‘Democrat Jay Jones should drop out of the Race’: Trump urges Jones to withdraw from race after controversial text messages

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- President Donald Trump is calling on Democratic nominee for attorney general Jay Jones to drop out of the upcoming November election after the controversial text messages sent by Jones in which he allegedly joked about political violence.

"Democrat Jay Jones should drop out of the Race, IMMEDIATELY, and the People of Virginia must continue to have a GREAT Attorney General in Jason Miyares who, by the way, has my Complete and Total Endorsement — JASON WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!" Trump posted to Truth Social the morning of Sunday, Oct. 5, addressing his full endorsement of Republican incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares.

The text messages, first shared by the National Review on Friday, Oct. 4, were sent by Republican Carrie Coyner -- the incumbent running for Virginia’s District 75, which includes Hopewell and parts of Chesterfield and Prince George counties -- in August 2022. Jones's messages described a hypothetical scenario in which then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert would be shot over the violent historical dictators, Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot.

Miyares and Vice President JD Vance echoed similar sentiments, both claiming that Jones is an ill-fit for the position of Virginia’s top law enforcement officer. Trump condemned the text messages made by Jones as "sick and demented."

"If they were jokes at all, [they] were not funny," Trump wrote.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson also denounced the text messages and called on Jones to drop out of the November election in a post on X on Saturday, calling them "plainly disqualifying," as Miyares commented later that day during his press conference in Richmond.

"These text messages are plainly disqualifying for anyone who aspires to public office," Johnson wrote. "There is no conceivable justification for wishing violence against a political opponent and their children. Mr. Jay Jones should immediately withdraw his candidacy, save himself and his party from further embarrassment, and take some time to reflect."

Trump wrote that former Congresswoman and Democratic candidate for governor Abigail Spanberger "refuses to acknowledge what this Lunatic has done," in reference to Jones's text messages.

"Even Democrats are saying it is 'RESIGNATION FROM CAMPAIGN' TERRITORY," Trump wrote.

Vance took to X the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 4, to share his thoughts on the controversy.

“The Democrat candidate for AG in Virginia has been fantasizing about murdering his political opponents in private messages,” Vance said in Saturday’s social post. “I’m sure the people hyperventilating about sombrero memes will join me in calling for this very deranged person to drop out of the race.”

The president's comments come a day after Miyares, Jones's opponent in the November election, claimed he did not accept his apology.

“Politics aside, just to speak to you as a human being, you have to be coming from an incredibly dark place to say what you said, not about a stranger, but about a colleague — someone that you have served with, someone that you have worked with,” Miyares said during a press conference on Saturday afternoon. “I’ve said that my role as attorney general is to be the people’s protector. One of my main jobs is to stop violence. I can’t imagine now that we’re even debating an opponent that has advocated for violence.”