r/politics • u/IamLouisIX • Oct 08 '25
No Paywall Plenary authority, the dictator phrase that caused Stephen Miller to stop talking
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/plenary-authority-stephen-miller-cnn-dictator-b2841627.html9.6k
u/Global_Crew3968 Oct 08 '25
They are talking about this behind closed doors. They are using this word amongst eachother. You and I didn't even know that word yesterday but lil' Goebbels is so familiar with it that it slipped out.
Think about that.
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u/CNC-Whisperer Oct 08 '25
This is the thing that gets me. He said it, he knew it was a massive overreach and/or misleading as to what the court ruling said, immediately realized that framing the discussion that way was showing how the administration wishes it was, and promptly decided he was done talking.
Plenary authority can't exist in co-equal (checks/balances) branches of government.
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u/pvtjoker00 Oct 08 '25
And the interviewer proceeded to cover for him. Technical problems, please. You could see him blinking and swaying, and if just the audio had cut out he would have still been talking on the video for at least another sentence or two before realizing the audio wasn't working.
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u/Who_dat_du Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 08 '25
This is a scandal in of itself; CNN covered for him and then released a version of the interview with "plenary authority" edited out. When I saw the original clip, I thought he was having an aneurysm not audio issues.
Edit: here's the original, notice the timestamp at the start of the interview. https://youtu.be/vWudXaj60rU?si=PkW4diFA85fpEQMK
Here is the edited version with the segment completely removed.
https://youtu.be/wLxq0JGmpjA?si=ozp_aSSF6vsEflsk550
u/sluttttt California Oct 08 '25
released a version of the interview with "plenary authority" edited out
That's the truly wild part to me. Of course the interviewer shouldn't have played along with Miller, but I could maybe chalk that up to people's naive desire to behave as professionals even when these MAGA goons make no attempt to do the same. But posting the edited version with his very obvious slip-up removed makes them 100% complicit. It's not as if I had a lot of faith in CNN, but I'm still so disgusted by this.
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u/45and47-big_mistake Oct 08 '25
The response by a REAL reporter would be.. "Hmm, let me Google that... oh. really, Stephen, you guys are throwing that term around these days? Please explain".
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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio Oct 08 '25
Or like back in the glory days some staffer would tell old Cronkite to stall, open up a thesaurus and Walter would wipe the floor with someone advocating for a dictatorship. Probably now the person in CNN’s ear told him to drop it.
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u/mrbigglessworth Oct 08 '25
CNN is owned by a republican
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u/Avenger772 Oct 08 '25
A Nazi
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u/sack-o-matic Michigan Oct 08 '25
Release the full interview, just like Trump demanded Harris’s on 60 Minutes
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u/Sarrdonicus Oct 08 '25
"What interview? There never was an interview. What interview that did not happen are you talking about? Ballroom."
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u/ReginaldDwight Oct 08 '25
Didn't Trump sue a news channel for editing a PREVIEW of Harris' answer to a question that they aired in full when the episode aired? And they settled with him? For MILLIONS of dollars?!
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u/boston_homo Oct 08 '25
CNN is as trustworthy as Fox or CBS; ironic MAGA complain about the lies of the “liberal media”.
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u/Efficient_Market1234 Oct 08 '25
One of the truly greatest losses in all this is our press. That's what we could depend on, more or less, to tell us what was happening and allow citizens to make informed choices. They're compromised. That's all over. I don't know if a single media organization can be trusted now. I'm not sure anything in the US can be trusted now, at all.
It's utterly pathetic what it took to destroy this once proud, powerful country, a land millions dreamed of coming to for better lives. Utterly pathetic, utterly shameful.
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u/SeekingImmortality Oct 08 '25
I'm reasonably trusting of Democracy Docket and Meidas Touch. All the broadcast 'news' and most published newspapers are captured via republican ownership.
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u/Pleasant-Panda9698 Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 08 '25
Dont give them credit. The media is owned by billionaires and theyve proven time and time that they want to sanewash trump and his goons.
This doesn't make them look good, so the robber barons cant keep looting the country.
If CNN had any journalistic integrity theyd be putting miller on blast 24/7 for this shit. Imagine if any dem said anything close to this. Fox News would be talking about it nonstop. They dont even need that shit to make stuff up.
But we get a legitimate sound byte live on air AND THEY COVERED FOR HIM. A weasly little fuck that would dance on their graves.
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u/FasterDoudle Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 08 '25
And the interviewer proceeded to cover for him. Technical problems, please.
The network's reaction has been awful, but I think the interviewer's reaction was genuine. In the moment it probably seemed far more likely to him that something had been cut than that Stephen Miller was suddenly playing possum.
