Less than a week after text messages from the Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Virginia wishing death upon Republicans and their children were made public, further allegations of violent rhetoric are being leveled against the candidate for the state’s role of “top cop” — this time targeting actual cops.

Virginia House Delegate Carrie Coyner (R) told the Virginia Scope on Monday about a conversation she had in 2020 with then-fellow delegate Jay Jones (D), now the Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Virginia, in which he suggested that supposed systemic racism and brutality among police departments might be cured if more police officers were killed in the line of duty. According to Coyner, she and Jones were engaged in a “heated” discussion at the time over qualified immunity protections shielding police officers from civil lawsuits for actions taken in the line of duty. Jones was arguing that such immunity ought to be removed.

“We had a pretty heated conversation about public policy and pain involving qualified immunity,” Coyner recalled. She told Jones at the time, “No, police officers have to make a split-second decision about whether or not to shoot a gun to protect themselves or protect others. And if they’re having to think about, will this strip my whole family of everything … are they going to be able to make that split-second decision?” She said that if police officers were to be stripped of qualified immunity then “people will get killed. Police officers will get killed.” According to Coyner, Jones replied, “Well, maybe if a few of them died, that they would move on, not shooting people, not killing people.”

Jones has openly supported repealing qualified immunity protections for police officers and sponsored legislation to remove qualified immunity while he was a member of the House of Delegates. The Democrat denied ever having made the comments attributed to him by Coyner. “I have never believed and do not believe that any harm should come to law enforcement, period. Every single day, police officers put their lives on the line to protect our communities, and I am deeply grateful for their service and sacrifice,” Jones reportedly said. “As Attorney General, I will work hand-in-hand with law enforcement to support their work.”

Coyner’s report comes just days after text messages Jones sent to Coyner in 2022 were published, in which the Democrat said that then-Speaker of the House of Delegates Todd Gilbert (R) should get “two bullets to the head.” He also texted that if Republicans like Gilbert “die before me I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves.” In a subsequent phone call with Coyner defending his texted comments, Jones reportedly said that if Gilbert’s wife, Jennifer, had to watch her children be shot and killed then her Republican husband might revise his position on gun control laws. “I’ve told you this before. Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy,” Jones said when pressed by Coyner. “I mean do I think Todd and Jennifer are evil? And that they’re breeding little fascists? Yes.”

Numerous Republicans, including President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, incumbent Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, and numerous Republican House Delegates have already described Jones’s comments as “disgusting” and “disqualifying” and called on the Democratic nominee for AG to drop out of the race and discontinue his campaign.

The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) also demanded that Jones suspend his campaign, calling on the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA) to sever all ties with Jones and his campaign. “Actions speak louder than words and DAGA’s silence on Jay Jones speaks volumes,” RAGA officials said in a statement. Earle-Sears, who is campaigning to succeed Youngkin as governor, released a television ad highlighting Jones’s violent comments and tying his campaign to Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger’s.

Notably, Spanberger and other Virginia Democrats have not called for Jones to drop out of the race and have, in some cases, doubled down on their support for him. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.), for example, called Jones’s violent rhetoric “completely indefensible,” but then proceeded to defend the comments as “very much out of character for him” and reiterated, “I’m still supporting Jay Jones.” Democratic candidate for House of Delegates Melody Cartwright likewise said in an X post, “I stand with @jonesjay. Period. End of Statement.”

The Henrico County Democrats, one of the largest county-level Democratic organizations in the state, also affirmed their staunch support for Jones, saying in a statement, “Republicans are trying to weaponize this moment to distract from their own appalling record.” The group said that Democratic candidates, including Jones, are “showing what real leadership looks like.” So far, nearly 50 current General Assemblymembers, a dozen former assemblymembers, and 70 local elected officials endorse Jones and his campaign.

But according to the New York Post, Democratic strategists are beginning to worry that the party’s continued support for Jones may hurt other Democrats on the ballot next month. “If I was a Democrat running for governor in Virginia or lieutenant governor, I would criticize him and separate myself from him as quickly as possible, because what he said was deplorable and reprehensible,” one Democratic operative said, adding, “They should avoid Jay Jones like the plague.” A former state legislator lamented, “This idea that the current political situation justifies violence or violent means is a dark and absurd position — this idea that we must resort to violence if we don’t get our way politically.” The legislator said that those who support such violent rhetoric “clearly don’t believe in democracy.”

However, following Monday’s report, Virginia’s Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) called on Jones to “withdraw from the Attorney General race immediately.” In a letter firmly condemning Jones’s comments, FOP wrote, “The men and women of law enforcement work tirelessly to combat the violence you wished on a fellow Virginian and his family. Therefore, the members of the Virginia Fraternal Order of Police believe that you, Jay Jones, are unfit for the office of Attorney General of Virginia.”

Even ex-Republican and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a frequent and vocal critic of Trump and the GOP, insisted on-air Monday morning that Jones “should probably be forced to withdraw from the race.” MSNBC analyst John Heilemann agreed. “I think the pressure is going to be on Spanberger to — and for the whole of the party to ask this candidate to just quit the race. Because just both, it’s the right thing. And also the political splashback, you don’t want to mess with this right now,” he said, stressing that Jones “should do everyone a favor and step out of that race.”