Slotkin in DNC speech says Trump will take the US ‘backward’

Michigan Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin was among those who spoke on the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago — using her convention speech to bring light to what a second Trump presidency would mean for America on the global stage.

“Trump wants to take us backward,” she said in her DNC address on Thursday. “He admires dictators … a lot. He treats our friends as adversaries and our adversaries as friends.”

Slotkin, a prolific fundraiser who is running to fill Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat left open by longtime Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s retirement, will face off against former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers in November.

In an interview with WDET at the DNC ahead of her convention speech on Thursday, Slotkin spoke of her affection for Stabenow, as well as her U.S. Senate bid and what sets her apart from her opponent.

Listen: Slotkin in DNC speech says Trump will take the US ‘backward’

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Russ McNamara: Throughout the events leading up to this, and winning the primary on primary election night, you kind of showed your close ties to outgoing Sen. Debbie Stabenow. Can you just talk about your relationship? There seems to be real affection there.

Elissa Slotkin: There is real affection. First of all, any woman in Michigan who’s elected to office has Debbie Stabenow in some form or fashion to thank for it. She was the first woman elected at the federal level statewide to represent this place, before Jennifer Granholm, before Gretchen Whitmer, Debbie Stabenow was really kind of wading through the muck to be one of the first women representing the state of Michigan. But then she also used to be representative of my district, right? So I am her Congresswoman — she lives in the Lansing area — and there’s no one who’s been a better mentor to me in these many, many years; and then, of course, over the last 18 months of running for Senate. So I do have real affection for her, and in many ways, were very different, right? I’m a national security person. She has more of that agriculture background, the elected background, but I am keenly aware of just how much I have to learn from someone who’s navigated all these years as one of the first women; the special difficulties of sometimes being a woman in office, and I just think she’s like Miss Michigan. She’s a fantastic lady.

RM: Your opponent in the race for Senate has a national security law enforcement background, but it seems like that’s maybe where the similarities stop. What sets you directly apart from Mike Rogers?

ES: We do have national security backgrounds. I’ve been really saddened — you know, he’s a former FBI officer, and used to be very proud of that, and now he slams the FBI every time he can. And for me, gosh, the number of times I’ve called our local FBI in Detroit, our office in Detroit after mass shootings when we’ve had hate crimes, I mean, they’re critical. So I’m proud of my national security background, I don’t bash it — I think that’s No. 1.

No. 2, I just think we take very opposite views of the world. I think for me, my sun and my moon is that Michigan has to be a place where anyone from anywhere can get into the middle class. That is the most important thing. You got to be able to have a good life and work one job, have good benefits, and that’s it. So that, to me, I focus on policies that are about pro good jobs and then lowering the cost of things like prescription drugs, health care, you know, post secondary education, child care. You know, you’re talking about someone who takes the opposite approach. He calls himself the biggest champion of the pharmaceutical industry. He’s proud of how he represents the pharmaceutical industry when he’s in elected office. He’s voted so many times to cut or privatize Medicare and Social Security. So the things that I think of of cornerstones of a middle class life, he has no problem going after those things. So it’s a pretty fundamental difference on seeing the world. And then, you know, he’s worked very hard to seek the favor of President Trump, and I think that’s a choice. That’s a choice, and maybe not a choice that everyone would have made, but he made it, and has defended those policies on culture war issues, but also on like democracy and whether to respect the results of an election. So it’s a pretty stark choice.

RM: Do you share his concerns over Chinese industrial influence here in the United States, he just had a rally up near Big Rapids because of the Goshen plant. Are those concerns that you share?

ES: Well, not only do I share them, I’ve legislated on them. I mean, the bill in Congress — a bipartisan bill to ban China from buying our farmland — is my bill. The bill in Congress that allows us to ban Chinese companies and also other companies of countries of concern from buying our manufacturing sites — that’s my bill. I am a CIA officer and Pentagon official by training. To me, China is a significant risk factor for our national security, and we don’t want them encroaching and using those facilities our farmland, or — for instance — their electric vehicles in the United States, to me, they pose national security risks, and we need to be really clear about that. So more than a rally, I’ve actually legislated for years and years on this topic.

RM: Did you personally give $1 billion to incarcerated people following the COVID-19 pandemic?

ES: No, you’re referring to an ad on television, so let me just say very, very clearly: No, I did not personally give a billion dollars to incarcerated people. And I think it’s been very, very clear that whatever checks went out — you know, when we were doing the big COVID checks that so many Americans got, they were clawed back and never received by people like Larry Nassar. Larry Nassar is the serial pedophile and sexual assault coach who is affiliated with Michigan State University. I am the representative of Michigan State University. We have been working for all these years to try to make the climate better so that could never happen again. So besides just being a ridiculous false attack, kind of political attack, it’s just insulting as a woman and as the representative of the the area that was most impacted by Larry Nassar,

RM: One of the underlying threads of the Democratic National Convention so far are the pro-Palestinian protests trying to get the United States to stop military aid to Israel. The Uncommitted National Movement has deep ties with Michigan. Abbas Alawieh is outside the United Center in a sit-in right now. They want a Palestinian American to speak during the last night of the convention. Do you support that notion?

ES: Yeah, I actually don’t have a problem with that at all. I think the most important thing that I’ve taken away from this convention is the Democratic Party is a big tent. We got a lot of different people in our camp, and that’s a good thing. Diversity is our strength, and that means diversity of people and background, but also of approach. And instead of focusing on attacking each other, I’d like to keep my eyes on the prize here, which is making sure that Donald Trump is not our president again come November. I have no problem with there being many voices, including people who are really hurting based on what’s going on abroad in Gaza and in Israel.

Use the media player above to hear the full interview with U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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