The Jay Jones Scandal No One Wants to Talk About

By: Skylar Ribotsky

After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, America asked how much worse our politics could get. The answer came in the form of a Virginia Democrat whose own words reveal something far darker — and a political culture unwilling to say a thing about it.

In the three weeks since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, many Americans have been asking a painful question: Where do we go from here? How does a country recover when people not only disagree but celebrate the death of someone who held opposing views?

We hoped that Kirk’s murder would mark the lowest point — that the tragedy might shock the nation back to its senses.
We were wrong.

Because if you thought it couldn’t get worse, meet Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate for Attorney General of Virginia.

The Messages

In recently leaked text messages from 2022, Jay Jones exchanged words with a Republican colleague that revealed something far darker than partisanship — a level of hatred few would think possible from a public official.

The target of his rage was then–House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican. In those texts, Jones compared Gilbert to Adolf Hitler and said the lawmaker “gets two bullets.” He went further, saying he would “love to piss on [his] grave,” and that he’d be happy if Gilbert and his political allies were dead.

The colleague, understandably disturbed, tried to defuse the conversation — reminding Jones that this kind of violent talk wasn’t acceptable. But Jones didn’t back down.
He escalated.

Jones went on to say he didn’t only want Gilbert dead — he wanted Gilbert’s two young sons murdered, and for their mother to be forced to watch them die in her arms.

When his colleague objected, horrified, Jones replied without remorse:

“Yes, I’ve told you this before. Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”

There was no apology. No moment of self-awareness. Just the chilling conviction that such violence was somehow justified if it advanced a political goal.
If this is what Jones says to a colleague in writing, what does he say when the cameras are off?

The Reaction That Wasn’t

This story isn’t just about one man’s vile words. It’s about the silence that followed them.

Since the messages surfaced last Friday, the reaction from the left has been predictable — not outrage, not condemnation, but avoidance.
A handful of Democrats muttered that “everyone makes mistakes.” Others excused it by saying Jones “apologized” and had “grown” since then.

But these weren’t slip-ups. They were deliberate, violent fantasies repeated more than once. Jones wasn’t venting in a moment of passion; he was outlining a belief system — one that says personal suffering and death are acceptable political tools.

Some things you can’t walk back with an apology.
This is one of them.

The Double Standard

Jay Jones wants to be the top law enforcement officer in Virginia, responsible for upholding justice and protecting citizens. Yet in private, he fantasized about murdering a political opponent’s family — because he thought that would change their father’s policy views.

And his party’s silence speaks volumes.

These are the same voices that spent the past three weeks lecturing Americans about how “political violence is a problem on both sides.” The same people who insist on “civility” and “unity.” Yet when one of their own was caught expressing fantasies of political murder, they said nothing.

If they truly believed violence was wrong — no matter who it came from — wouldn’t this be the moment to prove it? Democrats had the chance to draw a clear moral line. Instead, they chose silence, hoping the news cycle would pass.

A Dangerous Precedent

The refusal to condemn evil doesn’t just excuse it — it invites more of it.
When political violence is ignored, it’s normalized. And once it’s normalized, it spreads.

Republicans have extremists too, of course. But the difference is that, when such behavior is exposed, it’s denounced. On the left, it’s too often rationalized — framed as “righteous anger” or “context.”

There is nothing righteous about calling for the murder of children. Forget about whether these messages disqualify Jay Jones from holding public office. They should disqualify him from polite society. What’s truly frightening isn’t just what he said — it’s that so few seem to care.