NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks to Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Michigan, concerning the U.S. intelligence group and nationwide safety.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Twenty-four years in the past immediately, September 11, 2001, it was a fairly morning in New York. By about 8:30, the temperature was within the low 60s, vibrant blue sky, puffy clouds. By 9:15, two planes had smashed into the North and South Towers of the World Commerce Middle, and the nation was without end modified. So was then-25-year-old Elissa Slotkin, a grad scholar at Columbia College, seven miles away.
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ELISSA SLOTKIN: The odor of that – the burning buildings and that very form of poisonous chemically odor that was simply hanging over New York for weeks, if not months, and it utterly modified my life – I imply, high to backside.
KELLY: That’s Slotkin chatting with The Washington Put up. She advised the paper that the 9/11 assaults led her to a job on the CIA, later on the White Home, the Pentagon. Her two-decade nationwide safety profession developed right into a political one. Elissa Slotkin is now Senator Slotkin. The Michigan Democrat serves immediately on the armed companies, homeland safety and veterans’ affairs committees. Senator, welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
SLOTKIN: Thanks for having me.
KELLY: So once I began mapping out earlier this week what I wished to ask you, I used to be positively going to begin with Israel’s assault on Hamas management in Doha. After which Russian drones flew into Poland and NATO scrambled fighter jets to shoot them down. And immediately, we have been watching NATO partaking enemy targets in NATO airspace for the primary time. After which in Utah, in our nation’s newest horror of political violence, the conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed. I discover it exhausting some days to get up and know the place to begin, and I’m wondering in case you really feel that out of your perch within the Senate.
SLOTKIN: Yeah. I imply, definitely, I feel I am used to that within the nationwide safety context the place, you already know, you’ll be able to’t management occasions which can be taking place overseas. I feel it is the mix of these with simply the occasions which can be happening contained in the nation – simply each single day, one thing new and completely different. It definitely feels saturating, and I do know lots of people have frankly simply sort of determined they are going on a rapid weight loss plan.
KELLY: Simply flip it off.
SLOTKIN: Yeah.
KELLY: Which you’ll be able to’t do.
SLOTKIN: No, no.
KELLY: No.
SLOTKIN: No.
KELLY: Nor can I.
SLOTKIN: No.
KELLY: It is the hearth hose day by day.
SLOTKIN: Yeah.
KELLY: So the establishments that U.S. intelligence and nationwide safety has to cope with these are the establishments that have been created within the wake of 9/11. And now the Trump administration is working to reshape lots of these establishments, pushing by way of, for instance, an almost 50% reduce on the director of Nationwide Intelligence on her employees, pushing out the leaders of the Nationwide Safety Company, the Protection Intelligence Company. I might go on.
SLOTKIN: Yeah.
KELLY: What do you make of the present upheaval within the intelligence group through which you used to serve?
SLOTKIN: Yeah. I imply, look, it is tough to observe. I can not inform you how harmful I feel it’s to politicize intelligence. And, you already know, it’s totally exhausting to see a few of these strikes as something aside from making an attempt to form the intelligence group to the need of Donald Trump. I imagine that to be harmful for the safety of america. You already know, if there is a risk coming from overseas or, you already know, one thing taking place, you must name balls and strikes on that or else folks can get, you already know, deeply damage.
KELLY: I’ll notice that Tulsi Gabbard, the director of nationwide intelligence, sees this completely the opposite approach round. She says she is making an attempt to get politics out of intelligence…
SLOTKIN: Yeah.
KELLY: …That she’s making an attempt to revive the intelligence of the intelligence group. I’m wondering how fantastic a line it looks like you’re strolling as an elected U.S. senator and a Democrat once you criticize the Trump administration. Does that danger wading into the politics of all of it?
SLOTKIN: Effectively, however the factor is, is oftentimes I feel Trump has the fallacious reply to the appropriate query. It is the best way he goes about it, the wholesale slashing and burning of, you already know, issues and organizations as a result of he did not like what they did within the final administration.
