The suspect in the assassination of the conservative American activist Charlie Kirk espoused left-wing views, Utah\u2019s governor has said, amid heightened tensions and recriminations over surging political violence in the United States.<\/p>\n
In an interview with NBC News\u2019s Meet the Press on Sunday, Utah Governor Spencer Cox said the arrested suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, had a \u201cleftist ideology\u201d despite growing up in a conservative family.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe can confirm that, again, according to family and people that we\u2019re interviewing, he does come from a conservative family. But his ideology was very different than his family, and so that\u2019s part of it,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n
Cox, a Republican, did not elaborate on Robinson\u2019s suspected motive, but said the suspect had spent time in \u201cdark places\u201d online.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do know, and again, this has been well publicised, that this was a very normal young man, a very smart young man,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n
According to public records, Robinson registered as a nonpartisan voter in Utah, while his parents are registered Republicans.<\/p>\n
In a separate interview with CNN\u2019s State of the Union, Cox said the information about Robinson\u2019s left-wing views had come from interviews with family members and friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really don\u2019t have a dog in this fight. If this was MAGA, and a radicalised MAGA person, I would be saying that as well,\u201d Cox said, referring to US President Donald Trump\u2019s Make America Great Again movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not what they\u2019re sharing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cox also confirmed reports that Robinson had a romantic relationship with his transgender roommate, who was transitioning from male to female.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis partner has been incredibly cooperative, had no idea that this was happening, and is working with investigators right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Cox said he was not aware if Robinson\u2019s relationship had any relevance to the assassination, but that authorities were investigating.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure it out. I know everybody wants to know exactly why, and point the finger, and I totally get that. I do too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kirk, the leader and cofounder of youth activist group Turning Post USA and a close ally of Trump, was shot dead on Wednesday during a speaking appearance at Utah Valley University.<\/p>\n
A key figure on the political right, Kirk was described in media profiles as a \u201crock star\u201d among young conservatives, and played a pivotal role in driving the youth vote in Trump\u2019s November re-election.<\/p>\n
A polarising figure, Kirk was lionised by conservatives as a defender of traditional values and a champion of free speech, but seen by liberals as an incendiary figure who stoked hatred towards racial minorities and members of the LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n
While both Republican and Democratic leaders have condemned Kirk\u2019s murder, the killing has drawn attention to the extreme political polarisation pitting everyday Americans against one another.<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of Kirk\u2019s assassination, some left-leaning Americans took to social media to celebrate, prompting outrage from conservatives and the launch of online campaigns to get people deemed disrespectful of Kirk\u2019s memory fired from their jobs.<\/p>\n
On the right, some figures invoked the rhetoric of retribution and war.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they won\u2019t leave us in peace, then our choice is to fight or die,\u201d tech billionaire Elon Musk said on X.<\/p>\n
Trump, who swiftly denounced the rhetoric of the \u201cradical left\u201d after Kirk\u2019s killing, has declined opportunities to stress the need for unity and avoid partisan blame since the assassination.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Fox News\u2019s Fox & Friends on Friday, Trump sought to paint left-wing extremism as worse than extremism on the right.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don\u2019t want to see crime,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe radicals on the left are the problem, and they\u2019re vicious and they\u2019re horrible, and they\u2019re politically savvy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview with NBC News on Saturday, Trump said that while he would like to see the country heal, \u201cwe\u2019re dealing with a radical left group of lunatics, and they don\u2019t play fair and they never did\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kirk\u2019s assassination has prompted fears of further violence amid a documented increase in politically motivated attacks.<\/p>\n
According to a tally by the Reuters news agency, the US experienced at least 300 instances of political violence between the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol and the 2024 presidential election, marking it out as the worst period for such violence since the 1970s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The suspect in the assassination of the conservative American activist Charlie Kirk espoused left-wing views, Utah\u2019s governor has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3071,7922,3,111,21,19,22,20,25,1209,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-157912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-gun-violence","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-us-canada","19":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}