Republican senator confronted over 'cruel' social media posts about lawmaker shootings

A Republican senator was confronted by his Democratic colleague after “cruel” posts about the deadly “politically motivated” shooting of Minnesota lawmakers.

Just hours after the fatal shooting of state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman, and the wounding of senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman, Republican senator Mike Lee made the decision to go on social media and post memes and disinformation about the deadly attack.

His posts sparked a huge amount of backlash, not least from Democratic colleagues who were horrified at jokes being made at the expense of a murdered politician.

Minnesota senator Tina Smith explained how she approached Lee in person during a Senate vote on Monday to speak about how damaging his comments were.

“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 explained to reporters after the chat.

“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.”

Smith told the political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen that she almost had to chase Lee down because he had a phone to his ear and was acting as though he was unable to talk.

She added: “He seemed a little shocked to have anybody challenging him, let alone one of his colleagues.”

On Monday, Lee was filmed ignoring questions from reporters about his posts on X/Twitter and the subsequent conversation with Smith. Meanwhile, his aide attempted to block the camera with an iPad.

The suspect in the deadly shootings, Vance Boelter, has been arrested after a manhunt.

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