Utah’s governor is firing back at Steve Bannon and other Trump allies who are working to inflame passions and encourage rage among Republicans in response to the shooting death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Governor Spencer Cox appeared on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, where the Republican responded to criticism leveled against him by Bannon on his War Room podcast last week.
Formerly Donald Trump’s chief White House strategist, Bannon remains an insider in Trump’s orbit and continues to hold many connections to the White House. He’s a fixture at the annual CPAC event in National Harbor, Maryland, and is a leader of the populist and strongman-friendly wing of the Trump-allied conservative movement.
This past week, Bannon derided Cox as a “national embarrassment” as the Utah governor — whose own ties to the GOP fall under more traditional conservative lines through the influence of Mormonism in the state — called for peace and respectful dialogue across the aisle in the wake of Kirk’s assassination on a college campus on Wednesday.
A suspect turned himself in after a manhunt was launched.
On CNN, Cox labelled the War Room host a “conflict entrepreneur” and encouraged Americans not to listen to voices that profit off of division.
“Look, there are conflict entrepreneurs out there who benefit from radicalizing us. And I’m not one of those. I don’t know that that’s particularly helpful,” he said.
“That’s what I appreciate most about Charlie,” Cox added. “If we don’t keep talking, that’s when the violence starts.”
Of Bannon, he added: “But he is right at this: we need to find out how this happened, and we need to stop it from happening [again].”
In a separate interview with MSNBC’s Meet the Press, Cox insisted that while Bannon remained a close ally of the president and members of his team, Trump in fact had the governor’s back on the issue.
“The president reached out to me after the press conference and thanked me multiple times for what I said. That might surprise some people. It’s also part of why I’m doing this,” Cox explained. “The reason I’m doing these morning shows ,[and] I don’t do much national press anymore, [is because the White House asked us to come on and to talk about this. Because they’re worried about the escalation that’s happening out there.”
Cox has become something of a national star in the past few days as his level-headed response to the shooting has clashed with both the president’s and even to some degree that of the FBI, whose director Kash Patel was scrutinized for misleading information in the hours after the shooting initially took place suggesting that a suspect was in custody.”
Right-wing activist Chris Rufo issued a scathing takedown of Patel on Friday after the suspect in Kirk’s shooting, Tyler Robinson, turned himself in — reportedly after a family member recognized his image and urged him to surrender.
“[I]t is time for Republicans to assess whether Kash Patel is the right man to run the FBI,” Rufo wrote on X.
“He performed terribly in the last few days, and it’s not clear whether he has the operational expertise to investigate, infiltrate, and disrupt the violent movements — of whatever ideology — that threaten the peace in the United States,” he added.
A growing body of evidence suggests that Patel is facing criticism from nearly all sides over his management of the FBI. A lawsuit from fired agents accuses him and top deputy Dan Bongino (who like Patel hails from the world of conservative media) of being obsessed with image at the expense of the agency’s mission.
White House officials remain Patel’s loudest defenders. Though the administration and top officials at the Department of Justice have been under fire for months over their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, the president’s personal distaste for handing his foes a perceived victory has prevented any personnel changes at the DOJ, FBI or other agencies thus far.
White House communications director Steven Cheung issued one of the West Wing’s typically furious statements in defense of Patel and accused his critics of nefarious intent.
A spokesperson for Patel also responded to CNN: “Over these last few days, what has mattered isn’t ignorant criticism or petty assumptions — it’s been the pursuit of justice. Justice that was promised, and justice that has now been delivered.”
