Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said Monday that she confronted Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah over his social media posts about the suspect in shootings that took the life of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband.
Smith said she confronted Lee after his “cruel” posts, in which he included a photo of the suspected gunman and wrote, “this is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way.”
“I wanted him to know how much pain that caused me and the other people in my state and I think around the country, who think that this was a brutal attack,” Smith told reporters.
She added that Lee needed to hear from her “directly” and think about the “impact his actions had.”
“I don’t know whether Senator Lee thought fully through what it was, you’d have to ask him, but I needed him to hear from me directly what impact I think his cruel statement had on me, his colleague,” Smith said.
A gunman fatally shot state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and injured state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman. Vance Boelter, the suspect wanted in the shootings, was arrested Sunday night.
Authorities have described the shooting as a “politically motivated assassination.”
Lee’s posts sparked condemnation from other Democrats as well, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
When asked by NBC News about Smith’s confrontation with him, Lee declined to answer, and an aide attempted to shield him from cameras as he left the Capitol.
