>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson our connection this hour was made on a group chat that was supposed to remain private.

Politico received a trove of thousands of private messages shared by young Republican leaders.

Their story has created a political firestorm.

I'm going to quote now from Politico story.

Leaders of young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their telegram chat ever got leaked.

But they kept trying anyway.

They referred to black people as monkeys, and the watermelon people, and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers.

They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide, and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

William Hendricks, the Kansas Young Republicans vice chair, used variations of the N-word more than a dozen times in the chat.

Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, referred to rape as epic, end quote.

Politico notes that state Senator Rob Ortt of Lockport quickly condemned the racist and bigoted chats, saying that the people involved should resign.

But Vice President JD Vance pushed back, saying that this is just pearl clutching about college kids being edgy.

In a private group chat.

Vance pointed to the attorney general's race in the state of Virginia, which includes Democratic candidate Jay Jones Jones, was revealed earlier this month to having sent private messages about killing Republicans and their children.

Jones has apologized, but remains in the race.

The conservative writer Jonah Goldberg responded to the vice president's remarks by writing, quote, translation because a politician for the other team said something indefensible I shall refuse to criticize something else indefensible said by my team, is exactly the kind of moral cowardice and sophistry I've come to expect from our vice president, end quote.

And it should be noted, the people in the Republican chat were not just college kids.

One was a state senator in Vermont.

Some work in state politics at pretty high levels.

These are adults in good standing with their party, or at least they were.

Politico follows up to report that at least two of the Republicans in the chat have now lost their jobs.

Politico reports, quote Peter Juntas time working with New York's Assembly member Mike Riley has ended.

The Republican lawmaker said.

Junta served as chair of the New York State Young Republicans when the chat took place.

And Joseph Maligno, who previously identified himself as the general counsel for that group, is no longer an employee of the New York State Unified Court System.

A court spokesperson confirmed, end quote.

Now we reached out to a number of people in politics, in Republican politics, in young Republican leadership, locally, we reached out to people who work at the state level.

We worked out to current leaders and past leaders.

The current chair of the party, the new chair of the party locally, operatives with a long history of experience.

No one would agree to join us this hour to discuss it.

Now, I do have a statement from Senator Orr's office.

They provided it to WXXI this morning.

which I think is the same statement they sent to Politico.

I will read this now, just to be fair, this is a statement from state Senator Rob Ortt.

Quote, I was shocked and disgusted to learn about the racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic comments attributed to members of the New York State Young Republicans, including some made by a former member of the Senate minority staff.

This behavior is indefensible and has no place in our party or anywhere in public life.

While the far left often refuses to hold their own accountable for hateful and divisive rhetoric, Republicans must send a clear message that we expect better.

Those responsible should step down immediately, and the New York State Young Republicans must undergo a complete change in leadership to begin restoring credibility and trust.

End quote.

Again, that's Republican senator, state Senator Robert Ortt joining us in studio is the president of the Monroe County Young Democrats.

Nayeliz Santiago is back with us.

Thank you for making time to be here.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> And on the line with us is Jimmy Vielkind, who is a public media reporter at WNYC.

Jimmy, welcome back to you.

>> Hi, Evan.

>> you wrote a piece, among other places, for the Wall Street Journal detailing the Trump campaign's success with young voters and the Republican resurgence with young voters.

And so does a story like this threaten some of that success?

How do you see that part?

Jimmy?

>> Well, I think what it really does in my read of the story is that it's a reflection of some of the success and some of the culture that's appealed to young voters, particularly younger men.

that, that sort of come out.

You read some of the Politico article, Evan, one paragraph stuck out to me.

I want to read on air together, the messages reveal a culture where racist, anti-Semitic and violent rhetoric circulate freely and where the Trump era loosening of political norms has made such talk feel less taboo.

Among those positioning themselves as the party's next leaders at the end of my quotation, and the reason that's struck me is because when speaking with young men who were voting Republican, there is a certain element of, I don't know if machismo is the right word, but a notion that, like, I have the ability to speak free.

No one is telling me what to do.

No one is telling me that I can't say this, that I can't say that.

And here in a space that these people, many of whom were men, though I know there were some young women involved in this chat.

where they thought no one was listening, where they thought they were among themselves.

It shows just sort of where that freedom or that that unvarnished speech kind of heads.

so, you know, to me, I don't know what this is going to do in terms of broader fallout.

I don't know if this story is going to have massive waves with the general electorate.

but what I do think, and my first impression of it is that it's sort of a reflection of sort of the changes in social abilities that Trump has brought and that, for many people, is attractive of Trump, sort of reflected in a hopefully pretty extreme way.

>> So it sounds like your read on the chat messages that were published, Jimmy, is that this is not just mere edgelord stuff.

That's just a snarky, you know, one off in in what should have been a private chat.

