GOP Governor Blasts Trump Over Racist Insults: 'He's Not Interested In Uniting The Country'
Marco Margaritoff
Thu, December 11, 2025 at 2:58 PM UTC
3 min read
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) on Tuesday rebuked President Donald Trump over his racist attacks against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and said during a joint CNN interview with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) that Trump is “not interested” in uniting the country.
The full half-hour sit-down with “Inside Politics” host Dana Bash was published Wednesday.
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“I disagree with Congresswoman Omar,” said Cox. “I think she should be voted out of office, and I think I can do that without attacking her religion or her race or her ethnic background. I think that that’s really important. I know that the president disagrees with me.”
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He continued, “He and I have had these conversations. I have to say, during the Charlie Kirk shooting, in the conversations we had, he talked to me about nonviolence and trying to be a voice for that. I understand he’s not interested in uniting the country.”
Kirk founded the influential conservative campus network Turning Point USA and regularly spoke at college campuses across the country. He was fatally shot during a Utah Valley University event in September, prompting Trump to swiftly blame “the radical left.”
Omar offered some criticism of Kirk after his death, leading an irate Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) to demand the Muslim Somalia-born lawmaker be deported. Trump has since called Omar “garbage” and frequently insulted both her country of birth and appearance.
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While he has attacked Omar before, the president published a screed last week that was so egregious even some pro-Trump conservatives were shocked. During a rally Tuesday in Pennsylvania, he said Omar, who became a U.S. citizen in 2000, is in the country illegally and “should get the hell out.”
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Trump openly admitted shortly after Kirk’s death that he “couldn’t care less” about unity.
“And he would tell you that, I think, if he were sitting here with us tonight,” Cox told Bash. “But I would also say that it’s not going to be a president who fixes this. It’s not going to be two governors who fix this. It really has to be all of us.”
He continued, “The politicians that we elect are a reflection of we the people, this is kind of what we want today, and I think both parties are guilty of it. And so I’m going to do my part, I appreciate Gov. Shapiro doing his part to tone down that rhetoric.”
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Shapiro went on to share his own perspective on the issue of political violence, which quite literally hit home in April and followed Trump’s near-assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year. He called for an end to the divisive rhetoric that has contributed to this precarious climate.
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“I think the president has a responsibility here, and I agree with Spencer, as do all Americans, to try and lift up the rhetoric and tamp down the hate,” the governor said Tuesday. “And I think the president needs to do better.”