Stephen Miller is seeking to shift blame for the death of Alex Pretti at the hands of Customs and Border Patrol agents away from himself and back onto Kristi Noem.
The White House deputy chief of staff released a statement to CNN just hours after Homeland Security Secretary Noem appeared to draw battle lines, throwing 40-year-old Miller under the bus.
An embattled Noem, nicknamed ICE Barbie by the Daily Beast for her rotating wardrobe of law enforcement cosplays, had claimed that she was just following orders when it came to her response to the shooting death of Pretti, with one source telling Axios that the 54-year-old had said, “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen.”
Shortly afterwards, Miller responded, claiming that the White House had “provided clear guidance to DHS that the extra personnel that had been sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used for conducting fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors.”
He added, “We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol.”
When contacted for comment, a DHS spokesperson told the Daily Beast, “The initial statement was based on reports from CBP from a very chaotic scene on the ground. That’s precisely why an investigation is underway and DHS will let the facts lead the investigation.”
Miller, the president’s top aide in the White House, is widely considered the architect of the aggressive immigration crackdown that has quickly come to define President Donald Trump’s second term in office.
Miller’s hint at an investigation or evaluation into the agents involved in the Saturday killing of Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, is a departure from prior inflammatory comments in which he labelled Pretti a “would-be assassin.”
The White House declined to echo Miller’s assessment, or that of Noem, who called Pretti a “domestic terrorist.” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday, “I have not heard the president characterize Mr Pretti in that way. However, I have heard the president say he wants to let the facts and the investigation lead itself.”
The president has also said that he is now aiming to “de-escalate” tensions in Minnesota, sending his border czar Tom Homan in to replace Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino in the hopes of calming things down.
As pressure on the president to hold someone accountable for the chaos in Minnesota mounts, Noem has been working to save her own skin, meeting with the president for two hours in a closed-door meeting on Monday night from which Miller was excluded.
Miller seeking to distance himself and the White House from the actions of the agents involved in Pretti’s killing suggests that Noem is not the only senior Trump official trying to emerge unscathed, particularly as the public backlash against him continues to grow.
The Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote in a Tuesday editorial that Miller’s immigration policies are costing the White House credibility and “building distrust.”
In addition, Florida state Republican Rep. Ileana Garcia told The New York Times on Tuesday that Miller could cost Trump the midterms.
“It’s gone too far. What happened Saturday was abhorrent,” she said, referring to Pretti’s killing.
“I do think that [Trump] will lose the midterms because of Stephen Miller.”
When contacted for comment, the White House directed the Daily Beast to previous comments made by Leavitt in support of Miller.
“Stephen Miller is one of President Trump’s most trusted and longest-serving aides. The president loves Stephen.”
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