October 15, 2025

Wednesday, October 15, 2025. Annette’s Roundup for Democracy.

The two latest Republican scandals.

Scandal #1

Racist, sexist, white boy Republican talk.

The Politico article that laid it all out.

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat.

NEW YORK — Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway.

They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words “n--ga” and “n--guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, referred to rape as “epic.” Peter Giunta, who at the time was chair of the same organization, wrote in a message sent in June that “everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.”

Giunta was referring to an upcoming vote on whether he should become chairman of the Young Republican National Federation, the GOP’s 15,000-member political organization for Republicans between 18 and 40 years old.

“Im going to create some of the greatest physiological torture methods known to man. We only want true believers,” he continued.

Two members of the chat responded.

“Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic,” Joe Maligno, who previously identified himself as the general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans, wrote back.

“I’m ready to watch people burn now,” Annie Kaykaty, New York’s national committeewoman, said.

The exchange is part of a trove of Telegram chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than seven months of messages among Young Republican leaders in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont. The chat offers an unfiltered look at how a new generation of GOP activists talk when they think no one is listening.

Since POLITICO began making inquiries, one member of the group chat is no longer employed at their job and another’s job offer was rescinded. Prominent New York Republicans, including Rep. Elise Stefanik and state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, have denounced the chat. And festering resentments among Young Republicans have now turned into public recriminations, including allegations of character assassination and extortion.

A liberating atmosphere

The 2,900 pages of chats, shared among a dozen millennial and Gen Z Republicans between early January and mid-August, chronicle their campaign to seize control of the national Young Republican organization on a hardline pro-Donald Trump platform. Many of the chat members already work inside government or party politics, and one serves as a state senator.

Together, the messages reveal a culture where racist, antisemitic and violent rhetoric circulate freely — and where the Trump-era loosening of political norms has made such talk feel less taboo among those positioning themselves as the party’s next leaders.

“The more the political atmosphere is open and liberating — like it has been with the emergence of Trump and a more right wing GOP even before him — it opens up young people and older people to telling racist jokes, making racist commentaries in private and public,” said Joe Feagin, a Texas A&M sociology professor who has studied racism for the last 60 years. He’s also concerned the words would be applied to public policy. “It’s chilling, of course, because they will act on these views.”

The dynamic of easy racism and casual cruelty played out in often dark, vivid fashion inside the chats, where campaign talk and party gossip blurred into streams of slurs and violent fantasies.

The group chat members spoke freely about the pressure to cow to Trump to avoid being called a RINO, the love of Nazis within their party’s right wing and the president’s alleged work to suppress documents related to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex crimes.

“Trumps too busy burning the Epstein files,” Alex Dwyer, the chair of the Kansas Young Republicans, wrote in one instance.

Dwyer and Kaykaty declined to comment. Maligno and Hendrix did not return requests for comment.

But some involved in the chat did respond publicly.

Giunta claimed the release of the chat is part of “a highly-coordinated year-long character assassination led by Gavin Wax and the New York City Young Republican Club” — an allusion to a once obscured internecine war that has now spilled into the open.

“These logs were sourced by way of extortion and provided to POLITICO by the very same people conspiring against me,” he said. “What’s most disheartening is that, despite my unwavering support of President Trump since 2016, rouge (sic) members of his administration — including Gavin Wax — have participated in this conspiracy to ruin me publicly simply because I challenged them privately.”

Wax, a staffer in Trump’s State Department, formerly led the New York Young Republican Club — a separate, city-based group that is at odds with the state organization, the New York State Young Republicans. He declined to comment.

Despite his allusions to infighting, Giunta still apologized.

“I am so sorry to those offended by the insensitive and inexcusable language found within the more than 28,000 messages of a private group chat that I created during my campaign to lead the Young Republicans,” he said. “While I take complete responsibility, I have had no way of verifying their accuracy and am deeply concerned that the message logs in question may have been deceptively doctored.”

At least one person in the Telegram chat works in the Trump administration: Michael Bartels, who, according to his LinkedIn account, serves as a senior adviser in the office of general counsel within the U.S. Small Business Administration. Bartels did not have much to say in the chat, but he didn’t offer any pushback against the offensive rhetoric in it either. He declined to comment.

