>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Well, our connection this hour was made in a group chat that was supposed to remain private.

Politico obtained thousands of messages on a telegram conversation thread among leaders of the Young Republican National Federation, along with its affiliates from Kansas, New York State, Arizona and Vermont.

In those thousands of messages, there were several hundred that included some pretty deeply racist, bigoted, or misogynistic comments.

And those comments were typically either cheered on or ignored or laughed at by members of the conversation.

These were not children or just college students.

11 people were on the thread, most range in age from 24 to 35.

One is a sitting state senator from Vermont.

Others have worked in prominent New York State political offices.

The story sparked bipartisan calls for participants to step down from their official positions, and several have already done so.

I should point out that congresswomen Elise Stefanik and there are people like Rob Ortt in the New York State Senate.

They have been vehement in their denunciations of the thread and their feeling that this is not representative of where they want the conservative or the republican movement to go.

Now, days after the story broke, a second story broke about a 30-year-old named Paul Ingrassia, who was also sending highly racist messages on a private Republican chat.

He admitted in that chat to having a Nazi streak, by his words.

He withdrew consideration for a promotion within the Trump administration after that story broke.

The aftermath has sparked debate about just how serious these messages are.

Vice President JD Vance says they're really not serious at all.

He claimed, incorrectly that these are just kids trying to be edgy, and we shouldn't penalize kids when they try to get a reaction by saying provocative things.

But others have disagreed.

And this week, following Nick Fuentes appearance on Tucker Carlson's show, a number of prominent Republicans are saying it is time to choose.

Time for the movement to decide what path it wants to be on.

Fuentes is a popular white supremacist who's made fun of killing Jews and racial minorities.

He says he would welcome a holy war.

Our guests this hour have a lot to say about these recent developments and where they want their own movements to go.

And I was really glad recently when Austin DeLorme reached out to talk about this.

He's vice president of the University of Rochester College Republicans and a parliamentarian of the New York State Federation of College Republicans.

Welcome back to the program.

Thanks for being here.

>> Thank you for having me, Evan.

>> And on the line with us is Jack Shea, executive director of the New York State Federation of College Republicans.

Jack, thanks for making time for us.

>> Yeah.

Thank you.

I'm glad to be here.

>> So, Austin, we have talked in the past, it's been a little while.

but you are now a sophomore at the University of Rochester.

Yes, yes.

>> Starting sophomore year.

>> How's it going?

>> It's going very, very well.

Exciting start to the year.

>> Well, we'll talk in our throughout this hour about a number of issues.

And we are going to talk at some point about what it's like for students like Austin to be what are almost certainly political minorities on their campuses.

And, you know, I'm sure that's not always easy either.

But I want to start with the reason that Austin reached out and the reason I think Jack agreed to join us is to make sure that we understand where you are on these chats that have been publicized by Politico.

So I'll start with you, Austin.

Why did you reach out and what do you want us to understand about your feelings on this?

>> Yeah.

Well, thank you again for having me and Jack, you know, it's an important conversation.

And I think one of the main reasons that we need to have a conversation about this is because there's a big distinction among young people right now, of what these chats were and what the broader, you know, Republican or conservative movement is.

And I think it's in the view of a lot of young people and especially with the people at the New York State Federation of College Republicans, that this is not representative of what we want the Republican Party to be in today's world.

I mean, when you looked at some of the messages that were in that chat, I mean, they were really disgusting, vile comments.

I mean, I can condemn everything that was said in that chat.

As vitriolic and highly divisive.

And I think in today's political climate, with what we're trying to achieve within the Republican Party, you know, we are trying to be the big tent party again.

I think that we've we've kind of tried to start this movement up again in 2024 with making sure that we get a broader set of ideas and diversity within the party.

And I think we saw that with, the election outcome and how many groups were starting to vote for Trump again?

I mean, large amount of Latinos, the black vote started to go back towards Trump.

I mean, obviously not a large amount, but definitely considerably larger than 2016 and 2020.

>> Yeah, no.

And just this week, The New York Times, Ezra Klein, obviously a progressive himself, had a conversation with someone who writes about rural American issues.

And the point that his guest was making is the Republican Party has built the multiracial working class coalition that Democrats wanted to build by now in in this century, they've largely done it.

And I wonder, Austin, if you think stories like this political story, does that jeopardize some of what the movement is building?

>> I think it definitely puts a negative light on the movement.

And I think I think a lot of young people are disavowing it.

And as you've said, there's a lot of political leaders, young political leaders such as Senator ORT in the New York State Senate or, you know, Elise Stefanik coming out and saying, you know, this is not representative of us.

but we need to continue that.

We need to have more people recognize that this is not okay.

This is not, you know, who Republicans are.

This isn't who young Republicans are.

I can just say, you know, from being at the University of Rochester with our young Republican or our college Republican club, we have a wide set of opinions.

We have a lot of diversity in the club.

We have people from different backgrounds all across the country that come to Rochester and sit in a room and have conversations about really tough topics, and I think those are the people that are representative of what the Republican Party is today, not the fringe extreme that was in this chat.

>> Do you hear anything when you're talking to college Republicans, even just in a room, hanging out, talking about issues?

Do you hear the kind of language that you heard in that chat in the Politico piece?

>> No, I have at the University of Rochester.

I have not heard these types of conversations.

