Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Gov. Spencer Cox and former Utah Govs. Mike Leavitt and Gary Herbert discussed political civility.
- They emphasized the need to reduce heated rhetoric and promote respect in politics.
- Herbert criticized President Donald Trump's response to Rob Reiner's death, urging higher standards for candidates and elected officials.
SALT LAKE CITY — When Gov. Spencer Cox took the stage alongside former Utah Govs. Mike Leavitt and Gary Herbert on Monday at the University of Utah's Ray Olpin Student Union Building, the trio represented nearly 30 years of governing experience.
A lot of things have changed since Leavitt first took office in 1993. The former governor remembers how much easier it was when his office could get its message out by speaking with local outlets which had a large reach across Utah. Even Cox recalled worrying about which stories would appeal "above the fold" in the Deseret News while serving as lieutenant governor during Herbert's administration.
"Now, there is no fold," Cox said, thanks social media and other online forms of mass communication that have overtaken newspapers in reach. "Even when you feel like something is breaking through the silos that everyone is in getting their information, it's really, really hard."
Drawing on their shared experience and speaking to a crowd hosted by the Utah Elephant Club, the fundraising arm of the Utah Republican Party, the governors spoke of the importance of turning down the heated political rhetoric and finding ways to bring people together. Cox and Herbert both pointed to technological changes including social media and 24/7 cable television news as driving some of that division.
Herbert asked the room full mostly of Republicans to decide what they want the future to look like, and called out President Donald Trump over the president's response to the killing of actor and director Rob Reiner. Reiner, who is well-known for directing "The Princess Bride" and "When Harry Met Sally," and his wife Michele were found dead with stab wounds in their Los Angeles home Sunday, and the couple's son, Nick Reiner, was arrested for investigation of murder.
In a post on Truth Social Monday, Trump said the killings were "reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS."
"Is there not any ability for compassion and grace and respect under a difficult circumstance?" Herbert asked. "We as Republicans have got to say, 'Let's hold our candidates to a higher standard.' ... We're all God's children."
Speaking to reporters after the panel, Herbert said he often hears from voters that: "I like what he or she does, I don't like how he or she does it."
"We've got to start recruiting people that do it right," he said. "Why do we tolerate people that call others names, don't show any kind of respect or civility to the opposition? ... Let's make a change and, Republicans and Democrats alike, we'll say we're going to hold our leadership, those who run for office, to a higher standard than what we have seen exhibited in the last 10 or 20 years."
Leavitt, who left the Governor's Mansion in 2003 to serve as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under then-President George W. Bush, said he was proud of Cox for how he met an "extraordinarily awful moment" following the killing of Charlie Kirk in September at Utah Valley University.
"This is our moment," Cox said at a press conference at the time announcing the arrest of a suspect. "Do we escalate, or do we find an off-ramp? And again, it's a choice. It's a choice, and every one of us gets to make that choice."
"I think the Republican Party and the country as a whole owes him a really big debt of gratitude for the fact that he has become a voice of reason on this," Leavitt said of Cox.
Cox said Monday he was worried about the state in the aftermath of Kirk's killing and was simply trying to share what he believes are Utah's true values with the world in a moment of tragedy.
"Because for a lot of people, this is the only thing they're ever going to know about Utah," he said. "This is it, and about a couple minutes to try to tell the rest of the world who you really are — and so that's all I was doing is just trying to channel what I've learned from you, from all of us. And at our best, I think that's who we are and who we aspire to be. ... The country desperately needs us, more of us, more of Utah."
"You can see we have a legacy of governors who aren't bomb throwers, who try to bring people together," he added. "We don't always get it right, but we get it right a lot more than anywhere else in this country."
