The Democratic Party’s nominee for Virginia attorney general, Jay Jones, has said he is “deeply, deeply sorry” for fantasizing about killing a Republican lawmaker.
Jones was asked about his disgusting comments in an interview with ABC 8News reporter Tyler Englander.
“A lot of politics is about trust,” Englander said. “I can think of nothing more horrific than a mother having to hold her dying child. How can Virginians trust a man who said something so horrific, so callously?”
“Well again, I am so deeply, deeply, sorry, for what I said, and I wish that it hadn’t happened and I would take it back if I could,” Jones answered.
Watch the clip below:
WATCH: 8 News grills Virginia Democrat AG candidate Jay Jones who wrote that he wanted to put “two bullets to the head” of the GOP leader: “A lot of politics is about trust. I can think of nothing more horrific than a mother having to hold her dying child. How can Virginians trust a man who said something so horrific, so callously?”
Jones: “Well, again, I am so deeply, deeply sorry for what I said, and I wish that it hadn’t happened, and I would take it back if I could.”
Jones clearly doesn’t want to deal with the consequences of his actions.
WATCH: 8 News grills Virginia Democrat AG candidate Jay Jones who wrote that he wanted to put “two bullets to the head” of the GOP leader: “A lot of politics is about trust. I can think of nothing more horrific than a mother having to hold her dying child. How can Virginians… pic.twitter.com/zZh1NNtAhG
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 4, 2025
The story was first broken by National Review, who published early-morning texts from August 2022 showing Jay Jones in which he imagined shooting his political opponents.
The messages were prompted by bipartisan tributes to the late centrist legislator Joe Johnson Jr., which had been shared in statehouse group chats.
Jones, who had recently left the state House, sent his responses to Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner.
He slammed Johnson as too “moderate” and mocked the “glowing” eulogies in his honor, particularly one made by Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert.
“If those guys die before me, I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves,” adding that he would “send them out awash in something.”
He then said, hypothetically, he would kill then-Speaker Todd Gilbert instead of murderers like Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot — a comment that led Coyner to beg him to stop.
Jay Jones literally fantasized about killing a man and two children and Abigail Spanberger still doesn’t have the guts to tell him to drop out. pic.twitter.com/8CAjNqqWBI
— Winsome Earle-Sears (@winwithwinsome) October 3, 2025
Jones then escalated his comments during a follow-up phone call with Coyner, insisting that politicians “must feel pain themselves,” comparing it to the anguish of parents who witness their children being killed.
He went even further, saying he wished Gilbert’s wife would experience such a loss so that Gilbert might “move to the left politically.” Outraged by his remarks, Coyner ended the call.
After National Review published the story, Jones accused his Republican opponent, Attorney General Jason Miyares, of orchestrating a “smear campaign through Trump-controlled media organizations.” (Gateway Pundit, 10/4/2025) (Archive)
More comments:
This violent, disgusting rhetoric targeted at an elected official and his children is beyond disqualifying.
Jay Jones said that “Gilbert gets two bullets to the head” and then hoped his children would die. Read those words again.
There is no “gosh, I’m sorry” here. Jones… https://t.co/kOJD0cexlh
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 4, 2025
Here are screenshots of some of the texts that Democrats’ nominee for VA AG Jay Jones sent in 2022 threatening the former House GOP speaker.
Read @AudreyFahlberg‘s full scoop in National Review for more context on the texts, which he doesn’t dispute sending.👇👇 pic.twitter.com/jBTF7EIVfD
— National Review (@NRO) October 3, 2025
Then at one point, the source said, he suggested he wished Gilbert’s wife could watch her own child die in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political views, prompting Coyner to hang up the phone in disgust.https://t.co/RHs2BnpD9d
— National Review (@NRO) October 3, 2025
This is a picture of the two kids he wants to kill by the way. This man cannot and should never have a role in politics ever. pic.twitter.com/RyVG9DXlVk
— CC (@CHRISSYG516) October 4, 2025
— Moonlit 0rchids (@M00nlit0rchids_) October 5, 2025
The vice president weighs in on Jay Jones’s disturbing rhetoric: https://t.co/t4I7RW1GFS
— Audrey Fahlberg (@AudreyFahlberg) October 4, 2025
The Virginia Beach Dems issue a statement which “reaffirms its full support or Jay Jones for Attorney General” and “[calls] on all Virginians to line up behind Jay Jones” https://t.co/M3EeWyiQ6g pic.twitter.com/taDdtOBEYC
— Blue Virginia (@bluevirginia) October 4, 2025