Virginia Attorney General Isn’t Buying ‘Fake’ Apology From Opponent Who Wished Death On His Political Rival

Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said on Monday that Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones issued a “fake” apology for wishing death on his political opponent and his children.

Jones issued an apology on Saturday after a text message chain from August 2022 revealed that he openly fantasized about shooting then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert and wished violence on his children, stating that he is “embarrassed” and “ashamed” by his previous comments. Miyares said on “America’s Newsroom” that Jones had no remorse for his previous comments and lacked the temperament to serve as the states’ next attorney general.

“Listen, my job as the attorney general, as the top prosecutor in the state of Virginia, your job is to stop violence. I can’t imagine somebody running for this office that has actually advocated for violence,” Miyares said. “Not just against a colleague, somebody that he’s worked with. But it gets children. He literally, in their text messages that have been posted online, when he was called out for his rhetoric, he actually, instead of apologizing, doubled down and when you said ‘you literally want Jennifer Gilbert’s children to die in her arms,’ he said ‘yes. That only through pain does change happen.’ Think about that mindset, politics aside, that is an incredibly dark place you have to be coming from to wish the death of small children, by the way, who he has met.”

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Jones made these remarks while texting Republican Virginia Del. Carrie Coyner, who shared the conversation with The National Review. After she had told Jones to stop wishing violence on people, Jones stated that policymakers only make change happen when they are inflicted with pain themselves, according to The National Review. At one point, he suggested that Gilbert’s wife hold her dead children in her arms to pressure Gilbert to change his mind on gun violence.