It looks a little more serious to you.

>> You know, there are a few things that I thought were that that struck me.

there were some anti-Semitic references and references to Hitler, references to the Holocaust.

those struck me as as flippantly made and perhaps made with an attempt to make a joke or to be seen with humor.

that's obviously very, very offensive.

it's not the kind of joke that is really publicly acceptable and that we hear in kind of public forums.

But the thing that I thought was, and that's one dimension of this chat, the other dimension that was striking to me was there was a lot of casual racism, casual misogyny, and in some cases casual homophobic language.

The racist language in particular.

There's one person who at one point says that they would wonder if a black person flying an airplane was qualified by virtue of their race, that that didn't seem like a joke.

That seemed like a general expression, and I think it might reveal the attitudes of those people.

who who made the comments and who who sort of sat and if not applauded, then just sort of liked along or nodded along.

>> And so one other question for Jimmy, I want to get nodules in here.

but I'm grateful to have Jimmy's expertise on the line with us because he's covered, you know, politics in this state for a long time.

And Jimmy, my read real quickly in the last 24 hours is that there's a number of different reactions going on in Republican Party circles.

It's not a monolith.

You have people like the Vice President basically saying that he believes that this is overblown by a left leaning media and Democrats to try to make Republicans look bad, that it's not nearly as bad as the Jay Jones thing, that people are blowing it out of proportion.

You have this sort of nevertrump bulwark crowd that is disgusted by this.

Jonah Goldberg among them.

you have people like Senator Ortt who is unequivocal.

I mean, Senator, I wish he came on this program, but I appreciate him providing the statement to our our program today.

And he's unequivocal.

He says he believes the far left often refuses to hold their own accountable for hateful and divisive rhetoric.

But he says Republicans have to do that, have to send a clear message new leadership.

People should resign, that this is serious.

so you have these differing, you know, sort of camps.

I don't know if there's if it occurs to you that there's a majority viewpoint in Republican Party state politics about this.

Yet on this issue that it's either overblown or it is serious.

I mean, how do you see it?

>> I mean, I think the first caveat, Evan, is that it's very, very early.

This happened yesterday.

We are about 24 hours from the publication of these materials.

What was striking to me was the swiftness with which the people involved in this either lost their jobs or some job prospects, and the clarity with which people like Senator Ortt, other members of the party, said this is not acceptable speech.

This is indefensible speech.

So I think at least within New York, and the locus of Republican politics in New York, this is clearly out of bounds.

But then when you look at the vice president's comments and you look at other things that have happened over the course of President Trump's political career, things like his remarks on the the NBC hot mic in 2016 that many people believed were absolutely disqualifying, were absolutely offensive.

What we've seen on a large scale, and on a lark, is that these kinds of comments don't always have such a salient and immediate effect, even if they are found considered to be offensive by many people, even if they do disparage women, racial minorities people of a particular ethnic group.

So I think that you've you've astutely pointed out that the very broad spectrum of reaction here.

But I do think that, as evidenced by some of the immediate reaction in New York, both rhetorical reaction as well as the many people losing their jobs, it does seem to be outside what is going to be acceptable or wants to be defined as acceptable in a state like New York, where Republicans know that they are in the numerical minority, and that if they want to win power on a statewide at a statewide level, they need to appeal to independents, they need to appeal to more moderate voters, many of whom would be turned off by by this kind of rhetoric.

This is, of course, not a deep red MAGA state.

>> We're talking to Jimmy Vielkind and we're talking to Nayeliz Santiago in studio.

Jimmys on the line with us in studio.

The president of the Monroe County Young Democrats.

What did you make of this story when you first saw it?

>> It was disgusting to read.

>> I am not shocked that they have these racist comments that they're throwing around, but to see the jokes that were made about rape and sexual assault, the way that they make light of gas chambers and Hitler and, you know, references of what happened during the Holocaust was just baffling, especially from people like Peter Giunta, who was the the the president of the New York State.

Young Republicans.

we come from a state and our demographic that both of these organizations target is that 18 to 34.

You know, for us, for them, it's a little bit older.

Hu that demographic makes up 54% of rape victims.

And then in New York, we've seen an uptick since 2018, a little bit after Trump entered the political arena, where we've seen an uptick in not only hate crimes, especially anti-Semitic crimes, but also the fact that those crimes are becoming more assaults and not just property damage.

People aren't just spray painting things on buildings or things like that.

They're actually hurting people.

And this rhetoric is extremely dangerous.

But it aligns with the platform that they had when they were running for national leadership on this Trump pro, Trump pro MAGA.

platform, because this is this is Trump's political speech.

You know, and he is a man who's been found liable for rape.

So for them for him to become an elected official, to become the president of the United States for a second time, for them, that just shows them, hey, this is okay.

And we cannot make that a norm.

