JD Vance and other Trump administration officials have joined calls for the Democratic candidate in Virginia’s attorney general race to step down after text messages were unearthed in which he suggested his political opponent was worse than Hitler and should be shot.
The vice president, as well as other Republicans including Speaker Mike Johnson and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, condemned the “abhorrent” messages sent by Jay Jones to another delegate in 2022.
“The Democrat candidate for AG in Virginia has been fantasizing about murdering his political opponents in private messages,” Vance wrote on X. “I'm sure the people hyperventilating about sombrero memes will join me in calling for this very deranged person to drop out of the race.”
Vance was referring to the backlash against Donald Trump after the president posted an AI video to his social media depicting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero and sporting a large mustache. Critics have called the video “vulgar” and “racist,” though Vance said that Trump had been “joking.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson called for Jones to “immediately withdraw his candidacy” saying the messages were “plainly disqualifying for anyone who aspires to public office.”
“There is no conceivable justification for wishing violence against a political opponent and their children. Mr. Jay Jones should immediately withdraw his candidacy, save himself and his party from further embarrassment, and take some time to reflect,” Johnson wrote.
In a text exchange with fellow delegate Carrie Coyner in 2022, Jones said that in a hypothetical scenario in which he had a gun and two bullets in a room with Adolf Hitler, Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, and Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert, he would choose to shoot Gilbert twice.
“Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time,” Jones said, according to the National Review.
“It really bothers me when you talk about hurting people or wishing death on them,” Coyner, a Republican, replied.
Despite multiple calls for him to drop out of the AG race, Jones has refused so far to do so. In a Friday interview, Jones admitted that his text messages about Gilbert were “abhorrent” and apologized, but said Virginians deserved a leader who would “accept when they’ve made mistakes.”
At the time he sent the text messages, Jones had just stepped down from his position as a state delegate representing Norfolk, Virginia. He announced his campaign for Attorney General in November 2024 and went on to the Democratic primary in June.
In the same exchange, Jones reportedly suggested that Republican lawmakers needed to experience their children dying to change their policy views. He also described the Gilberts as “evil” and “breeding little fascists.”
Speaking to ABC Friday, Jones addressed the messages, saying that such violent rhetoric had “no place on our landscape” or in public discourse. “I sincerely and from the bottom of my heart, want to express my remorse and my regret for what happened and what I said that language has no place in our discourse, and I am so remorseful for what happened,” he said.
Jones said he had been in touch with Gilbert and his wife, who were “angry and furious” about the messages.
“What I said was unacceptable, and I accept responsibility for that, and I want them to know, and I want the people of Virginia to know that I am so deeply, deeply embarrassed, and that I understand the gravity of what I said, and I am so apologetic for it,” he said.
On his comments about Gilbert’s children, Jones added: “I'm sick to my stomach when I read those words. And certainly they're objectionable, they're abhorrent. They have no place in Virginia, no place in this country's discourse.”
However, despite his apologies, Jones said he would be continuing with his campaign for state attorney general.
“Virginians, I think, want and deserve and expect leaders who will accept when they've made mistakes, when they have aired, and again, I have not ever claimed to be perfect,” he said.
“I don't think any of us are, but I'm before the people of Virginia, offering my apology and offering my word that I'm learning and growing from all of this.”
It comes amid growing concerns about political violence and extreme rhetoric, in the wake of the assassination of conservative youth activist, Charlie Kirk, last month. A recent poll found that more than 70 percent of Americans believe that political violence is now a “severe problem.”
As well as Vance and Johnson, Youngkin said he was outraged by Jones’ remarks and unconvinced by his apology. “This violent, disgusting rhetoric targeted at an elected official and his children is beyond disqualifying,” Youngkin wrote online X.
“There is no ‘gosh, I’m sorry’ here. Jones doesn’t have the morality or character to drop out of this race, and his running mates Abigail Spanberger, Ghazala Hashmi, and every elected Democrat in Virginia don’t have the courage to call on him to step away from this campaign in disgrace.”
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