A CNN interview took an odd turn when a senior White House adviser called out federal employees who voted for Kamala Harris in the last election.
The interview between CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, was full of back-and-forth exchanges between the pair.
In one tense moment, Miller steered his Tuesday interview on The Lead away from the federal funding freeze to talk about government employees’ political leanings.
Tapper was clarifying whether Trump’s sudden order to halt funding for grants and loans would affect free school lunches when Miller decided to raise a different point.
“I want to really drill down on this, Jake, because it’s so important,” Miller opened. “There’s two million employees in the federal government. Overwhelmingly, the career federal service in this country is far left, left-wing.”
When Tapper countered that he did not know that to be a fact, Miller said “98%” of USAID employees donated to either Harris or “another left-wing candidate” in the last election.
“But now you’re demonizing an entire workforce as having…” Tapper began to say.
“Wait, woah woah woah woah,” Miller responded. “Did you just say that saying someone voted for Kamala Harris is demonizing them?”
Tapper retorted that Miller was suggesting “there’s a bias” among federal workers.
“You used the word ‘demonizing.’ You just said that I’m demonizing somebody by saying they voted for Kamala Harris,” Miller said.
The CNN anchor tried to get the interview “back on track,” but Miller had just a bit more to say about federal workers’ politics.
“I am on track, let me stay on track,” Miller replied.
The Trump adviser insisted it was necessary for the president to “get control of government,” including people who review spending on grants and projects not directed by Congress.
“This might be something like saying, ‘I want to build a $500-million fountain in the courtyard of the Department of Commerce… This might be something like saying, ‘I want to fund gender studies in Afghanistan.’ There has to be political control and review,” he said.
The White House earlier clarified that individual assistance such as Social Security benefits, Medicaid benefits, and food stamps were not covered by Trump’s broad order freezing funding for federal grants and loans.
The interview then took a number of abrupt turns; at one point, Tapper told Miller, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
