White House policy adviser Stephen Miller fought back when CNN's Jim Acosta began insinuating that racism is behind the bill in the "last question" of the briefing, claiming a radical change in immigration policy and citing the Emma Lazarus poem added to the base of the Statue of Liberty.

I could not help but think of the movie The Revenge of the Nerds yesterday, as a balding, slender Republican hit back when the cool kids from the media started implying racism. Progressive activists masquerading as reporters are not used to Republicans who hit back at their insinuations. But two of them encountered return fire at yesterday's White House briefing on the new merit-based Senate immigration bill cosponsored by David Perdue and Tom Cotton.

"What you're proposing," Acosta begins his sermon, "or what the president is proposing, doesn't seem, does not sound like it's in keeping with American tradition when it comes to immigration." He then looks at his notes and says. "The Statue of Liberty says …" The Statue of Liberty says. "It says 'Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,' it doesn't say anything about speaking English or being a computer programmer," Acosta goes on, "Aren't you trying to change what it means to be an immigrant coming into this country if you're telling them they have to speak English."

As David Harsanyi of The Federalist dryly commented, CNN's Jim Acosta read the Statue of Liberty poem and "had a meltdown when someone suggested immigrants be able to read it, too."

In the seven minutes that ensued in the "last question," New York Times reporter (and MSNBC contributor) Glenn Thrush jumped in. You may remember that Thrush was revealed to be clearing his copy with the Clinton campaign (while working as a reporter for Politico) in the WikiLeaks dump of DNC emails, in one of which he described himself as a "hack." Following the revelation of his collaboration with the ostensible subjects of his reporting, he was rewarded with the New York Times and MSNBC gigs.

The following video will provide you a worthwhile return on your investment of seven minutes:

To me, the highlight was when Acosta suggested that an English requirement would restrict immigrants to the U.K. and Australia and is therefore racist. Miller hit back, attacking Acosta's ignorance, overlooking the roughly 80 nations that speak English, most of them nonwhite majority countries, including India, Nigeria, and Belize, and for implying that nonwhites can't learn English.

But you may have your own favorites.

Reporters are not used to having their own racism and knowledge questioned by administration officials, but in the Trump administration, old assumptions may not apply.