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‘I LOVE HITLER’: LEAKED MESSAGES EXPOSE YOUNG REPUBLICANS’
RACIST CHAT  
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By Jason Beeferman and Emily Ngo
October 14, 2025
Politico
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_ Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about
gas chambers, slavery, lynching, and rape. This is what the GOP really
is - this is the young GOP, starting with the New York Young
Republicans - "I Love Hitler" _

Excerpts from young GOP leaders chat, revealed in 2900 pages, Image
credit: Politico

 

Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what
would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept
typing anyway.

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.

William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair
[[link removed]], used the words “n--ga” and
“n--guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in
the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young
Republicans at the time, referred to rape as “epic.” Peter Giunta,
who at the time was chair of the same organization, wrote in a message
sent in June that “everyone that votes no is going to the gas
chamber.”

Giunta was referring to an upcoming vote on whether he should become
chair of the Young Republican National Federation, the GOP’s
15,000-member political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40
years old.

“Im going to create some of the greatest physiological torture
methods known to man. We only want true believers,” he continued.

Two members of the chat responded.
 
Image credit: Politico
 

“Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler
aesthetic,” Joe Maligno, who previously identified himself as the
general counsel
[[link removed]] for
the New York State Young Republicans, wrote back.

“I’m ready to watch people burn now,” Annie Kaykaty, New
York’s national committee member, said.

The exchange is part of a trove of Telegram chats — obtained by
POLITICO and spanning more than seven months of messages among Young
Republican leaders in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont. The chat
offers an unfiltered look at how a new generation of GOP activists
talk when they think no one is listening.

Since POLITICO began making inquiries, one member of the group chat is
no longer employed at their job and another’s job offer was
rescinded. Prominent New York Republicans, including Rep. Elise
Stefanik and state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, have denounced the
chat. And festering resentments among Young Republicans have now
turned into public recriminations, including allegations of character
assassination and extortion.

A liberating atmosphere

The 2,900 pages of chats, shared among a dozen millennial and Gen Z
Republicans between early January and mid-August, chronicle their
campaign to seize control of the national Young Republican
organization
[[link removed]] on
a hardline pro-Donald Trump platform. Many of the chat members already
work inside government or party politics, and one serves as a state
senator.

Together, the messages reveal a culture where racist, antisemitic and
violent rhetoric circulate freely — and where the Trump-era
loosening of political norms has made such talk feel less taboo among
those positioning themselves as the party’s next leaders.

“The more the political atmosphere is open and liberating — like
it has been with the emergence of Trump and a more right wing GOP even
before him — it opens up young people and older people to telling
racist jokes, making racist commentaries in private and public,”
said Joe Feagin, a Texas A&M sociology professor who has studied
racism for the last 60 years. He’s also concerned the words would be
applied to public policy. “It’s chilling, of course, because they
will act on these views.”

The dynamic of easy racism and casual cruelty played out in often
dark, vivid fashion inside the chats, where campaign talk and party
gossip blurred into streams of slurs and violent fantasies.

 
Peter Giunta participates in a CNN-POLITICO Grill discussion at the
Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, July 16, 2024.  (Photo
credit: Rod Lamkey Jr. for POLITICO)
The group chat members spoke freely about the pressure to cow to Trump
to avoid being called a RINO, the love of Nazis within their party’s
right wing and the president’s alleged work to suppress documents
related to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex crimes.

“Trumps too busy burning the Epstein files,” Alex Dwyer, the
chair of the Kansas Young Republicans
[[link removed]], wrote in one instance.

Dwyer and Kaykaty declined to comment. Maligno and Hendrix did not
return requests for comment.

But some involved in the chat did respond publicly.

Giunta claimed the release of the chat is part of “a
highly-coordinated year-long character assassination led by Gavin Wax
and the New York City Young Republican Club” — an allusion to a
once obscured internecine war that has now spilled into the open.

“These logs were sourced by way of extortion and provided to
POLITICO by the very same people conspiring against me,” he said.
“What’s most disheartening is that, despite my unwavering support
of President Trump since 2016, rouge members of his administration —
including Gavin Wax — have participated in this conspiracy to ruin
me publicly simply because I challenged them privately.”

Wax, a staffer in Trump’s State Department, formerly led the New
York Young Republican Club — a separate, city-based group that is at
odds with the state organization, the New York State Young
Republicans. He declined to comment.

