Stephen Miller, a former top adviser to then-President Donald Trump, especially when it came to managing the U.S. border with Mexico, called on “40 Republicans” to hold the line ahead of the next budget deal in less than 45 days and demand President Joe Biden reverse his ‘open borders’ policies.
In an interview Sunday with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Miller said he wasn’t a fan of the short-term continuing resolution just passed by Congress and signed by Biden because Republicans who control the House got virtually nothing in return.
“I, for one, am not celebrating the fact that we have extended government funding without making any change at all in the direction of this corrupt government,” Miller began.
“I understand how it got to this point, but the tragedy is this. We have walked for the last two or three days as everybody has been in a state of absolute panic, upheaval, outrage at the mere possibility that there could be a temporary lapse in government funding, as it happened dozens of times before,” he continued.
“I have not seen the same level of outrage, or panic, or upheaval, or emotion over the fact that we have had an invasion our border for three straight years. Washington is up in arms over the prospect of a slight disturbance in their lives and their schedules, but the destruction of our country, except for but a handful of members, barely elicits any response at all,” Miller added.
Continuing, he noted further:
We need to use this funding process to stop the mass releases, and that also means we have to get Senate Republicans engaged. Maria, there’s 49 Republicans. It takes 40 to change the direction of that institution. We need 40 Republicans to get behind the position that we will not approve any DHS funding long-term that doesn’t stop the mass releases.
And then you go about breaking the spirit of Joe Manchin and Jon Tester and Tim Kaine and all of the other left-wing Democrats, and you say, either you’re with us or you’re for the invasion. But until we start doing that, Maria, we’re not a serious country and we are not even remotely, remotely at the beginning of how bad this nightmare is going to get.
Bartiromo countered by saying that House Republicans attempted to push through a resolution that contained similar language that Miller is calling for, but “it failed.”
“I supported the effort to do the 45-day stopgap with the border security measures included and then, during that 45-day period, to then pass the individual appropriations bills, including a DOJ bill that fully defangs, disables, and defunds weaponized government,” Miller responded.
“That didn’t happen. Here’s where we are now. I’m just talking now to my friends all throughout the House Conference, people on the right, left, middle. You need to get on the same page. You need to see the greater good here,” Miller pressed. “You need to understand that, if you don’t find a way, somehow, some way, to pass 218 spending bills with 218 votes that disable this corrupt government, so you can meet and beat Chuck Schumer in a fight, then we will have failed. I don’t expect to win every battle, Maria. I don’t expect to prevail in every contest.
“But we need to show that we can force the Senate to consider the policies that will stop the invasion, that will stop weaponized government, that will stop the assault on our liberties and our freedoms,” he added. “And if that means the government shuts once, or twice, or three times, then that is the smallest price against the loss of our country, against the loss of this republic.
“And it will force the whole American people to pay attention to the travesty that is unfolding every single day in this country,” he predicted.
