Graham to Republicans: Stephen Miller is not the problem

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of President Trump, is arguing to Republican colleagues who are critical of Stephen Miller that the senior White House adviser “is not the problem” and will be in Trump’s inner circle until the end of his administration.

“As to Stephen Miller, to my colleagues who believe you can convince Donald Trump that Stephen Miller is a liability for him, good luck with that. When this clock strikes 12 on the Trump era, there will be a few people walking out the door with Donald Trump. Stephen Miller will be in that group,” Graham said in a Fox News interview.

“So I want everybody to know on the Republican side that Stephen Miller is not the problem — sanctuary cities is the problem,” Graham said.

Graham’s comments were directed at GOP colleagues such as Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Rand Paul (Ky.), who have criticized Miller’s influence over Trump.

Tillis criticized Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Miller for claiming that Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old nurse who was fatally shot by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis over the weekend, was a “domestic terrorist,” despite a lack of evidence to support their claims.

“Those two people told the president before they even had an incident report whatsoever that the person who died was a terrorist. That is amateur hour at its worst,” Tillis said about Noem and Miller.

Tillis also slammed Miller on the Senate floor earlier this month for asserting the United States has a right to Greenland and that no country would pose a military challenge if the Trump administration took control of the vast mineral-rich territory.

“Mr. Miller said that [Greenland] should be part of the U.S. That is absurd,” Tillis declared on the Senate floor Jan. 7.

“I think it was an amateurish comment and something that a deputy chief of staff and senior policy adviser should not have taken the position on,” he added. “He doesn’t speak for the U.S. government.”

Miller immediately labeled Pretti a “domestic terrorist” after he was killed but didn’t provide any evidence to justify the claim.

In a social media post, he called Pretti a “would-be assassin” who “tried to murder federal law enforcement.”  

Paul, the chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, questioned the rush to characterize Pretti before a full investigation could be completed, saying most law enforcement chiefs wait for all the facts before drawing conclusions.

“I can’t recall ever hearing a police chief immediately describing the victim as a ‘domestic terrorist’ or a ‘would-be assassin.’ For calm to be restored, an independent investigation is the least that should be done,” Paul wrote, making a pointed reference to Noem and Miller.