Republicans are calling for Jay Jones, a Democrat, to withdraw his candidacy for attorney general of Virginia after private text messages Jones sent in 2022 were leaked. In the messages, AP News reports, Jones said: “Three people two bullets…Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot…Gilbert gets two bullets to the head.”
Todd Gilbert, the man referenced in the text, was serving as the Virginia house speaker at the time, while Jones was a private citizen who held no elected office.
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Jones has since repeatedly apologized for the comments, but the text message leak comes at a sensitive national moment, in the wake of several high-profile assassinations that have claimed lives from both the Democratic and Republican camps.
Some Democratic leaders, in an effort to push back against dangerous rhetoric across the political spectrum, are also supporting the Republican calls for Jones to withdraw.
President Trump also added to the calls for Jones to withdraw, even as Trump faces criticism for his own incendiary comments in recent public addresses, including one where he referred to Democrats as a “little gnat that’s on our shoulder” and said that American cities should be used as military training grounds to fight what he called an “invasion from within.”
