Prior to his epic thrashing of CNN’s Jim Acosta on Wednesday, White House policy adviser Stephen Miller threw down with self-described liberal hack New York Times correspondent Glenn Thrush over the administration’s new immigration proposals through the proposed RAISE Act.

The spat began when Thrush snidely told Miller that he wanted “some statistics” seeing as how ones he had seen “don't show a correlation between low skilled immigration and the loss of jobs for native workers.” Thrush added that he’s heard infrastructure was pushed off the table in favor of this immigration push.

Miller was not pleased, but nonetheless, he persisted by citing studies:

Well, the latter statement isn't true. I think the most recent study I will point to is the study from George Borjas that he just did about the Mariel boat lift and he went back and re-examined and opened up the old data and talked about how it actually did reduce wages for workers who were living there at the time and Borjas, of course, has done enormous amounts of research on this, as has the — Peter Kirsanow on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission as has Steve Camerota at the Center for Immigration Studies and so on and so forth.

He added that some “common sense” should be used and wondered rhetorically “why do special interests want to bring in more low skilled workers?”

When Thrush hit back that he’s “not asking for common sense” but data, Miller fired back that “it’s pretty clear, Glenn, that you’re not asking for common sense.”

Miller had more ammunition in reserve when he suggested that The New York Times be subjected to being filled with “less-skilled, low-paid workers from other countries” so people like Thrush could “see how” they “feel then” about the issue:

THRUSH: How many — how many — common sense is wonderful. Statistics are not. Could you — MILLER: I named — I named the studies, Glenn. THRUSH: Just let me finish the question. Tell me the — tell me the — MILLER: Glenn, I named the studies. I named the studies. THRUSH: I asked you for a statistic. Can you tell me how many — MILLER: Glenn, maybe we'll make a carve out in the bill that says The New York Times can hire all the less skilled, low paid workers from other countries and see how you feel then about low wage substitution. This is a reality that’s happening in our country — THRUSH: I’m not talking about The New York Times. MILLER: Maybe it's time we had compassion, Glenn, for American workers. President Trump has met with American workers who have been replaced by foreign workers.

Thrush continued filibustering Miller before he gave a lengthy answer before moving onto April Ryan:

First of all, if you look at the premise, Glenn, of bringing in low-skilled labor, it's based on the idea that there's a labor shortage for lower skilled jobs. There isn't. The number of people living in the United States in the working ages who aren't working today is at a record high. One in four Americans or almost one in four Americans between the ages of 25 and 54 aren't even employed.....The reality is that if you just common sense, and yes, I will use common sense. The reason why some companies want to bring in more unskilled labor is because they know that it drives down wages and reduces labor costs. Our question is as a government is, to whom is our duty. Our duty is to U.S. citizens and U.S. workers to promote rising wages for them. If low-skilled immigration was an unalloyed good for the economy, then why have we been growing at 1.5 percent for the last 17 years at a time of unprecedented new low wage arrivals. They just — the facts speak for themselves. At some point, we're accountable to reality.

Here’s the relevant portion of the White House press briefing from August 2: