Vulnerable Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) attacked her Republican opponent, state Sen. Tom Barrett, for making her maskless selfie she posted go viral on social media, even though he was training with the Army.
“I turned around and took one selfie, and a bunch of guys in their basement made sure that went viral,” Slotkin told the Detroit News about the criticism she received last week for the viral maskless picture she tweeted of herself while everyone in the background was wearing a mask.
“The irony is that, while one side is tweeting from their basement, I in the morning had welcomed 25 Army soldiers into Sparrow Hospital to help our exhausted nurses. I’d done seven events in four counties.” Slotkin said further on the defense.
The congresswoman even attacked her opponent, saying, “it felt like a perfect foil of what my opponent spent his weekend doing, and what I spent my weekend doing.”
However, in response to Slotkin’s attack, Barrett said in a statement that he was “on duty for one of the final training weekends” of his Army career. “My opponent accused me of hiding in my basement and sending mean tweets because I wasn’t campaigning like she was.”
“I’m proud of my 22-year career in the Army and even though Elissa Slotkin never served in the military I’m still thankful for her civilian service to our country.
“I never expected her to attack me while I was on duty wrapping up a decade-long career of military service simply because she posted a hypocritical and embarrassing photo of herself,” he added in his statement slamming the Democrat congresswoman. I hope she will think twice before trying to deflect responsibility for her own mistakes in the future.”
Slotkin was also slammed by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) for being a hypocrite.
“Elissa Slotkin should just accept the fact that she hypocritically forced her supporters to wear masks while she went maskless. Slotkin went viral because she is a massive hypocrite, not because some guys were tweeting from their basement,” said NRCC Spokesman Mike Berg.
Last week, Breitbart News reported that Slotkin praised her “selfie skills” and admitted that her staff allowed her to post the maskless photo: “My selfie skills also seem to be improving so my team actually let me post this one!”
After the congresswoman posted the original picture, Barrett tweeted, “America today…hypocrites like @ElissaSlotkin don’t wear a mask while insisting our kids do.”
The next day, Slotkin’s campaign reportedly began looking for a new content producer to manage her social media platforms, including Twitter — where she posted the picture — as well as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Evidently, while it was reported that she was looking for a new content producer, the caption to Slotkin’s viral selfie praised her staff for letting her post the maskless picture.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.
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