Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No Justins, No Peace

Everybody saw this coming.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Let’s finish the job.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Come on, man.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Worthy Endeavors Open Thread: Senator Harris Has A New Target — Stephen Miller

Worthy Endeavors Open Thread: Senator Harris Has A New Target — Stephen Miller

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… The letter—whose signatories include Harris’s former 2020 rivals Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Cory Booker—adds to the already intense pressure on the White House to relieve Miller of his duties, though the administration has given zero indication it plans to heed those calls. Miller, who has encouraged Trump’s immigration crackdown, has never made a secret of his nationalist, anti-immigrant worldview, evidenced in his reported proposal to release detained immigrants in sanctuary cities as a form of retaliation, and his alleged push to tax Mexico. “He is working behind the scenes, he has planted all of his people in all of these positions, he is on the phone with them all of the time, and he is creating a side operation that will circumvent the normal, transparent policy process” in order to push his agenda, a source told my colleague Abigail Tracy last year, highlighting the insidious ways in which Miller pushes his priorities…

At least 75 House Democrats have also called for Miller’s removal, and the SPLC has circulated a petition pushing for him to be fired. But Republicans have mostly been silent on the matter, and the White House has stood by Miller amid the fallout. “I know Stephen,” deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told the Hill last month, attempting to frame calls for his removal as somehow anti-Semitic “He loves this country and hates bigotry in all its forms.”

That in itself is a pretty good indication that the administration has no plans to sever ties with Miller, setting up a de facto confrontation between Trump and Harris that promises to play out as long as Miller remains on staff. In leading the charge, Harris is cementing her post-campaign position as a leading Trump antagonist. Before she entered the presidential race, Harris was perhaps best known for eviscerating now Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh during his Senate confirmation hearing; months later, she did the same with attorney general William Barr. She may not get the chance to cross-examine Miller in practice, but in principle she’s once again setting herself against a figurehead that stands for everything she wishes to be known for fighting against.

Excellent quick summary of the Miller Problem, from Ishaan Tharoor at the Washington Post:

… Miller’s fingerprints can be detected all over Trump’s presidency. He is, after all, one of Trump’s main speechwriters. But his biggest role has been in molding the White House’s immigration policy, tacitly pushing through a sweeping series of measures — from travel bans on Muslim-majority countries to punitive actions against immigrants who receive public assistance — under Trump’s watch.

Although many advisers have come and gone during Trump’s tumultuous presidency, Miller has endured. That is, until now. Over the past week, more than 100 Democratic lawmakers and some civil society organizations have called for Miller’s resignation in response to new revelations about the depths of his ideological extremism.

A leaked cache of more than 900 emails that Miller allegedly sent to employees at the far-right website Breitbart ahead of the 2016 election appear to show his demonstrated commitment to white-nationalist political beliefs and talking points. Miller “promoted white nationalist literature, pushed racist immigration stories and obsessed over the loss of Confederate symbols,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a left-wing nonprofit organization that obtained the material from former Breitbart reporter Katie McHugh…

What concerns some analysts is that Miller may not be an outlier. He has spent his entire professional life working within the Republican Party, including a stint as a close aide to Jeff Sessions, Trump’s former U.S. attorney general, when he was an Alabama senator…

Reader Interactions

47Comments

  1. 1.

    schrodingers_cat

    Elected Ds and especially those of  Indian heritage/origin need to come out strongly against the new horrible law that passed the parliament in India.

    1. Harris 2. Jaypal 3. Ami Bera 4. Krishnamurthy 5. Ro Khanna. Are there others?

  2. 2.

    kindness

    Unfortunately for us, Miller’s intent, actions and motivations wrt his open racism is not a bug for Republicans.  It’s a feature.

    Miller will leave the White House when we vote Trump’s ass out in 2020.

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    Secretary of Offense.

    Mentioned in passing as well:

    Senior White House Adviser Stephen Miller is getting engaged to Katie Waldman, Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary. News of their relationship first broke in September, when Waldman, 28, took on the role.

    Before that, she worked as the communications director for Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), and before that as deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland security. In that role, she frequently defended Donald Trump’s border policies, including the border wall, separation of migrant children from their families and putting active duty military personnel on the border. Those policies, in many cases, were introduced or championed by Miller, who has made immigration his signature issue. Source

  6. 6.

    Anne Laurie

    @kindness: Miller will leave the White House when we vote Trump’s ass out in 2020.

    Meanwhile, reminding voters exactly why we need to vote out the Occupant is an excellent tactic, as well as a mitzvah.

  7. 7.

    debbie

    I guess this means Miller was very much for the executive order forbidding anyone from talking mean about Israel or Jews on college campuses in racial tones. Yep, hating bigotry in all its forms. //

  8. 8.

    SFAW

    I keep hoping that someone will uncover/discover “a little light Treason” in Miller’s background/history

     

    ETA: And if that happens, I am SURE that Republicans will rush to condemn Miller for it.

    No, I don’t do other fonts — why do you ask?

