Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin (MI) was confronted by a large crowd of constituents during a town hall event on Monday where she was repeatedly yelled at by people in her district who were angry at her decision to back a purely partisan impeachment effort.
“Slotkin’s district supported Trump in 2016, so she was prepared for the mixed reception at Monday’s event,” Fox News reported. “Indeed, the event kicked off with a battery of jeers and outbursts from the crowd as she spoke about why she went from being against impeachment after the Russia investigation to in favor of it now.”
Trying to deal with angry protesters, Slotkin said, “I’m going to try to walk you through my logic and I know it’s clear that we don’t all agree, but I’m going to walk you through my logic in an attempt to be transparent and I know, I knew from the very beginning, that this was going to be a controversial decision.”
“That was something that I understood from the very beginning, but for me it was something that was important to do as a matter of principle.”
Constituents confront Dem Rep Slotkin for supporting impeachment shamhttps://t.co/54DYTTSPF7 pic.twitter.com/NWo9YtBU2f
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 16, 2019
“I came out in September and I wrote a similar op-ed, September 23rd, in the Detroit Free Press that I thought after many, many months of not supporting an inquiry, that I thought it was time to have an inquiry,” Slotkin continued. “I wrote that in September along with six of my national security colleagues, all of us had either a military or intelligence community background.”
“After many, many years, I mean months, um, I felt that the events around the Ukraine circumstance was fundamentally different and let me explain to you why,” Slotkin continued. “Some of my colleagues came out in support of um, an impeachment frankly, when they were sworn, January 3rd, that’s one of the first things that some people did.”
Slotkin struggled to keep her composure as she was being repeatedly yelled at by her constituents, and, as she tried to give a partisan accounting of the facts surrounding the case, a member of the audience shouted, “That’s a lie!”
Protesters erupt at Democrat Rep. Slotkin town hall over impeachment sham: “that’s a lie!”https://t.co/wPYzaq54Sr pic.twitter.com/sk7GKaQcD4
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 16, 2019
As the crowd grew more restless over her attempts to explain herself, Slotkin pleaded with them, “I’m trying to have a civil conversation, OK?”
Protesters in the audience reportedly shouted “four more years” as Slotkin continued to speak.
“Four more years:” MI voters make clear they support the president as Slotkin backs impeachmenthttps://t.co/Uc39quULEd pic.twitter.com/I3L4THSDtH
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 16, 2019
Later in the during the press conference, a member of the audience asked Slotkin, “Why is it wrong for the president to want to investigate corruption before handing out our tax payer dollars?”
Slotkin skipped over answering the question and instead answered a different question from the protester.
Moments later Slotkin said that she did not initially support impeachment because she expected the 2020 election to “take care” of Trump, which some online said implied that she was suggesting that she wanted to impeach Trump to prevent him from winning in 2020.
"Why don't you trust voters to make a decision for themselves in less than a year?"
Let the voters decide? Democrats can't take that risk!
Rep. Slotkin admits she caved on impeachment when she realized the election wouldn't "take care" of Trumppic.twitter.com/YoW0NEINur
— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) December 16, 2019
Slotkin, who has refused to condemn notorious anti-Semitic Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), has her own anti-Semitic beliefs, claiming that Republicans only support Israel because they want money from Jewish donors.
“There has been a lot of discussion for the past 9 months or so, 8 months, about, anti-Semitism,” Slotkin told an audience in Michigan. “We have, what I believe is a full-on attempt by the Republican Party to grab a different community and bring them into the fold, and I will just be very honest, right, they are not looking for our votes, because we are a relatively small community, they are looking for our donors, right? They are looking for our donors, and they are trying to sway us.”
Another day, another freshman Democrat refusing to stand up to anti-Semitic hate. Here's @RepSlotkin refusing to say whether Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib should face any consequences for their hateful remarks. https://t.co/HivTLTEm1Y #MI08 pic.twitter.com/GPHo0rsWGC
— Congressional Leadership Fund (@CLFSuperPAC) May 20, 2019
This report has been updated to include additional information.