White House adviser Stephen Miller was already a controversial figure inside Trump World, but the release of purported Miller emails in which he appears to have promoted theories popular with white nationalist groups has taken concerns about him to a new level. The New York Times reported this week:
The group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, on Tuesday published a summary of some 900 messages that Mr. Miller sent to Breitbart News from March 2015 to June 2016. The center shared with The New York Times seven pages of the emails included in that summary.
The emails, supplied by Katie McHugh, a former editor at Breitbart, show that Mr. Miller tried to shape news coverage with material he found on at least one website that espouses white nationalist viewpoints, including fringe theories that people of color are trying to engage in “white genocide.” The law center’s investigation, which the group says it will turn into a series, seeks to illustrate how Mr. Miller brought anti-immigrant beliefs to the White House and turned them into policy.
It’s that last point that’s of particular interest. Miller is not just some random figure, isolated in an obscure office somewhere in the Trump administration bureaucracy. On the contrary, the president has given Miller extraordinary power and influence in shaping the White House’s hard-line approach to immigration policy.
In an especially memorable report, the Wall Street Journal noted in April that the president specifically told Miller, in reference to immigration policy, “You’re in charge.”
Or put another way, a far-right adviser who’s been accused of promoting theories popular with white nationalist groups is overseeing the White House’s immigration agenda. Is it any wonder that several prominent Democrats have called for Miller’s resignation?
The New York Times‘ Jamelle Bouie was unrelenting in his latest column on Miller’s recent record.
[T]here’s no way to spin these emails into something innocuous. The evidence is overwhelming: Miller was immersed in white power ideology. He was fluent in the language of white nationalism, attuned to its ideas. He was an obvious sympathizer who brought that sympathy to the federal government, where he has a direct hand in making immigration policy and choosing personnel.
For three years, Miller has used his perch to inflict fear and anxiety on refugees, asylum-seekers and unauthorized immigrants. Maybe, if you were charitable to Miller and sympathetic to restricting immigration, you could frame this as a misguided but good faith attempt to pull back from a more liberal status quo. No longer. These emails show that Miller’s views flow from his commitment to racist exclusion and the protection of a white demographic majority.
To date, I’m not aware of any congressional Republicans who’ve called for Miller’s ouster.
Postscript: MSNBC and NBC News have not independently verified the authenticity of the Miller emails in question.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."