Utah Governor Calls Social Media ‘A Cancer’ in Emotional Plea at Charlie Kirk Presser
Utah Governor Spencer Cox called out social media as “a cancer” that was “not good” for society as he condemned having footage of Charlie Kirk’s assassination so readily and “gruesomely” available to citizens, warning the U.S. is at a “watershed” moment in history.
Cox was responding to questions after a joint press conference with FBI Director Kash Patel to announce the arrest of the suspect believed to have killed Kirk on Wednesday during a speaking event at Utah Valley University.
When one reporter fielded a question about the historic consequence of Kirk’s killing, Cox reflected that the moment “feels a lot like the ‘60s.”
“I absolutely believe that this is a watershed in American history, yes, the question is what kind of watershed, and that chapter remains to be written. Is this the end of a dark chapter in our history or beginning of a darker chapter in our history?” he said.
He continued: “Look, I mean, if you look at true political assassinations in this country of someone of this stature, this feels a lot like the late ’60s and having one so gruesomely displayed on camera in all of our hands and our pockets.”
“We are not wired as human beings biologically, historically, we have not evolved in a way that we are capable of processing those types of violent imagery and we’ve seen another with a gruesome stabbing recently that went viral,” he reasoned, referencing the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska.
“This is not good for us. It is not good to consume,” he pleaded.
He urged citizens to log off of these platforms: “Social media is a cancer on society right now and I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in your community.”
Cox offered a hopeful reflection and relayed how some citizens were getting together and talking, offline, noting a bipartisan meeting in a local city: “That is happening and happening organically right now. Had a friend in a small city in Utah said: ‘We’re getting together, Republicans and Democrats in my little town are getting together to have a discussion tonight’ – last night. Just to find a way to find their better angels.”
“Again, you have to go back to JFK to have seen a video live of something like this happening,” he said. “I wasn’t born until 1975, I know that things were really dark in the late ’60s – sorry to some of you, I know some of you were there – but this is our moment.
“Do we escalate or do we find an off ramp? And, again, it’s a choice. It’s a choice and every one of us gets to make that choice,” he concluded.
Watch above via Fox News.
