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WASHINGTON — Utah’s governor Sunday said he got a “sobering” call from President Trump after the Charlie Kirk assassination — and that the prez is “not wrong’’ about reportedly being worried for himself and other GOP pols.
Trump, 79, rang up Gov. Spencer Cox, 50, after the Republican governor held a press conference Friday updating the public on the capture of Kirk’s suspected killer, Cox said..
The president made it clear that he was “angry” over what happened to Kirk, a friend who was instrumental in spreading conservatism to young Americans, the governor said.
“It was a long conversation, by the way. We talked about lots of things. But it was very sobering,” the Utah governor recounted to CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Anchor Dana Bash asked Cox about a report in the magazine The Atlantic that said Trump told Cox at the time, “You know, the type of person who would do something like that to Charlie Kirk would love to do it to us.”
Cox told Bash of Trump, “He’s not wrong.
“I mean, he knows better than anyone. As someone who literally was injured by a bullet, I mean, a fraction of an inch away from being killed a year ago, he understands that better than anyone.”
The Beehive State GOPer did not outright confirm that the president said that to him but appeared to corroborate it and chalked that sentiment up to anger over the assassination of Kirk, 31.
“[Trump] also mentioned multiple times that he was grateful for the press conference and the message that we shared,” Cox said. “And so I’m grateful that he’s talked about nonviolence.
“I understand he’s also very angry. And I get that. This is his close personal friend, and anger is a normal reaction.”
The conservative Kirk was fatally shot in the neck Wednesday while speaking to students at Utah Valley University as part of his “American Comeback Tour.”
After a 33-hour manhunt for Kirk’s killer, authorities arrested Tyler Robinson, 22, in the slaying. Robinson, a trade-school student, wannabe electrician and onetime devout Mormon, has not been cooperating, Cox said.
Trump has publicly called for Robinson to face the death penalty and faulted the “radical left” for allegedly influencing him to the point of murder. Cox said Robinson was “deeply indoctrinated in leftist ideology.”
Cox, who has clashed with the Republican president in the past, said Trump thanked him “multiple times for my words” about Kirk’s assassination and that the White House requested he do a Sunday show blitz.
The Utah gov had backed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz over Trump in the Republican presidential primary in 2016, saying Trump “does not represent neither goodness nor kindness.”
Cox told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, “The White House asked us to come on and to talk about this because they’re worried about the escalation that’s happening out there.”
The Utah Republican stressed that he wishes the media would spotlight Trump’s call to nonviolence in the wake of the tragic attack.
[Kirk] was an advocate of nonviolence. That’s the way I’d like to see people respond,” the president told reporters Thursday.
Cox has faced blowback from some right-leaning figures, including Steve Bannon, over his call to tone down the rhetoric.
The governor, striking a conciliatory tone Sunday, acknowledged, “Mr. Bannon is angry, and rightfully so.”
The Utah governor blamed social media at least partly for poisoning political discourse in the country.
“I believe that social media has played a direct role in every single assassination and assassination attempt that we have seen over the last five, six years. There is no question in my mind,” Cox told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“Cancer probably isn’t a strong enough word. What we have done especially to our kids, it took us a decade to realize how evil these algorithms are. And we’re doing everything in Utah. First state in the nation a couple of years ago to pass comprehensive reform.”
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