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RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones defended himself from questions about controversial texts envisioning the murder of the Old Dominion’s then-Republican House Speaker.
And Attorney General Jason Miyares questioned Jones’ ability to govern while Jones repeatedly invoked President Donald Trump and salivated over seeing him in court during a debate at the University of Richmond sponsored by the Virginia Bar Association Young Lawyers Section.
Jones offered regret over his words in those texts but repeatedly pivoted from Miyares’ criticisms to pledge to spend his four years fighting Trump in court and faulting Miyares for being friendly with the Floridian mogul.
“He’s asking you to hire him to be the top prosecutor, but he’s never prosecuted a day in his life,” Miyares said of Jones, calling him “anti-police” and “anti-victim” for votes to pull school resource officers out of schools.
Miyares attributed Jones’ reported support for ending the mandatory reporting requirement of sexual assaults in schools to conditions that led to related controversies in Loudoun County schools.
Pivoting to Jones’ texts, Miyares said Virginians have “seen a window into who Jay Jones is and what he thinks of people who disagree with him”
He quoted Abraham Lincoln, saying that “character is what you do in the dark when no one is watching” and said Jones’ invective was spurred by something as simple as Republican leader Todd Gilbert offering kind words about Del. Joe Johnson, D-Bristol, after the elderly moderate died.
In turn, Jones said he wants to bring progress, opportunity and safety to Virginia and accused Miyares of being too cozy with Trump, invoking the president’s name more than about two dozen times.
He repeatedly said he “cannot wait” to see Trump in court and claimed Miyares has abandoned Virginians by not repeatedly filing suits as other state attorneys general have for a potpourri of reasons.
Addressing the texts, he said he is “ashamed. I am embarrassed, and I am sorry. I am sorry to Speaker Gilbert. I am sorry to his family. And I am sorry to every single Virginian.”
“This race has always been about more — when Donald Trump fires workers, defunds our schools, armed troops into cities. He has a willing cheerleader in Jason Miyares,” Jones said.
‘CONSUMED WITH HATE’: WINSOME SEARS, JASON MIYARES UNLOAD ON DEMOCRAT JAY JONES OVER VIOLENT TEXTS
“[Miyares is] the only statewide elected official to receive that endorsement.”
Jones said Miyares will see the president at “MAGA rallies” but that Jones will see him in court.
When Miyares brought up Jay’s reckless driving charge — after a 116 mph speeding ticket on I-64 in New Kent, Virginia — Jones said he was held accountable by the Virginia State Police.
But Miyares said Jones was not truly held accountable, because instead of jail time, he asked for — and was given — community service. And instead of serving a charity, Miyares claimed that Jones served his own political action committee instead.
Miyares claimed three of the four people charged that day with similar offenses in New Kent County, Jones was the only one not to receive a suspended or active jail sentence.
“If you were to apply to be a line prosecutor … you would not pass a background check,” he said.
JAY JONES’ ‘TWO BULLETS’ SCANDAL OVER VIOLENT TEXTS EXPECTED TO DOMINATE VIRGINIA AG DEBATE
Jones later responded by invoking crimes by conservatives during the Capitol riot Jan. 6, 2021.
Themes of the debate were Miyares branding Jones “not a prosecutor but a politician” and Jones repeatedly associating Miyares with Trump and Miyares as more beholden to Washington than Richmond taxpayers.
Miyares later touched on his position as the first child of immigrants to hold Virginia’s top lawman’s job. He told a story about helping his mother learn the Pledge of Allegiance for her citizenship test and his uncle Angel Miyares being subjected to a public mock execution by the Castro regime for having the “wrong” ideas as far as the Communist leaders were concerned.
“Every autocratic regime, the people in charge always think ideas are better than people,” he said, tying that thought into Jones’ murder texts and how he envisioned violence against a political opponent simply over political disagreements and eulogies about Johnson’s death.
Jones spoke of his namesake father Jerrauld Jones Sr.’s role in the House of Delegates and as an attorney in Hampton Roads and as his other family members who had participated in the Civil Rights movement.
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Moments before the debate, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., became the rare Democrat to speak publicly about Jones’ text scandal.
Jeffries declined to call for Jones to drop out, telling reporters at the U.S. Capitol that Jones “has appropriately apologized for his remarks, and I know his remarks have been condemned across the board by Democrats in the Commonwealth [of] Virginia and beyond,” Jeffries told reporters outside the Capitol. “And that’s the right thing to do.”
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