Sen. Elissa Slotkin Seeks Assurance That DoD Won’t Deploy Troops to Midterm Polls

Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine asking for a clear statement that the Department of Defense will not send federal troops to polling places or seize election materials during the upcoming November midterm elections. Slotkin warned that former President Donald Trump has been “laying the breadcrumbs” to claim the election was stolen, citing his past contemplation of using the military to seize voting machines after the 2020 loss and his deployment of the National Guard and active-duty Marines in politically sensitive operations.

Associated Press

In practice, any military involvement would likely fall to state-controlled National Guard units. In 2020, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley responded to a similar request from Slotkin, then a congresswoman, affirming the principle of an apolitical military.

Associated Press

The Pentagon confirmed via email that it will answer Slotkin’s inquiry directly, as it does with all congressional correspondence. Hegseth described the request as a “gotcha hypothetical,” stating he has never been ordered to do anything illegal and would not comply with such an order. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, in a Vanity Fair interview last year, called the notion that Trump would use the military to suppress voting “categorically false” and “wrong-headed.”

Associated Press

• “I’d ask you to confirm a simple statement: the Department of Defense will not send Federal troops to the polls or to seize election materials of any kind,” — Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin

Associated Press

• “He’s very clearly laying the breadcrumbs to be able to say the day after the election that he didn’t really lose the House or he didn’t really lose the Senate,” — Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin

Associated Press