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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has responded after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mocked his height.
Speaking on Fox News' The Ingraham Angle, Miller said the New York Democrat, known as AOC, was "a train wreck" after she claimed in an Instagram video that the Trump administration figure was 4'11.
Newsweek reached out to AOC and Miller by email to comment on this story outside of normal business hours.
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Why It Matters
AOC has become an increasingly powerful figure in Democratic circles and regularly takes to social media to share her views, which sit on the progressive side of the party. Miller, meanwhile, is one of the most influential figures in the Trump administration and frequently appears on TV to justify the Trump administration's policies.
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The two figures' exchange reflects the extent to which politics in the U.S. is polarized, with figures in each major party using jibes and insults to score political points. It also underscored the power of social media to reach wide audiences and make headlines.
What To Know
Posting on Instagram on Sunday, AOC said of Miller: "He looks like he is angry about the fact that he is 4'10 and he looks like he is so mad that he is 4'10 that he's taken that anger out at any other population possible like, laugh at them laugh at them."
Miller laughed as The Ingraham Angle host Laura Ingraham showed him the clip then said in response: "We knew that her brain didn't work, now we know their eyes don't work so she's a mess, right? What a train wreck, what a train wreck."
He added: "I think the important point is that every time she's on TV, Republican approval ratings go up, Democrat approval ratings go down. That lady is a walking nightmare."
Ingraham then replied: "I've known you for 20 years, you're about 5'10, 11."
"5'10," Miller confirmed with a laugh.
In response to the interview, AOC posted on X: "I cannot believe they aired this and made him listen to it live. I am crying."
What People Are Saying
Mark Shanahan, who teaches American politics at the University of Surrey in the U.K. told Newsweek: "The United States has a history of powerful persuasive oratory; sharp, reasoned, evidence-based argument delivered with passion. From Lincoln to JFK via Susan B Anthony and Sojourner Truth. From Frederick Douglass to MLK via William Jennings Bryan and John Calhoun the nation has listened to great voices who inspired. But we've lost that nuance in Trump's supposed Golden Age. Today's politics is reduced to binaries with each side angrily screaming into their echo chambers. Respect is built on rationality, integrity and humility. It won't serve AOC well I the long term if all she can offer is cheap, personal wisecracks."
In another part of her video, not aired to Miller, AOC said: “One of the most powerful cultural things you can do to a political movement that’s predicated on the puffery of insecure masculinity, that’s what this is about,. One of the best ways you can dismantle a movement of insecure men is by making fun of them, by having secure men who aren’t afraid of successful people around them who are also participating in that as well.”
What Happens Next
Whether Miller and AOC continue their war of words remains to be seen. Meanwhile, AOC is rumored to be mulling a presidential bid in 2028, though she is yet to formally announce her candidacy.
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