Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson called out Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox Wednesday for succumbing to liberal policies and ideology.
Carlson said Utah, a conservative state, is led by a “cut-rate Gavin Newsom imitator” and consists of prominent politicians who sound like “they’re running for city council in Santa Monica.” The host then played footage of the governor announcing his preferred pronouns to high school students at an April 2021 virtual town hall.
“What a creepy guy,” Carlson said. “‘My preferred pronouns are he/him/his,’ Cox tells a room full of children. … Just in case you had any doubt that neoliberal interest groups control Spencer Cox’s brain. Now you know for certain. Because it’s never about gender, it’s always about obedience. Spencer Cox is obedient if nothing else, but not obedient to his voters, that’s the weird thing.”
Carlson cited a National Review article, “Utah’s Governor Spencer Cox Has a Lot of Explaining to Do,” detailing the January 2021 passage of the “Utah Compact on Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion,” the first piece of legislation Cox signed into law. The document states that racism can only be ended through “bold anti-racist actions and policies right now.”
Carlson then showed separate footage of Cox in April 2021 on KSL News radio saying he supported excluding white students from an academic scholarship program in order to be “anti-racist.” The policy, which purportedly selected applicants based on their races, was “not racist” Cox said, but rather responded to racial injustices occurring in the community. (RELATED: ‘Don’t Dodge The Question’: Tucker Gets In Near Shouting Match With GOP Rep Over Ukraine, Immigration)
“So, here’s this moist little guy sitting alone in his gilded room with the mask on telling us, ‘It’s not racist to exclude people from a scholarship based on their race.'” Carlson said. “Does anyone else in Utah believe this? We’d like to meet them. There can’t be many of them. Most people in Utah have more sense than that. Racism is when you hurt people based on their skin color, right? Right.”
The Daily Caller co-founder then mocked Cox for vetoing legislation intended to ban biological males from women’s sports. The state legislature overrode the veto on March 25 after successfully switching the positions of 10 House lawmakers and 5 in the Senate. Carlson then pointed to Cox’s intention to veto bans on transition surgeries for minors, which he said is a policy supported by a majority of citizens in Utah.
“So, here you have a perfectly normal state filled with happy, perfectly normal people somehow run by a low-IQ, weekend MSNBC anchor,” Carlson continued. “That doesn’t seem fair to the state of Utah.”
Cox also apologized to LGBTQ activists in 2019 for legislation intended to ban conversion therapy failing to pass, the National Review reported. The governor has also worked closely with activists regarding transgender legislation, leading the executive director of Equality Utah to refer to Cox as a “true champion for LGBTQ youth.”
In 2021, the governor issued a 500-day policy blueprint called the “One Utah Roadmap” aimed at providing a “statewide health equity plan charged to evaluate systemic changes that address health disparities” and improving “life outcomes” for women, racial minorities and LGBTQ individuals, the outlet reported.