Geraldo Rivera Says He’d Punch Trump Aide Stephen Miller in the Face
Former Fox News host Geraldo Rivera said he would throw a punch at Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s face over his “draconian“ anti-immigrant views.
“You know, I’m an old man now, I’ve been a boxer all my life,“ Rivera, 81, told MSNBC‘s The Beat in an interview Wednesday.
”I’ve given it up because of my frailty, but I would come back to punch Stephen Miller in the nose because he is the most hideous, in terms of his policy.”
Miller—who has promoted white nationalist literature and was designated an extremist by the civil rights non-profit Southern Poverty Law Center—was the architect of President-elect Donald Trump’s most extreme border policies during his first term. As a senior adviser he helped implement a travel ban that targeted Muslims and a policy to separate migrant children from their parents.
After winning the presidential election in November, Trump said he plans to bring Miller back to White House for round two, this time as homeland security adviser and deputy chief of staff for policy.
Rivera was reacting to news that the Trump transition team is considering a high-profile raid targeting undocumented migrants in Washington, D.C. in the early days of his second term, a policy that would likely see Miller play a significant role.
A former longtime friend of Trump, Rivera quit Fox News in 2023 after a 23-year relationship with the network.
During that time, he grew increasingly critical of the president-elect for his stark rhetorical attacks on immigrants that began as soon as he entered politics, ultimately severing their relationship.
In 2016, Rivera called Trump’s immigration views “inhumane” and, in 2023, predicted that a second Trump term would see “brutality” meted out against migrants. At the same time, he described Miller as “Dr. Evil.”
“I don’t know the guy personally. But he is absolutely draconian, he’s the definition of it,” Rivera said of Trump’s lieutenant during his MSNBC appearance Wednesday.
He added that he believes Miller “doesn’t want to resolve” the border issue and instead “wants to scapegoat certain people that will, in his mind, will resound favorably to President Trump.”
The Beat host Ari Melber chimed in to note that the show’s team “oppose all types of violence,” while noting Rivera may have been deploying the rhetoric of brutality in the same manner Trump often does.
Rivera laughed.
