It’s not clear how serious white nationalist and former Trump speechwriter Stephen Miller was about trying to become speaker but he was deadly serious in his fury at Kevin McCarthy’s ouster from his speakership, especially because he had “a plan to deal with the border invasion.”
It’s hard to imagine anyone with less charisma than Stephen Miller but on Fox News, hatred for Democrats and people of color make anyone prime time material, apparently.
Appearing on Fox News yesterday, Miller began by partially blaming Democrats for McCarthy’s ouster, when the real causes were GOP troll Rep. Matt Gaetz, plus McCarthy’s agreement to change the rules that allowed Gaetz to do it. Democrats voted with him but they were not caucusing with him.
But on Fox News, Democrats are always demonized, even as Miller threw them a backhanded, sort-of compliment.
MILLER: Well, what happened today is very simple. As you said, eight Republicans and all Democrats ejected the speaker of the House. So, Kevin is a friend of mine, I’ve known him for a long time. But whether you like Kevin, whether you hate Kevin, wherever you fall on Kevin, the reality is the Republican party cannot exist as a functional party if just eight members at any point in time can join with all Democrats to eject a speaker.
If you want to be like the left, if you want to beat the left, if you want to dominate the left, if you want to save the country from the left, you have to learn from them.
Miller started shouting as he continued:
MILLER: They [the left] operate as a unit, they operate as a team. They find their strength in unity, as a block, as a single block. Republicans – everyone acts like it’s the model to the U.N. all the time. They are always debating with each other and caucusing and meeting here, and meeting there and this idea, and that idea, and then someone randomly will jump into a room and say, “Balance the budget” for no reason at all.
They need to focus. The focus needs to be on the two things destroying this country right now and neither of those two things is Kevin McCarthy. It’s a border invasion and weaponized government.
As he kept ranting, Miller revealed that his idea of Republican unity is subjugating moderate Republicans to his views:
MILLER: Kevin McCarthy put forward a plan to deal with the border invasion and, as far as weaponized government is concerned, what’s holding that up are the so-called moderates in the Republican conference. Nobody talks about them. Nobody talks about the members of the Republican conference who scream and cry and protest every time somebody tries to step in and pursue real action against the DOJ, real action against the criminal thugs running this country.
Miller went on to complain that he doesn’t hear any plan, proposal or vision to “shut down our open border and stop the Department of Justice from putting innocent Americans in jail for life.” Presumably, by “innocent Americans” he was referring to Donald “91 felony charges” Trump and his fellow coup plotters.
Host Jesse Watters who listened to Miller’s diatribe with a grin, asked, “So who is going to be the next speaker, Stephen Miller?”
Miller replied, “I have put my name in the ring. We’ll see what happens.”
Later, after more ranting from Miller, Watters closed out the segment with a jokey “I hereby nominate Stephen Miller to be House Speaker. Can I get an aye?”
Miller responded, “I accept the nomination.”
I’m pretty sure Miller has no chance of becoming the next speaker of the House of Representatives. But his comments say a lot about the pathetic but still dangerous state of the Republican party.
You can watch it below, from the October 3, 2023 Jesse Watters Primetime.
