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Why is Governor Spencer Cox Supporting Donald Trump?

Steve Griffin
/
Deseret News

Donald Trump has said that surviving an assassination attempt didn’t change him. But it sure did change Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.

Gov. Cox didn’t vote for Trump in 2016. Nor did he in 2020. And Cox’s refusal to line up behind the former president earned him the ire of Republicans to his right. Even as the presidential election got underway earlier this year, Cox seemingly had no plans going to vote for Trump in 2024. But then a gunman tried to take Trump’s life, and Cox felt moved — so much so, in fact, that he wrote Trump a letter. He told the former president that God had played a part in saving him, and that he had a chance to unify the country. Cox has since said that he will vote for Trump in the election — and that’s raised new questions about Cox’s motivations, whether they’re sincere or just political. The journalist McKay Coppins joins us to explain Gov. Spencer Cox’s change of heart.

GUEST —

McKay Coppins | Staff writer for The Atlantic. His article is “The Last Man in America to Change his Mind about Trump.”

Airdate: Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024 at 9 a.m. and Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024 at 11 a.m.