Dem lawmakers, 'Seditious Six,' slammed for saying National Guard wouldn't have been shot if Trump hadn't deployed them to DC

Senator Elissa Slotkin is facing criticism over previous comments suggesting that National Guard troops deployed by the Trump administration could potentially shoot American civilians. The remarks have drawn renewed attention following Wednesday’s shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC, by a suspect who is now in custody.

Slotkin, speaking on ABC earlier this week, said, "When you look at these videos coming out of places like Chicago, it makes me incredibly nervous that we're about to see people in law enforcement, people in uniform, military, get nervous, get stressed, shoot at American civilians."

Slotkin's recent comments were one of many by Democratic lawmakers who have continued to use extreme rhetoric regarding the National Guard and federal law enforcement agents. Representative Jasmine Crockett also spoke out this week against federal agents enforcing the Trump administration's immigration policies, comparing them to "slave patrols" who "intimidate" and "terrorize" people of color.

Additionally, Slotkin, along with Senator Mark Kelly and four other Democratic lawmakers, "sometimes called the Seditious Six," who have a military or intelligence background, released a video last week that criticized President Trump and told military personnel to disobey "unlawful orders." It is unclear what specific orders they were referring to.

"This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens," they said in the video.

No official motive has been announced for the DC shooting, but DC Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters that the shooting was “targeted.” Left-wing media outlets have already begun speculating that it could be connected to the rise in rhetoric aimed against the Trump administration’s efforts to use the National Guard to crack down on crime.

“What was going on in that perpetrator’s mind to carry out this attack?” asked CBS’ Anna Schecter. “There’s been a lot of tension, a lot of headlines, a lot of explosive rhetoric around the administration’s policy in terms of deploying National Guard to cities.”

MS NOW’s Katy Tur also commented on the shooting, adding, “It is just so awful, and the timing is making it even worse obviously. And this moment we happen to be living in where everybody’s so violent and angry, it’s been a really tough year.”

Some Democratic commentators have already implied that the Trump administration is to blame for the shooting because the Guardsmen should not have been in DC to begin with. Al Sharpton on MS NOW echoed this point, saying, "Two people that are fighting for their lives, guardsmen that this President put there," adding, "I was one that was very vocal against that."

The incident comes amid heightened political tension following multiple assassination attempts on President Donald Trump last year during his campaign and the recent killing of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

The Department of Homeland Security has cited rhetoric from certain politicians as a factor in the rising violence against federal law enforcement officials. DHS reported this week that ICE agents, for example, have experienced a 1,150 percent increase in assaults compared to the same period last year. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin attributed much of the rise to “Democrat politicians comparing ICE to Nazis, the gestapo, slave patrols, and even encouraging illegal aliens to resist arrest.”