Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) is warning that Donald Trump’s latest attacks on the U.S. election system aren’t random outbursts, they’re part of what she described as an “authoritarian” strategy to undermine the midterm elections before Americans even cast their ballots.
Appearing Monday on MSNBC’s MS NOW with Nicolle Wallace, Slotkin argued that Trump’s recent primetime speech reviving debunked claims about the 2020 election was about much more than relitigating the past.
She believes it’s laying the groundwork for what could come next.
“The president is using an authoritarian playbook that I have seen tons of times abroad,” Slotkin said. “Where he’s sowing misinformation and disinformation about our elections because he thinks his team is gonna lose.”
The senator pointed to Trump’s repeated efforts to cast doubt on voting machines, mail-in voting, and the integrity of the election system, saying they’re all part of a broader pattern.
“The man has basically said, including at the State of the Union, ‘If my team loses, the system is rigged,'” Slotkin said.
According to Slotkin, that’s not just campaign rhetoric.
She warned Trump is “building a case” for actions she believes could directly interfere with the November elections.
“What it tends to culminate in, this authoritarian playbook, it culminates in him creating a security incident that requires uniformed military or federal law enforcement to go to the polls, to surround polls, to collect ballots or voting machines,” she said. “And I think we need to be clear-eyed about that.”
Her warning came just days after Trump used a nationally televised address to once again claim that China interfered in the 2020 election to help Joe Biden defeat him.
During the speech, Trump announced the declassification of documents he said would expose foreign interference.
But the heavily redacted records largely contained information that was already publicly available and offered little new evidence to support his claims of widespread voter fraud or election manipulation.
For Slotkin, however, the documents themselves aren’t the central issue.
She urged Americans not to get distracted by individual speeches, lawsuits, or policy changes, arguing that the real story is the broader pattern she believes is unfolding ahead of the midterms.
Rather than viewing Trump’s actions one by one, Slotkin said voters should recognize what she sees as an escalating campaign to undermine confidence in the electoral process before ballots are counted.
Watch the clip below:
