The political fallout is continuing from the leak of the Young Republicans group chat. A Politico investigation found revealed that young GOP leaders from Arizona, Kansas, New York, and Vermont sent each other thousands of Telegram messages that included racist, antisemitic, and violent rhetoric.

The authors of the messages repeatedly used slurs and epithets to describe Black people and other people of color, said “I love Hitler,” joked about putting their political opponents in gas chambers, and threatened rape and violence.

First reported last week, the Politico story instigated a conversation among conservatives about whether blatantly bigoted language had become too normalized among young people on the right.

Some members of the chat have been fired or resigned from their positions in the party. Democrats were quick to condemn the messages, but the response from Republican pundits and politicians has been divided, with some denouncing the statements and others minimizing and excusing them, or pointing to violent messages coming from the left.

Vice President JD Vance, notably, said he refused to “join the pearl clutching” and referred to the chat participants as “kids” and “young boys,” even though the participants are in their 20s and 30s.

The leaked Young Republicans chat was followed by another leaked chat in which Paul Ingrassia, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, told a group of Republicans that he has “a Nazi streak,” that Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell,” and used an Italian slur for Black people. On Tuesday, Ingrassia withdrew his nomination in the wake of these reports and after it became clear he wouldn’t have the backing of several GOP senators.

Today, Explained host Noel King spoke with Jamie Cohen, an associate professor of media studies at Queens College CUNY in New York who researches visual culture and online extremism, about why Republicans keep getting caught saying offensive things to each other when they think no one else is listening.

Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so........

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