Analysis-Violence, racism, and Nazi praise: The dark side of US political group chats

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By Tim Reid and Bianca Flowers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Three separate controversies involving leaked text messages from private online group chats have rocked U.S. political circles this month, revealing racist, antisemitic and violent statements from figures across the ideological spectrum. 

The messages – sent privately but now public – include racial slurs, praise for Nazis, and threats of political violence, raising questions about why those involved felt comfortable expressing such views despite the risk of exposure and censure.

The online posts have also deepened concern among civil society groups and political language experts that violent rhetoric and racist hate speech are becoming normalized in America, particularly after decades of hard-fought civil rights victories that sought to dismantle such ideologies.

People have long expressed violent or racist views in private settings but experts say the leaks of the text messages are noteworthy because they surfaced the unfiltered – and to many shocking – views of political figures.

A Politico report on October 14 revealed that a group of about a dozen Young Republican leaders had been sending racist and antisemitic messages to each other on Telegram between January and mid-August, referring to Black people as monkeys and with one declaring “I love Hitler.”

On October 3 leaked texts published by National Review revealed that Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate to be Virginia’s top law enforcement official, sent a private text in 2022 saying a state Republican should be shot dead and that he would urinate on the graves of political opponents.

And this week, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead a federal watchdog agency, Paul Ingrassia, withdrew from consideration after he lost support among key Republican lawmakers following reports that he had described himself as having a “Nazi streak” in a private text message exchange.

Experts in online culture and political discourse, including a professor from the City University of New York and Alex Turvy, a sociologist who writes for publications including “Social Media and Society”, say the persistence of inflammatory group chats reflects a false sense of privacy and safety, despite the fact that the messages form a permanent record and can be leaked.

At the same time, members in group chats sometimes falsely assume they can trust their fellow participants when allegiances, ambitions and motivations can shift over time, especially in politics, said Turvy.

“There is an illusion of intimacy,” Turvy said. “It feels like it’s private speech. But you’re betting that all of the members in the group chat are going to protect you forever.”

PROVOCATIVE LANGUAGE

The experts said an increasingly powerful social media presence among more extreme elements of both parties, and a phenomenon – especially among younger people – to push rhetorical boundaries, have exacerbated private hate speech.

Reece Peck, an associate professor of media culture at the City University of New York, said Trump’s own rhetoric and attacks on progressive causes have led many conservatives to believe that language that would have been deemed unacceptable before Trump first took office in 2017 is now permissible.

While campaigning last year Trump accused people in the U.S. illegally of “poisoning the blood of the country.” As president he has called some of them “criminals,” and described illegal border crossings as an “invasion,” while his White House has posted memes online that critics say have coarsened political rhetoric.

“They feel Trump has seized popular culture and the Democrats are out of touch. The throughline is anti‑woke,” Peck said. “If you can be edgy – say something inappropriate – you establish group membership. That dynamic is central to Trumpism.”

Turvy said this is known as “Edgelord culture,” an online phenomenon where people deliberately post shocking or taboo content to stay relevant within the chat group.

The Black Conservative Federation, a grassroots group that sought to court Black voters for Trump’s second term, called on Republican leaders to denounce the Young Republican group chat texts “without hesitation or excuse.”

Hakeem Jefferson, an assistant professor of political science at Stanford University, also said Trump has helped “give some cover” to some of the speech contained in the texts.

“This is how the president of the United States speaks and I do think it has opened a space for these people to mimic his behavior,” Jefferson said.

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said, “President Trump is right to call out heinous criminal aliens who have invaded our country and have murdered innocent Americans.”

Jackson cited the case of a man in the U.S. illegally who allegedly killed three people while driving a truck this week under the influence of drugs in California.

She said White House memes were successfully communicating Trump’s agenda against people in the country illegally who are committing crimes against Americans.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the content of the Young Republican group chat and the alleged private text messages by Ingrassia.

Trump has criticized Jones for his text messages, saying that he shouldn’t be allowed to run for office.

“You would think he’s totally discredited – anybody would be put in prison for what he said,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on October 19.

FIRINGS, RESIGNATIONS

The text scandals brought widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum, although Vice President JD Vance – while calling the Young Republican texts “truly disturbing” – also accused critics of “pearl clutching” and referred to the chat participants as “kids”. Most were in their 20s and 30s.

Vance instead drew attention on X to the texts by Jones.

Jones in his 2022 text said former Virginia Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert should get “two bullets to the head,” and mused about his children dying in their mother’s arms.

Jones’ campaign referred Reuters to a statement he issued on October 3 in which he said he was “embarrassed, ashamed, and sorry” about his texts and had sought to apologize to Gilbert and his family.

A Washington Post-Schar School poll of Virginia voters released on Thursday showed that support for Jones has tumbled since the texts were made public, and a race he had led in public opinion polls is now a tie.

Many of the Young Republicans involved in their group chat have since lost their jobs as political aides or lost their positions as Young Republican leaders. One, a state senator from Vermont, has resigned.

REPUBLICAN GROUP DISBANDED

Across 2,900 pages of chats, Black people were referred to as “the watermelon people,” one member talked about raping enemies, and there was talk of sending people to the gas chamber.

Several members of the group were from the New York Young Republicans Club, which was disbanded by the state’s Republican executive committee last week. At least two members from the group, which also included members from states including Kansas, Arizona and Vermont, have apologized.

Hayden Padgett, chairman of the Young Republican National Federation, referred Reuters to a statement the group released on X on October 3, in which its board of directors called on all involved to resign.

“Such behavior is disgraceful, unbecoming of any Republican, and stands in direct opposition to the values our movement represents,” the statement said.

Ingrassia, a former right-wing podcaster, was Trump’s nominee to head the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates claims of retaliation against government whistleblowers. 

His nomination imploded after Politico reported on Monday that Ingrassia told Republican operatives and social media influencers in a text chat last year that “I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time.” He also said the January holiday celebrating Black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. “should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.”

A lawyer for Ingrassia, Edward Andrew Paltzik, said in a statement to Reuters that the messages could have been manipulated. He added that if they were authentic, they “clearly read as self-deprecating and satirical humor.”

(Reporting by Tim Reid and Bianca Flowers, editing by Ross Colvin, Kat Stafford and Diane Craft)