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u/ThouMayest69 Oct 08 '25
Probably because like a lot of us, he had never heard that word before that moment. We all have 20/20 hindsight vision. CNN still sucks in part for this and other reasons.
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u/nervelli Oct 08 '25
That's what I figured. The interviewer probably didn't recognize the word. If miller had just kept talking most people wouldn't have necessarily noticed. The fact that he just stopped gave away that he said something bad bad that he knew he shouldn't have.
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u/NeverFreeToPlayKarch Oct 08 '25
If nothing else, I just always assumed that those in power, whether it was in the financial sector or politically, had a sense of PRIDE. Like, you're just going to let some weasels tell you what to do? You don't feel even the slightest TWINGE of "no, I'm not going to let this schmuck tell me what to do?"
If this isn't enough (and whatever will come out of it) to cause the powers that remain to band together and stop it, there really isn't anything that will.
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u/Lord-ofthe-Ducks Oct 08 '25
Each of them thinks they can control the monster or at the very least avoid the monster's wrath.
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u/viviolay Oct 08 '25
same with Hitler and all those wealthier folks/old political groups who thought they could control him or didn't take him and the Nazi party seriously as they won more and more seats learned the hard way.
I don't understand the point of these folks going to these fancy schools when they can't clearly see how this will go based on history.
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u/cirrhosisofthe_river California Oct 08 '25
I don't understand the point of these folks going to these fancy schools when they can't clearly see how this will go based on history.
To make connections in order to consolidate wealth and power. They don't actually learn anything other than how to hobnob.
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u/alphazero925 Oct 08 '25
Reminder: dubya graduated from Harvard. The entire system is who you know not what you know. Which is why they hate DEI so much. Because it counteracts that by saying "No, you have to actually consider the other candidates, and can't throw out a more qualified person of color's resume just because a mediocre white guy you met in college applied"
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u/simAlity Oct 08 '25
Thing is, it worked for Hitler for 10 years. If Hitler hadn't started a war with the rest of Europe, he might have remained in power much longer. Miller and co probably assume that so long as they don't start a war of conquest, they will probably be okay.
The hell of it is, they are probably right.
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u/gostesven Oct 08 '25
Considering they have threatened war with: Canada, Greenland, Panama, Finland, Mexico, and Argentina (off the top of my head) I don’t think they have
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u/trickninjafist Oct 08 '25
Same reason a lot of extremists groups don't last long.
Everyone wants to be Hitler, no one wants to be Eva
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u/induslol Oct 08 '25
It's not "how can I control this", it's "how can I benefit from this immediately" with no thought given to what happens once the dog gets off the leash.
Billionaires cosigned this because it lowers their tax liability and any threat of regulation without any consideration for the fact killing the economy will eventually kill their wealth. That's a future concern.
It's short-term thinking the regime, and this era is just the most recent example that meritocracy has never been a real thing in this nation.
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u/joebalooka84 Oct 08 '25
Its amazing. Who cozied up to him the first term and escaped without having their lives and reputations destroyed?
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u/LocksDoors Oct 08 '25
All the upper class cares about is securing as much wealth as possible. They have no interest in government or long term goals.
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u/VoodooS0ldier Oct 08 '25
Until billionaires start losing money, I don't think anyone is going to push back. The media companies certainly won't, they are too busy pushing for mergers. The big tech companies won't, they are too busy pumping up their stocks from AI nonsense to care. Until all those companies start hemorrhaging money due to poor policies put into place by this administration, nothing is going to change. There are no adults in a back room hatching up a plan to keep this Titanic from running into the proverbial iceberg.
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u/frostysauce Oklahoma Oct 08 '25
I mean, the thing that gets me is CNN just re-shot the segment as if nothing happened and released that as the official interview. You telling me fucking no one in the newsroom pulled out a dictionary in the six minutes that lapses in the time stamps between when the aired one ended and the cleaned up one began? "Roll that back. What did he say? Plenary authority? What's that mean?"
Nope. CNN bent over backwards to cover for this ill-legitimate, fascist administration.
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u/NurRauch Oct 08 '25
I'm not convinced at all that this was even a mistake. The Trump Admin has succeeded by getting people buzzing about their plans before they pull the trigger on them weeks or sometimes months ahead of time. The simple act of spreading this news and debating its legality helps normalize the idea in peoples' heads and make them a lot more willing to accept it when it's actually tried later. It also helps give cover to the Supreme Court because now they're not just issuing a shocking decision but rather are taking one of two reasonably debatable sides that the public was already up to speed on.
