Utah GOP Gov. Spencer Cox On Sunday Shows: Something Something Something THE LEFTISTS!

Let's shift the blame around in real time!

In the days since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the media and especially rightwingers have been working tirelessly to whitewash his legacy.

The Sunday shows were no different.

Let’s dive in.

Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, has been juggling his official duties and his unofficial duties as a Republican on the front lines of the martyrdom committee.

On CNN’s State of the Union, Cox seemed to opine on the alleged motives of the accused shooter to host Dana Bash.

BASH: You told The Wall Street Journal that it is — quote — "very clear to us" and to the investigators that this was a person who was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology. Can you elaborate on that and be more specific?

COX: […] So that information comes from the people around him, from his family members and friends. That's how we got that information. Again, there's so much more that we're learning and so much more that we will learn. […] Again, we're interviewing all kinds of people, everyone that knows him and trying to learn more about what that motive actually was.

But a small detail from his ABC This Week interview with Martha Raddatz that seems to contradict the reliability of these statements.

RADDATZ: Can you tell us anything about that this morning or anything further on the investigation?

COX: Well, all we can confirm is that those conversations definitely were happening and they — they did not believe it was actually him. It was — it was all joking until — until he — you know, until he admitted that it — it — it actually was him.

RADDATZ: And — and anything new on the investigation? You say he admitted that. Confessed?

COX: No, not — not — again, he has — he has not confessed to — to authorities. He — he is — he is — he is not cooperating. But — but — but all the people around him are cooperating. And I — I think that’s — that’s — that’s very important.

Tyler Robinson has actually given them no determination of a solid motive himself. We’re relying on the same family and friends who have rushed to the press to clear their family’s name, from being accused of not being MAGA.

This shift in responsibility and blame from the shooter to some external corruption from “left forces” is something lots of conservatives have been working hard to accomplish. Cox himself seemed to indicate this when he appeared on NBC’s Meet The Press with Kristen Welker.

COX: We can confirm that he does come from a conservative family but his ideology was very different than his family. […] There clearly was a leftist ideology with this assassin.

Forgive us if we don’t trust the investigation from the current FBI, considering how the agency is run by “Keystone Cop” Kash Patel, depressed podcaster Dan Bongino, and a sentient “Dreamworks face” meme.

Inspires confidence, no?

Cox also paid some lip service to “turning down the temperature” on political rhetoric, while always being vague when confronted with who is cranking it up. After Welker played a clip of Trump blaming the “radicals on the left” for Kirk’s murder, Cox just seemed to dismiss that the “leader of the free world” is pretty much the world’s chief instigator of political hate.

COX: Well, look, I've talked to President Trump. President Trump is angry. And he has every right to be angry. A lot of Americans are very angry right now. […] I totally understand that anger. I also wish you would have played the clip where he quoted Charlie Kirk about the importance of non-violence. Because he said that too. And I can tell you that the president has reached out to me. He reached out to me after the press conference and thanked me multiple times for my words. That's probably a surprise to people.

On This Week, Cox continued not criticizing Trump’s rhetoric and excusing it.

COX: We’re human beings, too. President Trump is a human being, whether you love him or you hate him, he’s — he’s a — he’s a human being. And these are — these are very tragic circumstances that impact all of us. […] President Trump is very angry. And Charlie is his close personal friend.

On State of the Union, Cox repeated this.

COX: I understand he's also very angry. And I get that. This is his close personal friend, and anger is a normal reaction.

Cox may be right. Kirk was “like a son” to Trump and he was just at the early anger stage. I’m sure Trump will need time to process …

(Click for video of Trump mourning at the Yankees game.)

It is sad, but have I told you about my magnificent ballroom?

Well, that was fast. Looks like Charlie Kirk got the old Ivana Trump treatment from Trump, while he and his minions cynically use the tragic event to excuse further fascist moves, like Speaker Mike Johnson whining on Fox News Sunday that people who oppose fascism call them mean names.

And until we really tackle the issue of guns and hold accountable those who radicalize people, including from the highest places of power …

From Musk’s speech to the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march organized by bigot Tommy Robinson, who Musk reinstated along with other extremists when he bought Twitter.

… there will be more victims of gun violence and the sort of hateful rhetoric Charlie Kirk spent his life spreading.

MAGA will of course try to blame a possible trans roommate/partner (who is helping with the investigation) or Section 230 online protections or whatever else, but the call is coming from inside their house.

Have a week.

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