Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah built a political brand as the Republican antidote for an age of anger, imploring a divided United States to “disagree better” through civil discussions and bridge-building service projects.
Then an assassin gunned down the outspoken conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah college rally on Wednesday. With the killer still on the loose and calls for revenge boiling across social media, an emotional Mr. Cox walked in front of the television cameras to make his highest-profile plea to date against the rising tide of political violence that had just crashed into his backyard.
“Our nation is broken,” Mr. Cox said, as he ticked off a growing list of political violence targeting Republicans, including President Trump, and, he pointedly noted, Democrats as well, including the assassination of a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota and the attempted assassination of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.
For those who “celebrated even a little bit at the news of this shooting,” Mr. Cox said, “I would beg you to look in the mirror, and to see if you can find a better angel in there somewhere.”
It is far from clear whether the country’s better angels can still be reached — or whether Mr. Cox is the man for the moment or whether the moment will ignore the man.
Even as Mr. Cox made his appeal, a prayer in memory of Mr. Kirk at the Capitol devolved into shouting while some on social media alternately reveled in Mr. Kirk’s death or warned it meant civil war. Not long after, Mr. Trump vowed to “find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it.”
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