Updating the investigation into Charlie Kirk’s assassination Sunday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the suspect was in a romantic relationship with his roommate, who is cooperating with authorities.
“What we have learned specifically is that this person did not have any knowledge, was shocked when they found out about it,” Cox said of the roommate.
That person “is a boyfriend who is transitioning from male to female,” Cox said, misgendering the roommate. Cox was confirming earlier reporting from Fox News.
The roommate has been “very cooperative,” Cox said.
That tracks with what a federal official close to the investigation told NBC News on Sunday.
Investigators have been interviewing Tyler Robinson’s roommate, with the official saying that “there appears to be a romantic relationship” and that the roommate is transitioning from male to female. The roommate has been cooperating, but there still is “not a solid understanding” of how the personal relationship factors into the attack, the official said.
Asked on CNN how the roommate’s transitioning was relevant to the suspect’s motive, Cox said, “That’s what we’re trying to figure out right now.”
“It’s easy to draw conclusions from that, and so we’ve got the shell casings, other forensic evidence that is coming in and trying to piece all of those things together,” Cox said.
Cox also said Robinson has not been cooperating with authorities. The federal official told NBC News that Robinson has invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.
Authorities have not provided details about the suspect’s possible motive. Cox said that suspect, Robinson, 22, had a “leftist ideology” despite having come from a conservative family. Robinson was not registered to any political party. Authorities said he scrawled messages about fascism, video games and internet memes on ammunition.
Officials said Robinson had only recently shown interest in politics, and a relative recalled his criticizing Kirk during a dinner ahead of his Utah Valley University event. Kirk built a dedicated audience in part through a willingness to argue contentious stances online and in on-campus events, including calling a trans person “an abomination to God.”
Cox emphasized that “much more” will be revealed Tuesday, when charges are expected to be filed. Federal officials told NBC News that there are no active discussions about federal charges.
A federal official said, “We are taking our time,” while another said investigators are still working to assess Robinson’s digital content, which could determine whether there is a potential for federal jurisdiction.
Investigators are also pursuing legal avenues to gain access to cloud storage linked to Robinson, the two officials said, in hope of shedding light on his thinking and possible intentions.
A shift
Cox described Robinson as once a “very normal, very smart” young man who earned a 4.0 grade-point average and a 34 on the ACT before he briefly attended Utah State University. But Cox said he seemed to change after he moved back home to southern Utah after a decision to leave school after one semester.
Robinson spent much his time gaming and immersed in the “deep, dark internet, the Reddit culture and these other dark places,” Cox said. The inscriptions on the bullet casings near the scene reflect that meme-driven online world, Cox said.
A call for calm
In the aftermath of the shooting, Cox has taken on a lead role in urging calm amid soaring tensions. He urged Americans to find an “off-ramp” at a time of rising political violence and a polarized political landscape and has also spoken against social media, which he has called a “cancer.”
Cox, a Republican, echoed those messages Sunday, arguing that “social media has played a direct role in every single assassination and assassination attempt that we have seen over the last five, six years.”
“There is no question in my mind that ‘cancer’ probably isn’t a strong enough word,” he added.
He also said he could not “emphasize enough the damage that social media and the internet is doing to all of us.” Powerful companies “have figured out how to hack our brains, get us addicted to outrage,” he added.
Cox urged people to use their own agency to move the country away from the brink, rather than wait for a political figure to show the path forward.
“People keep waiting for somebody to lead us out of this. And I think that’s a mistake,” he said. “I don’t think any one person, certainly not a governor, I don’t think a president, I don’t think anyone can change the trajectory of this. It truly is about every single one of us.”
Asked about President Donald Trump’s saying last week that “the radicals on the left are the problem,” Cox said Trump “is angry, and he has every right to be angry.”
Cox said the White House asked him to appear on morning shows “because they’re worried about the escalation that’s happening out there.”
“But again, I don’t know why we feel like we need to take our cues, that we as Americans have to get up in the morning and decide how we’re going to react or act based on what the president says or what a governor says or what anyone else says,” he said.
He said his conservative philosophy and his faith led him to believe that “we are each individually responsible for ourselves.”
“The United States of America is a collection of a lot of different people,” he said. “And again, no president is going to lead us out of this. It’s going to be every single one of us.”
