The Utah governor, Spencer Cox, has called on people in the US to “stop shooting each other – that’s it” saying he makes that plea against political violence after being unable to “unsee” video of a sniper in his state killing rightwing activist Charlie Kirk.
Cox delivered those comments in an interview aired Sunday evening on the CBS program 60 Minutes, 18 days after Kirk’s shooting death at Utah Valley University (UVU) and one week from the Turning Point USA founder’s memorial service outside Phoenix.
The Republican politician told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley that his fellow conservative accuse him “all the time” of wanting people to have a “kumbaya” moment – “to hold hands and just hug it out”.
“I’m not asking anybody to hold hands and hug it out – I’m not asking for that,” Cox said on the premiere of 60 Minutes’ 58th season. “I’m trying to get people to stop shooting each other – that’s it.”
Cox alluded to public discourse that sought to frame Kirk’s killing as having occurred during a war – not formally declared – being waged between Americans on opposite sides of the country’s political divide. He contended that those trying to agitate tempers amid that rhetorical climate – including and particularly on social media platforms – were “making mistakes”.
“The question I always ask when I hear people say … that we’re at war … [is] what does that mean?” Cox also remarked. “What is next? Who am I supposed to shoot now?”
Citing investigators’ interviews with people close to the suspected killer, Utah prosecutors have alleged Tyler Robinson murdered Kirk after becoming sick of what he perceived to be Kirk’s “hatred”. Investigators reported being told by his family that Robinson had become “more pro-gay and trans rights oriented” in the year prior to his arrest in connection with Kirk’s killing.
That was at least the third prominent instance of political violence in less than six months. The home of Pennsylvania Democratic governor Josh Shapiro was firebombed in April. And, on 14 June, related shootings killed Minnesota’s former House speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, while wounding state senator John Hoffman – her fellow Democrat – and his wife, Yvette.
Cox said he, like many others in the US, could not avoid seeing video of Kirk being shot while speaking at UVU “on a loop over and over and over again”.
“And I can’t unsee it,” said Cox, who briefed the national media multiple times about Kirk’s killing early in the investigation into it. “I can’t stop seeing it. Every time I close my eyes – that’s what I see.”
Cox said he learned Kirk had died at the hospital where he was taken after the shooting from an aide sent to the facility by the governor. According to Cox, he then called the White House to relay news of the death to Donald Trump, Kirk’s close ally.
Trump’s administration has since pledged to crack down on leftist groups who opposed Kirk’s views.
Asked if he was “not a Trump Republican,” Cox said “that depends”. He elaborated that had voted for Trump as the latter man successfully ran for a second presidency in November. But Cox pointed out that he did not support Trump when he ran for his first presidency in 2016 or lost re-election to Joe Biden four years later.
Pelley also gave Cox an opportunity to address being called “a national embarrassment” by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon in the early aftermath of Kirk’s killing.
“That’s OK – we can have that debate,” Cox said. “There are some people that think I am a national embarrassment. And that’s OK, too.”
