NEW: In a remarkable letter sent to the White House today, @KamalaHarris leads 27 senators in calling for the “immediate removal” of white nationalist Stephen Miller https://t.co/EOLxA9rSPG
— Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) December 9, 2019
… 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…
Update on those who have called for Miller to resign/be fired:
-Nearly 40 Dems in Senate
-107 Dems in House
-Over 50 civil rights orgs like @NAACP
-Coalition of Jewish groups
-130k folks who signed @AOC’s petition
-not a single Republican https://t.co/EOLxA9rSPG
— Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) December 9, 2019
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?
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.
NotMax
Secretary of Offense.
Mentioned in passing as well:
Roger Moore
@schrodingers_cat:
A quick check of Wikipedia says that’s it.
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.
Anne Laurie
Meanwhile, reminding voters exactly why we need to vote out the Occupant is an excellent tactic, as well as a mitzvah.
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. //
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?
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…)
Baud
@SFAW:
Beyond his current employer?
schrodingers_cat
@dmsilev: I don’t expect anything from Rs.Their motto is no despot left behind.
SFAW
@Baud:
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.
Roger Moore
@schrodingers_cat:
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.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: True, a general can’t do much with soldiers.
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 …
Mike in NC
Funny how the neo-Nazis surrounding Trump — Miller, Gorka, Bannon, Mulvaney, etc. — are such miserable specimens of Aryan supermen.
Aziz, light!
I’m sure Obergruppenführer Miller’s boss’s enablers will find this sternly worded letter deeply eyebrow furrowing.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
@NotMax:
Magda Goebbels
schrodingers_cat
@Roger Moore: Yes I agree we should definitely go after him.
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.
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.
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.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cermet: Could be worse, you could be stuck at LAX.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
Make him an albatross around Trump’s neck.
SFAW
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
As the lawyers might say: “Objection! Assumes facts not in evidence.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@?BillinGlendaleCA: as airports go, DIA is at least one of the cleaner ones
Roger Moore
@Mike in NC:
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.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
It’s true that LAX is the worst, and I say that as someone who’s flown from ORD a whole lot.
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.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve flown out of there a few times, it’s pretty nice.
@Mnemosyne: I’ve flown out of both and I’d agree.
(I should note that I’ve only flown twice in the past 15 years.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Yutsano: LAX is currently undergoing a major upgrade(including the peoplemover) which makes it worse than the 5 ring of hell.
BruceFromOhio
Cockroaches scatter from the light.
Senator Harris, you are the sunbeam.
Fucking bring it.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I fear for any children he might have. They will have a twisted monster for a father.
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.
Roger Moore
@Yutsano:
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.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I had terrible problems finding a restroom when I went to pick Madame up from her cruise this past Spring.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: LAX was the airport of the future in 1959. //
Roger Moore
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
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.
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.
mrmoshpotato
@Cermet: Find an airport pot shop, smoke a bowl and by a saucepan.
Mike in NC
@Jay Noble: Some people have noted a resemblance to Reinhard Heydrich, the “Butcher of Prague”.
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.
TomatoQueen
@Jay Noble: He looks like Goebbels. He thinks like Goebbels. He has the same damn job as Goebbels. He’s Goebbels.
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…
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TomatoQueen: More like Lavernty Beria, head of the NKVD under Stalin.
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.
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