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elise stefanik
'Disgusting': Racist, Homophobic, Antisemitic, and Violent Private Chats of GOP Leaders Exposed
"These are the people who pretend to be offended when called Nazis."
Oct 15, 2025
Is this who they are when not in view of public judgment or recrimination?
That is just one of the questions being widely asked after Politico on Tuesday revealed nearly seven months of grotesque private chats between members of Leaders of Young Republicans, the party's batch of up-and-comers, though already in positions of power within the faction's ranks.
From praising Adolf Hitler to casual use of racial slurs and calls for violence against their opponents, the Telegram chat logs obtained by Politico paint a picture of vile individuals who share a deep loyalty to President Donald Trump and reveled in sadistic contempt for their political enemies, hatred of minorities, and lust for power.
As Politico reports,
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, 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.”
Reaction to the leaked private messages was swift and full of contempt, if not shock.
"Welcome to Trump’s Republican Party," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) in response to the reporting. "Disgusting."
" Racism, rape, homophobia, antisemitism … Are we greater yet?" asked Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "Feel safer?"
According to Politico, "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 members themselves seemed to recognize that if their free-flowing conversations were ever revealed to the public, it would be bad. "If we ever had a leak of this chat, we would be cooked," said one member inside one of the chat threads. But as Politico noted, "they kept typing anyway."
Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, an advocacy group, said, "These are the people who pretend to be offended when called Nazis. Where’s the GOP leadership outrage?"
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) came under fire in the wake of Politico's reporting, given her vocal support for the New York members of the group, many of whom were identified and named in the reporting. Just this summer, Stefanik called them the "backbone" of the Republican Party and key to its future.
Some of Stefanik's top young allies in the party, noted Addison Dick, a member of the New York Democrats' communication team, "praised Hitler, called to put opponents in gas chambers, and repeatedly used racist and antisemitic hate speech in leaked chats." Dick was among those chiding Stefanik for characterizing the reporting as a "hit piece" as opposed to more harshly condemning the vile behavior it exposed among her party's core of young leaders.
For his part, Vice President JD Vance said he would not join in the "pearl clutching" over the leaked chat logs and refused to condemn the myriad examples of racist, sexist, antisemitic, and calls to violence by the group of party officials.
New York Gov. Katherine Hochul, a Democrat, was asked about the revelations during a Tuesday afternoon press conference, and whether it was a case of a few "bad apples" or a "deeper toxicity" within the entire Republican Party.
Q: Politico reported on a group chat of young Republicans. Does this just reflect some bad apples?
HOCHUL: Some bad apples? These are the future of the Republican Party. This is so vile it's hard to find the words to put into context that these are people who are part of one of… pic.twitter.com/aDjnmcQTaJ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 14, 2025
"Some bad apples? These are the future of the Republican Party," Hochul responded. "This was so vile it's hard to find the words to put into context that these are people who are part of one of the two major political parties, and they believe in gas chambers, rape, and discrimination based on the color of people's skin. These are racist, sexist, disgusting remarks."
"And I would say this," Hochul continued, also calling out Stefanik as the highest-ranking elected GOP official in the state for her history of inflammatory and bigoted comments, most notably against New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim, whom Stefanik has called a "jihadist" and "terrorist."
Stefanik, said the governor, should do a bit of self-reflection and "reexamination" of her own "inflammatory words" and of her broader role in influencing these young members and "normalizing" such thinking and rhetoric. As for the members exposed in the chats, Hochul said "there's gotta be consequences" for their behavior and that everyone in the party, from Trump on down, should condemn it.
"Kick them out of the party. Take away their official roles. Stop using them as campaign advisers," she advised. "This bullshit has to stop."
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'Shame! Traitor! Go Home!': Stefanik Mercilessly Booed Off Stage During Local Event in NY District
"She won't hold a town hall, she won't take questions," said one protester. "She's never in her office."
Aug 19, 2025
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) got a hostile reception on Monday when she attended an event in the city of Plattsburgh, New York.
