President Donald Trump on Sunday told Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee running to defeat incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares, to immediately drop out of the Virginia race after the former state delegate made “demented jokes” wishing death upon a Republican and his family.
Texts from 2022 surfaced on Friday, showing Jones fantasizing about then-Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Todd Gilbert getting “two bullets to the head.” Jones also made murderous threats against Gilbert’s wife and children, whom he called “little fascists.”
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Trump’s message ramps up pressure on Jones to end his campaign ahead of the November election.
“It has just come out that the Radical Left Lunatic, Jay Jones, who is running against Jason Miyares, the GREAT Attorney General in Virginia, made SICK and DEMENTED jokes, if they were jokes at all, which were not funny, and that he wrote down and sent around to people, concerning the murdering of a Republican Legislator, his wife, and their children,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump joins Vice President JD Vance, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, Miyares, and other Republicans in condemning the embattled Democrat’s language. Democrats, however, have refused to forcefully denounce Jones.
The president called out Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), who is running against Earle-Sears to replace Youngkin, for declining to demand Jones drop out.
“Abigail Spanberger, who is running for Governor, is weak and ineffective, and refuses to acknowledge what this Lunatic has done,” he said. “Even Democrats are saying it is ‘RESIGNATION FROM CAMPAIGN’ TERRITORY.”
With one month to go until Election Day, Trump then called on Jones to bow out of the race and reiterated his support for Miyares.
“JASON WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” he told Virginia voters.
Spanberger has denounced her running mate’s violent rhetoric but stopped short of telling him to end his bid for state attorney general. Additionally, the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee said it stood fully behind Jones despite the scandal and even quoted the Bible in doing so.
“Recent press may have spotlighted past mistakes. We say, let those without sin cast the first stone,” the group said in a statement, referencing Jesus’s words in John 8:7.
“Jay Jones has taken responsibility, apologized, and shown he is committed to serving with integrity and accountability that his public record already shows. Virginians deserve a leader who learns, grows, and stands for everyday people—and Jay is that leader,” it added.
Meanwhile, Jones has apologized to Gilbert and his family for the resurfaced text messages over three years after making those remarks.
His comments are expected to upend the tight race in the Virginia attorney general election. In a recent poll conducted before the story broke, Jones only leads Miyares by 6 points. That gap may narrow after his disturbing texts came to light.
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Jones is also facing public scrutiny over his conviction of reckless driving in 2022 and 500 hours of community service for his own political action committee, adding to his campaign troubles.
Virginia Republicans also cited his conviction as a reason for why he should be disqualified from serving as the state’s top prosecutor.
