Washington — Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota confronted GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah at the Capitol on Monday over a social media post about the Minnesota lawmaker shootings, telling reporters, “I wanted him to know how much pain that caused me.”
“I needed him to hear from me directly what impact I think his cruel statement had on me, his colleague,” Smith told reporters on Monday.
Smith said she was a friend of Melissa Hortman, a Minnesota state lawmaker who was killed along with her husband, while another state lawmaker and his wife were wounded in targeted shootings on Saturday. Lee posted on X after the shootings: “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way.”
Smith said she decided to confront Lee about the post because of the pain it caused her “and the other people in my state and I think around the country, who think that this was a brutal attack.”
“I think too often in the Senate, we talk to one another through other people, and I wanted him to hear from me directly what impact I think his actions had,” she added.
The Minnesota Democrat’s deputy chief of staff Ed Shelleby also sent an email to one of Lee’s top staffers, saying he “exploited the murder of a lifetime public servant and her husband to post some sick burns about Democrats … Have you absolutely no conscience?”
“It is important for your office to know much additional pain you’ve caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend,” said the email, which CBS News obtained. “Why would you use the awesome power of a United States Senator office to compound on people’s grief?”
Smith, asked whether she had considered elevating the incident to leadership, said she hadn’t thought about it, adding that “I hope that my talking with him will cause him to think more about the hateful things that he has been putting out on his personal X account that really should have no place in our public discourse.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke about Lee’s post on the Senate floor Monday, saying he was “deeply disappointed and sickened to see a member of this chamber use the tragedy in Minnesota to take cheap political shots at the other side on social media, and risk escalating a perilous moment.”
“What the senior senator from Utah posted after the shooting was reckless and beneath the dignity of his office,” Schumer said, urging Lee to take down his posts.
Lee did not respond to questions from reporters about his conversation with Smith at the Capitol on Monday. Smith, asked about Lee’s reaction, said, “Honestly, he seemed a little surprised to be confronted.”
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