I have made only one visit to Utah, where I found the people to be respectful, helpful, decent and honest, which is why I can’t understand how and why Mike Lee is your senator.
His recent comments on the murder of a fellow public servant — and the terrible wounding of another — are beyond the pale. They reflect badly on the state that elected him. You put him in office, and you continue to elect and support this person.
All you need to know about Melissa Hortman, our murdered DFL leader, is that her Republican colleagues were openly weeping when they spoke about her toughness but fairness, her honor, her goodness and her friendship. One described how, on one of the great nights of her life, when she had won the speakership, she made a private call to check in on him to see how he was doing — because he had lost a tough election.
Contrast that with your own senator and ask yourself, “Is this the person I want representing Utah?”
Next time he asks you for your vote, whether it be for the U.S. Senate or as a dogcatcher, please remember the following: On the day after two people were assassinated and two others were shot in their own homes, he used his powerful platform to tweet lies about the background of the killer and made a joke about the shootings (“Nightmare on Waltz (sic) Street”).
I ask you to remember what he was joking about: the murder of a public servant and her family member and the wounding of another and his wife. That wife, by the way, was shot eight times while cradling and protecting her daughter. Please think of her when Lee is running for reelection.
Richard Young, Minneapolis
Correction, June 17 at 4 p.m. • An earlier version of this story misstated the position of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and has been corrected.
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