A notarized affidavit signed by Bartels and obtained by POLITICO also sheds light on the intraparty rivalry that led the “RESTOREYR WAR ROOM” Telegram chat to be made public. Bartels references Wax as well. He wrote that he did not give POLITICO the chat and that Wax “demanded” in a phone call that he provide the full chat log.

“When I attempted to resist that demand, after providing some of the requested information, Wax threatened my professional standing, and raised the possibility of potential legal action related to an alleged breach of a non-disclosure agreement,” Bartels claimed in the affidavit. “My position within the New York Young Republican Club was directly threatened.”

Walker, who now leads the New York State Young Republicans, touched on a similar theme, saying that he believes portions of the chat “may have been altered, taken out of context, or otherwise manipulated” and that the “private exchanges were obtained and released in a way clearly intended to inflict harm.”

He also apologized.

“There is no excuse for the language and tone in messages attributed to me. The language is wrong and hurtful, and I sincerely apologize,” Walker said. “This has been a painful lesson about judgment and trust, and I am committed to moving forward with greater care, respect, and accountability in everything I say and do.”

251 times

Mixed into formal conversations about whipping votes, social media strategy and logistics, the members of the chat slung around an array of slurs — which POLITICO is republishing to show how they spoke. Epithets like “f----t,” “retarded” and “n--ga” appeared more than 251 times combined.

In one instance, Walker — who at the time was a staffer for Ortt — talked about how a mutual friend of some in the chat “dated this very obese Indian woman for a period of time.”

Giunta responded that the woman “was not Indian.”

“She just didn’t bathe often,” Samuel Douglass, a state senator from northern Vermont and the head of the state’s Young Republicans, replied to Giunta.

In a separate conversation, Giunta shared that his flight to Charleston, South Carolina, landed safely. Then, he offered some advice for his fellow Young Republicans.

“If your pilot is a she and she looks ten shades darker than someone from Sicily, just end it there. Scream the no no word,” Giunta wrote.

Douglass did not respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, Ortt called for members of the chat to resign.

“I was shocked and disgusted to learn about the racist, anti-Semitic, and misogynistic comments attributed to members of the New York State Young Republicans,” Ortt said. “This behavior is indefensible and has no place in our party or anywhere in public life.”

Walker had been in line to manage Republican Peter Oberacker’s campaign for Congress in upstate New York, but a spokesperson for the campaign said Walker won’t be brought on in light of the comments in the chat.

Seeking Trump’s endorsement

The private rhetoric isn’t happening in a vacuum. It comes amid a widespread coarsening of the broader political discourse and as incendiary and racially offensive tropes from the right become increasingly common in public debate. Last month, Trump posted an AI-generated video that showed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero beside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose fabricated remarks were about trading free health care for immigrant votes — a false, long-running GOP trope. The sombrero meme has been widely used to mock Democrats as the government shutdown wears on.

In his 2024 campaign, Trump spread false reports of Haitian migrants eating pets and, at one of his rallies, welcomed comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and joked about Black people “carving watermelons” on Halloween.

Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, rejected the idea that Trump’s rhetoric had anything to do with the chat members’ language.

“Only an activist, left-wing reporter would desperately try to tie President Trump into a story about a random groupchat he has no affiliation with, while failing to mention the dangerous smears coming from Democrat politicians who have fantasized about murdering their opponent and called Republicans Nazis and Fascists,” she said. “No one has been subjected to more vicious rhetoric and violence than President Trump and his supporters.”

In the “RESTOREYR WAR ROOM” chat, Giunta tells his fellow Republicans that he spoke with the White House about an endorsement from Trump for his bid to become chairman of the national federation. Trump and the Republican National Committee ultimately decided to stay neutral in the race.

A White House official said that it has no affiliation with RESTORE YR and that hundreds of groups ask the White House for its endorsement.

Giunta was the most prominent voice in the chat spreading racist messages — often encouraged or “liked” by other members.

When Luke Mosiman, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, asked if the New Yorkers in the chat were watching an NBA playoff game, Giunta responded, “I’d go to the zoo if I wanted to watch monkey play ball.” Giunta elsewhere refers to Black people as “the watermelon people.”

Hendrix made a similar remark in July: “Bro is at a chicken restaurant ordering his food. Would he like some watermelon and kool aid with that?”

Hendrix was a communications assistant for Kansas’ Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach until Thursday. He also said in the chat that, despite political differences, he’s drawn to Missouri’s Young Republican organization because “Missouri doesn’t like f--s.”

