‘The hypocrisy stinks’: Why is JD Vance defending Young Republicans' racist group chat?
JD Vance has downplayed racist and antisemitic messages in a Young Republicans' group chat as "edgy jokes" made by "kids" - despite one participant being 35 and some working in the Trump administration.
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In brief:
- A Young Republicans' Telegram chat included messages about gas chambers, Hitler, slavery and using racial slurs - with participants including Trump administration staffers
- JD Vance defended the messages as "edgy, offensive jokes" that "kids" make, telling critics to "grow up" – despite one person involved being 35 years old
- His response is extremely hypocritical, The News Agents say, as Republicans blamed left-wing rhetoric for fuelling violence after Charlie Kirk's murder.
What’s the story?
Boys will be boys – and some will be racist, antisemetic boys, according to JD Vance.
The Vice President has defended shocking messages sent in a Young Republicans’ group chat, saying they were nothing more than “edgy, offensive jokes”.
The Telegram chat - which included state group leaders and at least one Trump administration staffer - featured ‘jokes’ about gas chambers, slavery and rape, reports Politico.
Vance claims it’s a “reality” that kids, especially young boys, do stupid things, and it shouldn’t ruin their lives.
“That’s what kids do, and I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke — telling a very offensive, stupid joke — is cause to ruin their lives,” Vance said on The Charlie Kirk show.
Messages in the group read “I love Hitler”, used the N-word and spoke about sending opponents “to the gas chamber”.
“We gotta pretend that we like them. “Hey, come on in. Take a nice shower and relax”. Boom - they’re dead,” said one user in the chat.
For those outraged by the derogatory messages, Vance had a clear message: "Grow up!”.
“Focus on the real issues. Don't focus on what kids say in group chats,” he said.
What’s The News Agents’ take?
While Jon Sopel says he was “horrified” by the group chat, Emily Maitlis says she “wasn't remotely surprised” to discover that there are young men on the far right of the Republican party using such language.
“Everything has been normalised. There are no limits,” she says.
“I understand that they're big on free speech, but I understand now that America is in a place where no one will be castigated for anything that they say."
What Emily was surprised about, however, was how little JD Vance appeared to care about the content of the appalling messages.
“It is in a way more extraordinary that the Vice President of the United States doesn't seem to have a problem with any of the language” she adds.
Jon says that Vance’s excuse that those involved are just kids “doesn’t cut it”, and that JD Vance, who seems to “proclaim a moral compass attached to his Catholicism,” should be able to see clearly why the messages are so wrong.
The VP downplaying the messages is also a departure from senior Republicans' attitude after right-wing activist Charlie Kirk was brutally shot and murdered in September.
After Kirk’s death, Donald Trump said that words used by left-wing activists to attack the right – Nazi, fascist – are “having consequences”, and are to blame for Kirk’s horrific murder.
“The hypocrisy of this stinks,” Jon says.
“JD Vance, the way you define free speech, just seems to be entirely dependent on whose mouth it is coming out of.”