Why Trump picked Stephen Miller to replace Susie Wiles — Transcript

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1. 0:00The seismic staffing shakeup at the
2. 0:01White House, President Trump replacing
3. 0:03Susie Wiles as chief of staff with his
4. 0:06long-time advisor Stephen Miller.
5. 0:08Miller, who began as a speechwriter on
6. 0:10Trump's first presidential campaign in
7. 0:122016, is the point man for the
8. 0:14administration's hardline immigration
9. 0:16crackdown. The move comes 3 days after
10. 0:19the president and Republicans were dealt
11. 0:21a stinging defeat in the midterm
12. 0:22elections.
13. 0:23>> CBS News exit polls showed voter anger
14. 0:26was largely centered on the war in Iran,
15. 0:29the economy, and federal immigration
16. 0:31policies. Miller's ascension and
17. 0:33uncompromising approach will likely
18. 0:35complicate negotiations with the
19. 0:37incoming Democratic majority in
20. 0:39Congress.
21. 0:41In an interview for 60 Minutes conducted
22. 0:43before the shakeup, correspondent Ross
23. 0:45Douthat asked President Trump how he
24. 0:47will deal with the new crop of lawmakers
25. 0:49coming to Washington.
26. 0:52>> So, I'll say I saw James Tallarico, the
27. 0:54new Democratic senator from Texas. I saw
28. 0:56him on Fox News and he said immigration
29. 0:59was one of the things he was doing.
30. 1:00>> Others Others too, South Carolina said.
31. 1:02>> You did You did You did in the course of
32. 1:05the campaign, you did occasionally call
33. 1:07him Tallafricko.
34. 1:08>> Yeah, I did.
35. 1:10>> Do you think you could work with the
36. 1:11Democrats without insulting them
37. 1:13consistently?
38. 1:14>> I could.
39. 1:14>> You think so?
40. 1:15>> call I also call many of them Democrats.
41. 1:18>> You did that just the other day. If If
42. 1:20it took 6 months of not insulting the
43. 1:23Democrats to get a deal done, do you
44. 1:24think you could do it?
45. 1:25>> Very easily.
46. 1:27>> The president is spending the weekend at
47. 1:29his Florida resort. CBS's Olivia Gazis
48. 1:32is in nearby West Palm Beach with more
49. 1:34on what else the president is saying
50. 1:36about other changes to his cabinet.
51. 1:38Olivia, good morning.
52. 1:41>> Good morning, Meg. Well, CBS News has
53. 1:43learned that Susie Wiles, the chief of
54. 1:45staff, had intended to continue in her
55. 1:47role for longer, but the president chose
56. 1:49to accelerate her departure. She
57. 1:52submitted her resignation Thursday, days
58. 1:54after the Republican's stinging midterm
59. 1:56defeat.
60. 1:58>> Stephen Miller will be the new chief of
61. 2:00staff and Susie's going to go over to
62. 2:02the political operations.
63. 2:04>> The president's surprise announcement
64. 2:05elevates one of his most hardline
65. 2:07advisers and sidelines Wiles, the first
66. 2:10woman to serve as White House chief of
67. 2:12staff, who was widely credited with
68. 2:14bringing discipline to his second
69. 2:15administration.
70. 2:16>> I wanted to make a change.
71. 2:19I think
72. 2:20Susie's done a very good job, great job,
73. 2:23but I just wanted to make it Stephen's
74. 2:25been great
75. 2:26and uh
76. 2:28we got to make we got to make moves.
77. 2:30Sometimes Sometimes in life you have to
78. 2:32make moves.
79. 2:32>> The move raises questions about whether
80. 2:34the president intends to change course
81. 2:37or double down on the policies that
82. 2:39defined his first two years in office.
83. 2:41>> In a previous lifetime you were rather
84. 2:43famous for saying you're fired quite
85. 2:45often. After a big midterm defeat like
86. 2:47this, do you expect to fire anyone from
87. 2:49your team?
88. 2:50>> Yeah.
89. 2:50>> You do?
90. 2:51>> bit.
