Twitter Reacts To Stephen Miller Calling Jim Acosta 'Ignorant' and 'Cosmopolitan'

Wednesday’s White House press briefing saw White House senior policy advisor Stephen Miller get into a huge verbal spat with CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, the latest in a series of confrontations between White House officials and journalists.

The two were talking about President Donald Trump’s new skills-based immigration system proposal when the discussion spiraled into a heated argument. It seemed like Miller was winning against Acosta— a fact that delighted many Trump administration fans. Needless to say, the argument set social media abuzz, with many picking sides between both the parties involved.

Read: US Immigration Illegally Detaining And Deporting Its Citizens For Years Despite Documents Proving Nationality

During the argument, Acosta began by quoting the inscription on the Statue of Liberty “‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses,'", which was from the poem ‘The New Colossus’ and was inscribed on the statue after it was erected. Then he later related it to Trump’s plan for immigrants saying: “What the president is proposing here does not sound like it's in keeping with American tradition when it comes to immigration.” He also asked if the White House policy would restrict immigration to those from English-speaking places such as Great Britain and Australia.

This point drew a lot of raised eyebrows on Twitter with many supporting Miller when he said: "Jim, I am shocked at your statement that you think that only people from Great Britain and Australia would know English”. They also said that Acosta was quoting a poem and not a law. Miller also asked: "Do you really at CNN not know the difference between green card policy and illegal immigration?”

Many were, however, disturbed by the fact that Miller rejected the Statue of Liberty poem because it was “added later.” He said: "Secondly, I don't want to get off into a whole thing about history here, but the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of American liberty lighting the world. The poem that you're referring to was added later (and) is not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty."

Acosta also said that the administration was “trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country” in order to limit immigration. To this, Miller responded saying that Acosta showed his “cosmopolitan bias” and “ignorance” by suggesting that the administration was imposing limitations on immigration of certain people. His exact words were: "It reveals your cosmopolitan bias to a shocking degree."

Read: What Is Kate’s Law? Trump Urges Congress To Pass Immigration Bills

Twitterati picked on this and pointed out that while Miller accused Acosta of cosmopolitan bias, he had himself grown up in Santa Monica, California.

Many on Twitter rushed to support Miller.

A few said Acosta was doing a great job and should not give in to Miller’s comments which they said did not hold any substance.

Meanwhile, Miller's comments sparked up an entirely new debate on the Statue of Liberty and the origin of the poem Acosta quoted.