'Meanest people I have ever met': Chat leak resurfaces internal fights among Young Republicans

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Politico

10/19/2025 12:00 PM EDT


A trove of bigoted messages between members of the Young Republicans is deepening a sharp rift among state groups across the country, further fracturing an organization that has been beset with internal discord and infighting for years.

Young Republicans chapters across the country were divided on how to respond to the texts — with some groups staying silent and others immediately denouncing the Telegram group chat revealed by POLITICO that contained racist, homophobic and antisemitic epithets. Much of the conflict on how to respond to the texts stems from an August election over who would lead the Young Republican National Federation, the umbrella group for all the state chapters known commonly as Young Republicans.

The election essentially split Young Republicans into two groups: On one side was Hayden Padgett, a Texas Republican and current chair of the Young Republican National Federation who was running for reelection. On the other side was Peter Giunta, who led an insurgent group within the Young Republicans and who previously clashed with Padgett, in part because he challenged Padgett to be chair of the national federation in the August election. Giunta ultimately lost the election.

Giunta, however, was one of the members on the leaked text chain and had posted offensive messages, including “I love Hitler” and “If your pilot is a she and she looks ten shades darker than someone from Sicily, just end it there. Scream the no no word.” Giunta and other members of the group chat also repeatedly used homophobic slurs to refer to Padgett, with Arizona Young Republicans Chair Luke Mosiman at one point writing “RAPE HAYDEN.” Giunta, who apologized for the texts, did not respond to a request for comment, and Mosiman declined to comment.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/19/young-republican-chat-internal-conflict-00614004

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deepening a sharp rift among state groups across the country, further fracturing an organization that has been beset with internal discord and infighting for years.

But THAT didn't get reported. The reports were nothing but "Democrats in disarray".

[Klarkashton]

1. The whole thing is bigots and dimwits.

Funded by bigots and dimwits.

[Bluetus]

2. I doubt there is anything new about any of this. Y.R. has always been a radicalization program

Last edited Sun Oct 19, 2025, 05:55 PM - Edit history (1)

They like to start the brainwashing early. This was Charlie Kirk's main job.

They aren't educated about public policy, or even generally knowledgeable about civics. It is simply a bubble of cocoon within which they can drill all the major philosophical points:

* We love freedom, meaning nobody can tell us what to do. Anybody who talks about balancing our freedoms with other people's rights is a communist

* Big business is always good. Anybody who expects businesses to be socially responsible and pay their fair share of the costs hates capitalism and therefore hates America.

* All government programs are bad. Republicans are rugged, self-made individualists (but let's not talk about Social Security, Medicare, the ACA, unemployment insurance and so on.)

* There is no limit to how much money we should give to the Pentagon, and that gives us the right to bully countries anywhere in the world.

* Private business can do everything better than government.

* Unions are unfair to the poor businesses that are so oppressed.

* If you fail in your career or business, it is not your fault. It is the black, brown, yellow, female people who get all the special breaks that give them an unfair advantage.

etc. It is all childish

[underpants]

4. Racists and polluters

Going back to the Reagan Revolution that’s been their core constituency. Evangelicals got a seat at the table with Lee Atwater’s God Guns and Gays.

[bluestarone]

7. Perfect two words that decribes them

100% accurate!!!

[Klarkashton]

5. Young means under 40 to them. Those clowns

Made their own choices.

[Champp]

6. You are forgetting the greedhead thingy, and the proclivity to BEAR FALSE WITNESS

[underpants]

3. In MAGA world they can jump directly up the ladder

Who ever shows the most diabolical meanness gets noticed.

[the nelm]

8. Two groups - "dumb and dumber". That should cover it. n/t

[stopdiggin]

9. hard to dress this up as anything other than the naked hatred, bigotry and racism that it is ...

But we always have JD Vance - there to give it a try!

[mwb970]

10. republicans are so slimy! Yuck.

[GiqueCee]

11. "Democrats in disarray"...

... is one of the most hackneyed, asinine phrases in the Republican lexicon. In most instances, "disarray" simply means, "not in mindless lockstep with a diseased belief system that has no connection whatsoever to common human decency or reality as we know it". In other words, "Those damned Democrats are >GASP

[GiqueCee]

12. An update on the deletion that got my bloomers in a bunch...

... Okay, it turns out that the two little arrow symbols I used to emphasize the word, "GASP" are also used in coding, so the algorithm gets a hitch in its git-along when they're used in a post. Now I know not to do it again.

Big thanks to EarlG for responding so quickly to my pitiful howls of dismay.