Slotkin: I Just Disagree with Bernie’s Use of ‘Oligarchy’, Not ‘on the Principles’, I Also Want to Cut Regulations

On Wednesday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said that her disagreement with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) over his rhetoric about oligarchy was just over the word and “It’s not that I disagree on the concepts or on the principles, and he’s right.” She also stated that the debate in the Democratic Party isn’t “about moderate versus progressive and whatever all of that means.”

Co-host Geoff Bennett played a clip of Sanders saying, “I think the American people are not quite as dumb as Ms. Slotkin thinks they are. I think they understand very well, when the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90%, when big money interests are able to control both political parties, they are living in an oligarchy.”

Slotkin responded, “So, my response is, I agree with everything he said, other than, my dad didn’t know what oligarchy meant. Like, he asked me what it was about. It’s not that I disagree on the concepts or on the principles, and he’s right. And that energy that he’s bringing is great. It’s just that we’ve got to, again, communicate to those folks who may not know what an oligarchy is, like my dad.”

Bennett then said, “To your point about the energy that he — and I would add to that, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), they’re drawing huge crowds when they have those rallies, injecting lots of energy into the party. And that’s led to some questions about the ideological future of the Democratic Party. You, though, say that the debate among Democrats isn’t really about moderates and progressives.”

Slotkin answered, “You’re right. I do not think that the debate anymore is about moderate versus progressive and whatever all of that means. I think it’s about, do you believe that we need to fight back against the Trump administration or that we should wait it out? And there’s a really big difference among elected Democrats right now on whether to just, like, wait and let all these things that Trump is doing just play out and boomerang on him and we’ll get through it, or do you think that Trump 2.0 is really different than Trump 1.0 and raises some existential questions about the fate of our democracy, and, therefore, we need to fight and fight in different ways? I’m in that second category, fight, but that debate is not about moderates or progressives. It doesn’t break down on those lines, at all, anymore.”

Later, she added that Democrats should go after some of their “sacred cows” like on regulation, and “A lot of regulation that we’ve put on a small business owner or a farmer was well-intended. It was. But what ends up happening is, there [are] 25 different regulations on a farmer, including watching how he climbs a ladder, in order to get him the certification that he needs. I think we slow down the process. And we need to be willing to say, you know what, maybe 25 good, well-meaning regulations [end] up in a bureaucratic morass that we need to take a look at.”