The suspect in the assassination of the conservative American activist Charlie Kirk espoused left-wing views, Utah’s governor has said, amid heightened tensions and recriminations over surging political violence in the United States.
In an interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Utah Governor Spencer Cox said the arrested suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, had a “leftist ideology” despite growing up in a conservative family.
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“We can confirm that, again, according to family and people that we’re interviewing, he does come from a conservative family. But his ideology was very different than his family, and so that’s part of it,” Cox said.
Cox, a Republican, did not elaborate on Robinson’s suspected motive, but said the suspect had spent time in “dark places” online.
“We do know, and again, this has been well publicised, that this was a very normal young man, a very smart young man,” Cox said.
According to public records, Robinson registered as a nonpartisan voter in Utah, while his parents are registered Republicans.
In a separate interview with CNN’s State of the Union, Cox said the information about Robinson’s left-wing views had come from interviews with family members and friends.
“I really don’t have a dog in this fight. If this was MAGA, and a radicalised MAGA person, I would be saying that as well,” Cox said, referring to US President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.
“That’s not what they’re sharing.”
Cox also confirmed reports that Robinson had a romantic relationship with his transgender roommate, who was transitioning from male to female.
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“This partner has been incredibly cooperative, had no idea that this was happening, and is working with investigators right now,” he said.
Cox said he was not aware if Robinson’s relationship had any relevance to the assassination, but that authorities were investigating.
“We’re 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,” he said.
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.
A key figure on the political right, Kirk was described in media profiles as a “rock star” among young conservatives, and played a pivotal role in driving the youth vote in Trump’s November re-election.
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.
While both Republican and Democratic leaders have condemned Kirk’s murder, the killing has drawn attention to the extreme political polarisation pitting everyday Americans against one another.
In the aftermath of Kirk’s 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’s memory fired from their jobs.
On the right, some figures invoked the rhetoric of retribution and war.
“If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is to fight or die,” tech billionaire Elon Musk said on X.
Trump, who swiftly denounced the rhetoric of the “radical left” after Kirk’s killing, has declined opportunities to stress the need for unity and avoid partisan blame since the assassination.
Speaking on Fox News’s Fox & Friends on Friday, Trump sought to paint left-wing extremism as worse than extremism on the right.
“The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime,” Trump said.
“The radicals on the left are the problem, and they’re vicious and they’re horrible, and they’re politically savvy.”
In an interview with NBC News on Saturday, Trump said that while he would like to see the country heal, “we’re dealing with a radical left group of lunatics, and they don’t play fair and they never did”.
Kirk’s assassination has prompted fears of further violence amid a documented increase in politically motivated attacks.
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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.
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