Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Stephen Miller mocked after criticising Biden speech for lacking ‘warmth’

The former Trump staffer is credited as the architect of the migrant child separation policy

Graig Graziosi
Thursday 29 April 2021 17:47 BST
Comments
Former Breitbart editor says Stephen Miller is a white supremacist because she was one too

Stephen Miller, Donald Trump's former strategist who is widely credited as the architect of the former president's most extreme anti-immigration policies, criticised Joe Biden for giving a speech he said lacked "warmth."

Mr Biden issued his first address to Congress on Wednesday - his 100th day in office - and discussed jobs, infrastructure, education and the ongoing coronavirus vaccine effort.

Mr Miller - who built Mr Trump's child separation policy - complained of its lack of bipartisanship and outreach.

"So far, this speech is written in the “laundry list” style — the least inspired format for a congressional address," he wrote on Twitter. "It is striking just how tedious & unoriginal the rhetoric was in Biden’s speech. Also, no outreach, no bipartisanship, no surprises, no warmth — a lifeless and dry address."

It did not take long for critics on social media to point out that a man who helped write Mr Trump's "American Carnage" speech and who worked to strip migrant children away from their families had little room to criticise Mr Biden based on his "warmth."

"Given that this criticism is coming from the worst presidential speech writer in my lifetime, I'd say that means it was pretty good," Elizabeth Spiers, a writer and political analyst, tweeted.

Peter Daou, a former Democratic party operative, likened Mr Miller's policies and actions to war crimes, asking in a tweet "aren't you supposed to be in The Hague?"

"The only bipartisanship Stephen Miller has ever espoused is between white supremacists and virulent racists," Bryan Behar, a blogger and television writer, tweeted.

Josh McLaurin, a Georgia state representative, said Mr Miller's response was "how a bored fascist reacts to watching democracy on TV."

Broader reactions to Mr Biden's speech were predictably partisan, with many Democrats fawning over the president's ability to string a sentence together and many Republicans fabricating lies about the address to trade like baseball cards with each other on social media.

The official Republican response speech, delivered by Sen. Tim Scott, trotted out tired and endlessly deployed allegations that Mr Biden was pushing socialism and playing the race card.

However there was some limited cross-over appeal.

Moderate conservatives, like Fox News host Chris Wallace, offered the president praise.

Though he no longer operates from the White House, Mr Miller is still trying to exert his influence over the nation's policies.

After Mr Biden defeated Mr Trump in 2020 and Mr Miller left office, the strategist went on to start a group called "America First Legal," which was built to challenge liberal policies passed by the current administration.

The group announced on Wednesday that they were suing the Biden administration for implementing policies it claims discriminates against white farmers.

In 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Centre uncovered hundreds of emails that Mr Miller wrote to a Brietbart News Reporter recommending he read articles from the sites AmRen and VDARE.

Both of the sites are repositories of white supremacist musings.

He also recommended the reporter write about "The Camp of the Saints," a French novel from the 1970s that imagines a scenario in which migrant populations from the non-western world overrun and destroy western civilization, largely through immigration and the suppression of Western cultural ideals.

The book - also a favorite of another Trump ally, Steve Bannon - is extremely racist.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in