WASHINGTON (AP) — In a week when Americans witnessed a public political assassination, a sea of angry words, a collective sense of fear and fatigue, a man stepped up to the microphone and said something stand out: it doesn’t have to be like this.
The man, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, appeared to be in tears on Friday, and sometimes angry and tears. While he was paying the national attention, he used the moment to ask fellow Americans to lower the temperature.
Cox, a long-time advocate of politeness, said he “don’t want to preach too much.” But he described the moment as being the very ideals of the country on the line. He made enthusiastic pleas for the use of fear, especially Americans and young people. Assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk As an inflection point that would keep the country away from political violence and division.
“This is our moment. Will we escalate or will we find an off-ramp?” Cox said when he announced the authorities at a press conference in Utah. A suspect was found in Kirk’s murder in custody.. “That’s a choice.”
Throughout his political career, Cox, a two-term Republican governor, issued pleas for bipartisan cooperation, and sometimes attracted the public’s attention. His sympathetic remarks.
His speech on Friday was his most emotional and prominent example as he urged a common foundation and appeal to humanity to build a better society. This was a marked departure from the belligerent rhetoric adopted in recent years by US politicians, particularly known for their provocative language, and President Donald Trump, who denounced Kirk’s murder in rhetoric of “radical left.”
“Politics feels like anger.”
On Wednesday, Cox made his first plea after Kirk’s murder. He went further on Friday, admitting that he had run with just 90 minutes of sleep after Manhunt days due to Kirk’s murderer Manhunt and the intense rhetoric development online.
His voice appears to be broken at times, and Cox said the response to violence and hatred could be more violence and hatred. “That’s the problem Political violenceHe said. And at some point we have to find an off-ramp. Otherwise, it would get much worse. ”
“History will determine whether this is the turning point of our country or not,” he said. “But if this is a turning point for us, each of us will have a choice right now.”
The 50-year-old governor, who has four children, a teenager and a young adult, directed the youth to some of his remarks.
But Cox said another path could be. “Your generation has the opportunity to build a culture that is very different from what we are suffering from now.”
Utah Governor Spencer Cox will speak at a press conference in Orem, Utah, on Friday, September 12th, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsay Wasson)
He said the 22-year-old suspect in Kirk’s murder became “more political” until Wednesday’s shooting on college campus.
Cox also spoke about the harms of social media, saying that Kirk’s murder is “extremely badly” for everyone View online.
“We are not biologically wired as humans. Historically, we have not evolved to handle these types of violent images,” Cox said. “This isn’t good for us. It’s not good to consume. Social media is now a cancer of our society.”
These approaches are nothing new to Cox
As governor, Cox attempted to curb the harm of young people’s social media, and signed a law requiring social media companies to check users’ age and disable certain features on minor accounts.
He lives in Utah, a very Republican party where his party requires almost bipartisan action to enact that agenda, but Cox has long emphasized respect and unity. As governor, he has consistently evoked the need for politeness. This is a hallmark of home within the culture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a faith that Cox and many of the nation belong to.
His more moderate tone became more rare as Utah politics drifted to the right during the Trump era. Cox was booed at the Utah Republican statewide convention in April 2024. “Maybe you don’t like me enough,” Cox told the crowd. He still won reelection with the state’s GOP primary in November.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox will arrive at a press conference in Orem, Utah on Friday, September 12th, 2025. (AP Photo/Lindsay Wasson)
In 2016, Cox attracted national attention for his remarks after mass shootings at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. He then called for people to gather, appealing to their “better angels.” He also apologised for being unfriendly to a student who later learned that the high school student was gay.
He also attracted attention in his campaign for the governor in 2020. He appeared in television ads with Democrat opponents as he vowed to “not agree without hating each other.”
Cox was openly critical of Trump and did not support him until last year when the president survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. The governor wrote to Trump at the time expressing his praise for his rebellious response to being hit by a bullet.
In the letter, Cox told Trump that he believed that “God has his hand to save you,” and that “miracles” gave him the opportunity to unite the country.
“We need to find a way to lower the temperature and regain it before it’s too late,” Cox wrote.
Minutes before Cox took the stage Friday, Trump took the opportunity to sit in a live interview on the Fox News Channel. He was asked how he could bring the country together. Trump said his response “is going to bother me, but I couldn’t really care about it.”
Before he began his list of complaints with democratic opponents, the president said, “The extremists on the left are the problem.”
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Associated Press Writer Chris Megarian contributed to this report.