I mean, joking about, you know, gassing your political opponents or putting people in gas chambers.

I mean, I listened to your show yesterday and you had a rabbi and somebody from the Levin Center talk about, you know, this rise in anti-Semitism, this chat was a representation of those things.

Exactly, of people with really disgusting, crazy ideas coming out and being supported within their own movement.

I mean, I don't understand how this chat happened.

I don't understand because I didn't know the people in the chat, but I definitely was familiar with people in the chat.

Working in New York State politics.

And it was it was surprising to to learn what these people were saying.

>> Jack Shea you want to offer some opening thoughts on the chat itself?

>> Yeah, I mean, Austin absolutely nailed it.

especially what we've seen coming out from the New York State Young Republicans like Austin just said, these are people who we've known through because we're we're a part of the College Republicans organization for the state of New York.

And I want to mention for you and your viewers the college Republican organization is a separate organization from the Young Republicans.

So we had no affiliation.

Affiliation within that with that organization.

but however because there has been some confusion with that, I'm also the president of Saint Bonaventure University, College Republicans.

So I've had people reach out to me and say, hey, what's going on with the people?

within the Young Republicans because they, you know, they kind of correlate young Republicans in college a lot.

But there is a distinct organization difference there.

And I was you know, I had to make sure to tell them, like, this is not the people who I work with.

And however, again those people, we we knew who they were.

Well, at least we, we knew of them.

I did not know that they were like that.

I did not.

It caught me totally off guard because, of course, myself and Austin, that's not who we are.

Those things that they said is not what we believe in.

And it's deeply disturbing and troubling to see what behind closed doors and what they thought would never leak out.

It's it's sad and scary to see what they were, you know, saying within that group chat.

And I deeply despise and truthfully, it greatly upset me.

I could say a lot more, but I'm not going to say it on the radio show.

But it made me very upset because, again, it's not representative of who we are.

It's really not.

And I deeply denounce it as well.

And I have since day one from that when that happened.

And, you know, to think, you know someone and then when they're going to do that and it's a bad look on us, it is such a bad look on us because from, you know, some attacks from the left, they want to call, you know, Republicans racist and sexist and homophobic.

And we can say, oh yeah, we're not.

But then when people do that, it it really doesn't help our case.

>> Yeah.

>> And so, yeah, I'm frankly mad at them.

>> Yeah.

And Jack, I would say I think people who are listening who are on the political left will feel some relief hearing you and Austin denounce that that thread.

Take it seriously.

I think their concern will be Jack the idea that, well, that's part of the fringe of a conservative or republican movement, as opposed to becoming more mainstream.

Are you worried that that's becoming more mainstream?

>> I'm very worried about that.

And as you brought up at the beginning, at the top of the show with Nick Fuentes, he was always a fringe, but he was always like an underground podcaster.

He was never again.

I always knew of who he was just being in, involved in, you know, Republican politics, especially as a younger person in it.

So I always knew who he was.

But now to see how mainstream Nick Fuentes has become, and now being on the Tucker Carlson show and having people come up and talk to me, hey, have you heard about this Nick Fuentes guy?

I'm like, this is a problem.

This is a huge problem.

And the direct result of this is unfortunately, what happened with the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

It's allowed this instance where people are trying to jockey to become the next Charlie Kirk.

And one of those people trying to become the next Charlie Kirk is Nick Fuentes.

And he is, I will say, not even close to the man Charlie Kirk was.

Seriously, Charlie.

I know some people hate him and they despise him.

They said the worst things about him.

Well, well, I have to tell you, Nick Fuentes, he's a whole lot worse.

If you believe that Charlie Kirk was bad.

Nick Fuentes is a lot worse.

And I'm very deeply concerned about that.

I again, I really admire Charlie Kirk, and he was not the person a lot of people said he was.

But unfortunately, with him being gone, people are trying to step up to the plate and more people, especially in our side, become more.

We have to fight.

We have to become radicalized.

Look what they did to us by killing Charlie Kirk.

And now with people becoming more extreme, wanting to go in further to the right, they're going to be heavily attracted to a person like Nick Fuentes.

>> Well, to be clear, Charlie Kirk and Nick Fuentes were ideological opponents in very, very significant ways.

And Fuentes was unrelenting.

In fact, since Charlie Kirk's killing, Nick Fuentes has said horrible things about Charlie Kirk's wife.

Yes.

I mean, just really ugly.

So again, I'll just say for listeners, whatever you think of Charlie Kirk, he and Nick Fuentes were not in the same boat at all about things like commentaries on Jews around the world, Jewish Americans they're not fellow travelers and many of those ways.

And and Kirk wanted to denounce Fuentes growing movement.

Well, now to your point, Jack Fuentes feels sort of emboldened here.

But the part about this that's really confusing to me is I would have thought this would have been universally condemned.

And I want to listen to what on the Charlie Kirk show, one of the first shows after his assassination was hosted by the vice president.

And this issue came up, this this Politico story of this chat, this racist, misogynistic chat.

And here's what the vice president of the United States said about that.

>> By focusing on what kids are saying in a group chat, grow up.

I'm sorry.

Focus on the real issues.

Don't focus on what kids say in group chats.

But there's another angle to this that I just have to be honest about.

I mean, I'm like an old guy at this point.

I'm 41 years old.

