MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell stepped up his criticism of GOP Sen. Mike Lee, saying his “perverse” tweets about a Minnesota gunman’s attack on Democratic lawmakers outdid even Donald Trump for “heartlessness.”
O’Donnell played a clip on Tuesday’s The Last Word showing Trump talking to the press on Air Force One after his early exit from the G7 Summit in Canada on Monday.
Trump was asked if he’d reach out to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in the wake of the fatal shooting of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman, 55, and her husband, Mark, 58, on Saturday morning. State Sen. John Hoffman, 60, and his wife, Yvette, were also shot and injured.
“I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling him,” Trump responded. “Why would I call him? I could call and say, ‘Hi, how you doing?’ Uh, the guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. I could be nice and call, but why waste time?”
O’Donnell reacted by saying that this “is another Trump lie,” because the president has “proved himself incapable of being nice.”
His “heartlessness,” however, was surpassed by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who in posts on his @BasedMikeLee X account called the killings a “Nightmare on Waltz Street” and said, “This is what happens… When Marxists don’t get their way.”
He deleted those posts on Tuesday, after a stern talking-to from Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith. She told CNN that he failed to apologize, however.
“Mike Lee appears to be in an agonizing mental struggle with how to be a human being,” O’Donnell said.
“Mike Lee does seem obsessed with mental illness, to the point where we have to wonder whether he is suffering from mental illness that leaves him projecting mental illness on others.”
O’Donnell also reacted to reports that Lee has averaged 100 tweets a day on X in the last few months, saying that is “not healthy.”
“No United States senator actually doing the job of senator would have the time for 100 tweets a day, or even 10 tweets a day. so there’s something seriously wrong with Mike Lee.”
The host pulled up a tweet where Lee “guessed” that the alleged shooter was “not MAGA,” before cops had even detained him. This infuriated O’Donnell.
“The two issues that mattered the most at that time; sympathy for the victims and pursuit of the shooter. Why would a United States senator need to guess about the shooter being MAGA or not being MAGA? No democratic senator tweeted, ‘I guess he’s MAGA.’
“But when you’re a Twitter junkie like Mike Lee, out of control, tweeting 100 times a day, you’re guessing about a lot of stuff.”
He concluded that Mike Lee is “a disgrace” to the Senate and the state of Utah. “He owes the voters of Utah who sent him to the Senate an apology for his ugly tweets, his perverse tweets. He owes the nation an apology. He owes Minnesota an apology.”
O’Donnell said on Monday’s The Last Word that Lee’s staff now “lives in disgrace” and must make a “moral choice.”
Mike Madrid, a veteran Republican political consultant, agreed with O’Donnell’s assertion that Lee has a real issue. Reacting to the tweets in a statement to Axios, he said: “This is not normal, regular civic banter, especially for man of his stature in the office that he holds.”
Madrid, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, added: “Something is wrong with him, and I think his family should be concerned.”
The post O’Donnell: Trump’s ‘Heartlessness’ Was Just Outdone by ‘Perverse’ MAGA Senator appeared first on The Daily Beast.
