Stephen Miller Targeted Marco Rubio In Breitbart Coverage, Emails Show

The White House adviser and white nationalist worked with the far-right publication to smear the Florida senator ahead of the 2016 election.
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Stephen Miller, a virulent white nationalist and senior White House adviser, worked in tandem with far-right publication Breitbart to smear Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), newly leaked emails show.

The new trove of emails from Miller to Breitbart released Tuesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center reveal the behind-the-scenes influence Miller had over the outlet before and during the 2016 presidential election. Breitbart, an early supporter of President Donald Trump, was previously run by Steve Bannon, a former adviser to the president.

Miller, who was an aide to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) in 2015, suggested anti-immigration stories for Breitbart to run, and successfully got the publication to run a press release authored by Miller under the byline of “Breitbart News.” The headline produced by Miller was “Exclusive ― Senate Immigration Subcommittee Releases Chart Proving Immigration Will Outpace American Population Growth 7 To 1 Through 2065.”

“Also how should we run this? Under Senator Sessions’ byline? Or under ‘Breitbart News’ byline?” Breitbart editor Matthew Boyle asked Miller in an email released by SPLC.

“I think Breitbart News,” Miller replied. “Then it can be introduced as something shared exclusively with Breitbart by the Senate’s Subcomittee (sic) on Immigration and the National Interest, with the graphic and explanatory text underneath.”

In another email, Miller suggested running a piece written by a conservative pundit that criticized Rubio, then a contender in the presidential race.

“Just a reminder that Rubio’s bill would have legalized tens of thousands of the most dangerous criminal aliens, including gang members, sex offenders, and those with multiple criminal convictions,” Miller said in a July 2015 email to Breitbart.

In another, Miller lamented that everyone is “afraid to attack Rubio. Everyone,” and in another called the Florida senator a “pathological” liar.

The newly public emails were leaked by Katie McHugh, a writer who was fired from Breitbart in 2017 after tweeting anti-Muslim attacks.

The SPLC first released a collection emails leaked by McHugh last Tuesday. The emails revealed how Miller pushed white nationalism in the outlet and complained about the removal of Confederate symbols following a mass shooting at a Black church in South Carolina.

“My editors were expecting me to take white nationalist material from Stephen Miller and put it into news stories in order to boost the campaign of Donald Trump,” McHugh told CNN after the emails’ release.

Since the initial dump of emails, more than 80 members of Congress have demanded that Miller resign, HuffPost reported. But the White House appears to be standing by the adviser.

Meanwhile, Facebook recently named Breitbart a trustworthy news source for its “Facebook News” section.

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