POLITICO reached out to Danedri Herbert, a spokesperson for the attorney general who also serves as the Kansas GOP Chair, and shared with her excerpts of the chat involving Hendrix. In response, Herbert said “we are aware of the issues raised in your article” and that Hendrix is “no longer employed” in Kobach’s office.

In another exchange, Dwyer, the Kansas’ chair, informs Giunta that one of Michigan’s Young Republicans promised him the group “will vote for the most right wing person” to lead the national organization.

“Great. I love Hitler,” Giunta responded.

Dwyer reacted with a smiley face.

Few minority groups spared

Giunta, who serves as chief of staff to New York state Assemblymember Mike Reilly, ultimately fell six points short of winning the chairmanship to lead the Young Republican National Federation earlier this year — despite earning endorsements from Stefanik and longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.

Reilly did not respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this year, Stefanik accepted an award from the New York State Young Republicans. She lauded Giunta for his “tremendous leadership” in August and had her campaign and the political PAC she leads donate to that state organization. Alex deGrasse, a senior adviser for Stefanik, said the congresswoman “was absolutely appalled to learn about the alleged comments made by leaders of the New York State Young Republicans and other state YRs in a large national group chat.”

“According to the description provided by Politico, the comments were heinous, antisemitic, racist and unacceptable,” he continued, noting Stefanik has never employed anyone in the chat. “If the description by Politico is accurate, Congresswoman Stefanik calls for any NY Young Republicans responsible for these horrific comments in this chat to step down immediately.”

Stone also condemned the comments in a statement.

“I of course, have never seen this alleged chat room thread,” he said. “If it is authentic, I would, of course, denounce any such comments in the strongest possible terms, This would surprise me as it is inconsistent with Peter that I know, although I only know him in his capacity as the head of the New York Young Republicans, where I thought he did a good job.”

Few minority groups are spared from the Young Republican group’s chat. Their rhetoric — normalized at most points as dark humor — mirrors some popular conservative political commentators, podcasters and comedians amid a national erosion of what’s considered acceptable discourse.

Giunta’s line on a darker-skinned pilot, for example, echoes one used by slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year when he said, “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.” Kirk was discussing how diversity hiring “invites unwholesome thinking.”

Walker also uses the moniker “eyepatch McCain” (originally coined by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson) in an apparent reference to GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw. Crenshaw lost his eye while serving as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan. Walker also makes the remark, “I prefer my war heroes not captured,” a repeat of a similar 2015 line from Trump.

Art Jipson, a professor at the University of Dayton who specializes in white racial extremism, surmised the Young Republicans in the chat were influenced by Trump’s language, which he said is often hyperbolic and emotionally charged.

“Trump’s persistent use of hostile, often inflammatory language that normalizes aggressive discourse in conservative circles can be incredibly influential on young operatives who are still trying to figure out, ‘What is that political discourse?’” Jipson said.

White supremacist symbols

Jipson reviewed multiple excerpts of the Young Republicans’ chat provided by POLITICO. One was a late July message where Mosiman, the chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, mused about how the group could win support for their preferred candidate by linking an opponent to white supremacist groups. But Mosiman then realized the plan could backfire — Kansas’ Young Republicans could end up becoming attracted to that opponent.

“Can we get them to start releasing Nazi edits with her… Like pro Nazi and faciam (sic) propaganda,” he asked the group.

“Omg I love this plan,” Rachel Hope, the Arizona Young Republicans events chair, responded.

“The only problem is we will lose the Kansas delegation,” Mosiman said. Hope and the two Kansas Young Republicans in the chat reacted with a laughing face to the message. Hope did not respond to requests for comment. Mosiman declined to comment.

Jipson said the Young Republicans’ conversations reminded him of online discussions between members of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups.

“You say it once or twice, it's a joke, but you say it 251 times, it's no longer a joke,” Jipson said. “The more we repeat certain ideas, the more real they become to us.”

Weeks later, someone in the chat staying in a hotel asks its members to “GUESS WHAT ROOM WE’RE IN.”

“1488,” Dwyer responds. White supremacists use the number 1488 because 14 is the number of words in the white supremacist slogan “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” H is the eighth letter in the alphabet, and 88 is often used as a shorthand for “Heil Hitler.”

