Mike Lee confronted by Minnesota colleague over shooting comments

[demmiblue]

“Honestly, he seemed a little surprised to be confronted,” Sen. Tina Smith said.

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah was confronted by a Senate colleague Monday over his social media post that blamed the Minnesota shootings over the weekend that killed a former Democratic legislative leader on “Marxists.”

Democratic Sen. Tina Smith, a friend of murdered state Rep. Melissa Hortman, spoke to the Utah Republican in a hallway off the Senate floor during evening votes.

“I wanted him to know how much pain that caused me and the other people in my state, and I think around the country, who think that this was a brutal attack,” Smith told reporters afterward. “I don’t know whether Senator Lee thought fully through what it was — you have to ask him — but I needed him to hear from me directly what impact I think his cruel statement had on me, his colleague.”

Lee on Sunday morning posted two messages on his X account that appeared to associate the perpetrator with political causes on the left. “This is what happens,” one said, “When Marxists don’t get their way.” Another included a reference to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/06/16/congress/tina-smith-confronts-mike-lee-00409329