House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) appeared to stand by Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones in comments to reporters outside the Capitol on Thursday.
Jeffries said Jones has “appropriately apologized” for the incendiary texts, in which he suggested a former Virginia House speaker and his children should be killed.
“The attorney general candidate 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 said. “And that’s the right thing to do.”
Jones has apologized to the former Virginia House speaker, but his comments have plagued his campaign and drawn condemnation across the political spectrum. Virginia Republicans have used his texts to drag down the campaign of gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, who expressed disgust at his comments.
A notable viral clip came out of the first gubernatorial debate when Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears pressed Spanberger on whether she should call on Jones to drop out. Spanberger stood in silence, declining to answer the question.
“Abigail, when are you going to take Jay Jones and say to him, ‘You must leave the race?’ He has said that he wants to murder his political opponent, and not only that, but his political opponents’ children,” Earle-Sears said.
The National Republican Congressional Committee swiftly condemned Jeffries’s comments on Jones.
“This tells you everything you need to know about House Democrats,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
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“When a Democrat is caught sending violent, threatening messages fantasizing about murdering children, they don’t condemn it; they defend it. That’s the Democrat standard: no accountability, no consequences, just excuses. Jay Jones must withdraw from the race,” they added.
Jones debated Republican opponent Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Thursday night as they seek to be the state’s next top law enforcement officer.