91. 2:51>> Wiles may not be the last senior
92. 2:53official to depart. Defense Secretary
93. 2:55Pete Hegseth faces bipartisan calls for
94. 2:58his resignation and a possible
95. 3:00impeachment vote as early as next week,
96. 3:02but the president defended Hegseth in an
97. 3:04interview with 60 Minutes.
98. 3:06>> His name has come up a few times as
99. 3:09someone people have called for his
100. 3:11resignation. Do you have confidence in
101. 3:13him?
102. 3:13>> I do.
103. 3:13>> The uncertainty over leadership at the
104. 3:15Pentagon comes amid questions about the
105. 3:17next phase of the war with Iran. Asked
106. 3:20about reports of strikes Friday near a
107. 3:22strategic island in the Strait of
108. 3:23Hormuz, the president was tight-lipped.
109. 3:26>> I don't want to talk about it. We do
110. 3:27minor strikes, but they knock out They
111. 3:31built a little bit of an anti-aircraft
112. 3:34device and we knocked it out in about 15
113. 3:37minutes, maybe five.
114. 3:39>> And congressional Democrats are already
115. 3:41vowing to investigate the Iran war as
116. 3:44well as the administration's immigration
117. 3:46crackdown. The incoming House Oversight
118. 3:48Committee chairman already warning
119. 3:50Stephen Miller, who starts his job
120. 3:51Monday, to quote lawyer up. Meg.
121. 3:54>> Olivia, thank you. You can see more of
122. 3:57Lesley Stahl's interview with President
123. 3:59Trump tomorrow night on 60 Minutes. And
124. 4:02for more on the White House shake-up and
125. 4:03the fallout from the midterm elections,
126. 4:05we are joined by our CBS News political
127. 4:08director Fin Gomez in our Washington
128. 4:10Bureau. Hi Fin, good morning. So, let's
129. 4:13start with Stephen Miller. I mean, this
130. 4:15was really a surprise and this comes
131. 4:17just after the electorate has spoken
132. 4:19rejecting a lot of the president's
133. 4:20policies including immigration in a lot
134. 4:23of cases. Why do you think Miller was
135. 4:25made as this selection?
136. 4:28>> I've been told by sources close to the
137. 4:29White House that the president is
138. 4:31demonstrating how he tends to serve in
139. 4:33his last two years in office by fighting
140. 4:36and fighting back. And I think with
141. 4:39Miller, he has one of his most his most
142. 4:42fiercest and most loyal fighters. Last
143. 4:45night at a Mar-a-Lago event, Miller told
144. 4:48the audience and the president that he
145. 4:50pledged his loyalty and also his
146. 4:53devotion to the president's success. As
147. 4:55you said, Miller has been a long-time
148. 4:58advisor to the president. He's been with
149. 5:00him for 10 years and was the main
150. 5:02driving force behind the
151. 5:04administration's
152. 5:05aggressive and controversial immigration
153. 5:08policies. Policies,
154. 5:10Adriana, that voters largely rejected on
155. 5:13Tuesday. If you look at Texas for
156. 5:15example, Texas Latinos who were a large
157. 5:17part of the president's successful 2024
158. 5:21coalition swung back and swung back hard
159. 5:24to Democrats. Turning once ruby red
160. 5:27Texas blue in large part as a
161. 5:30repudiation of those policies. But those
162. 5:33policies are popular with the
163. 5:34president's base.
164. 5:36>> I'm so glad you mentioned that because
165. 5:37we have a story exactly about the Latino
166. 5:39vote in Texas coming up on CBS Saturday
167. 5:40morning. So, you just teed that up
168. 5:42perfectly.
169. 5:43>> I can't wait to watch. I can't wait to
170. 5:44>> I talked to you last night. I was like,
171. 5:46"Fin, you got to watch this space.
172. 5:46There's going to be a picture of Selena
173. 5:48in it." But but let's talk about Susie
174. 5:50Wiles. Why why was she kicked out and
175. 5:52when was this decision made? Do we know
176. 5:54anything about the timing?
