Senior White House policy adviser Stephen Miller made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows over the weekend, and his comments about voter fraud have earned him justifiably dim reviews. The Washington Post’s Philip Bump and Fact Checker Glenn Kessler dealt with those claims in depth.
But amid all the baseless and false statements about electoral integrity, Miller did something even more controversial: He expanded upon his boss’s views of whether judges are allowed to question President Trump’s authority. And at one point, Miller even said Trump’s national security decisions “will not be questioned.”
Here’s the key exchange, with “Face the Nation’s” John Dickerson (emphasis added):
DICKERSON: When I talked to Republicans on the Hill, they wonder, what in the White House – what have you all learned from this experience with the executive order?
MILLER: Well, I think that it’s been an important reminder to all Americans that we have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become, in many cases, a supreme branch of government. One unelected judge in Seattle cannot remake laws for the entire country. I mean this is just crazy, John, the idea that you have a judge in Seattle say that a foreign national living in Libya has an effective right to enter the United States is – is – is beyond anything we’ve ever seen before.
The end result of this, though, is that our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.
“Will not be questioned.” That is an incredible claim to executive authority – and one we can expect to hear plenty more about. Trump has beaten around this bush plenty, yes. But Miller just came out and said it: that the White House doesn’t recognize judges’ authority to review things such as his travel ban.
It might have been excused as a little over-exuberance, except that Miller said similar things in his other Sunday show appearances.
He said on “Meet the Press”: “The bottom line is that a district judge – a district judge in Seattle – cannot make immigration law for the United States, cannot give foreign nationals and foreign countries rights they do not have and cannot prevent the president of the United States from suspending the admission of refugees from Syria.”
And on “Fox News Sunday”: “This is a judicial usurpation of the power. It is a violation of judges’ proper roles in litigating disputes. We will fight it. And we will make sure that we take action to keep from happening in the future what’s happened in the past.”
****
Gehayi here. So yeah. Miller, an advisor and speech writer to 45 and one of the co-authors of the Muslim ban (the other being Bannon), just openly declared war on judges’ power to review a president’s actions and declare them unconstitutional. Never mind that this is how federal and state courts work in the U.S.A., and that any state or federal court can challenge the constitutionality of a law. Miller wants an end to judicial review and an end to the judiciary checking the power of 45.
Which would mean ending constitutional democracy as practiced in America.
Just the fact that someone close to the president wants this is appalling.
Now realize that 45–who has never shown that he grasps what the word “NO!” means, and who regards refusal of anything he wants as a horrendous personal affront for which the refuser must be punished–completely agrees.
you don’t have a president, you have a dictator.
I mean I understand that the realisation of this fact is one of slowly mounting horror. But you best believe it now, it saves time
Now is an excellent time to look at your history books and start thinking about what comes next. Try the 1930s as a start.
Steel Phoenix Studios 