KELLY: So you are not saying, hey, we could not do that higher. You are saying, this is not the appropriate method.
SLOTKIN: I might say even additional, I feel with Trump doing what he is doing, let’s really take this as a second to not simply snap again to the identical system we had earlier than he got here in, however take it as a second to perform a little rethinking of how we’re organized as an intelligence group and a Protection Division and different points as effectively. I do not just like the Democratic response that is, like, simply preserve establishment. The established order was not working.
KELLY: What do you see as the largest nationwide safety risk dealing with our nation immediately?
SLOTKIN: I actually imagine that the existential risk to the nation isn’t coming from overseas. It is the shrinking middle-class at residence and what that does to our stability right here. I imply…
KELLY: Clarify.
SLOTKIN: …If you wish to perceive why we’re at this second in our historical past, this fractious, authoritarian second the place folks – Individuals are turned in opposition to one another, I imply, take a look at what simply occurred to Charlie Kirk. I imply, if you wish to perceive, you already know, why we’re so polarized, to me, it’s about the truth that simply an increasing number of Individuals don’t really feel like they’ll save each month and dwell the American dream. And once you do this, when you’ll be able to’t present to your children what was supplied to you, you are feeling disgrace. You’re feeling anger. You’re feeling cornered, and also you begin searching for somebody in charge. And that’s nearly at all times somebody who does not seem like you or discuss such as you or pray such as you.
KELLY: So I used to be going to ask as a result of I hear you being essential of the method that the Trump administration is taking, however you’ve got additionally argued this can be a second of big alternative.
SLOTKIN: Yeah, I – yeah.
KELLY: Like, give me an instance.
SLOTKIN: Positive. So we perceive that it is crucial that we’re – you already know, Individuals preserve management roles on the earth. You already know, we have made quite a lot of errors. You already know, in case you’re fascinated by, oh, completely different approach of doing what we’re – what we have to do to be postured for the long run, I feel we obtained to alter the Protection Division. I feel that our approach of taking 12 years to go from thought for a brand new weapon system to truly fielding it does not work for the fashionable age. I feel we’ve got an issue with adopting expertise quick sufficient. And that may be a actual risk to us when China can transfer, you already know, from thought to fielding in 5 years.
KELLY: So circle again to that fairly morning in New York.
SLOTKIN: Yeah.
KELLY: Clearly, what occurred on 9/11 was horrific. However within the days that adopted, the entire world stood with america.
SLOTKIN: Yep.
KELLY: And Individuals pulled collectively, put aside our political variations – which I am describing that and it seems like a time capsule from a distinct planet. What, if something, stays of that second? What offers you hope?
SLOTKIN: Yeah. Gosh, I take into consideration that second. I considered it quite a bit immediately as a result of even in a spot as cynical as New York Metropolis, you already know, folks had their flags out. They have been first rate to one another. We have been all on the identical group, and I am so glad that I obtained to be there in that second to see that. And I am so involved with how far we really feel from that second.
Look, what offers me hope is that I am going residence each weekend, and the overwhelming majority of Michiganders dwell in that 80% center that do not scream on the web, that do not, you already know, need to damage their neighbors after they occur to disagree. They only need group regular.
I grew up – my dad’s a lifelong Republican. My mother was a lifelong Democrat. It was completely regular once we grew up, and quite a lot of Michiganders actually take into consideration that point and need for that point ‘trigger we’re very combined politically. And that provides me hope that my sensible, cheap constituents get exhausted wanting on the extremes and simply need one thing regular. And I…
KELLY: To seek out our approach again to the center.
SLOTKIN: To seek out our approach again.
KELLY: Yeah.
SLOTKIN: That retains me buoyed.
KELLY: Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, as you heard. Thanks for stopping by.
SLOTKIN: Thanks.
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