Dem
47
GOP
53
Let us start by getting this out of the way: Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is a giant jerk. Many of his colleagues write or say obnoxious things because they have to "own the libs" to keep their bases happy. Lee, by contrast, appears to do it primarily because he enjoys it.
When it comes to production of sh**-stirring social media content, there are few members of either chamber of Congress who can keep up with a Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) or a Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-SC). And the only member of the Senate who generally gives them a run for their money is Lee. He has three eX-Twitter accounts, for example. The two for his U.S. Senate office and for his campaign(s) are largely run by staff. The one that gets far and away the most attention, @BasedMikeLee, is reportedly produced almost entirely by the Senator himself, and is full of conspiracy theories, and propaganda and outright lies. In 2024, he posted messages to that account an average of 36 times per day. This year, it's jumped to 100 times per day. That's about one every 15 minutes, every day, all day. If we imagine he takes time to, say, sleep, eat, and shower, then it's roughly about one for every 7-8 minutes that he's not performing basic human maintenance.
To support our "giant jerk" observation, we will point out that it is the @BasedMikeLee account that had the reprehensible messages about the Minnesota lawmaker who was assassinated. For any readers who do not recall, or who did not follow, the story, Lee decided the assassination was an opportunity to score some political points. So, he posted some very crass comments to eX-Twitter, including "Nightmare on Waltz street" (a potshot at Gov. Tim Walz, DFL-MN, who was conspiratorially accused of having appointed the assassin to political office), and "this is what happens When Marxists don't get their way." It is in poor taste to post such things, even if they are true. And eventually, it became clear that Walz' connection to the shooter was so thin as to be nonexistent, and that the shooter was most certainly not a Marxist (he was basically a far-right anarchist). Even then, Lee left the tweets up, until he was confronted by the two senators from Minnesota, who told him that he needed to take the messages down.
That's the "giant jerk" part (and we could easily expand that section, if we thought it worthwhile). Now, the part about how this isn't primarily driven by red meat for his base. A huge chunk of the Utah population belongs to the LDS Church (between 42% and 64%, depending on whose numbers you believe), and an even huger chunk of the Utah Republican electorate (between 50% and 75%, again depending on whose numbers you believe) are LDS. And Lee's tweets have been so incendiary, and so contrary to the letter and the spirit of the religion, that Church leadership has told him that he should knock it off. Lee has declined to follow that advice. We would say that is pretty good evidence that Lee's often mean-spirited and dishonest tweets are NOT what many Utahns in general, and what many Utahn Republicans in particular, are clamoring for. He almost certainly costs himself more votes with his Twitter behavior than he gains.
And so, it is nice to hear that Lee finally got a little bit of comeuppance as a result of his Twitter behavior. Not a lot, mind you, but a little. See, Lee hates, hates, hates the Federal Reserve Bank, for a host of reasons, some of them more libertarian in nature, and some of them more conspiratorial in nature. The Senator also loves, loves, loves Donald Trump; sometimes, it seems, in a manner that may not be consistent with church doctrine (there are two different ways that could be true; we will let readers decide for themselves which is more on target). Anyhow, the Senator's hatred of the Fed and love of Donald Trump naturally mean that he regards Fed Chair Jerome Powell as Public Enemy #1.
Last week, Lee learned that Powell had resigned his post. As it had been at least 6 minutes since his last tweet, the Senator just could not wait to get on eX-Twitter to share the news, including Powell's letter of resignation:
If you examine the letter for more than 2 seconds (as opposed to rushing to eX-Twitter to share it), you can see the failure to use proper formatting for a formal letter, the inappropriate word breaks, the misplaced apostrophes and other grammar errors and, perhaps most obviously, the train wreck of a supposed "Federal Reserve" seal. If you wanted to spend another 2 seconds, you could do some quick googling, and learn that Powell's signature does not look like that.
Yes, it was a fake. An obvious fake, clearly cooked up by some AI engine. And Lee fell for it, hook, line and sinker. So, he was subject to much derision on social media, including on his beloved eX-Twitter. There were also many pieces, like this one, pointing out how often he falls victim to misinformation, which in turn suggests he's either stupid, or dishonest, or both. Again, not a lot of comeuppance, but a little. And he certainly deserves it, particularly after that awful Minnesota stunt. (Z)