© Trevor Metcalfe/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty ImagesJay Jones addresses supporters after winning the Democratic nomination for Virginia Attorney General as his wife, Mavis Jones, looks on in Norfolk, Virginia, on June 17, 2025.
Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for attorney general of Virginia, faced condemnation from Republicans and Democrats on Friday after text messages from 2022 resurfaced in which he said he would "piss on graves" of GOP opponents and mused about hypothetically shooting then-Republican Speaker of the House of Delegates Todd Gilbert.
In a text message exchange with Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner, Jones used violent and inflammatory language, writing that if he were presented with a hypothetical situation in which he had only two bullets and was faced with the choice of shooting Gilbert, former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler or former Cambodia dictator Pol Pot, he'd shoot Gilbert "every time," prompting pushback from his former colleague.
"Gilbert gets two bullets to the head," Jones wrote. "Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time."
Gilbert could not be reached for comment.
Comment: The death toll of 66,000 is extremely low and the death toll is likely closer to a million.