FIRST ON FOX: A college professor who has fully supported Virginia Attorney General candidate Jay Jones has also criticized Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA in response to the conservative leader’s tragic death.
Matthew Gabriele, a professor in the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech, has used his @profgabriele.com profile on the social media platform Bluesky to express strong language against Republicans and speak against open debate.
“Delighted to have met Virginia’s next Attorney General today — Jay Jones!” Gabriele said in a March post with a smiling photo with the candidate.
Virginia Tech Professor Matthew Gabriele speaks at an event hosted by the school’s Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought in January 2019. (Virginia Tech Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought)
A second photo embedded into the post shows Jones speaking at an intimate get-together with only a few other people in attendance.
“F— this s—, we fight,” Gabriele said in a follow-up post. “We’ve beaten fascists before and we’re gonna do it again.”
Jones has been in controversy since a 2022 text message conversation surfaced where he imagined harming then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah.
“Three people, two bullets. Gilbert, Hitler and Pol Pot. Gilbert gets two bullets to the head,” one text said.
“If those guys die before me, I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves,” Jones continued. “Send them out awash in something.”
Virginia attorney general candidate Jerrauld “Jay” Jones speaks at an event in Norfolk, Virginia. (Trevor Metcalfe/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
He also accused Gilbert and his wife of “breeding little fascists.”
On Sept. 11, the day following Kirk’s assassination by an alleged leftist extremist, Gabriele criticized Kirk and Turning Point USA for its “Professor Watchlist,” a list on which he is included.
Responding to another Bluesky user who claimed TPUSA was not a “free speech” organization, he said, “Charlie Kirk and his organization were directly responsible for colleagues going into hiding because of harassment.”
“I personally received death threats, as well as bull—- anonymous complaints to my university, because I’m on their list,” his post continued.
He did not provide specific evidence of the threats.
On Sept. 19, he attacked Kirk again.
“It’s true! Kirk was and TPUSA is a harassment machine,” he said.
Attendees hold posters with a photo of Charlie Kirk during an “American Comeback Tour” stop hosted by Turning Point USA in Burruss Hall at Virginia Tech university in Blacksburg, Virginia, on Sept. 24, 2025. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images)
In several posts, he has also appeared to advocate against political debate on campus.
In August, when Pulitzer Prize-winning Yale Professor David Blight announced he would debate Heritage Foundation’s president Kevin Roberts, Gabriele expressed disgust.
“This is such a bad idea,” he responded to Blight. “You’re just legitimizing a fascist, helping spread hate.”
He followed that post with another, which said, “The f— is it with people and ‘debate?'”
In a four-post September rant, Gabriele attacked the idea of diversity of opinions on college campuses.
“[N]o one should’ve ever fretted about political homogeneity on college campuses, and if you did you were the f—— one living in a bubble and you were a f—— idiot,” he said.
Charlie Kirk throws hats to the crowd after arriving at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
“[I] am absolutely f—— exhausted by white guys — both those who haven’t set foot on a f—— campus in decades, and my colleagues who read a f—— Atlantic article by those same bozos — hand-wringing about ‘self-censorship’ and the lack of right wing ideas,” he continued.
“[W]hat you f—— clowns have always been ignorant about is that the hand-wringing right-wingers were smuggling in racism & fascism,” he said a third follow-up post.
Gabriele also made a blanket statement about his political opponents in response to a school shooting in September.
“[F]— Republicans and all those who perpetuate this preventable violence,” he said.
Matthew Gabriele is a professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. (iStock)
Fox News Digital asked Gabriele whether he still supports Jones, among other questions, but he did not respond.
Virginia Tech also did not respond to a request for comment.