I have three kids.

you know, we I grew up in a different world, right?

We're not most of what I the stupid things that I did when I was a teenager and a young adult, they're not on the internet.

Like, I'm going to tell my kids, especially my boys don't put things on the internet, like, be careful with what you post.

If you put something in a group chat, assume that some scumbag is going to leak it in an effort to try to cause you harm or cause your family harm.

But the reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys.

They tell edgy, offensive jokes like 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.

>> That's Vice President JD Vance.

And I want to say that in the general context of his message, I agree with him.

I think that we need to show grace to kids.

In his words, young kids, young boys who start posting, start finding social media in their teenage years.

And by the time they are formed, adults might look back in their 20s, 30s and 40s and go, what was I saying?

I mean, you wouldn't want your worst, dumbest, most shock comment published in there forever.

And I agree with the vice president about that.

And I've been clear about that.

But that is not what this chat was.

I don't understand him making that point about this just because it's called a federation of of young Republican Republicans.

that's not what we're talking about here.

We're not talking about teenagers.

We're not talking about kids.

We're not talking about boys.

We're talking about 35 year olds.

We're talking about 25 year olds.

We're talking about a 29-year-old.

We're talking about a sitting state senator.

So that was not an honest description of what happened from the vice president.

I just have to say, Austin, what did you make of that?

Is that fair?

>> That is exactly the point that I was going to make.

especially when, you know, we reference this with JD Vance because when he said this, I think a lot of people who weren't necessarily tuned in to the situation in New York and, you know, across the country, because this was a chat, not just young Republicans in New York, but of people from, you know, all across the country.

People get confused and think, oh, these were 19, 20-year-old boys who were making dumb comments.

And like you said, no, these were people in their late 20s, early 30s, people that were employed in government, people that worked on political.

>> And have been for years.

>> Yeah, and have been for years and have been actively involved in contributing.

So I'm so glad that you made that distinction because, again, when we say young people that there's a big distinction, there's a big distinction, like you said, between somebody that's young and dumb and stupid and still learning the world in college and somebody that works for a sitting assemblyman or is a state senator in another state or a state assembly person, I mean, big, big difference.

So I'm very thankful that you brought that up.

>> Okay, Jack, what do you think there >>?

>> Austin.

Absolutely nailed it.

I actually, you know, I, I was watching the interview as well when it happened, when he was saying these young boys, I was like, did he does he know, like, the situation.

What's going on?

Did he read that text message like that thread?

I was like, last I knew, a 24-year-old was not a young boy.

And last I knew, of course, definitely a 35-year-old man.

That's not a young boy.

So I again, I was again with the overall premise of, yes, you know, people say stupid things.

I'm always very careful.

I'm sure Austin is too.

And many of us all try to be.

But, you know, along the way people say things that, oh, I should never said that.

But let's be real.

These people knew exactly what they were saying and it wasn't a one off thing.

They this was constant all the time.

And there was many cases where they were saying these outlandish things and ridiculous comments, and it was just unbelievable.

So no, it wasn't just a oh, I accidentally said something or no, these people really believed what they were saying, and they thought it was funny.

And it's just truly disgusting.

So no, I, I, I disagree with the vice president on that.

He's I don't know, it makes me wonder what he said.

>> Well, I want to ask Jack and and Austin a little bit.

about, you know, some of these figures that they've been talking about.

Fuentes among them.

He's not alone, but he's one of the really sort of hot voices on the scene, unfortunately.

but before we even do that, Jack, you're at Saint Bonaventure, is that correct?

>> That is correct.

>> Okay.

What year are you there?

>> I'm a third year senior here.

>> Okay.

is it.

Is it do you think it's hard to be a conservative or a Republican on a college campus these days?

>> overall, it definitely is.

Saint Bonaventure.

Definitely a little more conservative leaning within the student body.

But I, of course, hear from my colleagues around the state of New York, especially at Suny, schools.

It's definitely an uphill battle for them, for sure.

But even here at a more conservative you know, leaning school.

Yeah, it's still hard.

It's still very hard.

>> What about you, Austin?

You're at the University of Rochester.

What's it like for you?

>> I think it's definitely difficult.

I think it's I don't think it's, you know, a challenge to the way I live my life every day.

But I do think that it definitely makes one cognizant of what they say on campus.

And I think there is kind of this larger culture, as Jack is saying, of schools across New York and across the country, that if you have a different opinion, or something that necessarily doesn't fit a mainstream narrative of, you know, kind of what we think of as like young progressive politics on a college campus it's definitely hard.

It's definitely hard to have conversations.

And sometimes you get targeted.

I mean, I used to be in the student senate at the University of Rochester, and there were times that I would make comments during meetings or have certain votes that were pretty, you know, important to me that I got targeted for.

And I got hate messages, I got hate mail.

I wrote for the Campus Times on campus and wrote conservative or Republican think pieces.

I got hate mail and I got threats and comments.

And, you know, I think that's very disheartening in today's environment.

>> So if you don't mind me saying, I thought you made a really thoughtful remark before the program started where we were kind of talking about this and you made the point that it is not the same thing to say that there's discrimination against a point of view versus there are hard and challenging comments or questions.

That discomfort is okay.

Yes, that you don't expect to feel comfortable all the time.

You expect to be challenged for your views.

