Republican Sen. Mike Lee on Tuesday deleted several social media posts about the killing of a lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota after outrage from Senate colleagues.
The decision to delete the posts came just a day after Lee was confronted by Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat who knew slain state Rep. Melissa Hortman personally. Smith was seen speaking animatedly to Lee in a Senate hallway during votes on Tuesday.
“I wanted him to know how much pain that caused me and the other people in my state, and I think around the country, who think that this was a brutal attack,” Smith told reporters following the confrontation with Lee on Tuesday. “I don’t know whether Senator Lee thought fully through what it was — you have to ask him — but I needed him to hear from me directly what impact I think his cruel statement had on me, his colleague.”