Politico on Tuesday released thousands of private messages from a Telegram chat which were written by leaders of Young Republicans groups across the country. The texts included joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape. Among those whose messages were part of the reporting was Kansas Young Republicans vice chair William Hendrix, who reportedly used a racial slur more than 12 times in the chat.
Prominent Republicans including MAGA-aligned Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) have denounced the chat, but Vice President JD Vance dismissed the texts this week on The Charlie Kirk Show where he said: “The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys.”
The Vice President added, “They tell edgy, offensive jokes. That’s what kids do. 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.”
[Note: When President Trump released an AI-generated video depicting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wearing a sombrero, which Jeffries condemned as racist, Vance said: “I think it’s funny,” and “The president’s joking, and we’re having a good time.”]
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) speaks out against some conservatives like Vice President JD Vance dismissing the Young Republicans texting scandal.
MULLIN: “We hold our own accountable inside the Republican Party. We won’t allow that to happen.”
CNN’S KASIE HUNT: “The vice… pic.twitter.com/kVP6mDZcjP
— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) October 15, 2025
Not all Republicans are aligned with Vance in treating the texts lightly. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) has joined Stefanik by speaking out against the racist content and claimed on CNN: “We hold our own accountable inside the Republican Party. We won’t allow that to happen.”
When asked about Vance’s dismissal of the texts — “the Vice President said essentially that these were kids making jokes and they shouldn’t be canceled for it. Do you think that’s right?” — Mullin replied: “I didn’t hear the Vice President’s remarks, but I would never let my kids joke like that.”
Mullin added testimony about his grandfather fighting in World War II and seeing “the despicable things the Nazis did.” The Senator said: “It’s not room to joke for me, it’s a hard stop. You’re not associated with me whatsoever if you think that’s funny.” (Clashing with Mullin, Vance — who did not say the texts were humorous — also did not state a wish to disassociate from the Young Republicans, but rather sought a merciful compassion for them in light of what he portrayed as their youthful indiscretion and “jokes.”)
Another challenge to Vance’s stance is that it relies on a preposterously loose definition of “kids” — as reporting from Mother Jones identified the eldest Young Republican contributor to the group chat, one who joked about gas chambers, as a 35-year-old. The publication wrote that it had “determined the ages of eight of the 11 participants in the chat: They appear to range from 24 to 35.”