In another conversation in February, Giunta talks approvingly about the Orange County Teenage Republican organization in New York — which appears to be part of the network of national Teen Age Republicans — and how he was pleased with its young members’ ideological bent.

“They support slavery and all that shit. Mega based,” he said. The term “based” in internet culture is used to express approval with an idea, often one that’s bold or controversial.

In a statement, Orange County GOP Chairwoman Courtney Canfield Greene said the party was disappointed to learn its teen group was mentioned in the chat.

"Our teen volunteers have no affiliation with the NYSYR's or the YRNF,” she said. “This behavior has no home within the Republican Party in Orange County."

Ed Cox, the chair of the New York State GOP, also condemned the remarks made in the chat.

“I was shocked and disgusted to learn about the reports of comments made by a small group of Young Republicans,” he said. “Just as we call out vile racist and anti-Semetic rhetoric on the far left, we must not tolerate it within our ranks.”

Vicious words for enemies

Members of the Telegram chat speak about their personal lives, too. Extensive discussions about their everyday lives include one exchange about how devoutly Catholic some chat members are and how often they attend church.

Many of the slurs, epithets and violent language used in the chat often appear to be intended as jokes.

Mosiman was derided by members of the chat as “beaner” and “sp-c.”

“Stay in the closet faggot,” Walker of New York also jested in July, though he is the group’s main target for the same epithet.

The group used slurs against Asians, too.

“My people built the train tracks with the Chinese,” Walker says at one point, referring to his Italian ancestors.

“Let his people go!” Maligno responds. “Keep the ch--ks, though.”

In another instance, Mosiman tells the group that, “The Spanish came to America and had sex with every single woman.”

“Sex is gay,” Dwyer writes.

“Sex? It was rape,” Mosiman replies.

“Epic,” Walker says.

There’s more explicit malice in some phrases, too, especially when they turn their ire on opponents outside the chat, such as the leader of the rival Grow YR slate, Hayden Padgett, who defeated Giunta and was reelected chairman of the Young Republican National Federation this summer.

“So you mean Hayden F----t wrote the resolution himself?” Giunta asked the group about the National Young Republicans chair in late May.

“RAPE HAYDEN,” Mosiman declared the following month.

“Adolf Padgette is in the F----tbunker as we speak,” Walker said in July.

Padgett responded to the chat’s language in a statement.

“The Young Republican National Federation condemns all forms of racism, antisemitism, and hate,” Padgett said. “I want to be clear that such behavior is entirely inconsistent with our values and has no place within our organization or the broader conservative movement.”

Giunta also had expletive-laden criticism for the Young Republicans in states that were supporting or leaning toward Padgett’s faction.

“Minnesota - f----ts,” he messaged, continuing: “Arkansas - inbred cow fuckers Nebraska - revolt in our favor; blocked their bind and have a majority of their delegates Maryland - fat stinky Jew … Rhode Island - traitorous c---s who I will eradicate from the face of this planet.”

Giunta also said he planned to make one of the competing Young Republicans “unalive himself on the convention floor.”

In another instance, Douglass, the Vermont state senator, describes to the group members how one of Padgett’s Jewish colleagues may have made a procedural error related to the number of Maryland delegates permitted at the national convention.

“I was about to say you’re giving nationals to (sic) much credit and expecting the Jew to be honest,” Brianna Douglass, Sam’s wife and Vermont Young Republican’s national committeewoman, replied to her husband’s message. Brianna Douglass did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

‘If we ever had a leak of this chat.…’

While reporting this article, POLITICO was examining a separate allegation: that Giunta and the Young Republicans mismanaged the New York organization’s finances and hadn’t paid at least one venue for a swanky holiday party it hosted last year. POLITICO’s report detailed how the organization was missing required financial disclosure forms and how their subsequent efforts to file the forms revealed the organization was in more than $28,000 of debt. As of Tuesday, updated records show the organization is in more than $38,000 of debt.

Donations to New York State Young Republicans' political account must be reported to the state Board of Elections. Expenditures must be reported too.

At the time, Giunta told POLITICO the allegations were “nothing more than a sad and pathetic attempt at a political hit job.” But in their “RESTOREYR WAR ROOM” chat, he and Walker speak flippantly about mishandling the club’s finances.

“NYSYR Account be like: $500 - Balding cream $1,000 - Ozempik,” Walker said in one message. “NYSYR will be declaring bankruptcy after this I just know it,” he said in another.

