WASHINGTON — A photograph from 2024 exhibits President Donald Trump backstage at a marketing campaign rally with two members of the Younger Republican Nationwide Federation who participated within the deeply disturbing, racist group chat leaked to Politico earlier this week.
The picture, obtained by HuffPost, exhibits Trump giving a thumbs-up with Peter Giunta, an everyday participant within the group chat who mentioned at one level, “I love Hitler,” and Anne KayKaty, who chimed in on the group chat that she wished “to watch people burn.”
The picture supplies further proof to rebut makes an attempt by Republican leaders, together with Vice President JD Vance and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), to painting the chat contributors as mere children whose racist and antisemitic views had little affect on the get together. Whereas native get together officers, donors and others typically get their photographs taken with political candidates earlier than rallies, getting backstage usually requires that they’ve no less than some affect.
Giunta initially shared the picture on his Fb web page, nevertheless it’s not publicly obtainable.
In an announcement to HuffPost, a White Home official urged there was nothing untoward concerning the president’s picture: “All presidents, including President Trump, take tens of thousands of pictures over the course of their campaign.”
Giunta has additionally had his image taken with Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Stefanik, who each condemned the statements within the group chat.
The leaked dialog revealed a number of leaders of Younger Republicans teams making profoundly disgusting feedback. They referred to Black individuals as monkeys and “the watermelon people.” They used slurs like “faggot,” “retarded” and “nigga.” They talked about raping and placing their political enemies in gasoline chambers.
And naturally, Giunta casually praised Adolf Hitler.
Vance on Wednesday tried to downplay the content material of those chats, bizarrely saying Younger Republicans leaders had been simply “kids” who had been telling “edgy, offensive jokes.”
However because the picture exhibits, Giunta and KayKaty had been related sufficient to the Trump marketing campaign to get direct entry to Trump for a photograph. By no means thoughts that the Younger Republican Nationwide Federation registers anybody aged 18 to 40, or that Giunta, who chaired the group’s New York state chapter, was in his early 30s when he despatched his “I love Hitler” textual content.
Giunta resigned final month from New York State Younger Republicans amid allegations of “serious potential financial misconduct” inside the group. Kaykaty stays a nationwide committee member for New York State Younger Republicans.
Requested concerning the Hitler-loving group chat Thursday, Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) volunteered that he, too, had been photographed with the contributors.
“I don’t know who any of these people are, I never heard of them. Somebody posted a photo of me standing with them,” Johnson mentioned.
He guessed his picture with Younger Republicans leaders was taken at Trump’s inauguration.
“People just come up and ask for selfies, a thousand of them,” Johnson mentioned. “But whoever these young people are, and whatever they’re saying, if it’s true, we obviously condemn that, and the organizations involved are dealing with that.”
