A US senator’s X posts after the Minnesota shootings were horrific – and predictable | Austin Sarat

Mike Lee knows better than to turn tragedy into disinformation. But outrageousness has become the name of the game

National tragedy used to bring national unity. If only momentarily, partisanship was put aside, and people of all political persuasions came together.

No more. The nation received a startling reminder of that sad fact on Sunday when Republican senator Mike Lee went online to share his reaction to the weekend's horrible shooting of two Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses.

Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author or editor of more than 100 books, including Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty