Stephen Miller on the Whistleblower Complaint

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Chris Wallace interviews White House senior adviser Stephen Miller on the federal whistleblower complaint.

By Tara Jons
10/02/2019 • 12:00 AM EST

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: Click or tap on any technique

- the definition will be displayed here.
that appears in bold to show its definition.

: ad hominem

- attacking the character or motive of the person making an argument, rather than addressing the argument itself.
: Miller dismisses the credibility of the 'whistleblower'—not by refuting their claims, but by attacking their character and alleging partisan motives. more...

: half truth

- a statement that is essentially true, but lacking critical information and presented as the whole truth.
: Miller mentions the IG found the whistleblower to be politically biased, without mentioning the same IG also found the whistleblower's complaint to be credible.^[1]

: poisoning the well

- discrediting your opponent to an audience in advance to encourage dismissing any future claims or accusations they may make in the future.
: Miller preemptively dismisses any allegations against Trump as nothing more than deep state operatives pursuing their own agendas, discrediting the allegations without actually addressing them. more...

: appeal to ignorance

- reducing uncertainty to certainty by treating the absence of evidence as evidence itself.
: Miller presents a false choice that assumes an obligation to investigate something without providing any evidence that such an investigation is warranted. more...

: false equivalence

- implying that two things are essentially the same, despite being significantly different, by focusing on anecdotal or superficial similarities.
: Between soliciting foreign interference in a U.S. election and conducting opposition research, when the former is illegal and the latter is a standard political function. more...

: baseless claim

- a bold statement that is presented as accepted or established fact, with no discernable evidence to support the claim.
: Ukraine possesses information about the corruption of the previous administration.

: reversal of reality

- a statement that is not only verifiably false, but is the exact opposite of the truth.
: Trump is not getting to the bottom of a corruption scandal in Ukraine, but creating one, and he's not the whistleblower, but the person against whom the whistle was blown.^[3]

Number of techniques detected in the 13:26 video runtime:

PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES

4 OCCURRENCES

ad hominem:

appeal to ignorance:

false equivalence:

poisoning the well:

DISINFORMATION TACTICS

3 OCCURRENCES

baseless claim:

half truth:

reversal of reality:

SUMMARY

7 OCCURRENCES

Miller100%

References

1. "Trump's Ukraine call, a whistleblower and the Bidens: What we know, what we don't". Politifact. Published: September 23, 2019.

2. "Dossier Not What 'Started All of This'". FactCheck.org. Published: March 27, 2019.

3. "Fact check: Why Trump's sudden fixation on 'investigating corruption' doesn't add up". CNN Politics. Published: October 06, 2019.

4. "In call to Ukraine's president, Trump revived a favorite conspiracy theory about the DNC hack". The Washington Post. Published: September 25, 2019.

5. "Trump Twists Facts on Biden and Ukraine". FactCheck.org. Published: September 24, 2019.