Transcripts For CSPAN2 Jean Guerrero Hatemonger 20240712 : v

Located in the chat. Theres a link to purchase it from politics and prose bookstores website. To be highly encourage everybody to purchase this book. Giving 5 for outreach and were also doing Curbside Pickup targeted the other thing that i would like to draw your attention to is the latter portion of tonights event is dedicated to your audience questions. And to ask a question from the screen they talk to the bottom of your screen. You click on that and type in your question. Will try to get to his many of those as possible. There is a check for you guys but if you could keep all of your questions in the q a, makes things a little bit easier. So with all of that of the way, is my honor to introduce jean guerrero, and invesco dave reporter contributing to mtr, the is our and their public media. In the other of the cross for memoir. And shes an enemy in a series of americas wealth. Tonight shall be trusting are book, hatemonger and donald trump and the White Nationalist agenda. Its at the expense of Stephen Miller. Two of Donald Trumps chief advisers. Miller was outlasted many of others in the trump, and help from the fear speech to the muslim band, the family separation policy of the border. Millers only the coolest and most invested moments of the trump era. In conversation with jonathan, he set the new yorker and also won the 2019 education reporting for american studies. Mr. About an underground school for undocumented immigrants. Reporting also appeared in the New York Times the atlantic of the nation. Jean hi everyone. Thank you guys. Think everyone for being here. And thanks for moderating freedom so it excited to talk to you about this book. Host likewise and congratulations. This is a major undertaking. Theres so much to say. So let me jus. And i have a few ideas for how we might kinda move through the conversation to kinda capture the full sweep of what youve done here in the book. But before we kind of marched through the millers biography, i want to ask one kind of general sweeping question. On the assets. May help to serve to orient people if theyre listening. And then follow. Stephen miller this point is known to everyone. Hes not a kind of retreating personality. Hes notorious for all sorts of things. Is been involved in the most controversial policies. Is kind of enthusiastically and pride xenophobic. All of this stuff. People are seen him on tv. People are used to seeing him raising his voice and my question to you is what you think the general public at this point in the media and its coverage of him but we all misunderstood. What aspect of his personality is thinking are the least well understood given his outside public persona. Jean i would probably start with the fact that he has a lot or had a lot of friends who perceived him to be really funny. He has this layered personality is not really captured in a lot of places where hes just sort of detected as the architect of trumps anti immigration policy which very much as. But in the book i thought it was important to also show how he has seen by his friends. Many of whom point out that in many ways was normal teenager growing up in Southern California. He was into reality tv shows. He really loved Elvis Pressley and mobster movies. He was dressed up as robert de niros, mobster character. Thats a totally normal but just eccentric works that he had which made him appear to be very funny. To a lot of his friends. If Stephen Miller, is obsessed as he has become with his insight immigration agenda, he is for very long time in his life, was capable of having friendships with people who do not necessarily agree with them. He has this ability to be civil you dont see coming across being very competitive in his interviews with journalists. He is able to be laidback and to be able to be civil and there were a lot of people new kind found him to be funny. Because they thought what people thought he was joking. Twenty minutes a these outrageous things. When race was our figment of of our imaginations. They thought incentive joking. And then we joined that Trump Campaign they began to realize that this mission had become inseparable from his identity. In his self perception. He really became fully consumed by his insight and aggression hostility. What i see is true case study and radicalization are happens when someone exposed to extremist ideology at a young age slowly becomes consumed by it. And eventually becomes the most powerful advisor in the white house. Jonathan is a fascinating point indefinitely it is sort fallen out of the popular imagination. Will miller is concerned where we seek. But there is a Big Personality there. From one of his friends, quote just quoting from your procure, millers friend from a believe school says to you, but they are saying about him go about miller is directionally accurate. I would just say that i think stephen in reality is probably two thirds of what you see of him in the media. Then whatever scale youre thinking, in reality is probably a six or seven if you read him as a temporary how surprised were his friends. You spoke with they became the figure that he did. Obviously by the time you got in touch with him, is very much in the public time. They describe feeling to you sort of shocked praye. This shocked them are obsessive. The guy give you the schools,. Self reflective about women to him to be friends with miller. So did seem like there were some soul searching among his friends. Speech of he told me he was very concerned about Stephen Miller at one point. When he was watching him start to get really a lot of National Attention on the Truck Campaign and in the white