Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) says he will still support Jay Jones — the Democratic nominee for state attorney general — in spite of several vile text messages he sent to a Republican colleague in 2022.
CNN congressional reporter Manu Raju caught up with Kaine on Tuesday to ask him whether he’d withdraw his support for Jones after the old texts surfaced — texts in which Jones had advocated for the assassination of then state House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican, and had said Gilbert would never change his political positions unless he and his wife were forced to watch one of their young children die.
WATCH:
Democrat Virginia Senator Tim Kaine STILL backs Jay Jones, who fantasized about killing a Republican official and his children, and also supports killing cops.
KAINE: “I’m still supporting Jay Jones.” pic.twitter.com/3EXIFaGDXa
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 7, 2025
At first, it appeared as though Kaine was going to walk away without giving any answers to the questions being shouted after him — “Senator, do you still support Jay Jones? Do you think he should drop out of this race after those comments? Do you have concerns about what you saw?” — but he eventually stopped and turned around to speak with Raju directly.
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“The comments are completely indefensible,” Kaine declared. “But I’ve know Jay Jones for 25 years, and those comments are very much out of character for him. So if I put the comments, which are clearly beyond the pale, against knowing this guy for 25 years, I’m still supporting Jay Jones.”
With that, Kaine turned on his heel and walked away, adding himself to the rapidly growing list of Democrats who were willing to condemn calls for the assassination of political rivals, but not willing to say that people making such calls were declaring themselves unqualified to hold public office.
It should be noted that Kaine, the Democrats’ 2016 vice presidential nominee, stood by twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton after she wrote off half of the American population as a “basket of deplorables.”