Tina Smith confronts U.S. Sen. Mike Lee following posts about deadly Minnesota shootings

A grieving Sen. Tina Smith confronted a Republican counterpart from Utah on Capitol Hill Monday over his social media posts with unfounded claims that appear to make light of the attack that killed a Minnesota legislator and injured another.

Smith, who lost her friend Melissa Hortman in the weekend shooting, pulled Sen. Mike Lee aside in the Senate shortly after she landed in Washington, D.C.

“I wanted him to hear directly from me about how painful that was and how wrong that was,” Smith said in an interview.

“I think too often we talk to one another through other means, and I wanted him to hear from me directly about how wrong I thought it was what he did,” she continued.

Smith’s confrontation of Lee comes as misinformation about the political views of Vance Boelter, the alleged shooter, have been spreading on social media. A number of leaders from Minnesota and elsewhere have condemned Lee’s comments as evidence of an increasingly toxic political culture.

Boelter faces state and federal charges after his arrest in the shooting death of state House DFL leader Hortman and her husband, Mark, and for shooting and injuring Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reappointed Boelter to an advisory board in his administration in 2019. However, the governor did not know Boelter, a source close to him said. And the position Boelter held was not a position in the governor’s office or Cabinet. Boelter was first appointed to the board by then-Gov. Mark Dayton in 2016.

“This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way,” Lee said in one post over the weekend.

“Nightmare on Waltz Street,” the Utah senator said in another.

Though Lee took the time to listen, Smith said he did not apologize for what he said.

“Honestly, I think he seemed kind of stunned to be confronted directly with what he’d done,” Smith said of their exchange, noting that Lee didn’t say much in response.

“I wanted to have a conversation with him; it was partly successful. It was less than five minutes, but I think he heard my point,” she said.

Lee’s office could not immediately be reached for comment about his posts and exchange with Smith.

Smith’s chief of staff, Ed Shelleby, also sent a note to Lee’s chief of staff saying “it is important for your office to know how much additional pain you’ve caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend.”

“Is this how your team measures success? Using the office of U.S. Senator to post not just one but a series of jokes about an assassination — is that a successful day of work on Team Lee?” he wrote. “Did you come into the office Monday and feel proud of the work you did over the weekend?”

Other Democrats and legislative Republicans in Minnesota have condemned Lee’s posts. Minnesota’s four Republicans in Congress haven’t said anything publicly condemning Lee’s posts, which Smith thinks they should.

“This has nothing to do with Governor Walz,” state Sen. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, said on X in response to Lee’s post.

Senate GOP Floor Leader Harry Niska said in a post that he agrees with Lee on many issues, “but this is a very bad take on so many levels. You should reconsider this one.”

“I have tremendous respect for Senator Mike Lee, but it doesn’t mean he is immune from the base impulses social media incentivizes,” Republican state Rep. Nolan West, R-Blaine, said on X. “People say stupid stuff on the internet all the time. The best they can do is admit they shouldn’t have and be better.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she plans to confront Lee.

“I have condemned what Mike Lee did here at home, and I will speak to him about this when I return,” Klobuchar said during an interview on MSNBC Monday. “And what I’m going to tell him is, this isn’t funny. What happened here.”

“This is not a laughing matter, and certainly what we’re seeing is increasing violence and this evil man who did this. This is not a joke,” Klobuchar continued.

Both Smith and Klobuchar were included on a list of names carried by the shooter, as was Third District Rep. Kelly Morrison, who said Lee’s rhetoric was “dangerous and harmful” and needed to be called out.

“We cannot accept this from a sitting United States Senator,” she said on X. “Everyone – on both sides of the aisle – needs to condemn this. We cannot normalize political violence in America.”

Walter Orenstein of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.