“At some point, we have to find an off-ramp, or else it’s going to get much worse,” warned Gov. Spencer Cox as Trump blamed the “radical left” for Kirk’s death.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) on Friday sought to lower the temperature following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, issuing a heartfelt plea for calm and unity, a message that stood in sharp contrast to that of President Donald Trump.
“We need more moral clarity right now,” Cox said at a press conference. “I hear all the time that ‘words are violence.’ Words are not violence. Violence is violence. There is one person responsible for what happened here, and that person is in custody, will be charged soon, and will be held accountable.”
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“We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate,” he added. “That’s the problem with political violence. It metastasizes. We can always point the finger at the other side. At some point, we have to find an off-ramp, or else it’s going to get much worse.”
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Cox’s comments came as a breath of fresh air amid 31-year-old Kirk’s gruesome shooting earlier this week at a college campus in Utah. They also contrasted starkly with remarks made by the president of the United States, who shrugged off a question about “fixing the country” when asked earlier Friday about radicals on the right.
“I’ll tell you something that’s gonna get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News. “The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. The radicals on the left are the problem.”
In this combination photo, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) speaks at the National Governors Association, July 11, 2024, in Salt Lake City, left, and President Donald Trump speaks during a town hall, Aug. 29, 2024, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. (AP Photo) via Associated Press
While Trump did condemn political violence in the wake of the shooting, he did not recognize or acknowledge the recent threats and violent attacks against Democrats, including two Minnesota state legislators and their spouses who were shot in their homes earlier this year, and the arson at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home, crimes Cox made note of.
On Thursday, before a suspect in the Utah shooting was apprehended and a motive had been established, Trump said, “we just have to beat the hell” out of “radical left lunatics.” Nevertheless, he went on to urge his supporters to follow a nonviolent path. “[Kirk] was an advocate of nonviolence,” Trump said. “That’s the way I’d like to see people respond.”
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Cox, a moderate Republican, has previously urged Trump to spend more time trying to build common ground with his political opponents, to little effect. The president often launches wild attacks against Democrats on social media and shares conspiracy theories that have no basis in truth.
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In his remarks at Friday’s press conference, the governor urged the public to stay off social media, which he called a “cancer,” and lamented the fact that violent acts like Kirk’s gruesome shooting can be seen in video clips that have proliferated widely online.
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“We are not wired as human beings, biologically, historically, we have not evolved in a way that we are capable of processing [that] violent imagery,” Cox said. “This is not good for us. It is not good to consume. Social media is a cancer. And I would urge people to log off, turn off, and touch grass.”
“History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country, but every single one of us gets to choose right now,” he added. “If this is a turning point for us, we get to make decisions. We have our agency.”
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Source: Utah News