WASHINGTON – The backlash began after a couple posts on X.
A day after Minnesota Democrat state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in their home on June 14, Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee baselessly suggested their assassination was connected to the political left.
“This is what happens. When Marxists don’t get their way,” he wrote on his personal X account with an image of suspect Vance Boelter. In a follow-up tweet, he wrote, “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” in an apparent misspelled reference to Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz.
Minnesota Democrat Sen. Tina Smith, a friend of Hortman, then confronted Lee at the Capitol.
“I, you know, approached him from a position of respect and wanting him to understand what I thought, and he didn’t have that much to say. What he needs to do is he needs to apologize,” Smith told CNN after their exchange on June 16.
“To indicate that somehow this was some sort of a Marxist leftist attack that causes violence is completely false. He’s spreading that misinformation, and he should correct that…as my mother used to say, words have consequences, and his words have a ton of consequence, and he should own that,” she added.
Boelter’s friends have described him as a devout Christian who’s attended President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies, according to the Associated Press. He was registered to vote as a Republican in 2004 while residing in Oklahoma, the outlet reported.
Lee, who refused to answer reporters’ questions about his controversial posts or his conversation with Smith, drew rebuke from across the aisle.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X that it was “sickening” to see Lee use the assassination to “take cheap political shots, risk escalating a dangerous moment, fan the flames of division with lies.”
Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele wrote on X to Lee: “Grow the h— up.”
Boelter, who was allegedly disguised as a law enforcement officer during the attack, was arrested on June 15 after an intense manhunt and faces both state and federal murder charges. Walz has said that the attack was “politically motivated.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: GOP Sen. Mike Lee’s posts on Minnesota shooting draw swift backlash
