'Grounds for expulsion': GOP senator accused of 'mocking' the murder of two Dems

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27. MaddowBlog-Too many Republicans embrace conspiracy theories and misinfo after Minnesota shootings

After the murders, Gov. Tim Walz called for "grace and compassion and vision and compromise and decency." Some on the right chose a different course.

After the murders in Minnesota, Tim Walz called for "grace and compassion and vision and compromise and decency." Some Republicans chose a far uglier course.

Take the increasingly unhinged Sen. Mike Lee, for example. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-06-16T15:59:22.764Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/republican-sen-mike-lee-peddles-misinformation-minnesota-shootings-sus-rcna213217

As is often the case, the conspiratorial ugliness quickly spread from the Republican base to Republican officials. Commenting on the murders, Sen. Bernie Moreno wrote online, “The degree to which the extreme left has become radical, violent, and intolerant is both stunning and terrifying.”

As HuffPost noted, one of Moreno’s far-right colleagues went even further.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is facing criticism over social media posts mocking this weekend’s deadly shootings in Minnesota targeting Democratic lawmakers. While the suspected killer was still on the run ... Lee fired off a series of messages. ... One suggested the suspect, Vance Boelter, was into “Marxism,” despite reports that he was a religious conservative who had attended rallies in support of President Donald Trump.

In a separate online item, Lee showed a photo of the alleged shooter in a mask, alongside the senator’s message that read, “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” in apparent reference to Walz.

Lee then pinned one of his tweets — which read, “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way,” referring to the deadly shootings — to the top of his feed for special emphasis.

The obvious problem with garbage like this is that it’s factually wrong: Everything we now know so far about the alleged gunman suggests that he was an anti-abortion Trump voter, not a far-left Marxist......

But let’s not lose sight of the fact that Lee’s trajectory is emblematic of a larger and unsettling pattern.

In the not-too-distant past, the Utah Republican presented himself as something of a conservative intellectual. He withdrew his Trump endorsement ahead of Election Day 2016, and there was even some discussion that the senator wanted to be considered for the U.S. Supreme Court.

But that was before his descent. A couple of years ago, Lee started amplifying weird allegations from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ InfoWars website. Soon after, the GOP senator endorsed baseless Jan. 6 conspiracy theories. In the months that followed, he pushed AI-generated misinformation as if it were real.

Now, as Bloomberg News’ Steven Dennis noted, the Utahn has been reduced to “online trolling on assassinations.”

To appreciate the tragedy of Republican politics in the Trump era, look no further than the devolution of Mike Lee.