Twenty-five Democratic House members, all Jewish, led by Reps. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), on Friday sent an open letter to President Donald Trump, demanding that he fire White House senior adviser Stephen Miller for what they described as white nationalist talking points Miller emailed beginning in 2015, which have been leaked last month.
On November 12, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has long been associated with an exceedingly leftwing agenda, reported that Miller—who began as the communications director for Senator Jeff Sessions and has since become the architect of the White House’s formidable publicity front—had been pushing white nationalist content in emails to various rightwing recipients, most notably a young editor at Breitbart News, Katie McHugh, who has since been fired from the publication (Stephen Miller’s Affinity for White Nationalism Revealed in Leaked Emails).
According to the SPLC, the emails, which Miller sent in 2015 and 2016, “showcase the extremist, anti-immigrant ideology that undergirds the policies he has helped create as an architect of Donald Trump’s presidency. These policies include reportedly setting arrest quotas for undocumented immigrants, an executive order effectively banning immigration from five Muslim-majority countries and a policy of family separation at refugee resettlement facilities that the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General said is causing ‘intense trauma’ in children.”
According to the SPLC, Miller referred multiple times in his emails to Breitbart to President Calvin Coolidge’s Immigration Act of 1924. Coolidge wrote in a 1921 magazine article: “There are racial considerations too grave to be brushed aside for any sentimental reasons. Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend. … Quality of mind and body suggests that observance of ethnic law is as great a necessity to a nation as immigration law.”
In two emails to Breitbart on August 4, 2015, Miller quoted radio host Mark Levin who “just said there should be no immigration for several years. Not just cut the number down from the current 1 million green cards per year. For assimilation purposes,” and: “Like Coolidge did. Kellyanne Conway poll says that is exactly what most Americans want after 40 years of non-stop record arrivals.”
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told HuffPost: “We have not seen the report. The SPLC, however, is an utterly-discredited, long-debunked far-left smear organization that has recently been forced ― to its great humiliation ― to issue a major retraction for other wholly-fabricated accusations. They libel, slander, and defame conservatives for a living. They are beneath public discussion.”
In their letter to the president, the 25 Jewish lawmakers say they are deeply disturbed by Miller’s ideas as well as the way the White House has been defending him.
“As Jewish members of Congress, we are calling on you to immediately relieve White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller of all government responsibilities and dismiss him from your Administration,” the letter states. “His documentation of white nationalist and virulently anti-immigrant tropes is wholly unacceptable and disqualifying for a government employee.”
The Jewish Congress Members joined calls for firing Miller from Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, The Jewish Vote, T’ruah, Never Again Action, J Street, IfNotNow, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, and the Jewish Vote, who have launched an online petition titled: “American Jews Demand: Stephen Miller Resign.”
Yes, if you recognize a connection between the anti-Miller campaign and another campaign having to do with attacks on a certain Mid-Eastern country, you are not wrong. We also doubt very much that President Trump will give Miller the boot ― but we have been wrong on similar fronts before.