“I drained $10k tonight to pay for my next vacation to Italy,” Giunta appeared to joke about the organization’s bank account.

“I spent it on massage,” he says of another check that was deposited in the account.

“Great. Can’t wait to get sued by our venue,” Walker replies.

Members of the chat occasionally appeared to be aware of its toxicity and even made remarks that considered the possibility someone outside their tight-knit group could view it.

Walker seemed to consider that possibility the most.

In one instance, he joked about bombing the Young Republican National Federation’s convention in Nashville and then remarked, “Just kidding for our assigned FBI tracker.”

In another, he considered the totality of the thousands of messages he and his peers had written, and what would happen if the public saw them come to light.

“If we ever had a leak of this chat we would be cooked ” he wrote. (Politico)

Scandal #2

Is there a nastier person than Trump’s Secretary of Homeland, Kristi Noem?

You know. She who shoots dogs does other nasty things too.

Multiple airports refuse to play Kristi Noem video that blames Democrats for government shutdown.

Washington (CNN) — Major US airports from New York to Oregon and North Carolina to Nevada have refused to play a “public service announcement” from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem at security checkpoints in which she blames Democrats for the federal government shutdown.

The dispute highlights the remarkable push by the Department of Homeland Security to insert a political message into the airport security experience that virtually every air traveler must go through.

“It is TSA’s top priority to make sure that you have the most pleasant and efficient airport experience as possible while we keep you safe,” the video, which was released last week and first obtained by Fox News, starts.

But the message quickly turns political.

“However, Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted, and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.”

TSA checkpoints often include videos featuring government officials welcoming travelers and explanations of procedures, but they usually do not contain political messages.

Passengers at Albany International Airport in New York were shown the video briefly, before the airport authority took it down.

“The footage in question was placed on the monitors by TSA personnel without prior notice to the Albany County Airport Authority or airport staff,” Matt Hunter, airport director of communications, said in a statement. “In keeping with longstanding policies of not displaying political messaging or content of any kind, ACAA has made the decision to discontinue airing the video.”

A spokesperson for Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas told CNN in a statement it “declined” to display the video because of its “political messaging that did not align with the neutral, informational nature of the public service announcements typically shown at the security checkpoints.”

Airport officials have cited a variety of reasons for refusing to play the video, from its “political content” to a potential violation of federal law.

“We did not consent to playing the video in its current form, as we believe the Hatch Act clearly prohibits use of public assets for political purposes and messaging,” said Molly Prescott, spokesperson for the Port of Portland, which operates the city’s airport.

The Hatch Act is a 1939 law which prohibits political activities of federal employees to ensure government programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion.

Prescott added Oregon law also states no public employee can promote or oppose any political committee, party or affiliation.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the major airports around New York City, also refused to show the video on airport-controlled screens, citing “longstanding policies prevent airing of politically partisan messages at our facilities.”

In Westchester County, just north of New York City, the airport will not display the video either.

“The PSA politicizes the impacts of a federal government shutdown on TSA Operations, and the County finds the tone to be unnecessarily alarmist,” County Executive Ken Jenkins said in a statement. “It is inappropriate, unacceptable, and inconsistent with the values we expect from our nation’s top public officials.”

A Port of Seattle spokesperson also told CNN Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will not play the video “due to the political nature of the content.”

“We continue to urge bipartisan efforts to end the government shutdown and are working to find ways to support federal employees working without pay at SEA during the shutdown,” the spokesperson said.

In a statement to CNN Tuesday morning, the Department of Homeland Security reiterated much of the language from the video, including blaming the shutdown on Democrats.

“Our security operations remain largely unimpacted at this time. It’s unfortunate our workforce has been put in this position due to political gamesmanship,” the statement said. “Our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government.”

Several additional airports noted they do not own any screens that could show the video, including airports in Austin, Texas, Boston, Denver, and Tampa. (CNN)

One more thing.

Airports who have confirmed to CNN they will not show the video include:

Albany (NY) International Airport
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Bradley (CT) International Airport
Buffalo Niagara (NY) International Airport
Charlotte Douglas (NC) International Airport
Chicago Midway International Airport
Chicago O’Hare International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
Harry Reid (Las Vegas) International Airport
LaGuardia Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport
New York Stewart International Airport
Philadelphia International Airport
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
Portland International Airport
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
Springfield–Branson (MO) National Airport
Westchester County (NY) Airport

[This is a list in formation. Feel free to call your local airport and suggest they follow suit.]

