Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah reminded Americans Wednesday that the state still had the death penalty while reacting to the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Kirk was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University in which he took questions from attendees. Cox appeared overcome with emotion at times during his remarks at a press conference to provide an update on the investigation. (RELATED: ‘I Did See Him Fall’: Former GOP Rep Gets Choked Up Describing Scene At Tragic Charlie Kirk Event)
“Charlie Kirk was first and foremost a husband and a dad to two young children. He was also very much politically involved. And that’s why he was here on campus. Charlie believed in the power of free speech and debate to shape ideas, and to persuade people,” Cox said. “Historically, our university campuses in this nation here in the state of Utah have been the place where truth and ideas are formulated and debated. And that’s what he does. He comes on college campuses and he debates.”
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“That is foundational to the formation of our country, to our most basic constitutional rights. And when someone takes the life of a person because of their ideas or their ideals, then that very constitutional foundation is threatened,” Cox continued.
Kirk founded Turning Point USA (TPUSA), an organization for conservative college and high school students, in June 2012, according to the organization’s website. He also hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show,” a podcast that later became a three-hour radio show on the Salem Radio Network, according to his biography on the TPUSA site.
“Now, we have a person of interest in custody. The investigation is ongoing,” Cox said. “But I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this: We will find you. We will try you. And we would hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law. And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah.”
Cox also directed comments to those who celebrated the assassination.
“If anyone in the sound of my voice celebrated even a little bit at the news of this shooting, I would beg you to look in the mirror and to see if you can find a better angel in there somewhere,” Cox said. “I don’t care what his politics are. I care that he was an American.”
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