00:00Thank you again to our incredible law enforcement team who has worked so hard.
00:07Sheriff, I got a solid 90 minutes last night, so I'm probably the most well-rested person up here.
00:12Ladies and gentlemen, I get the microphone, so I hope you'll permit me a moment just to share a few more thoughts about where we are and how we got here and maybe a little bit of where we go from here.
00:28I don't want to get too preachy, but I think it's important that we, with eyes wide open, understand what's happening in our country today.
00:39I've heard people say, well, why are we so invested in this?
00:46There's violence happening all across our country, and violence is tragic everywhere.
00:51And every life taken is a child of God who deserves our love and respect and dignity.
01:00This is certainly about the tragic death assassination, political assassination, of Charlie Kirk.
01:10But it is also much bigger than an attack on an individual.
01:16It is an attack on all of us.
01:20It is an attack on the American experiment.
01:23It is an attack on our ideals.
01:28This cuts to the very foundation of who we are, of who we have been, and who we could be in better times.
01:39Political violence is different than any other type of violence for lots of different reasons.
01:46One, because in the very act that Charlie championed of expression, that freedom of expression that is enshrined in our founding documents,
01:58in having his life taken in that very act, makes it more difficult for people to feel like they can share their ideas,
02:08that they can speak freely.
02:10We will never be able to solve all the other problems, including the violence problems that people are worried about,
02:17if we can't have a clash of ideas safely and securely.
02:22Even, especially, especially those ideas with which you disagree.
02:27That's why this matters so much.
02:34Over the last 48 hours, I have been as angry as I have ever been.
02:42As sad as I have ever been.
02:44As anger pushed me to the brink, it was actually Charlie's words that pulled me back.
02:58I'd like to share some of those.
03:00Specifically, right now, if I could, I need to talk to the young people in our state, in my state, and all across the country.
03:08As President Trump reminded me, he said, you know who really loved Charlie?
03:14The youths.
03:15And he's right.
03:17Young people loved Charlie.
03:19And young people hated Charlie.
03:23And Charlie went into those places anyway.
03:29And these are the words that have helped me.
03:32Charlie said, when people stop talking, that's when you get violence.
03:40He said, the weak can never forgive.
03:43Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
03:46The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.
03:51Welcome without judgment.
03:53Love without condition.
03:54Forgive without limit.
03:57He said, always forgive your enemies.
04:00Nothing annoys them so much.
04:03A few months ago, I referenced this last night, Charlie posted to social media,
04:07when things are moving very fast and people are losing their minds, it's important to stay grounded.
04:14Turn off your phone.
04:16Read scripture.
04:17Spend time with friends.
04:19And remember, internet fury is not real life.
04:22It's going to be okay.
04:23He again said, when you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with,
04:29it becomes a lot easier to commit violence.
04:34He said, what we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have a reasonable agreement,
04:41being able to have reasonable agreement where violence is not an option.
04:45Now, again, to my young friends out there,
04:49you are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage.
04:58It feels like rage is the only option.
05:03But through those words, we have a reminder that we can choose a different path.
05:10Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now.
05:19Not by pretending differences don't matter, but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations.
05:25I think we need more moral clarity right now.
05:30I hear all the time that words are violence.
05:33Words are not violence.
05:34Violence is violence.
05:37And there is one person responsible for what happened here.
05:43And that person is now in custody and will be charged soon and will be held accountable.
05:49And yet, all of us have an opportunity right now to do something different.
05:57I want to thank my fellow Utahns.
06:01You know, this bad stuff happens.
06:05And for 33 hours, I was praying that if this had to happen here, that it wouldn't be one of us.
06:18That somebody drove from another state, somebody came from another country.
06:27Sadly, that prayer was not answered the way I had hoped for.
06:31Just because I thought it would make it easier on us if we could just say, hey, we don't do that here.
06:37And indeed, Utah is a special place.
06:40We lead the nation in charitable giving.
06:41We lead the nation in service every year.
06:43But it did happen here.
06:47And it was one of us.
06:52But I want you to look at how Utahns reacted the last two nights.
07:01There was no rioting.
07:04There was no looting.
07:06There were no cars set on fire.
07:08There was no violence.
07:09There were vigils and prayers and people coming together to share the humanity.
07:20And that, ladies and gentlemen, I believe is the answer to this.
07:25We can return violence with violence.
07:27We can return hate with hate.
07:29And that's the problem with political violence is it metastasizes.
07:33Because we can always point the finger at the other side.
07:39And at some point, we have to find an off-ramp or it's going to get much, much worse.
07:46But see, these are choices that we can make.
07:50History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country.
07:54But every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us.
08:03We get to make decisions.
08:05We have our agency.
08:07And I desperately call on every American, Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, MAGA, all of us to please, please, please, please follow what Charlie taught me.
08:25I'll just conclude with words I share often from a friend, an author, Yuval Levin, who was asked if he was optimistic about our country.
08:37And he said, I'm not optimistic.
08:40He said, I hate optimism.
08:42God, that sounds bad.
08:44But he said, optimism is a vice.
08:49It's this idea that good things are just going to happen.
08:53And he said, in the history of the world, good things have never just happened.
08:58He says, I'm not optimistic, but I am hopeful.
09:02And hope is the virtue that sits between the vices of optimism and pessimism.
09:08Hope is the idea that good things are going to happen because we can make them so.
09:16I still believe in our country.
09:18And I know Charlie Kirk believed in our country.
09:21I still believe that there is more good among us than evil.
09:25And I still believe that we can change the course of history.
09:31I'm hopeful because Americans can make it so.
09:37Ladies and gentlemen, we're happy to answer any questions you might have.
09:39Governor, can you please speak to whether the suspect is speaking with authorities and his leader, Tyler Robinson, when he turned himself in?
09:48I cannot speak to that.
09:50Governor, how do you interpret the engravings on the case?
09:57Well, I will leave that up to you to interpret what those engravings mean.
10:03I think the clearest one that says catch fascist, there's not.
10:09And by the way, that's like catch like a ball, catch this.
10:13That's I think that that speaks for itself.
10:15Governor, we need to catch.
10:16Thank you very much.
