'What the hell?' Morning Joe shames GOP senator over 'wacko' social media post

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough blasted Sen. Mike Lee's (R-UT) Monday over his response to the shootings of two Democratic state legislators and their spouses.

The Republican senator blamed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for the assassination of former House speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark and the wounding of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette. Vance Boelter, an apparent religious conservative and Donald Trump supporter, has been accused of the attacks.

The "Morning Joe" host was appalled by Lee's social media post.

"One politician, and I will say a man that I've known and in the past have had a good relationship, and, like, seemed like a soft- spoken man, but somebody that posted this weekend, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, obviously facing strong criticism for social media posts about the Minnesota shooting suspect," Scarborough said.

"Yesterday, Lee posted a picture of the suspect at the door of one of the lawmakers with the caption, 'This is what happens when Marxists don't get their way.' It is a pinned tweet at the top of his page, [and] 25 minutes later, the senator posted another picture of the suspected shooter with the caption, 'Nightmare on Walz Street,' mocking, of course, the situation with the name of the Minnesota governor. This post came hours before Lee tweeted a 'Happy Fathers Day' message."

"'What the hell is Mike Lee doing?'" Scarborough added, quoting conservative journalist Brad Polumbo. "'Has he completely lost it?'"

Lee faced widespread condemnation, and Scarborough added his own by stating that he would have thought the senator was above that sort of social media trolling.

"We're used to wackos on the extremes on both sides posting bizarre things on social media," Scarborough said. "What happens when it's mainstreamed by a senator? Again, a guy that I've known and used to try to be a thoughtful, conservative voice for small-government conservatism.

"When he starts posting things like this, and what is the, what's the United States Senate's answer to that? I only ask that because I can tell you back in my day, I guess in the Stone Age it is now, I mean, the senator on either side would have been roundly condemned by members of his or her own party if they had done this."

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