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Republican Senator Rips Stephen Miller’s White House Ambitions
More and more GOP lawmakers are speaking out against the top Trump aide.
A Republican senator says President Donald Trump made the wrong call in his massive White House shake-up.
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, 66, blasted Trump’s decision to promote Stephen Miller to chief of staff, joining a growing chorus of Republican lawmakers who have expressed concern over the controversial aide’s powerful new role.
“I think it’s an absurd mistake,” Tillis told reporters Tuesday after he was asked what he thought of Miller as chief of staff.
Tillis has repeatedly ripped into Miller since Trump made the bombshell announcement on Friday.
“He doesn’t know politics. He doesn’t know policy. Why is he in the White House?” Tillis told reporters on Monday.
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When reached for comment, the White House remained defiant.
“By implementing the President’s commonsense agenda, Stephen oversaw the Administration’s efforts to achieve the most secure border in history,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said. “Stephen Miller’s dedication to making our country safer and wealthier will continue in his new role as Chief of Staff.”
Last week, Tillis told CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper that Miller was “the worst of all possible choices” to replace Susie Wiles, Trump’s longtime enforcer who has become the latest woman to leave the Trump administration.
The North Carolina senator said the blue tsunami that wiped out Republican candidates in the midterms was largely driven by the administration’s heavy-handed immigration blitz, which was orchestrated by Miller.
“Republicans lost because we lost the narrative on the border, a success that the president should have been heralding,” he said. “We lost a Hispanic vote in large part because of the mismanagement of that policy and Homeland Security policy, which are the two majors that Stephen Miller has declared in his time in the White House.”
Tillis said Miller, who has long drawn controversy for his hardline views on immigration, is “one of the most partisan, polarizing figures” even among Republicans.
“How do we think somebody as divisive of a background as Stephen Miller is going to be the olive branch we need to the new Democratic majorities in Congress to get things done?” he said. “The president made this decision and the president needs to rethink it. It is a colossal mistake.”
Tillis isn’t the only GOP lawmaker unhappy with Trump’s new chief of staff.
Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana earlier told Fox News that Miller’s promotion was a “horrible decision,” while another unnamed Republican lawmaker said they were in “utter disbelief.”
Another House Republican, upon being told about Miller’s promotion, was quoted telling Politico: “Please tell me you’re lying to me right now, just to get a reaction.”
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