How the right spread ‘brutal and cruel’ misinformation after Minnesota lawmaker killings

The rightwing media ecosystem spins up narratives to serve their agendas after tragic events, regardless of accuracy

Tina Smith, a Minnesota senator confronted Mike Lee, a Utah senator, on Monday to tell him directly that his social media posts fueled ongoing misinformation about a shooting that killed her friend.

Lee's posts, which advanced conspiracies that a Minnesota assassin was a Marxist" and blamed the state's governor for Melissa Hortman's death, were among many threads of false or speculative claims swirling online after the killings.