CNN’s Jake Tapper has a message for top White House aide Stephen Miller: Stop wasting my viewers’ time.
Tapper shut down his tense interview Sunday with President Donald Trump’s senior policy adviser after Miller continued to parrot talking points touting his boss while also attacking CNN.
“I think I have wasted enough of my viewers’ time,” Tapper told Miller as he abruptly ended the aide’s air-time.
Watch the full exchange below:
Before he was cut off, Miller fumbled when asked whether Trump met with Russian operatives after his son, Donald Trump Jr., got together with them in an infamous June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower. In an explosive new book by journalist Michael Wolff, former White House chief strategist Steven Bannon suggested there was “zero” chance Trump Jr. didn’t take the Russians to meet his father.
Despite having “no knowledge” of the meeting, Miller said he was certain all of the allegations in Wolff’s book are “a pure work of fiction” and “nothing but a pile of trash through and through.” (Bannon on Sunday issued a statement backpedaling on his comments to Wolff about the meeting, which he had called “treasonous.”)
Miller, during his CNN appearance, praised Trump as “a self-made billionaire who revolutionized reality TV and who has changed the course of our politics.” He also lauded Trump as a “political genius.”
“I’m sure he’s watching and he’s happy that you said that,” Tapper responded.
Miller, in turn, scolded Tapper for making “condescending” and “snide” remarks and bashed CNN for airing “24 hours of negative, anti-Trump, hysterical coverage.”
“I think the viewers right now can ascertain who is being hysterical,” Tapper responded. “You’re being obsequious, you’re being a factotum in order to please [Trump].”
The two men continued to duke it out after Tapper ended the interview, according to a transcript of the exchange obtained by CBS News.
Miller would not leave voluntarily after the segment and instead had to be escorted off the CNN set by security, reported CBS News and Business Insider.
While Trump had a decidedly different view of the segment, many Twitter users applauded Tapper’s decision to pull the plug on Miller.
This article has been updated to include that Miller was reportedly escorted from the CNN set, as well as the post-show transcript.