My name is Caleb. Uh, this question is
for the honorable Jason Chavez. Uh, I
was I wanted to ask you also being there
on at UVU uh when Charlie was
assassinated. How did that personally
affect you? And also how have you found
strength in uh continuing to fight for
freedom?
>> Um, how do you find strength in the in
the fight for freedom? I think um I was
really moved and touched by the
Christlike approach of Erica Kirk in her
comments.
Yeah. Everyone get a chance to watch you
should every American should watch
Erica's speech from last Sunday 10 times
in a row. Incredible.
Um,
I find my strength in prayer. I find my
strength in my wife and my family. I
find my strength um in the community as
a whole. Um,
and you all have to Charlie talked a lot
about this. He talked about his journey
of faith. you know that when we were at
UVU,
the first question that Charlie got was
about religion and they're trying to
kind of catch him and trying to say
something negative about the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And
he wouldn't take the bait. And he said,
"If you're trying to get me to to say
something negative, I'm not going to.
Um I love people here. We're all on our
journey of faith." And so whether it's
you or whoever here or somebody who's
not here, that's a that's a lifelong
journey. That's not something that just,
oh yeah, I got it. I achieved it. I
checked that box. So, I get a lot of
strength through the power of prayer. I
get a lot of strength from my my wife,
my family, my kids. I love going out in
nature. I love doing wildlife
photography when I kind of want to clear
my head. You got to all find, I think,
that other thing in your life where you
can just kind of be at peace, clear your
head, get rid of all the stresses of
being students, and just go out and find
what you enjoy, find a hobby, do those
types of things. So, I don't want to be
preachy about it, but nobody should have
to witness and go through what I went
through, what my family, and what those
3,000 people went through at UVU. I will
never unsee that. I will always feel it.
But
I also want to tap into it for good and
know that it is a fight of good versus
evil. And the last thing we can let
happen is let evil prevail by having all
these good people cower and not step up
to the plate and say, "Yeah, we got
numbers. We got numbers."
Thank you. And I want to shout everybody
out here coming out here and just the
USA chance that we're just rocking this
entire building. That's the response
afterwards. It's incredible to watch and
witness. And God bless each of you,
especially you for being there that day.
It's in that we we are we are praying
for you every day just like we are
everyone else. So, God bless you, my
man.
Okay. My name is John and my question is
for Spencer Cox. What role should the
state or universities play in combating
misinformation after tragic events and
do you support any regulations of AI
tools that produce false narratives?
>> Yeah, thank you. Um, so look, free
speech is really important, especially
on college campuses. And one of the
things I admire most about Charlie was
his willingness to go on to college
campuses. Um, I don't know that it's the
role of of a university to police
information or misinformation because
the problem is when who gets to decide
what is misinformation? We've seen far
too often that people tell us
something's misinformation and then it
turns out to be true later. So that's I
I I don't like universities being able
to do that. Now, when it comes to
artificial intelligence, this is this is
really critical. Um, we um we've we're
doing something in the state of Utah
that that that is it's not being done
anywhere else. We have an AI policy lab
where we work with companies that are
implementing those policies. I do not
want government to be involved in the
creation of AI or limiting the
innovation of AI. We are in an AI arms
race with China and Russia right now and
we have to win that and we need the best
innovators in the world here in the
United States working on AI. Now when it
comes to the tools that are being used,
we have to be involved a as as a state
and we have to be very careful. Um but
uh we we again we can't control
information or misinformation but the
way that those are being used. So right
now for example there are AI companies
that are trying to do therapy with AI.
We're going to regulate that. We want to
be very careful um these AI chat bots um
especially for kids that I think are
absolutely evil. Um, and I think we have
to be we have to hold these companies
accountable that are putting them out.
Um, these bots for kids. I mean, it's
it's it's it's disgusting. So, there is
a role for the states to play. Um, but
but again, we have to be very careful
with uh with who's controlling the
information.
>> My name is Kennedy Miller and I have a
question for Governor Cox. We are not
going to stop talking because of the
political assassination that happened to
Charlie. So what concrete steps are you
and the state going to take to ensure
the outdoor debate style of events can
still continue on college campuses while
in stu while ensuring that students are
safe?
