Staff Reports
The mask is off and the rot is visible: newly surfaced 2022 text messages from Democratic AG nominee Jay Jones reveal fantasies of brutal violence against a fellow lawmaker and even his children. In messages to Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner, Jones reportedly mused about shooting then–House Speaker Todd Gilbert and bragged he would “piss on their graves,” words that are impossible to reconcile with someone running to be the Commonwealth’s top prosecutor.
The texts are not petty political trash-talk — they include language that any decent person recognizes as monstrous. Screenshots show Jones writing lines like “Three people, two bullets: Gilbert, Hitler, and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” and admitting he hoped a politician’s children would suffer so policy would change. Those are not braggadocio sound bites; they are violent fantasies from a grown man who wants the power to enforce the law.
The reaction has been swift and bipartisan because this transcends politics; it’s about basic decency and public safety. Republicans and Democrats alike have condemned the remarks, President Trump and other national Republicans called for Jones to withdraw, and the Virginia Fraternal Order of Police publicly declared him unfit for the office he seeks. Law enforcement’s disgust should concern every voter who still believes in the rule of law.
Jones has offered a tepid apology while refusing to step aside, and his refusal to accept full responsibility only proves the problem the rest of us already know: elites expect voters to forgive anything so long as it helps their party win. Incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares has rightly seized the moment to make voters ask whether someone who fantasized about murder can be trusted to protect Virginians. The campaign ads and hard-hitting response are the only defense against a candidate evidently unfit for the job.
This controversy comes at a dangerous time for our country, with political violence no longer an abstraction but a grim reality. Conservatives nationwide still reel from the assassination of a major conservative activist just weeks ago, a chilling reminder that rhetoric can metastasize into real-world carnage if left unchecked. Voters cannot treat violent fantasies as harmless; they must be repudiated loudly and permanently.
Democratic leaders who try to paper over this or pretend it’s a “private conversation” are revealing priorities that put party over public safety. Many in the mainstream media and party apparatus want to minimize accountability, but ordinary Virginians understand that a prosecutor must have a temperate mind and respect for human life. If the party won’t police its own, then voters must.
Now is the moment for patriotic citizens to stand with law enforcement, family values, and basic decency — not with political operatives who excuse violent fantasies because they serve an agenda. Conservatives should channel their outrage into the ballot box, support defenders of the rule of law, and demand that candidates of either party who flirt with violence be disqualified from office. Our children deserve leaders, not lunatics.
Virginia voters will decide whether they want prosecutors who threaten and fantasize about violence or leaders who protect every family and respect the sanctity of life. This scandal is a stark choice between safety and chaos, between accountability and partisan cover-ups. Americans who love freedom and order must act decisively — vote, support law enforcement, and never normalize political violence.
