❓WHAT HAPPENED: Former President Barack Hussein Obama headlined a Virginia rally for Democrat gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, where scandal-plagued attorney general hopeful Jay Jones also appeared.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Barack Obama, Abigail Spanberger, Jay Jones, and critics, including Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears and Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA).
📍WHEN & WHERE: The rally took place in Hampton Roads, Virginia, on Saturday, November 1, 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: Governor Youngkin condemned the rally, calling it a “great representation of the far-left’s embrace of violence.”
🎯IMPACT: The rally sparked backlash, with critics highlighting Jones’s murderous rhetoric and questioning the Democratic Party’s moral clarity.
Former President Barack Obama is facing criticism after appearing at a Hampton Roads, Virginia, rally in support of Democrat gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger and attorney general candidate Jay Jones. National Democrats and Spanberger have resisted calls to push Jones off the state ticket after it was revealed he fantasized about murdering former Republican Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his children in text messages sent to a fellow lawmaker.
Neither Obama nor Spanberger addressed Jones’s murderous rhetoric, instead opting to focus on criticizing President Donald J. Trump. Critics contend that Obama’s association with Jones undermines his prior calls for “civility” in politics.
“They endorse killing us,” Florida journalist Eric Daugherty said of Obama’s appearance alongside Jones. Virginia’s Republican Lieutenant Governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, described the situation as “absolutely crazy,” adding that such rhetoric does not represent Virginia’s values.
Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) also condemned the rally, calling it a “great representation of the far-left’s embrace of violence.”
“Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, hitler [sic], and pol pot [sic]. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head. Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time,” Jones wrote in a 2022 text message to Republican House Delegate Carrie Coyne. In a second text, Jones told Coyne he wished to see Gilbert’s children murdered, arguing: “I’ve told you this before. Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”
Current Virginia House Speaker Don Scott Jr. (D) defended Jones, calling him “a good young man who made a huge error.”
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