Sen. Elissa Slotkin acknowledged Sunday she was receiving threats after being branded “seditious” by President Donald Trump but said she wasn’t going to back off her statements addressed to the military.
Slotkin (D-Mich.) was one of six Democratic members of Congress, all veterans, who issued a statement last week that said that members of the military and the intelligence community have an obligation to refuse “illegal orders.” The others were Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.) and Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.).
Speaking Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Slotkin said: “I think I’ve been through dangerous situations before, so it doesn’t change, you know, my feeling about speaking my mind. But obviously, the president took issue with one sentence in a video and was calling for our death. I think that’s inappropriate, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican or an independent.”
Since the video was posted, Trump has repeatedly and insistently attacked the lawmakers, calling them treasonous for their statements and pushing for their arrest. “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” he said one post.
On Saturday night, he posted on Truth Social: “MANY GREAT LEGAL SCHOLARS AGREE THAT THE DEMOCRAT TRAITORS THAT TOLD THE MILITARY TO DISOBEY MY ORDERS, AS PRESIDENT, HAVE COMMITTED A CRIME OF SERIOUS PROPORTION!”
Slotkin, who served three tours of duty in Iraq as a CIA analyst, said the president’s remarks in recent days have had an impact.
“I think almost immediately, you know, the security situation changed for all of us,” she told host Martha Raddatz. “Leadership climate is set at the top.”
She also said the statements by her and her fellow veterans were not hypothetical but made in response to questions they have received.
“I think the reason we put that statement out is because the sheer number of, frankly, young officers who are coming to us and saying, ‘I just am not sure. What do I do?,'” she said, though Slotkin did not say what specific situations they might have been concerned about.
Slotkin said she thought Trump uses the Department of Justice as “a tool of fear.”
“He’s trying to get us to shut up because he doesn’t want to be talking about this,” she said. “And in fact, I would argue that one of the things that he’s been doing by repeating it and talking about it is trying to distract us from the big stories of last week, which were the Epstein files and then the economy.”