Despite his allusions to infighting, Giunta still apologized.

“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
Republicans,” he said. “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.”

At least one person in the Telegram chat works in the Trump
administration: Michael Bartels, who, according to his LinkedIn
account, serves as a senior adviser in the office of general counsel
within the U.S. Small Business Administration. Bartels did not have
much to say in the chat, but he didn’t offer any pushback against
the offensive rhetoric in it either. He declined to comment.

A notarized affidavit signed by Bartels and obtained by POLITICO also
sheds light on the intraparty rivalry that led the “RESTOREYR WAR
ROOM” Telegram chat to be made public. Bartels references Wax as
well. He wrote that he did not give POLITICO the chat and that Wax
“demanded” in a phone call that he provide the full chat log.

“When I attempted to resist that demand, after providing some of the
requested information, Wax threatened my professional standing, and
raised the possibility of potential legal action related to an alleged
breach of a non-disclosure agreement,” Bartels claimed in the
affidavit. “My position within the New York Young Republican Club
was directly threatened.”

Walker, who now leads the New York State Young Republicans, touched on
a similar theme, saying that he believes portions of the chat “may
have been altered, taken out of context, or otherwise manipulated”
and that the “private exchanges were obtained and released in a way
clearly intended to inflict harm.”

He also apologized.

“There is no excuse for the language and tone in messages attributed
to me. The language is wrong and hurtful, and I sincerely
apologize,” Walker said. “This has been a painful lesson about
judgment and trust, and I am committed to moving forward with greater
care, respect, and accountability in everything I say and do.”

251 times

Mixed into formal conversations about whipping votes, social media
strategy and logistics, the members of the chat slung around an array
of slurs — which POLITICO is republishing to show how they spoke.
Epithets like “f----t,” “retarded” and “n--ga” appeared
more than 251 times combined.

In one instance, Walker — who at the time was a staffer for Ortt —
talked about how a mutual friend of some in the chat “dated this
very obese Indian woman for a period of time.”

Giunta responded that the woman “was not Indian.”

“She just didn’t bathe often,” Samuel Douglass, a state senator
from northern Vermont and the head of the state’s Young Republicans,
replied to Giunta.

“She just didn’t bathe often,” Samuel Douglass, a state senator
[[link removed]] from
northern Vermont and the head of the state’s Young Republicans,
replied to Giunta.

In a separate conversation, Giunta shared that his flight to
Charleston, South Carolina, landed safely. Then, he offered some
advice for his fellow Young Republicans.

“If your pilot is a she and she looks ten shades darker than someone
from Sicily, just end it there. Scream the no no word,” Giunta
wrote.

Douglass did not respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, Ortt called for members of the chat to resign.

“I was shocked and disgusted to learn about the racist,
anti-Semitic, and misogynistic comments attributed to members of the
New York State Young Republicans,” Ortt said. “This behavior is
indefensible and has no place in our party or anywhere in public
life.”

 
Bobby Walker speaks at the NYSYR 2023 Winter Conference and 6th
Annual Rising Stars Reception. (Photo: NYSYR  //  Politico)
Walker had been in line to manage Republican Peter Oberacker’s
campaign for Congress in upstate New York, but a spokesperson for the
campaign said Walker won’t be brought on in light of the comments in
the chat.

Seeking Trump’s endorsement

The private rhetoric isn’t happening in a vacuum. It comes amid a
widespread coarsening of the broader political discourse and as
incendiary and racially offensive tropes from the right become
increasingly common in public debate. Last month, Trump posted an
artificial intelligence-generated video
[[link removed]] that
showed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero beside
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose fabricated remarks were
about trading free health care for immigrant votes — a false,
long-running GOP trope. The sombrero meme has been widely used to mock
Democrats as the government shutdown wears on.

In his 2024 campaign, Trump spread false reports of Haitian migrants
eating pets
[[link removed]] and,
at one of his rallies, welcomed comedian Tony Hinchcliffe
[[link removed]],
who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and joked
about Black people “carving watermelons” on Halloween.

Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, rejected the idea that
Trump’s rhetoric had anything to do with the chat members’
language.

