Pritzker: Stephen Miller ‘abusing the fact that Donald Trump has diminished capacity’

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Pritzker: Stephen Miller ‘abusing the fact that Donald Trump has diminished capacity’

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) claimed on Thursday that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is enabling President Trump amid his crackdown on immigrants without legal status in the U.S.

“I do think he needs help,” Pritzker said of Trump to Tim Miller, the host of “The Bulwark” podcast. “And I don’t think anybody around him on a day-to-day basis wants to get him any help because they have more power based upon his diminished capacity.”

Pritzker then brought up Miller, whom he said “clearly is the one pushing the tactics at [Department of Homeland Security], at [Customs and Border Protection], at [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)].”

“He’s clearly the person that is aiming to have Donald Trump become an authoritarian leader,” Pritzker continued. “And I wish that, you know, people could at least recognize that Stephen Miller is bad for the country, and he is abusing the fact that Donald Trump has diminished capacity.”

Miller has been a critical voice in enforcing Trump’s immigration policy. In May, he said that the administration set a goal of 3,000 federal immigration arrests a day.

“President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day so we can get all of the Biden illegals that were flooded into our country for four years out of our country,” Miller told Sean Hannity on Fox News at the time.

With the National Guard’s deployment in Chicago and other parts of Illinois amid ICE raids, Pritzker has been particularly critical of Trump and administration officials defending the deployments. Last week, when Trump suggested Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) should go to jail, the governor replied, “Come and get me.”

Four days later, Vice President Vance blasted Pritzker on ABC News’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos.

“Why is he so mad at Donald Trump for trying to keep Chicagoans safe?” Vance said. “He should be mad at the criminals that he has failed to keep at bay. We’re trying to help him, and we’re trying to help the residents of his biggest city. I wish that he would let us because he certainly isn’t doing the job himself.”