Thursday on CNN’s “Situation Room,” senior adviser to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump Stephen Miller offered a robust defense to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s recent attacks on Trump University and Trump’s foreign policy experience.
Miller argued it is the Clintons who have participated in a for-profit education scam, saying,”The only scam in education that I am aware of is the scam of Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton at Laureate University, where Bill Clinton was paid millions of dollars—where Secretary Clinton was funneling money to this university.”
Partial transcript as follows:
WOLF BLITZER: Let’s get more from senior adviser to Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Thanks for joining us.
STEPHEN MILLER: Great to be here.
BLITZER: Were you surprised by the blistering attack from Hillary Clinton as far as Donald Trump is concerned, she says he can take the U.S. down a truly dangerous path and called him temperamentally unfit to be president of the United States. what was your reaction?
MILLER: Well, not surprised, no, because like everything Hillary Clinton does, it was carefully core i don’t see graphed and scripted in advance. Hillary Clinton’s decision to try to make the election a referendum on foreign policy is probably the worst decision she’s made since her reckless invasion of Libya. And I will tell you why. Let’s do a before and after real quick. In 2009 when Hillary Clinton came in to secretary of state Iran was being choked by sanctions, Libya wasn’t pursuing chemical weapons, and was in a state of cooperation compared to where they are now. You had Syria was not —
BLITZER: Let me interrupt for a moment.
MILLER: And Iraq, Iraq was stabilizing.
BLITZER: I believe, hold on, Stephen. the decision to move against Libya, Muammar Gaddafi at the time was the president of the United States working with allies in Europe. She was the secretary of state.
MILLER: And there was an internal debate. I am glad you brought this up. there was internal debate within the administration with some that said no, we shouldn’t invade, some said we should. Hillary Clinton was the driving edge for the invasion while Robert Gates and others were skeptical. Look four years later, four years of Clinton’s foreign policy, what do you have. Iran closer than ever to nuclear weapon, Libya in chaos and disarray, controlled by ISIS. Syria, a failed state, now you see the rise of ISIS and 200,000 dead and 4 million refugees, Iran closer than ever to nuclear weapon, more belligerent and hostile North Korea, you see chaos, death, destruction everywhere you look. That’s Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy signature. A trail of blood and death in her wake.
BLITZER: You welcome the debate on national security. She spoke about her experience as first lady, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and said Donald Trump’s only qualification to dealing with national security foreign policy was that he operated a Miss Universe Pageant around the world, including in Russia. When you heard her say that, is she wrong? Does he have any other specific international national security experience?
MILLER: The most important qualifying factor when it comes to our nation’s foreign policy is philosophy. Donald Trump’s philosophy is America first. That means yes, NATO will have to pay its fair share. That means yes, we’re going to stop nation building in the Middle East and start focusing on defeating terrorism. Hillary Clinton represents an internationalist America last foreign policy that seeks to nation build and spread democracy with American blood and dollars that’s proven to be a catastrophic failure. Look at the Middle East today. Hillary Clinton is arguably the worst secretary of state in American history and one strains to find an example in the history of the world of a secretary of state who has done worse in her period of time.
BLITZER: Let’s get specific. Ahead of Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy speech today Donald Trump tweeted, and I am quoting, ‘Crooked Hillary Clinton who I would love to call lying Hillary is getting ready to totally misrepresent my foreign policy positions.’ Where did she misrepresent his positions?
MILLER: I mean a great example would be misrepresenting his position on the arming of our foreign allies. Donald Trump has clearly said that it is his absolute preference and goal to not have our foreign allies have to arm but he is strengthening the negotiation position of the United States by ceasing to cow tow to the Washington consensus. If you tell allies, no matter what you do, we will keep paying the lion’s share, guess what, no one will chip in more. He is strengthening our position. It is time to do that. That’s a great example where Hillary Clinton got it wrong.
BLITZER: Here’s what she said today. I’ll play a little clip.
HILLARY CLINTON (CLIP): It is no small thing when he suggests America should withdraw military support for Japan, encourage them to get nuclear weapons, and he said this about a war between Japan and North Korea. I quote,’If they do, they do. good luck. enjoy yourself, folks.’
BLITZER: We checked to see if he actually did say that and he did back in April in Wisconsin. I will play the clip for you.
DONALD TRUMP (CLIP): You know what, it will be a terrible thing, terrible. good luck, folks, enjoy yourself.
BLITZER: What do you make of that?
MILLER: I make of it.
BLITZER: Sounds like he said Japan and North Korea want to get into a fight, go ahead and fight.
MILLER: I think he said it would be a terrible thing. We have to draw back here and say the United States created an immense problem worldwide of free loaders. The problem of burden sharing is a serious one. The whole world is less safe because everybody understands the United States will always pick up the slack. You have to send a message to our allies that they have to begin to pay their fair share. Because if Asia doesn’t begin to pay its fair share and Europe doesn’t, when there is a crisis, they won’t be prepared to meet it. Failed Washington consensus Hillary Clinton represents that. And that has been proven disastrous. If you look at our position in the world today, It has never been weaker. We have never been less safe. And I will say one more thing. You mention a tweet, pointing out the crookedness of Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton as secretary of state allowed her husband, or was involved in her husband’s process of him giving major speeches to foreign governments, funneling millions of dollars into the Clinton bank account that had business before the state department. That’s corruption on a scale beyond imagination. The Chinese government funneled money into the Clinton’ bank account.
BLITZER: I think what you are talking about are contributions to Clinton Global Initiative.
MILLER: No, Bill Clinton received money for speeches from the Chinese government that went into the Cinton’ personal bank account.
BLITZER: Let’s double check that. How much he got from the Chinese government or Chinese individuals, what are you saying?
MILLER: He got money, if you look at the book “Clinton Cash,: it documents how Chinese government entities paid Bill Clinton to deliver speeches while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.
BLITZER: We will double check that.
PART 2
BLITZER: Stephen Miller is still with us, senior adviser to Donald Trump. The New York state attorney general Eric Snyderman says it is straight up fraud. That’s what he’s accusing Donald Trump and Trump University of engaging in, says it was never even a university. Trump is now saying he wants to reopen Trump University. What’s your advice to Donald Trump about this? Do you think it is a good idea to reopen that school?MILLER: Of course it is but the point here is this is a political attack on Donald Trump. The university had an A rating from better business bureau. You can go online, see the peoples’ comments that were enrolled that absolutely loved their experience. If you want to talk about scams, the only scam in education that I am aware of is the scam of Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton at Laureate university where Bill Clinton was paid millions of dollars where Secretary Clinton was funneling money to this university. You want to talk about legal issues we should focus on, how about this. Hillary Clinton says Barack Obama didn’t go far enough with his executive amnesty. In other words, Hillary Clinton is saying she will take the U.S. Constitution and put it through a shredder.
BLITZER: Let me get the answer about Trump University. There’s a guy by the name of Ronald Schnackenberg, involved in sales at Trump University. He says he resigned because Trump University was a fraudulent scheme that preyed on the elderly and uneducated. This is someone that actually worked for trump university.
MILLER: in an election year cycle where the fate of western civilization is in the balance, of course you’re going to have some people who for political reasons bring up any manner of false charges. that’s not surprising. trump university received exemplary ratings, had an exemplary track record, it will be brought back. it is well known legal circles if you settle frivolous lawsuits, you encourage more frivolous lawsuits in the future. we need a president who doesn’t let the country get ripped off. Donald Trump is showing here by not letting his business get ripped off how to lead.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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