Following days of nationwide backlash, Utah Sen. Mike Lee has deleted social media posts on the Minnesota shootings of two politicians that many found offensive and cruel.
Hours after Saturday's deadly shootings, Lee shared unfounded information on his X account that the suspect, Vance Boelter, was a "Marxist" connected to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, writing, “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way."
After Lee faced immediate scorn over his comments, he pinned the post to his X account for a short period and made another post on his official Senate account condemning the shootings.
On Monday, Lee's counterpart from Minnesota, Sen. Tina Smith, was caught on camera confronting him about the posts.
"I was glad that I had a chance to speak with him directly. I'm also glad that he took those posts down," Sen. Smith said Tuesday after the posts were deleted. "I have not heard anything from him about whether he regrets doing that, and I'm not interested in an apology to me, but I'm interested in what he has to say, especially to the families of those that were shot."
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While Lee has not spoken with reporters or publicly acknowledged the uproar over his social media comments, the posts were deleted and removed from his page by Tuesday afternoon.
Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were fatally shot, and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were wounded early Saturday. Boelter was arrested Sunday night after an extensive manhunt.
In Utah, Republican leaders were reluctant to address Lee's tweets as FOX 13 News Anchor Max Roth talked to state legislators during their interim session on Capitol Hill. Two state senators shared some comments, including Rep. Derrin Owens (R-Fountain Green), who was asked what he would say if Lee asked him his opinion of the tweets.
"I would tell him, yeah, I would think you'd want to rethink that before tweeting," Owens said.
Ann Millner, a Republican state senator from Ogden, spoke about the importance of respecting diverse views.
"To be a vibrant Republic, you need the diversity of ideas," she said. "You need working through that."
