Livingston County’s voice in Congress is calling the latest statements by President Trump "racist, xenophobic attacks aimed at fomenting hatred” toward her colleagues.

8th District Democrat Elissa Slotkin posted a statement on Facebook following the President’s rally Wednesday night in North Carolina. Trump began by verbally attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota as the crowd chanted, "Send her back!" Omar came to the United States as a refugee from war-torn Somalia when she was a child and is now a naturalized U.S. citizen. In response, Slotkin said she could not stay silent and that, “No one should ever have to defend their commitment to their country based on their skin color or their willingness to criticize the government,” adding that “few things are more American than dissent.” And yet Slotkin says the President used the rally to, “whip up hate-filled chants” against Omar and three other Congresswomen; Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who were all born in the United States.

Slotkin said that after working alongside the military her entire career, she feels firmly that the leadership climate is set at the top and, “There are very real consequences to this behavior.” She finished her post by saying, “The President’s rhetoric is un-American, it is dangerous, and it must stop.”

Despite her opposition to the President’s comments, Slotkin joined a majority of her House colleagues on Wednesday in preventing a vote on a motion to impeach Trump based on his rhetoric against the four Congresswomen. The 332-to-95 vote to table the impeachment article drafted by Representative Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, has delayed for now what many see as a prolonged and divisive debate over whether Mr. Trump’s conduct warrants his removal from office. (JK)