It’s been a while but White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller seemed to still have it during a Tuesday interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on The Lead. Miller repeatedly embarrassed Tapper by calling out the outlandish assertions he was making and throwing them back in his face, like suggesting it was “demonizing” to note that someone voted for Vice President Kamala Harris and that the left wanted the cheap exploitative labor of illegal immigrants.
Questioned by Tapper about the Trump administration’s freeze on discretionary spending, Miller noted that they had to put it in place to halt billions of taxpayer dollars President Biden had tried to funnel out of the country in the final days of hours of his presidency.
Miller also noted that career bureaucrats in the federal government also had their own pet projects they were trying to funnel money toward. When Miller dared to note the fact that the vast majority of federal workers leaned left, Tapper rudely interjected (Click "expand"):
MILLER: There's 2 million employees in the federal government, overwhelmingly the career federal service in this country is far left, left-wing. The American people --
TAPPER: I don't know that to be a fact.
MILLER: Well, I'll give you a great example. We looked at USAID as an example.
TAPPER: That's --
MILLER: Ninety-eight percent, 98 percent of the workforce either donated to Kamala Harris or another left-wing candidate, just as an example.
Tapper ridiculously interrupted again to claim Miller was “demonizing” them by noting who they voted for. Miller promptly responded by calling out how ridiculous of a claim that was (Click "expand"):
TAPPER: You're demonizing an entire workforce as having a --
MILLER: Wait, wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you just say that, saying someone voted for Kamala Harris is demonizing them?
TAPPER: No. So your suggestion is that there's a bias?
MILLER: No.
TAPPER: Your suggestion --
MILLER: But you use the word demonizing. You just said that I'm demonizing somebody by saying they voted for Kamala Harris.
TAPPER: Let's get back on track.
It’s interesting that Tapper showed moral outrage at someone who dare point out the political affiliations of the federal bureaucracy, and yet he was 100 percent behind taking part in maliciously defaming Navy veteran Zachary Young on his show after Young saved 22 women and a baby from the Taliban.
“I got to finish the sentence,” Miller told Tapper after he again rudely interrupted in an attempt to obfuscate the facts about the voting patterns of the federal bureaucracy.
Miller continued: “The American people voted for dramatic change implemented by Donald Trump. So it is essential for him to get control of government, to establish a whole-of-government process for Donald Trump's political appointees, to review discretionary grants of spending for pet projects that are not directed by Congress.”
Further on, Tapper was clutching his pearls over the deportation of illegal immigrants: “How does President Trump make sure that the effort to deport people who are not in this country legally doesn't end up hurting Americans who want safe borders? Absolutely. But also don't want to see even more higher prices in groceries?”
Miller cut through Tapper’s argument by pointing out that it stemmed from a fear of losing cheap labor. “Well, I'm sure it’s not your position, Jake. You're just asking the question that we should supply America's food with exploitative, illegal alien labor. I obviously don't think that's what you're implying,” he slyly pushed back.
“Only one percent of alien workers in the entire country work in agriculture. The top destination for illegal aliens are large cities like New York, like Los Angeles, and small industrial towns, of course, all across the heartland, as we've seen with the Biden floods,” he explained.
The transcript is below. Click "expand: to read:
CNN’s The Lead
January 28, 2025
4:31:54 p.m. Eastern(…)
STEPHEN MILLER: And I just want to but I want to really drill down on this, Jake, because it's so important. There's 2 million employees in the federal government, overwhelmingly the career federal service in this country is far left, left-wing. The American people --
TAPPER: I don't know that to be a fact.
MILLER: Well, I'll give you a great example. We looked at USAID as an example.
TAPPER: That's --
MILLER: Ninety-eight percent, 98 percent of the workforce either donated to Kamala Harris or another left-wing candidate, just as an example.
TAPPER: Okay.
MILER: But let me just -- let me just --
TAPPER: You're demonizing an entire workforce as having a --
MILLER: Wait, wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you just say that, saying someone voted for Kamala Harris is demonizing them?
TAPPER: No. So your suggestion is that there's a bias?
MILLER: No.
TAPPER: Your suggestion --
MILLER: But you use the word demonizing. You just said that I'm demonizing somebody by saying they voted for Kamala Harris.
TAPPER: Let's get back on track.
MILLER: But I just -- I am on track.
TAPPER: Okay.
MILLER: Let me stay on track. What I'm saying to you is this, there are 2 million employees in the federal government.
TAPPER: Right.
MILLER: They're overwhelmingly left of center, the American people.
TAPPER: Again, facts –
MILLER: I've got to finish the sentence.
TAPPER: Okay.
MILLER: I got to finish the sentence.
The American people voted for dramatic change implemented by Donald Trump. So it is essential for him to get control of government, to establish a whole-of-government process for Donald Trump's political appointees, to review discretionary grants of spending for pet projects that are not directed by Congress.
So, in other words, these are pots of money where Congress hasn't said how to spend it or where to spend it. This might be something like saying, I want to build a $500 million fountain in the courtyard of the Department of Commerce. This might be something like saying, I want to fund gender studies in Afghanistan.
There has to be political control and review. I can't help it if left-wing media outlets published a fake news story that caused confusion. If you read the OMB guidance memo, it is --
TAPPER: I don't know what you're talking about.
MILLER: Well, if you read the OMB guidance.
TAPPER: Well, I don't know what left wing media outlets--
MILLER: It's clear as day.
(…)
4:42:50 p.m. Eastern
TAPPER: The Department of Agriculture says that between 2020 and 2022, 42 percent of crop workers were undocumented immigrants. And in many cases, as you know, these migrants do jobs many Americans do not want to do.
So, how do you -- how does President Trump make sure that the effort to deport people who are not in this country legally doesn't end up hurting Americans who want safe borders? Absolutely. But also don't want to see even more higher prices in groceries?
MILLER: Well, I'm sure it’s not your position, Jake. You're just asking the question that we should supply America's food with exploitative, illegal alien labor. I obviously don't think that's what you're implying.
Only one percent of alien workers in the entire country work in agriculture. The top destination for illegal aliens are large cities like New York, like Los Angeles, and small industrial towns, of course, all across the heartland, as we've seen with the Biden floods.
TAPPER: Uh-huh.
MILLER: None of those illegal aliens are doing farm work. Those 30,000 illegal aliens that Joe Biden dumped into Springfield.
TAPPER: I'm talking about the ones that aren't --
MILLER: No, no, no, but -- but no, no, but I'm explaining this. It's important to understand.
TAPPER: Now, you're kind of changing the subject. I mean, I'm talking about the ones --
MILLER: I will -- I will go -- I will give me 30 minutes. I'll go as deep as you want. I'm explaining to you and to your audience --
TAPPER: I don't -- we don't have 30 minutes. I don't -- I'm talking about the ones that could that work in the agriculture industry.
MILLER: What -- I'm explaining to you and your audience --
TAPPER: We can go back and we can talk about the ones in the cities. I swear.
MILLER: I'll do the -- I'll do the whole answer. The illegal aliens that Joe Biden brought into our country are not full stop doing farm work. They are not the illegal aliens he brought in from Venezuela, from Haiti, from Nicaragua. They are not doing farm work. They are in our cities collecting welfare.
(…)
