California Gov. Gavin Newsom tried to keep things measured when the topic of Stephen Miller’s wife came up — even going out of his way to avoid insulting her during a blunt discussion about Stephen Miller and the cruelty of Donald Trump administration’s immigration agenda. But the restraint didn’t last long.
That’s because Katie Miller jumped in anyway, firing off a dig of her own. Moments later, Newsom shut the whole exchange down with a reply so sharp it stopped the conversation cold.
During an interview with political commentator Jack Cocchiarella on Tuesday, Dec. 9, in a hotel room directly across from the White House and its demolished East Wing, Newsom pulled off the kid gloves when Cocchiarella asked him about Trump’s White House deputy chief of staff.
“He’s about cruelty and chaos. I think there’s a cruelty to him. I really do,” Newsom responded honestly.
“Quite literally people are disappearing. The screams, you can’t unhear what you hear and see in these videos of moms that are losing family members. Those screams are real,” Newsom explained, continuing to talk about some of the people who have been deported and the violence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“That cruelty is I feel that man, and I’m telling you, a 15-year-old boy, disabled boy, in Los Angeles, waiting for his sister to walk across the street from school and border patrol put a gun to the head of that young child. That’s Stephen Miller,” the governor said, shaking his head.
During his campaign for re-election, Trump promised to go after immigrants who commit violence and those with criminal records. But the majority of the nearly 600,000 deported so far reportedly have no criminal backgrounds and were law-abiding workers.
“I have nothing good to say about him, period,” Newsom continued about Miller.
A social media frenzy followed. “He’s a sadist,” X user Rebecca Roberts declared about Miller above an AI overview of what a sadist is.
And this post from user Terry Glomski, “Little stevie is a racist. The I was only following orders won’t work. Justice will find him.”
And then there’s Miller’s wife, Katie Miller. Cocchiarella first tried to draw Newsom into commenting on her podcast, but he sidestepped the setup. “I’m going to withhold that and focus my energy on Stephen out of respect for the family… unimpressed,” Newsom said, making it clear he had no interest in widening the target.
But Cocchiarella pressed on. “Do you think we need to have respect for someone who’s going out there and spewing the same bile as Stephen Miller?”
Newsom stayed disciplined, “I still have a lot more energy that I need to put behind my strong opinions of Stephen Miller.”
But that restraint didn’t last long — because Katie Miller jumped into the conversation herself.
Unable to resist taking a swipe at Newsom, she fired off a post on X calling California “a hellhole,” aiming directly at the governor in language lifted straight from MAGA talking points.
But his response was epic and directly to the point.
“Our country is currently in hell because of your creepy husband,” Newsom fired back.
And the social media frenzy started again. “Gavin Newsom is not playing around”, Threads user Harry Sisson posted with three fire emojis.
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“Miller makes me cringe even before he opens his mouth. Katie seems to be a bit of an attention seeker,” another proclaimed. “He ain’t lying,” another person wrote.
During Trump’s first term, Miller, who served as Trump’s senior adviser and speechwriter, was the mastermind behind the “zero tolerance” immigration policy. The policy forced the separation of families at the border, with thousands of migrant children separated from their parents. At one point, the administration even lost track of where some of the children were held.
He is also an apparent white nationalist, as emails showed Miller routinely shared white nationalist talking points and publications, according to CommonCause.org.