“Only an activist, left-wing reporter would desperately try to tie
President Trump into a story about a random groupchat he has no
affiliation with, while failing to mention the dangerous smears coming
from Democrat politicians who have fantasized about murdering their
opponent and called Republicans Nazis and Fascists,” she said. “No
one has been subjected to more vicious rhetoric and violence than
President Trump and his supporters.”

In the “RESTOREYR WAR ROOM” chat, Giunta tells his fellow
Republicans that he spoke with the White House about an endorsement
from Trump for his bid to become chairman of the national federation.
Trump and the Republican National Committee ultimately decided to
stay neutral
[[link removed]] in
the race.

A White House official said that it has no affiliation with Restore YR
and that hundreds of groups ask the White House for its endorsement.

Giunta was the most prominent voice in the chat spreading racist
messages — often encouraged or “liked” by other members.

When Luke Mosiman, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans
[[link removed]], asked if the New Yorkers in the chat
were watching an NBA playoff game, Giunta responded, “I’d go to
the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball.” Giunta elsewhere
refers to Black people as “the watermelon people.”

Hendrix made a similar remark in July: “Bro is at a chicken
restaurant ordering his food. Would he like some watermelon and kool
aid with that?”

Hendrix was a communications assistant for Kansas’ Republican
Attorney General Kris Kobach until Thursday. He also said in the chat
that, despite political differences, he’s drawn to Missouri’s
Young Republican organization because “Missouri doesn’t like
f--s.”

 
William Hendrix during a portrait shoot in Topeka, Kansas, July 16,
2021.  (Photo: Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal  //  Politico)
POLITICO reached out to Danedri Herbert, a spokesperson for the
attorney general who also serves as the Kansas GOP chair, and shared
with her excerpts of the chat involving Hendrix. In response, Herbert
said that “we are aware of the issues raised in your article” and
that Hendrix is “no longer employed” in Kobach’s office.
 
Image credit: Politico
In another exchange, Dwyer, the Kansas’ chair, informs Giunta that
one of Michigan’s Young Republicans promised him the group “will
vote for the most right wing person” to lead the national
organization.

“Great. I love Hitler,” Giunta responded.

Dwyer reacted with a smiley face.

Few minority groups spared

Giunta, who serves as chief of staff to New York state Assemblymember
Mike Reilly, ultimately fell six points short of winning the chairship
to lead the Young Republican National Federation
[[link removed]] earlier
this year — despite earning endorsements from Stefanik and longtime
Trump adviser Roger Stone.

Reilly did not respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this year, Stefanik accepted an award
[[link removed]] from
the New York State Young Republicans. She lauded Giunta
[[link removed]] for his
“tremendous leadership” in August and had her campaign and the
political PAC she leads [[link removed]] donate to that
state organization. Alex deGrasse, a senior adviser for Stefanik, said
the congresswoman “was absolutely appalled to learn about the
alleged comments made by leaders of the New York State Young
Republicans and other state YRs in a large national group chat.”

“According to the description provided by Politico, the comments
were heinous, antisemitic, racist and unacceptable,” he continued,
noting Stefanik has never employed anyone in the chat. “If the
description by Politico is accurate, Congresswoman Stefanik calls for
any NY Young Republicans responsible for these horrific comments in
this chat to step down immediately.”

Stone also condemned the comments in a statement.

“I of course, have never seen this alleged chat room thread,” he
said. “If it is authentic, I would, of course, denounce any such
comments in the strongest possible terms, This would surprise me as it
is inconsistent with Peter that I know, although I only know him in
his capacity as the head of the New York Young Republicans, where I
thought he did a good job.”

Few minority groups are spared from the Young Republican group’s
chat. Their rhetoric — normalized at most points as dark humor —
mirrors some popular conservative political commentators, podcasters
and comedians amid a national erosion
[[link removed]] of
what’s considered acceptable discourse.

Giunta’s line on a darker-skinned pilot, for example, echoes one
used
[[link removed]] by
slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year when he said, “If
I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s
qualified.” Kirk was discussing
[[link removed]] how
diversity hiring “invites unwholesome thinking.”

Walker also uses the moniker “eyepatch McCain” (originally coined
[[link removed]] by
conservative commentator Tucker Carlson) in an apparent reference
[[link removed]] to
GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw. Crenshaw lost his eye while serving as a Navy
SEAL in Afghanistan. Walker also makes the remark, “I prefer my war
heroes not captured,” a repeat of a similar 2015 line
[[link removed]] from
Trump.

