Sen. Elissa Slotkin doubled down Monday after a weekend of conservative uproar, defending her comments calling for legal accountability for people serving in President Donald Trump’s administration who are engaging in unlawful conduct.
“This shouldn’t be controversial: if you aid in stealing taxpayer money or directing it to enrich President Trump or his family, then you should be held accountable for that crime,” Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, wrote Monday on X. “That’s what I said, and I stand by it.”
Slotkin’s comments at a University of Chicago event on Oct. 13 racked up millions of views on X after The Chicago Thinker, a student-run conservative-libertarian publication, posted a clip on Saturday of her appearance.
The Michigan Democrat called for “accountability” for those in Trump’s circle engaging in illegal activity and “doing his bidding” because they do not share the privilege of immunity that shields the president from most prosecutions for official duties.
Trending
Slotkin pushed back on the criticism Sunday and Monday. In the second of the two statements she made online, the Michigan Democrat responded to a series of comments made by Mike Davis — a prominent American conservative lawyer and staunch Trump ally — referencing gun rights.
“If @ElissaSlotkin deploys these fascist tactics, like illegal arrests and political persecutions to intimidate young Americans with opposing political views, she will learn why we have the Second Amendment,” Davis wrote in one post to X on Sunday.
Slotkin called out Davis for “suggesting I be shot” in his posts and said the lawyer “was in the mix to be President Trump’s next Attorney General after he fired Pam Bondi for not prosecuting more of his political opponents.”
Later in the post, Slotkin called for anyone who uses the justice system to intimidate political opponents to be “held accountable for that via your bar status.”
Conservatives and elected Republicans on social media took particular issue with Slotkin saying at the university event that she would like “that deterrence message sent” in reference to those looking to pursue a job in the president’s administration.
“I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration? That sounds fun, I might get an opportunity.’ I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that,’” Slotkin said.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) called Slotkin’s remarks “absolutely disgraceful” and denounced what he saw as his colleague threatening “young Americans for participating in politics and serving their country.”
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Michigan) said Slotkin was “openly admitting she wants to use the threat of prosecution as a weapon to scare young Americans out of public service and politics if they dare work for the wrong side.”
“Spare me the pearl-clutching — especially from Republican Members of Congress and online MAGA grifters who have cheered President Trump’s weaponization of the government against those he doesn’t like, as recently as last week,” Slotkin hit back Sunday in a post on X responding to Lee.
The Michigan senator faced what she called her own politically motivated prosecution last year after she and five fellow Democratic lawmakers appeared in a 90-second video telling U.S. military personnel that they are within their rights to refuse illegal orders. The FBI opened an investigation into Slotkin and her colleagues, but a federal grand jury in February declined to indict them.
“If not for an anonymous group of grand jury members standing up for America’s laws, I’d be criminally indicted for sedition,” Slotkin wrote in response to Lee. “President Trump has turned the government against people, with raucous support from you and virtually all D.C. Republicans. So spare us the manufactured outrage.”
Author
