Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who managed to pull off a very narrow win last November has found herself increasingly in the news after delivering the Democratic response to President Donald Trump's address before a joint session of Congress last Tuesday. She also appeared more recently on NBC News' "Meet the Press," during which she was asked who her party's leader was, leading to a rather interesting nonanswer.
"Since you delivered the Democratic response this week, a lot of eyes on you, senator," host Kristen Welker fittingly pointed out. "Who would you say is the leader of the Democratic Party right now?"
"Look, I mean, people know me. I'm pretty straightforward," Slotkin began her answer by saying, somewhat ironically, given that she never actually mentioned a name. "I don't think it's a secret that Democrats have been on their heels since Trump won the election, right? I don't think that's, you know, something hidden. And 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, right?" Although she mentioned "lots of leaders," she couldn't name a specific person.
She went on to mention different leaders, specifically "new" people, but again, failed to mention a single name. "And I think that's something that as Trump has been successful in flooding the zone and just, 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. And for me, that's one of the things that I think some of the new voices in the party have really been agitating about, right. 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,'" Slotkin continued, adding, "So, that's what I'm trying to do from within."
What was that? After also offering the rebuttal last Tuesday, she couldn't come up with a better response? She also, as Matt covered, stumbled her way through another answer when asked by Welker about Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), who is almost certainly going to be running for 2028, and his supposed capitulation on protecting girls' and women's sports. Like other Democrats have done, Slotkin gave a pitiful, anti-women response. She, and every other Democratic senator, also voted against a bill last Monday to protect girls' and women's sports.
Slotkin isn't the only one who can't speak to who her party's leader is. Last week, as we covered at the time, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the particularly poorly vetted running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential campaign, struggled throughout his interview with CNN, including on such a question. He couldn't even say if Harris is the party leader, though it's worth noting Walz himself may run in 2028, and Harris may run for governor of California in 2026.