YouSaid · the spoken record
Elissa Slotkin
We hold 65 passages that may be Elissa Slotkin’s. We do not publish them until we can confirm who spoke. See the correction.
On the record 2021–2026
congress · podcast
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“I want to thank everybody who came and worked hard in this partisan environment to send a very strong message that Chinese cars are banned here in the United States. I yield the floor.”
Senate24 September 2026Source ↗
“Now, we all know that as the Senator from Michigan, I am going to care about our economic security. A million plus jobs are associated in the State of Michigan with the auto industry. But the advantage that I think the Chinese are trying to get is to get a foothold into the country, start bringing those cars over our borders, over our bridges and our tunnels, set up shop here in the United States so that they can get access to the extremely lucrative market in the United States. What this bill does is it bans vehicle hardware and software that are designed, developed, or manufactured in China by Chinese companies. That means they can't be imported, manufactured, or sold here. This is not a partisan issue. We have sent out the bill to all of our colleagues, and by a very, very strong majority, they have come back and said yes.”
Senate24 September 2026Source ↗
“Now, on our national security, I am a former CIA officer and Pentagon official. This is my bread and butter. I just want to be clear that Chinese cars--with their high-end video, with their LiDAR, with their geolocation, with their ability to collect on our important infrastructure sites, our military bases, the ability to track where an individual leader is driving, the ability for these cars to be hacked and remotely piloted--it does provide a threat to the everyday American and our national security. It is literally a driving spy machine on wheels. All of that data and all of that information goes back to Beijing. It is not held in the United States. These cars connect to the internet. They take videos of our kids. They track individual movements.”
Senate24 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support the Connected Vehicle Security Act. I want to acknowledge what a rare thing this is as we sit on the floor, myself and Senator Moreno, a Democrat and a Republican, working together on an issue of common cause. It is a bipartisan bill that would protect America's auto industry and would protect our manufacturing base and protect our national security above all else. Now, I am completely biased. I am the junior Senator from Michigan. The auto industry helped build America, helped invent the middle class. Millions of workers in the State of Michigan work in some way associated with the auto industry. And that is why I feel very strongly that we must ban Chinese cars from ever being sold in the United States.”
Senate24 September 2026Source ↗
“Tulsi Gabbard going down to Georgia was not enough to soothe the President. Bill Pulte is now his yes-man to do just that. He has gone from being unqualified for this role to dangerous to democracy. With the bill, we will ensure that people who serve as the Acting Director of National Intelligence actually have some national security experience needed to do this job, they treat it responsibly, not on behalf of one party, not on behalf of one man but on behalf of Americans, to keep us safe. That is the mandate of the intelligence community. It is what we were trained to do--and I say that as a CIA officer--and this President is corrupting that with his choice as DNI. I yield the floor.”
Senate16 July 2026Source ↗
“Tonight, in the President's address to the Nation, he is expected to say how, again, our elections are being rigged and attempt to cherry- pick intelligence to declassify. But let us remember: Whatever he brings up, President Trump's team already saw what happened in 2020. He was the President of the United States during those elections. If his intelligence community at that time saw information, looked it over, and then decided that the election wasn't rigged, that was because that was what was presented to them as factual. You are telling me that the President now, all these years later, wants to relitigate what he was in charge of in 2020, and choosing to do it 3 months before the midterm elections. Call me skeptical. And all of this is happening as Bill Pulte is right there as our Acting DNI.”
Senate16 July 2026Source ↗
“He has declassified information to support false claims about elections and sow doubt in our democracy. He has directed the CIA, the NSA, and other intelligence Agencies to target his enemies. He has created a weaponization working group to implement that order. And he has sent the former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to raid ballots in Fulton County, GA; something that the intelligence community has no business doing. Now, President Trump is giving a speech tonight. Bill Pulte is now at the center of this. President Trump was very open; he tweeted about putting him in this job specifically to use the intelligence community's power to support his false claims.”
