"I thought they were highly inappropriate and intemperate remarks and I was personally offended by them," Huntsman said.

Last week, Buttars said of a bill he opposed that, "This baby is black . . . It's a dark, ugly thing."

The NAACP called for Buttars' resignation. The senator said he was the target of a "hate lynch mob," based on vitriolic e-mails he had received.

Buttars later expressed bafflement that NAACP leaders were offended by his use of "lynch mob," which he said is not a racist term. "How do I know what words I'm supposed to use in front of those people?" he said in a Tribune interview.

Still, Buttars has said he never considered resigning and he will run for re-election this year. Huntsman said it should be up to the voters in Buttars' West Jordan district, not the governor, to decide the senator's fate based on their level of outrage.

"They put people in power, they take them out of power," Huntsman said during his monthly news conference at KUED.

Huntsman said he attended Calvary Baptist Church on Sunday, and "a lot of people there were offended as well."

The Rev. France Davis, the long-time pastor at Calvary Baptist, said that there was a widespread feeling in the congregation that the words were inappropriate.

"They were not concerned with any particular word, but the string of words was what made it an offense," said Davis. "I told them he had said some things that were inappropriate . . . and as the Bible instructs us we should pray for him to do and say the right thing."

A signed letter by 45 community and civil rights leaders was sent to lawmakers on Wednesday, calling Buttars' comments a "true tragedy" and urging state leaders to "discourage divisiveness and hold each other accountable for your actions."