Elissa Slotkin avoids addressing past comments about Trump ordering Guards to shoot protesters

LANSING, MICHIGAN: Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich), remained silent on Friday when she was pressed by reporters to revisit the earlier remarks, where she warned that federal troops under President Donald Trump might be ordered to shoot at protesters' legs.

Slotkin's response was sought by Fox News Digital in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members this week.

Elissa Slotkin's remark on alleged Donald Trump order

Slotkin’s comment about the National Guard and other federal troops was based on the alleged comment Trump made to former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper during his first term.

"The president in the last administration asked then-secretary (Mark) Esper to send in the 82nd Airborne into Washington, DC, 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 during a committee hearing in January. 

Esper recorded those quotes as part of the administration's considerations of how to respond to protests over the death of George Floyd, which 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, although Trump denied making those statements.

Democrats' appeal to service members to defy illegal orders

The alleged statement by Trump and the concerns about his use of federal troops prompted six Democrats, including Slotkin, 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’t just coming from abroad but from right here at home," the lawmakers said in the video. "Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution." 

When pressed about the illegal acts, several lawmakers pointed to Trump’s comments about shooting protesters in the legs, which, according to them, would go against the Uniform Code of Military Justice. 

Besides Slotkin, Sen Mark Kelly (D-Ariz); Rep Jason Crow (D-Colo); Rep Chris Deluzio (D-Pa); Rep Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa); and Rep Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), also appeared in the video. 

Identity of the suspect in DC attack

Following the tragic shooting of the National Guard members, which led to the death of one of them, the suspect was identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national. 

He is in custody and faces first-degree murder charges. The FBI has described his attack as targeted and is investigating it as an act of terrorism, although his motives remain unclear.