With less than two weeks until Election Day, Jay Jones, Virginia’s Democratic nominee for attorney general, has a brand new scandal to juggle. Jones, who already made national headlines for texting violent fantasies about murdering a Republican politician and his children, now faces criminal investigation over his community service arrangement following a 2022 reckless driving conviction.
Democrat candidate for Virginia attorney general Jay Jones is leaning into his Catholic faith on the campaign trail as recent polls show him slipping behind Republican incumbent Jason Miyares in a tightening race for the office.
A Virginia Commonwealth University survey released this week captured the shift, with Miyares holding a 45%-42% edge among likely voters, a reversal from September when Jones led 47%-41%.
The poll, conducted October 6-14 among 842 adults, carried a margin of error of plus or minus 3.95 percentage points.
As national discussion surrounding political violence has intensified, Democrats are continuing to endorse a candidate who admitted to sending text messages calling for the death of a Republican opponent and his family. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is the latest Democrat official to double down on supporting Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Virginia Jay Jones, despite the candidate’s violent rhetoric.
Kaine has repeatedly refused to withdraw his endorsement for Jones’s campaign, insisting, “I’m still supporting Jay Jones.” In an interview Sunday, the senator was asked if his position was hypocritical and whether or not he would insist that a hypothetical Republican who made similar violent comments should retire his campaign.
Virginia GOP gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears swiftly condemned those tied to a Young Republicans group chat scandal—and now she’s calling on her opponent, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, to do the same with regard to her own running mate, attorney general nominee Jay Jones.
In a press release issued Wednesday, the Democratic Party of Virginia said Earle-Sears “must call on participants of a leaked Young Republicans chat that used racist language to step down from their roles joining Virginia Young Republican Thomas Turner”—something the lieutenant governor had no problem doing.
“Easy,” she replied, “they absolutely must step down.”
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger refused to answer whether she still supports Jay Jones, the Democrat nominee for attorney general, after his text messages revealing he wanted to see a political rival and his children dead were exposed.
During a debate Thursday, Spanberger had the opportunity to come out against Jones, but she refused, only stating that she denounced his violent messages.
🚨SHOCKING
Abigail Spanberger refuses to say whether she still supports Jay Jones despite his political violence texts.
“Thank you, I didn’t hear an answer there on the endorsement issue so I just want to make sure, will you continue to endorse Jay Jones to be the next attorney general of Virginia and were you aware of these text messages before their release?” the moderator followed up.
… This means that what’s in Jay Jones’s heart is simple but shocking: Murder.
Equally shocking has been the response from other Virginia Democrats, including the top of the ticket for statewide office, gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger.
Spanberger, who earlier this election cycle told her supporters to “let your rage fuel you,” has refused to step away from Jones or call for his removal from the ticket.
The same goes for just about every other major liberal politician and political group in Virginia. Sure, they’ve offered mealy-mouthed caveats about such language being “unacceptable,” but then they immediately pivot into pointing fingers at Donald Trump and doubling down on their endorsement of Jones.
As Mollie Hemingway from The Federalist insightfully suggested, “perhaps the reason every single Democrat is standing behind Virginia Democrat AG candidate Jay Jones, who fantasized about Republicans getting assassinated and their children dying, is because they more or less agree with him.”
She’s not wrong. I said it’s “shocking” that the other leftists in Virginia would stand by their comrade, but let’s be honest, it really isn’t. This is who the left is.
For the left, who trace their ideological roots back to the bloody guillotines of the French Revolution and through the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, the presence of violence in their political quest for eternal power isn’t a bug — it’s a feature.
Over the course of the five days after the controversy broke, major CBS, ABC, and PBS broadcast shows refused to discuss Democrat Jay Jones’ violent text messages in which he fantasized about assassinating a political opponent, a new analysis revealed.
NBC alone dedicated a mere 63 seconds to the Virginia attorney general candidates’ texts, Media Research Center’s study of major NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS segments revealed. The analysis included the shows ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, CBS Saturday Morning, CBS Sunday Morning, NBC Today, NBC Sunday Today, ABC’s This Week, NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’s Face the Nation, and PBS’s NewsHour. MRC analyzed the programs from Friday, the day the National Review broke the story about Jones’ messages, through Tuesday morning.
National Review revealed messages Jones sent to a former colleague in 2022 in which he said, “Put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.” The hypothetical Jones proposed put Gilbert on par with Hitler and Pol Pot.
Two people are running to be Virginia Attorney General. One of them wished for his opponent to be murdered and for another opponents kids to be murdered in front of them so that would would help this candidate’s political agenda. The other candidate did none of those things. According to Nancy Pelosi, the person who wishes death on his opponents and their children is, on balance, the better candidate. That candidate is also the Democrat. Surprise!
