Republican senator Mike Lee eliminated his controversial publications on social networks about the murder of a legislator from Minnesota and his husband after several people criticized Utah’s Republican for his comments.
On Sunday night, a day after an armed man masked police disguised fired and killed the state representative Democratic Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark at her home in Minnesota, Lee made positions in reference to the attack and with images of Vance Boelter, the suspect in the shooting.
The first publication was subtitled “This is what happens when the Marxists do not leave with theirs” and the second says “Nightmare on Waltz Street”, apparently blaming the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, for the shootings, which the governor called an “act of directed political violence.” The positions were eliminated from their account on Tuesday afternoon.
During a press conference at the Capitol on Tuesday, the senator of Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar, said she spoke with Lee, but did not explicitly said if he withdrew the positions because she asked her to do so.
“The senator reads and I had a good discussion, and I am very happy that he has knocked him down,” said Klobuchar about the publications.
The Minnesota Democrat refused to provide specific details about his discussion with Lee.
“I told him what I said publicly: that this is not a bit fun for my state. They spent the weekend, many of them, locked in their homes in certain areas, depending on where I thought the murderer was,” said Klobuchar.
Lee, during a brief conversation with journalists on Tuesday, also acknowledged that he had a “fast” conversation with Klobuchar.
Senator Mike Lee participates in a hearing of the Senate Judicial Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office building, May 13, 2025.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Lee’s publications caused an immediate reaction from the Democrats who condemned Lee for doing them.
“Trying to politicize this tragedy is absolutely unacceptable. This rhetoric of elected officials is more than dangerous and encourages even more violence,” said Democratic Senator Dick Durbin on the Senate floor on Monday. “It is representable, and it must be called, on both sides of the hall, both sides of the hall. Because in the land of the free and the home of the brave, everyone should feel safe expressing their political views, and we should never do it in a way that condemns violence or intimidation.”
Democratic representative Hillary Scholten criticized Lee’s publications during an interview at ABC News Live on Tuesday: “What shame, shame, senator. You know better than that.”
“I also hope that my republican colleagues in the Chamber and the Senate condemn these actions,” said Scholten, and then added: “We need to unite, regardless of the party, when this type of violence raises your head and condemn it in the stronger terms as possible.”
The former president of RNC, Michael Steele, told Lee to “grow hell” in a Publish in x.
A monument is seen in the desktop of the state representative of DFL Melissa Hortman in the cameras of the House of Representatives in the Capitol of the State of Minnesota, on June 16, 2025 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Steven García/Getty Images
Leaving a meeting at the Capitol on Monday night, Lee ignored journalists’ questions about the positions.
ABC News communicated with his office to comment.
The attacks have caused a rapid sentence of Democrats and Republicans in Capitol Hill and throughout the country, and many urged elected officials to reject heated rhetoric.
Klobuchar has condemned the “horrible attack” and said Sunday that “this is a very bad atmosphere, and we need to tear down the tone.”
The president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, said that “such a horrible political violence does not take place in our society, and each leader must condemn it unequivocally.”
