Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser for President Donald Trump, battled with CNN "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper on Sunday during a lengthy discussion on a myriad of topics. The debate was tense and very heated, and had an unexpected ending for Miller.
The two began by discussing the controversial new book about Trump's administration, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House." As Tapper asked questions about differing allegations in the book, Miller dismissed the book as "grotesque," a "pure work of fiction" and "a pile of trash through and through."
When Tapper asked questions, Miller often attacked CNN as running "24/7 with salacious coverage" of the Trump administration. As Tapper tried to move on to specific questions, like the president's recent comments about Steve Bannon, Miller interrupted to praise Trump for everything that he accomplished in the 2016 election.
About halfway through the interview, things really got heated as Miller continued to dodge Tapper's questions. Following Miller's praise of Trump, Tapper remarked: "I'm sure he's watching and he's happy that you said that."
That's when Miller lost his cool and accused Tapper of being "condescending."
"You can be as condescending as you want, it's part of your MO...you have 24 hours of negative, anti-Trump, hysterical coverage on this network that led in recent weeks to some spectacularly embarrassing false reporting from your network," Miller said. "This isn't a courtroom — I have the right to speak."
"Stephen, Stephen, settle down, calm down," Tapper replied, obviously frustrated.
As the discussion went on, Tapper attempted to ask additional specific questions, but Miller only wanted to bash CNN and Tapper, and point out the reporting mistakes CNN made last year.
When Tapper asked about Trump's fitness for office, Miller responded, "Well, I'm getting to the issue of your fitness."
Miller followed up by bashing CNN even more, but Tapper had finally had enough.
"I get it. There's one viewer you care about right now," Tapper said, referring to Trump. "You're being obsequious, you're being a factotum in order to please him, OK? And I think I've wasted enough of my viewers' time."
With that, Tapper previewed his next block while Miller tried to talk over him. Eventually, producers cut Miller's mic and the program moved to commercial.
Trump responded to it on Twitter by bashing Tapper:
Chris Enloe
Staff Writer