house as well. It would watches friends a national tv on cnn and things like that. Battling and he started to get concerned. What would happen if longterm but this could mean longterm for Stephen Millers career. At one point his friend, called some of it says are you sure this is something that you want to be doing. Are you sure this is right. In Stephen Miller said yes he was sure he wasnt worried. He began his friends, nor surprised they came into a position of power because they know how disciplined and hardworking he has been in very ambitious. In high school he was appearing on talk radio programs. And being on National Television while he was in college. So they were surprised, his friends who knew him well were not very surprised by his rise to power. There were some of them who expressed to me they were concerned but this would mean for him longterm because it was coming off as so such a villain. An amenity entered media. Jonathan thats very interesting. Lets talk about the question of geography to begin with. The early chapters in your book, were smartly dealing with california. Mostly in the 90s but some in the late 80s. Their work californias estate with a staging ground for some of the ugliest and most anti immigration politics. I wonder how much that shape the miller the well know. So much of his childhood is defined as being this contrarian conservative in a community of liberals. But of course there plenty of conservatives nationwide. But it seemed to me the california basically where he grew up in california, santa monica had a different kind of flavor. Repeat who he is now if he hadnt grown up in california. Tell us about that. Speech of from my reporting of this book is clear the california played a sinful role both in the brand of conservativism that he has. Very reactionary combative conservative ideology that incorporates the language of the left into it. Incorporating the language that liberals normally use. And using it against them. This notion of oppressive elites. Being used to describe the Democratic Party which is normally used to describe republicans. So the reactionary component where he uses a lot of the tools of the left and also is very competitive in a way that reflects having grown up as a person who ideology was an minority being in the city in which he grew up in high school in which he grew up. But the other aspect is this is kind of what drew me to the story of someone who grew up in Southern California at the same time as Stephen Miller just a couple of hours of where he lived. I remember that it was this unprecedented antiimmigrant hostility statewide in california. And i remember there were attacks on affirmative action and attacks on bilingual education. There were attacks on social services for children of undocumented migrants. There is really this wind is spread statewide scapegoating that happened in that era. Californias beginning to, both democrats and republicans begin to blame on the problems, the state fiscal problems, the crime problems on immigrants. Its truly a microcosm there was a microcosm for what we are saying nationally today as far as the white fear backlash on the resurgence of the white supremacist ideologies. California, Christine Miller Brooklyn White people became the minority for the first time in the state. And were heading into that nationally. As i believe kind of nationally going through the same growing pains that california underwent for it is Stephen Miller couple growing up he was listening to this. I believe he was internalizing a lot of it. Race wrist rhetoric. Even me, as the daughter of a mexican immigrant. Puerto weekend mother, a much internalizing these same associated with being mexican. Mom used to say, your american not mexican. Not puerto weekend coming american. So i felt that i could bring my perspective as somebody who could relate to someone who was internalizing these fears. But its really his desire to be seen with all of the privileges to guarantee to the book. An approach it with an open mind. They want to come into it vilifying him. I came into thinking that maybe he had been understood. And really trying to understand him. Just by the environment which he groped, his central role in my book. And turning that into a character. He was listening to Rush Limbaugh who is now is a huge talk radio host. At the time, was less wellknown. But he was broadcasting and out of the state. Against multiculturalism and. Much painted white men as a principal aggrieved party in american saying anyone else who complains have lacked Self Reliance but te white men are allowed it to complain about anything. Stephen miller was listening to this and really he talks about reading Rush Limbaughs books inviting him to be among the most formative in his life. And even though hes a descendent of jewish refugees. His associates with white men and white tennis. Jonathan on ask about this. Real revelation to me reading your book. His father seem to be have a major factor for stephen and his childhood to begin to shift the sense of identification and comes from a family of jewish refugees to identify with this white minority under siege. Tell us about his father. He mustve, he began telling of a moderate democrat who at the time, for personal reasons. Conflict of person. Series of lawsuits, with partners and family and that since of equipment, while very personal, ended up maybe for stephen, being that escape wagon to a broader sense of rage and anger. Tell us about his father. Speech of soap is data, this is when his father start to rail against the ridiculous liberal elites. Missing him start to express conservative viewpoints what is Real Estate Company is falling