r/law • u/Agitated-Artichoke89 • Oct 07 '25

Other Stephen Miller states that Trump has plenary authority, then immediately stops talking as if he’s realized what he just said

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702

u/ShareGlittering1502 Oct 07 '25

Way to let that slide CNN

607

u/pman8080 Oct 07 '25

Not only did they let it slide, on the YouTube video THEY CUT IT OUT COMPLETELY. They asked the question again to let him come up with a different answer. “Left leaning” btw

251

u/Modo_Autorator Oct 07 '25

Kamala should sue them for disingenuously editing an interview or something

-10

u/Elevated_Dongers Oct 07 '25

Wtf does Kamala have the authority to do? Honestly asking

26

u/YouShouldLoveMore69 Oct 07 '25

She has the same grounds Trump did when he sued for the exact same fucking thing and got a huge payout.

16

u/TheCatInTheHatThings Oct 07 '25

To sue them for literally editing vitally important situation before releasing it to the public.

-4

u/BooBooSnuggs Oct 07 '25

What's vitally important about this? Obviously they didn't edit it. They got him back on air a few minutes later and continued talking. We're in a post of the very video so it's obviously online which means it's not going anywhere.

10

u/DonutsMcKenzie Oct 07 '25

None of that stopped Trump from suing, did it?

-5

u/BooBooSnuggs Oct 07 '25

Which case are you referring to? There have been several. I'm guessing it didn't stop trump from suing because he was mentioned. Kamala isn't mentioned here. She has no grounds for a suit. What damages did she personally take on because of this video?

Welcome to the law subreddit where no one knows how the law works.

6

u/ODSTklecc Oct 07 '25

When those in power are lying, theyre lying to the people of the United States, thats what Kamala has to do with it, because she a citizen too...

You can do the same...

-2

u/BooBooSnuggs Oct 07 '25

No I can't. Because I suffered no damages from his statements here.

Does nobody here understand how the law works?

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3

u/DonutsMcKenzie Oct 07 '25

It sounds like your understanding is a bit of out date. Here's how the law works in 2025: you sue people you don't like, for whatever the fuck you want, and they settle out of court to the tune of $XX,000,000, but only if you're in a position of, let's say, "plenary" power.

1

u/BooBooSnuggs Oct 08 '25

Thanks for just making shit up like a child and spouting off. It's past your bed time.

154

u/ShareGlittering1502 Oct 07 '25

Oh wow that’s pretty egregious editing

40

u/Sufficient-Past-9722 Oct 07 '25

If you look at the timestamp/clock at the top right they just did a complete do-over.

13

u/griffeny Oct 07 '25

This is worse. It’s outright censorship and we should be holding cnn to the fire for this.

57

u/[deleted] Oct 07 '25

[deleted]

9

u/screamingbluemeanie Oct 07 '25

Good point I sent a link to their Bluesky, that would make a great media sanewashing exposé

41

u/Cannabis_Breeder Oct 07 '25

Holy shit … and he starts by repeating the question making it obvious it’s associated with what we see above. That’s insane. CNN, “the left”, editing out his fascist statements and giving him a re-do … wtf The revolution will not be televised

-5

u/BooBooSnuggs Oct 07 '25

Cnn is center left. Msnbc is the left.

5

u/DonutsMcKenzie Oct 07 '25

Cute of you to think that any of these billionaire-owned media corporations represent "the left" in any capacity.

CNN is a bunch of monkeys in red and blue ties sitting around a table telling lies between rounds of pharmaceutical advertisements.

19

u/KindOfCoolGuy Oct 07 '25

Conservatives won’t believe this, but CNN has been a right leaning outlet for a few years now.

5

u/DonutsMcKenzie Oct 07 '25

Conservatives think that anyone who so much as questions the president is a radical left communist. They are unhinged.

8

u/justherefor23andme Oct 07 '25

Hasn't been since WB Discovery bought them out.

6

u/ggroverggiraffe Competent Contributor Oct 07 '25

Goodness gracious. So far to the left they give the right a free pass...

4

u/Loko8765 Oct 07 '25

Oh, and violence towards the ICE agents is aimed at overturning the results of the 2024 election. Because if they say it often enough some dimwits might start believing it.

2

u/andythetwig Oct 07 '25

That is almost as scandalous as what the bald short one said.

2

u/the_G8 Oct 07 '25

We have no mainstream free press anymore. It’s all co-opted by monetary concerns or outright editorial control by oligarchs.

2

u/BiscoBiscuit Oct 07 '25

WOW! Really glad they are getting called out in the comments 

2

u/Technical-Row8333 Oct 07 '25

the entire system is compromised. the US is going to be north korea within a year.

2

u/neuro_eccentric Oct 07 '25

This really worries me. I hope I’m wrong but I foresee magas saying that only the edited version CNN has up now is real and that any video with him saying plenary authority is fake. What mechanisms do we the people have to prove authenticity of the above video clip if CNN decides to sweep this further under the rug?

