Questionable text messages draw national scrutiny during the stretch run of the campaign.
Loose talk about political assassination is drawing attention of one Florida Republican on a statewide race up north.
Attorney General James Uthmeier is warning that a Democrat running for the same office in Virginia is unfit to serve.
Jay Jones, who was a recently-resigned member of the House of Delegates at the time, suggested a former House Speaker was worse than two of the worst dictators of the 20th Century in a text to a Republican colleague[1].
“Three people, two bullets … (Todd) Gilbert[2], hitler, and pol pot,” he reportedly texted[3]. “Gilbert gets two bullets to the head … Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”
Uthmeier amplified a statement from the Republican Attorneys General Association, which backs his election as well as that of Virginia Republican Jason Miyares, in saying there’s “no place in our politics for these disgusting and threatening comments” and expressing “hope Virginians see that Jay Jones is not fit for public office.”
Jones took issue with the House Speaker and others warmly eulogizing another Democrat.
Per National Review[4], Jones reportedly told his former colleague that if Gilbert and other Republicans “die before” him that he “will go to their funerals to piss on their graves” to “send them out awash in something.”
The timing of the messages’ release is no accident, NR suggests.
“The private messages offer a disturbing glimpse into how Jones — who is looking to oust incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares this fall — describes his political adversaries in private conversations. The violent rhetoric complicates an already contentious and competitive race roughly a month out from Election Day in Virginia, where early voting began on September 19.”
Polling from a couple of weeks ago[5] showed Miyares was seven points behind Jones, in what appears to be a Democrat-leaning electorate this cycle in the state.
References
- ^ text to a Republican colleague (www.nationalreview.com)
- ^ Gilbert (www.wjhl.com)
- ^ reportedly texted (nypost.com)
- ^ National Review (www.nationalreview.com)
- ^ Polling from a couple of weeks ago (cnu.edu)