Breaking: Student Files Ethics Complaint Against Senator Slotkin Over Condemned Remarks

Days after the Chicago Thinker virally broke coverage on U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin calling for post-midterm prosecutions of Republicans to deter young conservatives from getting involved in politics, Thinker Senior Editor and University of Chicago student Michael Bicksel has filed an ethics complaint against the Michigan Senator.

Bicksel’s complaint, submitted on October 22nd to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, details Slotkin’s controversial statements at a recent University of Chicago Institute of Politics event where she expressed her desire to send a “deterrence message” to college students considering a role within the Trump administration through fear of potential legal prosecution. The report argues that these remarks violate the Senate Ethics Manual’s standard against “improper conduct which may reflect upon the Senate,” and further petitions for an investigation to be conducted along with disciplinary measures to be considered.

Michael Bicksel, who covered Slotkin’s comments with the Chicago Thinker, explained his decision to file this complaint when asked: “Senator Slotkin was very clear: she wanted to use the threat of investigations to deter young conservatives from serving in government. Any suggestion to the contrary simply isn’t based on the transcript. Senators should not be censored for what they say, but they should be held to a high standard, and that’s all an ethics complaint does—it sends a message to Senator Slotkin that what she said was unbecoming of a United States Senator and she should be more thoughtful in the future.”