It was an interesting Sunday morning on the news talk shows. Stephen Miller was the chosen one sent from the White House to try to explain President Trump's positions on a number of hot issues. He was booked on four different programs. And it did not go well for him.
George Stephanopoulis asked him about Trump's bringing up voter fraud again this week, insisting that he would have won New Hampshire except for the "thousands" of illegal voters who came across the border. Stephanopoulis asked Miller what the evidence for that was.
Like Trump, he insisted that "It's very real, it's very serious. . . . I’m prepared to go on any show, anywhere, any time and repeat it and say the president of the United States is correct, 100 percent.” After trying four times to get Miller to produce evidence, and only getting assertions that voter fraud "is a fact," Stephanopoulis finally ended by saying: “You have provided zero evidence of the president’s claim that he would have won the popular vote if 3 to 5 million illegal immigrants hadn’t voted, zero evidence for either one of those claims. Thanks a lot for joining us this morning.”
Then on to NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Moderator Chuck Todd asked about the reports that Gen. Flynn, Trump's National Security Adviser, had had contact with the Russian government during the transition and may have subtly negotiated their reaction to the sanctions. Todd asked whether the president still had confidence in Flynn. Miller said he didn't know. “It’s not for me to tell you what’s in the president’s mind. . . . My colleagues in the White House didn't give me anything to say.”
George Stephanopoulis had asked a similar question about Flynn and got a similar answer, which led him to ask: "Then why are you coming on the show if you can't answer the questions about the White House?"
In his Sunday morning tv outing, Miller also echoed Trump's attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the judicial branch, following the 9th Circuit Appeals court decision on his immigration ban. Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, reportedly help to write the executive order on the ban. He told CBS News' John Dickerson that it was "crazy" for judges to rule on the constitutionality of laws; and, on Fox News, he said that it was “a judicial usurpation of the power” by "unelected" judges.
Well, that certainly sounds like Trump. Are you surprised that, shortly after, Trump sent out this tweet? "Congratulations Stephen Miller- on representing me this morning on the various Sunday morning shows. Great job!"
In a New York Times article, "Turmoil at the National Security Council, From the Top Down," there was this sentence: "Three weeks into the Trump administration, council staff members get up in the morning, read President Trump's Twitter posts and struggle to make policy to fit them." This was not a satirical article; there's nothing funny in it. It's about the dysfunctional National Security Council with Gen. Flynn as the Director. Chaos begets chaos.
Wow! This is what we've come to?
Ralph
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment