Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller spent nearly a day feuding online with liberal podcaster and former Obama administration official Jon Favreau about the Democratic reaction to Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech.
The spat began on Tuesday evening, when Miller claimed that Democrats refusing to stand at various moments during the president’s speech had betrayed the country.
“Democrats declared to the world their searing disdain for, and profound disloyalty to, the actual citizens of the United States,” Miller wrote. “They were repeatedly entreated to stand. Over and over. They refused. It was a moment that chills to the bone and which will live for a thousand years.”
The comments were a reference to the multiple times Trump urged Democrats to stand, including to show their support for the phrase, “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
Democrats protested throughout Trump’s speech through a mix of boycotts, signs, and shouted criticisms that Trump’s immigration agents had “killed Americans” Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.
“It's genuinely so funny how hard they're trying to make this a thing,” Favreau, host of Pod Save America, wrote in response.
The feud only continued from there.
“Democrats leapt, clapped, hollered and cheered for raising taxes but their legs, hands and voices froze in icy contempt as they glowered at the parents of slain children,” Miller said in response. “Democrats vowed allegiance to invaders over citizens, and this top Dem finds their deadly betrayal hilarious.”
This prompted another mocking comeback from Favreau, who has long been a vocal critic of the administration.
“No, I find you hilarious,” he said. “And I genuinely hope the boss lets you drive the midterm strategy and brings more of your Victorian asylum patient energy into his speeches.”
The argument soon grew more personal.
“Jon is a textbook sociopath,” Miller wrote back. “He has been given multiple opportunities to show empathy for American moms whose children were raped and murdered by the illegals whose entry he cheered. He refuses. He finds the topic ‘hilarious.’ Jon, one more time: do you grieve for these families?”
“I mean I certainly have sympathy for yours,” Favreau said in reply.
By Wednesday evening, Favreau attempted to pivot the conversation to discuss the tens of thousands of people, including children, in immigration detention, the vast majority of whom have no criminal convictions.
“We can keep playing dumb Twitter games, but you're a government official with the power to free countless American families and children who are suffering in the squalid detention centers where you've illegally jailed them,” Favreau wrote. “Why don't you?”
Miller wasn’t the only one criticizing Democrats over their conduct during the speech.
Within the address itself, President Trump repeatedly took aim at Democrats and chastised them for not standing.
"These people are crazy. I'm telling you, they're crazy," Trump said. "We're lucky we have a country with people like this. Democrats are destroying our country."
At least 32 people died in immigration detention last year, the deadliest non-Covid year in these facilities in U.S. history.
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