Senate16 July 2026Source ↗
“He has attempted to seize ballots in Georgia, my home State of Michigan, and Arizona. He has sued 30 States in total for their voter rolls. He has pushed Congress over and over again to pass the SAVE America Act, which would disenfranchise millions of voters across the country. He dismantled the Election Assistance Commission, which helps every State carry out their elections. He has pushed the postal service to restrict mail-in voting. He has refused to rule out sending U.S. uniformed troops or law enforcement to the polls to interfere in the elections come November. And he has pressed the Supreme Court to go after and gut parts of the Voting Rights Act, allowing States to silence the voters, particularly minority voters. Second, he has tried to weaponize our intelligence community.”
Senate16 July 2026Source ↗
“He used Housing records--private Housing records--to go after President Trump's enemies. Just think of what is possible with him at the top of our intelligence community. Now, President Trump placed him there to do two things: One, to focus on politicizing our elections; and, secondly, to use the intelligence community for the goals he has because he is obsessed with meddling with both. You just have to use President Trump's own words to understand the story here. This isn't hyperbole. At the State of the Union, President Trump declared that the only way Democrats could win in the midterms is if they cheat. Just weeks earlier, he called for Republicans to ``nationalize'' elections in 15 states. This year alone, he has repeated claims that the elections are rigged more than 100 times. Those words have been backed up by action.”
Senate16 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the MERIT Act, the Minimum Experience Requirements for Intelligence Transition Act--a lot of words, but the bill is simple. It requires anyone serving as the Director of National Intelligence--even in a temporary capacity--to have extensive national security experience. It is common sense. You don't hand the keys to America's intelligence community to someone who has no experience, regardless of party or political loyalty. The Director of National Intelligence is a powerful job, and I know because I was there at the creation. I was one of the first people at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, when it was stood up. I was seconded there as a CIA officer. I helped stand it up after Congress created it so that we never again miss a terrorist attack, like we did on 9/11.”
Senate16 July 2026Source ↗
“So I thank my colleague for the opportunity to do my first colloquy. I didn't know this was a thing that we could do. Thank you for giving me that opportunity, and I will let you finish us out.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“But what we see now is that third secret option, which is magic math, which is: We are going to tell you we are not cutting anything, but we are going to quietly make the math just work so that we are actually cutting all these things, we are able to reap the benefits, or we push those cuts out to the outyears. So you don't notice them today, but maybe later, maybe after other elections, you are going to feel those Medicaid cuts. So I guess my big warning label on the whole story here is that there is magic math going on from beginning to end on this package. And don't be fooled. They are coming for your healthcare. You are either going to be paying more, or you are going to lose your coverage. That is just a fact based on the math that they put out publicly and voted on today.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“How do you take a group of people who both want to cut Medicaid in a devastating way, want to cut other healthcare in a devastating way, and match them up with a bunch of people who say, ``I can't,'' colleagues on the other side of the aisle who say, ``I can't accept cuts like that''? How do you balance two completely different factions in the same party? And it happens. Right? What, normally, we would see is tough choices being made, right? Either the other side of the aisle is going to acknowledge we have to make these devastating cuts, or they are not going to cut them.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“So it is not just about, as you say, individuals--although, those stories are striking--it is about access to care for everybody. I was talking to a doctor from the Lansing Care Free Medical Clinic. It is completely Medicaid covered. It is the folks who are left out of the system. He will just close. We will have clinics just close. So I think we are talking about something that, again, comes to the heart of who we are as a community. I will also just say, I think it is important to put a warning label on it, and then I will turn it to you to maybe finish out. There is a lot of magic math going on right now on the other side of that.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“Yes. We talked about rural hospitals. I think, again, even if you are not on Medicaid, you have never signed up, you have never been in a low point in your life where you have needed a bridge, you have never had a child with a disability, you have just never touched the system, I guarantee you the hospitals that you depend on, the clinics that you depend on, the nursing homes that you depend on for your mom, your dad are dependent on Medicaid. I guarantee it. And what we are hearing from our rural hospitals is: Look, we are the only hospital in 3 hours where you can get care. If we go, where do our people go? Where do we tell them to go? If you are delivering a baby and you have to come off the Upper Peninsula into the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, there is just no way that we can function that way.