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On October 14, 2025 Politico published a shocking dump of roughly 2,900 pages of private Telegram messages from leaders of Young Republican groups that span January through August of this year, and the content is as ugly as the headlines say. The messages reportedly include racist, antisemitic, misogynistic and violent language that anyone with a shred of decency should condemn. This story blew up fast because the evidence is extensive and the country deserves straight talk about what it shows.
Among the examples publicized were explicit praise for Adolf Hitler, jokes about gas chambers, and talk that encouraged sexual violence and other depravity; the names linked to those comments include Peter Giunta and Bobby Walker among others. Those details are sickening and should be repudiated by every decent conservative voice, and many readers are rightly furious that people who claim to represent Republican values would ever write such things. This is not about censorship; it’s about accountability for toxic behavior among people who want power and influence.
The fallout has been fast and unavoidable: the Kansas Young Republicans were deactivated, the New York State Young Republicans were suspended, and several individuals lost jobs or faced calls to resign as state and national leaders demanded action. Grassroots outrage and institutional consequences followed because these weren’t private jokes that stayed private — they were a public stain on the party’s reputation. Republicans should not pretend this is harmless; it is a mess that requires sober, decisive cleanup.
But let’s be clear about how the media reacted: shows like The View leapt into performative moral panic, delivering outrage theater while plotting the next viral segment. Cable hosts and late-night comics are making a feeding frenzy out of a legitimately serious problem, turning condemnation into entertainment and oversimplifying the answer into shouting points. Conservatives ought to call out both the vile content and the opportunistic coverage that seeks to tar a whole movement for the crimes of discrete people.
At the same time, responsible Republicans have not been silent: the Young Republican National Federation and state party officials publicly condemned the language and moved to remove or discipline those responsible. We should celebrate the swift accountability where it has occurred and press party institutions to go further to ensure vetting, training, and leadership standards so this never happens again. The conservative movement must be uncompromising against racism and antisemitism while also resisting the left’s effort to weaponize every sin into an argument for one-party control.
There is hypocrisy here, too: high-profile Democrats like California’s governor demanded broader investigations even as prominent left-wing outlets exploited the scandal, while some on our own side tried to minimize it as typical youthful misbehavior. Vice President JD Vance called some of the messages “stupid jokes,” a reaction that rubbed many the wrong way, and it opened a debate about where to draw the line between excusing bad actors and demanding real consequences. Conservatives should be consistent — condemn and remove the bigots, don’t reflexively excuse them, and don’t allow the narrative to be hijacked by those who never stop smearing our movement.
For patriotic Americans who work hard and believe in liberty, the takeaway is simple: root out the filth, hold people accountable, and build a conservative movement that stands for decency, order, and the rule of law. Don’t let the media’s tantrums or the left’s smear machine define our response — fix the problem honestly, then move forward winning hearts and minds with principled leadership. The future of the GOP depends on cleaning house of poisonous elements and proving that conservatism is about character as much as policy.