Art Jipson, a professor at the University of Dayton who specializes in
white racial extremism, surmised the Young Republicans in the chat
were influenced by Trump’s language, which he said is often
hyperbolic and emotionally charged.

“Trump’s persistent use of hostile, often inflammatory language
that normalizes aggressive discourse in conservative circles can be
incredibly influential on young operatives who are still trying to
figure out, ‘What is that political discourse?’” Jipson said.

White supremacist symbols

Jipson reviewed multiple excerpts of the Young Republicans’ chat
provided by POLITICO. One was a late July message where Mosiman, the
chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, mused about how the group
could win support for their preferred candidate by linking an opponent
to white supremacist groups. But Mosiman then realized the plan could
backfire — Kansas’ Young Republicans could end up becoming
attracted to that opponent.

“Can we get them to start releasing Nazi edits with her… Like pro
Nazi and faciam propaganda,” he asked the group.

“Omg I love this plan,” Rachel Hope, the Arizona Young Republicans
events chair, responded.

“The only problem is we will lose the Kansas delegation,” Mosiman
said. Hope and the two Kansas Young Republicans in the chat reacted
with a laughing face to the message. Hope did not respond to requests
for comment. Mosiman declined to comment.

Jipson said the Young Republicans’ conversations reminded him of
online discussions between members of neo-Nazi and white supremacist
groups.

“You say it once or twice, it’s a joke, but you say it 251 times,
it’s no longer a joke,” Jipson said. “The more we repeat certain
ideas, the more real they become to us.”

Weeks later, someone in the chat staying in a hotel asks its members
to “GUESS WHAT ROOM WE’RE IN.”

“1488,” Dwyer responds. White supremacists use the number 1488
[[link removed]] because 14 is the
number of words in the white supremacist slogan
[[link removed]] “We
must secure the existence of our people and a future for white
children.” H is the eighth letter in the alphabet, and 88 is often
used as a shorthand for “Heil Hitler.”

In another conversation in February, Giunta talks approvingly about
the Orange County Teenage Republican organization in New York —
which appears to be part of the network of national Teen Age
Republicans [[link removed]] — and how he
was pleased with its young members’ ideological bent.

“They support slavery and all that shit. Mega based,” he said. The
term “based” in internet culture is used to express approval with
an idea, often one that’s bold or controversial.

In a statement, Orange County GOP Chair Courtney Canfield Greene said
the party was disappointed to learn its teen group was mentioned in
the chat.

“Our teen volunteers have no affiliation with the NYSYR’s or the
YRNF,” she said. “This behavior has no home within the Republican
Party in Orange County.”

Ed Cox, the chair of the New York State GOP, also condemned the
remarks made in the chat.

“I was shocked and disgusted to learn about the reports of comments
made by a small group of Young Republicans,” he said. “Just as we
call out vile racist and anti-Semetic rhetoric on the far left, we
must not tolerate it within our ranks.”

Vicious words for enemies

Members of the Telegram chat speak about their personal lives, too.
Extensive discussions about their everyday lives include one exchange
about how devoutly Catholic some chat members are and how often they
attend church.

Many of the slurs, epithets and violent language used in the chat
often appear to be intended as jokes.

Mosiman was derided by members of the chat as “beaner” and
“sp-c.”

“Stay in the closet f----t,” Walker of New York also jested in
July, though he is the group’s main target for the same epithet.

The group used slurs against Asians, too.

“My people built the train tracks with the Chinese,” Walker says
at one point, referring to his Italian ancestors.

“Let his people go!” Maligno responds. “Keep the ch--ks,
though.”

In another instance, Mosiman tells the group that, “The Spanish came
to America and had sex with every single woman.”

“Sex is gay,” Dwyer writes.

“Sex? It was rape,” Mosiman replies.

“Epic,” Walker says.
 
Image credit: Politico
There’s more explicit malice in some phrases, too, especially when
they turn their ire on opponents outside the chat, such as the leader
of the rival Grow YR slate, Hayden Padgett, who defeated Giunta and
was reelected chairman of the Young Republican National Federation
this summer.

