by Vanguard Staff
SACRAMENTO — Governor Gavin Newsom has formally asked the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to launch an investigation into Republican-aligned groups, following the disclosure of private group chats in which Young Republican leaders allegedly celebrated Adolf Hitler, joked about putting political opponents “in gas chambers,” used racial slurs, and endorsed rape and other violence against women.
In his letter to Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, Newsom cited Politico’s reporting on messages exchanged among leaders of the Young Republican National Federation. According to that reporting, the chats—conducted via Telegram between January and August—contained references to Black people as “monkeys” and “the watermelon people.”
One chat participant was reported to have responded, when asked whether others were watching an NBA game, “I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkeys play ball.” Some participants joked about rape, calling it “epic,” and used slurs including “f—–,” “r——-,” and “n—-” more than 251 times across the chats. One message read, “Great. I love Hitler.”
“Calling for gas chambers. Expressing love for Hitler. Endorsing rape. Using racist slurs. This is not a ‘joke,’ and it is not fringe,” Newsom wrote. “These are leaders within Republican National Committee-linked groups. If Congress can investigate universities for failing to stop antisemitism, it must also investigate politicians’ own allies who are openly celebrating it.”
Newsom noted that the Oversight Committee is already investigating universities such as Harvard for their responses to antisemitism on campus. He pointed out that several individuals involved in the texts have held leadership roles in campus political organizations, arguing that the overlap between higher education and party politics heightens the urgency for congressional oversight.
The Time article echoed Politico’s findings, noting that among those implicated were the then-Chair of the New York State Young Republicans and Vermont State Senator Samuel Douglass. The New York chair, Peter Giunta, also served as chief of staff for a state assembly member and lost his position following the leak. Some chat participants have apologized, while others have dismissed the leaks as potentially “altered, taken out of context, or otherwise manipulated.”
In response to the revelations, Kansas Young Republicans disbanded their organization; several individuals involved lost their roles as a direct result of the exposure. Lawmakers, both Republican and Democratic, publicly denounced the chats. New York Republican Rep. Michael Lawler called the comments “deeply offensive and hateful” and urged those responsible to resign.
Vice President J.D. Vance, whose office has been linked to national Republican leadership, downplayed the gravity of the leaks. He accused the discussion of hypocrisy and criticized what he described as partisan targeting of Republicans, calling the situation “far worse than anything said in a college group chat.”
A White House spokesperson dismissed attempts to connect President Trump to the Telegram messages, accusing Politico of activist journalism and arguing, “No one has been subjected to more vicious rhetoric and violence than President Trump and his supporters.”
In his letter, Newsom argued that federal agencies such as the Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are unlikely to appropriately investigate these individuals, given their political alignment with national Republican leadership. He warned that the refusal of Republican officials to clearly condemn calls for rape or violence only underscores the need for legislative intervention.
Newsom’s request asks Congress to assert its oversight powers to demand accountability, protect civil discourse, and ensure that hate speech, antisemitic content, and political violence are not allowed to go unchecked within influential party-affiliated networks.
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