Democrat Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones faces scrutiny from both sides of the aisle after texting a former Republican colleague three years ago when a former Virginia Senator spoke to a former Republican colleague who joked that “two bullets should be in their heads.”
His colleague, Republican Del Carrie Coiner, shared a screenshot of his conversation with Jones on August 8, 2022, admitted that he was mistakenly sent to her.
The news of the message was first broken on October 3rd by conservative media outlet National Review.
In a campaign statement, Jones admitted, “Like everyone, I sent a text message that I regret.” He reiterated that “violent rhetoric has no place in our politics.” But he denounced incumbent Republican Jason Miyar, through a media outlet in favour of President Donald Trump and Republicans.
In an email to Progress-Index accompanying the screenshot, Coyner said the message “not only has it been intrusive, but has also been disqualified for those who want to seek public office.
“Jay Jones wanted violence on his colleagues’ children and made a joke about shooting (former speaker) Todd Gilbert, which is not fed up with civil servants,” Coiner said in a statement.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger has released her own statement saying she spoke “candidly” with Jones about the message.
“After learning about these comments early today, I texted Jay and honestly, disgusted by what he said,” she said. “I made it clear to Jay that he must be fully responsible for his words. What I have made is to condemn violent words in our politics as a candidate and as the next governor of our Commonwealth.”
The text message news comes from Republican Dell, Virginia, who plans to kill her with a robotic text that her campaign has been sent to her phone.
What did the message say, reportedly?
The message was sent less than a year after Jones took over as Norfolk’s representative.
According to a screenshot in the text, Jones appears to have been clearly upset by comments attributed to Gilbert about the death of a Democratic representative. Jones accused the representative of leaking information about Virginia House Democrats to the House Republican Caucus.
He initially apologized for accidentally sending a message to Coiner, but later ranted in a rumour comparing Gilbert to former world dictators Adolf Hitler and Polpot. He reportedly mentioned that he wanted to shoot all three of them.
“Three, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler, Polpot,” he texted. “Gilbert gets two bullets in his head.”
Coiner replied, “Jay, please stop.”
His answer. “Lol. I understand, I understand.”
“When you talk about hurting people or wanting them to die, that really bothers me,” Coiner replied.
Later in the text thread, Jones also reportedly mentions Gilbert’s wife and children.
“Do you think Todd and Jennifer are evil? And are they breeding little fascists?” he said. “yes.”
Jones also reportedly said, “Only when people feel pain personally, they will move forward with policies.”
‘reckless’
Jones’ campaign released the entire statement after the National Review published the story.
“Like everyone, I texted myself that I regret. I believe that violent rhetoric has no place in politics.” “Let’s be clear what’s going on with Attorney General right now. Jason Miyares is dropping smears through the media organization controlled by Trump to attack my character and save his desperate campaign.
Miyares is called “reckless and biased and willing to take away his integrity” in a statement from X called Jones.
“My job is to stop violence, protect innocent lives, keep people safe. I can’t imagine anyone running for this job defending violence,” he said.
The Republican Attorney General Meeting, where Miyares is a member, had to say a lot in its own statement.
“There is no place for political violence, especially those jokes from elected officials,” Kansas Attorney General and Raga Chairman Chris Kobach said in a statement. “Jay Jones should drop out of the Attorney General’s race. His comments are not accepted by anyone who wants to represent law enforcement.
Bill Atkinson (he/he) is an award-winning journalist covering news, government and politics. Contact him at batkinson@progress-index.com or at X (formerly known as Twitter) at @batkinson_pi.
