Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who delivered her party’s response to President Donald Trump‘s address to Congress last week, admitted on Sunday that the Democratic Party has been facing internal struggles.
“I’m pretty straightforward,” Slotkin said in an interview with NBC News host Kristin Welker on “Meet the Press,” adding, “I don’t think it’s a secret that Democrats have been on their heels since Trump won the election.”
She also emphasized that Democrats do not have a clear strategy to beat Trump or even a clear leader.
“I don’t think that’s something hidden,” she said of the Democratic Party’s loss of confidence following its defeat to Trump. “I think it’s on us to be clear about not only leadership — and there’s lots of leaders in both parties — but also a strategy. I think that’s something that, as Trump has been successful in flooding the zone and, like every day, 15 things happening, we are still finding our footing, and I think you can’t get better until you admit you have a problem.”
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The senator said that up-and-coming Democratic Party leaders have been pushing for the party to do more and prove to voters that they have a plan to defeat Trump.
“For me, that’s one of the things that I think some of the new voices in the party have really been agitating about, new senators, new representatives, new folks who are like, ‘hey, we need to do more, and we need to be showing that we’re actually having a plan to stand up on really important moments of inflection.’ That’s what I’m trying to do from within.”
On ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., lamented that his party had a “lack of a coordinated response” to Trump’s address.
Slotkin attacked Trump’s foreign policy in her response speech, saying that he would have lost the Cold War if he’d been president in the 1980s. She also criticized the president for his tense exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where Trump and Vice President JD Vance sparred with Zelenskyy over how to bring an end to the conflict.
Fox News’ Diana Stacy contributed to this report.
