It seems Vice President JD Vance’s biggest problem with the leaked Young Republicans group chat isn’t the highly disturbing, racist messages they reportedly shared, but rather the fact they’re getting in trouble for it.
In an appearance on rightwing streamer Real America’s Voice on Wednesday, Vance pushed back against the outrage over the so-called “I love Hitler” group chat Politico exposed Tuesday, putting multiple leaders of Young Republicans groups on blast for reportedly referring to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people,” for talking about raping and putting their political enemies in gas chambers, and casually praising Adolf Hitler.
That’s just boys being boys, Vance claimed.
“Kids do stupid things, especially young boys. They tell edgy, offensive jokes. Like, that’s what kids do,” he said of the scandal. “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.”
Though Vance, 41, repeatedly referred to the people in the group chat as “a bunch of kids,” the Young Republican National Federation registers anyone ages 18 to 40. Peter Giunta, who was chair of the organization’s New York state chapter when Politico said he sent the infamous “I love Hitler” text, is in his early 30s.