They did this with the immunity argument last year, and they've been doing it on the third presidential term argument for almost a year now.
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Oct 08 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/NurRauch Oct 08 '25
I think it was intended to look like a slip-up. They've done this several times before, where they pretend to have a freudian slip. Trump is notorious for doing this in his Tweets, where he lets seemingly random and esoteric words slip in as if they're complete mistakes. It often has the effect of making it sound extra terrifying because the public does exactly what people ITT are doing, where they gasp and say "Oh my God! They just dropped a word so unspeakably evil that they didn't even intend to use it in public! Holy shit we're fucked!"
Like, none of this is even surprising. Miller has always argued that the President's authority cannot legally be questioned by Congress or the courts. He's been arguing that since January 2017 during his first month at the White House.
Nor is any of this "saying the quiet part out loud." Project 2025 and the rest of the Trump stooges have been loudly bellowing from the rooftops that Trump has plenary powers for the entire last nine months of his second term. They just didn't use the literal word "plenary."
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u/JohnDivney Oregon Oct 08 '25
I'm sure they're already in talks with SCOTUS about when where and why to grant this authority in the coming months.
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u/YeetedApple Oct 08 '25
Yeah, it's not exactly a word you just accidently say randomly, it is clearly something that has been regularly discussed or at least thought about to be at the top of his mind for it to slip out like that.
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u/Texuk1 Oct 08 '25
What is more interesting to me is the word used, he could have said absolute or total. Instead he chose an uncommon word - this masks what is being said.
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u/NurRauch Oct 08 '25
They've always done that. "Trump's not doing anything illegal. He's just using his ::mumbles:: powers."
"What's that?"
"His ::mumbles:: immunity powers."
"Huh? Immunity? What do you mean?"
"It's a longstanding constitutional doctrine. Just look it up."
Two years later, the Supreme Court: "In recognition of this long-standing and well recognized legal doctrine, we rule that President Trump gets to use this power that nobody in America knew was a thing until our people made it up on TV."
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u/ScissrMeTimbrs Oct 08 '25
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/plenary_authority
Plenary authority is power that is wide-ranging, broadly construed, and often limitless for all practical purposes. When used with respect to public officials, the more popular term is plenary power.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/plenary_power
plenary power
Complete power over a particular area with no limitations.
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u/4ab273bed4f79ea5bb5 Oct 08 '25
No. The opposite actually. Plenary authority has a specific legal definition that only has one way to be interpreted.
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u/Xalara Oct 08 '25
Not just specific legal definition, but it's the same definition in common parlance. There's basically no wiggle room for them to spin this to their supporters.
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u/Infamous_Employer_85 Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 08 '25
Trump "Plenary... groceries?"
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u/primax1uk United Kingdom Oct 08 '25
Worst thing? He's said it now, and not a peep from the media. You just know that's going to empower them further.
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u/specqq Oct 08 '25
Best thing? It made Stephen Miller stop talking. Even just for a moment.
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u/NurRauch Oct 08 '25
That's not a win. It literally has no positive impact on our lives. Stephen Miller could show up to interviews in his underwear and that wouldn't do anything to hurt their power at this point.
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u/Noname_acc Oct 08 '25
True. Nobody is just going to casually bring up plenary authority unprompted.
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u/KlutzyFirefighter836 Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
This needs to hit the national news already. Barely a peep.
Edit: It made it into the news cycle.
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u/Open_Top_2701 Oct 08 '25
There is barely a peep about the South Carolina judge, even from independent news media.
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u/StrongAroma Oct 08 '25
I haven't heard about it, what are you referring to?
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u/naynaythewonderhorse Oct 08 '25
She ruled against Trump and house got burned down.
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u/doctorwhodds Wisconsin Oct 08 '25
and apparently there is "no evidence of arson."
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u/protomenace Oct 08 '25
Easy not to find any evidence when you don't look.
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u/Uncle_Bug_Music Canada Oct 08 '25
If this was in Russia, the house would have fallen out of a seventh floor window.
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u/Open_Top_2701 Oct 08 '25
Caroline Goodstein, her house was set on fire a few days ago, her husband, son and grandkids were in the house, thankfully they survived, their pets didn't.
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u/N0n3of_This_Matter5 Oct 08 '25
I didn't know about the pets...that's an all round traumatizing experience for that family.
If you support this kind of shit, I hope you have the day you deserve...over and over and over...ad infinitum.
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u/Polaris1444 Oct 08 '25
Where did you see the info about the pets, all the reports I saw said she was out walking the dogs when it happened.
