JD Vance is under fire for his response to a scandal involving leaked racist texts from the Young Republicans club, which has sparked nationwide controversy. The organization, representing the GOP’s college grassroots, was thrown into turmoil after Politico exposed group chats containing offensive language, including references to Black people as monkeys and praise for Adolf Hitler. The vice-president of the group downplayed the backlash, despite criticism from Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.

Vance countered by highlighting what he sees as a double standard, pointing to leaked messages from the Democratic Party’s Virginia attorney general nominee, Jay Jones. According to Vance, Jones had previously called for violence against the former Virginia house speaker and expressed harmful wishes towards another GOP politician’s family. Vance stated, “This is far worse than anything said in a college group chat, and the guy who said it could become the AG of Virginia. I refuse to join the pearl-clutching when powerful people call for political violence.”

Both Democrats and Republicans have demanded the students involved in the scandal resign from any GOP roles and face consequences. However, Vance has resisted these calls. In response to the uproar, the Young Republicans’ board of directors issued an apology on Tuesday. Meanwhile, during an October 9 debate, Democratic candidate for Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, avoided taking a stance on whether she would support or reject Jones’s candidacy.

Leaked text messages from 2022 showed Jones calling for former State House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his family to be killed. One text message allegedly from Jones says that Gilbert should receive ‘two bullets to the head.’ Vance’s excerpt from one of the messages shows Jones claiming ‘only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.’

Some conservatives, who frequently oppose the Trump administration, denounced Vance for shifting the focus away from the racist Republican texts. ‘Translation: “Because a politician for the other team said something indefensible, I shall refuse to criticize something else indefensible said by my team” is exactly the kind moral cowardice and sophistry I’ve come to expect from our vice-president,’ wrote The Dispatch editor-in-chief Jonah Goldberg on X. ‘Oh and to call criticism of bigotry “pearl clutching” is pathetic, cheap, posturing.’

The Bulwark’s Andrew Egger also attacked Vance by writing, ‘Obviously, this wasn’t Vance’s opinion like two weeks ago when random nobodies were making tasteless posts about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.’ The Young Republican National Federation has 15,000 members across the United States, all aged between 18 and 40. Some of those members work within elected offices throughout the country. After Politico’s exposé, at least one member of the group chat was let go from his job, and another had an offer of employment rescinded, the publication states.

New York Republicans Representative Elise Stefanik and state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt are among politicians to have publicly denounced the chat. Assembly member Mike Reilly fired his chief of staff Peter Giunta after he was accused of being an active participant in the discussion. Giunta allegedly wrote ‘I love Hitler’ and ‘everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber’ in the private messages.

‘The comments shared in the group chat that have been reported are extremely troubling and disappointing. They do not align with my values. As a result, Mr. Giunta’s assignment in my office has ended,’ Reilly said. In Kansas, the chairman of the Republican Party revealed on Tuesday the entire Kansas Young Republicans organization would be immediately deactivated after prominent members of the chapter were accused of being participants in the chat. University of Dayton professor Art Jipson, who specializes in white racial extremism, blamed Trump for influencing the language of young Republicans.

‘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 House spokesman Liz Huston hit back at that categorization, noting Trump had nothing to do with the group chat. ‘Only an activist, left-wing reporter would desperately try to tie President Trump into a story about a random group chat 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 in response to the Politico article.

‘No one has been subjected to more vicious rhetoric and violence than President Trump and his supporters.’ Giunta later issued an apology for the comments attributed to him, saying: ‘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 Republican National Federation. ‘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.’

Giunta claimed he had been the victim of a ‘highly coordinated year-long character assassination’ and had withstood a ‘barrage of slanderous accusations as well as the dissemination of ai-generated social media posts to falsify past statements I’ve been accused of making.’ Bobby Walker, who at the time of the group chat was vice chairman of the New York State Young Republicans, has also publicly issued a statement after the article alleged he referred to rape as ‘epic.’ He said the messages ‘may have been altered, taken out of context, or otherwise manipulated’ noting the ‘private exchanges were obtained and released in a way clearly intended to inflict harm.’

‘There is no excuse for the language and tone in messages attributed to me. The language is wrong and hurtful, and I sincerely apologize,’ he added. New York Congressman Mike Lawler also condemned the chat, writing on X: ‘I’m disgusted by the hateful antisemitism and racism revealed in these messages. ‘Anyone involved in this disgraceful behavior should immediately resign from any leadership position and reflect on how far they’ve strayed from basic decency and respect.’