Jay Jones, the far-left Democratic candidate for Virginia attorney general, didn’t just say he thought the former GOP speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates, Todd Gilbert, should be murdered, and that the speaker’s wife should see their children murdered, which might encourage Gilbert to alter his beliefs.
He also said police should be murdered to force them to change their policing, the Virginia Scope website reported on Monday.
The allegation comes from GOP Delegate Carrie Coyner, who confirmed the authenticity of Jones’s text messages and remarks about Gilbert.
While Jones apologized for the despicable remarks about Gilbert and his family, he denies that he said police should be murdered. The scandal is not only roiling Jones’s campaign, but also that of the Democratic ticket.
“I’ve Told You This Before”
Trouble began for Jones when National Review recounted his texts and phone call with Coyner, who gave screen shots to the website.
A former delegate, Jones wrote that if he had his way, Gilbert “gets two bullets to the head.” In a phone call, Jones told Coyner that he “wished Gilbert’s wife could watch her own child die in her arms.”
“Yes, I’ve told you this before,” Jones replied when Coyner chastised him. “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”
He also said Gilbert and his wife were raising “little fascists.”
But the comment “I’ve told you this before” referred to the pair’s contretemps about Jones’s legislation, Virginia Scope reported, that would have ended qualified immunity for police, which protects police from liability for acts performed in the line of duty.
“We had a pretty heated conversation about public policy and pain involving qualified immunity,” Coyner told the website:
I served on the Courts Committee for a short period of time. A bill to remove qualified immunity for police officers, which protects police officers from personal liability in their line of duty and their line of work, and he believed that they should not have qualified immunity, and he was trying to convince me to agree with that, and I said, “No, police officers have to make a split-second decision about whether or not to shoot a gun to protect themselves or protect others. And if they’re having to think about, will this strip my whole family of everything … are they going to be able to make that split-second decision?” And I said, ‘I believe that people will get killed. Police officers will get killed.”
That’s when Jones lapsed into a fever dream, just as he did during the conversation about Gilbert.
“Well, maybe if a few of them died, that they would move on, not shooting people, not killing people,” Jones said, Coyner told the website:
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.”
Jones denied saying any such thing. “I have never believed and do not believe that any harm should come to law enforcement, period,” he said. He also said he supports police and will work closely with them as attorney general.
Campaign on the Brink
That’s if he doesn’t quit his campaign. Axios reported that the campaign is in “chaos.”
At this late stage, top Democrats don’t know how to respond. “Leading Virginia Democrats, including the statewide ticket, have condemned the comments,” Axios reported. “But none have called for Jones to step aside.”
Among those sitting on their hands is CIA Democrat Abigail Spangerger, the far-left Deep State nominee for governor. “Standing by him risks reinforcing Republican attacks about double standards on political violence,” the website observed.
Republicans from President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance down to Virginia gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears and conservative activists, demand that Jones drop out.
His opponent, Jason Miyares, Axios continued, has launched a $1.5 million ad campaign about the text.
The new ad began running yesterday. “The Washington Post confirms Jay Jones sent texts that imagined shooting the Republican speaker of the House,” the narrator says:
Jay Jones wished the speaker’s wife could watch her own child die in her arms. It’s so disgusting. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Jay Jones confirmed that he hoped an opponent’s children could die to advance his political agenda. Can you trust Jay Jones to protect your children?