>> Let me just ask you, nodules about a principle that I try to to I try to keep in my mind on this program, when you do 500 hours of radio a year, you're often going to be talking about people's worst moments, worst days.

I don't want to be judged on my worst day.

I don't want to be judged on the worst thing that I have said.

And I think people need to be given grace.

There's a caveat.

The question is, do you acknowledge that something that you've said or done has caused harm?

Do you want to fix that?

Do you want to change?

Does that reveal something more about who you are and what you believe?

And I'm not sure these chats fall into the category of.

So an example is when Josh Allen was drafted by the bills, people dug up some of the tweets he made when he was in his teens, wasn't even an adult yet.

And I just feel like give people time to grow up a little, especially when, you know, they may not have context to a lot of the world.

I'm not saying it's okay to say certain things.

I'm saying I'm not a big fan of the I found something you tweeted in 2014.

What can I do to get you fired?

What can I do to get you out of society?

I want to know what you think today.

I want to know if you've grown.

I want to show people grace.

I don't know if this is in that category.

This is a group of people who, contrary to the vice president's point, are not just college kids.

They are adults.

They're working in good standing.

One was an elected official and they are joking about the Holocaust.

They're joking about gas chambers.

They're talking about Hitler at a time when a historian or would be historian named Daryl Cooper is going on.

Tucker Carlson saying that the real villain of World War II was was Churchill.

There's a lot of as Jair Rosenberg recently wrote, a lot of Hitler rehab happening in strange circles.

So I don't know if this is like somebody had one bad moment and one loose comment.

I don't know.

>> No, these texts span over a seven month period, so it's not like this was a one off.

They were blowing off steam.

This is not boys will be boys.

This is not shop talk.

This is not locker room talk.

Seven months were they made these jokes repeatedly I think political put it at 251 times that racial epithets were put inside these messages.

Yeah, these aren't college kids.

These aren't teenagers, you know, just dipping their toes into this.

>> These looking for outrage.

>> Yeah.

No, this is adults.

These are professionals.

People that work in public service where their duty is to serve the public, no matter the color, no matter the religion, no matter the race, no matter the sexual orientation.

And this is the mindset that you have.

That's a disgrace to public service.

And that is a stain on the way that the direction that we are putting politics, we are supposed to be guiding the next generation of of political leaders and elected officials.

One of them, like you said, wasn't elected official.

And this is the way that you lead.

Disgusting.

You.

How do you expect the public and your constituents to trust you when you behave this way behind closed doors, like they always say, everything done in the dark will come to light.

>> Well, so let me ask you, what do you make of Senator Oort's statement?

>> I know this one hits close to home for him as well.

You know, the political article said that one of them was a staffer for him back in the day.

This should be condemned.

I'm glad he did that.

But you got to go farther and you got to walk the talk.

And this has to apply across the board, which I have not seen from him and other Republican leaders across the state.

>> He's saying people should resign over this.

He's saying there should be a whole new leadership in young Republicans.

>> Absolutely.

But where is that?

When Trump was making comments about grab women by their genitals?

That's disgusting.

That's dehumanizing to women, that's degrading to women.

And where is that?

When, you know, last year they all ran on the Epstein files.

We've got victims of human trafficking, of sexual assault calling for those files to be released, of crimes that happen to them, their own trauma that they want released.

And they're saying, no, we need to hold everybody accountable.

If one of my members were to go and put out messages like this or make comments like this, saying, quote, I love Hitler making jokes about rape, a serious conversation would be have.

And I would even go as far to say I would remove members because that is not reflect the values that our organization has.

That doesn't reflect the values of the Democratic Party.

And I will not let that grow inside our organization and inside our party.

And so this is great that they're calling out this instance.

But let's be consistent about it.

>> Well, so let me ask then, both of our guests about some of the other comments made by the vice president who said that if if the media were more serious, if Democrats were more serious, that the bigger conversation would be about what Jay Jones said, not about these stories.

Now, let me just respond to the vice president, who's assuredly not listening right now, but is invited on this program whenever he wants to.

Come on, I look forward to that.

the reason that we haven't covered Jay Jones on Connections is because Jay Jones is running for AG of Virginia.

The reason we're covering this story today is it involves a number of people in politics in New York state, some who have worked right here in our area.

And it is not one person.

This is a this goes across state boundaries and is, you know, it's a big one.

Now, the Jay Jones thing, if you want my opinion as a journalist, I would love to talk to Jay Jones about what happened there.

And if you listeners, if you're not following that, what the vice president is talking about is the Democrats candidate for AG in the state of Virginia sent some texts three years ago basically saying that he wanted to see Republicans killed and that he even mused about killing Republicans children.

And it was really dark stuff.

He has apologized.

He's ashamed of what he texted, wished he hadn't said that he's staying in the race.

and the vice president says in the context, in the wake of Charlie Kirk and all of this stuff, that what Jay Jones said is more serious nodules.

