‘I don’t accept his apology’: Miyares addresses Jones’s controversial text messages

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Attorney General Jason Miyares addressed the controversial text messages sent by Jay Jones, his opponent in the upcoming November election, calling them "disqualifying" at a press conference on Saturday.

"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. "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."

The text messages, first shared by the National Review on Friday, were sent to Carrie Coyner (R-Chesterfield) in August 2022. Jones's messages described a hypothetical scenario in which then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) would be shot over the violent historical dictators, Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot.

Jones sat down with 8News in an exclusive one-on-one interview on Friday night, publicly apologizing to Gilbert, his family and the people of Virginia.

"I sincerely, and from the bottom of my heart, want to express my remorse and my regret for what happened and what I said," Jones told 8News Capitol Report Tyler Englander. "That language has no place in our discourse, and I am so remorseful for what happened. I actually reached out to Speaker Gilbert this afternoon to apologize to him and to Jennifer and to their children ... I want them to know and I want the people of Virginia to know that I am so deeply, deeply embarrassed and that I understand the gravity of what I said and I am so apologetic for it."

At Miyares's press conference on Saturday, he said Jones had an opportunity to apologize during the text exchange with Coyner in 2022 but failed to do so.

"She called him out and said this is not acceptable behaviour, [but] rather than apologize, he doubled down," Miyares said. "I don't accept his apology. I don't accept his apology because he had a chance then to apologize. Jay Jones is sorry only after it made the news. Jay Jones regrets it only after it has endangered his campaign. Jay Jones said he would take it back, only because that's what he needs to do to try to stay on this ticket."

Miayres went on to say that the revelation of the text messages had proven Jones ill-fit for the position of Virginia's top law enforcement officer.

"Jay Jones has proven by his actions that he is reckless, he is biased, he is willing to trade his integrity away," he said. "Jay Jones has disqualified himself as a potential attorney general of Virginia."

Miyares's statement stopped shy of calling for Jones's resignation, unlike Vice President JD Vance, who took to X on Saturday afternoon 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."