Utah governor Spencer Cox was widely lauded for his call for ‘unity’ during Friday’s FBI press conference. Ironically, the person at the center of the discussion had previously demanded Cox’s expulsion from the Republican Party.

Cox took center stage as he spoke about the murder of Charlie Kirk, three years after the TPUSA founder condemned him as a ‘weak moderate’ who deserved banishment from the GOP.

This clash in 2022 was triggered by Cox’s decision to veto a bill that would have prohibited biological males from participating in women’s sports, a move that angered Kirk and other conservative figures.

Now friends of the slain activist find it ‘ironic’ that the same governor Kirk wanted kicked out of the GOP pushed aside FBI officials to control the narrative around his death.

The feud ran deeper: Cox also threatened to veto a statewide ban on transgender surgeries for minors, prompting Kirk to accuse him of being ‘paid off by Big Pharma who make billions off hormone blockers and chemical castration’.

Yet on Friday, in a stunning about-face, Cox opened the press conference by claiming he was ‘inspired by Kirk’s writings and beliefs’ — urging the dead activist’s followers to let their ‘anger fade’.

The governor’s sudden reverence for a man who’d savaged him as corrupt rang hollow to those who remembered their bitter public battles.

‘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,’ Cox said, pleading with Kirk’s supporters to ‘find an off-ramp, or it’s going to get much, much worse’. 

While Kirk made his name by promoting the MAGA movement and ideas on social media, Cox warned young people that ‘social media is a cancer’.

‘I would urge people to log off, turn off, and touch grass,’ he noted.

Pundits immediately praised Cox’s performance, while contrasting it with that of President Trump, who blamed the Left for the violence, pointing to ‘bad people, bad philosophies, ideologies, and politics’.

Cox has promoted more civility in politics, promoting his own ‘Disagree Better’ campaign in public appearances. 

Cox’s remarks angered Steve Bannon who spoke to the Daily Mail after his press conference.

‘Spencer Cox is a national embarrassment—in a time where we need action he tells us to sing Kumbaya and hold hands with ANTIFA,’ he said.

‘While the good and decent Charlie Kirk lies in a mortuary awaiting burial he tells us to invite Democrats over for a cookout—the radical Left that burns Portland daily and shoots up school kids weekly.

‘This is not a time for treacly pontificating—this is a time to declare ANTIFA a domestic terrorist organization and have the FBI go kick down some doors,’ Bannon added.

MAGA political and legal journalist Julie Kelly also expressed her frustration with Cox to the Daily Mail. 

‘It came across as grandstanding to me,’ Kelly said. ‘I don’t know why an elected political figure should be the face of such a critical investigation and something so important that we get right.’ 

‘I don’t need to be lectured by Spencer Cox about how we should feel, think or act,’ she added, describing Cox’s long speech as a call for ‘surrender’.

‘It was very off-putting,’ she said. 

Cox, described by TIME magazine as ‘The Red State Governor Who’s Not Afraid to Be Woke’ famously refused to endorse President Donald Trump’s reelection bid until after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The moderate mild-mannered governor who made a point of sitting down with Democrats was also booed at Utah’s state Republican conventions until he started skipping the gatherings entirely because of their vocal dissent.

While the majority of Kirk supporters maintained silence for the sake of unity, some Trump supporters voiced their frustration with Cox.

‘To all the uninformed clowns out there. Gov. Cox is not “MAGA” – he’s a dirty RINO/Democrat and shameless self-promoter! What a gross, self-consumed man!’ wrote the social media account of the pro-MAGA publication Gateway Pundit.

Cox’s clash with prominent MAGA figures was well known for years.  

Journalist Tucker Carlson mocked Cox as a ‘cut-rate Gavin Newsom imitator’ in 2022 pointing out that Cox once announced his ‘gender pronouns’ at a town hall and signed a Utah Compact on Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion after he was elected governor. 

Cox was insulted, insisting in an interview afterwards that ‘there is nobody more cowardly than Tucker Carlson’.

But after widespread criticism from party activists like Kirk, Cox ultimately signed a bill in January 2023 to ban transgender surgeries and sex change procedures for minors. 

Cox was reelected in 2024 with 56 per cent of the vote. 

For more on the murder that shocked America – follow Daily Mail podcast ‘The Assassination of Charlie Kirk,’ out now wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube.