Deluged with criticism, Utah Sen. Mike Lee has deleted some of his social media posts that spread misinformation about the shooting of two Minnesota Democratic lawmakers and their spouses.
The senator has, so far, not apologized for his remarks, and some misleading posts blaming the violence on “the left” remain on Lee’s personal X page.
Deleted messages seemed to have disappeared Tuesday morning, and consisted of the posts that had garnered the most criticism.
About 30 hours after the Saturday morning shootings in which former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband died, Lee shared an image of the alleged shooter wearing a mask while standing on a doorstep that was circulated by law enforcement.
Lee wrote from his @BasedMikeLee account: “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.”
Then a half hour later, in a tone that has been interpreted across the internet as mocking, he again shared the image with the message: “Nightmare on Waltz [sic] Street.” It appeared to falsely link the slayings to Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who was his party’s nominee for vice president last year.
The pages at the URLs where those posts once were now say, “Hmm ... this page doesn’t exist.”
The senator also appeared to delete a post quoting the right-wing Libs of TikTok account, which included limited information about alleged shooter Vance Boelter, reading, “So a Tim Walz appointee with ‘No Kings’ flyers in his car went on a shooting spree today and murdered and injured lawmakers?? Holy sh--.”
“Marxism is a deadly mental illness,” Lee had added.
Lee’s office has not answered multiple inquiries from The Salt Lake Tribune, including about why he deleted some posts but not others. In a Monday video from NBC News reporter Brennan Leach, Lee was recorded ignoring questions from journalists while an aide attempted to shield the senator from cameras as they left the Capitol.
Despite claims like those Lee amplified that Minnesota’s governor had close ties to the suspected shooter, Walz’s staff has said the governor did not know the alleged shooter. His office reappointed Boelter to a bipartisan economic advisory board in 2019.
Boelter, who was arrested Sunday, had a list of prominent Minnesota Democrats who supported abortion rights as well as abortion providers, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported.
The alleged shooter’s roommate and friend, David Carlson, told reporters Sunday that Boelter had become a born-again Christian and would preach in the park. He didn’t like Democratic figures like Walz and former President Joe Biden, but Carlson said his friend didn’t have extremist views.
Carlson also said Boelter voted for Trump in November.
Some posts with unfounded claims that “the left” is responsible for the acts of violence remain on Lee’s @BasedMikeLee page.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) U.S. Senator Mike Lee endorses Utah Republican state party chair incumbent candidate Rob Axson during the State Organizing Convention for the Utah Republican Party at Utah Valley University in Orem on Saturday, May 17, 2025.
In his first post about the shooting after the news broke, the senator wrote Saturday, “My guess: He’s not MAGA.”
Later that evening, Lee continued posting his assumptions about the Minnesota shooter. The senior member of Utah’s federal delegation quoted a post making the inaccurate claim that both Boelter and a man who allegedly attempted to assassinate President Donald Trump on the campaign trail are leftists.
An original post said, “The left … kills a MN state rep and her husband and injures a Senator and his wife. The left has become a full blown domestic terrorist organization.” Sharing the post with his followers, Lee commented, “Marxism kills. Americans must reject it — always.”
When Elon Musk shared that same post Monday with the remark, “The far left is murderously violent,” Lee shared that statement. He added, “Fact check: TRUE.”
Lee is a prolific user of the platform X, frequently leveraging his @BasedMikeLee account to attack his political enemies and spread false or misleading information. He has averaged more than 100 posts a day on the platform over the last several months.
The senator did not make a statement denouncing the violence in Minnesota until Sunday afternoon — nearly 26 hours after he began posting about the acts on his personal account and the day following another deadly shooting in Salt Lake City. That post was made on an official account, and was not shared on his personal one.
“These hateful attacks have no place in Utah, Minnesota, or anywhere in America,”the post from @SenMikeLee read. “Please join me in condemning this senseless violence, and praying for the victims and their families.”
Criticism of Lee’s reaction to the shooting has come from both sides of the aisle. Republican state lawmakers in Minnesota have urged Lee to retract his words, and both of the state’s U.S. senators have sounded off on his remarks.
“I have condemned what Mike Lee did here at home, and I will speak to him about this when I return,” the Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, said during a Monday morning interview on MSNBC. “And what I’m going to tell him is: This isn’t funny, what happened here.”
Reporters observed Minnesota’s other U.S. senator, Tina Smith, confronting Lee in the halls of the Capitol on Monday afternoon. In an interview with CNN that evening, Smith said, “I wanted him to know about the consequence of his words.”
Smith said Lee should apologize and delete his posts about the shooting, adding, “To indicate that somehow this was some sort of a Marxist, leftist attack that caused this violence is completely false. He’s spreading that misinformation, and he should correct that.
“I didn’t get any of that from him earlier this evening,” Smith continued, “but I hope that what I said sunk in. As my mother used to say, words have consequences. And his words have a ton of consequence, and he should own that.”
