Politico has published a bombshell report on what appear to be highly offensive messages. The GOP leaders in the Young Republican National Federation had been sending each other in a private group chat. [00:00:15] Now they were under the impression that these are encrypted messages. It's not going to come out. It came out, so someone leaked them to the press. And for those who don't know, the Young Republican National Federation is an organization for conservatives between the ages of 15 and 40. Happy to know that [00:00:34] 40 year olds are still considered young. And it has about 15,000 members. Okay. So Politico reports that the group's telegram group, had about a dozen people in it. So this is look, this is really about, like, 12 people. [00:00:49] Okay. And so I don't want people to think that everyone in the Young Republican National Federation cosigns onto this type of rhetoric or uses this kind of rhetoric. But Politico reports that the group's telegram group did have these messages within it. Here are some of the messages that were sent over the course of seven months. [00:01:08] Epithets like you guys can look at the graphic and figure that out for yourselves, because obviously I can't say those words appeared more than 251 times combined. We're talking about the n word, the r word, that kind of stuff. The slur for, gay individuals. [00:01:24] William Hendricks, the Kansas Young Republicans vice chair, used variations of the n word more than a dozen times, and it didn't stop there. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, referred to rape as epic, not good. [00:01:44] I'm going to pause for comment. Yeah, so I heard that the Democrats do vitriolic language that leads to violence. What is this? And so the reality is that, yeah, there's been a coarsening of language. And I look, there's two different things. [00:02:00] One is, strong words about political, stories, etc. The other is, insults like this. So did insults like this get much more common, over the last ten years? Of course they did. Was it because the super boring, dullest people in the world, [00:02:19] Democratic politicians drove that? No. Come on, guys, get real. Get real. So have there been people on the left that have used, terrible language that has led to more division? Yes. But are there people on the right now, especially among the young, that use awful [00:02:34] language while they think that they're. I hope that they think that they're joking. Of course they do. Of course they do. I mean, if you're saying no, right wingers don't do well, they just did it right there. You just see it, right. And so and is that symbolic and representative of more people? It's not representative of all, Republicans. [00:02:51] It's not representative of all Trump voters, and it's not representative of all young Republicans, as Ana said. Okay. But is it representative of some. Yeah, of course it is. Are we denying that this is a thing that people do behind the scenes. And there's two different worlds. There's a world where young people think joking about the most awful things [00:03:09] is totally fine, right? And then there's the, the power world, right? The politicians and media, etc.. Right. And they say it's not fine at all, that it's the worst thing in the world, and you should be fired for the rest of eternity for doing it. So, these worlds keep clashing. [00:03:25] So I guess these guys are going to get fired forever and ever. Well, some of them, some of them have, they've been forced to resign. They've lost their positions. They lost job offers. So I'll get to that in just a minute, I guess. Look, there are definitely, like, offensive statements that were referenced [00:03:43] in this political piece, and I'm not minimizing it at all. What I do wonder about, though, and it's a it's a bigger question. It's a broader question. And it's not related to party politics at all. It's more about our identity as Americans. And my fear is that this experiment Spearmint has either already failed [00:04:04] or is just going to fail if we. Because think about what America is. America is a country where people from all over the world came together to be Americans. Right. But what does it mean to be an American if we're all so obsessed with what makes [00:04:20] us different and we don't have a shared identity as citizens of this country? So that's definitely true. And that's why I don't like us attacking each other nonstop. Left. Right. Republicans, Democrats. We're against that. We're going to get to JD Vance trying to minimize this. [00:04:36] He's got an issue because if it was just against, you know, black folks and gay folks, etc., then you could minimize all day long. But it also is anti-Semitic stuff. So that's going to create a giant clash within the Republican Party, because everything is acceptable except things that are anti-Semitic. [00:04:53] And in this case, they really are anti-Semitic. So then that that creates a dynamic. But overall, one other thing that along the lines of what you're talking about, Anna, is that. Yeah, but if you're the Republican Party, you have to be way more upset about this. And so why it's easy for a black person to be super pissed about it, [00:05:11] or a Jewish person or a gay person, etc. But look, that means