特朗普任命米勒为白宫幕僚长，引发民主党强烈反对

Joe, I know you and David spent a lot of time together during the election up here in New York. I am grateful for you that he did not have a stick mic during that process. Talk to us about Stephen Miller. He's been around a long time. He's the guy who wrote the American carnage speech that Trump famously gave. Why hasn't he had this job before if he's so influential and close to the president? I guess that's a fair question.

I mean, he was the deputy chief of staff, and we know that he was one of the closest and most loyal advisers to the president going back to the first term. So, look, Susie Weisz, helped the president get reelected, and she was rewarded handsomely with this role. And Stephen Miller was pretty busy all the while. We've been talking about these ICE enforcement concerns that really helped to turn voters away from the administration on Tuesday night.

When you think about, some of the raids that we were talking about, the deportations, that was encouraged and designed by Stephen Miller. And so that's why you're seeing this visceral reaction. Could not have made a worse choice was the statement from Chuck Schumer kind of echoing what we heard from Hakeem Jeffries. We talked to a couple of the Democrats on the program last night on balance of power at Gwen Moore of Wisconsin.

Don Beyer, who's been on your program recently of Virginia, they both see this as a doubling down and a message from the White House that this administration has no interest in working with Democrats. And in fact, it could be an even more contentious relationship for the next two years. As Christina mentioned, Joe and I together on election night here in in New York. And, Joe, in the days that followed, you were tracking sort of what the president had to say, be that about his projects in Washington or the way the political terrain has has shifted here.

I was struck by a line that he used yesterday. Sometimes in life, you have to make moves. Yeah. I'm I'm wondering sort of what we know about coming out broader... It's an amazing line. What what what we know about those moves beyond this appointment of of Stephen Miller, the way that he's thinking about his cabinet, what changes he might make in in light of the blowback that he had in the electorate on Tuesday night?

Well, apparently, look, this is something that was kind of a a... On a low boil for some time in the White House. The president had reportedly been making a lot of calls over the past couple of weeks about not only firing Susie Weisz, but who he might call to replace her. Whether other members of the cabinet role, we'll see. I mean, that would be typical post midterm for a lame duck president. And the the first person that we keep turning to is Pete Hagsteth.

Right? That there's gonna be an impeachment vote likely next week in the house of representatives based on a resolution that Tom Mackenzie left on the shelf before they went on recess. And it looks like there will be the votes to impeach him on the house side, not likely to be convicted on the senate side. But the president, when asked, has been standing by his man. He sat down for an interview with sixty minutes. They did ask him about this.

I guess that's gonna air tomorrow. He said, no. He's been great. He's helped to prosecute these wars. Of course, it's these wars in part that turned the vote on Tuesday night. So we'll see about that. But there are others, of course, including Marco Rubio, who Bloomberg reported just two days ago, is is trying to pick his moment now as well, particularly if he's gonna run, for election in 2028. I should say we saw a video from Pete Hager, the defense secretary, kinda pushing back on, that call for his impeachment as well.

It's very interesting. I... Joe, I'm assuming you know more about this than I do, but I'm unclear what Stephen Miller's relationship is like with the other cabinet secretaries, how often they're interacting, whether he and Hager Seth get along. Do we know anything about the dynamics and the personalities at play here? Well, yeah. I mean, look. He holds a a phone call... A conference call at 10AM every morning for senior leaders in the White House as if he already is the chief of staff.

Again, he's the deputy, and he's got quite a bit of, of influence over the staff. In terms of continuity that Susie Weisz managed to maintain will be the question going forward about whether Stephen Miller can keep the trains running on time like this. He's gonna be the access point. If you wanna get in the oval, you have to go through the chief of staff. If you wanna talk policy, if you wanna start crafting an agenda, that will go through the chief of staff.

Legislative liaison, that's gonna be fascinating to see under this new chief of staff who doesn't seem to have a terribly high regard for the role that congress plays in our government, and that's why democratic lawmakers are concerned about this. Joe, we've got this two month period now until the new congress is sworn in. I did see that my local congressman, Brad Lander, was making his way down to DC for for orientation in the in the week ahead.

How are you thinking about what these two months are are going to look like? There's all of the conversation surrounding the hearings that will take place in the new term. What does the agenda look like for lawmakers here in the time they have left in in this current term? We're trying to get a sense of that because it changed a lot Tuesday. You know, we thought they'd be coming back, number one, to address funding, which which expires on December 11.

We actually have to fund the government, and there was talk about a two year CR. Let's get it all done. Maybe even a reconciliation bill. Get the debt limit. Get the budget. Trump doesn't have to worry about anything for the next two years. Democrats aren't gonna sign off on that now. So I... We'll see what the lame duck brings. There was hope as well for a permitting reform deal. That seems to have fallen down because Hacking Jeffries wants to make some changes.

It it appeared to be on the launch pad. Now it's been pulled back. But as far as the next congress goes, yeah, you're gonna see a lot of hearings. I think it was Mick Mulvaney who told us this week that Elon Musk will spend more time in a hearing room than he will at SpaceX headquarters. Just a question of how many corporate executives, how many donors are dragged to Washington. The big question though, when I go back to your great interview last weekend with Gregory Meeks, are we gonna use the I word?

Peeh Haigsteth is one thing. Are we gonna have actual articles of impeachment that come from a new DSA, member of the house? It's entirely possible. Leaders don't wanna do it, though. Appreciate you bringing that up. Christina wasn't here last week, and so she missed that master class in interviewing the senior member of the Democratic Congress. How I just will up... I'll move right on from PANDAS. I'm gonna just move right on from that.

Joe, is there a concern already among Democrats that they're gonna overplay their hand here? People I've spoken to have said this was not an endorsement necessarily of especially left leaning Democratic policies. It was a rebuke of the president. If they get in there and go back to their usual business of impeachment, impeachment, hearing, hearing, hearing, and don't actually get things done for the American public, they're gonna lose again in 2028.

Well, that's why Gregory Mee stopped, David right there. He said the I word is not what I am utilizing, I think, a direct quote. Exactly. A great concern about overreach. We talked about that with Don Beyer last evening, with Gwen Moore. If you talk to the elders in the party and particularly those who consider themselves, you know, left leaning moderates, they've seen this movie before, and most of them believe that the Jan six impeachment was worthwhile.

They don't all believe that the Ukraine perfect phone call