Failing to ding President Trump’s aggressive first moves and executive orders with their criticism, media bigs have turned their guns on top White House aides, the latest being policy director Stephen Miller, belittled as a “kid” running a “crap show” in the West Wing.
Leading the hot-headed assault on the trusted Trump ally is MSNBC’s Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough who for two straight days has accused Miller and others of bungling the rollout of the immigration executive orders that he led in crafting.
.@JoeNBC slams Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon for leaving parts of Trump admin. in the dark about the travel ban https://t.co/CEUARgjrcC
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) January 31, 2017
On Monday, he slapped Miller as a “kid,” and co-host Mika Brzezinski added, “this young man thinks he runs the White House.”
Those focusing on White House staff being critical of Miller are missing the bigger story. It is the foreign policy team he angered most.
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) January 30, 2017
Today, the assault continued as Scarborough added in spokesman Sean Spicer and top Trump aide Stephen Bannon.
Scarborough said Miller is “the architect of this chaos” and tweeted attacks on Bannon too for not consulting with key national security officials on the immigration orders.
Why did Stephen Miller keep Secretary Mattis, General Kelly and Director Pompeo in the dark on a matter of vital national security? https://t.co/ohDcsfVRcV
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) January 31, 2017
Discussing the draft executive order on the temporary immigration plan, Brzezinski called it “some kid’s draft” and Scarborough added, “some young kid’s draft which caused chaos across the globe.” He said the result was a “crap show.”
Miller is 31 and a former aide to Sen. Jeff Sessions, who is expected to be approved as attorney general this week and who also was an architect of the Trump immigration orders. For comparison, George Stephanopoulos was 31 when he joined former President Clinton as a top aide in the White House.
Far from being a kid drafting the executive orders, Miller was a principle in designing them and the reason he was put TV to explain them, officials said. An administration associate said, “he has the details and the knowledge about them.”
Today, he told Secrets, “It is the sacred and solemn duty of the government to secure its borders, to protect its people, and to develop immigration policies that serve the citizens of the United States. On these points, there can be no real debate.”
Inside the White House, he won applause for being calm on TV in describing the orders despite the criticism. “He has the trust of the boss,” said one.
Because it is well known that Trump watches Morning Joe, insiders said that Scarborough’s attack was aimed as a warning shot to Trump to ban Miller from TV, but they said it didn’t hit.
On Tuesday Scarborough looked directly into the camera and said, “you guys should probably keep him off television.”
Despite the assault, officials said that the president views the missteps of the first week as “hiccups” that will be ironed out and lessons learned as they ready for bigger battles such as Tuesday’s announcement of a Supreme Court nominee.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
