Jay Jones, who is running to be attorney general of Virginia on the Democrat ticket, apologized for his previous comments that appeared to wish violence upon a legislator across the aisle only to then swivel and immediately place blame for his actions everywhere else.
“Let me be very clear: I am ashamed. I am embarrassed. And I am sorry,” said Jones in his opening remarks of a debate with Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) held at the University of Richmond. As Jones finished his apology, he immediately pivoted away from the subject.
“Now, again, Jason [Miyares] is going to try to make this race about my mistakes, but this race has always been about more,” said Jones.
Now, perhaps on hearing this many were thinking of the well-known aphorism that “everything before ‘but’ is a lie,” but it is true that few political races are only about one thing. Then again, seemingly fantasizing about killing someone and suggesting it would be good for their children to die to affect political action is horrifically extreme. These appalling viewpoints were apparently communicated by Jones to another legislative colleague after the target of his sick comments had merely praised a Democrat legislator who had recently passed.
Jones, of course, kept going: “The stakes of this race are too high for it to be about anything else,” he said before airing a laundry list of grievances about President Donald Trump (R), adding that the president has “a willing cheerleader here in Jason Miyares, who will not step up to sue.”
The moderator of the debate, K. Brett Marston, president of the Virginia State Bar, soon asked Jones how he would explain his past comments, as well as reckless driving charges, to voters who “expect restraint, professionalism, and accountability from the state’s top law enforcement officer. And why should they trust your judgment moving forward?”
“Well, I was held accountable. Several years ago, I made very grave mistakes, but I was held accountable, not just by the people in my party but by the Virginia State Police, where I completed a very rigorous driver improvement course, paid a substantial fine, and completed the terms of community service as outlined and approved,” said Jones. “I have been held accountable, and I think Virginians deserve leaders who understand when they make mistakes and can be held accountable.
Jones then offered yet another “but” in his answer.
“But what we have here in Virginia right now is an attorney general [Miyares] who won’t hold the president accountable. “For the last nine months, Donald Trump has roughshod over this commonwealth. Jason Miyares has had more than 50 opportunities to sue the administration.”
Jones also said, “I will see Jason Miyares and Donald Trump in court as your next attorney general.” So Jones is now fantasizing about prosecuting his political opponents.
Miyares wasn’t buying Jones’ supposed apology.
The Virginia attorney general made sure to note that Jones’ reckless driving charges came from “going 116 miles per hour on interstate 64,” before adding that others who were also charged that day received harsher sentences than Jones.
“Four people were in court that day were going roughly the same speed, three of those four got suspended or active jail sentences, but Jay Jones is a politician, and he asked the court not to give him any of that, to give him community service and instead we now know he misled the court. That community service, it wasn’t done for a charity, it was done for his own political action committee that he controls,” Miyares said.
“Right now, you may say that you are sorry but look back at what happened. You had three years to say you’re sorry, Jay, and you didn’t,” said Miyares. “Three years to actually recognize what you did was horrific. You chose to stay silent. Carrie Coyner called you out then. You doubled down. It was after she called you out for these text messages that … you advocated for violence against children. And when this became public, we now know your first statement wasn’t saying ‘I’m sorry,’ the words ‘I’m sorry’ wasn’t even in your statement. It was to say we all send text messages we regret, you attacked the president and you attacked me.”
Jones’ text messages to Del. Carrie Coyner (R) were obtained by National Review. “[Then-Virginia House Speaker Todd] Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” Jones said to Coyner as he laid out a hypothetical “three people, two bullets” scenario in which he listed Gilbert alongside Hitler and Pol Pot. “Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time,” said Jones.
“[Jay Jones] keeps saying that he is sorry. Jay, if you’re really sorry, you wouldn’t be running — if you really understood the ramifications of what you said about an innocent mom and her children. You know Todd Gilbert; you’ve served with him. Jennifer [Gilbert] would come to the General Assembly; she would bring her children. We would see them run in the hallways. They were two and five years old at the time. This wasn’t a hypothetical; this wasn’t some figure that you know from far away—you actually know Todd. This is a flesh-and-blood real husband. Jennifer is a real mom. These are real kids,” Miyares said in the debate.
“How in the world could you ever show compassion and comfort a grieving mother that has ever lost a child to violence? Because Virginians, there is no cry like the cry of a mother that has lost her child. A prosecutor knows this because they’ve stood in that courtroom. Jay Jones has never understood this because he’s not a prosecutor. He’s a politician trying to save his career.”
America’s 1st Freedom previously reported that anti-gun groups like Everytown and others have stayed silent in the wake of Jones’ comments, but have refused to rescind their endorsements. As this is being written, this still remains true.
Many have since called for Jones to drop out of the race, including President Trump, who said Jones should drop out “immediately,” while saying Democrats were “weak” for refusing to do the same.
The NRA Political Victory Fund (PVF) has endorsed Miyares and did so during his previous run for attorney general in 2021 as well.
“The Second Amendment rights of Virginians have been under constant attack by radical progressives who seek to rubberstamp Michael Bloomberg’s extreme gun control agenda. By electing pro-gun candidates like Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, Attorney General Jason Miyares, and John Reid, Virginia gun-owners can rest assured that they will be protected from the never-ending push to disarm law-abiding citizens,” said NRA-PVF Chairman John Commerford.
Election day is just a few short weeks away on November 4, and we’ll keep you up to date on the results of these crucial elections.
