Utah governor says he’s optimistic Trump can unite the nation despite recent rhetoric

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox reaffirmed his support for Donald Trump on Thursday even as the former president has continued to spread insults and inflammatory statements on the campaign trail — a behavior Cox said he hoped Trump would abandon when he endorsed him in July.

The governor, long seen as a moderate Republican in the manner of Mitt Romney, shocked political observers and Utah voters when he pledged his support to Trump after the July assassination attempt on the former president. Cox did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020, and he said days before the shooting that he would not vote for him this year.

In a letter of support, Cox urged Trump to treat his political opponents with “basic human dignity and respect” and said he believed Trump could save the country “by emphasizing unity rather than hate.”

Trump said after the assassination attempt that he had no plans to change — as demonstrated by his recent remarks about Haitian immigrants — but Cox told reporters he remains hopeful that the Republican presidential nominee will adopt more unifying rhetoric.

“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 bring our country together,” Cox said. “I also don’t believe that I’m important enough that President Trump is going to change or do things differently just because of me, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.”

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A small city in Ohio has been inundated with hoax bomb threats since last week’s presidential debate, when Trump falsely accused members of Springfield’s Haitian community of abducting and eating people’s pet cats and dogs. During his presidency, Trump had questioned why the U.S. would accept immigrants from “s—-hole countries” such as Haiti and some in Africa.

Days after the debate, Cox introduced Trump at a private fundraiser in Salt Lake City. The governor, who is running for reelection and has not in turn been endorsed by Trump, said he had a conversation with the former president that Saturday in which he again encouraged him not to sow division.

Trump has also gone after his opponent’s racial identity, falsely claiming earlier this year at a conference for Black journalists that Vice President Kamala Harris “turned Black” after previously emphasizing her South Asian heritage.