White House senior adviser Stephen Miller. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Democratic lawmakers and White House critics are demanding Stephen Miller’s resignation after a trove of emails released this week appear to show his support for white nationalist ideas. The emails, released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, show Miller’s communications with editors at the far-right website Breitbart and have renewed calls from critics who have used the terms „white nationalist“ and „white supremacist“ to describe the 34-year-old. But Miller’s potential ties to white nationalist figures go back more than a decade.

Richard Spencer AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File

While attending a pro-Trump event called the Deploroball in 2017, New Yorker writer Andrew Marantz spoke with the self-avowed white nationalist Richard Spencer. In the interview, included in Marantz’s recent book, „Antisocial,“ Spencer said he attended Duke University as a graduate student at the same time Miller was enrolled as an undergraduate. Both were reportedly members of a small club called the Duke Conservative Union.

„We knew each other quite well,“ Spencer told Marantz. The 41-year-old white nationalist went on to say that he „like[s] Stephen Miller in terms of his hard-hitting stuff.“

In the past, Spencer has called for „peaceful ethnic cleansing,“ and argued in favor of a white ethnostate. Spencer, by many accounts, is widely regarded as the most important figure to propagate the term „the Alt-right,“ making his alleged connection to Miller significant. Miller has previously denied his association with Spencer at Duke and said he only helped him raise money for an immigration debate.

Weeks after Trump was elected president, Spencer spoke at an event for the National Policy Institute in Washington D.C. where he espoused white nationalists ideals and heralded Trump’s election.

„Hail Trump!“ Spencer said. „Hail our people, hail victory!“ Spencer then raised his glass in the motion of making a toast. Several in the crowd followed suit. Some of them raised their arms in what appeared to be Nazi salutes.

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Since being named as President Trump’s senior policy advisor in 2016, Miller has played a prominent role in the administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy that led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents at the border. Miller has openly disparaged asylum seekers and said he „would be happy if not a single refugee came to the US.“ Miller’s history of nativist views have led some, including Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar, to condemn Miller as a white nationalist.

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Stephen Miller is a white nationalist. The fact that he still has influence on policy and political appointments is an outrage. https://t.co/7NyMDgojd7

Those claims of white nationalism came under renewed attention this week after a trove of emails released by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Hundred of Miller’s of emails were leaked to the SPLC by former Breitbart staffer Katie McHugh, who was herself was allegedly fired over inflammatory anti-Muslim tweets in 2017 following a London terror attack.

In an interview with The Washington Post, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham dismissed the report and attacked the SPLC calling it „an utterly-discredited, long-debunked far-left smear organization.“

Spencer supports Miller and his ideas

While a student at Duke, Miller wrote two dozen articles for The Duke Chronicle, many of them writing critically of multiculturalism and of paid family leave, according to Mother Jones. In his Duke writings, Miller reportedly denied the notion of systematic racism and referred to it instead as „racial paranoia.“

Though Miller has largely managed to avoid associating himself with Spencer publicly, Spencer has continually voiced his support for Miller.

„Stephen is a highly competent and tough individual,“ Spencer told Mother Jones not long after Miller was named Trump’s senior adviser. Spencer went on to describe Miller as, „much tougher than any cuck,“ and suggested Miller’s appointment could lead to nativist immigration policies preferred by Spencer. While Spencer stopped short of calling Trump’s senior policy adviser a white nationalist, he did say that he thought Spencer could do, „good things for white Americans.“

Democratic lawmakers openly describe Spencer as a white nationalist and white supremacist

Miller’s leaked emails immediately spurred strong reactions from Democratic lawmakers, including calls for his resignation. One of those resignation demands came from New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

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Stephen Miller, Trump’s architect of mass human rights abuses at the border (including child separation & detention camps w/ child fatalities) has been exposed as a bonafide white nationalist.

He’s still at the White House shaping US immigration policy.

Miller must resign. Now. https://t.co/hwjy1xl6D4

Representative Ilhan Omar, who was accused of espousing anti-Semitic rhetoric the first time she called Miller (who’s Jewish) a white nationalist, reaffirmed her statement in a new tweet.

„As I said earlier this year: Stephen Miller is a white nationalist, Omar said. „And now we have the emails to prove it.“ The Congresswoman went on to echo Ocasio-Cortez’s demand for Miller’s resignation. This type of racism and hatred has no place in our government.

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As I said earlier this year: Stephen Miller is a white nationalist.

And now we have the emails to prove it.

This type of racism and hatred has no place in our government.

Miller needs to step down. Now. https://t.co/cvmOXcjAeo

Several Democratic candidates for president, while stopping short of calling for Miller’s resignation, wrote tweets specifically invoking the terms white nationalist and white supremacist to describe Miller. One of those candidates, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, wrote that „Miller’s white nationalist views are a danger to the American people.“

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Stephen Miller’s white nationalist views are a danger to the American people. We are going to defeat this hateful administration and everything it stands for. https://t.co/xQzvhanO8n

Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Julián Castro went a step further and called Miller a Nazi.

„Donald Trump put a neo-Nazi in charge of immigration policy,“ Castro wrote. „Both him, and Stephen Miller, are a shame to our nation.“