MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell called for staff members serving for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to resign following comments he made on social media blaming Democrats for the fatal shooting of a state lawmaker in Minnesota over the weekend.
“Senator Mike Lee’s staff now live in the disgrace he has visited upon them, and they all have a moral choice in front of them now,” O’Donnell said late Monday on his nightly show.
“Mike Lee purports to be a man of great religiosity, but he is obviously not a man of great morality or great decency, and his staff has to decide tonight what to do about the disgrace he has handed them,” the “Last Word” host added.
Lee angered many Democrats over the weekend when he responded to news of the assassination of Minnesota Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband Mark by writing on social platform X, “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way.”
He followed up with a separate post including a photo of a masked man dressed up as a police officer and a headshot of suspected shooter Vance Boelter with the text “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” an apparent reference to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D).
Boelter, 57, was also accused of shooting state Sen. John Hoffman (D), and his wife at their home. The duo has undergone surgeries and are expected to survive.
The suspect was apprehended on Sunday and faces state and federal stalking and murder charges.
The Utah Republican was confronted about the posts in the Capitol by Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who told reporters she wanted the Republican to hear from her “about how painful that was and how brutal that was to see that on what was just a horrible, brutal weekend.”
O’Donnell argued that staffers for Lee should respond to the episode by resigning.
“Minimal Senate decency demands the resignation of any staff member who does not fully support Mike Lee’s despicable tweets,” the cable news host said.
“You have your own choice to make. If you agree with Mike Lee’s choice to make jokes about assassination of a Democratic officeholder in Minnesota, if you agree with that, then stay with Mike Lee, stick with Mike Lee, stick with him all the way,” he added. “But if you do have decency, you know you only have one choice.”
