GOP Senator Mike Lee –Another Grand Conspiracy Theorist November 26, 2023
You think Demagogue Donald is the only wacko who continues to push absurd conspiracy theories about how the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him? Think again. In Trump’s camp of MAGA conspiracy zanies, let’s now include GOP Senator Mike Lee. On the weekend of November 18-19, 2023, Sen. Lee was aggressively pushing tin foil hat nonsense. The nature of his bizarro “claim?” Lee latched on to the unfounded and debunked conspiracy that federal agents or informants were part of the mob responsible for the January 6, 2021 fatal coup attempt on the Capitol, an attack solely led and peopled by rabid MAGA supporters incited by Demagogue Donald (sltrib.com, 11/21/23). On 11/17/23, Lee tweeted to former Jan. 6th House Committee Chair, Wyoming’s Liz Cheney that she and her committee were deliberately withholding footage of the Capitol riot. In Lee’s words, “How many of these guys are feds? (“As if you’d ever tell us.”) Cheney tweeted back, “Hey@BasedMikeLee--heads up. A nutball conspiracy theorist appears to be posting from your account (sltrib. com, 11/21/23).” The nutball conspiracy theorist was none other than Sen. Mike Lee. Lee, just like extremist MTG, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) additionally called for an investigation into the House Jan 6th Committee. Lee further picked up on a post from former West VA legislator Derrick Evans that featured a photo of a Trump supporter inside the Capitol holding an object in his hand. Evans implied that the person in the photo was “flashing a badge.” Evans then told Lee that this picture, in effect, “proved” that undercover agents “were disguised as MAGA.” The person in that photo, Kevin Lyons, was not holding a badge. He was carrying a vape and a photograph and wallet stolen from then Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Lyons was sentenced to four years in jail for his Jan. 6th behavior. Evans himself pleaded guilty to a felony and was sentenced to three months in federal prison. He is now running for Congress as a GOPer in “Red” State W. VA (nbcnews.com, 11/20/23, Reilly, R., sltrib.com, 11/21/23). Now it’s time for us to meet Mike Lee.
Third-term, U.S. Senator Mike Lee (52), is Utah’s senior Senator. A native of Mesa, AZ, Lee was the son of Rex Lee, who was President Reagan’s Solicitor General. His father was also the founding dean of Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. Mike Lee’s older brother was a former Utah Supreme Court Justice. As a young adult, Mike Lee did a two-year stint as a Mormon missionary in TX’s Rio Grande Valley (lee senate.gov). Lee has blood ties to several former politicians on both sides of the aisle. He is a second cousin to former Democratic U.S. Senators Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Udall of New Mexico, as well as former GOP Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon (sltrib., Davidson, 10/24/10). Mike Lee spent half his childhood in Utah and the other half in the D.C. suburb of McLean, VA. He attended Brigham Young University (BYU) where he was Student Body President while his father was that school’s President. Mike Lee received a BYU undergraduate degree in 1994 and a 1997 law degree from BYU’s Clark Law School where he was a member of the Law Review, an honor reserved for high- ranking students (lee senate.gov).
After graduating law school, Lee clerked from 1997-1998 for U.S. District Court Judge Dee Benson for the District of Utah. From 1998-1999, Lee clerked for then Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Samuel Alito before Alito went to the U.S. Supreme Court. After his Circuit Court clerkship with Alito, Lee specialized in appellate and Supreme Court litigation in the D.C. office of the major law firm Sidley Austin. In 2002, Lee returned to UT to serve as Assistant U.S. Attorney in Salt Lake City. In that post, Lee wrote briefs and argued before the Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. From 2005-2006, Lee became general counsel to UT GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. From 2006-2007, Lee again clerked for Alito, now on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his Supreme Ct. clerkship with Alito, Lee returned to Salt Lake City where he joined the prominent law firm Howery LLP (lee.senate.gov, thehill.com, 10/27/10).
Lee decided to challenge 18-year solid conservative UT GOP Senator Bob Bennett. Why? Because Bennett had voted for the bailout of the financial industry and for Democratic Pres. Obama’s $787 billion stimulus bill. Bennett also was a chief supporter of bipartisan health care legislation. Lee called Bennett’s votes and bipartisan support of health care serious “deviations” from GOP beliefs (Cohen & Cook Political Almanac 2022). Although Republican Mitt Romney and then UT GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch endorsed incumbent Bennett, he was unable to finish first or second at the 2010 UT Republican State Convention, which he needed to do to get on the primary ballot. Tea Party activists liked Lee’s conservatism. On the second state convention ballot, Bennett finished third and was eliminated from running in the primary. Lee won the primary election and then clobbered his Democratic rival in “Ultra-Red” Utah 62%-33%. He has easily coasted to victory in his 2016 and 2022 re-election campaigns (election results, utah.gov,2010, 2016, 2022, Cohen & Cook 2022).
