Juan Williams: Stephen Miller must be fired

We need to talk about Stephen Miller.

I’ve got a lot to say here.

I’ve been fired after being falsely accused of anti-Muslim bigotry. I know something about the PC police, slimy lies and race-baiting.

{mosads}The Miller case is different. This goes beyond political mudslinging.

Name any of President Trump’s cruel immigration policies — from separating families to caging children to banning Muslims — and Miller is in the lead, crafting and implementing them.

Critics have long alleged that hatred of non-whites drove Miller to put in place the Trump administration’s shameful immigration policies.

Now recently leaked emails fuel the suspicion that he harbors a long-held hatred of immigrants, especially when they are not white.

He pushed that nastiness in emails to a reporter at the alt-right website Breitbart News.

So, this is not about “identity politics.” It can’t be quickly dismissed by the far-right as the excesses of “snowflakes,” who can’t handle policy arguments without playing the race card.

And this is not about “cancel culture,” the over-reaction to a slip of the tongue, calling out offensive language by a comedian or a commentator.

In Miller’s case, what was once just suspect — or at most thought to be implicit — is now explicit.

That hard-edged reality can lead to only one conclusion — Miller must be fired.

That means the Miller case is now about you.

Will you, will we, across the political divide, stand as one against racial hate in politics?

Miller’s awful beliefs are particularly alarming right now because an increasingly racially diverse nation with a rising number of immigrants is seeing its president and the Republican Party becoming the angry face of one race – whites.

Republican leaders on Capitol Hill know this is a problem.

When Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) questioned why terms like “white nationalist” or even “white supremacist” had “become offensive,” — a comment he made in a January interview with the New York Times — the Republican leadership in the House stood up by taking away his committee assignments.

But the Trump White House has taken no action against Miller.

“George H.W. Bush, George Bush, Ronald Reagan never would have tolerated any of this,” Mike Murphy, the GOP political adviser told NPR. Murphy worked for two presidential candidates, John McCain and Mitt Romney.

Vanita Gupta, who runs the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, similarly told NPR, “I fear that the line of what is normal is moving… I don’t think there’s any way to…not be profoundly disturbed about what we are allowing at the highest level of government today.”

The Newark Star Ledger called for Trump to fire Miller by noting that there is “meticulously” documented evidence – 900 emails – that show “Miller shared the racist writings of white nationalists and urged others to share them.”

If Trump retains Miller, he will have removed the last shreds of benefit of the doubt: He is either himself a racist or someone who gives aid and comfort to avowed racists.

Race relations are at an all-time nadir under President Trump.

An August WSJ/NBC News poll found that 56 percent of Americans say race relations have gotten worse under Trump, 33 percent say they have stayed the same and 10 percent say they have gotten better.

{mossecondads}And polling on Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric – all tied to Miller – show outright public rejection. After three years of Trump trying to whip up anger at immigrants there is little public demand for these policies.

Even a poll of only white Americans done by Reuters/Ipos in July found whites were 19 percentage points more in support of a path to citizenship for the undocumented or illegal immigrants than they were in 2015.

Among all Americans, a July NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll found 64 percent in support of creating “a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.”

In July, a CNN poll found “just 15 percent overall and only 32 percent of Republicans say the nation should prioritize deporting all people living in the U.S. illegally over developing a plan” to allow some illegal immigrants to gain legal status.”

And a Fox News poll done in June found “by a 50-24 percent margin, Americans think Trump’s enforcement of immigration laws has ‘gone too far,’ instead of ‘not far enough.’”

So, Trump’s anti-immigrant policies make no sense as politics. They only make sense as evidence of Miller’s influence on Trump.

In a letter to the president, 107 Democrats in the House called for Miller to be fired, writing “a documented white nationalist has no place in any presidential administration, and especially not in such an influential position.”

According to a tally by the Huffington Post, more than 20 senators — including Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and presidential candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) — have also called for Miller’s ouster.

More than 50 civil rights organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP wrote: “Stephen Miller’s racist, deadly agenda is contributing to this violence and must be stopped.”

The only question now is: Where are Republican voices demanding Miller’s firing?

Juan Williams is an author, and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.