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Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones still has the support of some top Democrats, while others have not called for him to drop out after messages showed him envisioning the murder of a former Republican leader.
At the same time, history shows most Republican scandals are met with intraparty calls to drop out, abandonment of support or other more explicit actions.
Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, defended Jones last week, telling reporters there was a double standard in pressing Democrat Abigail Spanberger to finally call for Jones’ ouster, and Republicans’ reaction to President Donald Trump envisioning whether Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney would continue to be a neoconservative if she was put in a warzone with guns pointed at her.
Virginia Senate President L. Louise Lucas, D-Norfolk, similarly declined to call for Jones to drop out and instead has publicly boosted his candidacy.
RESURFACED SOCIAL MEDIA POST COMES BACK TO HAUNT DISGRACED DEM AG NOMINEE: ‘DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT’
Spanberger has condemned Jones’ comments, but has offered responses to calls for her to push him out that characterize the choice as up to the voters, not her.
Pressed by reporters Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries suggested Jones’ apologies were sufficient for him to retain Democratic support.
The most prominent Democrat to have the party circle its wagons around them was former President Bill Clinton, who, while embroiled in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, saw his party largely oppose efforts to impeach or remove him.
First lady Hillary Clinton famously expressed the view that there was a “vast right-wing conspiracy” against her husband, while congressional Democrats seeking to avoid an impeachment instead argued a formal censure would be a “historic” statement.
In 1998, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., took to the floor to accuse Republicans of “a misuse of their constitutional responsibility” and “a political vendetta.”
In 2006, eight-term New Orleans congressman Rep. William Jefferson was investigated by the FBI for allegedly using his official position to solicit hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes from U.S. companies interested in doing business in Africa, according to a bureau release.
Nearly $100,000 was famously found hidden inside a Pillsbury pie crust box in his freezer, and the FBI found at least 11 “distinct” bribery schemes amid their probe.
JAY JONES’ ‘TWO BULLETS’ SCANDAL OVER VIOLENT TEXTS EXPECTED TO DOMINATE VIRGINIA AG DEBATE
As chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., opposed efforts to remove Jefferson from the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
He said Jefferson deserves to be presumed innocent and criticized the lack of precedent being purportedly weaponized against a Black man.
One top Democrat broke ranks: Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told Jefferson that in the interest of the House Democratic Caucus’ “high ethical standard,” she requested his “immediate resignation” from Ways & Means.
Eventually, Democrats voted 99-58 within their ranks to see Jefferson removed, and he was later booted from the panel by a full-House voice vote.
Jefferson’s scandal was so severe, Republican upstart Joseph Cao defeated him in Democratic-supermajority New Orleans in a hurricane-delayed 2008 election by 50-47%.
When a racist group-chat of young Republicans from several states was leaked and reported in the press, Democrats who had declined to call for Jones’ ouster were quick to condemn the situation – but were also joined by Republicans.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who has not called for Jones to withdraw, said Wednesday that “too many Republican leaders seem willing to call out violent rhetoric only when it comes from the other side. But these same Republicans never seem willing to denounce it when it comes from their own ranks, and that’s dangerous.”
LIBERAL MEDIA DOWNPLAYS SCANDAL OF DEM VIRGINIA AG HOPEFUL JAY JONES’ TEXTS FANTASIZING MURDER OF GOP LAWMAKER
However, several prominent Republicans did condemn the chats, including multiple New York lawmakers like Reps. Mike Lawler and Elise Stefanik. Several of the chats allegedly were written by young Republicans from that state.
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott also quickly condemned the chat after state Sen. Samuel Douglass of Orleans was entangled in the story:
“Those involved should resign from their roles immediately and leave the Republican Party,” Scott said.
The last time Virginia was at the center of a scandal like this, then-Sen. George Allen, R-Va., was a popular incumbent and former governor — and the son and namesake of the Washington Redskins’ legendary coach.
In 2006, Allen was at a rally near Breaks Interstate Park on the Kentucky line when he noticed a young activist of South Asian descent filming him. Allen pointed to him and referred to him by a French-colonial slang referencing monkeys.
“Folks we’re going to run this campaign on positive, constructive ideas, and it’s important that we motivate and inspire people for something,” Allen said, before turning to the man.
“This fella here over here with the yellow shirt, [slur] or whatever his name is – he’s with my opponent,” Allen said, joking it would be challenger Jim Webb’s only opportunity to see people in rural Virginia secondhand.
JOE SCARBOROUGH TELLS DEM CANDIDATE JAY JONES TO LEAVE RACE OVER VIOLENT COMMENTS AGAINST GOP LAWMAKER
While the left latched onto the incident, some Republicans, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona expressed sympathy for the gaffe, criticism was more vocal even if calls to drop out were not as pronounced.
Then-Iowa GOP leader Mike Mehaffey publicly said Allen needed to “make it clear” that he made a mistake and that he should never have said it.
Allen’s campaign imploded, and a race that was supposed to be a wide-margin win for the GOP ended in a one-point loss to Webb – who in turn cited his Navy secretaryship in the Reagan administration as a reach across the aisle to disaffected Allen fans.
In other Republican cases, however, intraparty comeuppance was more pronounced.
Then-Sen. Larry Craig, R-Wyo., was convicted of lewd conduct after a police officer accused him of potentially soliciting sex in a Minnesota airport bathroom during a June 2009 sting operation.
By late September, Craig had resigned from Congress amid a barrage of intraparty backlash.
“I think he should resign,” McCain said at the time, as then-Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., also called for his ouster.
DEMOCRATS UNDER FIRE FOR STANDING BY VIRGINIA AG HOPEFUL WHO JOKED ABOUT SHOOTING GOP RIVAL
House Republican leaders also criticized Craig, with Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., saying his conduct was “inappropriate for a U.S. Senator.” Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee also issued condemnations, while the Bush White House was also reportedly disappointed.
Former Rep. Mark Foley’s career also imploded in similar fashion in 2006 after the Florida Republican was found to have sent sexually inappropriate messages to Capitol Hill pages.
While outlets like the UK Guardian at the time reported that some Republicans tried to “cover up” the scandal before it broke, the White House swiftly condemned Foley when the texts came to light.
“The White House and the president were just as shocked as everyone else,” Bush adviser Dan Bartlett told CNN, suggesting there should or would be a criminal investigation to come.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., took to the “Rush Limbaugh Show” to condemn talk that he or other top GOP leaders had not acted swift enough or knew previously of Foley’s texts.
Hastert and House Republican leaders John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., later called Foley’s texts “unacceptable and abhorrent.”
Meanwhile, “quit or be expelled” was the message from the GOP to Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio in 2006 after he was implicated in the Jack Abramoff scandal.
Abramoff, a powerful Republican lobbyist, had been accused of bribing lawmakers with trips and luxury gifts.
The late Tony Snow – a former Fox News anchor and later Bush White House press secretary – called for Ney’s resignation and called the allegations “not a reflection of the Republican Party,” according to The Seattle Times at the time.
Hastert and multiple other Republicans quickly called for Ney to resign and offered similar advice to other lawmakers caught up in Abramoff’s web.
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