there was no black, gay, Jewish or woman by the way. They made a lot of rape jokes etc. In this group. So what does that say about your party? That the Young Republicans are literally in that particular chat group, all white [00:05:30] males, and they feel super comfortable making fun of every other group. So look, a lot of right wingers are against cancel culture or they think they're against cancel culture. Right. And so, but on the other hand, you've canceled all other groups [00:05:46] from, from your, you know, very small tent there like Trump, to his credit, was trying to expand the tent, although he also uses vitriolic language. But at least he was trying to bring Latinos in, some black voters in, etc. These guys seem like they're actively pushing them out. [00:06:01] We don't want you. Well, then it leads to the main question Anne is asking. What does it mean to be an American? Do you think that it just means being white, Christian, male, whatever? Or do you think that it means something bigger than that? An idea where we could all come here and be equal and be treated with justice [00:06:20] and and we all have freedom. And so that's the question we have to answer as a country. Yeah. And I do like that you made a distinction because there is a difference between like the way Jake and I, I'm going to speak for myself, like the way that I communicate behind [00:06:35] the scenes when I'm blowing off steam. Yeah. I use, like, you know, strong rhetoric. I don't ever feel the need to use the n word or anything like that. It's never about a person's identity. It's mostly about like the policy or the issue. And since there are no censors in private conversations, [00:06:53] I curse and I, I use stronger language. So there's a difference between that and then targeting certain groups of people based on their identity, which is terrible, right? And so there are lots of examples of that. So Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York. [00:07:09] Yeah. As I mentioned, New York State young Republicans at the time referred to rape as epic. How? Okay, obviously. That's disgusting. Peter. Who at the time was chair of the same organization, wrote in a message sent [00:07:28] in June that everyone that votes. Votes no is going to the gas chamber. Lots of jokes about gas chambers and Hitler. When Luke Mosiman, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, [00:07:43] asked if the New Yorker's, in the chat were watching an NBA playoff game. That same guy, Peter. I don't know. I don't know how to say the last name, I apologize. Then chair of the New York State Young Republicans responded, I'd go to the zoo [00:08:02] if I wanted to watch Monkey play ball. See that? You see a comment like that and no one thinks, oh, that's a. Don't say that, bro. That's not cool, right? Yeah. So the entire chat is okay with it? Apparently. Look, I don't want. [00:08:17] It's not. I'm not on a cancel culture mission here. I mean, these are I wouldn't want these guys in politics, etc.. But I'm not trying to get everybody on the chat fired. My point isn't that. My point is they're saying the most awful things, and everybody seems [00:08:33] like, like, literally no one objects ever. I mean, come on, that's so over the top. And you. And that's not really a joke. I mean, I know he thinks it's a joke, but. No, you're saying something about black people. You wouldn't. You would never say that about white people. Come on, you know what you're doing. [00:08:49] I didn't I didn't correct you earlier because I wasn't entirely sure. But now I am because I'm reading this comment. There was a woman in the group, so Brianna Douglas, Vermont Young Republican National Committee member, said in the chat group, I was about to say, you're giving nationals too much [00:09:05] credit and expecting the Jew to be honest. Okay, well, there you go. There's your one woman. - Wow. - Yeah. And then members of the group chat joked repeatedly about Hitler. Okay, so you guys get the picture. I don't want to go through every message. [00:09:22] It makes me uncomfortable. So I do want to talk about what you had referenced earlier, which was JD Vance's response to all of this, because he essentially immediately deflected, to what Democrats have done. Right. So he didn't condemn the group chat. [00:09:39] He pivoted to a different scandal in an attempt to kind of deflect from all of this in, by the way. Look, as VP, you're not in this group. You're not in this chat group. Like it's okay to say, look, there were 12 people involved. What they said was disgusting and wrong. I condemn it and just move on. [00:09:57] - I have a theory as to why he's doing it. - Okay. So anyway, in 2022, he referenced this scandal. Okay, so this dates back to 2022. J Jones, a Democrat who's running for Virginia attorney general, wrote a series [00:10:14] of pretty heinous text messages about then Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert. I didn't even know about this, but it's pretty gross. So Jones stated that if he was in a room with Gilbert, Adolf Hitler, and Pol Pot and he had a gun with two bullets, [00:10:29] spoiler put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people, you know, and he receives both bullets every time. Yeah. So where did he write that