The White House has—predictably—refused to allow Stephen Miller to testify before the House Oversight Committee. In addition to the reflex of blocking any and every request from the House now that it’s controlled by Democrats, there is a precedent that White House aides rarely testify, which White House counsel Pat Cipollone alluded to in offering to make “cabinet secretaries and other agency leaders” available.
But Miller isn’t just any White House aide. He’s dominating Cabinet secretaries and agency leaders in setting Trump administration immigration policy, as House Oversight Chair Elijah Cummings alluded to in his letter asking Miller to testify. The panel wanted to hear from Miller “because it appears that you are one of the primary moving forces behind some of the most significant—and in my view, troubling—immigration policies coming out of the Trump White House,” Cummings wrote.
No kidding: Miller is a white nationalist who’s helped drive the Trump administration’s family separation policy and the recent purge of top Department of Homeland Security officials, and has pushed to have undocumented immigrants dropped off in sanctuary cities. It’s not like Donald Trump needs someone urging him to follow his worst impulses, but Miller has fulfilled that role. And the only surprising thing about Miller evading congressional oversight is that you could imagine him wanting to publicly brag and get some white nationalist messaging on television.