Elissa Slotkin, Democratic rep, says Trump ‘doesn’t talk down to anyone’

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin offered some rare praise for President Trump in a new interview Friday, saying he “doesn’t talk down to anybody” in the elitist way that Democrats sometimes do.

Mrs. Slotkin, a reelected Michigan freshman who served as a CIA operative during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, told Politico magazine she thinks the Democratic Party needs to widen its tent or it will continue to alienate moderate voters.

“You know, the one thing I will say about Donald Trump,” she said. “He doesn’t talk down to anybody. He is who he is, but he doesn’t talk down to anyone. And I think that there is a certain voter out there because of that who identifies with him and appreciates him.”

“It’s not just that he eats cheeseburgers at a big celebratory dinner,” she continued. “It’s not just that he does things that the common man can kind of appreciate. And it’s not even because he uses kind of simplistic language — he doesn’t use complicated, wonky language, the way a lot of Democrats do.

“We sometimes make people feel like they aren’t conscientious enough,” she added. “They aren’t thoughtful enough. They aren’t ’woke’ enough. They aren’t smart enough or educated enough to just understand what’s good for them. … It’s talking down to people. It’s alienating them. And there’s just certain voters who feel so distant from the political process — it’s not their life, it’s not their world. They hate it. They don’t like all that politics stuff. Trump speaks to them, because he includes them.”

Mrs. Slotkin said she witnessed a growing rebellion toward political correctness long before Mr. Trump came along.

“I remember, long before, literally, Donald Trump was even a twinkle in our eye, the way that people in my life here couldn’t stand political correctness. And I think [this is] the same kind of sentiment,” she said. “Because the political correctness is thinking you’re better than somebody else — it’s correcting someone. Now, I happen to believe that we live in a different era, and that we have to be better than we were in previous eras. … But people do feel looked down upon.”