A GOP representative has made repeated calls for Stephen Miller’s firing in the wake of Republicans’ trouncing in the midterms.
On Sunday, just two days after Miller was announced as Susie Wiles’ replacement as White House chief of staff, U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana warned of the devastating consequences the staff shakeup could have on the already-reeling Republican Party.
Stutzman told CNN’s Manu Raju that Miller’s aggressive deportation ambitions alienated voters in his district and beyond, leading many to question whether the White House sought to double down on a losing message by promoting Miller.
“You had this deportation message that never had an, ‘Okay, what’s next?’” Stutzman said. “Most people, I think, would say, because of Stephen Miller’s messaging and the tone that is coming out from the Republican Party on this particular issue, you’d think that the deportations were through the roof under Trump compared to [Barack] Obama.”
In a statement shared with the Daily Beast, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers defended Miller’s record as overseer of the Department of Homeland Security.
“As Homeland Security Advisor, Stephen was responsible for overseeing the vast portfolio of threats to our homeland—securing the border, stopping violent crime, dismantling cartels and transnational gangs, and ending the epidemic of drug and child trafficking created by the Biden Administration,” Rogers wrote. “Stephen Miller’s dedication to making our country safer and wealthier will continue in his new role as Chief of Staff.”
Rogers also cited 18 statements of support for Miller from various Republican lawmakers, including Florida Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Rep. Randy Fine, and Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles.
Stutzman was referencing a raw comparison between Trump and Obama’s deportation figures, but according to the Migration Policy Institute, the numbers don’t tell the full story.
Data from the institute shows that in the first 18 months of the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security completed 980,000 deportations, with 31 percent of those individuals having been convicted of a crime.
Stutzman said that Miller was not “liked” by voters in his district due to his aggressive anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Kylie Cooper/Kylie Cooper/REUTERS
Obama, who earned the title of “Deporter-in-Chief” from critics, fell short of Trump’s figures in the two most aggressive years of his immigration enforcement. Obama removed around 850,000 people from the U.S. between the fiscal years 2012 and 2013, with 47 percent and 45 percent of those removals involving individuals with a criminal history, respectively.
Stutzman continued to tear into Trump’s new chief of staff in an interview with NewsNation on Wednesday, saying that Miller should join his congressional colleagues who were ousted in the midterms.
“Once a football team loses badly, either the coach gets fired or the offensive coordinator gets fired.” Stutzman said. “In that sort of vein, I said I think there should be changes at the White House… 50 of my colleagues got fired last Tuesday night, so I said that Stephen Miller should be one of those.”
Miller established a 3,000 arrest per day target for the Department of Homeland Security last year.
The representative fell short of blaming Trump for the poor showing at the ballot box, but said he was “quite surprised” that Miller was chosen for the chief of staff job, considering his agenda’s unpopularity among even Republican constituents.
“I don’t think that’s the direction we should be going,” Stutzman added. “We need a communicator to the American people to pull our coalition back together the way President Trump did.”
Ross Douthat interviewed President Donald Trump for Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes.
During a 60 Minutes interview with CBS’ Ross Douthat reflecting on his midterm loss, Trump acknowledged that his deportation regime may have been “too tough” and that long-term immigrants were swept into the aggressive crackdown, which was supercharged by his new chief of staff.
“I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally,” Trump said, adding that he’d “love to do something on immigration” with incoming Democrat congressmembers.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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