US Politics
‘Battery level low’: Stephen Miller’s latest Fox News rant cut short after camera self-deports
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A camera decided that it would rather check out than sit through another overheated tirade from Stephen Miller, as the White House deputy chief’s Wednesday night interview on Fox News faded to black midway through him extolling the virtues of a “turbocharged” ICE.
Filling in for a vacationing Sean Hannity, former Donald Trump aide turned Fox News pundit Kellyanne Conway introduced Miller as “Homeland security adviser and one of my favorite colleagues from the first term,” who was patching in live from a remote studio.
With the right-wing media ecosystem currently focusing much of its energy on defending the right for ICE agents to hide their identity while sweeping up suspected undocumented migrants, Conway teed up Miller to rage about Democrats’ “violent” anti-ICE rhetoric and the need for Americans to embrace the administration’s mass deportation efforts.
“This is elimination rhetoric. This is rhetoric used to justify violence, used to justify terrorism,” Miller fumed.
“ICE officers are not only heroes, they are among the bravest Americans among us. Every day they go out onto the street knowing they face the threat of murder and doxxing, knowing the hateful smears against them and their family,” he continued, adding: “Every American should be endlessly grateful to the men and women of ICE to what they are doing, to what President Trump is doing to liberate America.”
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Conway then turned to the passage of Trump’s mega-spending bill, which includes funding to add at least another 10,000 ICE agents along with additional migrant detention camps, asking Miller to heap additional praise on the administration’s signature legislation.
“The greatest gift that can be given by Americans to ICE officers is what is in President Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’” the Trump adviser gushed.
However, as Miller continued to boast that the new funding would pay for more charter flights and prison beds “to detain violent and dangerous criminal aliens,” the camera at his location suddenly went black.
“Battery level low. Exchange battery,” read the message on the screen, revealing that there was a power failure with the camera in the third-party “LiveU” truck, which is where Miller was filming his interview.
While Miller could be heard for a few more seconds, eventually he went fully silent as the entire recording apparatus within the remote studio apparently shut down. In the meantime, the control room cut back to Conway, who just sat there staring blankly for a few more seconds before realizing that Miller was offline.
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“Stephen Miller, thank you so much,” she finally said nonchalantly, acting as if the tech failure didn’t just happen.
As for Miller, he actually tweeted out a clip of his Fox News appearance – complete with the moment of the camera’s death – but did not offer any additional explanation about what happened.
The Independent has reached out to Fox News for comment.