Former President Barack Obama was slammed by critics after headlining a Norfolk, Virginia, rally for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger and the Democrats’ statewide ticket that included a somewhat surprise appearance by scandal-plagued attorney general candidate Jay Jones.
Jones, who envisioned the murder of former House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his children – and also faces an ongoing criminal investigation stemming from his 116-mph reckless driving charge – avoided mentioning those scandals and instead slammed President Donald Trump during his remarks.
The appearance tied Obama and Spanberger to Jones — a move critics said undercuts the former president’s past calls for civility and his 2024 comments urging Black voters to support Vice President Kamala Harris.
“They endorse killing us,” Florida political journalist Eric Daugherty said of Obama’s appearance with Jones.
“In a disgusting sight, Virginia AG candidate Jay Jones — who called for the murder of Republicans and their children — is being cheered at a Barack Hussein Obama rally with gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger,” Daugherty said.
Obama notably did not mention Jones by name, Fox News’ Steve Doocy reported Monday, before asking Republican Winsome Earle-Sears herself about the spectacle.
“I’m from a country where I saw political violence, where I see political gangs shooting people and shooting each other when I was 10 years old,” said Earle-Sears, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica.
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“And to think that that’s what I’m seeing in America today, it is absolutely crazy. And for my opponent, Abigail Spanberger, to not tell her attorney general nominee … Jay Jones, to get out of the race because he said two bullets to the head of his political opponents and also kill the man’s 2-year-old and 5-year-old children, this cannot be what we are about in Virginia.”
At an appearance with Earle-Sears in Purcellville, Loudoun County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin called Obama and Spanberger’s appearance with Jones “a great representation of the far-left’s embrace of violence.”
“I cannot believe that Jay Jones was there, but Abigail Spanberger is for him, Barack Obama is for him,” Youngkin said.
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The outgoing governor separately called Jones “demented,” and wrote that any shred of moral clarity left in the Democratic Party was “laid bare.”
“Virginians clearly saw [during the rally] that violence and murder are just fine with them. Those may be their values, but they aren’t Virginia values.”
Former Chicago Bear–turned–options trader Jon Najarian asked on X how Obama and the NAACP — for whom Jones reportedly completed 500 hours of community service following his I-64 offense — could “turn a blind eye to Jay Jones’ sick comments as he campaigned for the chief legal position in the state.”
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Conservative commentator Western Lensman called out Obama’s remarks during the rally as blatantly hypocritical.
Obama told the crowd that Spanberger knows that people should be “able to disagree without calling each other nasty names or demonizing each other.”
The attorney general candidate present at that same rally characterized House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, as worse than dictators Pol Pot and Adolf Hitler – and expressed a wish to urinate on Gilbert’s grave.
“Yes, Jay ‘I want to murder Republicans and their children’ Jones shared this very stage with Obama because he was invited to do so [and] remains an endorsed member of the Dems’ ticket,” added Fox News contributor Guy Benson in a reply to Lensman.
“Obama doesn’t even believe his faux high-minded bulls—, but this is his autopilot slop,” Benson added.
Another X commenter noted that comic Roseanne Barr was fired from her ABC sitcom after describing Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett as a cross between the Muslim Brotherhood and “Planet of the Apes” — but Democrats remain steadfast in their support of someone like Jones.
Critics also locked onto Obama’s apparent change of heart about Black candidates running for office.
“Obama rallied with psycho Jay Jones today,” quipped former AFP Vice President Phil Kerpen.
Jones was also defended once again by Virginia House Speaker Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, who was interviewed by former NBC anchor Chuck Todd.
Scott told Todd that if Jones wins, he believes Virginia will “allow him to do his job and move on,” calling him a “good young man who made a huge error.”
Scott previously told reporters after Spanberger’s debate with Earle-Sears that people concerned with Jones should instead look to Trump’s comments about former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
Trump had claimed Cheney’s neoconservative and interventionist political bent would be less pronounced if she was in the same “warzone” as U.S. servicemembers and had enemy rifles pointed her way.
