Fellow senators sent a "wave of criticism" toward Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) after he made posts on his personal X account that mocked and spread disinformation about Saturday's fatal attack on a lawmaker in the Twin Cities, said The Washington Post. "This is what happens when Marxists don't get their way," said one post.
"I wanted him to know how I felt about it," said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) on Monday, after confronting Lee over the posts. The resulting backlash was a "remarkable moment at a time of intense partisan antipathy," said the Post. It's also a bipartisan reminder that lawmakers are "bound together by growing concern for their safety."
Republican lawmakers "generally declined" to denounce his remarks directly, but "several made comments suggesting politicians need to turn the temperature down generally," said Politico. A later statement on Lee's official X account "hit all of the sober notes one would expect from an elected official reacting to a political assassination," said The New York Times. Most of the initial posts have since been deleted.