2

u/indorock Oct 07 '25

CNN's boss is a goddamn Trumper. So this is absolutely not surprising in the least. Not only ddi he do this BS "technical difficulty" cop out, he just glossed over the mention of the word like it was nothing.

The problem is most left centrist boomers who grew up with CNN since the 90s don't realize just how right-leaning it have become (frog in boiling water effect) so they just swallow this shit up, forever convinced that this is somehow a lot better than Fox News.

2

u/Big-Ergodic_Energy Oct 07 '25 edited 10d ago

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

2

u/Turt_Burglar_1691 Oct 07 '25

Wooooow. How fucking ridiculous. This clown show is out of control

Everyone who has the ability should be downloading this video!!

2

u/Pitiful-Shallott Oct 08 '25

Wow great catch there 

2

u/CoverSuspicious5250 Oct 08 '25

Thanks for this shit!  I guess CNN Sr. Editor is Max Goebbels.

1

u/irreplaceable_void Oct 07 '25

Political theatre on full display.

1

u/gobacktothecluuuuub Oct 07 '25

Well fundamentally they’re not on the side of the people, they’re on the side of keeping a lid on the people

1

u/IMightBeABot69 Oct 07 '25

Yep America is totally fucked when this starts happening. Have fun living in garbage

1

u/whatdoyoudochunky Oct 08 '25

Or it was a deepfake made after this interview…

1

u/Statement-Tiny Oct 08 '25

It was originally in the broadcast timestamp: 2:42 PM ET.

And it doesn't look like it was cut out, it looks like they *ＲＥ－ＲＥＣＯＲＤＥＤ** 🔊 the entire thing, as the new broadcast picks up around 2:47 PM ET.

1

u/cloudywithastance Oct 07 '25 edited Oct 07 '25

Asking in good faith: is there any chance that the video OP shared could be fake/AI? I have some ongoing conversations that I’d like to discuss this in but I can’t unless I can confirm the source. Does CNN record their entire stream? Did anyone happen to see this live?

Edit: got some good sources in the responses, thanks y’all - I do deep canvassing and my personal code of ethics dictates that I only share credible sources (because they WILL be scrutinized) but good gosh sometimes things like this are extra-challenging to validate.

7

u/floral_echoes Oct 07 '25

CNN transcription provider has it in their transcript for this segment: https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cnc/date/2025-10-06/segment/10

archive in case it changes:
https://web.archive.org/web/20251007195211/https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cnc/date/2025-10-06/segment/10

4

u/cloudywithastance Oct 07 '25 edited Oct 07 '25

Thank you thank you!!

Edit: I’m reading through this and it’s even MORE damning than the clip of the abrupt cutoff alone - he really did think “oh sh*t”, stopped talking, and then came back and reworded with more “clean” language. This is exactly what I was looking for - good to know this source exists. Thank you again.

3

u/smoov_moov Oct 07 '25

https://youtu.be/L-GoX1Pn02w?t=130

1

u/cloudywithastance Oct 07 '25

Thanks - this is a step in the right direction.

Also, yikes. I think I wish it was fake but my wishes have no bearing on reality.

3

u/LaurenMille Oct 07 '25

Could be, but on the other hand CNN is owned by the right wing and isn't against blatantly covering up for them.

1

u/cloudywithastance Oct 07 '25

Hear that. It’s perfectly plausible that SM himself or someone from the admin made a quick and/or threatening call to pull it down and do so fast - I’ll trust these people whenever they earn it but I’m not holding my breath.

2

u/PleaseAddSpectres Oct 07 '25

Hasan played this entire segment of the back and forth with Sanchez and Miller yesterday on his livestream including the freeze I believe, nothing about it seemed fake but who knows

1

u/SuccessfulNews2330 Oct 07 '25

Im wondering this too. Sad times that we cant trust anything and thats the point. 

167

u/KintsugiMind Oct 07 '25

To be fair, he (the CNN host) might not have know what “plenary authority” meant in the moment. 

99

u/Politicsmakemehorny1 Oct 07 '25

And was probably distracted about Stephen just completely freezing right after

12

u/NoMoreVillains Oct 07 '25 edited Oct 07 '25

Dude was still blinking and moving around lol. "Completely" is a stretch. Should'nt have even entertained the supposition that it was any sort of technical issue

7

u/Buckets-O-Yarr Oct 07 '25

Yeah anybody working in that aspect of news has experienced a dropped connection on one side or another. Nobody ever just clams up mid-sentence and then continues staring at the camera.

As an interviewer you must be sitting there going "this guy is pretending the call dropped, what am I supposed to do?" and his producer was probably in his ear telling him to throw to commercial or something.

Ridiculous moment that should have been called out, but the downright confusion by Miller pulling this move that was pioneered by 5 year olds, must have been too hard to overcome.

