In a nation seemingly on the brink, they were words that Americans needed to hear – coming not from the president but a politician with civility, compassion and rhetorical grace notes.
“We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate, and that’s the problem with political violence – it metastasises because we can always point the figure at the other side,” said Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah. “At some point we have to find an offramp or else it’s going to get much, much worse.”
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In a tone of moral urgency, Cox added: “These are choices that we can make. 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.”
The governor was speaking at a press conference after announcing that authorities had arrested a suspect in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, a political activist who rallied young voters for Donald Trump, at a university campus in Utah on Wednesday.
It was an act of surging political violence in a country awash with guns, a moment that cries out for cool heads to lower the political temperature. Yet Trump wasted no time in blaming the “radical left”.
The two-term Republican governor has frequently worked with Democrats and issued pleas for bipartisan cooperation. He drew national attention with a deeply personal response to the 2016 shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub and has long espoused a vision of politics rooted in unity and respect.
That was evident in the calm, measured yet impassioned remarks that he made on Friday as the Trump-appointed FBI director, Kash Patel, looked on. “Over the last 48 hours I have been as angry as I have ever been, as sad as I have ever been,” Cox said, a tremor in his voice.
The 50-year-old governor, who has four children who are teenagers and young adults, directed some of his remarks to young people. “You are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage,” he said. “It feels like rage is the only option.”
But, Cox insisted, there was a different path. “Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now. Not by pretending differences don’t matter but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations.”
Cox drew a comparison with the political violence of the 1960s that included the assassinations of President John F Kennedy and the civil rights leader Martin Luther King. On the night of King’s death, Robert F Kennedy delivered an impromptu speech in Indianapolis widely credited with helping to prevent riots in the city, unlike many other cities that erupted in violence that night.
Other political leaders have been expected to play the role of healer and unifier at moments of national crisis. President Barack Obama spontaneously sang Amazing Grace as he delivered a eulogy for a church leader and state senator who was among nine Black people shot dead by a white supremacist in Charleston, South Carolina.
Trump, however, has a history of exploiting tragedies to berate opponents and sow further division. Cox, by contrast, has been a strong advocate for civility in politics across the country. In his 2020 campaign for governor, he and his Democratic opponent appeared together in television ads pledging to “disagree without hating each other”, a highly unorthodox move.
And as chairman of the National Governors Association, he promoted civility through an initiative he called Disagree Better. He made appearances across the country with Democratic governors and other public figures to emphasise unifying values.
Frank Luntz, a political consultant and pollster, says: “Spencer Cox has been the national leader in promoting a more civil, respectful dialogue and his voice is needed now more than ever. He has said: we’re better than this, we don’t have to choose anger and, even at our angriest, we can decide to search for what is better in mankind. The vast majority of the public agrees with him.”
Luntz adds: “This is a break point for the country and thank God we have people like Cox who realise this. We may look back at this and say either this was the end of our civility and decency or the beginning of getting control back in our country where calmer minds are in charge.”
Cox did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020 and said last summer that he would not vote for him in 2024 either. He said Trump’s role in inciting the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol went too far. But days later, after an assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, Cox changed his mind.
A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Cox said he believed God had a hand in sparing Trump’s life and suggested Trump was uniquely positioned to save the country “by emphasizing unity rather than hate”.
As governor of Utah, he went against the grain among Republicans and vetoed a 2022 bill that would have banned transgender athletes from playing on girls’ teams. He said the law would affect just four of the 85,000 student athletes in Utah at the time and noted suicide statistics for transgender youth.
His move provoked a backlash among conservatives. “Utah Governor Spencer Cox should be expelled from the Republican party,” wrote one. His name was Charlie Kirk.