>> So so again this is why this attack um
I I've heard people say like well I
heard it here we shouldn't hold this
event that there were a lot of people
that said we shouldn't hold this event.
>> Lots of people by the way said cancel
this. This is stupid. Yeah.
>> Yeah. That that we should not do this.
Um and and I said absolutely not. you
have to hold this event, right? I grew
up on
>> by the way, it would have been really
easy for any of these guys here to say
no to the call to be here and so I
appreciate everyone being here.
>> Thanks.
>> Um,
>> we're not wusses here, right? That's
that's
>> this is why this is why I say that that
attack was not just an attack on
Charlie. It was an attack on all of us
because um because now we have to think
differently than we thought before and
it makes it it makes it harder, right?
Um there are people if we have an
outdoor event who might feel like they
don't want to come because they're
worried that something could happen and
now we've just we've just killed free
speech, right? Because they don't feel
like they can show up. So what we have
to do is um we we have to be better.
We're working with law enforcement to
learn everything we can about what
happened there and how we can stop that
from happening. So using new
technologies, um, having having more
more security at those events. I hate
it. I hate that we have to go through
security to get into things because it
feels very unamerican to me, but I also
know that we need to protect not just
the people who are on stage, but the
people who are out in this audience
tonight. We're going to keep people safe
so that we can keep doing this. We're
not going to let the terrorists win.
>> What practical steps do you plan to take
or you think the government should take
when it comes to higher education not
evolving into indoctrination camps? I
like what Margaret Thatcher said. She
said, 'First you need to first you need
to win the argument, then you can go win
the votes. But when you're talking
specifically about somebody who becomes
so radicalized, somebody who becomes so
um perverted in their thinking, so many
somebody who is it's there are people
that see that and hear that and feel
that and they know they see it and we
have to watch out for those. Those are
our friends. Those are our neighbors.
It's not law enforcement does an amazing
job, but they can't be everywhere to
everything. It goes to this question
earlier about mental health. You know,
um we have a long long ways to go to
assessment and how we treat it. And it
it I don't want to oversimplify it. Um,
again, it also I think goes back to this
degree of tolerism that I just think
there's some things, some actions, some
places that are just we should not
tolerate them and we should not put up
with them and we shouldn't have to live
with them. And there has to be a way to
to balance their constitutional rights
with our right for freedom. Right.
Wearing this shirt, right? Freedom,
right? Yes. Freedom.
Freedom is also your ability to live the
life that you want to lead the way you
want to lead it. We're all children of
God. And if we start with that premise
that we're all children of God, we can
deal with it compassionately, but it
doesn't mean we have to tolerate some of
the things that are being spewed. And
when it crosses over that line to not
just hatred, but it it crosses over the
line to say, "Oh, we're going to act out
and thrash out in violence." Those
people need to be arrested. They need to
be detained. They need to be booked. And
some of them need to be incarcerated.
[Applause]
So that has to happen and it's not
happening now. Nationally, locally, it's
just not.
>> Tyler, can I can I can I just bring up
something on that one? Tyler, is that
okay? So, I I just want I want to bring
up something because you you
specifically asked about universities,
right, in college. And uh one of the
things that I've been most concerned
about over the the past couple of
decades is the the lack of thought
diversity on college campuses. It it's
deeply troubling. And um I I I want to
give a shout out again to the
legislature. Um we worked very closely
with Utah State University on something
that I think is groundbreaking. Um it
will over the next couple years it will
be in every university in the state. Um,
but we're going to start teaching
Western thought again um to all of our
freshmen in this th
this this
is not I I want to be very careful. This
is not conservative thought. We're we're
not trying to replace forcing liberal
ideas on all of our students with
conservative ideas. This is the the
founding of Western thought. These are
the great books. This is this is
Aristotle. Um these are the Stoics. This
is Marcus Aurelius. Um, it's the great
British philosophers and the Scottish
philosophers. These are the people that
and it's our founders. These are the
people that our founders relied on to
start this great nation. This is what
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas
and Martin Luther King. This is what all
of us studied in college until about 20
years ago when it just became whatever
you want to do is fine with us. And
that's not okay. We have to have a
foundation to even have these debates.
And we've lost that foundation. And
we're getting that foundation back here
in the state of Utah.