You expect to have to be just justifying your views that people are worthy of respect, but ideas are worthy of interrogation.

I mean, all of those things seem like things that you value.

Yeah.

So what's the difference between a situation where you're on campus at the U of R and you feel like, you know, as a, as a young conservative or a Republican that, you know, I get pushed for my views a lot.

There's obviously a lot of progressives on campus.

They don't like the way that I think or the views that I hold, and they challenge me.

What's the difference between that and saying there are times where it's hard and I feel targeted?

>> Yeah.

No, I think that there's a big distinction, and I think that having conversations is very important.

I mean, that's what this program is about.

That's what public radio is for.

That's what, you know, our modern day journalistic society is all about is having tough conversations.

I don't sway from that at all.

You know, I when I was in, you know, the student senate at the University of Rochester, I tried to have very interesting and tough conversations with people I disagreed with.

There were a lot of things going on on campus about the poster situation and anti-Semitic incidents.

And, you know, I had people come to me that vehemently disagreed with my opinion on how we should handle that, but I accepted that the difference between having a difficult conversation on topics such as that and getting messages on Instagram threatening me or telling me that they disagreed with what I was writing and that I should harm myself or hurt myself.

That's where you draw the line, and that's where there is a big difference in distinction.

And when you attack somebody for who they are as a person, who I am, I mean, I'm a Republican and there's a lot of other aspects about me that I think make me myself.

Why are we why are we attacking somebody for their personal characteristics that seems so antithetical to our.

>> Telling them that.

>> They.

>> Shouldn't be alive?

>> Yeah.

No, that is it's it's it's absolutely disgusting.

Which is why I say there's a big difference between having a discourse and then just outright threatening somebody because you don't like them or you don't agree with their views.

I mean, I it it's mind boggling to me.

I don't know how you could ever do that.

I really don't.

>> So the reason I bring this up is because I it's not surprising to hear that young Republicans on college campuses would feel like they are in political minorities, although to Jack's Point, campus to campus, it's going to differ.

and the experience won't be the same everywhere.

But sometimes you hear from teenage Republicans, 20 somethings who feel pretty isolated.

And what we talked about yesterday on the program was this movement towards these figures like Fuentes and there he is, not alone, but it is people like Nick Fuentes who have built large followings of mostly men, not all men, but mostly men who I'm I'm not sitting here blaming their college experience and saying that's the only reason they would gravitate to Nick Fuentes, or that's a justification that makes it okay.

I am trying to epistemologically understand what is going on.

That is leading, you know, Fuentes to be to have lunch with President Trump and Kanye, as he did a couple of years ago, to have an audience with Tucker Carlson, to have the Heritage Foundation's president, Kevin Roberts, yesterday saying, to be clear, the Heritage Foundation is not going to condemn Tucker Carlson for platforming Nick Fuentes.

And we think that Fuentes ideas are worthy of of talking about, I mean, like, this is not what I would have expected even five years ago.

Yeah.

And so I want to ask both of you for your best thoughts about you're not in his camp, but you've got people your age who are.

Yeah.

And I suspect you may know somebody who is.

So what's appealing about Nick Fuentes?

Why is it going this way?

>> Well, I think it's to.

It shows a broader, you know, shift in our modern day politics.

I don't think it's just the right that has this problem.

I think that on the left, too, there's a ideological shift of young people.

And I think this is true throughout history.

I think young people have always been visionaries and change makers, and so they have a bit more of extreme ideas.

But I think today, more than ever, we are seeing people on the Republican side in a very, very far right camp and people on the liberal and Democrat side on a very, very far left camp, both of which have aspects that are very dangerous to civic conversation.

Having open dialogs.

And I don't know, I mean, I think that there's a lot of things that can contribute to it.

I think that, I mean, polarization is a huge thing.

The rhetoric that we have in our campaigns from both sides, up and down the ballot, has become more and more extreme.

And I think that pushes people to seek out more extreme ideas and people that they agree with.

And I think with the advent of social media and a stronger online presence of a lot of people, they're now seeing, oh, it's so accessible for me to listen to ideas that necessarily aren't mainstream in the sense of media and broadcast television.

They're now going on TikTok or Twitter or to Tucker Carlson and listening, listening to some of those interviews, which platform?

Pretty crazy ideas.

>> What about you?

Jack?

What?

And again, before I let Jack jump in here, let me also say this.

I want to be careful.

What we're trying to do is understand why some of these movements.

How mainstream they're becoming, how powerful they are, the push and pull.

Our guests today are not fans of Nick Fuentes.

They're not fans.

They're not.

at all.

They're not defending the racism and bigotry in the chats that have been publicized.

but I'll give you an example of something that can happen that I, I find not helpful.

So recently there was this set of nationwide demonstrations under the banner of No Kings Day.

So people all across the country, different places.

And, you know, I mean, it really was a set of peaceful demonstrations.

Now there's a woman who became kind of the face of it for for some circles of the online.

Right.

And I haven't seen a follow up.

I heard that she was a teacher in Chicago or Illinois, but when the camera pans to her, there's hundreds of people on a roadside, and when she notices, the camera pans to her, she makes this motion like she's getting shot in the throat, like, obviously referencing Charlie Kirk.

Yeah, in a way that I thought was obviously disgusting and should be condemned.

I didn't look at her and say, well, that's no Kings Day.

