NEW YORK — Two months after prominent members of a national Young Republican organization were exposed for their role in a hate-filled, private group chat, the city-based chapter showed it’s willing to welcome almost anyone.
Inside Cipriani Wall Street, a lavish event space in the financial district, amid the sea of tuxedos and ball gowns, was white nationalist leader Jared Taylor. Across the room sat EmpathChan, an influencer who went viral recently for wearing blackface on Halloween. And appearing on stage was Markus Frohnmaier, a far-right German politician, whose political party the club had cheered with a German-language phrase popularized by the Nazis. At least nineteen other members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party joined him.
Also spotted at the New York Young Republican Club gala: Vish Burra, a club member who lost his job at the conservative One America News Network last month for posting a video depicting Jews as cockroaches.
Just eight weeks after the city club’s statewide counterpart was disbanded by the New York State GOP, the city-based club showed on Saturday night how a Young Republican organization can throw a party. Its 113th annual gala came as local chapters are still reeling from the racist and antisemitic “I love Hitler” chat — and as the GOP faces a larger reckoning over whether anti-Jewish voices have space within the party.
On Saturday night, the festivities provided a glimpse of what the party’s youth wing looks like amid those conditions. Over the course of the gala, a club member struck an attendee in the face outside on the sidewalk, President Donald Trump was endorsed for a third term and a protester wearing a Nazi armband and waving a swastika-laden banner popped up from his seat to shout, “I guess we’re all Nazis!” in an attempt to disrupt the event, according to two attendees and a release from Goofball, the group behind the protest.
The sold-out Cipriani served its signature bellini cocktail to attendees upon arrival. Zoltán Mága, a Hungarian violinist whose last name sparked jokes among the GOP faithful, performed during the six-course dinner, which featured baked tagliolini with mushrooms, prime rib and potatoes.
Meanwhile, Democratic state senators, assemblymembers and city council members were outside protesting the event at a demonstration hosted by the Manhattan Young Democrats.
“The people that are in that room, they were calling folks like me watermelon people,” said Assemblymember Jordan Wright, who is Black, referencing a line from the chats exposed by POLITICO. “They were being racist, they were being homophobic, they were idolizing Hitler.”
In October, POLITICO reported on a chat with a dozen Young Republicans who held leadership positions in chapters of the organization across the country. Since that initial report, at least seven people involved in the chats lost their jobs, including a Vermont state lawmaker who resigned. Two members of the chat apologized for the chats but blamed the rival city group for them coming to light
Later in the evening, white nationalist Nick Fuentes — whose friendly October interview with Tucker Carlson has splintered the GOP — lingered on the sidewalk outside Cipriani after the club’s organizers banned him from entering.
“This is the worst event they’ve ever thrown,” the club’s press chairman, Lucian Wintrich, told reporters huddled together in the “press pen” where the media was restricted for much of the event. Wintrich had been expressing frustration that the dozens of outlets he welcomed to the gala were relegated to a distant corner by his fellow organizers.
Conspicuously absent from Saturday night’s event were five GOP elected officials — including one congressman — who the club had announced would be there.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) was advertised as scheduled to attend in an October email, but he didn’t show up. His team did not respond to requests for comment.
Neither did New York City GOP Council Member Inna Vernikov — who was brought on stage by Trump at the 2023 gala while she wore an Israeli-flag-themed gown. The local MAGA firebrand and longtime ally of the club skipped its event despite being promoted as an “honored guest” days before. Assemblymember Michael Tannousis and City Council Members David Carr and Frank Morano were also not seen, despite promotions touting their participation.
Vernikov and Tannousis declined to comment. Carr and Morano did not respond to requests for comment.
From the stage, the speakers took an increasingly anti-immigrant bent.
“If dubiously elected or rather naturalized illegal immigrants are polluting our politics, the new right must have courage to deport them,” said Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), in reference to his call to deport Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, which he said would “resurrect our nation.”
Earlier in the night, the club’s president, Stefano Forte, addressed attendees.
“We all know who the enemy is,” Forte said. “The enemy is who shot President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The enemy is who almost shot him again two weeks [later] in Mar-a-Lago…The enemy slanders us in the media, throws wide open our borders, replaces our native population.”
On Sunday, in the wake of the mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Australia, Vernikov had a blistering message for her fellow Republicans that seemed to reference her absence.
“For years, antisemitic rhetoric has dominated THE LEFT and has fully infiltrated the Democratic Party,” she wrote on X, saying such rhetoric led to the terror seen in Sydney. “Unfortunately, today the same venom has entered corners of the conservative movement and the hard RIGHT WING of the Republican Party. Lunatics like Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, who spew bigoted, racist and antisemitic rhetoric, should be condemned and excommunicated from the Republican Party never to be welcomed again … I will DISASSOCIATE myself from any event, individual, or organization whether Democrat or Republican, that welcomes these vile bigots into their mist, defends them or amplifies their voices.”
The club had a very different message about the attacks — one which was deleted from social media after POLITICO started asking questions about it.
“The horrific terror attack in Australia last night is more evidence that Remigration is the only path forward for Western countries,” the club wrote in the since-deleted post. “America, Germany, Australia, and the rest of Europe must implement Remigration or more shootings like this will be inevitable.”
Pauline von Pezold contributed to this report.
A version of this article first appeared in POLITICO’s New York Playbook. Subscribe here.
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