House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) announced on Thursday that he stands by Democrat Jay Jones in his race for Virginia Attorney General despite past text messages that showed him apparently fantasizing about a Republican lawmaker being fatally shot.
Speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill, Jeffries said the apology from Jay Jones is sufficient.
“The attorney general candidate has appropriately apologized for his remarks, and I know his remarks have been condemned across the board by Democrats in the commonwealth [of] Virginia and beyond,” Jeffries said. “And that’s the right thing to do.”
Jones sent the text messages on August 8, 2022, to Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner, who was taken aback when he apparently implied then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his children would be gunned down.
“Three people, two bullets,” read a text from Jones.
“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,” he also said.
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has called on Jones to step down.
“This violent, disgusting rhetoric targeted at an elected official and his children is beyond disqualifying. Jay Jones said that ‘Gilbert gets two bullets to the head’ and then hoped his children would die,” Youngkin wrote.
“Read those words again. 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,” the governor added.
As Breitbart News reported last week, former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat nominee for governor in Virginia, refused to withdraw her endorsement of Jay Jones during a debate between her and the Republican candidate, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
“We just want to clarify, what you’re saying is, as of now, you still endorse Jay Jones as attorney general?” the moderator asked Spanberger.
“I’m saying, as of now, it’s up to every voter to make their own individual decision. I am running for governor. I am accountable for the words that I say, for the acts that I take, for the policies that I have put out,” Spanberger responded. “I am responsible for the policies I put out and the work I will endeavor to do tirelessly for the people.”
Spanberger repeatedly said that she condemned the rhetoric when the texts were made public.
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