White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller accused “The Situation Room” co-host Pamela Brown of making “lazy assumptions” during a Friday morning appearance on the network.
The Supreme Court held a special oral argument session on May 15 centered on the practice of nationwide injunctions, primarily focusing on one that blocked an executive order President Donald Trump issued regarding birthright citizenship when he took office Jan. 20. Brown asked Miller if Trump was seeking judges who would “rubber stamp” his policies on immigration and tariffs.
“It’s not the job of a district court judge to perform an individual green light or red light on every single policy that the president takes as the head of the executive Branch,” Miller told Brown. “Just think about the premise baked into your question. Respectfully, Pam, you’re saying that when the American people elect a president of the United States of America —”
“I’m not saying that,” Brown said, adding, “No, it’s not. I just said what check and balances do you think should be in place.”
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Miller and Brown proceeded to talk over each other as they argued, with the CNN host cutting Miller off multiple times.
“Let me finish. I will answer the question happily,” Miller said. “But look, when you have these kinds of lazy assumptions built into questions, it makes it hard to have a constructive dialogue.”
“What is a lazy assumption?” Brown asked.
Miller and Brown continued to clash over the judicial rulings. The United States Court of International Trade (CIT) issued a ruling blocking some of Trump’s tariffs, but the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a stay on the ruling Thursday.
“When you say, do we think district court judges should rubber stamp each action? There is a premise that is built into that that is absurd,” Miller said after more back-and-forth interruptions with Brown. “The president is the sole head of the executive Branch. He’s the only officer in the entire government that’s elected by the entire American people.”
“Democracy cannot function, in fact, democracy does not exist at all if each action the president takes, foreign policy, diplomatic, military, national security, has to be individually approved by 700 district court judges,” Miller continued “That’s democracy? So if there’s 15 communist, crazy judges on the court, that each of them as a team working together can block and freeze each and every executive action.”
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