The vice president contrasted offensive remarks in a private group chat with texts from a Democratic candidate in Virginia who had suggested a top Republican be killed.

Vice President JD Vance has come to the defense of young Republican leaders who are under scrutiny after Politico published “hundreds of racist and hateful messages” from what it reported was their private group chat.

The “reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys,” Vance said Wednesday in an appearance on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” the podcast launched by the recently assassinated conservative activist who was a close ally of Vance and President Donald Trump.

“They tell edgy, offensive jokes, like, that’s what kids do,” Vance continued. “And I really don’t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke — telling a very offensive, stupid joke — is cause to ruin their lives. And at some point we’re all going to have to say enough of this BS, we’re not going to allow the worst moment in a 21-year-old’s group chat to ruin a kid’s life for the rest of time. That’s just not OK.”

The messages, which were sent through the Telegram app and obtained by Politico, reportedly included racial slurs about Black and Latino people, praise of Adolf Hitler and jokes about sending opponents to gas chambers. NBC News has not independently verified the authenticity of the messages, which some members have apologized for while also suggesting the messages may have been altered.

At least three of the leaders who participated in the group chat no longer have the public jobs they had before Politico began its reporting, according to the news outlet. A fourth was not hired to work on a congressional campaign as had been planned. There has been an outcry for others involved to face consequences, as well.

“We live in a digital world. This stuff is now etched in stone online,” Vance said Wednesday. “We’re all going to have to say: ‘You know what? No, no, no, we’re not doing this.’ We’re not canceling kids because they do something stupid in a group chat, and if I have to be the person who carries that message forward, I’m fine with it.”

Both Republicans and Democrats have condemned members of the group chat for their commentary. The group featured leaders of Young Republican chapters in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont, some of whom worked as GOP campaign operatives or held elected office themselves. The chapters fell within the Young Republican National Federation, the party’s 15,000-member group for Republicans ages 18 to 40.

“The deeply offensive and hateful comments reportedly made in a private chat among members of the New York State Young Republicans are disgusting,” Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., said on X. “They should resign from any leadership position immediately and reflect on how far they have strayed from basic human respect and decency.”

The Young Republicans’ board of directors condemned the comments Tuesday, saying the organization is “appalled by the vile and inexcusable language,” which it described as “disgraceful, unbecoming of any Republican, and stands in direct opposition to the values our movement represents.”

“Those involved must immediately resign from all positions within their state and local Young Republican organizations,” the statement continued. “We must hold ourselves to the highest standards of integrity, respect, and professionalism.”

The group chat featured members who were a part of a “Restore YR” effort to shift power dynamics at the organization, Politico reported. The White House said Wednesday it had no connection to the effort and had not blessed it.

“Like hundreds of other groups, they asked for an endorsement and never got one,” a White House official said. “The White House has zero affiliation with this group.”

Vance’s remarks Wednesday continued a contrast he first drew after the Politico article broke a day earlier, when, in a post on X, he compared the situation to a controversy that has engulfed Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for attorney general in Virginia. Jones has faced bipartisan backlash since text messages from 2022 surfaced in which he suggested the top Republican in the state House of Delegates deserved “two bullets to the head” and suggested that GOP leader’s political views could change if his children died. Jones has apologized in a statement.

“I was glad to see the younger Republicans step up and other Republican organizations step up to call the stuff out, because it’s disgusting and it should not be acceptable,” said Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist working with multiple potential 2028 presidential hopefuls. “For the vice president of the United States to come out and do that and to ‘both sides’ it is ridiculous.”

On Wednesday’s podcast, which was broadcast from the White House, Vance expounded on his post, positing that Jones “is about to become one of the most powerful law enforcement officers in the country” after “seriously wishing for political violence and political assassination.” That, Vance argued, “is 1,000 times worse than what a bunch of young people — a bunch of kids — say in a group chat, however offensive it might be.”

“That’s just reality,” he added. “And if you allow yourself to be distracted by this person’s incredible endorsement — disgusting endorsement — of political assassination by focusing on what kids are saying in a group chat, grow up. I’m sorry. Focus on the real issues.”

Vance’s position reflects a frustration many Republicans have been commiserating about privately, several people close to the Trump administration told NBC News. A former Trump White House official, granted anonymity to candidly assess Vance’s messaging strategy, said Vance is distinguishing between largely inexperienced Republican operatives — relative kids in the party, if not age — and a major party’s nominee for high office.

“No one there has accomplished anything of any significance at a professional level in the Republican movement,” this person said, referring to the group chat. “And Jay Jones is obviously a very significant figure, and he’s running to be the chief law enforcement officer in the state of Virginia, so his texts are actually something the vice president should be commenting on. The vice president shouldn’t have to comment on the texts of nobodies.”

It’s not the first time Vance has employed such an argument. In February, he advocated for rehiring a federal employee who had resigned over social media posts supporting racism and eugenics. “Stupid social media activity,” Vance argued then, should not “ruin a kid’s life.”

But the lines of what Republicans view as free and protected speech have blurred since Kirk’s death last month, with Vance and others calling for those who have celebrated his killing to lose their jobs. Vance has tried to draw distinctions between what he sees as speech promoting violence and speech that he views to be simply in poor taste.

“By the way, if they were left-wing kids telling stupid left-wing jokes, I would also not want their lives to be ruined because they’re saying something stupid in a private group chat,” Vance said Wednesday in discussing the Young Republicans issue.

Vance was far from alone in contrasting the group chat with Jones’ messages. Alex Bruesewitz, a former Trump campaign adviser, said on X that Vance “is spot on” with his thinking about the matter.

“Idiotic texts from college kids pale in comparison to a full-grown man gunning for attorney general — sending vile messages that explicitly call for murdering his political rivals and even their innocent children,” he wrote.

But other GOP leaders offered strong condemnations of the group chat commentary, too, while condemning Jones.

“Let’s be very clear, the comments revealed yesterday were reprehensible and have no room in our party, let alone our country,” former White House spokesman Harrison Fields said on X. “Now let’s also be clear, Democrats foaming at the mouth at this rings shallow considering they and the media are ridiculously silent when it comes to Jay Jones and his violent and raged-filled rhetoric.”

A Republican operative who has been close to the White House said Vance’s stance is in line with that of a party that has for years felt forced to apologize for even minor transgressions.

But this person said the comments reported in the story have “no place in our party and no place in the country.” The operative said Republicans can both condemn the remarks and spotlight what they see as Democratic hypocrisy around Jones, who could soon hold a far more powerful perch than any of the Republicans in the group chat and has not been forced from the race.

“I don’t want to cede any ground to the Democrats in the media by giving any legitimacy to these ridiculous comments,” this person said. “I can understand where the vice president is coming from. Do I think he could be more clear that the comments were not just a joke? This was not locker room speak. Let’s be clear.”

This person continued, saying the chat cannot be written off as “boys being boys” and “kids being kids” because “they’re grown-a– men.”

“I fully understand why the vice president has been very reluctant to bloviate at this scandal, because it pales in comparison to what the Democrat rhetoric has been and the consequences of that rhetoric, and I think that’s why the conservative movement, largely, is pretty silent and pretty dismissive of it all,” this person said.

“And I think this is just a negative reality of politics today. … We’re missing the middle where everyone can come together and say what was said here in these chats were horrible, what was said with Jay Jones is horrible,” this person said. “Jay Jones should get out of the race. These people should resign and probably never have a job in politics again. Why can’t we have that middle ground? I don’t have the answer to that question.”