WASHINGTON (AP) — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox made an impassioned plea on Friday for Americans and young people to use the horror of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s public assassination as an inflection point to turn the country away from political violence and division.
“This is our moment: Do we escalate or do we find an off-ramp?” Cox said at a news conference in Utah as he announced authorities had a suspect in Kirk’s killing in custody. “It’s a choice.”
Cox, a two-term Republican governor, has consistently called for bipartisan cooperation and has garnered attention for his empathetic remarks throughout his political career. However, his speech on Friday marked a more emotional and urgent call to action, departing from the often divisive rhetoric prevalent in politics today.
His voice breaking at times, Cox warned that political violence leads to further violence, stating, “And that’s the problem with political violence. It metastasizes because we can always point the finger at the other side. And at some point we have to find an off-ramp or it’s going to get much much worse.”
Addressing the youth directly, he stated, “You are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage,” while asserting that their generation has the chance to create a culture significantly different from the current state of affairs. He lamented that Kirk's cruel end was put on display through social media, referring to it as “a cancer on our society right now.”
As Cox reiterated his concerns about the troubling effects of social media, he also expressed hope that this moment could spark a calming and unifying movement across the nation.
