WASHINGTON — President Trump launched a fierce attack on Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia, accusing her of lacking the integrity to distance herself from the state’s progressive Attorney General candidate, Jay Jones, urging him to exit the race.
This backlash followed the reemergence of obscene text messages Jones sent in 2022, which revealed his disturbing fantasies about the assassination of then-Republican state House Speaker Todd Gilbert.
Democrats have steadfastly supported Jones, and Spanberger has failed to denounce him.
“It has just been revealed that the Radical Left Lunatic, Jay Jones, who is up against Jason Miyares, the GREAT Attorney General in Virginia, made SICK and DEMENTED jokes,” Trump expressed in a Truth Social rant on Sunday.
“If these were indeed jokes, which they were definitely not funny, involving the murder of a Republican legislator, his wife, and their children, then what is wrong with this guy?”
These alarming messages were directed to Republican House Delegate Carrie Coyner in August 2022.
“Three people, two bullets,” one of the threatening texts stated, sent at 8 a.m. on August 8. “Gilbert, Hitler, and Pol Pot.”
“Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” Jones added, according to texts initially disclosed by the National Review and later acquired by The Post.
“Spoiler: imagine Gilbert with the two worst people you know and he gets both bullets every time.”
At one point, Jones even discussed in a call with Coyner the grim prospect of the former state House Speaker’s wife witnessing her children’s demise, referring to them as “little fascists.”
Initially, Jones responded to this controversy by refusing to apologize and accusing Miyares of spreading “smears” against him. He later claimed to have reached out to Gilbert and his family to express regret for his “grave mistake.”
Spanberger, who is leading in the Virginia governor’s race, condemned Jones’s grotesque messages but stopped short of urging him to step down.
“Abigail Spanberger, who is running for Governor, is weak and ineffective, and refuses to acknowledge the actions of this Lunatic,” Trump criticized. “Even within the Democratic Party, it’s being said this should be ‘RESIGNATION FROM CAMPAIGN’ territory. Democrat Jay Jones must drop out of the Race, IMMEDIATELY.”
Key Democratic leaders in Virginia, such as the Virginia Beach Democratic Party, have also stood by Jones during this controversy.
In her statement, Spanberger expressed her disapproval of Jones’s messages but did not insist on his exit from the race.
“Upon hearing these comments earlier today, I spoke candidly with Jay about my disgust towards his words and messages,” Spanberger stated.
“I made it clear that he must take full responsibility for his comments. Additionally, as a candidate and a future Governor of our Commonwealth, I will continuously denounce violent language in our political discourse.”
Spanberger boasts an 8.3 percentage point lead over her opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, as per the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polling data in the race.
A visibly disturbed Coyner urged Jones to cease his comments at that time. “It deeply disturbs me when you speak of causing harm or wishing death upon others,” she responded to his 2022 tirade.
Jones also complained about the “glowing tributes” being paid to centrist Democrat Joe Johnson Jr. — a former state legislator who passed away just days prior.
“If those people die before me,” Jones had declared in the disturbing messages, “I will attend their funerals to urinate on their graves.”
“Send them off awash in something.”
