Tina Smith did something on Monday that’s rare for a senator: She told a colleague he caused her pain.

Smith pulled Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee out of a private Republican meeting to discuss what she called the “painful” effects of Lee’s tweets about the weekend shooting of two state legislators in her home state of Minnesota, one of them a personal friend. And one of Smith’s senior aides emailed top Lee staffers asking in stark terms: “Have you absolutely no conscience? No decency?”

Lee posted a picture of the now-apprehended suspect in the murders of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, as well as the shooting of a state senator and his wife. The conservative senator added the text “Nightmare on Waltz [sic] Street,” an apparent reference to Gov. Tim Walz; Lee posted another picture of the alleged assassin with the message: “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.”

The suspect, Vance Luther Boelter, is reportedly an abortion-rights opponent who voted for President Donald Trump last year.

“I wanted him to hear from me directly about how painful that was, and how brutal it was, to see that on what was just a horribly brutal weekend,” Smith told reporters after she confronted Lee, a discussion that left her visibly upset. “He didn’t say a lot, frankly. I think he was a bit stunned.”

“He should think about the implications of what he’s saying,” she added. “It just further fuels this hatred and misinformation.”

A Lee spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Smith’s decision to personally take Lee aside, and her staffer’s email to Lee’s staff, spoke to the trauma that members of Congress have dealt with over the past few days. On Thursday, several were openly shaken by the forcible expulsion of Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., from a press conference about the military presence in his home state.

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Then several members of Congress, including Smith, saw their names turn up on documents kept by Boelter.

On Tuesday, all senators will gather to hear about how threats to their personal safety are being handled by the Capitol Police and the Senate’s sergeant at arms.

Before then, New Mexico Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Lujan offered a blunt assessment: “Everyone needs to lower the temperature. Just stop it.”

“Now, I’m going to go on the floor — they’re going to tell me I can’t go on the floor,” said Lujan, who was dressed casually for Monday night votes in sneakers and jeans.

“They’re more concerned about what we wear on the floor than trying to keep people safe. That’s what’s happening around this place,” he added. “It’s utterly disgusting. I’m bugged about it. It’s all bad. All bad.”

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In his email to Lee staffers, a copy of which was viewed by Semafor, Smith’s deputy chief of staff, Ed Shelleby, asked: “Why would you use the awesome power of a United States Senate Office to compound people’s grief? Is this how your team measures success?”