'Honestly evil': Utah GOP governor blasts Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'national divorce' call

In a post to Twitter this President's Day, Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for red states in the U.S. to "separate" from blue states and for shrinking the federal government.

"We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government," Greene wrote. "Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done."

The comments drew a wave of backlash from people accusing Greene of advocating for secession. One of those speaking out was Utah Governor Spencer Cox, a moderate Republican who called Greene's comments "evil."

"This rhetoric is destructive and wrong and—honestly—evil," Cox wrote on Twitter. "We don't need a divorce, we need marriage counseling."

"And we need elected leaders that don't profit by tearing us apart," Cox continued. "We can disagree without hate."

"Healthy conflict was critical to our nation’s founding and survival," he added.

As NBC News points out, Greene isn’t the first Republican to call for secession. "A June 2021 poll by Bright Line Watch and YouGov found that 66% of Southern Republicans supported leaving the U.S. and forming a new country," NBC News reported. "Support was also high among Democrats in the West, where 47% supported a division."