Mike Lee Is Spreading False Conspiracy Theories About Melissa Hortman's Death

The news of the assassination of Melissa Hortman, a Minnesota politician, and her husband Mark, made headlines across the country over the weekend. Following the news that Hortman had been killed, a manhunt also started that focused on Vance Boelter, who was apprehended on the evening of June 15.

Almost as soon as the incident was known to the public, some on the right began to spread false rumors suggesting that Boelter, the alleged gunman, was someone with radical left politics. Among those spreading that conspiracy theory was sitting Senator Mike Lee. Here's what we know about what he said, and about whether he knows that it's untrue.

Lee offered a series of posts in which he suggested that Boelter was into "Marxism" and also an image of the shooter before he had been captured accompanied by the caption "Nightmare on Waltz street," a reference to Minnesota governor Tim Walz. He then pinned a separate message with an image of the shooter, writing, "This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way."

Lee posted all of this even as more information was coming out suggesting that Boelter was actually a Trump supporter. We also have evidence that he was staunchly anti-abortion, but Lee is not allowing facts to get in the way of his narrative about Boelter and his motivations for the shooting. The violence has to come from the left because he refuses to believe that there is anyone who thinks the way he does who might perpetrate this kind of violence.

Although there were others on the right, including Elon Musk, who suggested that Boelter was a Marxist or on the far left, Lee's post received the most widespread condemnation. That's in part because Lee's political transformation has been the most extreme. He began his career as a Conservative intellectual and even opposed Trump's first nomination for president.

More recently, though, he's become known for this kind of online trolling. He even started a separate X account, @basedMikeLee, that was designed to be a jokier way for him to write about politics. Of course, what started out as jokey posts has now become the senator's entire personality, so much so that he is making depraved, terrible jokes about the death of a Minnesota politician and spreading lies about her killer.

Although Lee did not say anything directly about Melissa Hortman, in spreading fake news about her death, Lee is refusing to honor the reality that shaped her death.

A more reflective man might wonder whether his posting style had any role in that kind of violent outburst. Instead, Lee seems likely to just keep posting, refusing ever to acknowledge that he has said anything incorrect.