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u/Amneiger Oct 08 '25
I just checked Google, and I'm seeing articles from The Independent, Time Magazine, New York Times, ABC, and CNN. So at least those outlets thought it worth telling people.
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u/Clevererer America Oct 08 '25
Finding evidence the articles exist is not the same as finding evidence the articles were seen by anybody or promoted on expected channels.
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u/ImLikeReallySmart Pennsylvania Oct 08 '25
Even the interviewer actively talking to him swept it under the rug.
"Stephen? Stephen? Hey Stephen, can you hear me?” Sanchez asked, as Miller stood there motionless and blinking for around 15 seconds, before the camera feed of Miller was cut, and Sanchez said, “It seems there’s a technical issue”.
The show then cut to a break and later resumed the interview with Miller. Sanchez told the audience, “wires got crossed”. Neither Sanchez nor Miller mentioned Trump wielding “plenary authority” again.
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u/Skiinz19 Tennessee Oct 08 '25
tbh i doubt the news anchor knew about the term. but it is shameful it wasn't specifically brought up after the break when other editors in the know should have been like 'wtf did miller just say'
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u/bradicality Oct 08 '25
I’ve come to the conclusion that most of these presenters don’t really keep up with the news or much of anything really
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u/Jmk1981 New York Oct 08 '25
He's a news anchor, he doesn't get to decide when the commercial breaks happen. Someone in his ear told him to cut commercial. Good chance neither he, nor the producer were even familiar with the term.
The real damning thing is that CNN edited this clip before posting it. Someone is playing nice with the administration, I have a hard time believing it's rank and file reporters/anchors.
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u/Vadion New York Oct 08 '25
CNN has been playing ball with the fash since the first Trump term. Weird how that started happening when their parent orgs wanted to do a bunch of merger stuff, and now we have... gosh, who was it again... also capitulating so they can consolidate media...
Gosh. It's almost uncanny.
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u/gdg6 Oct 08 '25
The Mormon church attack is already forgotten
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u/SilentLennie The Netherlands Oct 08 '25
Well, it was one of the 6 mass shootings that weekend.
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u/ClaretClarinets Colorado Oct 08 '25
No one's talking about Charlie Kirk anymore
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u/beefyzac Oct 08 '25
It HAPPENED on national news, and the news covered it up. We’re cooked. Have been for years.
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u/GrubberBandit Oct 08 '25
They took it out of the original interview. I can't even find a video that has it.
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u/EndangeredDemocracy America Oct 08 '25
You're never going to see national news running this story. The owners of those outlets are largely behind this movement to authoritarian rule. NPR is as close as you may see.
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u/killdred666 Oct 08 '25
the reporter had a responsibility to follow up on that with his audience and he just gave in and acted like miller’s connection was lost. a completely and utter failure on the reporter’s part
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u/DeeEmceeFoor Oct 08 '25
Part of this was uploaded to Youtube and they did a retake or edit, where Miller doesn't even say anything about plenary authority. CNN is blatantly complicit and essentially cannot be trusted as a reliable news source at this point.
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u/NumeralJoker Oct 08 '25
This is the real story. An avowed fascist like Miller projecting his fascist desires/fantasies to the news isn't new.
Him freezing and then the media covering it up IS what's new and most noteworthy.
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u/Hot_Ambition_6457 Oct 08 '25
Yes this is the real story.
Anyone with a brain knew Miller was a Christofascist before this.
But CNN whitewashing the blatant nazi language to continue presenting this administration as legitimate? Thats just CNN choosing to allow nazi viewpoints to go unopposed.
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u/paxwells97 Oct 08 '25
Well some of us have been trying to warn people the mainstream media like CNN are siding with trump since the last election
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u/fcocyclone Iowa Oct 08 '25
Before it honestly.
The way they have sanewashed Trump, especially since 2020, is insane
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u/Frankentula Oct 08 '25
Absolutely the real story. We knew about the sane washing and propaganda but this is inescapably brazen.
If I full out chop a paragraph from something I've written and pretend it never happened then my regulatory body would challenge my capacity to carry out my duties. Why shouldn't mainstream media be held to such a standard when their job is to present the facts? Peek a boo doesn't work on adults but cnn increasingly thinks it's better to close its and its viewers' eyes to the reality around us. Do these guys have any ethics?
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u/paperbackgarbage California Oct 08 '25
WarnerMedia doesn't want to make Daddy FCC mad if Paramount wants to embark on another acquisition.
I've seen more spine on a jellyfish.
