The gunman accused of assassinating right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University had a “leftist” ideology, but his overall motive for the shooting remains undetermined, according to Utah Governor Spencer Cox.
“We can confirm that, again, according to family and people that we’ve interviewed, he does come from a conservative family, but his ideology was very different than his family,” Cox told NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday.
Cox said it appeared Robinson abandoned a promising college career and became radicalized on the “deep, dark” corners of the internet gaming and message board world.
Officials have previously said bullet casings tied to the shooting were reportedly inscribed with references to video games and obscure memes, as well as phrases including “Hey, fascist! Catch!” and “Bella Ciao,” an apparent reference to a song with roots in Italian antifascism during World War II that has become popular with gamers.
The Republican governor added that Robinson is not cooperating with officials, but his roommate is. Cox described how the individual was “shocked” by the shooting and did not have any advanced knowledge of the attack.
There is “not a solid understanding” whether the roommate’s relationship with Robinson and gender identity had any impact on Robinson’s alleged shooting of Kirk, a conservative Christian who denied the legitimacy of transgender people, according to Cox.
In the wake of the shooting, allegations that Robinson’s roommate or partner is transgender prompted some in the MAGA movement to repeat the false, debunked claim that trans people are more likely to carry out gun violence.
The governor said further information about Robinson would be forthcoming next Tuesday when the suspect is due in court and prosecutors are expected to file formal charges backed by forensic evidence.
In the absence of more in-depth information about Robinson, prominent figures within Trump’s orbit have pinned the blame on Democratic officials and groups on the left, though officials have not described Robinson as being a member of any such organizations, and the 22-year-old was not registered with any political party, according to public voter registration information seen by The Independent.
Stephen Miller claimed that Kirk’s last message to him before being shot was a call “to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence” — a campaign the deputy White House chief of staff said he would continue following the activist’s death.
After the shooting, the president said in an Oval Office speech that people “on the radical left [who] have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals” are “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”
In a separate appearance on Fox & Friends, the president called for peaceful “revenge” at the ballot box for those upset after the shooting, though he went on to speak sympathetically about radicals on the right, who were radical because they “don’t want to see crime,” looting, or illegal immigration, while “radicals on the left are the problem.”
Cox told Meet the Press that the White House asked him to appear on morning shows “because they’re worried about the escalation that’s happening out there.”
“But again, I don’t know why we feel like we need to take our cues, that we as Americans have to get up in the morning and decide how we’re going to react or act based on what the president says, or what a governor says, or what anyone else says,” Cox said.
