Vice President Vance said Wednesday he did not want the racist remarks in the\u00a0explosive Young Republicans group chat\u00a0to ruin the participants\u2019 lives, dismissing them as \u201cstupid\u201d jokes made by \u201ckids.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview on \u201cThe Charlie Kirk Show\u201d \u2014 which is now hosted by allies of the late conservative activist \u2014 the vice president\u00a0doubled down on his viral tweet\u00a0in which he dismissed \u201cpearl clutching\u201d over\u00a0the new Politico report.<\/p>\n
Vance said he will encourage his kids, \u201cespecially my boys,\u201d to be careful of what they post in group chats and on the internet, saying they should assume \u201csome scumbag is going to leak it in an effort to try to cause you harm or cause your family harm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the reality is that kids do stupid things. Especially young boys, they tell edgy, offensive jokes. Like, that\u2019s what kids do,\u201d Vance continued. \u201cAnd I really don\u2019t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke \u2014 telling a very offensive, stupid joke \u2014 is cause to ruin their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Politico published a bombshell report this week, exposing thousands of text messages from a Young Republican group chat in which members played on racial stereotypes, used gay slurs and joked about gas chambers, slavery and rape.<\/p>\n
The group chat included messages from about a dozen leaders associated with the Young Republican National Federation \u2014 the GOP\u2019s 15,000-member political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40 years old \u2014 and spanned more than seven months this year.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0Mother Jones story\u00a0pushed back on Vance\u2019s characterization of the participants as \u201ckids,\u201d reporting that 8 of the 11 members in the chat spanned the ages of 24-35, while the progressive-leaning magazine said it could not verify the ages of the other three participants. The\u00a0Daily Beast reported\u00a0that Peter Giunta, one of the key figures in the chat, is 31 years old.<\/p>\n
Members of the chat held various roles in Republican politics, including a Vermont state senator, a New York assemblyman\u2019s chief of staff, an official at the U.S. Small Business Administration and a communications staffer in the Kansas attorney general\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
The reporting sent waves through political circles, as the Young Republican leaders mentioned in the story \u2014 from New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont \u2014 drew intense scrutiny and backlash, including from members of the GOP. Some were promptly fired from their positions, while others are facing calls to resign.<\/p>\n
Vance, in his Wednesday interview, described the outrage following the Politico report as a form of cancel culture that needs to be stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some point, we\u2019re all going to have to say, \u2018Enough of this BS. We\u2019re not going to allow the worst moment in a 21-year-old\u2019s group chat to ruin a kid\u2019s life for the rest of time. That\u2019s just not OK. \u2026 We\u2019re not canceling kids because they do something stupid in a group chat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if I have to be the person who carries that message forward, I\u2019m fine with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Vance said he would feel the same way if the participants of the chat were on the other side of the political spectrum.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd by the way, if they were left-wing kids telling stupid left-wing jokes, I would also not want their lives to be ruined because they\u2019re saying something stupid in a private group chat,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
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