As reported by local news station NBC 5, Stefanik was in the city to pay tribute to the late Clinton County Clerk John Zurlo, who died this past December at the age of 86.
During the event, protesters mostly sat in silence until it was Stefanik's turn to speak. At that point, they erupted in angry boos as audience members shouted, "Shame on her!", "You sold us out!", and "Go home!" Demonstrators could also be heard calling Stefanik a "traitor."
Yikes – @EliseStefanik literally got booed off the stage TWICE at an event in her district today.
She hasn't hosted a #NY21 town hall in years. Now we know why. pic.twitter.com/4hsIZmbJyC
— Addison Dick (@addisondick0) August 18, 2025
All told, NBC 5 estimated that at least half of the crowd at the event were there to protest against Stefanik.
After the event, Stefanik lashed out at the protesters who jeered her and forced her off the stage.
"Today's event was about honoring John Zurlo," she said. "It is a disgusting disgrace that this is what the far left does. Rather than understanding that his family has been through a tremendous amount. It was about honoring his legacy."
However, some demonstrators who spoke with NBC 5 countered that they had no other way to reach the congresswoman given that she hasn't held a town hall in several months.
"She has not shown up in our district for months and months," protester Mavis Agnew explained. "She won't hold a town hall, she won't take questions. She's never in her office. People show up at her office constantly, door's closed. Her representatives, her employees won't talk to [us]... So this was her first appearance, the first opportunity we had to let her know we're unhappy."
Other protesters singled out Stefanik's support for the GOP's massive budget package that cut $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next decade and is already endangering the finances of hospitals around the country, including in New York state.
"With the recent cuts that have just been passed, we're all going to be affected by rural hospitals," said protester Jesse Murnane. "Hudson Headwaters [Health Network] potentially being affected, our only clinics available to patients. That's important to me."
The New York Democratic Party was quick to ridicule Stefanik for the angry reaction she displayed at the event.
"Stefanik couldn't handle the heat as she realized in real time that she can't escape her Fox News echo chamber forever while she raises prices, guts healthcare, and hurts New York families," the party said.
Despite the negative reaction to Stefanik at this week's event, she is in little danger of losing her congressional seat, as her district has repeatedly reelected her to office by double-digit margins and is labeled as a "safe Republican" district by Cook Political Report.
Stefanik has represented New York's 21st District since 2015. She is reportedly considering a run for governor in 2026 and said last month that she would reveal her plans after the November elections.
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Celebrating the Gaza Cease-Fire and Pledging to Defend It
We must push for successful completion of all three phases of the cease-fire agreement and remove conditions within the U.S. that have enabled the genocide.
Jan 24, 2025
Veterans For Peace joins the people of Gaza in rejoicing at the cease-fire that has brought a halt to Israel’s bombardment of Palestinian children, women, and men, and their churches, their mosques, their schools, and hospitals. At least 50,000 have been killed in a cold-blooded massacre and over 100,000 injured, many losing their limbs. But the huge smiles on the faces of the children of Gaza and their shouts of joy since the cease-fire went into effect were a deeply profound thing to witness.
But just how real is the Gaza cease-fire? How enduring will it be? Many close observers of Israel are skeptical. In his recent article, “The Cease-fire Charade,” Chris Hedges, renowned war correspondent and VFP Advisory Board member writes:
Israel, going back decades, has played a duplicitous game. It signs a deal with the Palestinians that is to be implemented in phases. The first phase gives Israel what it wants—in this case the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza—but Israel habitually fails to implement subsequent phases that would lead to a just and equitable peace. It eventually provokes the Palestinians with indiscriminate armed assaults to retaliate, defines a Palestinian response as a provocation, and abrogates the cease-fire deal to reignite the slaughter. If this latest three-phase cease-fire deal is ratified it will, I expect, be little more than a presidential inauguration bombing pause. Israel has no intention of halting its merry-go-round of death.
