Greetings, Dear Reader,
I can’t quite wrap my head around it.
First, the mantra: Welcome to State of the Day, where I strip the euphemism and misdirection of the day’s news and give it to you straight. No ice. No mixer.
So what is it today? A perfect one-two combo …
OOPS, YOUR ‘PRIVATE CHATS’ LEAKED
By the numbers, if you’re a Republican standing in a room with 10 liberals younger than 60, there’s a good chance two or three of them either think you should die violently or wouldn’t mind if you did.
Because of Charlie Kirk, we all know they’d at least celebrate.
They might even, as in the case of Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones, want your children to die. It gets darker: They might want you or your wife to witness the deaths of your children as well, and they might believe that such an experience would be good for their political goals.
It’s hard to comprehend Jones’s commitment to the combination of stupid and evil required to produce such a scandal, but let me run down the basics of the story.
He texted a former colleague in the state House that GOP House Speaker Todd Gilbert should be shot and killed. Gilbert’s sin of the moment was saying nice things about a lifelong and beloved Virginia Democrat who had just passed away.
Oddly, the former colleague was Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner, so this was a bit like Jones putting his own head in the guillotine. She gave Jones a dressing-down over text, screencapped the exchange and sent it to Gilbert.
Jones then called her to berate her for not joining in on the fun little fantasy.
According to the source, the Democratic former legislator doubled down on the call, saying the only way public policy changes is when policymakers feel pain themselves, like the pain that parents feel when they watch their children die from gun violence. He asked her to provide counterexamples to disprove his claim.
Then at one point, the source said, he suggested he wished Gilbert’s wife could watch her own child die in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political views, prompting Coyner to hang up the phone in disgust.
Afterward, Jones continued his barrage of text messages, saying he was just asking questions. Coyner dismissed his excuse via text and chastised Jones for “hopping [sic] Jennifer Gilbert’s children would die.”
Rather than deny that he had wished death on the children, Jones responded by saying, “Yes, I’ve told you this before. Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”
Faced with more pushback from his frazzled former colleague, Jones somehow took the conversation a step further: “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.
Again, Jones’s dedication to that combo of evil and stupidity is really something.
The Democratic reaction to this news has also been something to behold. The Democratic nominee for Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, had harsh words for Jones, but came up short of calling for him to end his race. Ghazala Hashmi, candidate for lieutenant governor, did likewise.
Apologize, Mr. Jones, they say, but otherwise you can … run law enforcement for the entire state of Virginia?
Yes, should he go on to win, the guy wishing for the extrajudicial slaughter of his political opposition and their children is who the party wants enforcing law and order in a historic state.
Polls aside, I’m not sure there’s a clearer message to Republicans: You won’t be safe in Virginia.
WHAT I’M READING
I don’t understand why they keep telling this lie. People know better already.
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It’s crazy how bold they are.
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When will we start getting it? These people wish harm on the US.
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