Isn’t that great? It’s a Rationalization #1 classic “Everybody does it!” It is especially impressive when you know what Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate for Attorney General in Virginia, is trying to worm his way out of, which was writing thusly in 2022…
On August 8, 2022, Republican state legislator received a series of text messages from Jones, a former colleague who had recently resigned from the state house after representing Norfolk, Va. He was outraged that Republicans in the legislature were eulogizing a recently deceased Republican lawmaker. “If those guys die before me,” Jones wrote, “I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves” to “send them out awash in something.” Jones then suggested that, presented with a hypothetical situation in which he had only two bullets and was faced with the choice of murdering then-GOP Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert or Hitler and Pol Pot, he’d shoot Gilbert “every time.”
In other text messages, Jones said that he wished the children of some political adversaries would “die in [their] arms.” When chastised by the former colleague for his comments about killing kids as retribution for conservative political views and actions, Jones wrote “Yes, I’ve told you this before. Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.” Later he texted, “I mean do I think Todd and Jennifer are evil? And that they’re breeding little fascists? Yes,” he wrote, referring to Gilbert’s wife and two young children.
Nice.
The recipient of the texts told the National Review in a statement. “Jay Jones wished violence on the children of a colleague and joked about shooting Todd Gilbert. It’s disgusting and unbecoming of any public official.” Ya think? But Jones’s defense was that it’s okay to wish death on political opponents and doom on their innocent children because everybody is irresponsible on social media.
It will be fascinating to see how many Democrats vote for this irresponsible creep; it should give us good data on just how devoid of values that rotting party’s supporters are. Republican Winsome Sears, the underdog candidate for Virginia governor running against extreme abortion fan and certified liar Abigail Spanberger, released this ad today:
Can’t say she doesn’t have a point….
Ethics Alarms 
Jay Jones also was clocked doing 116 mph and his sentence was 500 hours of community service and he told court he had completed them. His community service entailed working for his political action committee
Maybe imitating a narcissistic office manager wasn’t the way to go…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xvF_K3YvkU
Right. The whole point of Michael is that he’s an idiot and that no real manager should behave this way. Or elected official.
I’ve never watched “The Office,” but I have despised it from afar. It just strikes me as corrosive.
It’s one of those shows that you watch because you just want to see the inevitable train wreck and sometimes the train wreck is hilarious.
It has its ups and downs, but there are all manner of ethical discussions that can be had about it. I am tempted every so often to do an ethics review of an episode here and there (and for “Parks and Recreation”, too), but I can’t determine if there would be an interest, especially when nearly every resolution would be to fire Michael Scott.
Wow.
I suppose next, this guy will trot out the “both sides” thing and say we all need to tone down the political rhetoric.
I neglected to emphasize that the publication that broke the story is anything but “Trump-controlled media”: The National Review is and has been a consistently Never-Trump publication since 2015.
Why are Democrats trying so hard to prove Kurt Schlichter right?
And what about the racial element? Can you imagine the outrage if this had been a white guy saying these things about black people and their children?
The Washington Post’s editorial board signs in: “[T]text messages that Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for Virginia attorney general, sent to a GOP legislator, which emerged Friday afternoon, cast doubt on whether he has the temperament to become the state’s top law enforcement officer.”
Cast doubt?
This the type of October surprise that could decide the elections in Virginia. Abigail Spanberger has yet to distance itself from Jay Jones, as I am aware at the time of writing; she has been coy on other pressing matters as well such as transgender related incidents at at least three schools, and she is now stating in her campaign “let your rage fuel you”.
I know that at this very Ethics Alarms after the Charlie Kirk assassination Null Pointer has called out the Democrat party as a death cult akin to Hamas, and the more you see prominent Democrats excusing violence, the more I start believing that Null Pointer may have a point. Here is Matt Walsh’s take on Jay Jones:
“If Jay Jones becomes the Attorney General of Virginia, every conservative in the state will know that the chief law enforcement officer thinks that they deserve to be murdered along with their children. They will also know that the Democrat voters in the state — their own neighbors, friends, and even family members — have endorsed that sentiment. It will be the death of any sense of legitimacy in the system. The kind of thing that starts civil wars. I’m not saying there will be one. I’m saying it’s the kind of thing that starts one.”
And then there is Gavin Newsom posting at X calling out Stephen Miller as a fascist. Conservatives know what the term “fascist” means after the Charlie Kirk assassination, and that the use of this term has nothing to with Mussolini. If a prominent politician calls you a fascist he in effect paints a bright shiny target on your back, and some unstable 20 year old may take the hint in his believe that killing fascists and Nazi’s is a good and laudable thing to do.
After the Charlie Kirk assassination conservatives are all waiting who the next target is.
I wouldn’t characterise text messages as social media. I understand that nowadays anything written down or sent out can be made public, but I think Jay Jones was reasonable to expect his private grumbling to stay private. I suppose he overestimated how close of a friend Glenn Youngkin was.
Now that the messages are out, Virginians certainly could weigh that against his character. I think it’s a positive, at least, that he’s owned up to the texts, and “everybody does it” is a fairly valid defense when the point is that no real sin was committed — texting a colleague a (very violent and off-colour) joke?
Oops, the texts were to Carrie Coyner; that’s in whom Jones misplaced his trust.
(also I’m Tony, not Yony; poor typesmanship all around today)
Thanks for making that point, which I usually do in these cases. Revealing embarrassing statements made in a private conversation is a breach of trust unless the conversation reveals attitudes or intentions that the public has a right to know about it. Arguably, this kind of hate qualifies. Jones was not joking,