What do you think of that?

>> Comments like that should not be made point blank, period.

They are disgraceful.

We cannot push any type of violence like that.

>> Even if it's like an extreme edgelord comment in a text, right?

Because that's what Jay Jones says is like, I'm sorry I said that.

I never would want to hurt anybody, but I was musing about killing somebody in a private text, and I never thought that would go public.

Similar situation here.

You're saying out of bounds, even in a private text.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> You know, we the things that our party stands for is because we value life.

We want people to be able to thrive and live and get health care.

We want to end gun violence because it takes so many lives.

So for us to be so cavalier about talking, about taking lives, that's a no.

That's a hard no.

>> Should Jones drop out of that race.

>> That I can't speak for?

I don't know a lot about that race and this particular situation.

>> It's not your state, I understand.

>> Yes.

>> Would it break your heart to see Jay Jones leave that race?

>> I, I don't know anything about that race, okay?

I don't even know who his opponent is.

Okay to be completely honest but if you're going to say I should have never said that, do better with your actions.

To say one, to say this will never happen again.

Okay, is one thing, but also change the way that you talk about these people, these your political opponent, opponents or Republicans.

I mean, children, really, that's a hard line.

We don't we don't make jokes about that.

We've got kids dying every day across this country like, no, we can't do that hard.

No on that.

>> All right.

Jimmy Vielkind.

This is one thing that I have seen a lot of Republicans in New York State responding to the Politico story by saying, hey, where were you guys on the Jay Jones thing?

Like, you can't be serious here.

So as a journalist, you want to respond to that?

Jimmy.

>> This deflection.

>> Yeah, I think that one thing we see often is kind of this both sides ism.

you know, and it depends on just how far do you want to go back.

You know, today it's Jay Jones and you know, we're talking about 2016.

Grab him by the, you know, grab him by the genitals.

And there was the Puerto Rico comment.

So I don't want to excuse any side.

I don't want to.

I mean, I think that all of these comments are potentially fair game for voters.

I don't know if I were a voter in Virginia.

I think it's relevant what the the attorney general candidate said in a private text message.

I think that's worth weighing.

And and I don't you know, but there's there's also differences in terms of the intensity, the level and, and sort of the, the forum in which those kinds of comments were made, you know, you, you, you put it pretty well, Evan.

You know, I also I don't want to be judged by my worst day either.

and, and different people can take responsibility for things they say on their worst days and their worst moments in different ways.

So I think it's all political, fair game.

But none of it excuses the rest of it, right?

Just because, like, just because because this, this other person said this, this thing that, that that's that's pretty horrifying.

Could excuses someone from saying that something that's also horrifying.

So I think that that's sort of a distraction.

We hear it a lot.

It's both sides ism.

but I think all of it is relevant because all of it reveals, you know, what you say in private usually doesn't come in a vacuum.

it clearly reveals something about how these people think.

and so whether they're in positions where, as with the Jay Jones person who's seeking votes from, from members of the Commonwealth of Virginia or members of this group chat among the young Republicans who are seeking to lead a national organization.

Many of them are kind of aspiring with their own political careers, be they in elected office or kind of in service behind the scenes.

I do think it's relevant.

And and I don't think that we should be kind of moving the spotlight just because somebody else said something.

>> Devane on the YouTube chat on the WXXI News YouTube channel, says, this is all vile.

Yet sadly, it's not surprising or shocking in the least.

And of course, our vice president deflects on this.

Of course, they are too cowardly to come on and talk about this.

How many of them speak this way at home with family and friends?

I'm sure the answer is many.

And Alex writes in to ask, do your guests really think that this is representative?

I'm sorry I pulled off the email.

Do you guys really think this is representative of the way these people speak?

Everyone speaks a little more edgy in private, don't they?

That's from Alex.

All right, now, Julius, what do you think?

>> Yeah, they're.

This is not edgy.

This is.

They are making jokes about violence against their opponents.

Do I really think that this is how how they think and the way that they operate?

Yes.

Because what this what this group chat tells me and the actions of the members in this group chat, they believe that they're above consequences.

They thought that this would never come to light.

But what has come to light is that Peter Giunta hasn't filed financial disclosures with the Board of Elections, that they are failing to pay debts, and they weren't concerned about consequences for that.

$14,000 is their outstanding bill from 2024 that still hasn't been paid.

They believe that they're above consequences and at this, at their convention, it was a pretty close race, which says that this is okay, some more of their more of the young Republicans believe in this and support this.

That's concerning.

That's extremely concerning.

They were hell bent on receiving an endorsement from The White House.

Did they think that The White House would endorse this?

They probably did.

And that's why they were so pro, so pro-Trump, so pro MAGA.

Like I said, these weren't just made one off comments.

