MSNBC: Miller’s Battle with Media Using ‘Xenophobia’ Was Maybe Because He Got Bullied as a Kid

August 2nd, 2017 5:57 PM

Talk about a bad day to be a member of the liberal media. Licking their wounds from White House official Stephen Miller sparing with the press corps on Wednesday, MSNBC’s Deadline: White House denounced Miller as the kid who probably got bullied in school while his words were filled with “xenophobia” and nothing but “white identity politics.”

Host and failed McCain campaign official Nicolle Wallace was speaking to White House correspondent Kristen Welker at the top of the show when she slammed the briefing with Miller as the “shining object of the day” using “some weird mix of xenophobia and reporter bombast.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Eli Stokols was on the same wavelength as the liberal Wallace. Less than 10 minutes later, he displayed no regard for the partisanship of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi over the years when he stated that the Trump White House is “okay if this country remains divided.”

As for Miller and the RAISE Act proposed on Wednesday, Stokols lashed out against the bill as if he were a Democratic Congressman:

This bill has no chance, but they're pushing the same white identity politics that we saw throughout the campaign. The engaging with the different reporters with Acosta, with Thrush. We might look at that and say, oh my god, this is a train wreck but I think the White House likes mixing it up with the press because it riles up their base.

Wallace’s open disdain for the White House came up later when speaking to frequent Morning Joe panelist and serial plagiarist Mike Barnicle: “Mike Barnicle, we know what John Kelly thought of Scaramucci and his short tenure. What do you think his tolerance will be for just how deeply personal, how unprofessional this performance was in that room today?”

Barnicle responded that he wasn’t so certain seeing as how “Kelly is used to dealing with men and women who have some caliber and some nobility.”

Even though Barnicle admitted that he doesn’t know Stephen Miller, he quipped that Miller came across as someone who had probably been bullied in school and was symbolically getting back at them:

[A]nd then it also just visually and verbally it struck me as someone taking the podium, a young guy, who, in his earlier life, I don't how many times he probably had his lunch stolen from him, you know? And give me the Twinkies too and now this is his get back moment. 

 

Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Deadline: White House on August 2:

MSNBC’s Deadline: White House
August 2, 2017
4:03 p.m. Eastern

NICOLLE WALLACE [TO KRISTEN WELKER]: Two briefings and one shiny object which is usually the takeaway from what happens in that room. But seems like Sarah finally admitted that with signing this statement the President acknowledges as he did in Poland Russian meddling in our election, acknowledged they would sign the sanctions bill and then shining object of the day seemed to be some weird mix of xenophobia and reporter bombast from presidential adviser Steven Miller. 

(....)

4:12 a.m. Eastern

ELI STOKOLS: He's also sitting there today in the White House with the remarks he gave for the immigration bill and sending Stephen Miller to the podium, pushing a bill that would be lucky to get 20 senators to vote for it in the Senate. This bill has no chance, but they're pushing the same white identity politics that we saw throughout the campaign. The engaging with the different reporters with Acosta, with Thrush. We might look at that and say, oh my god, this is a train wreck but I think the White House likes mixing it up with the press because it riles up their base. This is a White House that — it is it's okay if this country remains divided. The words the President said — 

WALLACE: They’re helping to divide it. 

STOKOLS: — to the boy scouts were divisive a week and so it sort of what they want to keep the country divided, which is a stunning thing to say about a President.

(....)

4:40 p.m. Eastern

WALLACE: Mike Barnicle, we know what John Kelly thought of Scaramucci and his short tenure. What do you think his tolerance will be for just how deeply personal, how unprofessional this performance was in that room today? 

MIKE BARNICLE: I don't know. I mean, John Kelly is used to dealing with men and women who have some caliber and some nobility. So, I don't know what his estimation will be of performances like you saw from Stephen Miller today. I watched the performance as we all did. I don't know Stephen Miller but it smacked to me he was looking for a thumbs up from the Oval Office which I'm sure he got. Good job, Stephen, you did it. You threw it right back at them and then it also just visually and verbally it struck me as someone taking the podium, a young guy, who, in his earlier life, I don't how many times he probably had his lunch stolen from him, you know? And give me the Twinkies too and now this is his get back moment.