Slotkin goes silent when pressed on past Trump–Guard ‘shooting’ claims after DC attack

By Fox News · Fox News

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., remained silent Friday when asked about previous statements she made suggesting that government officials should be prepared to push back on President Donald Trump if he ordered the military to fire on civilians. Slotkin and other Democrats now face a reversal of those worries as the country reels from a shooting Wednesday that left one National Guard member dead and another in critical condition in Washington. Her office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. VIRGINIA DEM SAYS TRUMP ADMIN HAS 'TAKEN ITS EYE OFF THE BALL' ON PUBLIC SAFETY AMID NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING Slotkin’s alarm about the National Guard and other federal troops originally stemmed from comments Trump allegedly made to former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper under his first term. "The president in the last administration asked then-secretary (Mark) Esper to send in the 82 Airborne into Washington, D.C. to try to quell peaceful protests here in the city. And he said, if necessary, can’t you just ‘shoot at their legs?’" Slotkin said in a January committee hearing. Esper recorded those quotes as part of the administration's considerations of how to respond to protests over the death of George Floyd. Floyd's 2020 killing by a Minneapolis police officer sparked nationwide protests and ignited the Black Lives Matter movement. The quotes were included in Esper’s book, "A Sacred Oath" — a highly critical memoir of the first Trump Administration. Trump has denied ever making the statement. FORMER ARMY CAPTAIN WARNS DEMS’ ‘UNPATRIOTIC’ VIDEO TELLING TROOPS TO DEFY ORDERS COULD SPARK CHAOS The statements Trump allegedly made to Esper — and other questions about Trump’s use of federal troops — prompted Slotkin and six other Democrat lawmakers to release a video earlier in November, calling for service members to "not give up the ship." In it, they urged members of the military and intelligence community to disregard illegal orders. "The threats to our Constitution aren…