Vacationers have long known that Miami group chats can be a force for evil. Friendship-ruining, relationship-destroying, and, in the case of the Miami-Dade County’s Republican Party, a national scandal.
The Miami Herald reported this week that the local Republican chapter’s recently established Whatsapp group chat for young conservatives was quickly overrun with racist and misogynistic posts. According to the Herald, users threw around racist slurs against Black and Jewish people with abandon, including hundreds of instances of the n-word.
In one instance College Republicans Recruitment Chair Dariel Gonzalez wrote that “you can f–k all the [k***s] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate,” leading Florida International University Turning Point USA chapter president Ian Valdes to reply that he “would def not marry a Jew.”
Another user, William Bejerano, sent a long list of violent acts he encouraged against Black people. The n-word packed message included acts like crucifixion, dissection, and beheading. The chat also went through several rounds of renaming, including “Uber R****d Yapping,” and “Gooning in Agartha,” a reference to Nazi esoterica associated with SS head Heinrich Himmler.
In response, Florida International University has opened an investigation into the group chat and the students allegedly involved. Two Republican Florida state senators have also called for the involved students to be expelled.
“The statements made by those individuals clarify their moral and intellectual corruption and demonstrate a complete misalignment with core, shared American values,” State Senator Alexis Calatayud (R-38) wrote in a Facebook post. “The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican Party of Florida. We call for their speedy and immediate expulsion of party leadership.”
The leak is another entry into the disturbing pattern of establishment Republican group chats — particularly those involving younger members of the party — riddled with racist and extremist language. It mirrors a broader pattern within the conservative movement that embraces extremist rhetoric among its lawmakers and influencers — led by President Donald Trump — with little consequence.
In October, the right-wing punditry class rushed to defend leaked messages from a Young Republicans’ group chat that contained such statements as: “Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic”; “I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball”; and “you’re giving nationals [too] much credit and expecting the Jew to be honest.”
Vice President J.D. Vance also defended the Republicans in the chat, saying he wasn’t going to “engage in pearl clutching” over “stupid jokes.”
In Florida, the race for governor has been marked by a contentious Republican primary between MAGA Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who is Black, and James Fishback, who has made white nationalism the center of his platform.
In January, Fishback — a so-called “groyper” who is courting the support of online racists and edgelords in order to achieve campaign virality — came under fire after tweeting at his opponent, “By’rone wants to turn Florida into a Section 8 ghetto.” It’s no wonder the young Republicans in Florida are letting the last of their restraints drop in the confines of their groupchats.
www.rollingstone.com
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