Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) rebuked President Donald Trump on Tuesday for his racist attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and said in a joint interview with CNN and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) that Trump is “not interested” in uniting the country.
The half-hour interview with Inside Politics host Dana Bash was released Wednesday.
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“I disagree with Congresswoman Omar,” Cox said. “I think she should be voted out of office, and I think I can do that without attacking her religious, racial or ethnic background. I think that’s very important. I know the president disagrees with me.”
He continued, “He and I had these conversations. I have to say, during our conversations during the Charlie Kirk shooting, he spoke to me about nonviolence and tried to speak out for nonviolence. I knew he was not interested in uniting the country.”
Kirk founded the influential conservative campus network Turning Point USA and regularly speaks on college campuses across the country. He was shot and killed at an event at Utah Valley University in September, prompting Trump to quickly blame the “radical left.”
Omar had some criticism of Kirk after his death, leading an angry Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) to call for the Somali-born Muslim lawmaker to be deported. Trump has since called Omar “trash” and frequently insulted her country of birth and appearance.
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While he has attacked Omar before, the president last week published an article whose content shocked even some pro-Trump conservatives. At a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, he said Omar, who became a U.S. citizen in 2000, was in the country illegally and “should get out.”
Shortly after Kirk’s death, Trump publicly admitted that he “didn’t give a damn” about unity.
“I think if he were sitting here with us tonight, he would tell you that,” Cox told Bash. “But I would also say it’s not going to be one president that solves this problem. It’s not going to be two governors that solve this problem. It’s really going to take all of us to solve it.”
He continued, “The politicians we elect are a reflection of our people, and that’s what we want today, and I think both sides are guilty of that. So I’m going to do my part, and I appreciate Governor Shapiro doing his part to tone down that rhetoric.”
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Shapiro went on to share his own thoughts on the issue of political violence, which really hit home in April after Trump was nearly assassinated last year in Butler, Pennsylvania. He called for an end to the divisive rhetoric that has contributed to this unstable atmosphere.
“I think the president has a responsibility here, and I agree with Spencer, like all Americans, in trying to elevate rhetoric and suppress hate,” the governor said Tuesday. “I think the president needs to do a better job.”
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Read the original article on The Huffington Post