Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee has faced criticism for his sharply different responses to the assassinations of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, and former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman in June.
In the hours following the killing of Kirk on the campus of Utah Valley University, Lee issued an impassioned tribute, calling the incident “a cowardly act of violence” and hailing Kirk as an “American patriot” who inspired “countless young people.” Lee added on X: “The terrorists will not win. Charlie will. Please join me in praying for his wife Erika and their children. May justice be swift.”
However, less than three months earlier, Lee’s response to the double assassination of Democratic lawmaker Hortman and her husband was widely criticized. Instead of mourning the victims, Lee initially mocked the event on social media.
Newsweek has contacted Lee’s office for comment via email.
Why It Matters
The disparate reactions from a sitting U.S. senator highlight the extent to which responses to political violence can diverge based on party affiliation of the victims. Critics argue that Lee’s response to the Hortman killings—promoting misinformation and making partisan jabs—undermined attempts to build a bipartisan consensus against political violence.
What To Know
Kirk, 31, the founder of right-wing youth organization Turning Point USA and a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, was delivering a speech under a tent to a large crowd on campus at Utah Valley University in Orem, when a single gunshot struck him in the neck. He collapsed, was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The shooter wore dark clothing and fired from a building roof some distance away to the courtyard where the event at which Kirk was speaking took place. Authorities have said there is no evidence that anyone else was involved in the attack.
On June 14, 2025, Hortman and her husband, Mark, were fatally shot at their home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, in what law enforcement and Democratic Governor Tim Walz described as a politically motivated assassination. The suspect, Vance Luther Boelter, allegedly disguised himself as a police officer, wearing body armor and driving a vehicle that appeared to be law enforcement. Boelter also shot state Senator John Hoffman and his wife in a related attack. They both survived.
Lee offered a prayerful message following Wednesday’s shooting, and extended condolences to Kirk’s wife and children while calling for swift justice.
But the Republican struck a far less gracious tone in June, including a post on X that said: “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” a jab referencing Walz. Another post falsely stated: “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way,” while including an image of Boelter, who friends and public records described as politically right-leaning, having once registered as a Republican in Oklahoma.
Lee deleted his mocking posts only after facing backlash.
Minnesota Democratic U.S. Senator Tina Smith personally confronted Lee two days after his posts about the Hortman shootings. She told CNN that Lee’s behavior was “brutal and cruel” and later said publicly: “He should think about the implications of what he’s saying and doing.”
Now, those posts are the subject of renewed criticism.
“When Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were assassinated, Senator Mike Lee mocked their murders online,” said author Shannon Watts on X, in response to one of Lee’s tributes to Kirk.
Another X user wrote that Lee “showed no respect for those murdered in MN, in fact he got a kick out of their murders. He’s a bad person.”
“F*** you Mike Lee. You’re a disgusting piece of excrement,” read one blunt response on the same social media platform.
Prominent MAGA-aligned figures have responded to the assassination of Kirk with combative and incendiary rhetoric, framing the killing as a politically motivated attack and casting it as a call to fight back.
Elon Musk saw it as an attack tied to “the left” and free speech. “If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is fight or die,” he said.
Trump issued an Oval Office video tribute, calling Kirk’s death a “dark moment” and blaming “radical left” rhetoric. Far-right activist Laura Loomer also blamed “lunatic leftists.”
“We must shut these lunatic leftists down. Once and for all. The Left is a national security threat,” she wrote on X.
Infowars host Alex Jones escalated the rhetoric further, framing the assassination as a call to “war,” while influencer and self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate called for “civil war.”
The shooter’s motive and political ideology remain unknown.
Amid the reaction, some have called for an end to political division and violence, including Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox.
“Our nation is broken,” he said, pleading that “all of us will try to find a way to stop hating our fellow Americans.”
Kirk himself was a polarizing figure known for his youth outreach and alignment with Trump. He took hardline stances on gun rights, one saying: “It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal.”
He also urged armed public carry in certain states, and promoted conspiracy theories and misleading claims on COVID-19 vaccines and mandates.
What Happens Next
Federal, state and local authorities were still searching for an unidentified shooter early on Thursday and working what they called “multiple active crime scenes.”
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