SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox reaffirmed his support for Donald Trump on Thursday, even as the former president continued to use insults and inflammatory language during the campaign. Cox said he hoped Trump would stop when he endorsed him in July.
The governor, long seen as a moderate Republican in the mold of Mitt Romney, shocked political observers and Utah voters when he pledged his support to Trump after the former president’s assassination attempt in July. 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 evidenced by his recent comments about Haitian immigrants — but Cox told reporters he is still hopeful the Republican presidential nominee will adopt 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 Ohio town has been inundated with hoax bomb threats since last week’s presidential debate, when Trump falsely accused members of Springfield’s Haitian community of kidnapping and eating people’s cats and dogs. During his presidency, Trump had questioned why the U.S. would accept immigrants from “s-hole countries” like Haiti and some in Africa.
A few days after the debate, Cox introduced Trump at a private fundraising event in Salt Lake City. The governor, who is running for re-election and 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. Earlier this year, he falsely claimed at a conference for black journalists that Vice President Kamala Harris had “turned black” after she previously emphasized her South Asian heritage.
