Stephen Miller worked himself up into a meltdown after Jake Tapper pressed him on how the Trump administration selected the new leader for Venezuela.
The White House deputy chief of staff, 40, lost it after the CNN anchor, 56, asked why President Donald Trump doesn’t believe that Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado has what it takes to lead Venezuela after the U.S. seized President Nicolás Maduro in a raid on Saturday.
Trump previously told reporters that he didn’t see Machado, the chief democracy-fighting antagonist to Maduro’s dictatorship, as the new president of Venezuela. Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was instead installed as the South American nation’s new leader.
“It’d be very tough for her to be the leader [because she] doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country,” Trump said of Machado. Two White House insiders later told The Washington Post that Trump was offended when Machado accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, which he had openly coveted for months.
“Why does the president think that Machado should not be the next leader?” Tapper asked Miller. “Why does he think she’s weak?”
“It’s not even a serious question,” Miller responded, asking for the “floor for 30 seconds.”
The top Trump aide, who is credited as the brains behind the administration’s hardline immigration agenda, proceeded to launch into a lengthy tirade about how “the future of the free world, Jake, depends on America being able to assert ourselves and our interests without apology.”
“This whole period that happened after World War II, where the West began apologizing and groveling, and begging,” Miller went on, prompting Tapper to interject.
“I don’t even know, honestly, what you’re talking about right now,” he said.
“…You do, you love doing that smarmy thing, Jake, and I was hoping you’d be better than that this time,” Miller responded.
“…I asked you if there would be an election in Venezuela. That’s what I asked. I said, why was the president so quick to dismiss Machado?” Tapper jumped back in.
“The objective, Jake, is security and stability for the people of Venezuela,” Miller replied. “With our help and leadership, that country will become more prosperous than it has ever been in its whole history.”
“The reason why I was giving you that speech—which I know you didn’t want to hear—is because you’re approaching this from the wrong frame, this neoliberal frame that the United States’ job is to go around the world and demanding immediate elections be held everywhere, immediately, all the time, right away,” he went on.
The two men kept talking over each other in a heated back-and-forth until Tapper ran out of time. A Miller outburst of “damn straight we did!” came as Tapper mentioned the U.S. capturing Maduro, leading Miller on a high-pitched tangent about “tin-pot Communist dictators.”
“Let’s just take a moment and just acknowledge, Jake, that what we’ve witnessed under President Trump’s leadership this last week is one of the greatest foreign policy and military victories this country has ever had,” Miller insisted.
“Stephen Miller, thank you so much. Appreciate your time,” Tapper responded as Miller broke into a grin.
The testy appearance followed Miller’s bizarre claim last month that CNN said it would not have him on “for any show, on any topic,” which the network swiftly denied.
Machado announced her presidential run in 2023 but was blocked by Venezuela’s Supreme Court. She threw her weight behind the opposition’s alternative candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, who secured a more-than-two-thirds majority in last year’s polls. Maduro, however, refused to cede power, triggering a political crisis.
Maduro’s vice president, Rodriguez, has already put up a fight against Trump.
“If there is one thing that the Venezuelan people and this country are absolutely clear about, it is that we will never again be slaves,” the 56-year-old politician said. “All of Venezuela is mobilized… There is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros.”
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