White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller countered that the remarks reflected not discrimination, but rather dissent with their political views. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo White House Trump adviser Stephen Miller says outrage over 'racist' remarks meant to 'silence and punish'

Pushback against President Donald Trump's recent racist comments about four women of color in Congress is merely an effort by Democrats to "try to silence and punish and suppress" views opposite their own, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller said Sunday.

"I think the term 'racist' has become a label too often deployed by the left [and] Democrats in this country simply to try to silence and punish and suppress people they disagree with — speech they don’t want to hear," Miller told host Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "This president has been a president for all Americans."


Over the past week, Trump has lobbed increasingly inflammatory remarks at Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — saying the women of color should “go back” to their countries of origin and questioning their patriotism.

All of the women are American citizens and three of the four were born in the U.S.

Miller countered that the remarks reflect not discrimination but rather dissent with their political views.

"I fundamentally disagree with the view that if you criticize somebody and they happen to be a different color of skin, that happens to be a racial criticism," Miller said.

The issue lies, Miller said, with Democratic lawmakers' attitude toward Trump's White House and its supporters.

"With the 'send her back' chant, the president was clear he disagreed with it," Miller said, referring to a tweet from the president and a resulting cheer that broke out at a reelection campaign rally Wednesday in North Carolina.

"The core issue," he added, "is that all the people in that audience and millions of patriotic Americans all across this country are tired of being beat up, condescended to, looked down upon, talked down to by members of Congress on the left in Washington, D.C., and their allies in many corners of the media."