Senator Mike Lee fled from reporters asking him about his deeply disturbing X posts making a mockery of the murder of Minnesota Democratic state Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and lying about the killer being a leftist.
“Can you tell us about your conversation with Senator Smith? Do you regret your tweet? Do you stand by the post that you made on X? Have you had a productive conversation about that post?” multiple reporters asked Senator Lee as he rushed away silently.
The Senator Smith question refers to Democratic Senator Tina Smith, whose deputy chief of staff eviscerated Lee over email on Monday before confronting him in person in the halls of Congress.
“It is important for your office to know how much additional pain you’ve caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend. I am not sure what compelled you or your boss to say any of those things, which, in addition to being unconscionable, also may very well be untrue,” the email read. “Why would you use the awesome power of a United States Senate Office to compound people’s grief? Is this how your team measures success? Using the office of US Senator to post not just one but a series of jokes about an assassination—is that a successful day of work on Team Lee? Did you come into the office Monday and feel proud of the work you did over the weekend?
“You exploited the murder of a lifetime public servant and her husband to post some sick burns about Democrats,” the email continued. “Did you see this as an excellent opportunity to get likes and retweet? Have you absolutely no conscience? No decency?”
Senator Smith cornered Lee the next day, telling him he was being “brutal and cruel.”
“I wanted him to know about the consequence of his words. I went to him and I said, ‘Your message on social media showed the image of the man who killed my friend,’” Senator Smith said later on CNN. “And your message is, ‘This is what happens?’ You need to take responsibility and accountability for what you are saying out there in the social media world.’ And I wanted him to hear that from me directly.… This is not a joke.”
The shooter, Vance Boelter, has since been confirmed as a staunch Trump supporter.
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