WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 11: U.S. President Joe Biden listens as National Governors Association Vice Chair, Governor Spencer Cox of Utah delivers a toast during a black-tie dinner in the State Dining Room at the White House on February 11, 2023 in Washington, DC. President Biden hosted the dinner as governors gathered in Washington for the National Governor’s Association Winter Meeting. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
OAN Staff Abril Elfi
9:06 AM – Saturday, July 20, 2024
Utah Governor Spencer Cox has endorsed Donald Trump in a reversal of previous statements he has made about the former president.
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Cox (R-Utah.) posted his endorsement for the 45th president on Friday following the failed assassination attempt on Trump.
“Mr. President, I know we have some differences, and you probably don’t like me much. And that’s OK,” Cox wrote in a letter to Trump. “I’m not writing this letter looking for a position in your Cabinet or a role on your team.”
“I have told everyone that you are going to win the state of Utah and you are going to win the presidency again. You don’t need my help and support to do that. However, you have a chance to do something that people have said is impossible,” the governor continued. “You have a chance to build a coalition of support that our country has not seen since Ronald Reagan. You, and only you, can be that kind of leader for us today.”
The governor had previously been critical of Trump, including blaming him for the January 6th event calling on the former president to resign, saying it would be “good for the country.”
He also had previously stated in February that it would be a mistake for the party to nominate Trump again for the presidency.
On July 11th, just two days before Trump was shot in the ear during a Pennsylvania campaign stop, Cox told CNN‘s Kaitlin Collins that he would not be casting a ballot for any major party nominee in the 2024 election. As he did in 2016 and 2020, the governor said that he would write someone in instead.
However, Cox said that after the assassination attempt, he was “grateful” to hear Trump call for unity and to “lower the temperature.”
“There’s a willingness to try,” Cox said during a press conference Friday. “That’s all I can ask for and hope for. So, I told him in that letter, I said if you’ll do this, I will do everything I can to help and support you.”
The Utah Desert News reported that Cox wrote Trump on Sunday and stated that he would only make his support public if he was pleased with the 45th president’s convention acceptance speech. He then said the speech delivered was a “winning message” that the country “desperately needs.”
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