White House adviser Stephen Miller calls whistleblower complaint on Trump's Ukraine scandal a 'little Nancy Drew novel'
Nothing perhaps has polarized American politics more than the recent Ukraine-whistleblowing episode. From the government to party politics to society, everything is either pro or anti-Donald Trump at the moment.
The whistleblowing scandal emerged after a report that the US president put pressure on his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky during a telephonic talk on July 25 to investigate his domestic rival Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential elections in order to derail his mission.
While the Democrats launched a formal impeachment inquiry against Trump alleging that he misused his power, Trump doesn't have a dearth of friends to come to his aid at this hour.
His senior adviser Stephen Miller, one of the few survivors in his administration and one among those defending the president hard, ridiculed the Ukraine saga to a "little Nancy Drew novel" during an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News on Sunday, September 29.
Trump is the actual whistleblower, says Miller
Miller, who is serving in advisory positions to Trump along with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, even went on to say that if anybody deserves praise for doing the duty of a whistleblower, it is the president himself.
He credited Trump for bringing the focus on the alleged corruption of Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine. The Bidens came under Trump's attack in connection with Hunter occupying a plum post in a Ukrainian gas company.
This was while his father was still serving as the vice president in the Barack Obama administration. While it was alleged that the arrangement was a conflict of interest, the then administration dismissed it saying Hunter is a private citizen.
The Biden link with Ukraine also had other angles. The Obama administration had pushed for the ouster of Ukraine’s prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin over corruption concerns and Biden even threatened to hold back a loan worth a billion if Shokin was not fired.
Trump later accused Biden of moving money out of countries like Ukraine and China. Another factor that added to the controversy is that while Joe reportedly denied that he had a talk with Hunter over the latter's foreign business dealings, the latter had conceded that they had.
Meanwhile, as Trump’s conversation with Zelensky came under the opponents' scanner and a formal impeachment inquiry was launched, the administration felt the pressure to cooperate.
Besides releasing the transcript of Trump’s conversation with Zelensky, the whistleblower complaint was also revealed before the Congress. It was later reported that the whistleblower is a male CIA agent.
Whistleblower had no direct knowledge about Trump-Zelensky talks
The whistleblower had no direct knowledge about the conversation between the two presidents, according to the complaint. Meanwhile, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said he wanted to testify before the Congress.
Miller though is not ready to call the person a whistleblower. He said the individual doesn't deserve to be called a whistleblower: "A partisan hit job does not make you a whistleblower just because you do it through the Whistleblower Protection Act."
Last week, acting National Intelligence Director Joseph Maguire testified before the Congress over the whistleblowing complaint after it was delayed for many weeks on grounds of "executive privilege". Maguire believed that the whistleblower in question acted "by the book" and it was done in "good faith".
Taking a dig at the whistleblowing complaint, Miller said: "If you read the seven-page little Nancy Drew novel that the whistleblower put together, it drips with condescension, righteous indignation, and contempt for the president. It's also ludicrous on its face."
Nancy Drew is a fictional girl sleuth popular in children's literature in America.
'This is a deep state operative, not whistleblowing'
"I've worked in the federal government now for nearly three years now, I know what the deep state looks like. I know the difference between a whistleblower and a deep state operative. This is a deep state operative, pure and simple," he said.
The whistleblower's testimony will throw more light on the matter and the Democrats are eagerly waiting to see that happen. It will reveal from whom the whistleblower gathered the information.
He had reportedly learned the matter from officials with direct knowledge of the presidential conversation. It would also be interesting to see if he has any additional input over the follow-up conversations between Trump and Zelensky.
Miller though didn’t look too convincing during his talks with Wallace on Fox News Sunday while speaking on the Trump-Ukraine episode.
After the president's senior adviser repeatedly refused to answer why Trump thought it was appropriate to use his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to push for the probe against Biden, Wallace even called it as an "exercise in obfuscation".