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Has new Democratic leadership begun to take root?

Zohran Mamdani argues he’s leading a movement beyond the NYC mayor’s race - CNN Politics

Declaring that he is leading a “movement that won the battle over the soul of the Democratic Party,” Zohran Mamdani used a raucous rally with over 3,000 supporters in Manhattan’s Washington Heights on Monday night to assert his mayoral campaign as proof of a politics much bigger than his bid for City Hall.

The Democratic nominee and proud democratic socialist, who almost overnight after his surprise primary win in June became a national superstar, has a wide lead in the polls. And though many who rallied for him on Monday to kick off the final stretch into November stressed to the crowd that they can’t take the election for granted, the candidate used his own time at the microphone to urge them to see what they are doing as rebutting what he repeatedly referred to as the “darkness” of President Donald Trump’s administration and the half-measures of years of Democratic leadership.

“Over the last nine months, we have watched the man with the most power in the world expend enormous energy targeting those with the least,” Mamdani said. “Our movement is a movement where we know exactly who and what we are fighting for. We are not afraid of our own ideas. For too long we have tried not to lose. Now it is time that we win.”

Mamdani connected what he is trying to force out of the Democratic Party to a tradition of forcing bigger change out of other moments that seemed hopeless to the organizers.

“The same questions asked of us were asked of organized labor, were asked the civil rights movement, were asked of any who had the nerve to demand a future they could not yet see. Could they not wait? Could they see that they were asking too much?” Mamdani said. “They knew that we do not get to determine the scale of the crisis that we face. We only get to decide how we respond.”

Mamdani only mentioned Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who lost to him in the primary but is running against him on an independent line, to slough him off as either the same as Trump or the same as years of failed Democratic thinking. That’s about as much mention as Cuomo got at the event, which also featured appearances from WNBA star Natasha Cloud and former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, beyond mocking like Brooklyn city councilman Chi Ossé calling him that “sad, sad, Rumpelstiltskin-like figure.”

“I am here to admit something: They are right,” Mamdani said, to cheers. “We are an existential threat to billionaires who think their money can buy our democracy. We are an existential threat to a broken status quo that buries the voices of working people beneath corporations. And we are an existential threat to a New York where a hard day’s work isn’t enough to earn you a good night’s rest.”

But Mamdani clearly sees those existential threats as not limited to just New York.

“We are living in the times that we read about. I know that for many of us, when we look back at moments in history that rhyme with today, where tyranny loomed and the state-imposed violence with sinister glee. We ask ourselves what we would have done. We need not wonder. That time is now,” he said. “And I am proud to look out onto this crowd at New Yorkers who amidst this despair have continued to believe in a world better than this.”

Mamdani wasn’t the only one to use the night to address national politics. Letitia James, the New York state attorney general indicted last week at Trump’s urging, entered the theater to a two-minute standing ovation in what was her first public appearance since the president’s former personal lawyer brought charges against her.

For a few seconds, she held her fist in the air in resistance.

“I stand on solid rock. I will not bow, I will not break, I will not bend, I will not capitulate,” James said. “You come for me, you got to come through all of us. All of us. We’re all in this together.” (CNN)

Watch Mamdani’s speech. 👇

One more thing. Or two.

Some stand with Mamdani. 👇

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A race everyone can get into. Former Maine Governor Janet Mills v. Susan Collins.

Gov. Janet Mills of Maine to Run for Senate, Aiming at Senator Susan Collins.

A two-term Democratic governor, Ms. Mills called herself “battle tested” in an interview. But she faces a Democratic primary before she can challenge the Republican incumbent.

Janet Mills, the two-term Democratic governor of Maine, announced on Tuesday that she was running for Senate, aiming to unseat Senator Susan Collins, who is widely seen as the country’s most vulnerable Senate Republican incumbent on the ballot in 2026.

Ms. Mills, who is term-limited, had been heavily recruited for months by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, who was eager to find a proven winner to take on Ms. Collins. Ms. Collins, 72, is a rare Republican to survive in recent years in a Democratic-leaning state and is seeking her sixth term.

