For the left, Jay Jones talking about killing his rivals is just everyday chitchat

OPINION:

Way back in August 2022, Jay Jones, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, the oldest legislative body in the United States, was listening to delegates pay tribute to one of their own, Joe Johnson, a moderate Democrat who had recently died. Mr. Jones was apparently displeased with the ceremony and sent a text to a colleague, Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner: “If [the Republican leaders of the House of Delegates] die before me, I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves” to “send them out awash in something.”

Subsequently, Mr. Jones sent Ms. Coyner another text, this time specifically mentioning Todd Gilbert, then speaker of the House of Delegates: “Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head.” When Ms. Coyner asked Mr. Jones to stop, he apparently called her up and indicated that he would like to see Mr. Gilbert’s children killed as their mother watched.

Here’s the problem: Mr. Jones is the current Democratic nominee in Virginia for … attorney general. You might think such conduct would be sufficient to bar someone from elected office of any kind, let alone the chief law enforcement official in the commonwealth. You might think it would at least lead to disbarment proceedings.

You would be wrong. It turns out that talking about killing your political rivals and their children is middle-of-the-fairway sentiments nowadays from the left side of the political spectrum. If you don’t believe me, take it from the leaders of the Virginia Democrats.

Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, currently running for governor in Virginia as the Democratic nominee, managed the following statement: “After learning of these comments [on Friday], I spoke frankly with Jay about my disgust with what he had said and texted. I made clear to Jay that he must fully take responsibility for his words. What I have also made clear is that as a candidate, and as the next governor of our commonwealth, I will always condemn violent language in our politics.”

So the good news seems to be that she “spoke frankly” to Mr. Jones, and that she will “always condemn violent language.” I wonder how Ms. Spanberger would have handled the situation if one of her children had been the target of such rhetoric. This person wants to be the next governor of Virginia so desperately that her moral compass is deranged; she can’t even see clearly that what Mr. Jones has done warrants immediate departure from the race. It should lead voters to consider in what other ways her judgment might be impaired.

The dean of the Virginia congressional delegation, Sen. Mark R. Warner, managed to offer the following: “Political disagreements must be resolved through debate and elections, not through threats or violence. The comments attributed to Jay Jones are appalling, unacceptable, and inconsistent with the person I’ve known.” That’s great and all, but what about policing the underlying sentiment and getting rid of that ridiculous “attributed to”? And a question for Mr.  Warner: If talking openly about assassinating one’s political rivals and their families isn’t disqualifying with respect to holding elective office, what, exactly, would be?

One concrete way that Mr. Jones could show contrition is by dropping out of the race, at least until he understands that assassinations are illegal and fundamentally contrary to popular sovereignty. If that needs to be explained, all the participants on the left side of this election may be too far morally compromised to be redeemed. Mr. Warner hasn’t even asked the Jones campaign to return the $25,000 he gave it in August; I guess he isn’t really that appalled.

How does Ms. Spanberger think it will work if Mr. Jones becomes her attorney general? How can she work with him knowing that he is prepared, at least in some corner of his fetid brain, to kill his political adversaries?

My friend St. Matthew once wrote: “With what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again.” In other words, what goes around comes around. If you are a political leader who fails to excise written and spoken enthusiasm for assassinations from the body politic, you are helping bring about the firestorm that will consume you.

• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times. He was fortunate enough to work for former Virginia Gov. George Allen in Richmond.