If Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin’s staff is still employed today, they probably haven’t recovered from what must have been a volcanic ride home following her appearance on the Breaking Points Podcast yesterday. While she’s likely still smarting from the experience, Slotkin should thank the people that convinced her to take the plunge.
It was a roughing up, to be sure. US Senators (even freshman) don’t appreciate this sort of on-the-nose questioning. (My dad, a longtime Capitol Hill veteran liked to say, “Senators would wear togas if they thought they could get away with it.)
Host Krystal Ball asked the ambitious senator hard questions. Slotkin provided soft answers, at best. Claiming not to know ‘how New York City works’ to avoid a question about Zohran Mamdani is a silly, unsophisticated dodge. Ball took Slotkin to task for her stance on Israel and Gaza, and parsing the definition of ‘genocide.’
Stylistically, the code-switch from hard-edged CIA officer to homespun Michigander needs serious workshopping. Slotkin is taking her ‘economic war plan’ messaging on the road, to podcasts, radio shows, and safe spaces like the Center for American Progress. It’s fine, in the way a bowl of vanilla ice cream is fine.
Breaking Points was not a safe space, and good on Slotkin for going appearing (whether or not she knew what she was getting into.)
Like 78 of her fellow Democratic leaders, Slotkin is auditioning for national office. On the surface she makes sense: She’s young, ambitious, touts a national security background, has won in a battleground state, and though she aligns with establishment Democrats, she’s dipped a toe into more populist economics.
Biography is a start, but it takes days, weeks, months, and years of going into uncomfortable conversations, with podcast hosts and voters alike, to determine whether one has the mettle for national office.
Her rough performance wasn’t preordained, but few should’ve been surprised, either. After months of polling, focus grouping various policy prescriptions, and testing messages, Slotkin had to test her work in the real world. Ball wasn’t playing that game; she had thoughtful, substantive questions for which she rightfully expected answers.
As Evelyn Quartz wrote today in her Substack post on Slotkin’s performance:
Slotkin deserves some credit for appearing on a show ideologically opposed to her politics. But too many Democrats now see media not as a space for debate, but as a platform for message delivery. The goal is to perform competence across outlets, not to subject one’s views to real scrutiny.
If 2024 should have taught the Democratic Party and its candidates anything, it’s that even ‘uninformed voters*’ know when you’re full of shit. They know when you’re pandering to them about your grandfather’s hotdog stand and value of hard work. There are too many places (like Substack) where too many smart people are able to dissect a candidate from all angles and share their perspective with millions of people.
*I find the description of uninformed voters both paternalistic and wrong. I met dozens of voters last fall who would’ve been considered ‘uninformed’ by the Consultant Class. They were plenty informed. They were in fact unimpressed.
At one point during the interview, Ball asked Slotkin whether she would vote to end aid to Israel, like Angus King and Bernie Sanders. Slotkin retreated to the ‘Democrats own nothing’ redoubt overflowing with Congressional leaders. Ball would have none of it. “Don’t play powerless with me. You’re a United States Senator.”
Boom.
Author’s Note: Not for nothing, Krystal Ball’s interview was downright Russert-ian. She had the receipts. She knew her stuff. She didn’t let her subject off easy - precisely because Elissa Slotkin is a US Senator, one of 100, one of the most powerful people in the country. We need more of this. We need more politicians and would-be leaders willing to go on shows like Breaking Points and prove their worth before worthy interviewers.
The good news for Senator Slotkin is that she’s young, she has time, and there are two years before the official Democratic Primary process ramps up. In that time, though, she and anyone else who considers themselves a ‘leader’ needs to find more shows like Breaking Points on which to appear, not less.
Shows like Breaking Points will make them better candidates, better senators (or governors) more clear-eyed, and honest about the positions they take, and the policies they support. The Democratic base is in a febrile state right now. Sticking to six minute hits on MSNBC and CNN isn’t going to inspire or ‘inform.’
The idea of more presidential wanna-bes going into hostile territory is a pipe-dream, of course. Just as Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign found every reason not to appear on Joe Rogan, the Consultant Class has already repaired to their coven to banish Krystal Ball and ban Breaking Points for their clients.
Running for president isn’t easy, nor should it be. It is the most difficult political gauntlet ever devised by man. If the Democratic Party is going to be the team of safe spaces, poll-tested bullshit, and elite-driven policy positions, they’re going to lose in 2026 and 2028. Americans looked at them in 2024 and, even with Donald Trump also on the ballot, found the donkeys wanting.
Elissa Slotkin’s appearance on Breaking Points should serve as (yet) another reminder hiding doesn’t work. Laying low in the Senate Cloak Room does not count for leadership. Teleprompter-fed speeches don’t count as innovation. Polls are snapshots, not way points. Claiming ‘we don’t have any power’ is a cop out, and Democrats keep telling their leaders that. Breaking Points should serve as a wake-up call, not an excuse to eat more lotus flowers.
News and Notes:
Check out Parts 1 and 2 of my amazing conversation with Sarah about her new book, Don’t Talk About Politics.
READ THIS BOOK :: Part 1 of My Interview with Sarah Stein Lubrano
I read a lot of books, but the most impactful of the year is Sarah’s latest, Don’t Talk About Politics. It is an incredible read and kills many of our political sacred cows: Demonstrating doesn’t change minds (either yours or your opponent’s,) debating is fun to watch but doesn’t sway viewers, and action is the best way to change behavior and belief.
READ THIS BOOK! (PART II) My Conversation with Sarah Stein Lubrano
Join me and Sarah for Part 2 of our conversation about her new book, Don’t Talk About Politics. In this segment, we discuss the idea of ‘deep canvassing’ and why building relationships with people, and voters, is the fastest (but most difficult) way to sway their opinion on an issue.
I just listened to Yascha Mounk’s latest podcast with Jesse Singal on crises in American politics. It’s worth the listen. Very, very smart.
Saw Slotkin on "Firing Line" with Hoover and thought same thing..ty Reed
“Don’t play powerless with me. You’re a United States Senator.”
If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.