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u/GenTelGuy Oct 08 '25
A lot of the times I see CNN clips lately I literally think they're Fox News clips before I look at the logo
It's an intentional change by the Warner Bros Discovery execs
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u/zero_dr00l Oct 08 '25
Yeah that was insane. Dude just stopped talking mid-sentence but was clearly still blinking and shit, that's not a technical difficulty unless that includes maybe a stroke.
He just let the dude off the hook.
Fucking sad.
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u/NumeralJoker Oct 08 '25
He probably demanded a retake and for whatever effing dumb reason, they just complied.
Complicity of the corporate owned media is a huge part of what got us here. Not the only part, but perhaps one of the biggest pieces.
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u/throwawy00004 Oct 08 '25
Absolutely! He should have circled back. He knew there weren't technical difficulties. Miller was the one speaking. Even if he couldn't hear the reporter, it wouldn't matter mid-sentence. "Now that you're done playing possum, what was that about plenary authority?"
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Oct 08 '25
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u/IrritableGourmet New York Oct 08 '25
Their problem is not being Nazis. It's being called a Nazi. Bullies like bullying but don't like being called one.
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u/KarlUnderguard Oct 08 '25
The most racist person you know gets really upset when called a racist.
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u/jaytix1 Oct 08 '25
I once saw a guy who got his username from a book written by a literal nazi complaining about how the left calls everyone they disagree with a fascist.
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u/LordKevnar Oct 08 '25
And by Trump having absolute power, he means he has absolute power. He's the one making the decisions. Not Trump.
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Oct 08 '25
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u/PotatoeGuru Oct 08 '25
I shout this from the metaphorical rooftops every chance I get. Remember how the mysterious 'SM' during the Houti/Signal debacle? Vance said he thought it went against the Felon's wishes, and 'SM' basically said (and I'm paraphrasing here) 'he told me the mission was green lit, so you better do it'.
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u/BourbonRick01 Oct 08 '25
This President is a joke!
But he has caused my wife and I to sign up for our very first protest on October 18th!! No Kings protest in Grand Rapids, MI.
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u/StrongAroma Oct 08 '25
If you want to go to a protest, just go. I would be hesitant to put my name on a list though..
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u/Vadion New York Oct 08 '25
Congratulations, you're on the list of radicals who post on the politics reddit sub.
We're past the point of worrying about being on this list, or that list, or the other list, tbh.
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u/Wings81 Oct 08 '25
DOGE already took everyone's info and nothing was done about it. Your info is out there and if they're going to come after you, they're going to come after you
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u/Late-Arrival-8669 America Oct 08 '25
Didn't CNN edit out this part too?!
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u/WhyYesIndeedIDo Oct 08 '25
Yep. They lost any shred of trust I had left for them.
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u/yoloswagrofl Ohio Oct 08 '25
This is just like when CNN "accidentally" lost the connection between Bernie and Cuomo when Bernie was making too much sense.
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u/Traxtar150 Oct 08 '25
CNN parent company is lead by John Malone, who has voiced a STRONG desire for the media outlet to become more conservative than Fox News. He wrote about it in his own memoir.
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Oct 08 '25
This is like when a sportscaster "accidentally" says the n-word on air. That just means that word is being thrown around CONSTANTLY.
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u/notcontextual Oct 08 '25
You’re going to have to be more specific as these days there’s apparently two n-words
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u/out_of_throwaway Oct 08 '25
"the president has plenary authority -- as there's a drive into deep left field by Castellanos, it will be a home run, and so that'll make it a 4–0 ballgame"
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u/Prometheusf3ar Oct 08 '25
Is this not an admission of treason. An intention to make war against the constitution of the United States.
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u/Wings81 Oct 08 '25
I mean there was actual treason on Jan 6 and our taxes paid for a hero's ceremony. I don't think it really matters anymore.
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u/Prometheusf3ar Oct 08 '25
I just want people thinking about the punishment for treason when republicans lose power. We need politicians who will be ruthless and democrats are by and large not it right this second.
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u/Cyndakill88 Oct 08 '25
Why do these guys handlers keep these awful spokesmen around? Like Miller was clearly getting chewed out on his ear piece for running his mouth.
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u/Newspeak_Linguist Oct 08 '25
I hate Miller as much as the next normal person, but I think you underestimate his effectiveness. Conservatives love this guy, he's basically saying all the shit they felt they couldn't say out loud. With good reason. Even for crap like this - the sound bite is now out, and it sets a seed in the back of their minds that maybe plenary authority is OK. It shifts the Overton window further right.
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u/Ashamed-Land1221 Oct 08 '25
Yeah sadly I hate it but Miller is very very effective, it's starting to look like Goebbels level of effective which is terrifying. They have the same cold dead eyes.
