The AP reported several historically Black colleges locked down or canceled classes after receiving threats, a day after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk

In stark contrast to Donald Trump’s comments blaming “vicious and horrible” radicals on the left, Utah’s Republican governor made a case for unity on Friday.

“We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate, and that’s the problem with political violence – it metastasises because we can always point the figure at the other side,” said Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah. “At some point we have to find an offramp or else it’s going to get much, much worse.”

In a tone of moral urgency, Cox added: “These are choices that we can make. History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country but every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us.”

Donald Trump has declined to call for the US to come together as a way of fixing the country’s divisions in the wake of the assassination of his close associate, the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, preferring to cast “vicious and horrible” radicals on the left of US politics as the sole problem.