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Trump Adviser Stephen Miller Disastrously Tries To Defend Trump

Trump Adviser Stephen Miller Disastrously Tries To Defend Trump
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller made the rounds on Sunday's political shows.
Joshua Roberts / Reuters
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller made the rounds on Sunday's political shows.

Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump's senior policy adviser, made the rounds on Sunday's political talk shows to defend the administration's stance on several major issues. It did not go well.

On ABC's "This Week," he vigorously defended ― but provided no evidence to support ― Trump's lie that "millions" of people had voted illegally.

"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," he said.

After pressing Miller several times to no avail, host George Stephanopoulos ended the segment.

"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," Stephanopoulos said. "Thanks a lot for joining us this morning."

White House senior adviser Stephen Miller made the rounds on Sunday's political shows.
Joshua Roberts / Reuters
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller made the rounds on Sunday's political shows.

And like the president, Miller undermined the legitimacy of the judicial branch. He slammed the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for ruling unanimously on Thursday to reject the Trump administration's appeal on its executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries.

Miller, who was influential in drafting the ban, told CBS News' John Dickerson that it was "crazy" for judges to rule on the constitutionality of laws. He also reiterated criticism of Judge James Robart, the Seattle-based federal judge who halted the ban earlier this month.

"One unelected judge in Seattle cannot make laws for the entire country," he said. "I mean, this is just crazy, John. The idea that you're going to have a judge in Seattle say that a foreign national living in Libya has an effective right to enter the United States is beyond anything we've ever seen before."

On "Fox News Sunday," Miller accused the three judges on the 9th Circuit Court of "having a long history of overreaching" and characterized their decision as "a judicial usurpation of the power." Several courts have ruled against the Trump administration over the ban.

Miller also tried to do damage control regarding revelations that national security adviser Mike Flynn reportedly communicated with and may have met the Russian ambassador in December to discuss sanctions.

Yet Miller claimed that, on this issue, the White House "did not give me anything to say," and said that he could not speak for Trump ― even though he had represented Trump on a variety of other issues throughout the morning.

"It's not for me to speak what's in the president's mind," he told NBC's Chuck Todd.

Trump seemed to indicate otherwise while praising Miller.

This article has been clarified to note conflicting reports on the extent to which Flynn communicated with the Russian ambassador.

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