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Democrat senators kept largely silent when asked by Fox News Digital whether Virginia Democratic candidate Jay Jones should drop out of his race for attorney general over resurfaced text messages fantasizing about violence.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told Fox News Digital he thought the texts were “horrifying.” Pressed further on whether Jones should drop out of the race, however, Wyden said, “I’m going to leave it at that, thank you.”
Another Democrat, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told Fox News Digital, “I’m really not familiar with the situation in Virginia.”
Asked whether Jones “should resign after those violent texts,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., just smiled and walked away.
YOUNGKIN SAYS DEMOCRAT AG CANDIDATE JAY JONES MUST ‘STEP AWAY IN DISGRACE’ OVER TEXTS ABOUT FORMER GOP LEADER
Virginia attorney general candidate Jerrauld “Jay” Jones speaks at an event in Norfolk, Virginia. (Trevor Metcalfe/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., also ignored reporters’ questions about whether Jones’ messages are acceptable or whether he would demand his campaign donation be returned.
Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., also refused to answer Fox News Digital’s questions on Jones, just saying he was not familiar with the case.
In texts obtained by Fox News Digital, Jones, a former Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates, once remarked on shooting then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert in texts with another lawmaker.
“Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” Jones wrote.
In a subsequent text, Jones also wrote, “Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”
DEMOCRATS STAND BY VIRGINIA AG HOPEFUL WHO FANTASIZED ABOUT KILLING GOP LAWMAKER
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, left, and Attorney General Jason Miyares, right, both called Democrat attorney general candidate Jay Jones, center, unfit for office after texts emerged showing Jones fantasizing about political opponents’ deaths. (Getty Images/AP Photo)
In another private text exchange, Jones said he hoped Gilbert’s children would die. When challenged, Jones doubled down, saying that such grief might be “a good thing” if it advanced his politics.
Jones has since apologized, calling the remarks “embarrassing and shameful,” and said he had reached out personally to Gilbert and his family.
Speaking with Fox News Digital, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the Democratic senators’ silence “staggering, particularly with the spate of political violence we have seen.”
“There are far too many on the left that celebrate political violence,” said Cruz, adding, “When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, we saw leftists, college professors, leftist schoolteachers, politicians, journalists celebrating that heinous murder.”
JAY JONES SAID IF MORE POLICE WERE KILLED IT WOULD REDUCE SHOOTINGS OF CIVILIANS, ACCORDING TO VIRGINIA LAWMAKER
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said that “the notion that someone advocating for the murder of children because he disagrees politically with their father is manifestly unsuitable for public office.” (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
“In this instance, you have a Democrat who is running for attorney general in Virginia, who said in text communications that he wanted to see one of his colleagues, a Republican, murdered, and he wanted his two little boys murdered. That is grotesquely unacceptable, and every Democrat in Washington is turning a blind eye,” Cruz went on.
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“In my view, the notion that someone advocating for the murder of children because he disagrees politically with their father is manifestly unsuitable for public office, especially the chief law enforcement officer of Virginia, and I wish there were even one Democrat with the courage to say that publicly,” said Cruz.
Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