That's who was protesting.

I looked at her and I said, thank goodness most of the people protesting are not like her.

And that that should not be used to to say that that entire movement is that because I thought that was gross, in the same way that I wouldn't want to say, well, you know, you're in college and you're a Republican and a lot of people your age who are fellow travelers are Nick Fuentes fans.

So therefore you are or that's everybody.

That's not fair either.

I'm simply saying I want to know more about what you think about why someone like Fuentes is not as fringe as he used to be.

He's gaining, you know, an audience with the president.

He's getting more mainstream.

That's what we're doing.

I hope that that is fair there.

And Jack, I want to give you some space to talk about why you think someone like Fuentes has become more mainstream.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I know why.

And I've talked with Fuentes fans and what they love about him is that he will say whatever is on his mind, he does not care what he is, what he has to say.

Whatever comes out of his mouth, he does not care.

And he is unfiltered and people may not agree with everything he is saying, but what they love about him is that he will speak his truth and he will be unfiltered and say whatever is on his mind.

And that's what people are attracted to.

it's something that's also just in politics in general.

Politicians lie all the time.

They don't tell the truth.

So for someone to be watching Nick Fuentes, you're like, whether you like him or not, this guy is speaking his thoughts and he is just really crazy to see.

So I think that's what people are attracted to about him.

>> do you agree, Jackie?

I mean, from what I've seen, most of his audience are men.

I know there are women who follow him and are fans of him, but it's pretty predominantly male.

Is that fair?

Jack.

>> That is definitely fair.

However, I do know actually some women who are very big fans of him, so it's definitely not unheard of.

>> Okay and so I think Rick's email is indicative of the question of where do we go from here and what I'm going to do after we get our only break of the hour.

I'm going to turn to some listener feedback.

if you want to email the program Connections at wxxi.org.

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And if you are, we hope you subscribe there on the WXXI News YouTube page.

We've got Austin DeLorme with us in studio.

He's Vice President of the University of Rochester College Republicans and a parliamentarian of the New York State Federation of College Republicans.

And Jack Shea, executive director of the New York State Federation of College Republicans.

With us as well.

We'll come right back on Connections.

Coming up in our second hour, a conversation with leaders from Rochester, teachers unions who are really fed up with the fact that the payroll system has not been fixed yet.

And there are teachers who are getting paid basically nothing for continuing to do their jobs.

And now some teachers, they're getting 20 bucks in their paycheck for two weeks.

80 bucks.

They're having a hard time paying their rent.

Some are talking about selling their plasma.

We're going to talk about who's affected next.

Our.

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>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

So here's Rick who says, sadly, I am not surprised by what was revealed by the leak of the group chats in the Young Republicans.

Although your guests say this is not the Republican Party, it seems to me that it is.

And considering that Richard Nixon employed a so-called southern strategy that sought to capitalize on racism as he ran for election, something H.R.

Haldeman admitted and subsequent Republicans also turned to coded racial appeals.

Rick goes on to say, my question to your guest is, how do they think this culture can be challenged successfully within their own party, given the history over so many decades?

So I'll start in studio with Austin.

That is from Rick.

First of all, I mean, you don't have to agree with his characterization.

Yeah, but I will give you space to respond to Rick there.

Go ahead.

>> Of course.

No.

And I think it's it's it's definitely a fair point.

And I think that like I said at the at the top, you know, we are trying to reinvent the Republican Party as the big tent party.

Again, I think that we used to be and I think we strayed away.

And I think that, like I said, with the 2024 election, people are coming back.

But even like I said at the University of Rochester, we have such a diversity of people and opinion within the Republican Party now.

I mean, you have people that are ultra conservatives.

You have people that are more moderate, such as myself, and you have people of different backgrounds.

I mean, we have people of many different races, many different ideological perspectives, religious perspectives.

I mean, I can say for myself, I mean, as a gay man, like within the Republican Party, that was definitely a shock for a lot of people.

And I think that when people hear that, they think like, how is that possible?

And, and I kind of said to you before the show, you know, there's a big difference between a conservative and a Republican in my mind.

And I think it's different for everybody.

And I've talked on the show before about how the definition of conservatism is different for everybody.

I would classify, classify myself as a Republican, as a classical Republican, someone who believes in individual freedom, liberty, the right to work and do what what you may with your money to be able to have as much autonomy over yourself as possible.

And I think making that distinction and saying we have young people that come from many different backgrounds that hold that view.

They are the people that are making up our party, as well as many other ideological perspectives in the party.

So I think that we are making a lot of strides.

Like I said, with the diversity, with a lot of opinion, we can have tough discussions and tough conversations about what we want for the future of the Republican Party.

>> Why would you not call yourself a conservative?

>> I would say that for my definition of conservative, it is kind of keeping things the same.

And I think a lot of people classify conservatism as evangelical conservatism.

And as much as I am a religious person I don't know if I would put myself in that camp of conservatism, which is, again, I said, there's a lot of different variations of conservatism.

So so it kind of depends on who you ask of what their definition of conservative is.

But I would not classify myself as a conservative.

>> It is interesting Austin to me, watching some of the kinds of language that we saw in that in that group chat, because there's a lot of homophobic stuff.

>> Exactly.

>> But there's a lot of leadership.

