Gov. Spencer Cox speaks at his month-to-month information convention on the Eccles Broadcast Middle in Salt Lake Metropolis on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. Cox on Thursday fumed on the headline plastered on high of Time’s article about him revealed that morning. Rick Egan
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Thursday fumed on the headline plastered on high of Time’s article about him revealed that morning.
“The Crimson-State Governor Who’s Not Afraid to Be ‘Woke’,” it learn. Though the content material of the story itself was “honest,” Cox mentioned that headline was “ridiculous” and is “doing the very same factor that I rail towards.”
For Cox — a Republican who has inspired political “civility” because the first days he took workplace, one who captured nationwide consideration for his veto of the Utah Legislature’s ban on transgender women competing in feminine faculty sports activities, and in addition one who help’s Utah’s near-total ban on abortion — labeling him as “woke” fully misses the mark.
“Being form and attempting to carry individuals collectively may be very completely different than being ‘woke,’” Cox mentioned throughout his month-to-month PBS Utah information convention in response to a query concerning the Time article. “I believe it’s a trash headline and it’s not correct.”
‘That’s not being woke’
Whereas Cox mentioned he solely had a couple of minutes to skim the story earlier than Thursday morning’s press convention, he mentioned the article itself pretty represented his views — and he inspired Utahns and others throughout the nation to really learn the piece reasonably than pull their very own conclusions from the headline.
He mentioned the nation wants extra individuals who will take the time to know points and one another — and fewer division.
“I acknowledged in there that I’m not attempting to personal the libs. I’m attempting to persuade the libs that there’s a greater approach. That’s not being woke. That’s very completely different,” Cox mentioned. “I believe we've got an issue with cancel tradition and wokeness, and I believe it’s deeply problematic, and I believe it’s including to the divide in our nation.”
Cox mentioned in Utah — a extremely Republican state the place leaders satisfaction themselves on the “Utah approach,” a mantra to work throughout the political aisle to succeed in compromise on tough points like immigration — Democrats and Republicans have labored collectively up to now. Whereas “we’re not good,” Cox mentioned it’s the clashes that nab the headlines.
Cox’s veto — and the Utah Legislature’s swift override — of the transgender sports activities ban laws was the latest instance of that, placing Cox’s identify within the crosshairs of Fox Information commentator Tucker Carlson.
In April, Carlson spent 10 minutes in a gap monologue criticizing Cox, calling him a “low-IQ weekend MSNBC anchor” and “cut-rate Gavin Newsom imitator,” with a chyron splashed throughout the display studying “HOW DID UTAH GET SUCH AWFUL, LIBERAL LEADERS?” — a section that caught Time’s consideration.
After the section aired, Cox disregarded Carlson’s feedback, saying he wasn’t regarding himself with the political penalties, and that he knew — as he wrote in his veto letter — that there can be “political repercussions.”
“However I attempt to do the best factor for the best causes, whatever the penalties. And I'll proceed to do this,” Cox mentioned throughout his April PBS Utah information convention.
In his interview with Time, Cox had stronger phrases for Carlson’s rant.
“There's no person extra cowardly than Tucker Carlson,” Cox mentioned. “This concept that you simply’re a coward for being form, it’s so anti-Christian. It’s so anti-American. I imply that.”
Cox mentioned he’s decided to “show it’s doable to be a socially acutely aware Republican,” Time wrote.
“I imagine I’m a conservative,” he advised Time. “I believe my voting document would present I’m a conservative. However simply because I’m not always railing towards the opposite facet, you get painted as a (Republican In Title Solely).”
Thursday, Cox mentioned he hopes the message that’s heard is that this:
“Look, in the event you care about our nation and also you care about the way forward for our nation and these freedoms that we maintain so expensive, we're going to need to be taught to work with people who find themselves completely different than us,” Cox mentioned.
Cox mentioned “clickbait headlines” are serving to drive a deeper wedge between an already divided nation.
“We've got to do higher,” Cox mentioned.
‘Anti-American’ and ‘damaging’
As a conservative, Cox mentioned he holds his rules “very expensive,” and he grew up pondering “the entire concept” was to persuade others “that what I imagine is a greater option to stay and to manipulate.” However now, “we’ve gotten to a spot the place each conservatives and liberals have determined ... that nobody can change and that we have to kick everybody out that isn’t precisely like us.”
“That's so anti-American. It’s extremely damaging, and social media has made that a lot simpler,” he mentioned. “So I’m going to proceed to work throughout the aisle to seek out options and to attempt to assist individuals see there’s a special approach and hopefully a greater approach.”
Cox added he’s additionally going to proceed to “work inside my very own social gathering” to “assist us be rather less strident in kicking individuals out who agree with us 95% of the time and see if we are able to’t construct some bridges there.”
The Republican Occasion’s dilemma
Cox isn’t alone as a Republican that’s caught warmth for makes an attempt to stroll a political center floor and buck a “tradition battle” focus that’s stirred the Republican Occasion’s base in recent times because the social gathering nonetheless continues to grapple with its id in wake of former President Donald Trump and his baseless claims a couple of fraudulent 2020 election.
For Cox, it was the transgender sports activities ban veto. For Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, it was voting to convict Trump in his impeachment.
For Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., it was her position in investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol — and this week she misplaced handily to Trump’s endorsed candidate Harriet Hageman.
Requested about Cheney’s loss on Thursday, Cox advised reporters it wasn’t a “shock to anybody.”
“We all know it’s a tumultuous time inside the Republican Occasion and the Democratic Occasion. It is a divide that’s been round for some time,” Cox mentioned.
No matter social gathering affiliation, Cox mentioned he admires “anybody who's prepared to face up and say what they imagine in, particularly at the price of them dropping, no matter it's,” Cox mentioned.
Cox mentioned it was a call made by Wyoming voters, and he doesn’t know a lot about Cheney’s opponent. “Perhaps she’s nice, possibly she’s not,” he mentioned, including he didn’t pay a lot consideration to the race aside from it wasn’t anticipated to be shut.
As for what it means for the way forward for the GOP? “We’re going to need to determine this out over the following couple of years as we go into 2024,” he mentioned, because the social gathering grapples with who might be its presidential nominee.
“I’m definitely plotting a special path than President Trump plotted,” Cox mentioned, noting it’s not the primary time he’s publicly famous his management fashion is the polar reverse of Trump’s divisive rhetoric.
“We’re very completely different. If you need a governor who is strictly like Donald Trump, then I’m in all probability not your man,” Cox mentioned. “I prefer to work with the opposite facet. I prefer to sort of carry individuals collectively. That definitely was not his fashion.”
Trump gained Utah in 2016 however with solely about 45% of the vote. That shot as much as 58% in 2020.
Cox, whereas he seeks to enchantment to Utah Republicans who’ve had a sophisticated relationship with Trump’s divisive fashion, acknowledged there are some members of his social gathering that need “anyone that's simply going to make use of hyperbole.”
“Sadly,” he added, that’s resulted in spreading “unfounded allegations” of fraudulent elections, which led to the Jan. 6 violence.
“That’s very damaging, and I definitely hope that an increasing number of Republicans will work collectively to attempt to restore that perception and integrity in our election programs,” Cox mentioned. “And we’ve been attempting to do this within the state of Utah as properly.”