Stephen Miller 'escorted off CNN set' after heated Jake Tapper interview

Host accuses senior White House adviser of 'wasting his viewers' time'

A senior Trump administration official is said to have been escorted off a CNN set following a heated interview with the network’s Jake Tapper.

White House senior adviser Stephen Miller reportedly refused to leave after his on-camera discussion with the news host had ended.

But White House spokesman Hogan Gidley has contradicted these reports, telling reporters that Mr Miller was not escorted out and “left on his own will”.

Mr Miller appeared on CNN’s State of the Union to answer questions about Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, a controversial new account of the Trump presidency by journalist Michael Wolff.

The interview became increasingly hostile as Mr Miller opted to attack CNN instead of answering questions about Mr Trump’s fitness to be president. Mr Miller said he wanted to focus on the issue of CNN’s fitness instead.

“In the toxic environment you have created here at CNN and cable news, which is a crisis of legitimacy for your network and we saw it of course with the extremely fake news you reported about Donald Trump Jr and Wikileaks story,” Mr Miller said.

He also defended the President as a “political genius” and called him “a self-made billionaire who revolutionized reality TV and changed the course of our politics”.

The interview came to an abrupt end as Mr Tapper suggested the only viewer Mr Miller cared about was Mr Trump himself.

“I think I’ve wasted enough of my viewers’ time. Thank you Stephen,” Mr Tapper said.

After the interview, Mr Miller was asked to leave the set multiple times but initially refused to do so, two sources familiar with the incident told Business Insider.

And an unnamed CNN employee quoted by The Hill said Mr Miller was then escorted out by security. CNN has not commented on record about the incident.

But in the aftermath of the interview, Mr Trump took to social media to show that he was indeed watching the clash.

“Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller of the Trump Administration,” the President tweeted.