From junior US Senator from Caifornia Adam Schiff's daily viideo to subscribers, "The Schiff Notes," for January 31, 2026. The importance of Stephen Miller is something we all need to be aware of. The prospect of invoking the Insurrecction Act is a truly terrifying one.
See the video HERE
Transcript of The Schiff Notes, Jan. 31, 2026 video: Kristi Noem has made a lot of unhinged statements in the last few days, so you might have missed this one.
For her part, Noem is trying to blame other people for immediately labeling a murder victim a domestic terrorist. Yesterday, she reportedly said, "Everything I've done, I've done in the direction of the president and Stephen Miller."
Yes, that's Kristi Noem trying to deflect responsibility for the lies she's been telling, the actions she's been taking on Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff. So who is Stephen Miller? How does he exercise so much control over the whole apparatus of the federal government? What's his role? in all of this as essentially the bigot in chief.
Well, Stephen Miller is from Santa Monica, California. I am embarrassed to say he's from my home state. Now, when you think of Santa Monica, California, you probably think of scenes like this from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. [video clip]
But in terms of Stephen Miller's experience in high school, it looked a lot more like this. [video clip]
"I will say and I will do things that no one else in their right mind would say or do. Let me give you an example. Am I the only one who is sick and tired of being told to pick up my trash?"
Yes, Stephen Miller was the same bigot in high school as you see him today. There's been no radicalization of Stephen Miller. He was a radical even in Santa Monica. At high school, he was denigrating Latinos, denigrating Native Americans, making racist comments even then. He goes on from Santa Monica High School to Duke University and becomes associated with right-wing hate groups at Duke, pushing out more hate and more bile. And then he comes to Washington, D.C. He works for Senator Jeff Sessions. Sessions, you might remember, would become attorney general in the first Trump administration. His primary effort as a staff member for Sessions and working on the Hill was to kill a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
No surprise there either. Then he goes to work for Donald Trump. On Donald Trump's first campaign, helping to write some of the most incendiary language for the candidate Trump, including phrases like radical Islam. And right at the beginning of the first Trump administration, Stephen Miller has a very prominent role. In fact,he helped write that American carnage speech that was Donald Trump's first inaugural address. [video clip]
"This American carnage stops right here and stops right now."
That dark dystopian view is classic Stephen Miller, and you can see how much influence he has over the president. Now, the president is obviously naturally inclined to Stephen Miller's bigoted worldview, his negative, destructive, they're all against us, it's one against another, dog-eat-dog. That is Miller's view, it's also Donald Trump's view, so it is a good, meeting of the minds in these two. Some of the people closest to the president, like Steve Bannon, refer to Miller as the prime minister. Others, like Kevin McCarthy, call him Trump's brain. But it is clear from the very beginning of the first Trump administration, he would have a signature influence in the most draconian of ways.
So you can credit Miller and the first Trump administration with the Muslim travel ban. You can credit him with the family separation policy that took kids away from their parents and put them in cages. You can credit him with trying to do away with DACA. That is the program that allows dreamers to stay in this country.
So that's Stephen Miller and Trump won. So Trump loses the 2020 election and Miller goes on to found America First Legal. This is a right-wing legal organization that goes after what he considers woke policies. It's basically bigots are us in legal form. They also bring frivolous lawsuits challenging the 2020 election. So this is Stephen Miller as lawyer running ads like this one where he asks, "when did bigotry against white people become OK?"
[video clip]
"When did racism against white people become OK? Progressive corporations, airlines, universities all openly discriminate against white Americans..."
Stephen Miller didn't really come into his own until Trump II. This is where he has had his maximum destructive impact and from the very beginning. He is the architect of the president's right-wing immigration policy. He is the most draconian of the president's advisors.
It is Stephen Miller who says that their role is going to be to protect their friends and go after the bad guys. [video clip]
"Write the law so it protects your friends and harms the bad guys. Otherwise, you're handing them a sword to run right through you."
No, not justice for all, not any kind of equality, not opportunity, nothing like that. No, protect your friends and go after your enemies. That is his philosophy. And apparently he views immigrants as one of the enemies. There's a long list of people that Stephen Miller despises. There's a long list of people that don't look like Stephen Miller, and in Stephen Miller's America, this is a white, male America. That is his priority, and you see it reflected in almost all of his work. As even Trump admits, Miller would like to see a country of 100 million Stephen Miller look-alikes. I can't imagine.
It is Stephen Miller who insists that Greenland should be part of the United States.
Greenland is essential for America's national security.
It is Stephen Miller who is pushing regime change in Venezuela. [video clip]
"But we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power."
It is probably Stephen Miller who's pushing for war with Iran. But his biggest impact has been, again, on immigration. It is Stephen Miller's quota, his demand that there be 3,000 ICE arrests a day, that there be a million in Trump's first year, that is driving this mass deportation agenda.
So even as you have some whispering into the ear, this is hurting you, this is hurting the country, You should stop immigration raids on farms or stop doing these raids in cities. It is Stephen Miller with the ear of the president pushing back in favor of this draconian policy.
It is Stephen Miller who accuses Alex Preddy of being an assassin. He was willing to tell those kind of big lies right out of the gate. This is part of the reason why Kristi Noem wants to blame Stephen Miller for her own lies. And yes, Miller is the architect and Noem is the enabler.
They are both guilty when it comes to the terrible atrocities we are seeing cold-blooded murder people through their windshields and face down in the street. They are both responsible. And Stephen Miller wants to go further. Here is Miller saying the president has plenary authority, meaning he can do whatever he wants. [video clip]
"Under Title 10 of the US code, the president has plenary authority."
I have no doubt that if he has his way, the president will invoke the Insurrection Act. The significance of that goes beyond anything we have seen, because if the president invokes that act, it allows the president to call out the military to basically police our streets. Now, you might ask, is that different than what happened in Los Angeles and in other cities where the president has deployed the National Guard? And the answer is yes. because this isn't just about protecting federal buildings or other support roles. This would mean that you could have the Army and the Marine Corps and others doing police work, arresting people, enforcing the law, basically putting us under a kind of martial law. This is something I think Stephen Miller is advocating. Now you're only allowed to invoke the Insurrection Act if there's an actual insurrection. if there's a rebellion against the authority of the government. That is not the case, but nevertheless, we have seen the president act in countless lawless ways, and this is a very significant escalation that Miller, I think, is pushing.
So how do we push back against such an evil influence in the Oval Office? And I think we've got to continue and intensify what we've been doing, not just here in Congress as we fight to overhaul that ICE agency, but also by protesting, by making sure that we're supporting our neighbors, by making sure that we're capturing on videotape the lawlessness of this administration and showing it to the country and demanding an accounting.
And we will have that opportunity in spades when it comes to the November election. And we have to seize that opportunity.
FAQ
Search
Login