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“So it is just important to understand the full spectrum of what we are talking about here. Now, I am sure you have heard a ton of personal stories, right? It is important to understand that we are giving a talk on the Senate floor, and we are talking about numbers, but at the end of the day, these are human beings, and I am sure your phones are as flooded as mine are with people who want to tell their personal stories. I will say, for me, it feels like ``Groundhog Day'' because I decided to run in 2018 for the very issue of healthcare because I happened to live through my mother getting stage IV ovarian cancer without having insurance. She had no insurance.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“There is a real risk of Medicare Part D being touched--the prescription drug piece of that--and the Affordable Care Act, which so many people depend on, the many, many people being cut off from that at the end of the year. The math just doesn't work. So what we are really talking about is, in the State of Michigan and in the United States, the potential for either people to lose their coverage or to have the price of their coverage go up because everyone who is talking about these Medicaid cuts back home has also mentioned, by the way, if we don't get the Medicaid reimbursement at our hospital, I am just going to charge more to the people who have insurance. There are going to be more people in my ER. I am going to have to pass that expensive cost off to customers who do have health insurance.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“It is the idea that our rural hospitals from Hillsdale to Marquette, MI, have come to see me, and they say: Look, this is--we are not Democrats; we are conservative people, but if you take away this reimbursement, we will collapse. They were already suffering after COVID, and they are barely hanging on. So access to rural hospitals is something we are deeply, deeply worried about. I think the bigger question is, Who do we believe we are, and do we have a commitment to serve and protect and provide basic healthcare to people in our States? Now, you mentioned this, but I think it is important to realize that, with a number that big, we are not just talking about Medicaid.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“We have 10 million people in Michigan, and 2.6 million people are on Medicaid. The vast majority are children, right? They are people who can't live up to work requirements, people who just happen to be young, people who happen to be born where they were born. Thirty-seven percent of all of our births in Michigan are handled and covered by Medicaid, and two out of every three of nursing home elderly are covered by Medicaid. So it is not just about the people who are receiving direct care; it is about what Medicaid reimburses in funds. It is the idea that 65 percent of our nursing homes could potentially go under if they don't get this funding.”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“Thank you, Senator. I mean, I think what we are all here talking about into the dead of night is this idea of whom we want to be as a nation when it comes to providing healthcare. Do we believe that the greatest country in the world should be able to treat the people who need help in our country or are we OK with the poorest among us, the weakest among us--those who are disabled, those who are elderly, those who are children--just not having access to care? As the Senator said, when you look around at the math--right?--this isn't a political statement. The math of needing to find $880 billion with a ``b''--the math just doesn't work without gutting Medicaid. I think it is important to understand, at least in my State, that this isn't just about people who have Medicaid as their primary insurance, right?”
Senate3 April 2025Source ↗
“Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.”
Senate20 February 2025Source ↗
“Madam President, my amendment is simple. It prohibits cuts to the funding and staffing necessary to respond to and control avian flu. This should be an easy no-brainer. Avian flu is jumping between species. We are culling thousands of birds, and egg prices are the highest they have ever been in U.S. history. I want to believe that this body should be able to agree that a biohazard that impacts every single one of our States should be something that we maintain funding for. It is our job to protect our constituents. That is basic. Avian flu is a threat. You know it. I know it. The world knows it. I urge you to put partisanship aside. Vote for this very simple amendment. Maintain funding and staffing on avian flu.”
Senate20 February 2025Source ↗
“Madam President, I am not enjoying my first vote-arama, but I do call up my amendment No. 664 and ask that it be reported by number.”
Senate20 February 2025Source ↗
“My fear is that past is prologue: The administration's approach is going to be reflected in this budget, and American citizens are going to find out months later about the cuts to programs they care about, to things that Michiganders depend on, and I believe that is the wrong approach. I yield the floor.”
Senate19 February 2025Source ↗
“Don't live in fear of the Trump administration and Donald Trump specifically. You know in your heart that these people aren't qualified and that the life and limb of American citizens is in their hands. So I urge all of my colleagues to vote against Tulsi Gabbard. I will be voting against her here later today. I hope that we as American citizens can come up for air from this fever dream and remember that reform of the Federal Government does not mean slashing the people that keep us safe every day. I yield the floor.”
Senate11 February 2025Source ↗
“Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.”
Senate11 February 2025Source ↗