Indians Do Not Bathe Often Republican Official Implies in Online Chat

Vile comments against Indians, Jews, and Blacks in Telegram chat group of Young Republicans revealed by POLITICO

(Image: Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.)

October 18, 2025

A member of a Young Republican online chat group talked about a mutual friend who “dated this very obese Indian woman,” POLITICO reported last week. “She just didn’t bathe often,” responded Samuel Douglass, an elected member of the Senate in Vermont and Chair of the state’s Young Republicans Committee.

In a different chat, his wife Brianna Douglass, a Vermont Young Republicans committee member, says her husband may have erred by “expecting the Jew to be honest.” She was referring to Jewish colleague Hayden Padgett, who is Chair of the Young Republican National Federation, according to The Hill.

Comments posted by other members of the Telegram group include: “He also hates the Jews”; “I Love Hitler”; and about putting their political opponents in a “gas chamber.” Some in the group referred to Black people as monkeys and praised Republicans who they believed support slavery.

The exchange is part of 2,900 pages of private chats on Telegram, an online platform, shared among a dozen young leaders of the Republican Party. The chats, between early January and mid-August this year, were obtained by POLITICO. Many of the chat members were working in government or Republican Party posts.

Initially, after the POLITICO story was published, Douglass resisted calls from leaders of the Vermont Republican Party that he should resign as Senator.

On Friday, Douglass resigned but apparently not due to any pressure from Indians in America. In fact, in his resignation statement, he did not specifically mention reaching out to Indians who may have been “hurt” by his post. This was even though his post, which got wide media attention, implied that Indians did not bathe often.

In his resignation statement, Douglass said, “offense was taken and people were hurt…I have reached out to the majority of my Jewish and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) friends and colleagues.”

The Douglass episode once again reveals that Indians have little influence over American elected officials and policies. This is despite their wealth in the US and key roles as business founders, chief executives, engineers, doctors, and scientists, as well as a large population of roughly five million. The lack of influence is not surprising since Indians are not major contributors to philanthropies and to lobbying and community groups in the US.

Douglass stated that he was bombarded with messages of “horrific hate” against him, his wife and their new baby. Both he and his wife resigned from the Vermont Young Republicans Committee.

Since the POLITICO story, at least six others in the Telegram chat, besides Douglass, are out of jobs.

Then, in another story on October 21, POLITICO reported that Paul Ingrassia, in a group chat with fellow Republicans, wrote “Never trust a chinaman or Indian” and then added: “NEVER.” Ingrassia reportedly wrote this in January 2024 referring to former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy The son of Indian immigrants, Ramaswamy declined to comment reported POLITICO.

In June, Ingrassia, of New York, was nominated by the Trump Administration to lead the office of the Special Counsel, a government watchdog agency. Following the POLITICO report, he posted that he had withdrawn from consideration for the post. He added that he “will continue to serve President Trump and the administration to Make America Great Again!” Ingrassia is the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security.

(Story updated October 23, 2025_