Overview
- Lee, posting early Monday from his personal “BasedMikeLee” X account, shared a meme that labeled Elizabeth Warren as O. J. Simpson and Spirit Airlines as Nicole Brown Simpson with the caption “Nailed it.”
- The post followed Spirit’s weekend announcement that it would shut down operations, with court papers filed Monday citing recent geopolitical events that drove up fuel prices as the reason.
- Conservative critics linked Spirit’s fate to Warren’s 2024 push to block a JetBlue–Spirit merger, while Warren argued that a judge halted the deal and that soaring fuel costs pushed the carrier under.
- Online reaction was immediate and harsh, including a rebuke from gun-safety advocate Shannon Watts, and there were no reports of formal Senate penalties.
- The episode fit a pattern for Lee, who was suspended from X in 2023 after an apparent threat toward Japan’s prime minister and who has shared false material, including a fake letter that claimed to be Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s resignation.