Slotkin faces GOP backlash after suggesting probes could deter young people from joining the Trump administration

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Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin is drawing criticism from a Republican lawmaker and other conservatives after suggesting congressional investigations could deter recent graduates from joining the Trump administration.

The controversy stemmed from Slotkin’s remarks at a University of Chicago event last week, when she was asked how Congress could reassert its role as a check on the Trump administration. Slotkin said if Democrats regained the majority in Congress, they should look to pass major domestic bills and use their oversight powers to focus on “signature” examples of corruption by the Trump administration, targeting not just the president, but also aides who did his “bidding.”

“I wanna look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president but on the people who enabled him,” she said. “I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration?’ … I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want. And so let me avoid participating in that.’ I want that deterrence message sent.”

The remarks sparked backlash from Republicans, including Sen. Mike Lee, who accused her of threatening young, politically inclined Americans, and Mike Davis, the head of a conservative legal group, who accused Slotkin of trying to scare young people away from government and wrote she should “learn about the Second ​Amendment, sweetheart.”

Slotkin said Davis, in those comments, was suggesting she be shot, and that it amounted to the mobilization of “death threats” against her and her staff “for sport.”

The controversy over the comments comes in the final sprint to the midterm elections with Democrats increasingly optimistic they could win the House and potentially even the Senate. Both parties are already bracing for what is expected to be an outpouring of congressional investigations into the Trump administration if Democrats prevail.

A group that identifies itself as the University of Chicago’s “leading student-run conservative & libertarian publication” clipped a portion of Slotkin’s comments in an X post, which has been viewed over 7 million times. In response to that clip, Lee wrote, “It is absolutely disgraceful to threaten young Americans for participating in politics and serving their country.”

Slotkin said in response on X that the Utah Republican was “lying about what I said,” and wrote, “spare us the manufactured outrage.”

The Michigan senator noted she was the target of Trump’s Justice Department, which investigated her and other Democratic lawmakers after they posted a video urging service members and intelligence officials to disobey any illegal orders from the administration.

“If not for an anonymous group of grand jury members standing up for America’s laws, I’d be criminally indicted for sedition. President Trump has turned the government against people, with raucous support from you and virtually all D.C. Republicans,” she wrote in a post to Lee.

“If you have aided in the corrupt use of U.S. taxpayer dollars to benefit the President or his family, or you have violated the law in order to carry out guidance from the President, you should be held accountable,” she wrote. “And given how rampant that corruption appears to the average American, people looking to work for his Administration should realize that while the Supreme Court has granted the President immunity, it has not done the same for those who do illegal things at his behest.”

Other Trump administration officials, including Director of the Office of Personnel Management Scott Kupor, have chastised Slotkin’s comments.

“This is incredibly disappointing and unprofessional coming from a US Senator - endorsing political prosecutions to dissuade patriotic Americans from serving their country,” he wrote. “In contrast, we at @USOPM believe in recruiting the best and brightest early career prospects.”

凯文迪奇/盖蒂图片社/文件

民主党参议员埃莉萨·斯洛特金 (Elissa Slotkin) 因暗示国会调查可能会阻止应届毕业生加入特朗普政府而受到共和党议员和其他保守派人士的批评。

这场争议源于斯洛特金上周在芝加哥大学一次活动上的发言。当时，她被问及国会如何才能重新发挥其对特朗普政府的制衡作用。斯洛特金表示，如果民主党重新夺回国会多数席位，他们应该着力通过重要的国内法案，并利用其监督权，重点关注特朗普政府的“标志性”腐败案例，不仅要追究总统本人，还要追究那些为他“效力”的助手。

“我想审视这些标志性案例，不仅关注总统本人，还要关注那些助纣为虐的人，”她说。“我希望刚毕业的年轻人会问自己：‘我应该去为特朗普政府工作吗？’……我希望他们能想：‘天哪，这可能会给我带来一大堆我不想要的麻烦。所以，我还是避免参与其中吧。’我希望发出这样的警示。”

这些言论引发了共和党人的强烈反对，其中包括参议员迈克·李，他指责她威胁有政治倾向的年轻美国人；以及保守派法律团体负责人迈克·戴维斯，他指责斯洛特金试图吓唬年轻人远离政府，并写道她应该“了解一下宪法第二修正案，亲爱的”。

斯洛特金表示，戴维斯在那些言论中暗示应该枪杀她，这相当于“为了取乐”而煽动对她和她的工作人员发出“死亡威胁”。

这场围绕这些言论的争议正值中期选举冲刺阶段，民主党人越来越乐观地认为他们能够赢得众议院，甚至有可能拿下参议院。如果民主党获胜，预计国会将对特朗普政府展开一系列调查，两党都在为此做好准备。

一个自称是芝加哥大学“领先的学生运营的保守派和自由意志主义刊物”的团体在X论坛上发布了斯洛特金的部分评论片段，该片段已被浏览超过700万次。针对这段视频，李写道：“威胁参与政治、为国家服务的美国青年，这绝对是可耻的。”

Slotkin 在 X 上回应说，这位犹他州共和党人“对我所说的话撒谎”，并写道：“别再制造这种人为的愤怒了。”

这位密歇根州参议员指出，她成为了特朗普司法部的目标，此前她和其他民主党议员发布了一段视频，敦促军人和情报官员不服从政府的任何非法命令，之后司法部对她和其他民主党议员展开了调查。

“如果不是一群匿名的大陪审团成员挺身而出维护美国的法律，我早就因煽动叛乱罪被刑事起诉了。特朗普总统已经让政府与人民为敌，而你和几乎所有华盛顿特区的共和党人都对此表示热烈支持，”她在给李的帖子中写道。

她写道：“如果你协助滥用美国纳税人的钱财来使总统或其家人受益，或者你为了执行总统的指示而违反了法律，你就应该承担责任。鉴于这种腐败在普通美国民众看来如此猖獗，那些想为总统政府工作的人应该意识到，虽然最高法院赋予了总统豁免权，但对于那些奉总统之命从事非法活动的人，最高法院并没有给予同样的豁免权。”

包括人事管理办公室主任斯科特·库珀在内的其他特朗普政府官员都对斯洛特金的言论进行了谴责。

他写道：“一位美国参议员竟然支持以政治手段阻止爱国美国人为国效力，这令人极其失望，也极不专业。与此相反，我们@USOPM 致力于招募最优秀、最有前途的青年才俊。”