WASHINGTON, D.C. – During an event with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin (D- MI) spoke about the global democratic decline and warns that President Donald Trump is using an authoritarian playbook here at home.
Senator Slotkin is no stranger to calling out President Trump for actions she believes are criminal or corrupt, like pressing for the President and his family to be investigated on crypto deals or his proposed “anti-weaponization” fund, which would’ve been a 1.7 billion dollar fund to pay those the administration believes were targeted by the Biden administration.
During a discussion with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, she accused Trump of using increasingly authoritarian maneuvers to hold onto power.
“We’ve seen ICE kill unarmed citizens resulting in a cultural backlash,” said Sen. Slotkin. “We have a new Middle East war with Iran with no clear end in sight. We hear news stories of corruption each day more absurd than the last and we’ve seen the President weaponize the government against at least 20 of perceived adversaries including myself.”
Last year the President accused Slotkin and a handful of other Democratic lawmakers of sedition and said their crime is punishable by death after they called on servicemembers to not follow illegal orders. A grand jury declined to indict the members for seditious conspiracy.
The Senator said American politics are shifting and one way to maintain pro-democratic ideals is through free and fair elections. However, she accuses the Trump administration of trying to interfere in our upcoming November elections.
“He has sued 30 states for their voter rolls,” said the Senator. “He has tried to ban mail in voting and when that didn’t work, he tried to make the post office the official judge of who gets to vote by mail.”
The Trump administration has argued it’s to ensure election security and maintain accurate voter rolls but elections watchdog groups argue it’s a serious overreach into states’ administration of elections.
The Senator warns the President could take more aggressive actions in the next couple of weeks leading up to the midterms.
“If you hear within the next 34 days that there is a new security threat that you’ve never heard of that somehow requires federal law enforcement or the military and not local police, an alarm bell should go off in your brain,” said the Senator.
We reached out to the White House for a comment regarding the Senator’s comments towards the President. We did not get a response.
