In private text messages from 2022, Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for Virginia attorney general, fantasized about shooting his political opponent, then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert, and described Gilbert's wife and children in extreme, inflammatory terms. The texts, first reported in early October 2025, led to widespread bipartisan condemnation.
Key details from the leaked messages:

Violent fantasy: In an exchange with Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner, Jones presented a hypothetical scenario involving himself, Gilbert, Adolf Hitler, and Pol Pot. Jones wrote that if he had two bullets to shoot one of them, "Gilbert gets two bullets to the head".
Harm to family: After Coyner challenged his comments, Jones doubled down on his violent rhetoric. He spoke about wanting Gilbert's wife to watch her children die to motivate a policy change, writing, "Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy".
Verbal abuse: Jones also referred to Gilbert as a "POS" and described him and his wife as "evil" for "breeding little fascists".
Desire to desecrate graves: He wrote that if his political opponents died before him, he would "go to their funerals to piss on their graves".
- Google AI

When a conservative get-out-the-vote operation sent text messages to voters in Virginia to ensure they’d seen Jay Jones’ texts fantasizing about murdering a political opponent and his children, the intent was to encourage recipients not to vote for Jones.

Instead, some recipients responded to the robotexts by agreeing with the violent sentiments.

The Family Foundation Action said some messages it received back were explicit death threats, which have since been referred to law enforcement. Remarkably, the group sent the message only to Democrats who were identified as being on the more moderate side, and whom they thought would be persuadable.

Even these “moderate” Democrats replied with messages like, “Thank God, we need to kill more Nazis”; “Conservatives are inhuman cretins. Thus they should be put down swiftly without remorse”; “MAGA = Nazis”; and “Good. I’d vote for him over the fascist any day.”

“This is what they have to say in reaction to being sent information on how Jay Jones wants the children of political opponents to die, just weeks after Charlie Kirk gets assassinated,” the PAC said. “This is who they are … Do not let Jay Jones and the monsters supporting him win.”

Polling suggests that the attorney general’s race in Virginia is roughly tied, even after the National Review revealed the gruesome text messages, whose authenticity Jones acknowledged in an apology. It was also revealed that Jones had made similar comments about the police.

Americans have been shocked as no Democratic candidate, including his running mates Abigail Spanberger and Ghazala Hashmi, has called for him to drop out of the race for the commonwealth’s top law enforcement position.

Some groups have even appeared to denigrate their founding principles in order to maintain hard-line partisanship. Giffords PAC, a gun-control group founded by former Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords after she was shot by a nonpartisan maniac, is continuing to endorse Jones, despite his stated desire to shoot elected officials.
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(Oct 11, 2025 06:50 AM)Syne Wrote: [...] In private text messages from 2022, Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for Virginia attorney general, fantasized about shooting his political opponent, then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert, and described Gilbert's wife and children in extreme, inflammatory terms.

[...] some recipients responded to the robotexts by agreeing with the violent sentiments. ... Even these “moderate” Democrats replied with messages like, “Thank God, we need to kill more Nazis”; “Conservatives are inhuman cretins. Thus they should be put down swiftly without remorse”; “MAGA = Nazis”; and “Good. I’d vote for him over the fascist any day.”

[...] Americans have been shocked as no Democratic candidate, including his running mates Abigail Spanberger and Ghazala Hashmi, has called for him to drop out of the race for the commonwealth’s top law enforcement position.

Some groups have even appeared to denigrate their founding principles in order to maintain hard-line partisanship. Giffords PAC, a gun-control group founded by former Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords after she was shot by a nonpartisan maniac, is continuing to endorse Jones, despite his stated desire to shoot elected officials...

(Oct 11, 2025 06:39 PM)Syne Wrote: Why would we believe them any less genuine in their sentiment? The Iranians, etc. certainly are when they call for death.