This spans over seven months, seven months where they've been campaigning around the country where all of those town halls and meetings they held may not have been recorded, may not be publicized.

But do I believe that they spewed some of this in that?

Absolutely.

I mean, I've seen the way that some of these members have come at their local Young Dems saying that we are doing this or doing that.

If we bring drag queens into our events, we're grooming and we're promoting this and we're promoting that, and not just we're creating a safe space for different communities, which clearly this tells me that they are not a safe space for women.

They are not a safe space for people of color.

They're not a safe space for the LGBTQ community.

And I do believe that because they support candidates who also don't create safe spaces for those communities as well.

So, yeah, this isn't a one off.

This isn't just shop talk.

This is how they believe how they operate.

>> One other question for Nigel.

And then we're going to do is we're going to take our only break of the hour.

I've got a couple questions.

I think Jimmy will be able to answer a little bit better than I can.

but when it comes to the clearing out of leadership, as Senator Rob Ortt, a Republican from Lockport, told us in a statement this morning, he said he really thinks that New York State young Republicans have to undergo, in his words, a complete change in leadership to begin restoring credibility and trust.

Nigel, is what you are suggesting is that you think that this is representative of a widespread culture in young Republican politics, and therefore it would not be easy to find new leadership that would disavow this stuff or wouldn't behave in this way.

Or is that too broad a statement?

I mean, do you think that young Republicans, to counter some of the work you're doing?

can find leadership that that doesn't that isn't on this sort of track?

>> I think they can I, I make it a point not to operate in a silo.

and in interactions and conversations with younger Republicans, not everybody believes in this type of hate and perpetuating it, but there are some that do, and there are some that don't believe that that's a deal breaker.

which is extremely concerning.

I think that they can find more moderate Republicans to do that, but can those moderate Republicans change the direction of this young Republican organization?

That's a much harder question, especially given that their party leadership on a national level condemns anybody that doesn't agree with them, and they go after and villainize their opponents, even within their own.

and so there's concerns they have to be willing to not not answer to the orders from Donald Trump and other party leadership.

>> Yeah, I do think some of Vice President Vance's remarks are revealing, and I do think they illustrate Jimmy's point from earlier this hour, which is that the needle really has moved.

I'm not trying to connect too many dots unnecessarily, but this whole episode for me has reminded me of a conversation I had near the end of 2017, near the end of the first Trump term, in which a local school superintendent who has since retired, told me that he said it was the worst year that he had ever had in school governance because of the way that mostly young boys had felt freed up to be brazen and sometimes sexist or racist.

Some of the signs they had posted in lockers, some of the things they had said in class, he said.

It was a really hard year, and he connected it to national politics.

Again, I'm speaking out of school because that was a private conversation with someone who has since retired, but I haven't forgotten that.

And, you know, a decade later, roughly eight years later, I do wonder if some of what we're seeing in these chats is indicative of a culture that is now feeling a little emboldened, feeling a little, hey, the old rules don't apply.

It's a new way of doing business.

It's a new leadership, and I can let this fly a little bit.

>> Oh, absolutely.

>> I'm not trying to connect too much here, but I do wonder.

>> I mean.

>> I, I absolutely believe that it is connected and it has changed the way that we interact with each other and the way that we speak about each other.

even on different sides of the aisle.

I mean, you know, you brought up the story with the superintendent.

I watched Trump's first inauguration.

I was a freshman in high school.

it was and it was very different.

My experiences were very different.

Just as a student you know, getting racial slurs thrown at me more often.

the way that guys would harass, you know, me and other female students, it was happening more often.

and it's sad that there's not been a course correction, and we need to do better.

That's why these young organizations exist, like young Democrats and Mced here locally is that we want better than what we've experienced.

Right?

That's always that's everybody's goal.

Give your kids a better life than you had.

And for us, it is.

We're trying to bring ourselves bring the temperature down in politics a little bit more and move us towards progress.

That's that's why we are a more progressive organization.

That's why you find that most of the Young Democrats organizations tend to be a little more progressive than the national.

But again, we're the big tent.

And so that's not universal.

And the way that we operate here in New York is different than the way that they operate in Kansas.

and all the other states.

You know, we just had the Young Democrats of America convention earlier this year in Philadelphia, and that was very evident.

There are things that we can say we unequivocally agree with making sure people have health care, making sure that we decrease school shootings and mass shootings.

But the way in which those get rolled out looks a little different everywhere.

and so our job is to continue to bring down the temperature and move us forward so that we don't leave the next generation to continue to clean up these same issues.

>> Well, I mean, I want to say, in the spirit of some of the conversations we've had recently, I appreciate Nayeliz Santiago saying that.

You do think that that the leadership of the Young Republicans in New York State or elsewhere can find people who don't espouse the kind of stuff we see in the chats that you think it's possible.

