Elissa Slotkin Shows That More Democrat Lawfare Is Coming

You’re not supposed to say the quiet part out loud, but that’s what Elissa Slotkin just did. The U.S. senator from Michigan promised that Democrats would investigate the Trump administration to intimidate young conservatives from going into politics.

“I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that,’” she said. “I want that deterrence message.”

Yes, the party of the West Wing is now trying to terrorize idealists out of going to Washington. Conservatives understandably are furious over Slotkin’s comments, yet she only doubled down, calling the outrage “manufactured.”

Just as important as their baldfaced cynicism is what Slotkin’s remarks tell us about a likely Democrat Congress after November. By promising to use investigations as a tool of raw power, Slotkin revealed that Democrats’ agenda will begin and end with one word: lawfare.

This isn’t anything new. The last time the Left controlled the White House, under Joe Biden, government agencies like the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission were coopted for political ends.

The clearest example was the FBI investigation codenamed, in ridiculous Michael Bay style, Arctic Frost. Led by Jack Smith, the Bureau launched a broad-ranging probe into Donald Trump along with more than 90 Republican figures and organizations, including Turning Point USA and the Republican National Committee.

Imagine that, immediately after taking the oath of office, Trump had put the Democratic National Committee under investigation, and you understand how serious this is. Yet unleashing federal law enforcement on the whole of the Republican Right didn’t trouble the Biden brigades one bit.

Neither did the Biden DOJ’s weaponization of the FACE Act to target Catholic pro-lifers, whom one federal prosecutor described as “culty.” Mark Houck, a pro-life activist, had his house invaded by a SWAT team and was arrested in front of his kids.

Also not troubling to Democrats was how the Biden team leveraged antitrust law to go after capitalism, punishing companies they didn’t like for the mere act of existing. The dragnet was so wide that at one point not just problem actors like Big Tech but 40 percent of companies under the S&P market cap were being scrutinized by the DOJ, leading The Wall Street Journal to declare “everyone is under investigation.”

Yet the cherry on top of the lawfare sundae wasn’t who was prosecuted but who wasn’t. Namely, Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, who received one of the broadest presidential pardons in American history right before his father left office.

Since they were vanquished by Trump in 2024, the Left’s legal persecutors haven’t slowed down. Democrat state attorneys general and interest groups have formed a kind of shadow DOJ, launching more than 370 active legal cases against the Trump administration.

The anti-business commissars are also still afoot. Biden’s former chief antitrust cop, Lina Khan, got a plum teaching position at Columbia Law School and still issues anti-business edicts on X. Many of her former staffers coalesced into groups like the American Economic Liberties Project, which push a thinly veiled socialist agenda.

These guys are salivating at the prospect of reentering government. If the Democrats win in 2026 and 2028, they’ll get their chance.

Their incoming lawfare is being plotted out in the open. Should they retake Congress, Democrats say they plan to investigate the president’s family personally and crack down on his law enforcement efforts against illegal immigration.

Slotkin’s comments show this isn’t just about “get Trump” (though there’s that). Democrats are also aiming to intimidate, whether it’s the Trump administration, Republican commentators, or young conservatives who are thinking about a career in public service.

Lawfare is now a feature, maybe the feature, of Democrat governance. It’s time to say no to more investigations run amok.

Bob Barr represented Georgia’s Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He served previously as the United States Attorney in Atlanta from 1986 to 1990 and was an official with the CIA in the 1970s. He now practices law in Atlanta, Georgia, serves as head of Liberty Guard, and is the immediate past president of the National Rifle Association of America.

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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