In the aftermath of the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox emerged as a prominent voice calling on Americans to step back from the political hatred and violence gripping the country. Now, the Republican governor is expanding on that message in a new book, "Off Ramp: How to Be a Peacemaker in an Age of Contempt." Cox joined Geoff Bennett to discuss more.

Geoff Bennett: A year ago, in the aftermath of the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah, Governor Spencer Cox emerged as a prominent voice calling on Americans to step back from the political hatred and violence gripping the country. Now the Republican governor is expanding on that message in a new book, "Off Ramp: How to Be a Peacemaker in an Age of Contempt." Part memoir, part examination of America's deep political divisions, the book makes the case that Americans can disagree, even fiercely, without treating one another as enemies. I spoke with Utah Governor Spencer Cox recently. You have spent years telling Americans to disagree better. Is it working?

Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT): Well, in some circles, for sure. Look, as we travel the country, the data's pretty clear that 70 percent of Americans hate what's happening in our politics right now. They're desperate for something different, for something better, and maybe something older, a return to the norms that were so important in the formation. And really, our country lasting 250 years, they want to be able to work together to solve problems. They haven't seen a lot of problem-solving coming out of Washington, D.C., recently. And I'm as hopeful as I have been in a long, long time that people are ready for something better.

Geoff Bennett: And President Trump, of course, routinely uses the dehumanizing language that you warn against. He's called his political opponents vermin. He's described Americans who disagree with him as the enemy from within. And you endorsed him in his 2024 race.

How does that reconcile with the central argument of this book and what you say you stand for? Gov. Spencer Cox: Sure. Well, it's something that I talk about in the book, and I hope people will read what I wrote there. But I didn't support him in -- as the Republican nominee in 2016 and 2020, and realized that that didn't have much of an impact. I tried the adversarial approach. And then, after an attempted assassination on his life, I wrote him a very long and detailed letter about what I hoped he could do differently to try to bring the country together, and that I would I would work with him to do everything I could to help that happen.

Now, he would tell you if he was here that that's not his approach to politics, and it's something that we disagree on. And yet we figured out how to work very closely together on issues that are important to Americans and important to Utahans, like saving the Great Salt Lake and some of the energy issues that we're facing. And so I also had a great relationship with President Biden, someone I disagreed with passionately on lots of different issues, and yet we found ways to work together as well. And I'm hoping that that can be a bit of a model to the rest of the country, who really are hungry for this.

Geoff Bennett: How much can regular Americans really change the political culture, when the incentives of social media and cable news and electoral politics reward outrage? That's the uncomfortable political reality, is that outrage works. Gov. Spencer Cox: Yes, it does. And here's -- maybe the most important takeaway of the book is this, that we actually can change it. One of the things I'm most worried about isn't what's happening at the national level. It's what what's happening at the personal level. If you go back 15 years ago, only about 5 percent of Americans had ever ended a close personal friendship or stopped talking to a family member because of politics.

We have quadrupled that number in just a few years, and it's continuing to climb. That's where the biggest problem is. Look, we get the politicians we deserve. If we want something different, we have to decide, every single one of us, to be better. We have a whole bunch of ideas in there about how to have a conversation with your uncle who's MAGA or your niece who's woke or what whatever it is, about how we can repair those relationships.

Look, politicians are not worth ending friendships over. We're just not worth it. And I truly believe that, if we can start to work in our communities and fix those relationships, we can actually fix our country in a very big and profound way.

Geoff Bennett: You know, it strikes me this idea of disagreeing better can sound like a luxury to people who feel like their lives and livelihoods are very much on the line. How do you respond to that, to people who want to see some sense of urgency in the political conversation?

Gov. Spencer Cox: There's a difference between peacemaking and peacekeeping. Peacekeeping is just that. Hey, go along to get along, kumbaya. We all have to hold hands and get along no matter -- it doesn't matter what you're going through. That's not what this is. Peacemaking is actually -- it's harder. It takes real courage to do, and it's the only way to accomplish what we want to accomplish.

It's so easy to tear down and burn it all down and destroy institutions and tear people down, but what you end up with is just ashes. Building is much, much harder. But it's also much more successful. And I give countless examples of how this has happened throughout our politics historically in this country. It's how we got a Constitution in the first place, this Constitution that requires us to work together. We always think, if we just win the next election, we will never have to deal with those people ever again. And the Constitution says, no, you're always going to have to deal with those people.

And if we -- the things that are making people so angry, I think, are a byproduct of the polarization, not a byproduct of us actually working together. And so this, to me, is how -- the things that people are angry about, this is how we actually deal with those things and fix those things.

Geoff Bennett: One thing you write in the book really stood out to me. You said that Americans want architects, not arsonists. The question is, in today's politics, can architects still win?

Gov. Spencer Cox: Well, that's what I set out to prove. We have been working with some researchers at Stanford. They have a Depolarization Lab there that studies these types of issues. And what we found was, when we -- we have gotten governors together, Republicans and Democrats, to film these ads that we release. We're saying, hey, we can disagree without hating each other. We disagree on many things, but we can work together, find common ground.

And it turns out they have tested those messages on thousands of Americans and found not only does it have a depolarization effect, which is good. It also has a -- it improves our support for democratic norms, which is also good. But maybe the most important thing is, it significantly improved the way that voters saw both of those candidates and made them much more likely to support those candidates in the future, which shows that, while, yes, we know that negative ads and negative campaigning can work, positive campaigning also works.

And as that pendulum starts to swing, as that supermajority of Americans that hate politics right now start looking for something different, they have proven that you actually can win elections with a positive message. And, in fact, it may be the best way to win elections going forward.

Geoff Bennett: The new book is "Off Ramp: How to Be a Peacemaker in an Age of Contempt." Utah's Republican Governor Spencer Cox, always great to speak with you. Thank you. Gov. Spencer Cox: You too. Thanks, Geoff.