People are horrified after a sitting senator mocked the deaths of a Democratic lawmaker and her husband, who were assassinated over the weekend.
“This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way,” wrote U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) on social media, along with a photo of the alleged killer.
Related
This gay couple decorated their home with Pride rainbows. A church tore them all down.
They’d reached a compromise, but the church removed the Pride flags anyway.
On Sunday night, police arrested 57-year-old anti-LGBTQ+ evangelical Christian Vance Boelter for killing Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, Mark, and for allegedly shooting state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife on Saturday morning.
Insights for the LGBTQ+ community
Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
Local Minnesota news outlet KARE interviewed Boelter’s roommate and alleged best friend, David Carlson. Carlson said that Boelter was a strong supporter of the president, despite numerous right-wing social media posts by transphobic billionaire Elon Musk and other conservative politicians claiming that Boelter was a left-wing “Marxist” because he once served on a bipartisan board under Gov. Tim Walz (D).
Democratic groups and lawmakers, as well as some conservatives, expressed their disgust for Lee’s comment, which both makes light of these tragic deaths and spreads misinformation.
“He is one of YOU,” wrote Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). “Get A Life.”
He is one of YOU
Get
A
Life https://t.co/yXOptC0sAv— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) June 15, 2025
“For a U.S. senator to be posting fake information like this after Democratic lawmakers were just shot is just so beneath contempt I don’t even know where to begin,” added MediasTouch cofounder Brett Meiselas. “In a normal world this would be grounds for expulsion or censure at minimum but we live in hell so.”
In a normal world this would be grounds for expulsion or censure at minimum but we live in hell so
— Brett Meiselas
(@BMeiselas) June 15, 2025
Conservative and Lincoln Project cofounder Rick Wilson wrote, “The surgery to remove your sense of shame was a success. Congrats, I guess.”
Democratic strategist Matt McDermott called Lee’s comments “depraved moral rot,” and the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party called them “evil and vile.”
The Democratic Party called out “pathetic” Lee for spending his Father’s Day “tweeting lies about a tragedy to run cover for a right-wing domestic terrorist.”
Leaving MAGA founder Rich Logis wrote, “The acceptance of avoidable deaths, suffering, and trauma was one of the reasons I could no longer stay in the MAGA community. It was a line of demarcation I could not cross.”
The acceptance of avoidable deaths, suffering and trauma was one of the reasons I could no longer stay in the MAGA community.
It was a line of demarcation I could not cross. https://t.co/sn6XWZ7LZl
— Leaving MAGA/Rich Logis
(@PerfectOurUnion) June 15, 2025
Boelter’s arrest followed an intense manhunt. Police arrested him in the woods of Sibley County using surveillance drones and infrared technology to detect him, CNN reported. They found at least three AK-47 assault rifles, a 9-millimeter handgun in the suspect’s vehicle, along with a suspected hit list of 70 individuals, including Democratic lawmakers and supporters of reproductive choice and other liberal causes, The Washington Post reported.
Hortman’s final post on Facebook recognized Pride Month and said, “Republicans spent all session trying to erase LGBTQ+ equality laws. Democrats stopped them.”
The post is of particular significance since Boelter recently delivered an anti-LGBTQ+ sermon in Africa, where he said, “There’s people, especially in America, they don’t know what sex they are — they don’t know their sexual orientation, they’re confused. The enemy has gotten so far into their mind and their soul.” He then proclaimed that God and the Bible can remove such “sin.”
Lee also has an anti-LGBTQ+ track record, with a score of nine out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard for LGBTQ+ support. In 2018, he fought the confirmation of Chai Feldblum, a gay woman, to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) because he claimed she wanted to “use the might of government to stamp out traditional marriage supporters.”
In a statement at the time, Lee said that Feldblum had “radical views on marriage“ because she signed a document in 2006 calling for the government to protect non-marital relationships like caregivers, domestic partners, and close friends and siblings who live together. Few states recognized marriage equality in 2006.
“Don’t think for a second that you, your family, and your neighbors will be left alone if Feldblum gets her way,” Lee wrote, saying that Feldblum will side with LGBTQ+ people even if someone who discriminates claims that they were motivated by their religion.
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.