JD Vance Blasted For Response to Young Republicans Group Chat
www.newsweek.com

... Vice President JD Vance waded into the uproar over racist, antisemitic and misogynistic chat messages from Young Republicans, drawing criticism by saying a Democratic politician's text messages suggesting the former Virginia House speaker should be shot were "far worse."
Why It Matters

The outcry over the messages from Young Republicans and the earlier texts from Virginia attorney general hopeful Jay Jones comes at a time of political polarization and alarm about increasingly inflammatory political discourse, particularly since the assassination of conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk at a university in Utah on September 10. ...

What To Know

Some of the Young Republicans taking part in group chats leaked to Politico referred to Black people as monkeys and "the watermelon people," voiced support for Hitler, and spoke of putting opponents in gas chambers and raping enemies.

Jones, a Democrat, faces intensifying pressure to drop out of the Virginia election for attorney general next month after texts sent in 2022 were made public that called for violence against former State House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his family, including one saying he should receive "two bullets to the head."

Vance posted on X an excerpt from one of messages attributed to Jones which read: "only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy."

"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," Vance said.

The texts written by Jones were first reported by National Review and viewed by The Washington Post. Newsweek has not independently verified the messages, but Jones has not questioned their veracity and has apologized for them. ...

Politico said it obtained 2,900 pages of exchanges over seven months among a dozen Young Republican leaders in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont, offering "an unfiltered look at how a new generation of GOP activists talk when they think no one is listening."

Both Democrats and Republicans have denounced the Republicans' messages and called for those responsible to step down from party positions, but Vance drew objections for singling out the offending Democrat for his ire.

"Why can't we denounce both?" Democratic U.S. Representative Ro Khanna of California said on X in response to Vance's post.

Retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer Travis Akers responded to Vance in a similar vein.

"Both are bad. Incredibly bad. We should all be able to say that, Mr. Vice President, and in your position of power and influence, you should be among the first to do so," Akers wrote. ...