Andrea Mitchell: White House aide ‘rude’ in exchange with CNN reporter

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday criticized White House aide Stephen Miller for a heated exchange with a CNN reporter over President Trump’s immigration policy, calling him “rude.”

“Trump aide Stephen Miller lecturing Cuban-American Jim Acosta of CNN on green card policy which his family lived 1st hand,” the MSNBC anchor tweeted, adding the hashtag “rude.”

Miller and Acosta clashed during the White House press briefing over the new GOP legislation that aims to scale back legal immigration in the United States. 

The White House aide, who has long advocated for a hard-line immigration policy, made the case for a “merit-based” immigration system.

{mosads}Mitchell criticized Miller for “lecturing” Acosta about the nation’s green cards, noting that the CNN reporter’s grandfather went through the process in the 1960s.

“Surely, Jim, you don’t actually think a [border] wall affects green card policy? You couldn’t possibly believe that, do you?” Miller asked the CNN reporter during the press briefing. “Jim, do you really at CNN not know the difference between green card policy and illegal immigration?” 

“Sir, my grandfather was an immigrant. He came to this country in 1962 right before the Cuban missile crisis and obtained a green card,” Acosta fired back, noting that many individuals successfully obtain green cards through a process after putting in “hard work.”

Miller went after Acosta for asking if the Trump administration planned to only allow foreign visitors from Great Britain and Australia into the U.S., because they are predominantly English-speaking countries.

“Jim, 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,” Miller said, calling it one of “the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things” he had ever said.