The Maine Senate race begins as the Democratic Party’s top pickup opportunity in 2026, with Ms. Collins the lone Republican up for re-election in a state that Donald J. Trump lost in 2024.

Typically, a Democrat of Ms. Mills’s stature would be warmly welcomed into such a contest, with other Democrats deferring to her. But Ms. Mills, 77, will find herself navigating a crowded primary, including against a 41-year-old oyster farmer and veteran named Graham Platner. Despite having never previously run for office, Mr. Platner has generated a national progressive following and raised $4 million in less than two months.

The state’s Senate primary is expected to be a test of some of the ideological and generational fault lines dividing the Democratic Party as it finds itself locked out of power in Washington, D.C.

If she wins next year, Ms. Mills would be 79 at her swearing in the following January, which would make her the oldest elected freshman senator in American history. It is a distinction the party is unlikely to highlight so soon after President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was pushed off the presidential ticket amid questions about his own age and acuity.

In an interview over the weekend, Ms. Mills acknowledged the legitimacy of voter concerns about age and said it had been one factor she considered as she weighed whether to run. But she said the country’s current situation calls for experience and the “battle-tested” electability she offers as the only Democrat to win a statewide race in Maine in the past 20 years.

“This is an urgent, unprecedented, dangerous moment in the country’s history, and it demands more of every one of us, including me,” she said. “Defeating Susan Collins will be hard — the stakes are high, and we should leave nothing to chance.”

The issue of age could play differently in Maine, which has the oldest population of any state in the nation. Last month, Ms. Mills said in an interview that while she could retire and spend more time with her five grandchildren, “I’m not ready for that. I want to do something more.”

Ms. Mills is one of a trio of older, seemingly blue-chip recruits — along with former Gov. Roy Cooper, 68, in North Carolina and former Senator Sherrod Brown, 72, in Ohio — that Mr. Schumer has wooed into the 2026 elections.

Yet the push for Ms. Mills, in particular, has faced some criticism inside the Senate.

“It’s disappointing that some Democratic leaders are urging Governor Mills to run,” Senator Bernie Sanders, who has endorsed and campaigned with Mr. Platner, wrote on X last week ahead of her expected entry into the race. Mr. Sanders urged Democrats to “not waste millions on an unnecessary & divisive primary.”

Mr. Platner predicted in a recent interview that “the likelihood of losing is significantly higher” with Ms. Mills rather than himself as the Democratic standard-bearer because voters are so disgusted with the status quo.

“Going with someone who is very much of the establishment, going with someone who is very much of the party that has built the world we live in now, I think that runs a massive risk,” Mr. Platner said. “I don’t think it’s about age at all. I think it’s more about a way of thinking. It’s about, like, a more ossified kind of politics that has just existed within the Democratic Party at this point for 30, 40 years.”

A constellation of groups representing younger Democrats endorsed Mr. Platner on Tuesday, including Leaders We Deserve, the group led by David Hogg, the former Democratic National Committee vice chair who has prioritized bringing generational change to the party, and the College Democrats of America.

Ms. Mills was immediately endorsed by Emily’s List on Tuesday, the influential abortion rights group dedicating to electing women, and Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, a moderate Democrat.

Mr. Platner has already begun to draw relatively large crowds to town halls, and his campaign said he had more than 9,200 volunteers in the state. He has said he would not support Mr. Schumer staying on as Democratic leader.

Other declared Democrats in the race include Jordan Wood, a former congressional aide whose campaign said it had raised $3 million. Dan Kleban, a co-founder of the Maine Beer Company, dropped out of the race on Tuesday after Ms. Mills’s entry and endorsed her.

Ms. Collins has proved a particularly resilient campaigner. She had trailed in nearly every poll leading up to her 2020 race yet won somewhat comfortably on Election Day.

Ms. Mills has been around Maine politics for a half-century, shattering glass ceilings in the state as the first woman elected as a district attorney, the first woman to serve as attorney general and the first woman to serve as governor. She was also in the state Legislature.

She won re-election by double digits in 2022, defeating her predecessor as governor, Paul LePage. Ms. Mills, who was raised in rural, western Maine in a family of politically active Republicans, counts Mr. LePage and Mr. Trump among the “bullies” she has faced down.

Earlier this year, she sparred with Mr. Trump at the White House over the issue of transgender athletes, launching a feud that has simmered ever since. Mr. Trump has demanded that Maine comply with his order to keep transgender women off women’s sports teams; Ms. Mills has refused to budge from her defense of the Maine anti-discrimination law that includes protections for gender identity.