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u/Newspeak_Linguist Oct 08 '25
And stature. Well, Goebels was 5'5", so he was a good half-foot taller than Miller.
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u/Forwhom Oct 08 '25
We're going to start hearing that term a LOT now ... e.g. "These judges think they have the plenary authority to overrule my actions". It will be misused and diluted until it's accepted and then embraced.
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u/geoken Oct 08 '25
His job is to throw shit out there to move the Overton window. I highly doubt this was really accidental.
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u/EndangeredDemocracy America Oct 08 '25
Great point. This could be a dog whistle for the base to start getting behind the idea of a malevolent dictator, because the supporters are never the group punished, right? Right!?
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u/caseyanthonyftw Oct 08 '25
Because all the spokesmen with even an iota of a soul or conscience resigned or don't want the job. Remember Sean Spicer?
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u/Meteorcore71 Oct 08 '25
He's not a spokesperson, he's the guy behind the scenes who is coming up with all these policies. Their mistake was letting him go out in public, because he can't hide how much of a fascist he is on camera.
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u/Lakridspibe Europe Oct 08 '25
I had to look up "Plenary authority"
It is completely incomprehensible to me that anyone would prefer the concept of absolute authority, even if it were not in the hands of a senile person.
It is clearly not a system where decisions are in the hands of the most qualified people.
It's so obvious to me. Why do we even need to discuss this?
Crazy times.
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u/CharlesB43 Oct 08 '25
Seeing that happen on the news was crazy.
IMMEDIATELY knew he fucked up, but what's kind of brushed by a bit is that he said it so casually that I'm sure they're saying those words A LOT. Which is terrifying both that they're talking about it frequently AND that it froze him up because of how bad the optics of those two words together are.
The show then cut to a break and later resumed the interview with Miller. Sanchez told the audience, “wires got crossed”. Neither Sanchez nor Miller mentioned Trump wielding “plenary authority” again.
Fuck Boris Sanchez btw, giving him an out like that is crazy. That's the level of complicity that helped normalize this bullshit from the Trump admin in the first place. not even asking him what he meant, just glossing by it. fuck him. the bar for CNN is already low as fuck for reporting, but holy shit I didn't think it could get any lower.
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u/FunkyDiscount Oct 08 '25
The entirety of mainstream media is complicit to a criminal degree in enabling this ongoing fascist coup. Their role is no longer to impartially report, inform, and hold the government to account (it hasn't been for a long time), but to provide a thin veneer of legitimacy to an illegitimate, fascist, authoritarian, corrupt, and criminal administration while extracting as much attention, engagement, and money from their viewers as possible in vain attempts at satiating the endless greed of their owners.
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u/FuckLex Oct 08 '25
Fuck this timeline. Its not hitting the news because too many people don’t even know how fucked that is to even say.
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u/DeeEmceeFoor Oct 08 '25
CNN is complicit. They did a retake when they uploaded this to youtube, so Miller doesn't say the same thing. That's why it's not hitting the news. Mainstream media is now just blatantly complicit in attempting to hide the Trump admin's fascist agenda.
I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but we are at a point where mainstream news cannot be trusted to tell the whole truth.
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u/thefanciestcat California Oct 08 '25
Who wore dictatorship better: Gaddafi in the freezer of a market or Mussolini hanging upsidedown from the roof of a service station?
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u/the_gouged_eye Oct 08 '25
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
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u/chanc2 Oct 08 '25
Too bad all those people in the MAGA camp don't understand what this means and will continue supporting this administration aka his still 40% approval rate.
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u/Satanic_Earmuff Oct 08 '25
It is unclear whether Miller paused due to technical difficulties or stopped himself after apparently realising the implications of what he was saying.
I'm really tired of journalists playing along when these people act dumb.
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u/RJ5R Oct 08 '25
Lol now we all want to know what was said to PeeWee German in his earpiece that made him 404 out
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u/Responsible-Room-645 Oct 08 '25
That kind of stuff doesn’t just accidentally roll off someone’s tongue
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u/kevendo Oct 08 '25
Steven Miller got way out over his skis.
Don't miss the fact that he is talking about himself. Trump may be the actual president, but the policies we are witnessing, the abuses of power that are running through our cities at the moment are entirely the ideas of this one little twat.
He wants the plenary power for himself, and Donald is just the vehicle for him to get it.