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    @schrodingers_cat: I’d ask about (former) elected R Nikki Haley, but (a) we all know she’d never say anything and (b) she’s apparently too busy writing op-eds about how the nasty media today would prevent people from removing the Confederate flag from the SC State House, which she totally is responsible for, but of course that’s not to disparage the heritage it represents.

    (Comments in that Post article seem to be running about 20:1 against her…)

  12. 12.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Beyond his current employer?

    Well, naturally, if the Traitor-in-Chief can be rolled up in that net, who am I to be picky? But, basically, any time, any place works for me.

  13. 13.

    Roger Moore

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Also Miller is not the biggest problem but his boss is. There are many Millers waiting in the wings were he to resign tomorrow.

    This is true, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go after him.  One of the ways of reining in a bad boss is to go after his subordinates.  We want the person waiting in the wings to fill Miller’s shoes to have second thoughts about what will happen to them if they do.  If enough people are scared away from working with Trump, he won’t be able to put his plans into motion.

  15. 15.

    Cermet

    Well, stuck at Denver airport due to delayed connection. Ugh. Was a 2 hour layover and now added a 2 hour estimated delay. Not a good sign …

  16. 16.

    Mike in NC

    Funny how the neo-Nazis surrounding Trump — Miller, Gorka, Bannon, Mulvaney, etc. — are such miserable specimens of Aryan supermen.

  17. 17.

    Aziz, light!

    I’m sure Obergruppenführer Miller’s boss’s enablers will find this sternly worded letter deeply eyebrow furrowing.

  20. 20.

    Eljai

    @Roger Moore: Good point.  I would also like to add that tearing children away from their parents is morally abhorrent and we should hold Miller accountable, since the press seems to have moved on.

  21. 21.

    MattF

    Republicans stick with Trump, which means they’ll stick with Miller. But it’s entirely fair to cover them with tar and feathers when they do.

  22. 22.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @NotMax: I am surprised Miller is capable of a normal human relationship. Then again, she works for Pence so she might be craving human warmth for once in her cold, on message life. But can you imagine what a Culture Warrior romance must look like? The must be a whole list of places and things they can’t do for romantic get away. Oh dream of those Chick Flite dinners for two.

    Who wants to bet Miller drops the White Nationalism like a stone when he has kids.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    @Mike in NC:

    Funny how the neo-Nazis surrounding Trump — Miller, Gorka, Bannon, Mulvaney, etc. — are such miserable specimens of Aryan supermen.

    They’re just following the example of their predecessors.  It’s not as if Hitler was a prime specimen of blue-eyed blond Aryan manhood.

  29. 29.

    Yutsano

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: DIA is miserable and cold. At least that’s how it was when I flew threw there in October.

    @Mnemosyne: I will absolutely second you on LAX being a wretched hive of scum and villainy. I know people complain about SEA but it’s had a bunch of upgrades lately. And several of the food courts are to die for now.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yutsano:

    The food has vastly improved. It’s every other fucking thing about the airport that’s disastrous, like the terminal layouts that hide the restrooms behind stores and boarding areas.

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    @Yutsano:

    I will absolutely second you on LAX being a wretched hive of scum and villainy. I know people complain about SEA but it’s had a bunch of upgrades lately. And several of the food courts are to die for now.

    LAX is weird because the terminals are disconnected buildings.  Some of them have been renovated recently and are reasonably nice.  The biggest problem is that it’s just way too crowded, something that the recent renovations have exacerbated by replacing passenger waiting areas with restaurants and bars.

  38. 38.

    Roger Moore

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    LAX was the airport of the future in 1959.

    Yep.  And honestly, they’ve done a remarkable job of adding and fixing stuff to let it remain a functioning airport even as air travel has radically changed.  But honestly, we need to spread out the traffic to the other airports in the region rather than concentrating everything in one place.

  39. 39.

    Jay Noble

    Can anyone tell me what villian, in what movie Miller reminds me of? He’s the spitting image but I can’t find it! I want to say it’s a Bond movie and a Russian.

  42. 42.

    kindness

    I’ve read that Trump’s Anti Anti-Sematism EO is really a front to criminalize the Israel Divestment movement.  Sounds plausible.  I’m not sure what the point was really beyond them thinking it would drum up a Jewish vote for Trump.  I don’t really think so though.  Trump likes Jewish folk as adversaries too much.  Did you hear his speech to the conservative Jewish org Saturday?  Damn!  That man is abby-normal.  No, I think the real reason is to criminalize political dissent they don’t like.

  44. 44.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @SFAW: Come on, Miller at lest has a reptilian hind brain to drive him to mate, doesn’t he? I mean, he should, you know…

  46. 46.

    Tehanu

    @NotMax: @Brachiator: Holy mackerel. I sincerely hope they don’t have any kids as the poor things will either be traumatized for life before they flee at 18, or turned into nasty little copies of their parents.

  47. 47.

    Boris, Rasputin's Evil Twin

    @Mike in NC:  The original Nazis around Hitler were pretty miserable specimens of Aryan supermen, and of human beings as well. It must go with the territory, that and tons of projection

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