Top Pence Aide Says Efforts To Make Her ‘More Compassionate’ In Child Separation Crisis ‘Didn’t Work’

Marc Short, chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, talks with Katie Miller, Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary, in the Rose Garden of the White House on March 24, 2020. (Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)
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Katie Miller, Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary, casually admitted to having zero empathy for the thousands of migrant children who suffered under the Trump administration’s infamous family separation policy at the border in 2018, according to NBC News reporter Jacob Soboroff.

In his new book, titled “Separated: Inside an American Tragedy,” Soboroff recounts a jaw-dropping conversation with Miller, who was serving as deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security at the time, on the administration’s policy of ripping kids from their families and holding them in squalid detention centers under the custody of cruel U.S. border officials.

“My family and colleagues told me that when I have kids, I’ll think about the separations differently, but I don’t think so,” Miller told Soboroff. “DHS sent me to the border to see the separations for myself, to try to make me more compassionate, but it didn’t work.”

“It didn’t work? I will never forget what I saw,” the reporter replied. “Seriously. Are you a white nationalist?”

“No, but I believe if you come to America, you should assimilate. Why do we need to have ‘Little Havana’?” the senior administration official asked.

Pence’s office did not respond to TPM’s request for comment.

Miller is the wife of Stephen Miller, one of President Donald Trump’s top immigration policy advisers who actively pushed far-right media outlet Breitbart to churn out white nationalist propaganda about “immigrant crime” shortly before joining the 2016 Trump campaign. His leaked emails to Breitbart also revealed his fear of politicians using immigration policy “to replace existing demographics,” a notorious rallying cry in the white nationalist movement.

The White House publicly defended Stephen Miller and did not discipline him after the emails were published in late 2019.

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