On Monday, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) performed on both late-afternoon cable programs for Democrats: CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper and MS NOW’s Deadline White House with Nicolle Wallace.
She was doing damage control for a mean-spirited paragraph at an October 13 event that became a viral video, where she said she wants to prosecute “signature cases” against people who’ve “enabled” President Trump.
"I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration? Like, that sounds fun, I might get an opportunity.’ 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,’" she said. "I want that deterrence message.”
Tapper ran the Slotkin clip, followed by Trump denouncing her on the White House lawn on Monday. Then he set the table for her, with silverware: “So he's accusing you of weaponizing government. What's your response?”
She played the victim again over her pleading for members of the military to disobey orders: “Well, unfortunately, it's not my first rodeo. I've seen the president do this as recently as last week and certainly less than a year ago, tried to criminally indict me for a 90-second video and calling for my hanging.”
Tapper then sought her rebuttal to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah):
TAPPER: Your colleague, Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, tweeted, quote, it is absolutely disgraceful to threaten young Americans for participating in politics and serving their country, unquote. What's your response to that? Do you think your comments are deterring qualified young people from public service?
SLOTKIN: Yes, well, look, that's manufactured outrage. That's his specialty.
In this Rebuttal Olympics, Tapper then turned to pro-Trump lawyer Mike Davis tweeting “she will learn why we have the Second Amendment F her and her CIA antics.” [sic] The tweets were on screen. He said “CIA tactics.” Tapper then read a statement Davis then made to CNN: “While the First Amendment allows Slotkin to make her idiotic statements, the Second Amendment deters government tyrants from actually taking illegal action, such as deploying illegal force against our constitutional rights, unquote. What did you make of all that?"
Instead of asking Elissa Slotkin directly about wanting to deter young Republicans from government for fear of legal ruin, Jake Tapper just teed her up to whack-a-mole any criticism from Republicans. https://t.co/aJRQ5Tgl8X
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) October 20, 2026
SLOTKIN: I mean, first of all, it's not a veiled threat, right? I mean, threatening the Second Amendment is threatening for someone to get shot. And I think there's been plenty of people, Democrat and Republican independents, who would say, like, can we just not threaten violence against each other for our words?... I imagine what kids think about when they're just scrolling Twitter, my nieces and nephews, and they see someone threaten violence because of words. It's just -- it shows you how toxic these people have become online.
Apparently, Tapper can’t ask her his own direct question about her comments, since CNN has eagerly promoted everyone who tried to put Trump and his cohorts in jail. They’re all about ruining Team Trump.
Wallace performed the maid service next to Tapper’s butler service. She read a Davis tweet and a Trump statement, then asked Slotkin: “Your thoughts?” Same “not my first rodeo” answer as on CNN.
Then Wallace returned to Slotkin’s “disobey any illegal orders” video, saying Team Trump’s response “should have been we would never issue an illegal order. Next question. The response to this should have been, we're not committing any crimes. Why is it we – ‘watch out sweetheart. Second Amendment?’”
Davis did repeatedly use the word “sweetheart” in his tweets taunting Slotkin, so she played the Sexism Card: “I do think there's something about being a woman and criticizing them and calling them out on that corruption that really gets under their skin, obviously, or they wouldn't respond. You know, remember the second amendment, sweetheart, or all that crap.”
Then the two of them went on to complain about Trump hates women, fires the women in his administration, and so on. CNN and MS NOW really do believe they are in business to help the Democrats put the Republicans in jail and call it “holding government accountable.”
