Republican Sen. Mike Lee refused to take responsibility for his crass social media posts about the assassination of a Democratic lawmaker from Minnesota even after he was confronted by a Senate colleague.
Sen. Tina Lee (D-MN) told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that she approached Lee on Tuesday because she wanted him to hear from her directly about the impact of his posts on people going through “so much pain and trauma.”
Police arrested Vance Boelter, 57, late Sunday on suspicion of dressing up like a police officer and fatally shooting state Rep. Melissa Hortman, 55, and her husband Mark, 58, early Saturday at their home in Brooklyn Park. He is also accused of shooting Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife on Saturday.
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“This is what happens ... When Marxists don’t get their way,” the Utah senator captioned a surveillance photo of the gunman wearing a latex face mask.
Lee also shared another post of Boelter with the caption, “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” apparently in an attempt at a tasteless play on words involving Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz.
“This is not a joke, and he needs to understand over 7 million people dialed in to his message on social media,” Smith, who was a longtime friend of Hortman, told Collins. “He has a powerful platform. He should not be using it to spread misinformation and to basically make a joke of the murder of people, of public servants.”
Police allegedly found a hit list in Boelter’s vehicle with the names of dozens of Democratic lawmakers, including Smith. His longtime friend and roommate told CNN that Boelter was a conservative Christian and supporter of President Donald Trump.
Lee nevertheless refused to commit to taking down the posts or issuing an apology, Smith said.
“He said, you know, how many times have we heard the words that go something like, ‘I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings’ or ‘I’m sorry if you didn’t understand what I…’” she said. “That’s not, in my mind, taking responsibility for your actions.”
“I don’t think this is a person who’s used to being confronted,” she added. “I don’t think he’s somebody who’s used to being challenged. And I think he didn’t quite know what to do.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Lee’s office for comment.
Video posted by NBC News shows Lee fleeing and refusing to answer questions when a reporter tried to ask him whether he regretted the posts. Smith’s deputy chief also sent Lee’s top aide a scathing email.
“Have you absolutely no conscience? No decency?” Ed Shelleby wrote.
“What he needs to do is he needs to apologize,” Smith told Collins. “I really think that he should take that that post down… He’s spreading that misinformation and he should correct that. I didn’t get any of that from him earlier this evening, but I hope that what I said sunk in.”
