Top Democrat officials in Virginia have rallied around Attorney General candidate Jay Jones, declining to call for him to drop out of the race despite texts expressing his violent fantasies about murdering Republicans.
Louise Lucas, president pro tempore of the Virginia Senate and a marijuana dispensary co-owner, said in a statement, “There is no place for political violence or violent rhetoric in our public discourse, and Jay must take accountability for his actions. But we will not allow this moment to overshadow the stakes of this election. … The choice before us is far bigger than this mistake.”
“Jay Jones has demonstrated the character, compassion, and vision that the Office of Attorney General deserves. Jason Miyares, by contrast, has proven himself to be nothing more than Donald Trump’s pro-bono attorney, pushing dangerous, partisan agendas … our rights, our democracy, and our future are on the line.” The statement was co-authored by Sen. Mamie Locke, a political science professor and head of the Senate Democrats’ political arm.
Jones’ text messages, first reported by National Review, were sent in 2021 to a Republican lawmaker after the then-Republican leader of the state house, Todd Gilbert, said kind words about a Democrat who had died, which infuriated Jones, who seemed to feel that the deceased Democrat was insufficiently liberal if he had respectful relationships with Republicans.
“Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” Jones texted to Del. Carrie Coyner (R). “Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”
He hoped for the death of Gilbert’s children as a way of impacting the state’s politics, saying, “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”
He added: “Do I think Todd and Jennifer are evil? And that they’re breeding little fascists? Yes.”
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When Democrats took control of the House of Delegates, Gilbert was replaced as speaker by Don Scott, a convicted crack dealer. In recent days, Scott defended Jones on criticism that he was arrested for driving 116 miles an hour and performed his court-ordered community service by volunteering for his own PAC, and attempted to tie a Republican candidate to “Nazis.”
The two Democrats running for Virginia’s top slots alongside Jones condemned his violent rhetoric without rescinding their endorsements or saying he should drop out of the race.
Credit: Fox News
Credit: National Review
Credit: National Review
Ghazala Hashmi, the Democrat candidate for lieutenant governor, said, “I have been very clear that political violence has no place in our country, and I condemn it at every turn. Jay must take accountability for the pain that his words have caused. We must demand better of our leaders and of each other.”
In Virginia last week alone for allegedly threatening Republican state delegate Geary Higgins by writing “I will shoot u @ yer next public rally. Then send you memes with the photos. I know where your f*in kids are,” while another man was charged with writing that he Republican Del. Kim Taylor. Taylor said Democrat gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger’s exhortation to supporters to “let rage fuel you” could have contributed to that.
John Reid, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, told The Daily Wire in an interview that if violence has no place in politics, then Jones must withdraw from the race.
“The Democrats have a violence problem. They talk about it nonstop. They have enough followers in their party who are willing to act on it that they should show some self-restraint,” he said. “When you see the pattern of Democrat leaders who are constantly fanning the flames and then acting like they don’t understand why people are taking them up on killing ‘Nazis’ and killing ‘fascists’ or attacking fantasy ‘white supremacists.'”
He said he’s begun wearing a bulletproof vest. “As a candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia, that’s crazy to me.”
Spanberger, the Democrat nominee for governor, said, “I made clear to Jay that he must fully take responsibility for his words … as the next Governor of our Commonwealth, I will always condemn violent language in our politics.”
Yet Jones did not fully take responsibility: Jones acknowledged that the texts were real, but his would-be apology blamed his Republican opponent and, inexplicably, Donald Trump, saying it was a “smear” to call attention to the accurate story.
“Like all people, I’ve sent text messages that I regret, and I believe that violent rhetoric has no place in our politics,” Jones told Fox. “Let’s be clear about what is happening in the attorney general race right now: Jason Miyares is dropping smears through Trump-controlled media organizations to assault my character and rescue his desperate campaign.”
Miyares, the Republican incumbent attorney general and Jones’ opponent in next month’s election, said, “I don’t accept his apology.”
John Reid asked, “What kind of narcissism do you have to try to make yourself a victim when you said this?” Of Spanberger and Hashmi, he added, “They think that they’ll chastise him with one or two lines on X and that will make this go away. I think this is much more serious than a slip of the tongue when you look at the pattern of violence over the last year years and when Abigail Spanberger says, ‘let your rage fuel you.'” That, he said, “implies uncontrollable anger and hostility.”
He noted that Democrats called for Democrat Governor Ralph Northam to resign when decades-old pictures that were offensive to black people surfaced, but have not done the same when Jones said he would “piss on [the] graves” of dead Republicans.
“Democrats have demonized Republicans to such an extent that they are simply running on hatred of the other side,” with Spanberger refusing to tell Virginians where she stands on prominent issues like transgenders in locker rooms, and Hashmi refusing to debate Reid, he said.
“That’s one reason I have put out policy positions every week, unlike the other candidates. I just think people should cast a vote not just based on how bad your opponent is, but what your ideas are. I’m trying to bring that old fashioned positive mindset back to the campaign. But the Democrats can’t help themselves but bring up ludicrous statements, like you’re a Nazi or a white supremacist, at the same time that their people are actually advocating violence. And they’ve got to be held accountable for that,” he said.
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