‘I hate what we’ve become’: Lt. Gov. Cox’s late-night message on immigration goes viral

SALT LAKE CITY — Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox is garnering online attention after his late-night Twitter thread about the immigration debate went viral Wednesday.

In a series of tweets, Cox, who is a Republican, called political tribalism “stupid” and “we are all part of the problem.” He called out those within the Republican Party for “supporting things I never thought possible” and added other political parties are “capable of it too.”

“Turn off cable news forever. Get off Facebook (at least stop political posts). Ask ‘how would I react if the other party did this’ before forming an opinion,” he wrote. “Get to know, listen to and love someone different. Elect people that don’t care about getting re-elected. Run for office.”

That led to a few more tweets about the topic around 1:30 a.m. Since then, it has made the rounds online and was featured on several political websites, including The Hill.

His thread led to applause from some.

“Well said, sir,” wrote one person. Another person wrote, “Thank you. We are all angry and mad. Someone better step up quick and fix this.”

It was rebutted by others, though.

“I was with you until you said ‘we are all part of the problem.’ That’s a moral abdication,” a person wrote. “Not this problem, not this time. Use your anger to own your own responsibility and be better.”

Even Cox was surprised with the amount of attention it received online.

Cox went on KSL Newsradio’s “Dave & Dujanovic” and explained the tweets, in which he joked he broke all sorts of unwritten Twitter rules such as tweeting late or angry. He said, however, the anger was a “culmination of things” set forth from President Donald Trump’s administration’s “zero tolerance” policy.

He also said both the Republican and Democratic officials have had opportunities for immigration reform over the past 30 years and neither has done enough about it.

“From the beginning, it’s terrible. It’s not who we are, it’s not who my party was or is or should be. It’s not who we are as a country,” Cox said on the show. “I’m all for enforcing the border laws. I believe that’s very important and critical, but tearing families apart to use as leverage — it’s inhumane, it’s terrible and nobody should be supporting that.

“It’s been frustrating to see that tribalism at work,” he added. “People using fear, others trying to dehumanize others to get something done.”

Cox, who served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico, said pictures and sounds from the facilities where children were being held struck a nerve with him.

“I lived in Mexico for two years,” he said. “I take it very personally.”

As far as the policy Cox referenced, the Associated Press reported Wednesday morning that Trump said he was “signing something” on immigration that likely would address the policy of separating families at the border.

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