Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said at a University of Chicago event on Oct. 13 that if Democrats win Congress she wants to pursue “signature cases,” and “not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him.” She wants graduates weighing a Trump administration job to think it “might be buying myself a ton of problems,” she said. “I want that deterrence message sent.”
The Chicago Thinker, a student-run conservative publication, posted a clip Saturday, and it drew millions of views.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) wrote that it is “absolutely disgraceful to threaten young Americans for participating in politics and serving their country.” OPM Director Scott Kupor called the remarks “incredibly disappointing and unprofessional.” Lee told the Deseret News it was a “stunningly aggressive move,” and in posts he called it “a fascist move.”
It is absolutely disgraceful to threaten young Americans for participating in politics and serving their country.
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) October 17, 2026
Asked about it Monday, Trump called Slotkin “a lowlife who’s ruining her state” in a clip (below) shared by Trump’s rapid response social media account. “A weaponized government of Democrats, that’s what they’ve done,” he said.
.@POTUS: “They’ve weaponized government. Slotkin is a low-life who is ruining her state, just destroying her state. What they’re doing is really discouraging people from going into politics. They weaponized government, the Democrats — that’s what they’ve done.” https://t.co/UWiM2Zjc9I
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 19, 2026
Slotkin replied on X that Lee was “lying about what I said.” She wrote that Trump directed the DOJ and FBI to investigate her over a 90-second video, and that the Supreme Court has granted the president immunity but not “those who do illegal things at his behest.” On CNN’s The Lead, she said: “My point is, do not get yourself involved in illegal activity.”
Spare me the pearl-clutching — especially from Republican Members of Congress and online MAGA grifters who have cheered President Trump’s weaponization of the government against those he doesn’t like, as recently as last week. This is a subject I know something about: Less than a year ago, Trump directed the DOJ and FBI to investigate me, and then tried to criminally indict me for a 90 second video, exercising basic free speech. The same free speech you’re exercising now, lying about what I said in this clip. 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. So spare us the manufactured outrage.
America must be a place where the rule of law still matters. Those laws should apply to everyone equally. 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. 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.
— Elissa Slotkin (@ElissaSlotkin) October 19, 2026
The fight turned personal. Conservative legal activist Mike Davis told her to “learn about the Second Amendment, sweetheart.” Slotkin said that was a suggestion she be shot, and accused him of “mobilizing death threats against me and my staff for sport.” Davis fired back on X: “You’re not the victim. You explicitly called for prosecutions of Trump officials.”
This man, @mrddmia, who is suggesting I be shot, was in the mix to be President Trump’s next Attorney General after he fired Pam Bondi for not prosecuting more of his political opponents. He is now at a MAGA dark money group, mobilizing death threats against me and my staff for sport.
This shouldn’t be controversial: if you aid in stealing taxpayer money or directing it to enrich President Trump or his family, then you should be held accountable for that crime. That’s what I said, and I stand by it.
And if you use the justice system for frivolous lawsuits used to intimidate and jail your political opponents, you should be held accountable for that via your bar status. No abuse of power and not violating the law? Then we have no problem.
We know most Republican politicians are desperate to change the topic from their failing agenda. That’s how this kind of coordinated right-wing media play works. The threats and intimidation — of me, my staff, and my family — *are the point* of this kind of play. This dude and so many others are just hoping that we’ll shut up in response.
Not going to happen.
— Elissa Slotkin (@ElissaSlotkin) October 19, 2026
Michael Bicksel, a University of Chicago student at The Thinker, wrote that conservative students “will never be intimidated by her Bolshevik-style tactics.” HuffPost reported that one account posted the names and photos of a dozen people it identified as Slotkin staffers, and that Wade Miller of the Center for Renewing America said every staffer should face “an avalanche of subpoenas.”