President Trump calls for Attorney General nominee Jay Jones to drop out of election
VENN
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — President Donald Trump is calling for Jay Jones, Democratic nominee for Attorney General, to withdraw from the race after disturbing text messages have resurfaced.
The text messages, first shared by the National Review on Friday, Oct. 3, were sent to Carrie Coyner (R-Chesterfield) in August 2022.
Jones’ messages described a hypothetical scenario where former House Speaker Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) would be shot instead of the violent historical dictators Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot. Jones also wished violence on Gilbert’s children.
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 said.
On Sunday, Oct. 5 President Trump condemned Jones’ words in a post on social media, calling them “sick and demented.”
Trump went on to say the attorney general nominee should “drop out of the race, immediately.”
Attorney General and Republican nominee Jason Miyares addressed the controversial text messages sent by Jones.
“Jay Jones is sorry only after it made the news. Jay Jones regrets it only after it has endangered his campaign,” Jones said.
Randolph-Macon political science professor Rich Meagher said Jones dropping out is unlikely, but he must continue to be apologetic and steer voters to move past the controversy to win.
“If [Jones] can get through an event, including some of the debates he's got scheduled with Jason Miyares and be credible, be able to just have an explanation and move past this, at least on his side, then I think some of the Republican attacks will start to feel like noise, and could still lead to him doing fine in the race and even winning it,” Meagher said.
Meagher said if enough voters decide they are ready to move on from the controversy, Jones could move on to other issues and possibly succeed in November.
