Freshman House Democrat backing impeachment inquiry faces boos and heckling at town hall

“I wanted you to know from me directly why I made that decision. I know clearly there’s lots of disagreement in the room,” said Slotkin, 43. “But what I owe you as your representative is to be open and transparent about how I made that decision, so I wanted to tell you about it.”

The comment drew a mix of booing and clapping from the crowd.

“As you know there have been people who have been calling for impeachment for a long time, even before I got into Congress in January, and I have not been supportive of an impeachment inquiry up until now,” she said.

Slotkin, who previously worked for the CIA, told her constituents she changed her mind on supporting the impeachment inquiry in the last few weeks amid reports of Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Democrats contend Trump tried to strong-arm Zelensky into investigating a 2020 Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son Hunter.

“Very specifically the issue that got to me was this idea that the president, the most powerful man in the world, reached out to a foreigner, a foreign leader, and asked him to dig up dirt on an American,” Slotkin said.

Attendees erupted yelling, “Not true!” Others interrupted the congresswoman saying, “Fake news!”

“So, this is something the president himself acknowledged. This is something that the president’s lawyer acknowledged. This is something this is not he’s not disputing that fact,” Slotkin said. “What he is disputing, and I acknowledge it completely, is whether there was a quid pro quo a trade for our military assistance in exchange for information in there.”

The interruptions continued to the point where one woman yelled out, “Foreign leaders help each other all the time!”

Slotkin responded, “I’m sorry, ma’am. They don’t.”

Another woman replied, “They helped Biden!”

The room began to grow louder, and at one point one woman screamed, “She’s our representative and we want answers!” The same woman can be heard again shouting, “We don’t want lies!”

Slotkin won her seat in 2018 against Republican incumbent Mike Bishop by just over 4 percentage points.

The episode became a barometer for partisan and impartial attitudes toward impeachment of Trump. Republican National Committee Chariwoman Ronna McDaniel lambasted Slotkin, a fellow Michigander.

“Voter to Democrat @RepSlotkin: ‘When you fell off the cliff for me, was when you joined the coup against our President,” McDaniel tweeted. “Great to see my fellow Michiganders out in force supporting @realDonaldTrump – not a baseless witch hunt!”

But a former spokesman for then-Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, saw it differently.

“I have been VERY lucky in the people I’ve worked for and with. But don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of a colleague and friend than I have been of @RepSlotkin the last 10 days,” tweeted Gordon Trowbridge. “As for the people attacking her, history will not be kind.”

And former State Department official Matthew Waxman, now a Columbia Law School professor, said Slotkin showed courage in handling dissenting views form constituents.

“I watch this differently: @RepSlotkin is a patriot for taking a principled stand in a tough district despite obvious electoral risks,” Waxman tweeted.