Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) claimed that Virginia Democrat candidate for Attorney General Jay Jones pondering the shooting of a Virginia Republican lawmaker is “no worse” than what President Donald Trump says “almost every day.”
When asked by Michael O’Connor, a reporter with The Dogwood news, if Beyer had a comment about Jones, Beyer expressed that Jones’s comment entertaining a hypothetical situation of shooting former Virginia Speaker of the House of Delegates Todd Gilbert was “awful.”
Beyer continued to state that he hopes Jones “prevails” in the upcoming election against current Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, the Republican candidate for attorney general.
“How about Mr. Jones? Any kind of comment on what’s happening with them?” O’Connor asked.
“You know, what Jay said was awful,” Beyer said. “It’s no worse than what Donald Trump says almost every day, and the things that JD Vance has said, you compare it to the other evil things. People make mistakes. I very much hope he prevails.”
@oconnor_reports I asked Rep. Beyer for his thoughts on Jay Jones #virginia
♬ original sound – Michael O’Connor
Beyer’s comments come after the National Review obtained text messages that Jones sent on August 8, 2022, to Virginia House Delegate Carrie Coyner (R). In the text messages to Coyner, Jones complained about how his colleagues were “eulogizing” a former Democrat lawmaker who had died, and entertaining thoughts about a hypothetical situation in which he would shoot Gilbert.
A spokesman for Coyner explained to the Washington Post that after the text message, Coyner and Jones had a phone call in which Jones explained “his reasoning.” After the phone call ended, the two again texted, and Jones allegedly “talked about Gilbert’s children dying in the arms of their mother.”
Since the revelation of the text messages sent by Jones, Republicans such as Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) have called on Jones to withdraw from the race.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has also said the comments from Jones are “beyond disqualifying.”
“This violent, disgusting rhetoric targeted at an elected official and his children is beyond disqualifying,” Youngkin wrote in a post on X. “Jay Jones said that ‘Gilbert gets two bullets to the head’ and then hoped his children would die. Read those words again.”
A recent poll from the Trafalgar Group, conducted between October 8-10, 2025, of 1,066 likely general election voters, found that 48.9 percent of respondents would vote for Miyares, while 43.1 percent would vote for Jones.
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