While we rejoice at the pause in the U.S.-Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people, we recognize that the following underpinnings of the genocide remain unchanged:
- U.S. provision of weapons and services for those weapons to Israel in violation of a variety of U.S. laws, including the Leahy Law;
- U.S. deployment of military personnel in support of the genocide through servicing weapons provided to Israel; flying air attacks against Yemeni and Syrian people; flying MQ-9 Reaper drone surveillance missions to aid Israeli air attacks against Palestinians, Yemenis and, likely, Lebanese;
- Repression by U.S. colleges and universities against students and faculty who have acted so courageously and effectively to educate the U.S. public about the U.S.-Israeli genocide and have led in calling for divestment from Israel and from U.S. weapons makers who have been making billions in supporting the genocide;
- The silence of U.S. hospital systems about the genocide and repression of their staff members who are speaking out in solidarity with their sister and brother Palestinian medical workers who have been killed, jailed, humiliated, and whose hospitals have been destroyed and deprived of fuel, medicine, food, and safety. Evidence of this silence is the formation and growing popularity of Doctors Against Genocide;
- The cooperation of major U.S. press organizations with genocide in failing to report fully on the suffering of the Palestinian people and accepting without significant critique the narrative of the Israeli government; and
- The constitutionally-protected ability of weapons makers and other corporations to exercise dangerous influence in every segment of society and public opinion by lobbying legislators at every level of government, writing legislation, advertising, plying educational institutions with desperately needed funding, contributing to community events, keeping information hidden from the public, and investing in electoral campaigns.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not rejoicing at the cease-fire agreement. He immediately declared that former U.S. President Joe Biden and current President Donald Trump both told him he will have their support whenever he decides to resume the Gaza onslaught.
Fueling concerns about the durability of the Gaza cease-fire are Israel’s escalating attacks on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, its daily violations of the cease-fire in Lebanon, and its continuing efforts to draw the U.S. into a war against Iran.
Ominously, on his first day in office, President Trump removed the sanctions on West Bank settlers who have attacked Palestinian civilians, and reversed Biden’s “pause” of sending 2,000 pound bombs to Israel. And then there are these recent statements from Trump’s inner circle:
During his confirmation hearing for U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio strongly defended Israel’s conduct in Gaza while sharply condemning the International Criminal Court (ICC). As a senator, Rubio was a strong supporter of the criminal actions of Israel against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
During her confirmation hearing on January 22, 2025, Trump’s nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Elise Stefanik said that while Palestinian people deserve human rights, Israel has a biblical right to the West Bank. She would not answer whether the Palestinian people have the right to self-determination.
“I support Israel destroying and killing every last member of Hamas,” testified Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, at his Senate confirmation hearing. And Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz declared that he is committed to the complete defeat of Hamas. That sounds very much like the failed logic of the Biden administration and Israel’s war on Gaza. When will they ever learn?
Despite its uncertain fate, the Gaza cease-fire is nonetheless a precious victory for the Palestinian people, and must be defended. Just look again at the joyous faces of the Palestinian children. This is another stage in the Palestinian struggle for liberation from colonial oppression and genocide. Peace-loving people everywhere must therefore remain vigilant. We must push for successful completion of all three phases of the cease-fire agreement. We must remove conditions within the U.S. that have enabled the genocide.
Veterans For Peace has consistently called on the U.S. government to stop sending U.S. bombs and war materials to Israel. We have encouraged legal action against the Biden administration for violating U.S. and international laws when it sends weapons to a country that is committing gross human rights violations. We believe that the quickest, most effective way to stop the genocide in Gaza—and to preserve the cease-fire—is to cut off the flow of U.S. weapons to Israel.
Furthermore, we stand ready to give our full support to U.S. military personnel who choose not to be party to genocide. We will continue to support students, teachers, medical workers, and others who are compelled by their consciences to take stands against genocide and for freedom for the Palestinian people. We call on all reporters and editors to report fully on the experience of the Palestinian people.
We demand that the Trump administration and the Israeli government respect the hard-won Gaza cease-fire, that they permanently end the carnage in Gaza and the West Bank, that they cease the occupation of Palestinian land, and that they end the oppression of the Palestinian people. We call on all peace-loving people to join us in defending the righteous struggle of the Palestinian people for their freedom and sovereignty.
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