A conservative who co-founded the Lincoln Project is sounding the alarm that the appallingly racist group chat between young GOP operatives is more than just a one-off.
The Telegram chat, in which Republican operatives flippantly spoke of gas chambers, typed “I love Hitler,” and referred to Black people as “the watermelon people,” shows that much of the young MAGA base is “absolutely irredeemable,” says Steve Schmidt.
“There are no words to describe the sickness revealed by these young people’s texts,” he said on his podcast, The Warning, on Wednesday.
Schmidt, 55, is a traditional Republican who worked on the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and John McCain. He co-founded the Lincoln Project in 2019 to counter MAGA’s takeover of Republican politics, and later founded the Save America Movement PAC with a similar purpose.
The New Jersey native said that the Republican chat, leaked to Politico, is the latest example of why America should fear the “GOP’s youth pipeline.” Now, 10 years after Trump took American politics by storm, Schmidt noted that Gen Z has been brought into adulthood in a “sick society.”
“These young people who venerate Trump and Hitler, and who celebrate the gas chamber, the murder of millions of people, these sick MAGA young men and women who denounced Jews, who denounced their fellow Americans, who want to put millions of Americans up against the wall, or to walk them into the gas and then to toss them into the ovens,” he said. “They have been marinated in the stew of a sick society.”
He continued, “They are the creations of a broken media and of even more broken politics. They are the fruit of COVID, and the school closings, and the social isolation. These are rotten, spoiled, degenerate, broken young Americans who hate with the deepest passion, and they’d be happy, joyous, even, maybe even sexually excited, to watch up close the violence that they cheer on in these texts.”
Politico reported that there were 251 slurs in the leaked chat, including the N-word, “f----t,” and derogatory comments against Asians and Latinos.
The former vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans, Peter Giunta, was described as “the most prominent voice in the chat spreading racist messages.” The 31-year-old Staten Islander has since been fired from his position as chief of staff for New York State Assemblymember Michael Reilly. He has not answered requests for comment from the Daily Beast.
Giunta was running to lead the national Young Republicans organization, which was why the leaked Telegram group chat was created—to strategize his campaign, which was endorsed by the MAGA figures Roger Stone and Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Giunta reportedly texted in June that partymates voting against him were “going to the gas chamber.” Asked at one point if he was watching an NBA playoff game, he reportedly responded, “I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball.”
Giunta also reportedly texted, “I love Hitler,” and advised his allies to “scream the no-no word” if they board a plane and see the pilot is a woman with skin “10 shades darker than someone from Sicily.”
The operative, once named a “New York City 40 Under 40 Rising Star” by City & State New York, has apologized for the texts. He has also speculated that they may have been doctored to harm his reputation.
Giunta was far from the only Republican to send hateful messages.
William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, is said to have texted variations of the N-word over a dozen times. He also reportedly wrote, “Bro is in a chicken restaurant ordering his food. Would he like some watermelon and Kool-Aid with that?”
Hendrix, 24, was working as a communications specialist for the Kansas Attorney General’s Office before Politico’s report. He was fired on Tuesday after his remarks were presented to the office, reports The Topeka Capital-Journal. He has not spoken publicly since the scandal emerged, and did not respond to a call from the Daily Beast.
“They are the children of MAGA,” Schmidt said of the group. “They love Trump and they love Adolf Hitler. These are the text messages. These are the words they use. The language is vile, it’s racist, it’s antisemitic, it is cruel, and it’s depraved.”