Judy emails the program to say, Evan, I can't believe that people don't remember that once on the internet, it stays there pretty much forever.

And she says Republicans are a disgusting bunch of people.

I would just say, Judy, I, I understand the sentiment that what you are seeing in this Politico story is disgusting.

I am disgusted by it.

but I promise you, you've got Republican neighbors and some probably help you rake the leaves and they may not be the people that you're envisioning.

And just this online caricature and hopefully not everybody.

And I know not everybody believes these chats are representative of all people in a party.

I think a fair question is to ask, is the culture moving in that direction or moving away from it?

That's part of what we're talking about.

And what happens if if it's moving in that direction, if that is gaining political currency.

So when we come back, I want to we'll take some more of your comments, questions via email Connections at wxxi.org.

you can call the program toll free if you like.

It's 844295 talk.

It's 8442958255263 WXXI.

If you call from Rochester 2639994.

If you're watching on the WXXI News YouTube, you can join the chat there.

We've got Nayeliz Santiago in studio with us, president of the Monroe County Young Democrats.

Jimmy Vielkind is a public media reporter at WNYC.

Also along with us this hour, we're coming right back.

I'm Evan Dawson Thursday on the next Connections.

We welcome local journalist and historian Justin Murphy.

He wrote a piece for The Atlantic this week about why he thinks we should stop the practice of lowering the flag when someone passes away.

This is not about one person.

It's not about Charlie Kirk.

It's not about anyone who we've lost to political violence.

He says there has become a historical overuse, and we'll talk about it.

>> Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from bond, Schoeneck and King, a multi practice law firm in Rochester with offices across New York State serving business, health care and educational institutions.

Online at ebsco.com.

Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Mary Cariola, center.

Proud supporter of Connections with Evan Dawson.

Believing an informed and engaged community is a connected one.

Mary Cariola.

>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson a couple of questions from listeners.

First, we've got a question on data, a question on whether young people that might be represented on this kind of chat actually vote.

I want to say it again.

We're talking about this political bombshell story that detailed thousands of messages and hundreds of references to racism, bigotry, sexism, celebration of violence in a telegram, Republican Young Republican group chat.

But when you hear Young Republican, you might be thinking like high school Republicans or, you know, a bunch of teenagers, or the vice president says, just a bunch of college kids, a bunch of knuckleheads.

These are that is not what this was.

This was people across multiple states, some who work in state politics.

In this state, some who are party, you know, have had chairmanships and some and there are some women on the chat, too, mostly men.

One was an elected state senator in Vermont.

So this is not just like a bunch of 17 year olds.

So that needs to be established here.

But the question from a listener is, does this matter?

Even if people are moving in this direction, are young people actually voting?

Now, I don't have the exact data.

I'll start with nodules.

I wonder if Jimmy has any you know, updated data on under 30 crowd voting.

That was always the hard one to get.

And you're the president of the Monroe County Young Democrats nodules.

So are young people voting?

>> They are.

I mean, we've seen a.

>> Few of them.

>> We've seen our demographic have huge impacts on elections.

I mean, across the board, across the age groups, we always see a decrease in voter turnout.

on local years like this year but, you know, look at 2018, 2020, 2022.

Look at Zohran Mamdani.

primary election.

That was young people that voted.

Some of them voted for the first time.

with the right energy and the right candidate for some demographics and especially for us, you do see an increase in turnout.

It does matter.

you know, a lot of the things that we're doing, especially this year on a local year, is doing targeted voter outreach to young people to get them out to the polls, to let them understand the importance of being civically engaged in voting.

so, yes, young people do vote.

And our, our kids demographic is 16 to 36.

So we've got millennials to.

>> 36 is in the.

I am very happy to hear that 36 is considered young.

Anything I mean I'm older than that, but that's still.

>> Great.

That's great.

>> It is.

And you know, it is.

It's interesting as we navigate, you know, how do we tailor our organization to both Gen Zers and millennials, where sometimes they clash.

And then we've got the millennials who are kind of stuck in the middle but I mean, more often you see millennials vote.

That's just tends to be how it is with Democrats.

The old the older you get, the more you vote.

but our goal is to get people engaged at a much younger age.

That's why we're registering people to vote early now that we can in New York.

And that's why we go down to 16. and have, you know, high school Democrats high school young Democrats, starting and college Dems and things like that.

>> You know, she didn't mention Gen X were always left out.

I know 46 is not young.

I get it.

Jimmy Vielkind listener wants to know our young people, especially under 30 voting these days.

>> Well, high tea millennial here checking in.

between you and Angeles.

so according to AP Votecast, which is a national kind of exit poll that was given around the country in the 2024 presidential election, about 16% of people who cast their ballots were under 30.

In 2024.

So 16%, that is slightly up from 13% in 2020.

So by that measure, young people are representing a larger share of the presidential electorate between 2020 and 2024.

