Utah, Pennsylvania governors speak out against political violence at bipartisan event

WASHINGTON — Utah's governor took his message of "disagreeing better" to the nation's capital.

Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, joined Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, to condemn political violence and urge citizens and leaders alike to turn down the temperature.

The two governors spoke Tuesday at Washington National Cathedral. The bipartisan discussion focused on several issues — including President Donald Trump's rhetoric — and was moderated by NBC Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. It's part of the news network's "Finding Common Ground" initiative, which seeks to highlight civil dialogue and efforts to reduce political polarization.

Both governors have experience dealing with political violence. Shapiro and his family were victims of it in April when someone broke into the governor's residence and set it on fire. Cox, meanwhile, gained national attention for his leadership following the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.

Shapiro praised his fellow governor for that during Tuesday's event.

"I saw him lift up not just Utahns, but create an opportunity for a dialogue that I think we sorely need in this country to try and lift everyone up and get us out of the darkness of political violence that has fallen upon us," Shapiro said.

Cox said Shapiro was the first one to call him after Kirk was shot, urging him to "speak with moral clarity and to speak from the heart."

"I don't care what color his politics are," Cox said. "In that moment, we were two Americans who were deeply saddened and struggling, and I'm grateful that there's somebody I can trust. Even though we disagree on a lot of things, we agree on this thing."

Disagreeing better

During the roughly 45-minute exchange, the governors did disagree. Cox wants a ban on social media for kids, while Shapiro does not.

"I didn't say he's an evil person because he doesn't want to ban social media, right?" Cox said. "That's the difference."

But some in the audience decided not to disagree better. Multiple hecklers interrupted the event and were escorted out.

"This idea that we feel it's OK to scream and interrupt now — we've given a pass to this type of boorish behavior for far too long," Cox said. "This is what we get."

While this evening was bipartisan, it wasn't nonpartisan. President Trump came up during the conversation when Shapiro said that all leaders need to condemn political violence, no matter which side is involved. Trump was criticized for his muted response following the murder of a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker, and he told attendees at Kirk's memorial service that he hates his political opponents.

"When you're a governor, when you're a president of the United States, you are looked to for that moral clarity," Shapiro said, "and we have a president of the United States right now that fails that test on a daily basis."

Cox did not criticize the president — whom he endorsed in 2024 after not voting for him in the previous two election cycles — but he didn't exactly defend him either.

"I'm not trying to play down his divisive rhetoric at all. I'm not going to do that," Cox said. "But I am going to say this. If we think that a president of the United States or a governor is going to change where we are right now, we're fooling ourselves."

Cox added, "I truly believe that the people of our country are the ones that are going to have change this."

'I'm going to keep sharing'

Cox planned to head back to Utah on Wednesday. He told KSL-TV he did not have a meeting scheduled with Trump on this trip, but he hoped the president would hear the message he shared about improving political disagreement.

"He and I have had these conversations many times," Cox said in an interview after the event. "He's said he's grateful that I'm sharing this message, and so it's one I'm going to keep sharing."

The governor first launched his "disagree better" initiative in 2023 when he became chair of the National Governors Association. Asked if he feels people are listening, Cox said he does.

"Everywhere I go, this is what's on people's mind," he said. "The vast majority of Americans hate what's happening in politics right now, especially the political violence, and they're looking for something better, something different."

But, he added, "the only way we're going to change as a country is if all of us collectively, millions of people, make a decision to be a peacemaker, to be a bridgebuilder."

At the end of Tuesday's event, Guthrie, the NBC moderator, wondered if there could perhaps be a unity presidential ticket in the future with the two men on stage. She asked Shapiro and Cox if one of them was running for president.

"One of us," Cox quickly responded, "is not."

Several organizations helped sponsor the forum, including the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University. It was part of a series of events at Washington National Cathedral under the theme, "A Better Way: Sacred Values for Civic Life."

Randy Hollerith, the cathedral's dean, told KSL the events aim to "lift up sacred values as civic values."

"Dignity, respect, honesty, learning to get along with one another — just some basic things that are really spiritual values that really need to undergird our democracy in order for our democracy to function well," Hollerith said, noting the need to work across the political aisle. "I think they are essential values for human culture, to be able to treat one another with dignity — to remember that each of us is a beloved child of God — and then to remember that it's OK to disagree, but we don't need to dehumanize one another."

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