Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin pledged on CNN Thursday not to go home to her district in Michigan without a deal in Congress to pass another round of coronavirus stimulus. Less than an hour later, Stolkin was spotted at Reagan National Airport and refused to answer questions.
“I was not going to go back to my district and walk around and go to the grocery store and have people ask me again about the state of the latest COVID emergency bill and tell them because of politics we couldn’t get in a room together,” Slotkin said on air.
Forty minutes later however, Slotkin was caught by the the Congressional Leadership Fund, a House Republican super PAC, with a suitcase hustling through the local D.C. airport in northern Virginia.
.@RepSlotkin told CNN she wasn’t going home from DC without a deal on COVID relief.
Less than 40 minutes later, @ElissaSlotkin was at the DCA airport where she refused to answer why she was headed home without a deal.https://t.co/EhjELMpMBl
WATCH ⬇ pic.twitter.com/Sq6zZjAnZi
— Congressional Leadership Fund (@CLFSuperPAC) September 18, 2020
“Congresswoman, why are you leaving Washington D.C. without making a deal on COVID-19…” someone behind the camera asked the Michigan Democrat before being interrupted with “no comment” by the freshman representative.
The episode showcases the kind of stunts politicians pull all of the time in Washington, self-righteously grand-standing on behalf of their constituents while engaging in hypocritic behavior by their own standards behind the scenes. Just earlier this month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was caught visiting a shut down hair salon in San Francisco where she received special service without wearing a mask, despite the city’s mask mandate requiring them under the circumstances of her indoor visit.
Slotkin, 44, was first elected to the House with a close victory to unseat incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Bishop in the Democratic blue wave two years ago where Democrats took control of the lower chamber. Stolkin faces another competitive re-election this fall in her fight to hold onto a district in a race rated by Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball as merely leaning Democratic against Republican businessman Paul Junge.
