WASHINGTON — Utah Sen. Mike Lee appeared to take down a series of social media posts about a double homicide in Minnesota over the weekend, that were condemned by two of his Senate colleagues who confronted him over what they said were “cruel” and insensitive posts.
Lee deleted the posts on X around midday Tuesday from his @BasedMikeLee account, which is separate from his official Senate account. The exact time he removed them wasn’t clear.
Outside the Senate chamber Tuesday, Lee said he spoke to Sen. Amy Klobuchar before taking down the posts.
At a later press conference, Klobuchar said she told Lee “what I said publicly, that this is not at all funny for my state.“
“Sen. Lee and I had a good discussion, and I’m very glad he took it down and I also thank my colleague, Sen. Smith for also speaking out on it,” she said.
In the tweets Lee suggested the alleged shooter was motivated by leftist politics to attack two Minnesota lawmakers. So far Lee has not made an official statement about the posts, and he declined comment to reporters when leaving the Senate on Monday evening.
However, Lee was confronted by Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith on Monday, who said she told him the post was “brutal and cruel.”
“I wanted him to hear from me directly how painful that was and how brutal that was to see that on what was just a horribly brutal weekend,” Smith said on Monday.
One of Smith’s top staffers also sent a scathing email to Lee on Monday emphasizing the “additional pain you’ve caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., also “condemned” the language included in Lee’s posts that featured photos of Vance Luther Boelter, the key suspect who was arrested in connection to the shooting of two Minnesota lawmakers resulting in the death of one. Boelter has since been arrested on charges of two counts of murder and two of attempted murder.
“I have condemned what Mike Lee did here at home, and I will speak to him about this when I return” to D.C., Klobuchar, who said she was friends with the victims of the shooting, told MSNBC on Monday. “And what I’m going to tell him is, this isn’t funny what happened here.”
The first post Lee shared to X this weekend featured a surveillance photo reportedly of Boelter in a mask and uniform as a way to disguise himself as a police officer, according to law enforcement. Lee shared the photo with the caption: “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.”
Lee later posted the same photo alongside a headshot of Boelter with the caption: “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” an apparent reference to Gov. Tim Walz, who ran for vice president last year, although the name is misspelled.
Lee also reposted another photo of Boelter on X calling Marxism “a deadly mental illness.”
Theories about Boelter’s political affiliation began to spread on social media after it was revealed he was twice appointed to a state economic panel by two Democratic governors, including Walz. However, a man who identified himself as a close friend and former roommate of Boelter told local news outlets that Boelter had supported Trump in the 2024 election.
The posts prompted anger online, with several accounts calling for Lee to apologize or step down.