WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) —The man arrested over conservative influencer Charlie Kirk’s assassination was romantically involved with a transgender roommate and described by family as leftist, Utah’s governor said Sunday, confirming details likely to inflame the contentious national debate over the killing.

“Yes I can confirm that,” Governor Spencer Cox told CNN’s “State of the Union” talk show when asked about suspect Tyler Robinson’s reported relationship with a trans partner.

“The roommate was a romantic partner, a male transitioning to a female,” Cox said.

“This partner has been incredibly cooperative, had no idea that this was happening, and is working with investigators right now,” he added.

Cox went on to stress that it was not yet clear whether the partner’s transitioning was part of the alleged shooter’s mindset to kill Kirk, a close ally of US President Donald Trump.

“I’m not sure about that piece right now,” Cox said. “Again, all of these things — we’re trying to figure out.”

Several US media outlets had reported Robinson’s relationship with a transgender individual on Saturday, sparking fury by far-right activists.

Laura Loomer, a conservative podcaster who has Trump’s ear, posted repeatedly on Saturday about the conspiracy theories, wondering openly whether “there is a Trans terror cell that groomed Tyler Robinson.”

“It’s time to designate the Trans movement as a terrorist movement,” she wrote.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and owner of X, retweeted a post by someone arguing for a ban on transgender hormone therapy.

“Absolutely,” Musk wrote in a one-word reply.

Kirk, who was shot dead Wednesday during a speaking event on a Utah university campus, was a strong critic of the transgender rights movement.

Cox, who was widely praised this past week for urging Americans to lower the toxic political temperature, told The Wall Street Journal on Saturday it was clear to investigators that Richardson had been “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.”

On Sunday, he did not repeat the same phrasing, but said such information was told to investigators about Robinson by “people around him, from his family members and friends.”

Asked specifically about what relatives said Robinson told them about Kirk, Cox said Robinson told them he was “not a fan.”