Top Trump aide Stephen Miller was booted off CNN on Sunday, after engaging in testy exchanges with network anchor Jake Tapper over the book “Fire and Fury.”
During his appearance, Miller launched an impassioned defense of President Donald Trump against explosive claims made in a new book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”
Miller took aim at comments attributed to Steven Bannon, the now-disgraced former White House aide whose quotes in Michael Wolff’s book triggered acrimonious replies by Trump and his supporters. In the book, Bannon was highly critical of a meeting that took place between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer, likening it to “treason.”
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Miller denounced Bannon’s remarks as “grotesque” and described the president as a “political genius.”
During a volley of last-minute exchanges in which the two men were talking over each other, Miller accused CNN of bias, while Tapper said Miller was trying to please only one person, Trump. “I think I’ve wasted enough of my viewers’ time,” Tapper said before shifting to another topic.
Jake Tapper ended the interview with Stephen Miller abruptly with the line, “wasting enough of my viewers’ time”
“There’s one viewer that you care about right now and you’re being obsequious,”
Thank you @jaketapper.
It's time to stop giving them airtime if they act like this. pic.twitter.com/BeAuhNmLJE
— Red T Raccoon (@RedTRaccoon) January 7, 2018
The exchange prompted a defense of Miller by Trump, who launched into a diatribe against the network. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — an ally of the president and a fellow Republican — also defended Miller, calling Tapper “condescending and un-self aware” in a Twitter post.
Claims in Wolff’s book have put the White House on the defensive and forced Trump to publicly defend his intelligence and mental fitness for the presidency.
On Sunday, Bannon issued an apology. Bannon, who runs the pro-Trump website Breitbart News, voiced “unwavering for the president and his agenda.”
CNBC
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