Now, you have to be cautious about kind of two data points, but I think that a lot of things that Alice mentioned are having an impact, you know, on the political left, you're seeing someone like Zohran Mamdani, you're seeing young Democrats.

And in some ways, I think the, the, the, the collapse of Joe Biden sort of steeled younger voters to be more vocal in their calls for generational change within the Democratic Party.

That's something that I've detected in my reporting.

And then on the political right, you see people like Charlie Kirk, who has inspired lots of voters around the country, younger voters gotten them engaged.

and I think that in his assassination, Kirk's example and kind of Kirk's mission, I think will continue.

I don't want to be so presumptuous to say it will be amplified, but I think when you saw such a strong reaction up and down the age range to his assassination, to me it exemplified that there is real organizing on the political right among youth.

And to to add some more numbers from that Votecast survey.

Evan.

Now, there was a nearly 30 point swing among young men between 2020 when they broke for Joe Biden by about 15 percentage points to 2024, when Donald Trump won them by 14 percentage points.

So that means young men, people and I believe Peter Giunta would be in this age demographic.

You're seeing more of them kind of break to the GOP over the course of the Biden presidency for, for, I guess, a variety of different factors.

>> Yeah.

And, Jimmy, when I look at future elections, I'm very curious to see that break that you're talking about.

Young men.

And it was men in every category.

It was white men.

It was Latino men.

It was black men moved more toward Donald Trump.

the last decade has been pretty profound in that way.

I'm very curious to see if that is a sort of if Donald Trump is sui generis there if this is a Donald Trump thing or if this is a party affiliated thing, if this becomes a case where you'll vote in the presidential election, but young people still don't vote in local elections or primaries or if that solidifies even more and, you know, I certainly don't know the answer yet.

I suspect in the next, you know, year or so, we'll get a lot better data on that, won't we, Jimmy?

Do we have.

>> Yeah, we'll have to see.

We'll have to see exactly what what data come out.

I mean, just generally in local elections you do have a harder time.

I think the New York City mayoral election will be interesting.

What we've seen is new registered voters people who were inspired by Zohran Mamdani campaign and a campaign that actively courted and registered new voters.

And that had a significant effect in his, you know, pretty easy, breezy win over the former governor of the state of New York, someone who should have been a very formidable opponent but was just basically lapped by by youth and energy.

So I'm be curious to see what the results are in New York City.

What are the results in the New Jersey and Virginia governor's races, which are the two gubernatorial races in 2025, the first year of the cycle, particularly New Jersey, you know, pretty similar in demographics to New York, except they they unfortunately have a higher concentration of Philadelphia Eagles fans, I think, than anywhere in the Empire State.

but otherwise, you know, it's a northeast state.

It's a state that has lots of urban cores, suburban areas very, very similar to New York.

So if we see a enduring pattern among younger voters in the race between Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli I think that will be instructive for the races coming up in New York, including what is gearing up to be a pretty interesting gubernatorial campaign, as well as campaigns for the House of Representatives in New York that I know will be extremely hard fought and extremely important.

>> let me read a few comments that have come in from somewhat regular guests.

Executive director of the Monroe County Democratic Committee nodules, his colleague in politics, Avi Pressburg, who says, number one, he said, these are not just random people.

They are leaders of the Republican Party.

He's talking about the people in the chat published by Politico, he says they are the future of the party.

This is the direction they are openly choosing to go in.

It's time for young people to take a look in the mirror and decide what kind of future we want.

Who do we want?

Representing us and controlling the levers of government power.

But this is also a call for older people to think seriously about their legacy and what they will be leaving behind.

Will the world be better for their kids, their grandkids, and their great grandkids?

That's from Avi Pressburg with the Monroe County Democratic Committee.

I think probably speaking for himself.

But maybe we'll have Avi on soon.

But nodules, you know, to the point about where these where this has swung toward the political right and specifically President Trump with young men here.

We've talked about this in the past here, but do you have any reason to think that your party can stop that momentum in 2026 or 2028?

>> Yes.

Yes.

I mean, we've seen in some of the races, even just this year that there is new energy coming in.

There is a different way that we are approaching these problems.

I mean, not just that, but when we when you look at what's happening, especially on the federal level I think that people are having visceral reactions, to the actions of this administration.

You know, people some people said it was their view on, on the economy or it was their view on law and order.

But what we've seen out of this administration is that it wasn't about law and order.

Otherwise, you know, they would be giving people due process.

They wouldn't be have these no named masked agents kidnaping people off of our streets.

You know, I've also seen that there is an increase in the attendance at various rallies.

So this weekend is the No Kings rally.

and there's not just women there.

There are men there.

There are increasingly more and more people.

There are people who are just engaging for the first time.

and I think that there is a plethora of issues that are being addressed at every turn that I think appeals to people differently.

