Democratic AG hopeful will still run for office despite comparing opponent to Hitler and saying he should be shot
The Democratic hopeful for Virginia’s Attorney General has said he will not be dropping out of the race, despite the emergence of text messages in which he suggested his political opponent was worse than Hitler and that he should be shot.
Jay Jones admitted that his text messages about Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert were “abhorrent” and apologized, but said Virginians deserved a leader who would “accept when they’ve made mistakes.”
In a 2022 exchange with fellow delegate Carrie Coyner, 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 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.
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 on 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.
