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'That's what kids do': Vance downplays racist, sexist texts
The Guardian
|October 17, 2025
JD Vance sought to downplay the revelation that leaders of a group called the Young Republicans exchanged hundreds of racist, sexist text messages - including one in which rape was called “epic”, and another in which someone wrote “I love Hitler” - as youthful indiscretions.
Vance, who was speaking on a new episode of the Charlie Kirk Show, the podcast run by colleagues of the late conservative activist, tried to suggest that the participants in the leaked chats were much younger than they actually are. In reality, many of the participants are not that much younger than the 41-year-old vice-president.
“The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys,” Vance said. “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.”
Politico obtained months of exchanges from a Telegram conversation between leaders and members of the Young Republican National Federation and some of its affiliates in the states of New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont.
This story is from the October 17, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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