White House adviser Stephen Miller on Sunday defended Donald Trump's racist tweets directed at four non-white congresswomen: Reps. Ilhan Omar (MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ayanna Pressley (MA) and Rashida Tlaib (MI).
July 21, 2019

White House adviser Stephen Miller on Sunday defended Donald Trump's racist tweets directed at four non-white congresswomen: Reps. Ilhan Omar (MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ayanna Pressley (MA) and Rashida Tlaib (MI).

In an interview on Fox News, host Chris Wallace asked Miller to explain Trump's "go back" remark and the "send her back" chant at a recent presidential rally.

"That is not protecting the American people, that is playing the race card," Wallace said. "Let's take the Obama birther -- you don't think that questioning whether the first black president is [a citizen]..."

"That's not a race question!" Miller interrupted.

"I fundamentally disagree with the view that if you criticize someone and they happen to be a different color skin that that makes it a racial criticism," Miller complained. "If you want to have a colorblind society, it means you can criticize immigration policy, you can criticize people's views, you can ask questions about where they're born and not have it be seen as racial."

"And can you also say 'go back' where you came from?" Wallace wondered.

Miller argued that "the president was clear" that he disagreed with the "send her back" chant at his rally.

"He let it go on for 13 seconds and it was only when the chant diminished that he started talking again," Wallace noted. "He said nothing there or in his tweet after the rally that indicated any concern about the chant."

According to Miller, the audience chanted the racist phrase because they are tired of being "beat up" by liberals.

"During his 2016 campaign and even as president, Mr. Trump has been as critical of this country as anything The Squad [of Democratic congresswomen] has said," Wallace observed. "He said President Obama was the most ignorant president in our history. But about [Russian President Vladimir Putin], he says, 'You think our country is so innocent?'"

"You don't think the president ran on 'lock her up?'" Wallace pressed. "Nobody has any problem with what the president's policies have been, it's when he goes into stoking racial fears. I've never called any of his tweets racist, but there's no question that he is stoking racial divisions."

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