'Have you no decency?' Read the scathing letter a Minnesota US Senate staffer sent to Mike Lee [View all]

https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2025/06/16/minnesota-us-senate-staffer-sends/?

After Utah Sen. Mike Lee promoted right-wing conspiracy theories about the man who shot two Minnesota legislators and their spouses, killing one couple, a senior staffer for the state’s U.S. Sen. Tina Smith wrote a blistering email to Lee’s office.

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The following is the text of the letter, shared with The Salt Lake Tribune, that Smith’s Deputy Chief of Staff Ed Shelleby said he sent about the killing of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband:

I knew Melissa Hortman. Many people in this office did. She was a longtime friend of Senator Smith’s, who had seen her hours before she was murdered. So you’ll forgive my candor as I speak through enormous grief.

It is important for your office to know how much additional pain you’ve caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend. I am not sure what compelled you or your boss to say any of those things, which, in addition to being unconscionable, also may very well be untrue.

But that is not the point. Why would you use the awesome power of a United States Senate Office to compound people’s grief? Is this how your team measures success? Using the office of US Senator to post not just one but a series of jokes about an assassination — is that a successful day of work on Team Lee? Did you come into the office Monday and feel proud of the work you did over the weekend?

Entire letter at link