Anyone who attended one of the president*'s campaign rallies learned two things: 1) that it is possible to get sick of hearing "You Can't Always Get What You Want," and 2) that of all the warm-up acts, Stephen Miller was the most thuggish. He was pure Trumpian Id, especially on the subject of minorities.

On Wednesday, for reasons known only to whatever critters inhabit the ravines and gullies of the presidential cortex, they trotted Miller out to talk about the administration's new proposal to limit legal immigration. Miller is not equipped to be the public face of a phony real estate scam, let alone the executive branch of the government of the United States. Jim Acosta of CNN asked him a question. It did not go well.

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.@Acosta to WH aide Stephen Miller: Is Trump admin trying to change what it means to be an immigrant coming to US? https://t.co/7GdKGiwqja — CNN (@CNN) August 2, 2017

Transcript via Adweek:

Acosta: This whole notion of they have to learn English before they get to the United States, are we just going to bring in people from Great Britain and Australia?

Miller: I have to say, I am shocked at your statement that you think that only people from Great Britain and Australia would know English. It reveals your cosmopolitan bias to a shocking degree that in your mind — this is an amazing moment. That you think only people from Great Britain or Australia would speak English is so insulting to millions of hardworking immigrants who do speak English from all over the world. Have you honestly never met an immigrant from another country who speaks English outside of Great Britain and Australia?

Acosta: It sounds like you're trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country.

Miller: Jim, that is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things you've ever said.

The way Miller leaned into the word "cosmopolitan" while answering Acosta has a long and ignoble history in 20th century authoritarianism, especially the anti-Semitic variety. During World War II, for example, the Soviet government under Stalin used to rail regularly at "rootless cosmopolitanism," especially in the arts. The Nazis were fond of tossing it around, too. There is no context in which Miller's use of the word against Acosta makes sense except as a historical signaling device.

Also, Miller doesn't know dick about Emma Lazarus and the Statue of Liberty. She wrote the poem, "The New Colossus," from which the famous lines on the Statue of Liberty's pedestal were taken in 1883 for the purpose of raising funds for … wait for it … the Statue of Liberty.

How do you put this uninformed goon in front of the camera? Jesus, these really are the fcking mole people.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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