FIREWORKS! Stephen Miller Battles CNN Anchor Over ‘Domestic Terrorism’ in Portland in All-Out Brawl
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller brawled with CNN’s Boris Sanchez over President Donald Trump’s effort to deploy National Guard troops to Portland and whether some anti-ICE activists qualify as domestic terrorists during a heated Monday afternoon interview.
A federal judge ruled that Trump could not deploy Texas National Guard troops to the Oregon city over the weekend in a decision that the administration is appealing. On Monday, Sanchez asked Miller about the decision, eliciting a long denunciation of anti-ICE activists in Portland.
“It’s important to understand that in Portland, ICE officers have been subjected to over a hundred nights of terrorist assault, doxing, murder threats, violent attack, and every other means imaginable to try to overturn the results of the last election through violence,” argued Miller. Since Inauguration Day, there’s been an orchestrated campaign of terrorism and violence against ICE officers. Of course, we saw the recent sniper attack against ICE officers. They’re publishing their families’ photos online, they’re threatening them with murder, they’re threatening them with death, and they’re physically attacking them in the street each and every day. And yet, shamefully, the mayor and governor in Portland and Oregon have refused to render aid, leaving ICE officers to street fight every single night against these terrorists.”
“You make the claim of terrorist assaults, and violent attacks over a hundred nights, and yet the judge overseeing this case says that that’s untethered from reality,” replied Sanchez, who wondered if accounts that differ from the White House’s might weaken its “legal argument.”
“No, they are actually, as we speak, trying to overthrow the core law enforcement function of the federal government,” said Miller. “When ICE officers have to street battle against Antifa, hand-to-hand combat every night to come and go from their building. When they try to exit in a vehicle, when they are swarmed and surrounded, and they try to tip the vehicle over, when people bring weapons to an ICE facility to try to engage in direct violent assault against ICE officers, what is the purpose? It is to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement from carrying out the mission the American people elected them to do. Their objective is to make it impossible for ICE to carry out ICE enforcement.”
“It’s absurd, it’s unconstitutional, and must be put down!” added Miller.
Things got heated after Sanchez suggested that the fact that ICE is “still conducting operations” in the city — and that its facility has not been “overrun” — might mean that “local officials are fairly in control of the operation.”
“Do you have any idea how much of ICE’s workforce and resources have had to be reprioritized? How much of the Joint Terrorism Task Force’s resources have been reprioritized to fight these domestic terrorists?” asked Miller incredulously. “Do you have any idea how many resources are spent trying to hunt down and track each and every-”
“You keep calling them terrorists, but isn’t that hyperbolic to call them terrorists?” interjected Sanchez.
“No, if anything, I’m understating the severity of the situation,” shot back Miller. “Do you have any idea how many resources we have had to re-designate to deal with the street terrorists!?”
The pair continued to argue over the matter, with Sanchez pointing out the administration had not deployed the National Guard to Texas, where multiple ICE facilities have been attacked, and Miller arguing that’s because authorities there “have responded to every call for assistance and help.”
Watch the full brawl above via CNN.