There's a growing amount of leadership, even in the Trump administration of gay men.

we see people in prominent positions in this administration.

obviously there is a socially conservative or pretty evangelical movement that is still opposed to some of some of that.

But, how fractured does that aspect of republicanism feel to you?

>> I mean, I definitely think there is a fracture.

Like you said, there's wings of the party that still aren't necessarily on board with, you know, gay marriage or essential rights for LGBTQ plus people.

I would say as more of a moderate or I call myself common sense Republican.

Again, individual freedom, you should be able to do what you want as an individual.

If you want to get married to whoever you want to get married to, that's your prerogative.

And I think that's the conversation that we need to have as Republicans is that we need to emphasize to people.

We want people to have freedom and autonomy.

We do not want people to fall into a camp that they feel that they're being controlled in any type of way.

And when we continue those conversations, especially when it comes to the group chat with these, you know, vitriolic comments, we need to rid that of all political ideologies.

We we can't have hate, drive a political movement.

That's not how we move forward as a country.

>> One more point on this, and then I'm going to get to Jack's response, and then I'm going to take your phone calls.

Listeners.

in the Dobbs Decision 2022 now, I think that was 2022.

In the Dobbs decision the majority justices are pointing potentially at Obergefell and indicating that they may revisit the ruling a decade ago that brought equal marriage.

And some are being cheered by members of the socially conservative movement.

So, you know, this was a president who has been very successful at building up a Supreme Court that has got A63 edge ideologically.

And I presume this is a president that you have supported and support.

Is that fair?

>> I would say that I have I've supported him in the past, but I am definitely critical of him at times, too.

>> Okay.

That's I'm just looking at your future rights as a gay man who I, you know, if you want to marry in the future, right now, that is an option for you.

Are you worried that a movement that you've supported could take that right away?

>> I, I definitely always think that it's a concern, but I mean, we talk about, you know, the cases coming in front of the Supreme Court.

I do not think that gay marriage is going anywhere.

As of now.

The constitutional argument for it is definitely not sound, but it's definitely something that we need to be concerned about because this is a movement that has taken years, years to get to where we are.

I mean, it wasn't until, I mean, 2014, 2015, until gay marriage was legalized, 2013.

It was the early 20 tens till we started seeing states and eventually the nation come to the realization that this is the reality now and we need to change with the times.

I also think that on the court right now, there are justices that we label as conservatives that are definitely more of a toss up on these issues.

I mean, Amy Coney Barrett, for example, we really haven't been able to get some of her decisions when it's come to the emergency docket.

I think that there are strong constitutional arguments.

you know, for and against.

But ultimately, I don't think that that's something that we have to be overtly concerned about.

I think that that's something that a majority of Americans through polling have shown that they support and would continue to be a thing, even if the Supreme Court did overturn that.

>> Jack Shea the email from Rick indicates, I think again, some support for what you are saying, but doubt about how correct you are that what we're seeing in these charts is not more representative of the movement.

So his concern is going forward.

What has to happen and and how does this reflect the history as he sees it?

What would you say to Rick Jack?

>> I'd say, Rick, that is absolutely a great question.

It really is.

And thank you for holding us accountable as Republicans look so myself and Austin, we're both on the state executive board for the New York State College Republicans, I can assure you.

And I hope you can believe me when I say this, if any of that was going on amongst the college Republicans of the state of New York, we would not be associated or affiliated with this organization.

And we would we would go after those people who are doing that.

And I can I can assure you, Rick that that is not going on.

Me and Austin would be fighters to make sure that would not happen in our organization.

because, again, that's not what we stand for.

That's not what we believe in.

And again, as I mentioned at the top of the show, what happened in that organization, what came out, do you deeply disturbed me, and it frankly made me so mad.

It made me so mad because for me to tell people I'm, you know, again, those buzzwords that have been thrown in my direction because I'm a Republican, that I'm racist, sexist, homophobic, I'm like, I am not.

But then for that chat to come out again, how it makes it makes it a lot harder for me to defend myself.

So I was very upset by that.

And I would tell you, me and Austin would not stand up for that.

We really would not.

So we would go strongly against those people if they ever did.

And I can assure you, it does not happen in New York State College Republicans.

That is 100%.

And we're going to make sure it doesn't happen within the future of the Republican Party.

As we look to become more involved in the future.

Thank you, Rick, for that question, Rick.

>> Thank you.

This is Marsha in Walworth on the phone.

Hey, Marsha, go ahead.

>> Hey.

Hi.

thanks so much for taking my call.

I just want to say thank you for having these two young Republicans.

college Republicans on the show today.

I am 77 years old.

In the course of my life, I have voted Republican.

I have voted Democrat.

but regardless of how I voted, I have always respected both parties.

And when that came out from the Young Republicans that chat I was beyond appalled.

I mean, it was just so despicable.

And I thought, this is it.

You know, I can't say anything positive about the Republican Party.

If that's its use.

So I am very grateful that these two young men have stepped forward, taken the initiative to go on the air and speak to us and, that you even have fielded and challenged them and opened their comments to us.

So I am grateful to have heard this today and know that the Republican Party, as I have known it and respected it for many decades has a viable future.

>> Well, Marcia, thank you, thank you.

And I know I'll let them respond.

I mean, I'm sure they appreciate that.

I'll say that.

I think it was Austin who reached out to us recently.

Yes.

