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We don’t often agree with Donald Trump these days. For example, we don’t think that the US should be turned into an autocracy or that the military should be unleashed on the American people. That being said, we agree with the president that Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate for attorney general in Virginia, should drop out of the race.

This week, past text messages from Jones surfaced that we believe disqualify him from holding office, and this particular job in general.

If you are unaware of the story, in 2022, Jones sent messages to Carrie Coyner, a GOP state legislator, in which he made some highly inappropriate comments about Todd Gilbert, the Republican speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates.

He wrote that, if he had a gun with two bullets and had to choose between Adolf Hitler, Cambodia dictator Pol Pot, and Gilbert, he would shoot Gilbert twice.

Republicans are trying to make that part out to be more than it is. While Trump characterized the messages as “sick and demented jokes,” others, like Vice President JD Vance said it was Jones “fantasizing about murdering his political opponents,” which seems like an exaggeration.

However, that wasn’t even the worst part of the exchange.

According to the National Review, which first reported the messages, he then “wished violence” on Gilbert’s children.

He justified this by saying that “only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”

Jones concluded the exchange by saying: “I mean, do I think Todd and Jennifer [Gilbert] are evil? And that they are breeding little fascists? Yes.”

We believe that someone who makes statements like that has demonstrated that he cannot be impartial enough to faithfully execute the office of attorney general.

We’re witnessing right now what happens when the top legal official of a country is a partisan hack, and it’s not good.

Now, we also understand that GOP politicians say things all the time that are equally abhorrent, and that it looks like unilateral disarmament for a Democrat to drop out when a Republican would stay in the race.

But it doesn’t matter.

The low bar that Trump (who referred to Democrats as “gnats” today) and his followers have set cannot be the standard for the country or we will never overcome our current divisions.

With early voting having already started, we realize that Jones dropping out at this point would hand the race to incumbent Jason Miyares.

However, there are also political considerations that make this the right move.

First of all, it is very possible that, in a tight contest, this scandal will tip the scales against Jones in any case.

In addition, this is also going to be a problem for the other Democrats in the race, especially leading gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, who has condemned the comments but stopped short of calling on Jones to drop out.

Finally, it is important for Democrats to show that they are the party of accountability, and that they champion a different kind of politics – especially following unfair accusations that they support political violence. And the next time a Republican makes a despicable comment, they can point to this case and the Democratic response in contrast.

However, by merely criticizing Jones, without calling on him to drop out of the race, they are wasting an opportunity to take the moral high ground.