Stephen Miller Starts Laughing at CNN’s Keilar While Explaining to Her How the Government Works as if She’s a Child

KEILAR: “... chief of staff for policy. Stephen, thank you so much for taking time for us. So who is in charge of DOGE?”
MILLER: “The president of the United States.”
KEILAR: “He’s the administrator of DOGE?”
MILLER: “No, the DOGE is the, what was formerly U.S. Digital Services. It’s an agency of the federal government that reports into the office of — the executive office of the president, which reports to the president of the United States.”
KEILAR: “OK.”
MILLER: “The way that Article 2 works is the president wins an election, and then he appoints staff, including myself, including Mike Waltz, including Susie Wiles, including Elon Musk, and those staff report to him.”
KEILAR: “OK, well aware. So Elon Musk, a week ago, answered a question about transparency at DOGE. This is how he spoke about DOGE.”
[Clip starts]
Musk: “Well, we actually are trying to be as transparent as possible. In fact, our actions — we post our actions to the #DOGE, on X, and to the DOGE website. So all of our actions are maximally transparent.”
[Clip ends]
KEILAR: “You hear him there, we post our actions, all of our actions are maximally transparent. Does Elon Musk know he’s not in charge of DOGE?”
MILLER: “Again, the president runs the government, then the President appoints advisors, including Elon, including myself, including all the other staff here at the White House, and then those staff, in turn, execute the president’s commands and directions to all the agencies of the federal government. This is how democracy works, something that we treasure in America. The whole American people go to the ballot box, they elect the president, the president appoints staff, the staff then administer his orders and directives across the whole U.S. government.”
KEILAR: “OK, Stephen, I get that, but this is important because we want to talk about who’s making the decisions here. There were 300 employees, the National Nuclear Security Administration — you know about this — they were fired, the agency had to rescind those terminations because these were employees who were critical to maintaining the nation’s nuclear stockpile. So then who is it making those decisions of which federal employees are terminated?”
MILLER: “Well, in that case, the secretary of Energy would be the one. So what you’re describing with the cuts in the Department of Energy, those are directed by the Senate-confirmed secretary of Energy.”
KEILAR: “OK, so that was the secretary of Energy’s mistake.”
MILLER: “Well, I wouldn’t use the term mistake. I would say that it’s pretty standard when you’re downsizing government, you make cuts, you assess those cuts, you see who needs to be rehired, who needs to be kept, who needs to be re-evaluated.” [crosstalk]
KEILAR: “That’s not what happened here, though, Stephen, you know that.”
MILLER: “These are all — these are all normal things.”
KEILAR: “They were rescinded. These aren’t normal things. These were terminations that were rescinded.” [crosstalk]
MILLER: “I understand that even a temporary interruption in federal employment is a great crisis and catastrophe for you and for CNN. What the American people see is a government that is finally delivering a promise of accountability under President Trump. You want to have a conversation about transparency. Let me ask you a question. Do you have any idea where the $22 billion that the Department of Health and Human Services provided to illegal aliens under Joe Biden is right now? $22 billion with a ‘B.’ That’s enough to provide a free house to every homeless veteran in America. Where’s the $22 billion? I don’t know. You don’t know. Nobody knows. Joe Biden just spent it and now it’s gone. Transparency begins with having an accounting of where every federal dollar is spent. And God bless President Trump for leading this effort.”
KEILAR: “Stephen, it seems like the crisis here had to do with the nation’s nuclear stockpile, and for these particular federal workers, which — which I’m not. So this isn’t my personal crisis. Military members of the Guard and the Reserve —“ [crosstalk]
MILLER: “Well, if — I don’t think it’s a crisis and you don’t think it’s —”
KEILAR: “Well, I want to ask you about this. “
MILLER: “Well, hold on. If I don’t think it’s a crisis —”
KEILAR: “Well, this — let’s — no, Stephen, military —”
MILLER: “— and you don’t think it’s a crisis then why are we talking about it?”