The Democratic nominee for Virginia attorney general, Jay Jones, apologized Friday after text messages in which he sent to a colleague about shooting former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert surfaced.
The National Review was first to report on Jones’ text messages that were sent to Republican House of Delegates candidate Carrie Coyner in 2022. At the time, Jones wrote:
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
Coyner responded: “Please stop. … It really bothers me when you talk about hurting people or wishing death on them.”
In a statement, Jones said he takes full responsibility for his actions and apologized to Gilbert and his family.
“Reading back those words made me sick to my stomach. I am embarrassed, ashamed, and sorry,” he wrote. “I cannot take back what I said; I can only take full accountability and offer my sincere apology.”
Brandon Jarvis, founder and managing editor of Virginia Scope, spoke with WTOP anchor Nick Iannelli about the messages and its effect in the attorney general race.
Jarvis said that Democratic nominee for governor Abigail Spanberger “said that she had a conversation with Jones, told him that she does not like the comments he made. She called them disgusting, and then she pivoted toward lowering the partisan hatred.”
In a statement, Spanberger wrote, “I made clear to Jay that he must fully take responsibility for his words. What I have also made clear is that as a candidate — and as the next Governor of our Commonwealth, I will always condemn violent language in our politics.”
Earlier this week, Jones also reportedly had multiple incidents of speeding and was cited by Virginia State Police for driving at 116 mph down Interstate 64 in 2022, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
“We couldn’t find any evidence of him being arrested at the time for that very high speed. He did serve 1,000 hours of community service. About 500 of the hours were served with his own political action committee,” Jarvis said.
Jones’ statement left his current run for the state’s attorney general seat up in the air.
“Virginians deserve honest leaders who admit when they are wrong and own up to their mistakes. This was a grave mistake and I will work every day to prove to the people of Virginia that I will fight for them as Attorney General,” he wrote.
Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears said in a video posted to X that Jones should drop out of the attorney general race and criticized Spanberger for eliciting political violence by calling on voters to “let your rage fuel you.”
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