by the same people who conspired against me in what appears to have been a highly coordinated year-long assassination led by Gavin Wax and the New York Young Republicans.”
Walker struck a similar tone.
“There is no excuse for the language and tone of the messages attributed to me. The language is wrong and offensive and I sincerely apologize,” he said. “It’s troubling that private exchanges were received and released in a way that was clearly intended to harm, and the circumstances raise real questions about accuracy and motive, but none of that justifies the language. It was a painful lesson about judgment and trust.”
Vaškas declined POLITICO’s request for comment.
New York Republican leaders, including Rep. Elise Stefanik, state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt and state party chairman Ed Cox, preemptively condemned the conversation when POLITICO reported it.
“We are appalled by the disgusting and unjustified language revealed in today’s Politico article. This behavior is shameful, unacceptable to any Republican, and directly contradicts the values our movement stands for,” the National Young Republicans Group said in a statement released Tuesday by X.
New York Democrats rallied after the talks became public.
“Get them out of the party, take them out of their official roles, stop using them as campaign advisers. There has to be consequences. This nonsense has to stop,” Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted an image of the POLITICO article on Instagram, writing, “This is sick people. Every single one of these racists and anti-Semites needs to be exposed and held accountable.”
Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke cited the Monkeys, Watermelon People article in 1488 — and added to the X: “But when we say white supremacy thrives on the right, they call us reactionary…Give me a break. The future of the Republican Party, which must proudly admit how dangerous and owned by every great past. is.”
Rep. Grace Meng, chairwoman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said in a statement that “their willingness to engage in such vile rhetoric behind closed doors speaks volumes about their character and the tone set by our nation’s leaders.”
POLITICO’s reporting of thousands of messages shared by a dozen members of the Young Republican Caucus between January and August also reverberated Tuesday in one of the nation’s most contentious congressional battlegrounds.
The Democratic House Majority PAC shared photos of Giunta and Walker with vulnerable New York GOP Rep. Mike Lawler at local GOP events. Several of Lawler’s Democratic challengers, including Beth Davidson, Cait Conley and Mike Sacks, have strengthened ties among New York Republicans.
“You are the company you keep,” wrote Conley X.
Lawler, who represents the suburbs north of New York, disowned members of the panel and called on them to resign.
“The deeply offensive and hateful comments made during a private conversation between the New York State Young Republicans are disgusting,” his spokesman, Ciro Riccardi, said in a statement. “They should immediately resign from any leadership position and consider how far they have strayed from basic human respect and decency.”
Ahead of next year’s midterms, New York’s union- and Democrat-backed Battleground PAC has stepped up pressure on the state’s GOP representatives.
“These racist, anti-Semitic and disgusting texts must be rejected in their entirety by New York Republicans,” said Andrew Grossman, a spokesman for the group. “Then New York Republicans need to figure out what kind of rot in their party even led to this moment.”