Tearing into Mike Lee on Monday for his tweets that seemingly blamed the politically motivated shootings of Minnesota lawmakers on “Marxists” and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the hosts of The View said that if the GOP senator had “any other job,” he would “be fired instantly.”
Less than a day after saying he condemned “political violence” following the fatal shooting at a protest in his home state of Utah, Lee took to his personal X account labeled @BasedMikeLee – where he regularly peddles far-right disinformation – to mock the tragedy and point the finger at Democrats and leftists.
One tweet, for instance, included an image of alleged shooter Vance Boelter in a mask outside one of his targets’ homes alongside the caption: “Nightmare on Waltz Street.” Another post, which Lee had pinned to his profile until Monday, suggested that left-wing ideology was to blame for the murders.
“Marxism is a deadly mental illness,” he wrote. “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.”
While the Republican senator was hardly alone in pushing baseless conspiracy theories that Boelter – who has been identified as a Trump supporter with heavily conservative views – was a far-left Walz ally, Lee’s tweets have drawn more mainstream attention largely because he is a member of Congress.
“I have condemned what Mike Lee did here at home, and I will speak to him about this when I return,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), whose name was included on one of Boelter’s lists, told MSNBC. “And what I’m going to tell him is: This isn’t funny.”
Klobuchar, who was close friends with slain former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, added that there was “no Father’s Day for” the two children the deceased couple left behind.
With others calling for Lee to apologize and even resign, the women of The View blasted the conservative lawmaker for his conspiracy-mongering while expressing concern about the “deep political polarization” and demonization across partisan divides.
“It’s like a slow dehumanization of the other – whatever that other is to someone,” co-host Sara Haines said. “In this instance, it’s a political division. And I think people need to check in with themselves. When they hear someone is attacked in their house, if their first response is not feeling gutted and heartbroken without any identifiers… if that was not your first response, you are part of the problem.”
Singling out Lee, Haines said he was “either mocking what happened” in Minnesota or suggesting something else entirely. After reading off both of his tweets, she noted that Lee sent them out “within hours of the loss of life and the brutal attack in these people’s homes.”
Then, in a somewhat ironic twist considering the recent situation with her now-former ABC News colleague Terry Moran, Haines said that Lee would find himself on the unemployment line if he made these posts anywhere else.
“In any other job, you would be fired instantly,” she declared. “I don’t know what is wrong with our government that someone is not immediately removed or punished.”
Moments later, meanwhile, longtime host Whoopi Goldberg said she was “not going to pull” her punches while also taking House Speaker Mike Johnson to task for his saying last week that Gavin Newsom should be “tarred and feathered” after the president suggested the California governor should be arrested amid Los Angeles’ anti-ICE protests.
“What are you doing? Y’all are saying we need to come down on the rhetoric and stop doing it, then you don’t,” she exclaimed. “I’m putting this in your hands. I’m putting this in the hands of the people who are supposed to be representing us.”
Goldberg added: “If you are not going to represent us, then don’t run for office because this is not the way to do it … If your first response is not, ‘What the hell is going on?’ then you should not be running for anything.”
Authorities say that Boelter – who also shot and injured State Sen. John Hiffman and his wife Yvette – “stalked his victims like prey” and “shot them in cold blood” while disguised as a police officer. Prosecutors added that while Boelter listed the names of 45 Minnesota state and federal elected officials in notebooks in his car, and he clearly only targeted Democrats, the motivation behind the “political assassination” wasn’t apparent yet.
“I have not seen anything involving some sort of political screed or manifesto that would clearly identify what motivated him,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joe Thompson said at a Monday press conference.