Okay, there.

we go.

Because we were, you know, after this whole story came out with Politico, we were kind of trying to go through different channels to find folks.

And Austin finally put his hand up and said, hey, I was on a few years ago when you were an even younger man.

>> Yeah, I was in high school.

>> You were in high school on this program.

And and so Jack and Austin put themselves forward voluntarily to do that.

I will say a couple of things to Marcia.

We don't have enough conservatives or Republicans as guests on this program.

And that is not for lack of trying, but we are going to continue to try to do more.

They don't expect to come on and get sort of soft pedaled.

Everyone.

Everyone's ideas should be interrogated.

And if I'm not doing a good job of that, I know the listeners will let me know.

I know if guests don't feel respected, they will let me know.

But I mean, come on, Jack Shea, you're on public radio.

I mean, your fellow travelers have got to think you're crazy, man.

>> What do you think?

>> You're just.

Just a response to Marcia.

It's just nice to hear that again.

And from what we've been talking about here, we are not aligned with any of those beliefs.

And it's sad to see that they were leadership for the New York State Young Republicans.

And as I sit here we might get some blowback from what we're doing today on the show, but it's really not about that.

I would be I would wear it with a badge of honor.

If we get some pushback for what we're doing, because I think what we're we're doing the right thing here today.

Me and Austin, we really are doing the right thing here today.

So it really is nice to hear you say that, Marcia.

>> Awesome.

>> Yeah.

And I think that, as Jack said, holding ourselves accountable.

If there's something that we don't agree with with what is happening within the Republican movement, I think us as Republicans have to stand up and say it.

And I appreciate that.

You know, Marcia called in and made that comment because that's what we need.

We need more dialog and conversations from somebody like Marcia, who's, you know, been a very bipartisan figure in the community.

And also between, you know, political leaders within our state and country.

>> All right.

Back to the phones, Don and East Rochester.

Hi, Don.

Go ahead.

>> thank you for taking my call.

Austin.

All's I can say is that you are a sellout to the lesbian and gay community of the of the United States.

how can you support a party that is as anti-gay as it is?

When are you going to get out of it?

When are you going to stand up and fight back against these people instead of being in there and trying and begging them to begging them to change their mind, beg them to see things your way, when are you going to stand up and fight back?

>> All right, Don, thank you.

Go ahead.

>> Austin.

I would say that you know, I understand the criticism, but I would not I wouldn't classify myself as a sellout.

If anything, I'd say that what I'm doing is pretty, pretty it's pretty special.

And it's important within the Republican movement, if we can't have dialogs and conversations of people of different backgrounds, especially of the gay or LGBTQ+ community within the Republican movement, how are we ever going to get anything done when Republicans are in power?

and having these conversations is important.

If we didn't have these conversations, we'd never get anything done.

We wouldn't ever have progress with any social movement.

And I understand the criticism.

But as a gay man, I also don't appreciate sometimes the it almost feels like gay people are used as a token by the Democrat Party to advance certain agendas and to support their voting base.

And so as somebody with a plethora of ideas and a diversity of opinion, you know, that's why I am a Republican and a proud gay Republican.

>> Don, thank you for that call.

and let me continue down the list here.

Sean in Fairport says the following.

He says, I don't recognize today's Republican Party, and I'm hopeful that young Republicans might reform it.

And Sean goes on to say this.

He sees not just Nick Fuentes, but the president of the United States making routinely hateful or racist comments that are unchallenged by Congressional Republicans, in his view.

So he says he wants to know what do what what do the Young Republicans stand for?

So Sean and Fairport wants to know what is it that you do stand for?

We'll start with Jack.

you want to respond to Sean?

Go ahead.

>> Right.

Well, I mean, absolutely.

And it's again, a great question.

Thank you for holding us accountable as you know, college Republicans here.

again, there's things that happen every single day within members of our own organization or, in our organization, but within our party, who say comments that we don't believe with.

I, I would also say that I'm sure that's going on on the left.

Let's look at the attorney general candidate down in Virginia, Jay Jones, who suggested that he would kill the his opponents, or a it was like a member of Congress, his family and his children.

So this is not just a right wing, hateful rhetoric issue.

This is also on the left side as well.

And that's definitely a thing that needs to be, you know, put out into the spotlight what happened.

You know, Charlie Kirk was assassinated September 10th for going to college campuses, speaking the students and using the First Amendment right of freedom of speech.

He was killed for that.

And so this is definitely not just, again, we need to hold ourselves accountable and thank you for doing that.

But again, this is not just a Republican issue.

there's a lot of left wing hateful rhetoric as well.

And I also just want to add to that last call from Don is when, you know, with Austin being a gay man, I don't, you know, I'm very good friends with Austin.

but him being gay.

Who cares?

I don't care that he's gay.

I respect him as a person, as a human being.

I'm not.

You know, that's not in the back of my mind that he's a gay man.

Because, again, a big thing for us Republicans is about personal, individual freedom.

And that's who I am.

Austin has the right to do what he wants to do, and it's frankly none of my business.

And that's how a lot of other people are within the college Republicans.

Is that Austin a good man, and we respect him for what he believes in his whatever he wants to do, that's fine.

And it's not a problem with anyone.

So that kind of, you know, statement that, you know, Republicans hate gays totally.

it's totally wrong.

