NYC NOW - Midday News: Leaked Young Republican Chat Sparks Firings, NYC Faces Power Reliability Risks, and Garage Collapse Closes Streets in White Plains

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Messages from a leaked group chat obtained by Politico show members of Young Republican groups from New York and across the country using racist, sexist, and antisemitic slurs. The outlet reports several members have since lost their jobs. Meanwhile, New York’s power grid operator warns the city could face longer and more frequent outages over the next five years due to rising electricity demand and delays in new power generation. Also, officials in White Plains are urging the public to avoid the area around the Westchester shopping complex after a partial parking garage collapse forced multiple road closures. Plus, Politico reporter Jason Beeferman joins us later to discuss the fallout from the leaked messages.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Wednesday, October 15th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Messages from a leaked group chat show, members of young Republican groups from New York and elsewhere slinging racist, sexist, violent, and anti-Semitic slurs. The Young Republicans group is comprised of adults up to the age of 40. The news site political broke the story. State politics reporter Jason Biferman says some of the members of the chat are now out of jobs. Because of the really shocking language exposed in this group chat that kind of shows how the next generation of Republican leaders

and really based out of here in New York are speaking to each other when they think no one is watching. Peter Junta was chair of the New York State Young Republicans Group at the time and wrote many of the offensive message. He says he apologizes for his, quote, insensitive and inexcusable language, but also said he cannot verify the accuracy of all the messages, political reviewed. The New York Independent System Operator is soundingly alarming and energy reliability issues in New York City. The not-for-profit corporation ensures a state has reliable and affordable power. The group released two reports this week saying the city could experience frequent and longer outages over the next five years. assessment sites increasing electricity, demands, and difficulties, and new power generation as key factors. The report also says a state will need to keep running aging plants that are set

for closure. Officials in White Plains are urging the public to stay away from the area around the Westchester shopping complex after a partial collapse of a parking garage there. Authorities are still on the scene. Keep it tuned here for the latest. 66 and sunny now, mostly sunny today, almost 70 degrees with strong winds. Stay close. There's more after the break. Republicans across New York State are reacting to new reporting from the news site Politico that delves deep into private communications among some of the party's young supporters. Messages from a leaked group message show members of young Republican groups from across the country

slinging racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic and more slurs among the members of the chat are prominent New York Young Republicans, including some who work for elected officials in the state. Politico's New York State Politics Reporter, Jason B. Fromid, and co-author of the New York Playbook, Emily Noe, broke the story. Jason joins us now. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Would you give us a little insight into the text messages sent in this chat? Yeah, these text messages were sent over the course of seven months, and they included pretty much every slur and epithet that you can think of. They attacked black people, Jewish people. There were a lot of references to Hitler. These Republicans applauded other members of the GOP who celebrated slavery.

They talked about raping their enemies or driving them to suicide, really, really dark stuff. And like I said, the no one, no minority group or ethnic group was really spared from their hate over the course of these many months. And who are the local figures who are among the members of this group message? Are you going to name names here? Yes, I'll name names. The group chat contained about a dozen Republicans, but they were really led. While this is a national story, they were led by New York Republicans.

That includes Peter Junta. He was the head of the New York State Young Republicans. This is a group for members of the GOP aged 18 to 40 years old. They want to activate that next generation of Republicans. These are full-grown adults, you know, just out of college up until 40 years old. Peter worked in the New York State Legislature in Albany for a Staten Island state lawmaker. There was also someone named Bobby Walker. He also worked at the New York State Legislature for the Senate Minority Leader Rob Ort.

There's another member of the chat. His name is Joseph Maligno. He worked for a Staten Island judge. Those are three of the 12 people in the chat. There are a few other New Yorkers, but, you know, those three that I just mentioned, they're now out of a job because of the really shocking language exposed in this group chat that kind of shows how the next generation of Republican leaders and really based out of here in New York are speaking to each other when they think no one is watching. Do you have responses? Have any of them responded to your article? Yeah, Bobby and Peter have both responded, and they apologized for the content of their messages, and they really expressed regret for it.

But they also kind of cast a little doubt on the authenticity of the messages, which is interesting because we presented them with exactly what they said in the chat. They never told us that they didn't say any specific message, but they made vague allusions to these messages being altered in some way. way. They also said that the chats might have been leaked because they're in a kind of feud with a similar organization based out of the city called the New York Young Republicans. And they are often fighting with the state of Republican organization and the members of the state organization who were exposed in this chat started blaming their rivals also in the GOP at the city level and saying it's their fault that these messages came to light. And you said that these folks have resigned.

How are these people linked to the greater Republican Party? Both Bobby Walker and Peter Junta have ties to Elise DeFonic. And if you know, the upstate Republican is planning on running for governor against Kathy Hokel. It's almost certain that she's going to announce shortly. And Elis DeFonic was really the biggest champion for this state Republican group. They held an event where they gave her an award earlier this year. She had her political campaign donate to this group.

She also had her political PAC donate to this group. So she was their most prominent voice and champion. And now that this chat has come out, she at least has attempted to distance herself somewhat from these individuals. But these are people in this chat that were really embedded in the New York GOP. There are other photos emerging of these people with Mike Lawler, who of course represents Rockland and Westchester counties. These weren't random fringe Republicans. These people were really embedded in the state party infrastructure. And I mentioned Mike Lawler.

He's denounced these chats. Pretty much all of the New York GOP up and down the gamut. Jason, we'll have to leave it there. That's Jason B. from in from political. Jason, thank you so much for this. We're out of time. Thank you, though.

Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.