Utah Governor Makes Impassioned Plea for Peace After Arrest of Suspected Charlie Kirk Assassin: ‘Love Without Condition, Forgive Without Limit’

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) made an impassioned plea for peace and dialogue as he and other authorities spoke out about the arrest of a suspect in the assassination of conservative dynamo Charlie Kirk.

Speaking during a press conference announcing the arrest Friday, Cox took a few moments to address political violence in the wake of Kirk’s death at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

“I don’t want to get too preachy, but I think it is important that we, with eyes wide open, understand what is happening in our country today,” Cox began.

At one point, Cox mentioned how Kirk’s own words have helped him heal:

Charlie said, “When people stop talking, that’s when you get violence. He said the weak can never forgive, forgiveness is attribute of the strong, the only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive. Welcome without judgement, love without condition, forgive without limit.” He said, “Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.”

He also praised his fellow Utahns for not resorting to violence themselves:

I want you to look at how Utahns reacted the last two nights. There was no rioting, there’s no looting, there were no cars set on fire, no violence. There were vigils and prayers and people coming together to share the humanity and that, ladies and gentlemen, I believe is the answer to this. We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate, and that’s the problem with political violence, it metastasizes, because we can always point the finger at the other side and at some point we have to find an off ramp or it is going to get much, much worse.

Read Cox’s full remarks here:

Thank you, again, to our incredible law enforcement team who has worked so hard. Sheriff, I got a solid 90 minutes, I’m the most well -rested person up here. Ladies and gentlemen, I get the microphone so I hope you will permit me a moment just to share a few thoughts about where we are and how we got here and maybe a little bit of where we go from here. I don’t want to get too preachy, but I think it is important that we, with eyes wide open, understand what is happening in our country today.

I’ve heard people say, why are we so invested in this, there is violence happening all across our country. Violence is tragic everywhere. And every life taken is a child of God, who deserves our love and respect and dignity. This is certainly about the tragic death, assassination, political assassination of Charlie Kirk. But it is also much bigger than an attack on an individual. It is an attack on all of us. It is an attack on the American experiment. It is an attack on our ideals. This cuts to the very foundation of who we are, of who we have been and who we could be in better times.

Political violence is different than any other type of violence for lots of different reasons. One, because in the very act that Charlie championed of expression, that freedom of expression that enshrined in our founding documents, in having his life taken in that very act, makes it more difficult for people to feel like they can share their ideas, that they can speak freely. We will never be able to solve all the other problems including violence problems people are worried about if we can’t have a clash of ideas safely and securely. Even, especially, especially those ideas which you disagree. That’s why this matters so much.

Over the last 48 hours, I have been as angry as I have ever been. As sad as I have ever been. And it was as anger pushed me to the brink, it was actually Charlie’s words that pulled me back. I’d like to share some of those and specifically right now, if I could, I need to talk to the young people in our state, in my state and all across the country.

As President Trump reminded me, he said, you know who really loved Charlie? The youths and he’s right. Young people loved Charlie and young people hated Charlie. And Charlie went into those places anyway. And these are the words that have helped me.

Charlie said, “When people stop talking, that’s when you get violence. He said the weak can never forgive, forgiveness is attribute of the strong, the only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive. Welcome without judgement, love without condition, forgive without limit.” He said, “Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.” A few months ago I referenced this last night, Charlie posted to social media, “When things are moving fast and people are losing their mind, it is important to stay grounded, turn off your phone, read scripture, spend time with friends, and remember internet fury is not real life. It’s going to be OK.” He again said, “When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes easier to commit violence.” He said what we as culture have to get back to is being able to have a reasonable agreement, being able to have reasonable agreement where violence is not an option.

Now again, to my young friends out there, you are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage. It feels like rage is the only option. But through those words we have a reminder that we can choose a different path. Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now. Not by pretending differences don’t matter, but by embracing differences and having those hard conversations.

I think we need more moral clarity right now, I hear all the time that words are violence. Words are not violence, violence is violence. There is one personal responsible for what happened here and that person is now in custody and will be charged soon, and will be held accountable. And yet, all of us have an opportunity right now to do something different.

I want to thank my fellow Utahns. Bad stuff happens, and for 33 hours I was praying that if this had to happen here that it wouldn’t be one of us, that somebody drove from another state, somebody came from another country. Sadly that prayer was not answered the way I had hoped for just because I thought it would make it easier on us if we could say, hey, we don’t do that here. Indeed Utah is a special place. We lead the nation in charitable giving and lead the nation in service every year. But it did happen here. And it was one of us.

But I want you to look at how Utahns reacted the last two nights. There was no rioting, there’s no looting, there were no cars set on fire, no violence. There were vigils and prayers and people coming together to share the humanity and that, ladies and gentlemen, I believe is the answer to this. We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate, and that’s the problem with political violence, it metastasizes, because we can always point the finger at the other side and at some point we have to find an off ramp or it is going to get much, much worse.

See, these are choices that we can make. History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country. But every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us. We get to make decisions. We have our agency. And I desperately call on every American, Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, MAGA, all of us to please, please, please follow what Charlie taught me.

I’ll just conclude with words I share often from a friend and author Yuval Levin, who asked if he was optimistic about our country and he said, I’m not optimistic. I hate optimism. Gosh, that sounds bad. He said optimism is a vice, it’s this idea that good things are just going to happen. He said in the history of the world good things have never just happened. He says I’m not optimistic but I’m hopeful and hope is the virtue that sits between vices of optimism and pessimism, hope is the idea that good things are going to happen because we can make them so.

I still believe in our country and I know Charlie Kirk believed in our country. I still believe that there is more good among us than evil. And I still believe that we can change the course of history. I’m hopeful because Americans can make it so.

Cox’s words came two hours after President Donald Trump announced that the suspect in Kirk’s death was in custody during an appearance on Fox & Friends.

The man, identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was turned in by a family member who revealed he had discussed with relatives why he “didn’t like” Kirk, who he said was visiting Utah Valley University.

Watch above via Fox News.