And just, I think that the right is helping us by fumbling everything.

and I mean, they've shut down the government.

The Republicans have shut down the government.

They haven't released the Epstein files.

they are denying due process.

They have used our military in a way that is both unlawful and also is what I view to be disrespectful to our troops.

They deserve better.

They deserve to be respected in a way that they're not being currently by this administration in the way that they're being dragged to various states, knowing that it is unlawful for them to be there.

And then they're sleeping in parking lots and gyms, and they're not even adequately set up to do their jobs.

and I think that that also just resonates with the average person of we need to do better.

We're becoming a chef.

I mean, we've been a laughingstock since January.

It feels like and but everybody's looking at the U.S.

and going, what the hell is happening?

and a lot of our own are doing the same thing.

and I think that demographic specifically is also thinking that.

>> All right, a few more comments from listeners.

Michael in Penfield says that what's the evidence that your guest in studio would condemn their own party if this had happened?

So let's start with that.

If there were a Young Democrats chat that got revealed to be racist, bigoted, et cetera., I think you'd be surprised.

Nodules.

>> Absolutely I would be.

>> But if it was real, what Michael and Penfield says, you know, what's the evidence that you would actually condemn it the way you're condemning it from Republicans?

>> I would immediately condemn it publicly.

And also we would remove those members to make jokes like that about gas chambers and political violence and rape and be so explicitly racist.

yeah, unequivocally.

I would I would act very swiftly in my experience, I since high school have been very involved in the anti-racism movement.

we started an organization at Penfield High School.

whose direct goal and mission was to create safe spaces for students to address various racial issues.

in a predominantly white institution in Penfield and we were able to have those discourses in there.

And so I am willing to put my money where my mouth is, because I'm not just going to say it.

I'm going to I'm going to do it.

I will walk the talk.

I mean, it's happened not just it's happened in the past.

I mean, look at the way that the Democratic Party reacted to Cuomo when all the allegations came out.

You know, they were swift in asking for his resignation.

And I know that the party was divided.

But our elected leaders, including those here locally, were very, very vocal about the fact that this behavior is not acceptable.

And you need to step down.

We will eat our own.

We're not afraid of that.

We're not afraid of accountability.

>> You know, that's interesting.

Go ahead.

Bring that up.

Yeah, I was going to bring that up.

If you if you didn't.

But yes, you're right.

County Executive Bello was was a very clear and unequivocal voice.

But I do wonder if there is some kind of a a shift among Democrats who were very quick, particularly with issues of you know, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct.

We look at Al Franken.

There does seem to be some kind of a backlash.

If you look at Andrew Cuomo, he ran and he he was not successful in the Democratic primary.

But many of the people who condemned him in 2021 were silent, and some of them even stood with him in 2025.

So I'm very curious to see, you know, if that line and if that that hard line is, is starting to shift and on which issues it would exist, whether they are issues of race, whether issues of sexual orientation and gender expression, whether they're issues of kind of gender interactions, and be it sexual misconduct or rhetoric that is that is offensive, that sort of gender based rhetoric.

>> Well, as we wrap up here Andrew wrote in to ask, how come you didn't have a Republican on your show?

I just want you to know, Andrew, we really tried on this one here.

that invitation went out to a lot of people who have worked with young Republicans in the Republican Party, and that wasn't to say that every Republican is not coming on the program because they endorse that chat or whatever, but they didn't want to touch it by coming on the program.

That was their choice.

Again, I want to say I appreciate Senator Roberts sending that statement to WXXI today that we read on the air.

And I can tell you that Jimmy Vielkind is held in such high regard that even when I contact people privately who work in Republican politics, even when they won't come on, they want to send me a note saying that Jimmy is great and he is great.

So, Jimmy Vielkind, I want to thank you for taking the time for joining us, public media reporter at WNYC.

It is always a pleasure to have you, sir.

Keep up the great work.

>> Thanks, Evan.

Always a pleasure to be with you.

>> And I want to thank Nayeliz Santiago, president of the Monroe County Young Democrats, for joining us in studio.

And I know we'll have a lot more to talk about in politics soon.

Thank you for being with us.

>> Absolutely.

>> From all of us at Connections.

Thank you for being part of the program.

Wherever you are finding us, whether it's on YouTube or on your terrestrial radio, that's still a thing.

Maybe you're finding us online.

Maybe you're listening to the pod, wherever you are.

Thanks for being in the world of public media, and we're back with you tomorrow on member supported public media.

>> This program is a production of WXXI Public Radio.

The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of this station.

Its staff, management or underwriters.

The broadcast is meant for the private use of our audience.

Any rebroadcast or use in another medium, without express written consent of WXXI is strictly prohibited.

Connections with Evan Dawson is available as a podcast.

Just click on the Connections link at wxxinews.org.