SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sept. 22, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Gov. Spencer Cox confirmed in a monthly news conference that he continues to support former president Donald Trump as his chosen candidate in the upcoming election.
Cox, a Republican, who has said he did not vote for Trump in 2016 nor in 2020, and who has vocally opposed Trump’s behavior on multiple occasions, changed his mind about the former president shortly after the first Trump assassination attempt, on July 13.
Trump was struck in the outer ear by a bullet. Additional shots from the alleged shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, killed one audience member and left two others critically injured.
Cox, who had not announced an endorsement, then offered his support to Trump as his presidential candidate of choice, saying he believed Trump could unite Americans.
On July 21, incumbent Pres. Joe Biden pulled out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement. An NBC News poll published today shows Harris leading Trump by a 5-point margin among registered voters.
On Thursday, Cox was questioned about whether his endorsement of Trump had changed.
“I made a commitment at that time, and I’m being true to this, that I’m going to do everything I can to help our country be better, to help reduce this rhetoric and the violence that we’re seeing,” Cox said. “I believe strongly in this. It’s, it’s part of, part of who I am. It’s not something I’m doing to get votes. It’s, you know, my opponents have used it against me. I don’t always get it right. I’m not perfect.
“I also don’t believe that I’m important enough that President Trump is going to change or do things differently because of me. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try. And so we’re having conversations about that. We had a conversation, a short conversation, when he was here. And I’ll leave those conversations privately. I think everybody can judge for themselves what was happening and what he’s doing, but I am hopeful, and I have to be optimistic, and I will remain optimistic, and I’m going to do everything I can to help him and others to try to bring our country together.
“I want to be clear that ‘unity’ does not mean that we all agree. Unity is not that, but unity is acting together and acting together in productive ways. And we will have battles, but they should be rhetorical battles, and they should be battles to persuade others and bring people together. And I’m committed to doing that, and I hope people will judge me based on my behavior.”
Cox’s behavior and newfound fealty toward the former president was recently questioned at home, and nationwide, after he posed for a photo with Trump in a restricted area of Arlington National Cemetery on August 26. Trump and Cox had been invited to attend a wreath-laying ceremony by the family of Marine Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, a Midvale native and graduate of Hillcrest High School, one of 13 service personnel killed in a terrorist bombing outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
While there are areas of the revered military cemetery where photos and videos are permitted, Section 60, an area reserved for recent casualties, is strictly off limits, especially for “political or partisan activities of any nature, including filming of campaign ads,” according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “which are not permitted anywhere on cemetery grounds.”
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (far right) poses with former President Donald Trump and the family of slain Marine Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover on August 26 at the Arlington National Cemetery in this photo shared by Cox.
When the photo of Trump, Cox, and family members appeared in both candidates’ online campaign materials, there was significant blowback, not only by military officials, but also disenfranchised Cox supporters, many of whom bought into the governor’s “disagree better” initiative and his previous refusals to endorse the former president.
When publicly criticized by Alan Wessman, a 2024 Utah County Commission candidate for the United Utah Party, Cox pulled the campaign photo and issued the following statement:
“My campaign sent out an email this morning about an event I attended at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday. This was not a campaign event and was never intended to be used by the campaign.
“The email did not go through proper channels and should not have been sent. Honoring those who serve should never be ‘political.’
“We’re committed, as we move forward, to ensure that we run the best campaign possible and we’ll accomplish that not by politicizing things that shouldn’t be political.“
The full news conference can be viewed below. To hear Cox’s comments on his ongoing support of Trump, go to about 8:16 in.
