Earlier today, President Trump appeared with Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue to try to jump start their immigration bill, called the RAISE Act.
The impending endorsement by Trump was the main subject of the daily White House press briefing where today’s guest star was presidential adviser and alleged author of the Trump ‘travel bans,’ Stephen Miller.
I can’t do a transcript right now but these are the highlights.
The brouhaha got started when CNN reporter Jim Acosta asked presidential aide Stephen Miller whether the immigration proposal violated the principles engraved on the Statue of Liberty to “give me your tired, your poor” huddled masses seeking freedom.
When Mr. Miller said the poem was “added later” to the statue, Mr. Acosta retorted, “that sounds like some sort of National Park revisionism.”
Fact check. Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886. The Emma Lazarus poem was added in 1903. At that time Lazarus could not vote or hold office, so it doesn’t contain anything more than Lazarus’s opinion. The idea that poem represented American immigration policy at any point in our history is simply false.
Acosta: Hey, isn’t requiring immigrants to speak English racist or something?
https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/892832275334823937
MILLER: That you think only people from Great Britain or Australia would speak English is so insulting to millions of hardworking immigrants who do speak English from all over the world. Jim, have you honestly never met an immigrant from another country who speaks English outside of Great Britain and Australia? Is that your personal experience?
ACOSTA: Of course there are people who come in from other parts of the world.
MILLER: That’s not what you said and it shows your cosmopolitan bias.
ACOSTA: It just sounds like you’re trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country.
MILLER: That is one of the most outrageous, ignorant, insulting, and foolish things you’ve ever said.
Acosta: But the Wall.
Mr. Miller noted that migration levels have fluctuated historically, and he challenged the journalist to tell him “what years meet Jim Acosta’s definition” of adequate immigration numbers.
When Mr. Acosta brought up the president’s proposed border wall, Mr. Miller responded that the wall was to stop illegal immigration, not green card holders.
“Does CNN not know the difference” between green-card policy and illegal immigration? Mr. Miller asked.
I’m not a huge fan of Stephen Miller but Jim Acosta is a mouth-breathing twit who sold his soul at a Blue Light Special for this job. Like Miller or not, he’s not a guy to engage on immigration unless you’ve done some heavy duty research and know the issues. Acosta tried to paint a good first step as something nefarious and racist. He didn’t come away looking very bright.
Hey @CNN
Jim Acosta will be late getting back to the office. He's stopping by the doctor to have Stephen Miller's foot removed from his ass— Sean Spicier (@sean_spicier) August 2, 2017
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