Reporters Need to Ask the White House about Its Ties to White Nationalists
And They Need to Do It Every Day
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty
When Stephen Miller spoke to the Sunday shows on Feb. 12, he astounded the DC press with his full-throated defense of President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. The President’s national security decisions “will not be questioned,” Miller said.
Miller’s comments were over the top. Yet, they shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone interviewing him. Even a cursory overview of Miller’s background would have revealed an article from a week and a half earlier detailing his connections with far-right, fascistic groups. Miller even has a connection with white supremacist guru Richard Spencer.
That Miller was not asked about these ties is unfortunate, but not surprising. Trump administration officials and spokespeople have been allowed to appear on media outlets across the country for almost a month without being substantively challenged on the administration’s closeness to the white nationalist movement. That must change. Now.
More of Miller’s past was quickly dredged up after his disastrous appearances on Meet the Press, This Week, Fox News Sunday, and Face the Nation. In addition to Miller’s ties to Spencer, who is—again!—an open and proud white supremacist, the White House Senior Advisor has a history of racial hatred.
In high school in Santa Monica, Miller’s views on his Hispanic classmates were well known. He wrote a letter to the Santa Monica Lookout in 2001 in which he made his antipathy to the population clear.
There are usually very few, if any, Hispanic students in my honors classes, despite the large number of Hispanic students that attend our school.
Fernando Peinado reported on Feb. 13 for Univision that in college, Miller was “associated to radicals like Richard Spencer, creator of the term Alt-Right (although Miller has distanced himself from Spencer), anti-immigration activist David Horowitz and white nationalist Jared Taylor.”
After college, Miller worked as an aide in then-Senator and now Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ office as Communications Director (he also worked in Michele Bachmann’s office). He joined the Trump campaign in January 2016. Both men have histories of racist remarks.
Yet all of the above reporting—as solid and informative as it is—should not have taken this long. Miller appeared frequently as a warm-up for Trump’s rallies, unleashing his views on Islam and immigration on the crowds. Miller wrote many of Trump’s most explosive and controversial speeches. He was well known and he should have been thoroughly vetted by the press, especially when he joined the White House. And when he appeared on the Sunday shows last weekend, he should have at the very least, been asked directly about his connections with Spencer—which was first reported on all the way back in December and as recently as Feb. 1.
Of course, if it were only Miller this wouldn’t be such a big deal. Sure, the young advisor would be at the center of a controversy and would be forced out of power, but if it were only Miller that would be the end of it. But of course it isn’t.
The Trump administration’s ties to white nationalists are deep. It’s not only Miller. It’s also Presidential Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Sessions, and the president himself. Those ties need to be addressed every time any one of these men or their representatives appear in the media.