Historically, Stephen Miller has never been President Trump’s best public advocate. The 33-year-old far-right policy adviser to the president has sometimes grown flustered in TV appearances defending his boss’s rhetoric, and he’s not as regular a television proxy as some of his administration colleagues. That dynamic was on display once again Sunday, as an aggravated Miller struggled to differentiate Trump’s own past critiques of America from the very same language employed by “Squad” congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar.

“There is a gigantic, enormous distinction between Donald Trump saying, ‘I’m going to get on the world stage and put America first in every single thing we do,’ versus a view that says, ‘America should never come first, and American citizens should never come first,’” Miller opined to Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace in defense of his boss. Throughout the interview, Wallace presented Miller with examples of Trump’s own racist and inflammatory rhetoric, noting instances where he’d even used comparable language to the Democratic congresswomen he’d spent the last week attacking.

In particular, Wallace pointed to Ocasio-Cortez using the word “garbage” to describe certain Trump policies, which Republican lawmakers have seized on as criticizing the American people at large. In fact, Wallace pointed out, Trump tweeted of Barack Obama in 2014 that “Everything he touches turns to garbage.” Miller’s best defense? Trump made the jab “out of love” for the country, but AOC’s critiques were somehow “deep and systemic.” He added, “These four congresswoman detest America as it exists, as it is currently constructed. They want to tear down the structure of our country.”

Miller didn’t fare much better defending the “send her back” chant that broke out at a Trump rally Wednesday in response to the president’s initial tweet that representative Ilhan Omar should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which [she] came.” (Omar was born in Somalia and has been an American citizen since 2000.) Trump himself has waffled between claiming he “didn’t agree with” or tried to stop the chant, which he let ring out for about 13 seconds, and subsequently defending his rally attendees as “great patriots.” Trump even renewed his attacks on Sunday morning, albeit without emphasizing the “go back” portion.

Likewise, Miller again pushed the misleading notion that Trump “disagreed” with the chant, before praising the crowd itself and pivoting to some of Omar’s past controversies. “All the people in that audience and millions of patriotic Americans all across this country are tired of being beat up, condescended to and looked down on by members of congress on the left, and their allies in many corners of the media,” he said, checking off the boxes of the week’s talking points.

Distraction and false equivalence are one thing, but the onus of shaping the conversation is perhaps on Trump himself, should “send her back” break out at one of his next events. On that note, vice president Mike Pence gave a vague prediction to CBS News’ Major Garrett that Trump might make more visible effort to corral the crowd.

“The president was very clear that he wasn’t happy about it,” Pence claimed, before qualifying. “And that if it happened again he—he might—make an effort to speak out about it.”