A 1:50 debate clip from Virginia’s first and only 2025 gubernatorial debate is catching fire online — and it’s not good news for Democrat Abigail Spanberger.
Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones continues to face backlash after leaked text messages surfaced last weekend containing violent rhetoric. In the messages, Jones speculated about killing then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert (R), over Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot if he did not have enough bullets for all three. He also described forcing his wife to watch their “fascist” children die.
On Tuesday, fresh allegations surfaced that Jones went further, allegedly telling the same former Republican colleague in a phone call that it would be acceptable if police officers were killed to force changes in policing.
As highlighted by American Liberty News at the time:
According to Delegate Carrie Coyner (R-Chesterfield), a former Republican colleague of Jones in the House of Delegates, he told her during a 2020 phone call: “Maybe if a few [cops] died, that they would move on, not shooting people, not killing people.”
Jones has wavered in his defense. He admitted to the 2022 exchange with Coyner in which he referenced shooting Gilbert and forcing his wife to watch their children die. But he maintains he never told Coyner in 2020 that police officers should be killed.
Virginia Democrats are grappling with the best approach to tackle the growing controversy, underscored by Spanberger’s performance on Thursday:
Spanberger declined to rescind her endorsement, saying voters should decide for themselves. But the internet wasn’t impressed — thousands of likes and hundreds of mocking replies blasting the up to now front-runner as tone-deaf and accused her of excusing political violence.
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NOW WE ALL KNOW, HOW REPUGNANT A DEMOCRAT SPEWS, OTHER DEMOCRATS ALL OF A SUDDEN BECOME STONE DEAF.