Utah governor says he’s optimistic Trump can unite the nation despite recent rhetoric
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Governor Spencer Cox confirmed his support for Donald Trump on Thursday, as the former president continued to spew insults and inflammatory statements during the campaign — behavior that Cox said he hoped Trump would abandon when he endorsed him in July.
The governor, long seen as a moderate Republican in the mold of Mitt Romney, shocked political observers and voters in Utah when he pledged his support to Trump after the Assassination attempt in July about the former president. Cox did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020, and he said days before the shooting that he would not vote for him this year.
In a statement of support, Cox urged Trump to treat his political opponents with “basic human dignity and respect” and said he believed Trump could save the country “by emphasizing unity instead of hate.”
Trump said after the assassination attempt that he had no plans to change, as his recent statements indicate. comments about Haitian immigrants — but Cox told reporters he is still hopeful the Republican presidential nominee will employ a more unifying rhetoric.
“I have to be optimistic, and I’m going to remain optimistic, and I’m going to do everything I can to help him and others bring our country together,” Cox said. “I also don’t believe that I’m important enough that President Trump is going to change things or do things differently just because of me, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.”
A small town in Ohio is overrun with fake bomb threats since last week’s presidential debate, when Trump falsely accused members of Springfield’s Haitian community who kidnapped and ate people’s cats and dogs. During his presidency, Trump had questioned why the U.S. would allow immigrants from “s—-hole countries” such as Haiti and some in Africa.
Days after the debate, Cox introduced Trump at a private fundraising event in Salt Lake City. The governor, who request re-election and who in turn has not been endorsed by Trump, said he had a conversation with the former president that Saturday in which he again encouraged him not to sow division.
Trump has also attacked his opponent’s racial identity, falsely claiming at a conference for black journalists earlier this year that Vice President Kamala Harris “turned black” after previously emphasizing her South Asian heritage.