177. 5:56>> Sure, we've been hearing for some time
178. 5:58some rumblings about Susie Wiles
179. 6:00potentially leaving the White House. Of
180. 6:03course, when the president was asked
181. 6:04about this recently recently Adriana, he
182. 6:07denied it and and covering the president
183. 6:09since 2012 Adriana, if the president
184. 6:12says that he's not going to fire someone
185. 6:15typically means he's not going to fire
186. 6:17someone in that moment, but it often
187. 6:19means that he will later on. Look, I
188. 6:21also think that what we've been also
189. 6:23hearing and CBS News has learned is is
190. 6:26yes, that she had intended she had
191. 6:28intended to stay through the at least
192. 6:31through the end of the year into early
193. 6:33part of next year, but the president
194. 6:35accelerated that decision. We are told
195. 6:38in large part due to the midterm losses
196. 6:42at the hands of the Democrats on
197. 6:43Tuesday.
198. 6:45Look, but it's also if you recall Wilds
199. 6:48made history as the first woman to serve
200. 6:50in that White House role. She was
201. 6:52popular with many in the White House,
202. 6:54but she did have her detractors. She did
203. 6:56have her critics in Trump world and I
204. 6:59think part of the reason is for this
205. 7:01push in the shake-up now was because
206. 7:04those detractors were getting a little
207. 7:06louder and getting into the ear of the
208. 7:08president. Adriana.
209. 7:10>> And Finn, let's talk about the midterm
210. 7:11election results just a little bit more
211. 7:13because it was such a big night for the
212. 7:14Democrats and so many surprising
213. 7:16victories even from some lower profile
214. 7:19candidates who didn't go out and fund
215. 7:21raise. What does that tell you about
216. 7:23what happened?
217. 7:25>> Look, this wasn't just a blue wave. This
218. 7:27was a blue tidal wave that splashed down
219. 7:29with a vengeance across the midterm
220. 7:31electorate and even permeating through
221. 7:34some of these down ballot races. For
222. 7:36example, in North Carolina one
223. 7:38Democratic contender for for the house
224. 7:41defeated his Republican opponent even
225. 7:43though the Democrat had only raised
226. 7:45$55,000
227. 7:47to the Republicans $2 million.
228. 7:49And yeah, it's pretty [laughter] wild,
229. 7:51right?
230. 7:52In Iowa in Iowa in a state house race
231. 7:55one Democrat suspended his campaign in
232. 7:58September due to sickness, but he still
233. 8:00defeated his Republican opponent by 50
234. 8:0355% of the vote. And I think what you're
235. 8:06seeing is just the impact of this wave
236. 8:09and it's something that has my
237. 8:11Republican sources, some of my
238. 8:12Republican sources, apprehensive of how
239. 8:15which way is the best way out of the
240. 8:17political wilderness for the Republican
241. 8:18Party.
242. 8:19>> Finn, as our political director, I know
243. 8:21you have your eyes already focused on
244. 8:232028, always moving forward. How do you
245. 8:25think this midterm has changed the
246. 8:28landscape for the presidential election
247. 8:29coming up?
248. 8:31>> Look, I think the 2028 cycle started
249. 8:34effectively on Wednesday. You saw J.D.
250. 8:36Vance put out a tweet essentially saying
251. 8:39distancing himself from the Iran war.
252. 8:41You saw Ron DeSantis, the the governor
253. 8:43of Florida, coming out saying this is a
254. 8:45this is a seismic victory for
255. 8:48for for Democrats and a and and a big
256. 8:50defeat for Republicans. But what I've
257. 8:52been told by 2028 aspirants, potential
258. 8:56aspirants for the White House both on
259. 8:58the Republican side and the Democratic
260. 9:00side, is that they were looking at these
261. 9:02midterm results and and now that that
262. 9:04has happened, they're they're using this
263. 9:06as a roadmap for 2028. And we're
264. 9:09expecting more to jump in now,
265. 9:11especially on the Democratic side.
266. 9:12>> All right, what a week.
267. 9:14CBS News political director Finn Gomez,
268. 9:16thank you so much.