“See you in court,” she told Mr. Trump at the White House.

“Enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be in electoral politics,” Mr. Trump retorted.

In an interview, Ms. Mills described their clash as a “jaw-dropping moment.”

“That’s not what the Constitution says,” she said. “It doesn’t give him authority to enact laws by press release.”

Since then, Ms. Mills said, she has heard from many Maine voters urging her to run for Senate because they “want to see a fighter in Washington, with principled character.”

Ms. Mills’s success in a politically divided, largely rural state, where 46 percent of voters supported Mr. Trump in the last election, has been fueled by moderate positions. She oversaw some tightening of gun laws after the worst mass shooting in state history, in 2023, but disappointed many liberals and progressives who had pushed for more sweeping reform.

Ms. Mills has not kept up a robust political presence online since her re-election. Her campaign’s X account had not posted since the 2024 election, and her political Instagram account last posted celebrating her 2022 victory.

The rust showed on Friday afternoon when her account accidentally posted and then deleted news of her Senate announcement, and a fund-raising page. The misfire was mocked online, including by operatives for Senate Republicans aligned with Ms. Collins.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, in a sign perhaps that they would prefer not to run against Ms. Mills, released a one-minute video attacking her record on Tuesday. “Maine Democrats are locked in a bruising fight between Chuck Schumer’s out-of-touch establishment and Bernie Sanders’ far-left radicals,” said Joanna Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the G.O.P. committee.

Ms. Mills and Ms. Collins have long maintained a friendly relationship. But in recent interviews, Ms. Mills took aim at the Republican’s voting record, including her support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and Linda McMahon as education secretary — votes Ms. Mills said prioritized party loyalty over the well-being of the people of Maine.

“I’m trying to preserve health care, and this man she voted for, RFK Jr., is tearing that apart,” she said. “While I’m building up education, the secretary she voted for is tearing it down.”

Asked where she will find the energy to run a tough campaign while doing the demanding job of governor, Ms. Mills was blunt.

“I’m pissed off,” she said. “Every morning when I read the news and find out what happened, it pumps me up in a way I’ve never felt before.” (New York Times)

One more thing. Or two.

Watch Janet Mills explain why she is running for the Senate.👇

From The Hill. Maine Beer Co. co-founder Dan Kleban announced Tuesday that he would be suspending his campaign and backing Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) in the Democratic primary to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) next year.

“Today, I am suspending my campaign for U.S. Senate and enthusiastically endorsing Governor Janet Mills,” Kleban said in a statement.

From NBC News. Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced today that she is running for the Senate, pitching herself as the Democratic Party's best chance to beat Republican Sen. Susan Collins next fall — and saying she does not plan to serve more than one term if elected.

"I’ve won two statewide offices, and unlike other people in the primary right now, I’ve actually won public office, won elections," Mills said in an interview with NBC News ahead of her launch.

"And I’ve stood up to Donald Trump, and I have delivered progress for Maine people when it comes to health care, clean energy, public health, education. And I’m willing to fight for that in the U.S. Senate," she said.

Mills, a top recruit for Senate Democrats, said Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., encouraged her to run. But she will face a fight for her party's nomination, with multiple candidates already in the race and making their own pitches for why they are best suited to defeat Collins, the only Republican senator from a state Kamala Harris won last year.

At least two of those Democratic candidates — oyster farmer and military veteran Graham Platner and former congressional aide Jordan Wood — have pledged to remain in the race. But brewery co-founder Dan Kleban announced that he was suspending his campaign and endorsing Mills, calling her "the right leader for this moment."

Still, the contested primary also comes at a tense moment for the party, with some Democrats calling for a new generation of leaders. Mills, 77, acknowledged "age is a consideration."

"Honestly, I would not plan to serve for more than one term," she said. "But this time is vital, and this moment in our history is urgent and very troublesome. And I believe I’m the most qualified person for the seat, for the campaign, because I have run two statewide elections, and I have the energy and the wherewithal to do it."

"It’s urgent that I take this on," Mills added later. "I don’t think I could live with myself if I did not do this."

To support Janet Mills’s candidacy for the Senate, click here

Or

To stop Susan Collins’s re-election,to the Senate, click here

Thank you, truly.

— Janet Mills

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