Doing his best imitation of a personal injury lawyer in a late-night TV ad, Stephen Miller intones, “If you or a loved one were denied a job, raise, promotion or professional opportunity as a result of diversity quotas, equity mandates, affirmative action or other racial preferences, we want to hear from you.”
Yes, it’s laughable, or at least it should be. But Miller’s likely intent is no joke. The U.S. Supreme Court is already poised to block the ability of colleges to consider race in admissions. I don’t think it was an accident that Miller left out “college admission” in his plea for victims.
And in case you’re not all in on President Biden’s re-election, this Washington Post article, which also details the successes Miller’s America First Legal group has had, should do it:
The group’s mission was fueled by more than $6.3 million in donations last year, recent tax filings show, including about $1.3 million from the Conservative Partnership Institute, whose leadership includes key figures in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. Steve Wynn, the casino magnate who resigned as finance chair of the Republican National Committee in 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, is an AFL donor, according to two people familiar with the group’s work who were not authorized to speak publicly about its fundraising. Wynn, who has denied the allegations, declined to comment.
AFL is part of a constellation of groups led by Trump allies that represent an administration-in-waiting upon his potential return to the White House. AFL’s all-White, all-male board includes loyalists who recently trekked to Mar-a-Lago for Trump’s 2024 campaign announcement, including Miller, who helped write the speech, former Office of Management and Budget head Russell Vought and former acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker. Miller, who is expected to work for the 2024 campaign, received $110,762 from AFL last year, about $134,000 from his Save America political committee since Trump left office, and is slated to be paid about $80,000 by the General Services Administration as part of Trump’s post-presidency funds, government documents show.
Does the name “Conservative Partnership Institute” ring a bell? I’ll bet it will to Clarence Thomas, though probably not enough to get him to recuse. The great Jane Mayer wrote last year that in 2020, CPI’s senior director of policy spoke of meeting weekly with Ginni Thomas’ Groundswell group. I doubt that’s the only connection to the Thomases.