again? This was, text message. Yeah, it was a text message. [00:10:47] Yeah. So, look, I'm going to say something else, too. It applies to both of them. I'm not picking sides here. I am, as much as both comments are, heinous, etcetera. I am deeply uncomfortable with taking people's private messages [00:11:03] and making them public. I've had that stance for a million years. - You have? - That's true. Right. And so. And then when I have that stance, people go, oh, so you agree with that? No, I don't agree with them. That's I don't know if people can understand English. Right. I definitely don't agree with them. [00:11:19] But now we're like, okay, so that guy joked about killing his opponent to a friend or something. And he's obviously joking. And if he said it publicly, I'd be like, are you nuts? Right. And so should he joke like that with his friend in private? [00:11:35] No. Should we be hearing his private jokes? No. No, we shouldn't be hearing anybody's private jokes. Okay, so that applies to both the Young Republicans and the Democrat from Virginia. I wish we didn't hear any of it. [00:11:50] On the other hand, I mean, so one guy's, joking around in a disgusting way about killing his political opponent, but it's obviously a joke. The other guys also think they're joking. Right. But they're saying no. We think black people eat watermelon. [00:12:06] That's another thing that they kept referring to. And our monkeys and and Jews never, tell the truth and etc. And gas chambers. So do I want them, winning political office. No, I do not, because they would be in charge of all [00:12:23] of us and not just some of us. So anyways, this is all the it keeps things keep devolving and I feel like people are happy about some folks in power are happy when we're at each other's throats and devolving. [00:12:39] That's why I want to get past that. But it's it's hard to get past it because stuff like this gets leaked and stuff like this is deeply offensive to a lot of people in this country. And I want to go back to what you said about JD Vance. Why do you think he was, immediately deflecting? [00:12:55] Yeah, because he's going to run for president. And in his mind, he thinks he needs this base. Right. So anyone who wants to defend these guys for what they actually said, not because, hey, you shouldn't take their private messages or whatever, right? He's thinking I got to lock up that vote, right? [00:13:12] So. And, and but there's an extra element of it that's really important. He can't lock up that vote by giving them anything substantive. So he can't say, hey, you know what? You guys were America first and you were anti-war. But I'm if I'm president and if I'm vice president, [00:13:30] - I'm going to let Israel start every war. - Call the shots, right. We're going to go invade Venezuela for no reason. Right. And drug prices are going to remain sky high. Wages are going to remain very low. I can't give you anything that matters because my donors own me. [00:13:48] So what I'll give you instead is Atta boy. On the racism and anti-Semitism and the sexism. Atta boy. That way I'll win your vote over on culture war stuff where I drive hatred and division without actually pissing off any of my donors who are super happy about the tax cuts, [00:14:04] the wars, and everything else. Our elections run on identity politics. That's not a bad theory. But anyway, that's the story. There was a Vermont state senator involved in this group chat. He's been urged to step down from his position. [00:14:19] We'll see if that happens. Others had job offers rescinded as a result of their participation in this group. So, just just a note of caution. You should never assume anything you put in writing is going to remain private. [00:14:35] Ever. Especially in a group chat. It doesn't matter if it's on telegram. It doesn't matter what platform is hosting your group chat. Someone's going to leak it. Someone else in the chat is going to leak. Exactly. So, look, last thing, I'm. All this stuff is vicious and terrible. [00:14:52] The actual words and phrases and sentences that were used. So I'm not minimizing it 1%. I just want you guys to have one perspective that you might not have. Muslims get this publicly 24/7. - Yes, from Democrats and Republicans. - Yeah. And so like, so if you're freshly outraged by this, you should be. [00:15:10] Right. But then welcome to our world where people say, oh, you Muslim, dirty, pigs should all be murdered and your children's lives are worthless. And they say it publicly all the time, and congressmen say it giant political [00:15:26] and media figures say it. And there's never any and no one cares. So, like, my heart goes out to you anyway. Because I know how it feels, right? But like, wouldn't it be amazing if any of these groups one day said, oh my God, are you seeing that it's happening to Muslims and nobody's hiding it? [00:15:43] Political is not writing any big piece about, oh my god, anti-Muslim hatred? No. It's everywhere. Millions and millions of comments just like this. Over the top. Even worse, you should all be slaughtered. And they mean it. And they're not even joking. But hey, if you're a muslim American, you just have to deal with it. [00:16:00] That's life. 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