Morning Joe put together a montage of Stephen Miller on the Sunday shows over the weekend and then acted in disbelief over what he called an authoritarian statement on Trump’s authority:
Say what you will about Miller being so adamant about massive voter fraud in the election. That deserves legitimate criticism.
But the way Joe and Mika were gasping in disbelief over Miller’s statement about Trump’s authority not being question was just painful.
Here’s the full clip in context, via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. It starts at 1:20:
As Ed pointed out on Twitter, Miller’s comment would be something to worry about if you take it out of context like Joe did.
He adds in his article:
Perhaps people need to take a deep breath, because Miller wasn’t arguing that the judiciary has no role in reviewing executive action. He put it clumsily, without question, but it’s clear from the context that Miller isn’t arguing that judges don’t have the authority to “review things” the Trump administration does.
How do we know that? If Miller meant it that way and it reflected the Trump administration view, the White House wouldn’t bother with appeals within the judiciary, or with the rumored replacement EO that may come as early as today. Instead, Miller argued that the Trump administration would prevail through further judicial review. What Miller clearly meant in all of these instances was that the judiciary overstepped its authority in this case because the EO deals with national-security authority completely within the statutory and constitutional boundaries of the executive branch. With that already established, Miller argued over the weekend, judges can’t just rewrite the statutes and jurisdictions involved because they don’t like policy.
I couldn’t agree more with Ed. Miller’s comment was clumsily stated, but it clearly wasn’t authoritarian. After all, he’s talking about Trump’s legitimate authority granted him by the Constitution and federal law.
Look, I’m not a fan of Miller as I didn’t like him on the campaign trail. But he’s right about the courts and their brazen overreach.