Friday afternoon National Review reported on a series of text messages between Jay Jones, the Democrats current nominee for Virginia attorney general, and his former state legislative colleague, Republican Carrie Coyner. In the text messages, sent just three years ago, Jones expressed a desire to see Todd Gilbert, at the time the Republican House Speaker in Virginia dead.

Jones: Three people, two bullets

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

What prompted this violent harangue? Gilbert had said some nice things about former Democratic state Sen. Joe Johnson, Jr., who had recently passed away. Yes, for saying nice things about a former colleague and a democrat, Jones flew off the handle.

And it didn't end there.

Chastised by Coyner for the grotesque statement, Jones doubled down.

According to National Review, Jones expressed a belief that people don't change their political views on a subject until they experience personal pain. In order to change his views on gun control, Jones posited that it would be a good thing if Gilbert's children died in the arms of his wife, Jennifer.

When Coyner pushed back again, Jones went even further.

“I mean do I think Todd and Jennifer are evil? And that they’re breeding little fascists? Yes."

The Jay Jones Fallout

After refusing to comment when asked by National Review, Jones sent a statement to Brandon Jarvis, who runs the political website Virginia Scope.

Like all people, I've sent text messages that I regret and I believe that violent rhetoric has no place in our politics. Let's be clear about what is happening in the Attorney General race right now: Jason Miyares is dropping smears through Trump-controlled media organizations to assault my character and rescue his desperate campaign. This is a strategy that ensures Jason Miyares will continue to be accountable to Donald Trump, not the people of Virginia. This race is about whether Trump can control Virginia or Virginians control Virginia.

Note that the statement contains no apology. It's also pretty apparent that he only felt regret about his statements starting sometime late Friday afternoon when lot of social media recoiled in horror.

It wasn't until later that night that Jones managed to feel enough regret that he was able to come out with an actual apology.

I take full responsibility for my actions, and I want to issue my deepest apology to Speaker Gilbert and his family. Reading back those words made me sick to my stomach. I am embarrassed, ashamed, and sorry.

But not sorry enough to drop out of the race.

And why would he really? The Virginia Beach Democratic Committee released a statement characterizing Jones' vile text messages merely as "past mistakes" and reiterated their support for him. By the next day, another seven local Democratic committees joined.

The country's largest gun control group, Everytown for Gun Safety, donated $200,000 to Jones' campaign, and has said nothing in the wake of their preferred candidate wishing for his political foe's children to die.

In the wake of two assassination attempts on then-GOP nominee Donald Trump—including one that missed being potential fatal by mere inches—and the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, many Democrats could be shamed into dialing back their violent rhetoric for merely a day or two before returning to calling their political opponents fascists and Nazis.

Now we have a Democratic candidate in a major state in one of the few off-year elections who wished violence on children, and the left is perfectly happy to wave it away. Both Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger and Lt. Gov. nominee Ghazala Hashmi have condemned Jones' words, but neither has called for him to drop out of the race.

Accountability is important, but not that important

While Republicans, obviously, have been quick to call for Jones to drop out of the race, Democrats have countered with one of two tactics: 1) Trump is worse, or 2) Silence.

I asked 3 AIs to list elected Democratic politicians who have called on Jones to resign.

Grok initially offered Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell as the lone Democrat nationwide based on this story in the Virginia Mercury. After reading the story myself, it was clear that Grok had mistakenly conflated the headline quote of "Beyond disqualifying" which was uttered by Vice President J.D. Vance with Surovell's condemnatory statement that did not go as far as asking Jones to step down. Asking Grok to "Think Harder" caused it to realize it had erred and only Republicans had called for him to quit. Both Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT determined that no Democratic politician had called for Jones to quit the race.

On Sunday, in the pulpit at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, a Democrat, implored churchgoers to be like Christ and ignore Jones' wish to assassinate his political opponent and vote for him anyway.

Here is the current Speaker of the House in Virginia, in a church pulpit, telling congregants to ignore Jay Jones's call for the assassination of the prior Speaker and murder of his kids because…politics. Where is The Bulwark? Where are Dem leaders? pic.twitter.com/titRtnAmIt

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) October 5, 2025

I'm never a fan of politicians delivering messages in churches—no matter what their politics are—but this is odious.

The media hasn't been much better. As of this morning, The New York Times hasn't even bothered to cover the controversy. Their most recent story is this horserace piece from June. The Washington Post editorial board could only rouse itself to express concern over Jones' temperament and observe that he "has a month to convince voters that his hateful rhetoric does not reflect how he'd behave if elected as attorney general."

They want you dead

It should be obvious that what a person truly believes is more often revealed in private conversations than in poll-tested, carefully crafted statements run through a political consultant. It should be obvious exactly what kind of person Jay Jones is.

There are people who wish cruel ends on their political opponents in the silence of their minds. There are people who say cruel and evil things in private conversations that aren't recorded. Then there's Jay Jones who writes it down and sends it to a politician on the other side of the aisle. It's not just evil; it's stupid.

Is there anyone that honestly believes that Jones would use the power of the attorney general's office to defend the civil rights of someone on the political right if the issue presented itself to him? Remember, this is what he had to say when a Republican was eulogizing a Democrat. He was angry a Republican had nice things to say about a Democrat!

If the attempted assassinations of Trump and the actual assassination of Kirk weren't enough to make the case, the defenses of all of them online should provide plenty of evidence that a not insignificant part of the Democratic coalition wants their political opponents dead. Not defeated. Dead.

It's the left that riots and threatens and requires that universities make massive showings of police presence when a conservative comes to campus to speak. I think back to when Milo Yiannopoulos spoke at my alma mater several years ago and the massive police presence and temporary fencing that was required on a college campus that's pretty conservative in comparison to many others. I recall women's rights advocate Riley Gaines being taken hostage at San Francisco State University, which quickly swept the entire incident under the rug.

Tomorrow the Alliance Defending Freedom will argue a free speech case before the Supreme Court tackling a Colorado law that forbids "licensed counselors from talking with clients under the age of 18, if it is the client’s stated goal to find peace with her biological sex." What you won't see is the typical press conference on the steps of the Supreme Court because ADF has been informed that the risk of violence is too great.

The risk isn't coming from the right. Democrats and the left don't require the kind of security that Republicans do.

Democrats don't believe what they say about violent rhetoric or "stochastic terrorism". Or if they do, it's OK when the political right is the victim. These are both reasons for the right to shut up, but they'll keep dehumanizing their own opponents, then when someone on their political side snaps, they'll lie and blame you all over again.

This will get worse before it gets better.