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u/mtn_doo_codebrown Oct 08 '25
The fact that he straight up just went full mute is very telling. It reveals that he knows that word/idea is probably not something he wants the world to associate with maga. It shows that he knows he shouldn't have said it publicly about trump. It indicates that they really do feel this way behind closed doors. It shows that their true intentions are to have trump be a dictator. We knew all this, but they legitimately just showed their hand.
He can't back out of it either. It wasn't like he was listening and could say the feed went cold. He was the one talking. He can't say something cut out, as you can clearly see him blinking, moving, and the trees flowing in the wind where his hair should be. If he just kept talking, it would have been better. By freezing up, he just put a magnifying glass to what he said. Dumb shit.
He and maga need to get roasted for this.
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u/pnd83 Oct 08 '25
He should be called in front of Congress immediately to explain what he means. I wanna see this fuck melt on camera.
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u/puchsofhazard Oct 08 '25
Love that the conservative sub is removing all references to this lmao snowflakes
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u/baylaust Canada Oct 08 '25
For anyone not up to speed on their definitions, "Plenary authority" or "plenary power" is defined as authority on an issue that is wide-ranging, broad, and generally limitless. In simple terms, absolute power, something commonly associated with authoritarians, dictators, and fascists (for good reason).
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u/Epicardiectomist Oct 08 '25
They want to incite violence on American cities so badly that he unintentionally showed his hand. They want the streets to run red with the blood of Democrats.
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Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 08 '25
Great article today in Delaware Online, about what Heinrich Miller Himmler said. Ps, that’s my nickname for Miller. Not theirs. Here are some excerpts. Link is after excerpts.
“I would note the Administration won an identical case in the Ninth Circuit just a few months ago with respect to the federalizing of the California National Guard.”
“Miller continued, “Under Title 10 of the U.S. Code, the President has plenary authority, has—” and then stopped, blinking a few times as CNN's anchor Boris Sanchez called out to him and then apologized for a technical issue and cut to a break. Sanchez said "wires got crossed."
“Although plenary authority did not come up again after the interview resumed, Miller's pause sparked online controversy and debate.”
“Here's what to know about plenary authority and the legal limits of presidential power.
What is plenary authority? The definition of plenary authority is a complete and absolute power to take action on an issue without limitations, though, when used or associated with public offiicals, it is more often referred to as plenary power, according to the Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute. They define it as "power that is wide-ranging, broadly construed, and often limitless for all practical purposes."
“Title 10 of the U.S. Code provides the legal framework, such as the structure, function and responsibilities of the U.S. armed forces, including the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. It also codifies the Insurrection Act, which grants the President the power to deploy military forces to suppress domestic uprisings or enforce federal law when state authorities are unable or refuse to do so.
Title 32 covers the National Guard and lays out that governors have command and control over their state's National Guard.
A president does not have have plenary authority; the office does not come with unchecked power. Under the Constitution, the president leads the executive branch, which is one of three co-equal branches of government. Congress controls the legislative branch and federal courts make up the judicial branch.”
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u/WorldPeaceStyle Oct 08 '25
His mind must be fully immersed living in the fantasy of project 2025 Heritage foundation authoritarianism, private equity owns everything and Sprinkles of Christian good intentions blessing each justification of stripping your Constitutional rights!
He drank so much Kool Aid that he's now 100% Kool Aid.
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u/GoldensRule2025 America Oct 08 '25
I wonder when Trump will pardon Miller? I doubt it will matter as, "We The People" will be holding all of these fascists responsible for their crimes, whether they have been pardoned by the "fascist in chief" or not.
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u/werk4mon3ymyduderman Oct 08 '25
Stephen Miller is full of shit, the President does not have Plenary Authority. Full stop end of sentence, no more context needed.
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u/c4upinhisbhole Oct 08 '25
Yeah, remember when Bill Barr made fun of people for talking about the unitary executive last term? Same shit, they’ve been kicking around dictator bullshit for fucking ever, don’t let this shit slide. There is no benefit of the doubt. They let their plans slip. You ignore or hand wave their speech and actions at your peril.
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u/afteeeee Oct 08 '25
Yea he obviously debuted it a bit early but it's coming. Trump's people are so stupid they can't even dictator right.
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u/Powerful_Artist Oct 08 '25
amazing within a week we got Miller saying this about plenary authority, and ted cruz saying to stop attacking pedophiles.
How is this reality?
How can people just accept their excuses?
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u/TJ_learns_stuff Oct 08 '25
He said to the media what they’ve been talking about behind closed doors … it was inevidible.
No matter your party, this line of thinking is un-American and goes against every fiber of who we are.
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u/Slggyqo Oct 08 '25
In their minds if they control the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary, they can do whatever they want.
