The Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate apologized for texts he sent about imagining killing a Republican and his children.
Jay Jones expressed his apologies Thursday at a debate against Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R), Mediaite reported.
“Tonight, you’re going to hear two very different visions for the future of this commonwealth, and you’re also going to hear from my opponent about text messages that I sent that I deeply, deeply regret,” Jones said in his opening statement.
The targets of his fantasy was former Virginia House of Delegates speaker Todd Gilbert and his family.
“Let me be very clear – I am ashamed, I am embarrassed, and I am sorry. I am sorry to Speaker Gilbert, I am sorry to his family. I’m sorry to my family and I’m sorry to every single Virginian. I cannot take back what I said, but you have my word that I will always be accountable for my mistakes, and you also have my word that I will spend every waking moment fighting for you,” Jones said.
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“Now, again, Jason is going to try to make this race about my mistakes, but this race has always been about more. It’s always been about each and every one of you and the future of this commonwealth, and the stakes of this race are too high for it to be about anything else,” he added.
Jones’ focus then turned to attacking his opponent.
A series of texts Jones wrote were leaked earlier this month.
In those texts, Jones fantasized about murdering Gilbert.
“Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” Jones wrote in one message to a former colleague.
“Jay… Please stop,” the text recipient replied. “It really bothers me when you talk about hurting people or wishing death on them… It isn’t OK … No matter who they are.”
The former colleague expressed similar uneasiness when Jones wrote about Gilbert’s children.
“You were talking about hopping [sic] jennifer Gilbert’s children would die,” the former colleague said.
Jones responded, “Yes, I’ve told you this before. Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”
President Donald Trump weighed in by calling Jones to “drop out of the Race, IMMEDIATELY.” The president also called the text messages “SICK and DEMENTED.”
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