Utah’s Spencer Cox has displayed America’s best values

Governor Spencer Cox of Utah rose above the crowd when he spoke of Charlie Kirk‘s assassination and the apprehension of his suspected killer. It was the second time in as many days that Cox voiced thoughts we all needed to hear. Instead of rage, the governor’s plainspoken, heartfelt language, together with his quotes from Charlie, underscored our country’s highest and best values. They were sober, profound thoughts, and we needed to hear them.

Governor Cox’s comments on Thursday and Friday demonstrated rhetorical clarity and solid constitutional foundations, grounded in our shared humanity. In a time of pain and emotional turbulence, those are the words we all needed to hear, just as we needed (and, fortunately, received) superb professionalism from the FBI and local law enforcement. Significantly, they worked in tandem at a time when so many jurisdictions refuse to work with federal officials, even to apprehend the worst of the worst. Not so in Utah.

Utah’s governor was also clear that his state intends to seek the death penalty for this heinous crime.

And it was heinous. All murders are, and unprovoked murders even more so. This crime was both, but its significance is greater, as the national outpouring of sympathy makes clear.

The first and most important reason is that this killing was explicitly political. The killer’s motive is beyond doubt now that the public has been told of the messages he scribbled on his rifle shells. They were covered in propaganda, trying to justify the murder as “anti-fascist.”

The second reason is Kirk’s murder was so heinous is that it was a deliberate effort to suppress an alternative view, one the killer loathed. Engaging alternative views was why Charlie Kirk took his message to college campuses, like Utah Valley University, where he died. He not only wanted to persuade his audience, he wanted to demonstrate the right way to engage different viewpoints: peacefully and respectfully.

Charlie’s tent proudly said, “Prove me wrong.” In a democracy and in a university, that proof can come only from coherent arguments and solid evidence, which others are allowed to test, rebuke, and counter with their own arguments.

The crucial point is that this opposition should never be accompanied by blunt force—from a bullet, a mailed fist, or threats from an intolerant teacher or activist mob, as happens all too often these days. Charlie’s campus tour was a vibrant rebuke to this toxic brew, as Governor Cox recognized so clearly.

Finally, political murders are especially heinous because they strike at the heart of a constitutional democracy. Why? Because they constitute a deliberate assault on our peaceful, settled procedures to debate public policies, resolve disputes, choose leaders, and remove unwanted ones from office. An assassin’s bullet is a deadly challenge to that constitutional order, which took centuries to establish and is extremely rare in human history.

What America needs now is a calm restatement of these basic values, voiced with moral clarity and without apology or self-flagellation. That was Governor Cox’s achievement. He restated our country’s fundamental values, including free speech and peaceful disagreement, and rejected incitement, rioting, and vigilante “justice.”

Thankfully, Charlie’s supporters agree with Cox, as do so many others, left and right. It is important that this agreement comes from all political persuasions, including those who disagreed sharply with Charlie’s policy prescriptions.

That agreement is not universal. Kirk’s most extreme opponents responded with joy to his killing and posted their feelings online. Fortunately, their numbers are small, though even small numbers are troubling. Worse yet, we saw the same revolting performance on the floor of the US Congress, when a few representatives shouted down a moment of silent prayer in Charlie Kirk’s memory. Have they no sense of decency? The question answers itself.

Thankfully, the vast majority of Americans share a deeper understanding of what makes our democracy work. They understand political killings drive a stake into the beating heart of our constitutional order, compounding the troubles and divisions we see all around us.

It is imperative that good people say so, that they speak out clearly. That is exactly what Governor Cox did. For that, he deserves our gratitude and praise.