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This is the apology that we, the Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board, wish Sen. Mike Lee would give:
I come before you today a humbled man.
My thoughtless actions posting tasteless and false messages on social media have brought dishonor to my state, to the United States Senate, to my family, my party and my faith. I have caused additional pain to people who were already mourning the loss of close friends to acts of horrible political violence.
For this, I apologize and I ask your forgiveness.
For more than a year now, I have posted and reposted on the social media platform X many thousands of times. Many of those posts raised or repeated false accusations against my political opponents and others. In that forum I supported many false claims, including the lie that the violent assault on the United States Capitol on January 6 was orchestrated by federal agents.
In the realm of social media, where outrage overwhelms reason and lies outrun the truth, I may have felt that my statements were just more of the ugly background noise that defines so much of our era’s political discourse. I was sadly caught up in an alternate reality, where stoking falsehood and anger is rewarded and becomes downright addictive.