Utah senator alienates conservative Mormon Church leaders with 'bellicose' MAGA stunts

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a 54-year-old Gen-Xer, achieved prominence in right-wing politics during the GOP's pre-MAGA era. Lee was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010 as part of the red wave that then-President Barack Obama famously described as a "shellacking" for the Democratic Party. And he was reelected in 2016 and 2022.

Because of President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, the GOP has changed a great deal since Lee's 2010 campaign — and Lee has become increasingly performative in an effort to stay in Trump's good graces. But according to Politico reporter Samuel Benson, the Utah Republican's online political stunts are turning off Mormons in his deeply conservative state.

Benson, in an article published on July 11, explains, "It was Father's Day morning, but Mike Lee was still hard at work on social media. Just before 11 o'clock, Lee posted an image of Vance Boelter, the man charged with murdering two Minnesota lawmakers a day earlier. 'This is what happens,' Lee captioned it, 'when Marxists don't get their way.' Ten minutes later, he posted again. 'Nightmare on Waltz Street,' he wrote, suggesting that Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz was to blame for the grisly murders."

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The Politico reporter continues, "Lee's posts generated near-instant national backlash. His mentions filled with people calling on him to resign. Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat, cornered Lee at the U.S. Capitol the next night and gave him an earful. So did Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, another Minnesotan. A top aide in Smith's office wrote a letter to Lee's staffers rebuking them for 'making jokes' to 'compound people's grief.'"

Benson emphasizes, however, that Washington, DC isn't the only place where Lee drew strong condemnation for his comments on the Minnesota shootings — he also "set off a debate in Salt Lake City" and offended Mormon Church leaders. Lee himself is a Mormon, like former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).

"Several of the church's senior leaders saw the posts and were concerned," Benson reports. "Lee is a prominent Latter-day Saint, arguably the best-known elected church member in the nation. His insensitive words were reflecting poorly on the faith at large. One church official estimated the backlash from Lee's posts would have severe repercussions for the church’s public image, the first person said."

Benson adds, "As extreme as the situation was, the issue at the center of the firestorm was nothing new. For two-and-a-half years, Lee has been sliding deeper and deeper into a hyper-online echo chamber…. But for Lee's church, that bellicose online alter ego poses a problem. Even as some Christian denominations have delved into Christian nationalism or partisan politics during the Trump era, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly referred to as the Mormon Church, has consistently called on members to do the opposite: to be 'peacemakers' in the civic square."

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Read the full Politico article at this link.