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“We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate, and that’s the problem with political violence — is it metastasizes,” Mr. Cox said. “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.”
“History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country,” Mr. Cox continued, “but every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us.”
Mr. Cox’s impassioned remarks, delivered as the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, stood to the side, seemed in some ways to be a direct rebuke to language of vengeance that prominent members of his party, including President Trump, have used in the days following the shooting.
Republicans from the White House to Capitol Hill have blamed the left for the shooting of Mr. Kirk, an influential right-wing youth activist. They have vowed to find and shut down groups that have been critical of Mr. Kirk and his polarizing brand of politics. Some figures on the far-right have called for all-out war.
Mr. Cox’s plea drew a sharp contrast to Mr. Trump’s words on Fox News on Friday morning after he told the hosts that the suspected shooter was in custody.
“The radicals on the left are the problem,” Mr. Trump said, “and they’re vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy.”
Mr. Cox, instead, put the blame on one person: The shooter.
“There is one person responsible for what happened here and that person is now in custody and will be charged soon and will be held accountable,” he said.
He also cast the intensely politicized response to the shooting, which was filmed and posted to social media and has been viewed countless times, as the outgrowth of a broader problem in society, though not one confined to either political party.
“Social media,” he said, “is a cancer on our society right now. And I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member.”
www.nytimes.com
“History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country,” Mr. Cox continued, “but every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us.”
Mr. Cox’s impassioned remarks, delivered as the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, stood to the side, seemed in some ways to be a direct rebuke to language of vengeance that prominent members of his party, including President Trump, have used in the days following the shooting.
Republicans from the White House to Capitol Hill have blamed the left for the shooting of Mr. Kirk, an influential right-wing youth activist. They have vowed to find and shut down groups that have been critical of Mr. Kirk and his polarizing brand of politics. Some figures on the far-right have called for all-out war.
Mr. Cox’s plea drew a sharp contrast to Mr. Trump’s words on Fox News on Friday morning after he told the hosts that the suspected shooter was in custody.
“The radicals on the left are the problem,” Mr. Trump said, “and they’re vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy.”
Mr. Cox, instead, put the blame on one person: The shooter.
“There is one person responsible for what happened here and that person is now in custody and will be charged soon and will be held accountable,” he said.
He also cast the intensely politicized response to the shooting, which was filmed and posted to social media and has been viewed countless times, as the outgrowth of a broader problem in society, though not one confined to either political party.
“Social media,” he said, “is a cancer on our society right now. And I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member.”
As Trump Vows Vengeance, Utah’s Governor Calls to Lower the Temperature
“At some point, we have to find an off-ramp, or it’s going to get much, much worse,” Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said of political violence after a suspect was caught in the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
He cleared the low bar of not blindly inciting violence against Democrats in response to a killer's unknown motivations. That said it is difficult to go against the grain, and I remember Utah's governor (same guy) for vetoing and trying to prevent an anti-trans bill a few years back which definitely was admirable: