The email scandal prompted calls for Mr. Jones to withdraw from the race, but Mr. Jones criticized Mr. Miyares for being too close to Mr. Trump.
Virginia candidate comes under fire for outdated text
Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones is under fire for a message he sent in 2022 joking about the shooting of the Republican House speaker.
Fox – 5 DC
Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate for Virginia attorney general, has been embroiled in a text scandal and apologized to “all Virginians” on October 16th.
“Let me be clear: I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed. And I’m sorry,” Jones said of the text during a debate at the University of Richmond.
The race between Jones and Republican Attorney Jason Miyares is important because the winner, Virginia, is considered the frontrunner for the governor’s race in four years. The state’s off-year elections are often a precursor to the following year’s midterm congressional elections.
Jones criticized Miyares, calling him “too weak” and “too scary” to stand up to President Donald Trump. Jones said Miyares would not challenge Trump on firing federal employees, imposing import tariffs or deploying the National Guard.
“The stakes couldn’t be higher,” Jones said.
President Trump called on Jones to withdraw from the race, citing his “sick and demented jokes.”
Mr. Miyares punished Mr. Jones, who never filed charges. Miyares said he has support from major law enforcement agencies and has worked over the past four years to hire more policy personnel and reduce violent crime.
“Jay Jones is not a prosecutor, he’s a politician,” Miyares said. “He wants a fight in Washington.”
What did Jones’ text say?
Jones, a former state lawmaker from the Norfolk area, emailed Republican lawmakers in 2022 that the then-state House speaker deserved “two bullets in the head” and that he was going to “urinate” on the graves of other Republicans. He apologized for the text in a statement.
Critics highlighted how the violent language emerged in the aftermath of the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and other recent political attacks.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Democrats across Virginia condemned the remarks.
Jeffries told reporters at the Capitol on Oct. 16 that the attorney general nominee had properly apologized for his comments. “I know that Democrats across the board in Virginia condemn his comments, and that’s the right thing to do,” he said.
On October 3, the conservative magazine National Review revealed that Jones mistakenly sent a text to Republican Virginia Representative Carrie Coyner complaining about then-Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert’s deference to moderate Democrats.
“Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler, Pol Pot. Gilbert received two bullets in the head,” Jones said in a text message.
The message mentions the former speaker of the state House of Representatives, the leader of Nazi Germany, and the leader of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge. The text repackaged a joke among Brooklynites about Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley.
Jones specifically apologized to Gilbert, his wife and family. But Miyares said real accountability would mean withdrawing from the race.
