A Republican senator is calling for the resignation of one of Donald Trump’s closest advisers.
Thom Tillis said White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is “a big problem” for the president during an appearance on CNN Sunday.
“He’s a big problem in this administration. He has been from the beginning,” Tillis, 65, said on CNN’s State of the Union.
The North Carolina lawmaker has been among few Republican senators to join Democrats in scrutinizing the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration crackdown, which mounted pressure on Miller and Kristi Noem, who was fired as Homeland Security secretary on Thursday.
Tillis, however, made clear on Sunday that removing Noem alone wasn’t enough.
“It gives me pause that you had people like Stephen Miller calling the shots that actually I believe that maybe Kristi Noem acted on,” he told host Jake Tapper.
“It’s Stephen Miller that’s been repeatedly responsible for embarrassments for the president of the United States by acting too quickly, speaking first and thinking later.”
However, Tillis also voiced doubt that the senator set to replace Noem, Republican Markwayne Mullin, would parrot Miller the way he believes Noem previously had.
“He’s going to tell Stephen Miller to stay in his lanes and let him leave the agency,” Tillis said.
“I don’t think Markwayne goes to the podium and repeats something that Stephen Miller says,” said Tillis. “I think Stephen Miller’s demonstrated he, too, is out of his depth. And I think Markwayne will learn from that.”
Tillis added that Miller’s looming influence over Trump’s Cabinet was hindering the administration’s effectiveness.
“I believe we have got qualified Cabinet members there that sometimes are doing less than what they want to because of [Miller’s] direction and his outsized influence,” he said.
Miller, the architect of Trump’s most hardline immigration policies, set a lofty goal of arresting as many as 3,000 people in a single day in May. The push reportedly led U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to slash weeks from its basic training program as the agency scrambled to meet the ambitious target.
He was reportedly behind Noem labeling U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti as domestic terrorists after they were killed by federal agents in Minnesota—triggering a national outcry over federal immigration enforcement.
Tillis, for his part, hasn’t held back his words about Noem, either. The GOP senator launched into a 10-minute rant against Noem, 54, when she testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday as the Department of Homeland Security faced a shutdown.
“What we’ve seen is a disaster under your leadership, Ms. Noem. A disaster,” he said. “I don’t know that we’ll have time for you to respond because I’m giving you a performance evaluation here. I’m not looking for a response. And I’m saying, Ms. Noem, that time after time after time, I’ve been disappointed.”
He raged on: “We’re an exceptional nation, and one of the reasons we’re exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership, and you’ve demonstrated anything but that.”
Tillis ended his scathing rebuke by holding up a letter from the Office of Inspector General that he said listed 10 instances under Noem’s leadership in which the watchdog was “misled and not allowed to pursue investigations that they think are critically important.”
“That’s a failure of leadership. And that is why I’ve called for your resignation,” he said, drawing applause from the room.
The Daily Beast reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the White House for comment.
