By Ashley Brasfield
Democratic Virginia Lt. Gov. candidate Ghazala Hashmi said she doesn’t “really care” if children have access to sexually explicit materials in schools.
Hashmi, a state senator, made the comment during a 2023 Public Education Subcommittee discussion on Senate Bill SB1463 — legislation that would require all public and school libraries in Virginia to place parental advisory labels on books containing sexually explicit content that are accessible to minors. (RELATED: John Reid Rips ‘Fake’ Hashmi Ad Accusing Him Of Wanting To ‘Destroy’ Public Schools)
The bill requires all public and school libraries in Virginia to place parental advisory labels on books containing sexually explicit content that are accessible to minors.
“We seem to focus on sexual explicit material. I don’t really care about that,” she said in the meeting.
The Hashmi campaign did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.
During the meeting, Republican state Sen. Amanda Chase mentioned a proposal from a separate bill that would require school libraries to label books containing sexual content so parents could more easily identify age-appropriate material.
Representatives from the Virginia Library Association opposed the proposal, defending librarians’ discretion and arguing that parents should take responsibility for monitoring what their children read.
Chase countered that many parents — especially mothers with multiple children — don’t have time to review every book and said content labels would give them a simple way to protect their kids from inappropriate material.
Hashmi cut off Chase’s questioning, saying, “I think we won’t engage in a debate,” before thanking the Virginia Library Association and inviting anyone else to speak in opposition.
When no one did, Hashmi offered her own remarks. “We seem to focus on sexual explicit material. I don’t really care about that; I care about the gratuitous violence that children are exposed to — not necessarily through books, but through all of the other social media. I think that does far greater harm to our children.”
The resurfaced comments come after Republican Lt. Gov. candidate John Reid staged a mock debate Tuesday featuring an AI-generated stand-in for Hashmi after he said she refused to debate him.
Reid has called Hashmi’s ads attacking him “false” and accused Hashmi of repeatedly dodging debates.
Another candidate running in this year’s election is Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate for attorney general of Virginia. In 2022, Jay Jones said he would put “two bullets” in a state representative’s head, and “piss on” his grave, after that representative, Todd Gilbert, memorialized the life of a deceased moderate Democratic legislator (Jones, a progressive, disliked that deceased Democrat, Joe Johnson, for being too moderate). Jones also allegedly wished that Gilbert’s wife should experience the death of her child.
Jones was convicted in 2022 of reckless driving in New Kent County after being stopped for driving 116 mph in a 70 mph zone. He was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and perform 1,000 hours of community service. Jones claimed to have completed 500 of those hours for his own political action committee, Meet Our Moment (MOM). It was wrong for him to claim credit for the 500 hours he spent working for his own political action committee. The local prosecutor says the state considers community service to be “unpaid service or labor performed through any non-political, charitable non-profit,” not work for a PAC.
Now, Jones is under investigation for allegedly misrepresenting details regarding community service to a New Kent County court. A special prosecutor was appointed to investigate Jones after allegations that the candidate was misrepresenting details around his community service hours for his reckless driving conviction to the court, the National Review reported Wednesday. Judge Elliott Bondurant accepted his request Tuesday and named Nathan Green, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for James City County, to serve as special prosecutor.
