Stephen Miller's Freeze During a CNN Interview Has Some People Suspicious

It's not exactly uncommon for White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller to give interviews. He's one of the chief spokespeople for the administration, and Miller is not exactly shy about his view of President Trump's expansive powers in office. A recent interview on CNN has led to an abundance of conspiracy theories, though, after he seemed to stop in the middle of a sentence.

The moment came shortly after Miller said that the president had "plenary authority," which essentially means the power to do whatever he wants. The second he froze, though, conspiracy theories started pouring in as to why. Here's what we know.

Miller stopped in the middle of his sentence and began just blinking at the camera. Initially, CNN attributed the moment to a technical difficulty, although other people think that Miller misspoke when he said that Trump's powers were plenary, and that someone was in his ear telling him to be quiet.

“Clearly someone hit the panic button in his earpiece,” someone wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).

It does seem noteworthy that, after CNN cut to commercial and the interview resumed, Miller no longer invoked plenary authority as part of his answer. “The president has the authority anytime he believes federal resources are insufficient to federalize the National Guard to carry out a mission necessary for public safety," he said, and continued arguing with host Boris Sanchez about whether conditions in Portland might justiy the deployment of the National Guard.

The White House has not offered any comment on the incident, but the internet has become convinced that Miller either froze because he realized he had mistakenly suggested in public that the president has unlimited authority.

"#StephenMiller pretended to freeze on live teevee after saying the quiet part out loud. The video feed clearly still works -- he just stopped talking after saying the president has "plenary" power, i.e., full and unlimited power," one person wrote.

"Stephen Miller definitely didn’t freeze up it was intentional and wait to you hear why it’s because he slipped up about what they’re planning!" another person added.

While plenty of people are convinced that Miller froze up because he misspoke, suggesting that the president has unlimited authority, it's unclear why he would be so concerned about using that word, given the way the administration has been operating for months.

So far in Trump's second term, he has often acted as if he has sole authority, including by ignoring federal court rulings, and while they have rarely stated it so bluntly as Miller did here, it's pretty evident regardless. Ironically, if Miller had just kept talking after he said that the president had "plenary authority," it probably wouldn't have been as big a deal.

But, because he appeared to put so much stock in that phrase, people have begun to notice it online. Whether he paused because of what he said or not is still unclear, and we may never have a firm answer. What is clear, though, is that some people think it's a big deal.