'Hatemonger' Investigates Trump Immigration Czar Stephen Miller's Influences And Ambitions

Speaker 1: 00:00 From promises to build the wall to a ban on immigrants from Muslim nations to a policy of family separation that ended in some children being housed in cages at the us Mexico border. We've seen Donald Trump make a crack down on immigration and immigrants, a central issue in his presidency, but it seems he has had help and encouragement on that issue. A new book makes the case that Trump advisor, Stephen Miller has realized his lifelong ambition to limit immigration and diversity in America by working in the Trump white house. And it reveals through reporting and email correspondence, the close ties between Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric and Miller's connections with members of the right wing media, former KPBS border reporter. Gene Guerrero is author of the new book, hate monger, Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the white nationalist agenda. And Jeanne, welcome back to the program. It's nice to say hello. Speaker 2: 01:00 Hey Maureen. Great to be here. Speaker 1: 01:03 Now, one of the things that got you interested in writing this book is the fact that you and Steven Miller have some things in common. Tell us about that. Speaker 2: 01:11 I first became really fascinated by the story of Stephen Miller. When I realized that he grew up in Southern California at the same time that I did, I'm just a couple of years younger than him and grew up in San Diego, a couple hours South of where he grew up in Santa Monica, California. And this was during the nineties when, you know, California was seeing this unprecedented anti-immigrant hostility. You had governor Pete Wilson, uh, talking about the migrant invasion and, and, you know, blaming all of the state's fiscal problems on migrants. And there were unprecedented attacks on bilingual education and on social services for children of undocumented migrants on affirmative action. There was just a lot of hostility against immigrants. And so I realized that I haven't grown up in that same environment. And as a, as a kid have having internalized some of that same, you know, white supremacy and internalized racism, there was a lot of shame associated with being Mexican in California at the time until that, you know, until there was this huge mobilization of the Latin X community. And we saw people starting to really embrace diversity and in California became a deeply blue state, but I thought that I could bring a unique perspective having grown up in the same environment as Steven Miller and also having, you know, covered, uh, the immigration issue from day one of the Trump administration and, and, you know, the, the human cost of his policies. Speaker 1: 02:45 So beyond that general context, were you able to find out why Miller's aversion toward immigrants began, especially Mexican immigrants? Speaker 2: 02:55 Yeah, I mean, I truly see Stephen Miller as a case study in radicalization and my book hate monger. I trace what happens when someone is consumed by an extremist ideology at a very young age and, and ends up the most powerful adviser in the white house. You know, for my reporting, I found that from the time that he was a teenager, Stephen Miller, uh, was, was being exposed to white supremacist and white nationalist literature through his mentor, David Horowitz, a conservative writer who Stephen Miller met through his high school. And David Horowitz introduced Stephen Miller to this fantasy that he had to save the United States from certain destruction in the form of multiculturalism. So the idea that too many Brown and black people in the United States poses an existential threat to civilization, as we know it and, you know, introducing him to white supremacist literature that paints Brown and black people as more innately, violent than white people. Speaker 2: 04:04 And, you know, so Horwitz becomes like a father figure to Stephen Miller during a very, you know, vulnerable time and Stephen Miller's life. He had his family had just had to move from a very affluent part of Santa Monica to a less affluent part. And, you know, he had to start at a very diverse public high school instead of, you know, a wider private high school that he would have attended otherwise. And this is when you see Stephen Miller start to really express his racist viewpoints at a very early age, you know, breaking up with a Mexican friend because of his Latino heritage, going to school board meetings to argue against measures, to improve racial equity, you know, just very passionately going around his school and talent, telling his Mexican classmates to speak English and to go back to their countries if they can't learn the American way. Speaker 2: 04:59 And this is really from my reporting and the Boca, I, I believe it is a result of his relationships with people like David Horowitz, who found Stephen Miller at this very young and vulnerable age. And, you know, for the book I obtained private correspondence between Horowitz and Stephen Miller showing Horowitz, you know, shaping his career, getting him his first jobs in Congress, and then eventually dictating Trump's rhetoric and policies directly through Miller. This is a man who believes that the only real racism is racism against whites and with his help Miller learned how to launder white supremacist ideas through the language of heritage and the language of economics and the language of national security in order to make it palatable to the mainstream. Speaker 1: 05:50 Now, as you write, and as you just mentioned, Miller went on to work in government, notably for anti-immigration activists, then Senator Jeff sessions. But apparently it was hearing candidate Donald Trump that really set fire to Steven Miller's political ambitions. What were you able to find out about how these two men have bombed? Speaker 2: 06:10 Stephen Miller is the longest lasting advisor in the white house outside of the president's family. And this is because Stephen Miller gets Donald Trump. So part of Stephen Miller's relationship with Trump has to do with the fact that they grew up in very similar families. And the other thing about Stephen Miller is, is he played a key role in, you