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Virginia attorney general candidate apologizes I cannot take back what I said · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back. In Virginia, candidates for attorney general took the
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  Speaker 1: debate stage. That race has garnered national attention. In here
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  Speaker 1: is why. Newly revealed text messages sent by the Democratic
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  Speaker 1: nominee Jane J. Jones back in twenty twenty two, the
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  Speaker 1: said a Republican lawmaker, the one in question was the
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  Speaker 1: speaker of the House of Delegates at the times, should
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  Speaker 1: be shot and his children should die. Jones has apologized
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  Speaker 1: and said he's ashamed. National political reporter for The Hill,
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  Speaker 1: Julia Manchester joins me. Now, Julia, thank you so much
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  Speaker 1: for joining us. So the reason this has taken on
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  Speaker 1: national significance is because the text messages and the various
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  Speaker 1: Democratic and Republican reaction to it in the attorney general's
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  Speaker 1: race has spilled over quite conspicuously into the race for
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  Speaker 1: governor between Republican nominee Winston Merl Sears and the Democratic
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  Speaker 1: nominee Abigail Spanberger. I'll get your assessment of that in
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  Speaker 1: a second, but I just want to play for our
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  Speaker 1: audience to sound from the debate stage last night. First,
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  Speaker 1: j Jones, the Democratic nominee for attorney general. Then Jason
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  Speaker 1: me Are is the sitting Attorney General and Republican.
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  Speaker 2: Let me be very clear. I am ashamed, I am embarrassed,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm sorry. I am sorry to Speaker Gilbert. I'm
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  Speaker 2: sorry to his family, I'm sorry to my family, and
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  Speaker 2: I'm sorry to every single Virginian. I cannot take back
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  Speaker 2: what I said, but you have my word that I
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  Speaker 2: will always be accountable for my mistakes, and you also
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  Speaker 2: have my word that I will spend every waking moment
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  Speaker 2: fighting for you.
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  Speaker 3: We have seen a window to who j Jones is
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  Speaker 3: and the way he thinks of people that disagree with him.
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  Speaker 3: Abraham Lincoln said, the character is what you do in
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  Speaker 3: the dark when no one is watching. But now we
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  Speaker 3: know what he was doing in the dark. J Jones
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  Speaker 3: was angry at Todd Gilbert. Why because Todd Gilbert said
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  Speaker 3: kind words about a Democrat that had passed away Joe Jones.
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  Speaker 1: Todd Gilbert was the Speaker of the House of Delegates
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  Speaker 1: at the time. Break this all down for us, It's
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  Speaker 1: effect on the gubernatorial race, on the race itself, because
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  Speaker 1: if you're in this area, as il am I live here,
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  Speaker 1: you see commercials about this race relentlessly.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, we even see them here in Washington.
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  Speaker 5: D c I was watching the TV this morning and
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  Speaker 5: they were all on that on TV.
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  Speaker 4: So look for the attorney's general race. You know, it
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  Speaker 4: has made what.
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  Speaker 5: Is normally a quieter statewide race a national story.
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  Speaker 4: In many ways. You and I are talking about this.
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  Speaker 5: You have the President of the United States weighing in
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  Speaker 5: calling on j Jones to drop out of the race
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  Speaker 5: and endorse and endorsing Jason Mirs for attorney general.
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  Speaker 4: Now, for the debate itself, this was definitely.
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  Speaker 5: An opportunity for j Jones to come out publicly again
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  Speaker 5: and explain himself for those text messages and come up
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  Speaker 5: with a strategy to push back against Jason Mirs. And
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  Speaker 5: that strategy appeared to last night be constantly pivoting back
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  Speaker 5: to Donald Trump and tying Jason Mirs to Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 4: Now. J Jones's campaign actually within.
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  Speaker 5: The last hour announced that they have raised five hundred
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  Speaker 5: thousand dollars in the twenty four hours since last night's debate.
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  Speaker 5: That's not an insignificant amount of money for a statewide
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  Speaker 5: attorney general race.
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  Speaker 4: So for J Jones, they say they feel the momentum.
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  Speaker 5: However, for Republicans and someone like wins Earl Sears, who's
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  Speaker 5: been lagging behind in that race for governor. She has
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  Speaker 5: used this to try to get back at Abigail Spanburger
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  Speaker 5: and tie Abigail Spanburger, the Democratic nominee to j Jones.
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  Speaker 4: Abigail Spanburger has tried to distance.
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  Speaker 5: Herself from these text messages, basically declining to endorse Jones,
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  Speaker 5: but at the same time not calling on him to
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  Speaker 5: drop out.
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  Speaker 1: And it seems for the Republican advertising there's only one
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  Speaker 1: issue in this race, the text messages from Jay Jones.
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  Speaker 1: Whether it's the governor's race or the attorney general race.
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  Speaker 1: Democrats are trying to make it about President Trump, about
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  Speaker 1: federal worker layoffs, about access to abortion rights, and other issues.
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  Speaker 4: That's absolutely right.
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  Speaker 5: We are seeing Republicans drill into the vise j Jones
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  Speaker 5: text messages in an effort to essentially say, look, this
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  Speaker 5: guy is running to be the top law enforcement officer
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  Speaker 5: in Virginia, but he's talked about political violence and shooting
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  Speaker 5: the former Speaker of the House in Virginia. And of
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  Speaker 5: course the timing of this is you know what appear
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  Speaker 5: not to be coincidental. We know that it happened or
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  Speaker 5: these text messages surfaced weeks after the assassination of conservative
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  Speaker 5: activist Charlie Kirk. So we're having this nationwide discussion about
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  Speaker 5: political violence. So Republicans are trying to use that to
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  Speaker 5: their advantage. But for Democrats, they are very much trying
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  Speaker 5: to use the government shutdown, which is impacting many Virginians
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  Speaker 5: as well as people across the country, but many Virginians
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  Speaker 5: because we know that many federal workers who live in
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  Speaker 5: Virginia have been furloughed in our risk of losing their jobs.
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  Speaker 1: As we should note it on the show Lder this week,
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  Speaker 1: President Obama's kind an at for Abigail Spanberg or a
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  Speaker 1: sign that they know from internal polling that the race
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  Speaker 1: has narrowed somewhat because you bring in someone like Obama
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  Speaker 1: when you need them, Julia Manchester, always a pleasure, Thank
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  Speaker 1: you so much,