“So you mean Hayden F----t wrote the resolution himself?” Giunta
asked the group about the National Young Republicans chair in late
May.

“RAPE HAYDEN,” Mosiman declared the following month.

“Adolf Padgette is in the F----tbunker as we speak,” Walker said
in July.

Padgett responded to the chat’s language in a statement.

“The Young Republican National Federation condemns all forms of
racism, antisemitism, and hate,” Padgett said. “I want to be clear
that such behavior is entirely inconsistent with our values and has no
place within our organization or the broader conservative movement.”

 
Samuel Douglass. (Photo: Vermont Legislature  //  Politico)
Giunta also had expletive-laden criticism for the Young Republicans in
states that were supporting or leaning toward Padgett’s faction.

“Minnesota - f----ts,” he messaged, continuing: “Arkansas -
inbred cow fuckers Nebraska - revolt in our favor; blocked their bind
and have a majority of their delegates Maryland - fat stinky Jew …
Rhode Island - traitorous c---s who I will eradicate from the face of
this planet.”

Giunta also said he planned to make one of the competing Young
Republicans “unalive himself on the convention floor.”

In another instance, Douglass, the Vermont state senator, describes to
the group members how one of Padgett’s Jewish colleagues may have
made a procedural error related to the number of Maryland delegates
permitted at the national convention.

“I was about to say you’re giving nationals to much credit and
expecting the Jew to be honest,” Brianna Douglass, Sam’s wife and
Vermont Young Republican’s national committee member
[[link removed]],
replied to her husband’s message. Brianna Douglass did not respond
to repeated requests for comment.

‘If we ever had a leak of this chat...’

While reporting this article, POLITICO was examining a separate
allegation: that Giunta and the Young Republicans mismanaged the New
York organization’s finances and hadn’t paid at least one venue
for a swanky holiday party it hosted last year. POLITICO’s
report detailed how the organization
[[link removed]] was
missing required financial disclosure forms and how their subsequent
efforts
[[link removed]] to
file the forms revealed the organization was in more than $28,000 of
debt. As of Tuesday, updated records show the organization is in more
than $38,000 of debt.

Donations to New York State Young Republicans’ political account
must be reported to the state Board of Elections. Expenditures must be
reported too.

At the time, Giunta told POLITICO the allegations were “nothing more
than a sad and pathetic attempt at a political hit job.” But in
their “RESTOREYR WAR ROOM” chat, he and Walker speak flippantly
about mishandling the club’s finances.

“NYSYR Account be like: $500 - Balding cream $1,000 - Ozempik,”
Walker said in one message. “NYSYR will be declaring bankruptcy
after this I just know it,” he said in another.

“I drained $10k tonight to pay for my next vacation to Italy,”
Giunta appeared to joke about the organization’s bank account.

“I spent it on massage,” he says of another check that was
deposited in the account.

“Great. Can’t wait to get sued by our venue,” Walker replies.

Members of the chat occasionally appeared to be aware of its toxicity
and even made remarks that considered the possibility someone outside
their tight-knit group could view it.

Walker seemed to consider that possibility the most.

In one instance, he joked about bombing the Young Republican National
Federation’s convention in Nashville and then remarked, “Just
kidding for our assigned FBI tracker.”

In another, he considered the totality of the thousands of messages he
and his peers had written, and what would happen if the public saw
them come to light.

“If we ever had a leak of this chat we would be cooked fr fr,” he
wrote.

_[JASON BEEFERMAN covers New York state politics from Albany with a
focus on Governor Kathy Hochul and the state’s Senate and Assembly.
He was previously an intern for POLITICO based in New York City._

_Prior to joining POLITICO, he reported on local government for The
Dallas Morning News and Texas state government for The Texas Tribune.
He grew up on Long Island and holds bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in journalism from Northwestern University._

_EMILY NGO co-authors the New York Playbook and covers New York
politics and government at the local, state and federal levels. She is
especially adept at reporting on campaigns and elections._

_She was previously an on-air political reporter with Spectrum News
NY1, where she thrived during wall-to-wall live coverage of elections
and breaking news events. Ngo also has worked as a national political
reporter at Newsday, including as part of the White House press
corps._

_She graduated from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. She
lives in Queens with her family. While the New York Mets are her
adopted team, she’ll always root for her hometown Chicago White
Sox.]_

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