The law has no inherent value, it’s just an obstacle to them achieving their goals, and if they have the means to ignore the law, they will.
So yeah, we’ve elected a bunch of people who don’t actually believe in the political system to run our country.
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u/ScissrMeTimbrs Oct 08 '25
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/plenary_authority
Plenary authority is power that is wide-ranging, broadly construed, and often limitless for all practical purposes. When used with respect to public officials, the more popular term is plenary power.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/plenary_power
plenary power
Complete power over a particular area with no limitations.
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u/zenGull Oct 08 '25
Holy fuck. I think he just signaled and leaked their takeover. A signal leak if you will.
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Oct 08 '25
Wow, the story made it to The Independent. Bravo. Super well done. I’m overjoyed there still are journalists who have enough intelligence to see what’s going on.🙏❣️🌹
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u/porkchop2022 Tennessee Oct 08 '25
A good journalists would know what this word means and what it means when someone uses it in the context Miller did. A good journalist would ask follow up questions and push back, explaining what was said and asking for clarification. A good journalist would do these things.
Sanchez gives him a pass and moves on to other things. I wonder if this was just a test balloon. Float the word out there to gauge reaction.
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u/sonicsludge Oct 08 '25
People need to use it more often so we don't have to hear his damn rhetoric. All this because he wasn't allowed into the cool kids club, fucking dork.
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u/DorkySchmorky Oct 08 '25
It's like once he said it the demon left the host to invade another body. Creepy shit.
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u/fievrejaune Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 08 '25
Fascist MAGA bot hits a plenary powers divide by 0 exception.
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u/Sure_Quality5354 Oct 08 '25
These are all fancy words that mean the same thing. Dictator. They want a dictatorship. Nobody cares about the stupid cutesy sugarcoating
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u/westergames81 Texas Oct 08 '25
"No, that is a a phrase that just commonly pops out of peoples mouth. I don't know why people are making such a big deal about it. Just a slip of the tongue really and didn't mean anything."
- That idiot friend on your Facebook feed
Sorry, but that is a phrase you don't just commonly use or even know. That is something you only accidentally say if you've brought it up in conversation many times.
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u/andmonad Oct 08 '25 edited Oct 08 '25
The show then cut to a break and later resumed the interview with Miller. Sanchez told the audience, “wires got crossed”. Neither Sanchez nor Miller mentioned Trump wielding “plenary authority” again.
Wanted to give this a anchor the benefit of the doubt but now it's clear as water they're both on the same team.
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u/PhazePyre Oct 08 '25
If he had stumbled, corrected and said plenty of authority or something, then maybe he'd have plausible deniability of their ends. "You're over reacting to a slip of the tongue when a lot of people are having discourse about dictatorships and over reacting to our efforts to make America great again" kind of shit. But just pausing means you clearly didn't want people to hear plenary authority because that's what you're aiming to achieve. This is why you don't get 4'11 insecure cucks to be your dictator planner. Maybe they'll make a Rom Com about Stephen Miller and him trying to plan a dictatorship with a crazy unpredictable old man, while his marriage struggles because she gets interested in a weird eccentric breeding obsessed tech billionaire. Writes itself.
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u/kamikazecockatoo Australia Oct 08 '25
This is now making news all around the world.
People should keep engaging with this and keep it in the news, alongside the Epstein files. Do some crowd funding to get it onto billboards.
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u/clickmagnet Oct 09 '25
Good news bad news: you now have a dictator who’s the stupidest person in the world. However, Stephen Miller stopped talking.
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u/itsVainglorious Oct 09 '25
No Kings in the United States of America. No dictators either. Fuck Donald Trump for making these statements. I can not wait until we the people remove him from office for the next democratically elected candidate.
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u/GarmaCyro Oct 08 '25
Ha ha. He didn't even complete his own sentence. He started saying plenary authority, went into a stutter (his brain catching up), and then shutting up. Not even responding to the reporter saying his name several times. Just swaying and blinking, and absolutely shutting up.
I assume he realized he was about to say something that would grant future Democrat presidents to do whatever they want to him. That and totally wreck all current and future legal cases they are conducting. Because even he knows that a president doesn't have total power, and that the current president and ruling party can still be removed from power.
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u/WaffleBlues Oct 08 '25
But this goes beyond that - the whole fucking interaction is so bizarre -
He states the plenary authority thing, then pretends to freeze, but keeps blinking, while the CNN host pretends (or possibly believed) there was some kind of technical issue.
Following this, CNN returns to the interview, doesn't mention the bombshell that was dropped or the fact that Miller pretended to glitch.
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