Slotkin goes silent when pressed on past Trump–Guard ‘shooting’ claims after DC attack
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., remained silent Friday when asked about previous statements she made suggesting that government officials should be prepared to push back on President Donald Trump if he ordered the military to fire on civilians.
Slotkin and other Democrats now face a reversal of those worries as the country reels from a shooting Wednesday that left one National Guard member dead and another in critical condition in Washington.
Her office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Slotkin’s alarm about the National Guard and other federal troops originally stemmed from comments Trump allegedly made to former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper under his first term.
“The president in the last administration asked then-secretary (Mark) Esper to send in the 82 Airborne into Washington, D.C. to try to quell peaceful protests here in the city. And he said, if necessary, can’t you just ‘shoot at their legs?’” Slotkin said in a January committee hearing.
Esper recorded those quotes as part of the administration’s considerations of how to respond to protests over the death of George Floyd. Floyd’s 2020 killing by a Minneapolis police officer sparked nationwide protests and ignited the Black Lives Matter movement.
The quotes were included in Esper’s book, “A Sacred Oath” — a highly critical memoir of the first Trump Administration.
Trump has denied ever making the statement.
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The statements Trump allegedly made to Esper — and other questions about Trump’s use of federal troops — prompted Slotkin and six other Democrat lawmakers to release a video earlier in November, calling for service members to “not give up the ship.” In it, they urged members of the military and intelligence community to disregard illegal orders.
“The threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad but from right here at home,” the lawmakers said in the video. “Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”
When asked what they meant by illegal acts, several lawmakers pointed to Trump’s comments about shooting protesters in the legs, an act that they said would go against the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Besides Slotkin, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., also appeared in the video.
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Wednesday’s shooter’s motives remain unclear.
The FBI has identified him as 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a former member of a counterterrorism team in Afghanistan. He is in custody and faces first-degree murder charges.
The bureau has described his attack as targeted and are investigating it as an act of terrorism.
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