Utah Gov. Spencer Cox struck a careful balance Friday morning as he gave remarks confirming the arrest of a man accused of fatally shooting conservative leader Charlie Kirk.
The Republican, who has been a major figure in leading the response to the assassination, acknowledged the gravity of Kirk’s assassination in Utah this week. But in contrast to many in his party, he held off on blaming the left.
“This is certainly about the tragic death, assassination, political assassination of Charlie Kirk. But it is also much bigger than an attack on an individual. It is an attack on all of us. It is an attack on the American experiment. It is an attack on our ideals,” Cox said. “This cuts to the very foundation of who we are, of who we have been and who we could be in better times.”
Speaking in Utah on Friday, Cox said it was “Charlie’s words” that “pulled me back from the brink” as he navigated the hours following Kirk’s death.
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“He, again, said: ‘When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to commit violence,’” Cox said, quoting Kirk. “He said, ‘What we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have a reasonable agreement. Being able to have reasonable agreement where violence is not an option.’”
He went on to warn that political violence “metastasizes” and that “at some point we have to find an off-ramp, or it’s going to get much, much worse.”
“History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country, but every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us,” he told reporters. “We get to make decisions. We have our agency. And I desperately call on every American, Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, MAGA, all of us to please, please, please follow what Charlie taught me.”
Cox has a history of trying to reach across the aisle, making his “Disagree Better” initiative a crucial piece of his governorship and even appearing at the White House alongside then-President Joe Biden with a plea for less divisiveness. He also has a history of criticizing President Donald Trump.
Cox’s remarks on Friday were an effort to turn down the vengeful rhetoric that many in his party have propagated with little information since the shooting.
In a video from the Oval Office Wednesday night, Trump directly blamed “radical” Democrat rhetoric for fueling the fire that led to Kirk’s shooting.
“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” Trump said. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”
The same sentiments were expressed by lawmakers learning about the shooting from Capitol Hill.
“The Democrat party needs to understand that they’re more than a little culpable in this and in President Trump’s assassination attempts, and they’re being aided and abetted by a left-wing press corps,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden told NOTUS.
After a moment of silence for Kirk on the House floor, some Democrats interrupted, calling for passage of stricter gun laws. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna shouted back, “You fucking caused this!”
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