Fired ABC News Reporter Terry Moran Takes Victory Lap Over Viral Clip of Trump Deputy Stephen Miller Defending Torture
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Former ABC News reporter Terry Moran took a defiant victory lap Thursday, sharing a viral video clip of Stephen Miller and defending the tweet about the longtime adviser to President Donald Trump that got him fired as “true.”
In early June, the veteran anchor and senior national correspondent posted a tweet criticizing Miller as someone “who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred” and is “a world-class hater.” Moran’s comments incited loud MAGA outrage — and even a tweet fired back at him from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt — and he ended up deleting the tweet.
ABC News suspended Moran and then announced it had “made the decision to not renew” his contract as a result, calling the tweet “a clear violation” of company policies.
Moran launched his own Substack and has defended his criticism of Miller as “true” and said that he “used very strong language deliberately” when he wrote it because that was what was needed to be accurate.
Thursday, former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau shared a video clip of Miller when he was 17 years old, talking about the Iraq War.
“Stephen Miller has been a sociopath for most of his life,” wrote Favreau. “Wild that ABC fired [Moran] for simply stating that this person is a world-class hater.”
A longer clip of the video was posted on YouTube by VICE News in 2017, and shows Miller sitting on a school bus holding a small microphone as he is apparently being interviewed. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was White House Press Secretary at the time, claimed it was a “sketch comedy routine,” but many people found the clip disturbing nonetheless.
Warning: the following video clip contains footage of Miller saying disturbing things and also singing.
The part that initially drew media attention was Miller’s comments voicing support of torture in the Iraq War:
“In concern, to the issue of the Iraqi civilians,” he started. “I think that as many of them should survive as possible, because the goal of any military conflict is to kill as few people as possible.”
“But as for Saddam Hussein and his henchmen, I think the ideal solution should be to cut off their fingers,” Miller joked.
“I don’t think it’s necessary to kill them entirely,” he continued. “We’re not a barbaric people, we respect life. Therefore torture is the way to go. Because tortured people can live. Torture is the celebration of life and human dignity.”
“And I only hope that many of my peers and people who will be leading this country will appreciate the value and respect that torture shows to other cultures,” Miller said, before continuing on to a different subject.
In the clip, Miller also brags that he’s “pretty sexy” and “play[s] good tennis” but laments his already-receding hairline, joking, “I look like I’m 35, and a balding 35 year old at that.” [For scientific purposes, Miller is roughly 37 years old in the photo at the top of this article.] He recounts a conversation he said he had with his doctor in which he was asked about his sleep habits, and says he doesn’t sleep but instead “usually I just sit in my room and go like this,” at which point Miller craned his neck forward and made an odd shrieking sort of “HAA!” sound.
The last part of the video shows Miller singing an Engelbert Humperdinck song, “Yours Until Tomorrow.” Any sensitive viewers who wish not to witness that should stop the video no later than the 1:55 mark.
Moran shared Favreau’s tweet with a one sentence caption: “I wrote it because it’s true.”
Watch the video above via VICE News on YouTube.