Sen. Lee has a very strong conservative record that clearly matches what his constituents want in “Dripping Red” Utah. In 2011, the right-wing Club for Growth gave Sen. Lee a 100% score. That same year, Sen. Lee received an identical 100% rating from the American Conservative Union, while the Heritage Foundation gave him a 99% score. A Liberal Action score gave Lee a near bottom 38% rating (webarchive.org, heritageaction.com, conservative.org/rating). On 10/28/2020, Lee compared Trump to a heroic figure in the Book of Mormon. He stated that Trump wants only “the well-being and peace of the American people (sltrib.com, Riess, J., 10/29/20).” Text messages by the Jan. 6th Committee demonstrated Lee’s close coordination with Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the aftermath of Trump’s 2020 loss to Biden. This committee found that Lee, Cong. Chip Roy (R-TX), and Meadows had discussed their plans to overturn the election results in over 100 emails (washingtonpost.com, Downie, 4/17/22). In the weeks after the election, Lee pursued a series of strategies to overturn the election results. He claimed to have worked “14 hours a day” on this effort (washingtonpost.com, 4/15/22). Lee initially attempted to persuade state legislatures in states Biden won to put forward alternative slates of electors, aka, “fake electors,” and promoted the efforts of attorneys Sidney Powell and later disbarred John Eastman in this area (washingtonpost.com, 4/15/22). Ultimately, Lee became worried about the lack of evidence and voted to certify Biden’s election (Solender, 4/15/22, axios.com). However, after Trump’s followers stormed the Capitol on 1/06/21, Lee stated that Trump should be given a “mulligan” for his inflammatory Jan. 6 speech that triggered the Capitol attempted coup (nytimes.com, Thrush, 2/09/21). On 5/28/21, Lee voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6th riot (Downie, washingtonpost.com, 4/17/22).
Lee currently sits on the influential Senate Budget, Energy & Natural Resources, and Judiciary Committees (CQ 118th Congress At Your Fingertips). Throughout his time in the Senate, Lee has been labeled that body’s “most conservative member, (nytimes.com/interactive, 7/28/17, Parlapiano, Andrews, et al),” and an ideological fellow on the far-right end of the political spectrum (govtrack.us, utahdatapoints). Lee is a member of the far-right Federalist Society (utahscouts.org, 9/04/11).
And here is where Sen. Lee stands on some of the key issues. On July 17, 2019, Jon Stewart criticized Lee for blocking a bill that provided Victims Compensation Fund support for disabled 9/11 responders. On July 23, 2019, Lee was one of two U.S. Senators to vote against the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (See Chiu, 7/18/19, washingtonpoist.com). In 10/2020, Lee sent a series of tweets declaring that the U.S. is “not a democracy…Rank democracy can thwart allowing the human condition to flourish (vox.com/policy, Beauchamp, Z., 10/08/20).” According to a Maryland economics professor, Sen. Lee fundamentally misunderstood the terms “democracy” and “republic (Haltiwanger, J., businessinsider.com). Saying the U.S. is not a “democracy,” is dangerous drivel that has been spouted for years by extremist groups including the John Birch Society. Sen. Lee additionally has said on Fox News that the For the People Act which attempts to expand voting rights, reduce the influence of money in politics, and limit partisan gerrymandering is “rotten to the core” and “could have been written in Hell by the devil himself (thehill.com, 3/10/21).” Lee successfully pushed Trump to withdraw from the environmental Paris Agreement. Lee has received over $253, 415 from oil, gas, and coal interests since 2012 (theguardian.com, McCarthy & Gambino (6/01/17).
Sen. Lee has additionally condemned the Supreme Ct’s. “Obergefell v. Hodges” decision that held same-sex marriage bans violated the Constitution (votesmart.org, 4/12/22). Sen. Lee has proposed a plan to have workers born after 1969 wait until their 70th birthdays to receive full Social Security benefits, rather than at age 67 under current law (thespectrum.com, 4/13/11). In 12/2020, Lee was the sole Senator to vote against the ALS Disability Insurance Access Act of 2019, which eliminated the five-month waiting period for those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to receive Social Security benefits (senate.gov). In March, 2016, eight months before the 2016 election, Lee opposed considering Obama’s Supreme Ct. nomination of Merrick Garland, (now Biden’s Attorney General), during a presidential election year, because “the contentious presidential election was already well underway.” However, in September 2020, less than two months before another contentious presidential election, also involving Donald Trump, Lee joined the GHP, the G rand Hypocrite P arty. He did that by supporting an immediate Senate vote to confirm Donald’s nominee Amy Coney Barrett (Desjardins, L., pbs.org, 9/22/20). On October 2, 2020, Sen. Lee announced he had tested positive for COVID-19. A few days earlier, he had attended an event for Barrett at the White House where he was unmasked and had interacted with a number of people who had tested positive for COVID-19. He hugged people at that event (marketwatch.com, Schroeder, R., 10/02/20). Again, based on Lee’s ultra-conservative scores, none of his views, actions, and votes should be surprising.
Democrats are barely holding on to a majority in the Senate. Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W-VA )’s not running in 2024 will probably flip that Senate seat “Red.” Democrats must, therefore, come out in droves to elect more “Team Blue” Senators and defend the seats we currently hold. Sen. Lee with his conspiracy theories must continue to remain irrelevant.