know, once he joined, once he convinced Trump to hire him on the campaign, he played a key role in, in Trump's popularity. Um, you know, initially Trump's only proposal for immigration was the border wall and immigration restrictionist hardliners who had been following the immigration issue for a long time, kind of rolled their eyes at that. They knew that there's, you know, hundreds of border barriers already, and they've done very little to stop immigration overall, which is what a lot of restrictionist want. And so it wasn't until Steven Miller came onto the campaign and started pulling policies directly from think tanks that were funded by white supremacists, who believe in population control for nonwhite people that people really started to take Trump seriously, as someone who was serious about limiting legal immigration as well, which has been Stephen Miller's obsession. Speaker 2: 07:23 Um, and the final thing I'll say about their relationship is Stephen Miller consistently pushes Trump in the most aggressive direction when it comes to his rhetoric, you know, saying the most incendiary things possible, things like far left fascism, an unhinged left wing mob, uh, demonizing immigrants. And as far as immigration policies and Trump appreciates this harshness because he wants to be seen as, as a killer. You know, Trump's repeatedly said this. He, he, he, he wants to be seen as, as a killer and Stephen Miller shares Trump's instincts for violence and has his hands on the pulse of his most violent voting base because of his familiarity with white supremacist and white nationalist literature. Um, and Trump has found that whenever he listens to a more moderate adviser, he ends up getting ridiculed as weak. So he he's found that whenever he listens to Steven Miller, his, his really hardcore base is satisfied Speaker 1: 08:21 During the writing of hate monger. I understand that you were not able to speak with Stephen Miller or interview him, but if you had, what would you have asked him? Speaker 2: 08:31 The first question that I would ask him? And I've just been thinking about for a while now is I'd want to know what Stephen Miller thinks about his grandmother, Ruth Glasser's, you know, her a document that she left for him, which I talk about in the book. She, she spent her retirement investigating the family and recording it so that her grandchildren would never forget the value of people who come to this country with nothing but the clothes on their back. And, you know, speaking no English, the way that Stephen Miller, his great grandparents came to this country from Eastern Europe as Jewish refugees, fleeing persecution. She, she wanted, she, she stood for the importance of remembering and I, I would love to know what Stephen Miller thinks about, you know, Ruth and, and, and what she stood for because clearly he, these lessons that she tried to immortalize for him, he, he directly ignored. Speaker 2: 09:35 And, and in fact, assaulted these ideas throughout his life. Now, some might see Eugene as a Latino reporter, eager to write a hit piece on anti-immigration Stephen Miller, even the title of the book, hatemongers might seem over the top. How do you respond to that kind of criticism? You know, I, I approached the writing of this book with a completely open mind, you know, and in part, because a part of me, you know, empathized with the young Steven Miller, who, who had internalized this white supremacy, that was so pervasive in the culture when we were growing up in California. Um, you know, my mom used to tell me, you're, you're American. You're not Mexican, you're not Puerto Rican, you're American. And it's because of the discrimination that she faced as a Puerto Rican woman with her accent. And she wanted me to feel a sense of belonging and to be seen as belonging. Speaker 2: 10:30 And so I, I understand Stephen Miller in his desire to be seen as American with all of the privileges that that is supposed to guarantee. The problem is that Steven Miller sounds the same today as he did at the age of 16. And I, I truly believe, you know, from having interviewed more than a hundred people who knew Stephen Miller and, you know, gone through hundreds of pages of documents, including private correspondence, this is much bigger than the immigration issue. And whether you care about the Latin American community or not, Stephen Miller is a public relations flack, and Idealog who at the age of 31, without any policy experience was put in charge of policies for the United States, just, you know, despite that lack of experience. And from day one of his time in the white house, really focused on narrowing narrowing the agenda of the department of Homeland security from its broad mandate to protect the American people from everything, from terrorism to the, you know, public health crises into something that was laser focused on, on re-engineering the demographics into this country and targeting mostly people who had not broken any laws, asylum seekers, you know, obliterating the asylum system at the us Mexico border slashing refugee admissions to new historic lows every year. Speaker 2: 11:57 So this has been about families, not criminals and cartels, but regardless of whether you care about these families, you know, Stephen Miller repeatedly disregarded the input of national security ex experts to push through his white nationalist agenda. And from my conversations with white house officials for the book, as they say that as a result of this Americans have been left vulnerable to a range of real threats, including the pandemic that we see today, instead of being focused on distributing masks and medical equipment, the administration has been focused on suspending green cards, you know, scapegoating immigrants for the job situation, uh, you know, shutting down the us Mexico border targeting international students. It's, you know, it's been really focused on Stephen Miller's demonization and white nationalist agenda rather than on protecting the American people. Well for everyone who's heard and admired your reporting over the years at KPBS, Jean, congratulations on the book. Thank you so much, Maureen. I've been speaking with investigative reporter, gene Guerrero, author of hate monger.