Michigan’s newly elected Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin went on national television on Tuesday to blast her constituents, likening them to petulant suicidal teenagers without fully functioning brains.

“I often say this, we’re about to turn 250 years old, right, we’re still pretty young for a country,” Slotkin told The View. “These are like our angry teenage years, right. We are going through push and pull, where we’re happy, we’re sad, we want this, we want that, and what do you do when you have a teenager who is threatening themselves and others?

“You just try to get them through this period alive, so that their brain can fully form and you can come back to what our country …,” she said as she was interrupted by host Joy Behar.

Dem Senator Elissa Slotkin (MI) says that by electing Trump, America is acting like petulant and “angry” “teenager” without a “fully form[ed] brain”:
“What do you do when you have a teenager threatening themselves and others, you just try to get them through this period alive.… pic.twitter.com/7EN0xLkt7A

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) March 11, 2025

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

“Are you talking about Trump?” a laughing Behar said, referencing President Donald Trump, a frequent target of the program hosts’ angry tirades.

“No, I’m talking about our country,” Slotkin said. “We’re pendulum swinging. … So for me, I don’t think there’s a single American who feels like this is normal.”

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

Slotkin shared her perspective on voters just days after delivering Democrats’ formal response to Trump’s recent joint address to Congress in which she urged Democrats to follow a “responsible way to make change.”

The same night, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was forced to remove Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, from the House chamber after he repeatedly refused to stop heckling Trump during the address.

Green continued his antics on Thursday when he led a group of Democrats in singing the gospel song “We Shall Overcome” as members, including 10 Democrats, voted 224-198 to censure him, CNN reports.

Despite Slotkin’s call for a civil and measured response to Trump, the Holly Democrat defended Green’s behavior on The View, according to Fox News.

Host Alyssa Farah Griffin noted Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., described the night as “a sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance” from his party.

“It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained,” Fetterman posted to X. “We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to – and it may not be the winning message.”

“Do you agree or disagree with Senator Fetterman?” Griffin asked Slotkin.

“So, I think what you saw on the House floor was like, people feel like, passionate,” Slotkin said. “I identified with the frustration that my colleagues had, right. Al Green standing up, that comes from a real place.

“I think that I just prefer, myself, to do it in a different way, and I think you’ve got to be for something, you can’t just be against something,” she said.

The junior senator from Michigan then equated Democrats’ current political predicament to an addiction.

“I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone Trump has Democrats on their heels. I don’t think we need to pretend that’s not happening. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery,” Slotkin continued.

“I think … people are trying different things,” she said, “and it doesn’t mean I love every idea, but identify with that need to try and do something.”