Vance Claims Everyone Is “Pearl Clutching” Over Racist GOP Group Chat

Vice President JD Vance late Tuesday decried “pearl clutching” over a Politico story unearthing a private group chat in which prominent members of Young Republicans chapters called Black people monkeys, spoke approvingly of rape and slavery, and wrote other odious remarks, such as “I love Hitler” and messages containing racial and homophobic slurs.

Opting for whataboutism, Vance highlighted unearthed messages by Jay Jones, a Democratic nominee for attorney general in Virginia, who recently apologized for leaked private messages from August 2022, in which he joked about shooting then-state House Speaker Speaker Todd Gilbert. Jones also said Gilbert would not take action on gun safety unless his children were endangered, writing, “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”

Vance posted a screenshot of the latter comment on X, with the caption: “This is far worse than anything said in a college group chat, and the guy who said it could become the AG of Virginia. I refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence.”

For one, it’s not a matter of fact that Jones’s messages are worse than those of the Young Republicans, who spoke about having their political opponents raped and sent to gas chambers.

Vance is also trying to downplay the importance of the messages by claiming they were shared in a “college group chat.”

But Young Republicans groups include those between 18 and 40 years old, with members of the reported group chat well into adulthood. The man Politico identifies as “the most prominent voice in the chat spreading racist messages,” for instance, is 31. The members held notable positions in Republican politics, with several leading state affiliates of the GOP’s youth arm. Some worked in state politics, and at least one serves as a state senator.

Vance’s tweet exemplifies his time-tested willingness to excuse vitriol in his own ranks, embracing a “no-enemies-to-the-right” stance that is seemingly limitless.