apart reading getting sued by his fought brother and former law firm. And unsuccessfully and having all of these bankruptcies that he was dealing with and being forced to move from a very affluent part of santa monica to slightly smaller positive for diverse area. And we see the shift is going, this and you start to see the shift and Stephen Miller himself. And going around and one thing is he had to go to Santa Monica High School which is very diverse Public High School where his younger brother would later attend mostly white private high school. Since Stephen Miller finds himself displaced and feeling angry feeling like he has lost his place in line. This is when you see him breaking up with his mexican friends and telling him that he cannot be friends with someone with the latino heritage. When you see him going around school telling his mexican classmates to go back to their countries and going to School Board Meetings to really gets measures to improve racial equity. Really expressing a lot of passion about these issues that you dont normally see a teenager getting that riled up about. Jonathan is positive, i was shocked by this parallel to the current president. And obviously millers current spot. His father interned real estate of all things. He was an attorney. And that also, it was hard kind of thing to the present moment. Speech of his fathers describe me as being very tough like rated very combative, Court Documents, described him as a masterpiece of evasion. And manipulation. A lot of language to qc describe trump his business dealings. And from the people that i spoke with, they believe the people who know Stephen Miller believes step are the reason again he gets him emotionally, psychologically and spiritually because he grew up in similar family to donald trump. Not with just what we talked about the losses in the bankruptcies with his dad but you know, Stephen Miller for general uncle god permanently separated from his family the no contact order. In a settlement agreement. And deprived of most of the family inheritance. So very much like what we see mary trumps, Donald Trumps niece. A lot of very striking parallels join the family to help explain Donald Trumps attraction to Stephen Miller and part of the way these men can mutually understand each other. In the drive. Jonathan i want to get people for watching and listening in a little flavor about some of this mightve sounded like at home for young Stephen Miller listening to his father. This is from an interview that you did for stephens uncle. His mothers brother. Some people will know in the figure is written publicly about his frustration with the term his nephew is taken. And heres david, his uncle describing stephens father. He says that stephens father was a traditional economical republican new over the years became more and more bitter overregulation, when he felt was the intrusion into his personal business affairs. In what he calls ridiculous liberal elites on the west coast around california. He was convinced that the american universities and colleges were dominated by the extreme leftwing political view of the world. You read a passage like that in your book and that could easily be a description seems to me as stephen. You yourself taken by some of these parallels. Did you know about some of this going in. As someone who is reported 11 Stephen Miller, have to say that this was really a total revelation to me. So i would love to know a little bit more about how this came interview for you. Jean Stephen Miller kind of had this meant that he perpetuates the menu that he comes from a democratic family and the temps turn them into conservatives. From the Court Documents that i founded, the relatives, it became clear that he did not invent this ideology his family. A large party came from his relationship with his father. And just reading or hearing you read about that remind me of how similar Stephen Millers fathers, its hard to the comments of David Horowitz and jerry eventually, meets Stephen Miller during the time in his life and really indoctrinate him in the idea that schools are thg indoctrinations machines and tr contributing to the destruction of america because the Democratic Party is selling itself with muslims and other people of color who are according to horowitz posted exit x potential threat to america. In this fantasy that it has saved the country from some kind of apocalypse that David Horowitz perpetuates. He nurtures a young conservative like Stephen Miller through his school for political warfare. And trains and to attack with the language of civil rights. And to launder this idea through the language of heritage and economics in the language of National Security. And that white men created everything that we hold dear in america is from a quality to freedom which in order to play a central role to people of color played in history and obviously historical but appeals to Stephen Miller at the young age. I just ended up taking over his life. Jonathan absolutely. A lot of questions for you. Im also tempted to best one final push about millers childhood. So before we dive in sort of headlong into the horowitz stuff. Which is obviously so importance. Makes a lot of sense to me to connect up with the way the his fathers effect was. This actually struck me. Someone once told me, someone who works with miller once told me in response to a question i had about what animated millers racism towards immigrants. How that could be explained. A person said to me, that miller and this was a direct quote. That he sees democrats in particular refugees and Asylum Seekers is radical. That was the quote this person gave me. I thought about it bit rea