CNN
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Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin on Wednesday called for “action, not words” from Democrats, criticizing the approach of some in the progressive wing of the party.
“I have done as much as I feel like I’m capable of doing to respond in words to what Trump is doing, but I can’t just be an activist,” she said.
Slotkin’s comments came at a Medicaid roundtable in Flint and underscore a party-wide schism over strategy to counter President Donald Trump.
One constituent pressed the freshman senator on how she would “step up for us now” in the way, the person said, that Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett and Sen. Bernie Sanders have been “screaming, enraged, passionate” in response to the Trump administration.
“Everyone you mentioned has a lot of words, but what have they actually done to change the situation with Donald Trump and the cuts and the attacks on our judiciary and the attacks on our Constitution?” Slotkin asked, before touting her national security and intelligence background, which she noted required “prudent planning.”
Slotkin said she can’t “chain [herself] to the White House and become an activist full time,” because she has to focus on addressing issues like federal cuts.
“All of those things require me to be more than just an AOC. I can’t do what she does because we live in a purple state, and I’m a pragmatist,” she said.
In the coming days, Ocasio-Cortez is joining Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, on his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
CNN has reached out to Ocasio-Cortez for comment.
Slotkin in November held off an experienced Republican challenger, keeping a crucial Senate seat in Democratic hands in Michigan, where Trump defeated former Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 80,000 votes. While the youngest Democratic woman elected to the Senate, she has entered less as a disruptor and more as a potential swing vote on key issues like immigration.
Slotkin acknowledged a “daily struggle” is weighing where to compromise, but she said the “bigger question” facing her party has to do with strategy.
Democrats’ strategy, she noted, “is not there yet,” adding: “You saw that break open last week.”
On Friday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and nine others in the caucus cleared a path for Republicans to pass their Trump-backed bill to fund the government through September 30 and avert a shutdown. Slotkin voted against the measure.
Schumer’s move drew swift back lash from within his own party, with some senators privately criticizing Democrats’ lack of clear message.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told House Democrats in a private call Wednesday that he had a “frank and honest” conversation with Schumer about party unity going forward, according to two people who listened to the call.
Jeffries told members that he disagreed with Schumer’s decision to back down from a funding fight with Trump and stressed Democrats “need to be united” in future fights, according to those on the call.
The call primarily focused on House Democratic messaging efforts and the importance of talking about potential cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security and holding community events.
Referencing Democratic strategy, Slotkin said at the roundtable: “I am to the point where if someone’s not gonna give it to me, I will just write it, do my best and try to sell it to everyone I talk to, right? So that’s what I’m doing literally this weekend.”
Slotkin had acknowledged to CNN last fall that the Democratic Party has struggled to communicate its message to voters. Seen by congressional Democratic leaders as up-and-coming in the party, she was chosen to deliver the Democratic response to President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress earlier in the month.
“Yelling,” the senator said Wednesday, won’t stop Trump from enacting his agenda.
“I get it that it makes people feel good to see people yelling. But not one of those words is stopping the actual things that Donald Trump is doing, and I am about action, not words, and I will stand by that as long as I live,” she said.
CNN’s Sarah Ferris and Haley Talbot contributed to this report.
