Sen. Mike Lee Deletes Posts Blaming Left for Minnesota Legislator's Murder After Backlash

Senator Lee's Controversial Social Media Posts

• 📌 Senator Mike Lee faced significant backlash for social media posts he made after the murder of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband.
• 🎯 Lee's posts, made on his personal X account, associated the deadly attacks with leftist politics and the state's Democratic governor.
• ⚠️ One post, under a picture of the suspected gunman, stated, "This is what happens when Marxists don't get their way."
• 💡 Another post referenced a photo of the suspect with the caption, "Nightmare on Walt Street," seemingly alluding to Governor Tim Walz.

Public Reaction and Deletion

• ⚡ The senator's comments drew a torrent of condemnation, including from fellow Republicans.
• 💬 Tina Smith, a Democratic US Senator from Minnesota and friend of the victims, confronted Lee about the pain his posts caused.
• 🚫 As of Tuesday afternoon, Lee had deleted both social media posts from his account.
• 🎤 Despite removing the posts, Senator Lee has not issued a public comment regarding the incident.

Suspect and Conspiracy Theories

• 🔍 The suspect in the killings was identified as 57-year-old Vance Belter.
• 🧠 Conspiracies about Belter's motivations circulated on social media, fueled partly by his 2019 appointment by Governor Walz to a workforce development board.
• 🗣️ However, friends of Belter indicated he was a supporter of President Trump and consumed right-wing media like Infowars.
• ⚠️ Lee later responded to an Elon Musk post calling the left "murderously violent," with Lee's response being fact-checked as "true."