How Does Stephen Miller Keep Getting Away With This?

Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images.

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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Surge, typing to you from underneath a sooty, icy snow boulder that has covered the entirety of D.C. for a week. But we’re not mad. Stop saying we’re mad.

Much of the week’s news revolved around the killing of protester Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and Republicans’ scrambling to limit the fallout. As the week went on, we got a new Fed chair announcement, Tulsi Gabbard showing up at an FBI raid in Georgia, and what appears to be a long weekend government shutdown? Don Lemon, you will have to wait until next week, sorry. If only the Surge could control the flow and spacing of news events, the world would run a lot smoother.

Let’s begin with the Cabinet member bearing most of the blame for the events of Minnesota.

Kristi Noem

So close, and yet so far away, from a Cabinet firing.

The lack of turnover in the second Trump administration has been a marked difference from the first term. Top staff and Cabinet members aren’t getting axed left and right. The only high-level change we’ve seen has been former national security adviser Mike Waltz getting “demoted” to United Nations ambassador for getting slippery-fingered with his group chat invites. There’s a reason for this shift: President Donald Trump, as he reportedly felt during the deliberations over Waltz’s future, doesn’t want to give the liberal media a “scalp.” It’s a sign of weakness to, uh, provide accountability following screw-ups.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this week seemed to come the closest a Cabinet official has come to a Trump axing this term. The administration flinched from its initial (and typical) belligerent messaging following the Customs and Border Protection killing of Pretti in Minneapolis. That left Noem out on a limb. It was Noem, after all, whose department oversaw the Minneapolis operation and Noem who, as the face of that department, said in the press conference afterward that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist.” Democratic calls for her impeachment shot through the roof—and even some Republicans called on her to step down, as well. (More on that later.) Noem met with the president for two hours Monday night to plead her case. For now, it looks like Trump’s instincts not to give the media a “scalp” are winning out. Or, as with Waltz, he’s just waiting a spell for the fires to calm down before sending her on her way.

Stephen Miller

Sorry if it’s a dumb question, but how about some consequences for this guy?

Noem wasn’t the only administration official rushing to call Pretti a “domestic terrorist.” White House policy chief and all-around architect of heavy-handedness Stephen Miller also called Pretti that, as well as an “assassin” looking to “murder” agents. Team Noem, in its effort to save her, went running to Axios to blame Miller for the incendiary language. We fully believe her. Immediately calling someone an “assassin” or “terrorist” without knowing........

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