Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin recently came to my campus, the University of Chicago, to join Vox editorial director Astead Herndon for a live program of America, Actually before a crowd of students.Believing she was speaking to a group of friends, she let her intentions be known should Democrats win back power in November.
She wanted young conservatives interested in serving their country in its government to think, "Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems I don’t want, so let me avoid participating in that.I want that deterrence message sent." My friends and I received her "deterrence message," as did millions of patriotic Americans across the country.Unfortunately for Senator Slotkin, our team with the Chicago Thinker was there and listening to her every word.
Now the walls are closing in.Members of Congress and President Trump have condemned her remarks.
The Article III Project referred her to the Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights for inquiry and potential investigation.And a government watchdog filed an ethics complaint against her.
Yesterday, I joined them by filing my own ethics complaint as the student reporter who originally broke the story.It’s time for the Senate Ethics Committee to open an investigation into Senator Slotkin for her remarks.The Ethics Manual is clear: "Conduct [that] has been characterized as ‘improper conduct which may reflect upon the Senate,’ … has provided the basis for the Senate’s most serious disciplinary cases in modern times." The question before the Committee, then, is whether threatening young conservatives would reflect poorly on the Senate and set a dangerous precedent for the future.SLOTKIN WANTS GOP PROSECUTIONS TO DETER YOUNG PEOPLE FROM TRUMP ADMINISTRATION JOBSIt would.
Senator Slotkin’s statement was clearly meant to intimidate one side of the aisle from serving their country in government by way of investigations and prosecutions.She did not merely send a deterrence messa...