To quote Jay Jones, the DEMOCRAT candidate for VA AG, about then Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert, “Three people, two bullets… Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot…Gilbert gets two bullets to the head…Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”
He also said he hoped Gilbert’s kids would die in front of him, adding, “I mean do I think Todd and Jennifer are evil? And that they’re breeding little fascists? Yes.”
Apropos of nothing, and I say this out of love and respect for the game, shouts to the Republican who held on to these texts until the most politically opportune moment. A lesser official would have rushed right to X-Twitter to score a political point or two.
Nancy Pelosi thinks wishing for a bullet to be put in the head of your opponent and of your opponent’s children is a-ok, as long as the person who thinks so is a Democrat and will advance her podies radical agenda against Americans. She also tried to make it about her, wondering where the outrage is when she gets a threat.
The Democratic nominee in the Virginia Attorney General’s race is on the defensive after text messages sent in 2022 were revealed, showing Jay Jones fantasizing about the murders of a state GOP lawmaker and his children.
Jones has received considerable backlash from Republicans over texts in which he said that he’d like to give then-House of Delegates Speaker Todd Gilbert “two bullets to the head.”
Jones also suggested that Gilbert might change his position on gun control if he were to witness the murder of his own children.
While Jones has since offered a public apology to Gilbert for his comments, saying he takes “full responsibility for my actions,” and adding, “Reading back those words made me sick to my stomach. I am embarrassed, ashamed and sorry.”
“I have reached out to Speaker Gilbert to apologize directly to him, his wife Jennifer, and their children,” Jones wrote, “I cannot take back what I said; I can only take full accountability and offer my sincere apology.”
Jones also faced harsh criticism over comments made in a 2020 conversation about removing qualified immunity from police in which Del. Carrie Coyner warned Jones that, without legal protection, police officers would get killed.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) did not give a clear answer on whether he would vote for Virginia Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones following leaked text messages in which he openly talks about violence directed toward former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert (R).
“Would you vote for him if you lived in Virginia?” Beshear, a former attorney general himself, was asked in an interview that aired Wednesday on Fox News’s “Special Report” about Jones.
“It would be a very, very tough one for me to look at. It’s just really wrong, and it bothers me,” the Kentucky governor responded.
Pressure has recently mounted on Jones to exit his race after the text messages were leaked. Multiple Republicans in and out of the Old Dominion have urged Jones to drop out, including President Trump and Vice President Vance.
The Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, has rolled out advertising linking her opponent, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) to Jones.
In response to a Federalist inquiry, not a single Democrat U.S. Senator called for the Virginia Democrat attorney general candidate Jay Jones to drop out of the race in light of his text messages fantasizing about assassinating Republican Todd Gilbert.
“Put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time,” Jones wrote, after running a hypothetical about how to allocate two bullets among Gilbert, Hitler, and Pol Pot. The 2022 text messages were first reported by National Review on Friday. According to a source cited by the outlet, Jones also “suggested he wished Gilbert’s wife could watch her own child die in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political views” in a follow-up phone call with a Republican state lawmaker.
The Federalist reached out to each Senate Democrat, asking if they would call for Jones to drop out of the race in light of his violent comments.
Only Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., addressed The Federalist’s inquiry. Though Kaine criticized Jones’ remarks, he also refused to call for him to drop out. “There is nothing that can justify these indefensible words, and they are contrary to all I’ve known about Jay Jones for decades,” Kaine said. “With hundreds of thousands of Virginians already having voted, it’s up to Virginians to decide.”
It’s a sign that Jones’ campaign is now in full damage-control mode.
Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for attorney general in Virginia, has called off a Thursday night fundraiser that was set to be hosted by best-selling novelist David Baldacci. A person familiar with the situation confirmed the cancellation to Axios, describing it as a sign that Jones’ campaign is now in full damage-control mode.
The scandal whereby Jay Jones, the Democrat nominee in the Virginia attorney general race, sent graphic text messages describing his desire to assassinate a political opponent says much about our current political culture. Beyond how some describe “violent” policies to justify violent actions against their adversaries, it also reflects the practical realities of the way states administer elections.
The candidates at the top of Virginia’s Democrat ticket, gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger and lieutenant governor nominee Ghazala Hashmi, have, as of this writing, refused to demand that Jones remove himself from the ticket. One potential reason for their reluctance to do the obvious “right thing”: It would disenfranchise tens of thousands of Virginia voters.
Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) is directing her attention to federal worker back pay in an apparent attempt to pull focus away from Jay Jones’s violent text messages. At the same time, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears‘s (R-VA) campaign continues to blast the Democratic ticket on Jones’s violent rhetoric.
Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have called on Democrats to force their candidate for attorney general, Jay Jones, to drop out of the election, after text messages surfaced where he said state House Speaker Todd Gilbert should get “two bullets to the head.” So far, he has not dropped out, and Democrats have been mum about holding him accountable for his violent rhetoric, frustrating conservatives further.
Spanberger has condemned her ticket mate’s violent rhetoric, but didn’t ask him to leave the ticket. Instead, she’s redirected her messaging to focus on the government shutdown, seizing on the opportunity to slam Republicans on a Trump administration memo threatening to withhold back pay from furloughed federal employees.
Virginia’s current Attorney General, Democrat Jay Jones had private text messages exposed that revealed his desire to kill his GOP opponent. He claimed that if he had two bullets, his GOP opponent, and two of the evilest people in human history, he’d use both bullets to kill his opponent. He later expressed desire to kill the opponent’s children.
Since his text messages were revealed, it’s also been exposed he promoted killing cops as a way to change their racist behavior. Yet despite all that, the Democratic Party, including their candidate for Governor, continue to support Jones. No top national Democrat has called on him to quit the race. He remains endorsed by all the major gun control groups and top members of the Virginia General Assembly.
Meet the Democrats Who Still Endorse Jay Jones After Remarks About Wanting a GOP Leader and His Children Dead– www.breitbart.com Source Link Excerpt:
Virginia Democrat attorney general candidate Jay Jones continues to hold nearly 200 endorsements from organizations, elected officials, and prominent Democrats, several days after text messages resurfaced from 2022 in which he discussed shooting former Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert and referenced his children dying. As of Monday, October 6, none of his endorsers have withdrawn their alignment or publicly called for him to drop out of the race.
The fallout erupted late last week after National Reviewpublished messages between Jones and Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner. In the texts, Jones wrote that if faced with a choice between shooting two dictators or Gilbert, he would “pick Gilbert every time.” Coyner confirmed that Jones also referenced Gilbert’s children dying “in the arms of their mother.” Jones later apologized, saying he was “deeply sorry” and took “full responsibility” for his comments.
Since the report, calls for Jones to withdraw have come from President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is running for governor. Earle-Sears released an ad Sunday featuring Democratic support of Jones and urging voters to “reject the insanity.” Trump endorsed incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares, describing Jones’s statements as “sick and demented,” while Miyares called them “disqualifying.”
VA AG Candidate Suggests Killing Cops Would Lower Shootings– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Democrat candidate for Virginia’s attorney general allegedly suggested that if more police officers were killed then they would shoot fewer people, according to new allegations.
Jay Jones allegedly made the violent suggestion in a telephone conversation with Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner in 2020, according to a new report from Virginia Scope.
Coyner said she and Jones had a “heated conversation about public policy and pain involving qualified immunity.”
Coyner said Jones was trying to convince her to agree that police officers should not have qualified immunity (which, in Coyner’s words “protects police officers from personal liability in their line of duty and their line of work”).
“And I said, ‘I believe that people will get killed. Police officers will get killed.’ And [Jones] said, ‘Well, maybe if a few of them died, that they would move on, not shooting people, not killing people.’ And I said, ‘that’s insane.’ But he firmly believed that if you removed qualified immunity, that police officers would act differently, and I firmly believe that it would not result in good public policy, and it would put police officers and the public’s lives at risk if they have to second-guess themselves on a decision they’re making in a moment where someone is doing something violent,” Coyner said.
Gun Control Zealots Stand By ‘Two Bullets’ Jay Jones– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
Moms Demand Action bills itself as a “grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence.” The nonprofit’s website notes that former Monsanto communications executive Shannon Watts started Moms Demand Action the “day after the Sandy Hook Tragedy in 2012… with the message that all Americans can and should do more to reduce guns violence.”
But Shannon and her gun-control organization have been curiously quiet about leftist Virginia attorney general candidate and former commonwealth delegate Jay Jones, who reportedly was fond of fantasizing about putting “two bullets” in the head of a Republican politician he loathed.
As of Monday evening, Jones proudly included Moms Demand Action’s logo — including the leftist group’s coveted Gun Sense Candidate seal of approval — on his AG campaign page. Moms says its Gun Sense Candidate program “is meant to signal to our ten million supporters, volunteers, and gun safety voters across the country that, if elected, a candidate will govern with gun safety in mind.”
I wonder if Jones had gun safety in mind when he wrote in 2022 of then-state House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican, that if Jones were given the choice to kill three people with two bullets — Adolf Hitler, Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, or Gilbert, the longtime Virginia House member would get “two bullets to the head.”
Virginia Dem AG candidate Jay Jones said in 2020 that if ‘a few’ officers died, police would stop ‘killing people’: Del. Carrie Coyner | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com Source Link
