MSNBC host Michael Steele, a former chair of the Republican National Committee, excoriated President Donald Trump and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on Tuesday over their “astounding” insensitivity following the assassination of Minnesota Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband over the weekend.
“It just is astounding to me, the level of immaturity, insensitivity and lack of empathy between Senator Lee and, of course, President Trump, who said, ‘I don’t need to talk to … [Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz], he’s a mess,’” Steele said on “The Weeknight.”
“Who do these people represent?” he added. “Is this who we are in this country now?”
When reporters asked the president Tuesday if he had called Walz yet to discuss the incident, he said the Democrat is “slick” and “whacked out.” Trump, who vowed last year to be president “for all of America, not half of America,” then plainly refused.
“I’m not calling him,” he said aboard Air Force One.
The Hortmans were fatally shot early Saturday at their Minnesota home by a gunman impersonating a police officer. Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette, were also shot multiple times at their home. The latter couple has since undergone surgery.
A suspect wanted in the attack was later identified as 57-year-old Vance Boelter and was arrested Sunday after a manhunt. Lee had shared several social media posts in the meantime, baselessly suggesting Boelter was into “Marxism” and part of the political left.
“Is this what we do?” Steele asked Tuesday about Lee’s and Trump’s comments. “We’ve gone through 9/11. We’ve gone through COVID. We’ve gone through trials and tribulations as a country. We’ve watched individuals suffer, and we’ve rallied to them in the past.”
Lee had also shared an image of the suspect at a victim’s door, writing: “Nightmare on Waltz Street.” Boelter was appointed in 2019 by Walz’s office to the Governor’s Workforce Development Board, but was also an apparent conservative who attended Trump rallies.
“I don’t understand what this says now,” Steele said during Tuesday’s discussion. “What are we saying about ourselves, when our leaders — a United States senator and a president of the United States — act like a damn 2-year-old?”
Steele went on to wager that the Republicans in question are plain “insensitive, just not realizing what their words mean and the impact that they’re having,” and “really don’t seem to care.” One of his co-hosts went even further with Steele’s prior point about immaturity.
“I think there are some 2-year-olds that actually have more decency than the president of the United States and the senator from Utah have exhibited in this moment,” said Symone Sanders Townsend.
Lee has since deleted many of the social media posts.