>> Austin do you want to respond to Sean and Fairport asking, what is the what is it that you do stand for?

>> Yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of what Jack said, and I've been saying not to beat a dead horse, but it's the whole fundamental principle of the individual of being able to do what you want.

and I think that's what we need to bring back to local Republican politics.

I mean, at least in, in Rochester, you know, we have local races coming up.

November 4th is coming up.

It's almost election day.

and we have a lot of good Republican candidates here and across the state that are for those things are for individual freedom or for, you know, inclusivity and are trying to bring people into the party and have messages that are more broadly appealing to our community.

So just making sure that we continue that, especially from a youth perspective, getting involved with those campaigns and people who advance that.

And I think that's something we try to do with the College Republicans is trying to endorse candidates and involve ourselves with candidates that have young people at the forefront of the conversation and make sure that we continue to be heard, and we continue to have conversations about what the future looks like for us and what changes we can make to improve the party, improve the state, improve our government and get more people involved to make sure that we have a more civically engaged community.

>> Austin do you have an ideal 2028 Republican presidential candidate?

>> I don't as of yet, but I would.

I would love to have you know, somebody that's not necessarily a mainstream or affiliated with.

Maybe the Trump camp.

I kind of want to have somebody that is a fresh face for the Republican Party.

>> So is there one example that even if it's a long shot, that you would say, this would be a great one?

>> you're going to have to come back to me on that one.

I can't, I, I honestly don't look that far ahead in the future.

As I said, November 4th is coming up.

I'm kind of looking at at that as the closest benchmark.

>> All right.

Well, listen, you're going to come back and we're going to as we get closer.

>> Oh, of course, of course.

>> Jack, what about you?

Is there a 2028 candidate that jumps off the page for you?

>> Yes, sir.

Absolutely is.

And I actually, look I actually really love the secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the senator, former senator out of Florida.

I just think of how he was able to connect with the other side of the party and work alongside them.

When he was in the Senate, he was confirmed with 99 votes in the Senate.

Now, of course with him being aligned and working for the Trump administration, many Democrats have now started to turn against Marco.

But I believe in a campaign where he's able, you know, the sort of become his own person and be the Marco Rubio that the Democrats voted for to confirm him as secretary of state.

I think he could truly be someone who would be an absolute winner on the Republican ticket and unite our country.

>> All right.

A lot of questions via email.

So I'm just going to try to squeeze this in.

And it's really it's own conversation.

But a lot of questions about what's going on with ice.

Austin briefly how do you view what Ice has been doing this year?

>> I mean, I definitely think that with the Trump administration coming in, that immigration enforcement is important, but I think that the way we have seen Ice come into our communities is necessarily not the best way to go about enforcing our laws and enforcing you know, restrictions against illegal immigration.

I think that coming into communities where people have been here for sometimes ten, 15, 20 years are working or contributing, have families that then do become citizens from being born here.

I think that we need to have a broader conversation.

I think that compassion is important.

I obviously think that we need to have stricter immigration enforcement, of course, but I think that there's a there's a good balance in a way to do it.

>> You sound like a lot of what Joe Rogan said a couple of weeks ago, which is that he wanted to see criminals, drug dealers, gangsters taken out and taken home, and he did not want to see people who have been doing good work for years waiting tables, doing roofer doing, you know, working as roofer.

Is that kind of a thing?

>> Yeah, definitely not broad amnesty, but I think that we should make it.

We should give more resources and make it easier for people that come here are doing the right thing to try to get here and continue doing the right thing.

>> Jack brief thoughts from you on that.

>> Yeah, I agree 100% with Austin and I agree with the sentiment of Joe Rogan.

>> Okay so let's let's close with this.

Austin you reached out to us.

I'm going to give you the last word here.

We're down to under a minute here.

It hasn't been the most fun month for people who work in young Republican circles.

Yes, but what are you going to do to build your movement going forward that is truly inclusive and ejects all kinds of bigotry?

>> Yeah.

Well, thank you again for having me.

And like, like we've said throughout this whole conversation, we are going to continue to make sure that the comments that were made do not happen, will not happen and will not ever happen within the New York State Federation of College Republicans.

And what we will do is we will continue on our campuses to have difficult dialogs, difficult conversations, and we will continue to go out in the community, work with candidates, door knock campaign work, fight, continue to do what we need to do to get young people involved and get them to the polls to make sure that we get young people involved in tough conversations.

>> So in those in that spirit, Jack and Austin, you are both invited back here in a few months because I've got a pile of emails.

We didn't even get to.

People want to understand more about your views, how you see the country, how you see some of the issues.

And you know, we had to focus pretty narrowly this hour given some of the recent news events, but there's broader interest in your views and what you represent.

So you're both invited to come back.

I'll get in touch with our team.

Will, and I hope you both say yes.

>> Perfect.

Yeah.

Of course.

Thank you.

>> Austin DeLorme.

>> Thank you.

>> Yes.

That's a that's a yes from Jack Jack, executive director of the New York State Federation of College Republicans.

Jack, thanks for making time for us today.

>> Hey.

Glad to be here.

Thank you.

It's an honor.

>> Austin DeLorme vice president of the University of College Republicans and parliamentarian of the New York State Federation of College Republicans.

Thanks for being back.

>> Thank you so much, Evan.

>> More Connections coming up in a moment.

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