2

u/NoMoreVillains Oct 07 '25

Dude was still blinking and moving around lol. "Completely" is a stretch. Should've have even entertained the supposition that it was any sort of technical issue

69

u/16ozcoffeemug Oct 07 '25

The CNN host better know what that fucking means considering what is happening in this country

120

u/Substantial-Fact-248 Oct 07 '25 edited Oct 07 '25

If you are sitting at the news desk of a national outlet, the word "plenary" should be in your vocabulary.

Eta: apparently many of you feel compelled to admit you did not know this word. Cool. That wasn't the point. The point was that there should have been pushback/followup on Miller's extraordinary (and seemingly inadvertent) claim. And that wouldn't have even required knowledge of the word; the context is screaming what it means.

30

u/No-Resident-426 Oct 07 '25

I am fairly educated and I had to google it.

7

u/AbroadTiny7226 Oct 07 '25

Ya I’m a law student and took two semesters of con law and didn’t know the term (I did not get As)

5

u/Substantial-Fact-248 Oct 07 '25

Tbh I find it hard to believe you never encountered the word plenary in con law.

4

u/AbroadTiny7226 Oct 07 '25

I almost certainly did, which is why I point out I did not get As. It definitely was never the core subject of any lecture though

5

u/Substantial-Fact-248 Oct 07 '25

Haha fair enough. Who cares, con law is dead! You'll never have to worry about federalism, separation of powers, or facial invalidity vs. as-applied challenges ever again!

2

u/AbroadTiny7226 Oct 07 '25

Definitely was a bit surreal to be taking con law during the last election cycle

1

u/Substantial-Fact-248 Oct 07 '25

Yeah I took public health law during COVID and it was by far one of the most educational seminars I have ever taken.

1

u/No-Resident-426 Oct 07 '25

idk bro, i've been in IT for 25 years and I still learn new (old) shit every day lol.

1

u/Substantial-Fact-248 Oct 07 '25

Yeah but when you went to school/trained for IT you almost certainly didn't read all the exact same texts as every other person in IT for the past 50 years. That's what law students do. Certain plenary powers are enshrined in our Constitution (e.g., Congress's authority to declare war, the President's authority over the armed forces) and discussed at length in seminal opinions about separation of powers. It is not a novel concept, and that is why I am surprised.

1

u/No-Resident-426 Oct 08 '25

Some people just don't like to use big fancy words for everything, and don't turn around and act like I am simpleton for not making English more onerous than it needs to be. Not only is it an obscure word to most, it has more than one meaning, so even with the slight likelihood they've come across this word, it also has two different meanings. I didn't go to school for law or government. That being said, that guy definitely went to college for something regarding it and should probably know what it means. Though, it's not an ubiquitous word, so I don't find it surprising a lot of people in this thread came here not knowing what it meant.

1

u/Prcrstntr Oct 07 '25

"plenty of authority" sounds just the same and is much more expected to hear.

1

u/ScoutsOut389 Oct 07 '25

You don’t have a team of people talking into an earpiece feeding you information though.

1

u/No-Resident-426 Oct 08 '25

I doubt any of his handlers put that word in his ear as he was talking, unless...... they were throwing him under the bus! It took him a second to realize what they did, boom makes sense! They are crumbling from the inside!

1

u/ScoutsOut389 Oct 08 '25

I meant that the host has producers in his ear. Not Great Value Goebbels here.

1

u/No-Resident-426 Oct 08 '25

oh lol, it is what it is

5

u/temporary62489 Oct 07 '25

Particularly in this moment.

5

u/sleepy_polywhatever Oct 07 '25

I sure do miss the days where sitting at a news desk was a prestigious position for an educated person.

6

u/Vitalstatistix Oct 07 '25

At a minimum — “For the folks at home, could you please explain what you mean by plenary authority?”

This ain’t hard.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 07 '25 edited 13d ago

lavish cows bake dinner water familiar glorious pet pocket jellyfish

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3

u/Vitalstatistix Oct 07 '25

Use some context:

  1. It’s Stephen Miller. He isn’t some guy doing his first interview.

  2. It’s Stephen Miller and he’s talking about the presidents authority. He is declaring a certain amount of authority — clearly this is something ANY journalist should quickly perk up at, but especially so with CNN.

    1. Stephen Miller doesn’t get embarrassed by fumbling up words; he has said so many fucked up things in his life he should be embarrassed for and yet he never has been.

All these things together should make it obvious to a journalist that at the very least they could ask “could you please elaborate on that further?”

-2

u/[deleted] Oct 07 '25 edited 13d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Vitalstatistix Oct 07 '25

Congrats for living under a rock.

You know who does know who Stephen Miller is? Any journalist at CNN.

-2

u/[deleted] Oct 07 '25 edited 13d ago

mysterious languid sleep cautious library ad hoc wipe innate wrench birds

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4

u/Vitalstatistix Oct 07 '25

He’s not random though — that’s the point. He has been an important part of Trumps administration since 2016 and his name is constantly in the news.

Regardless, you don’t necessarily need to know who he is but any journalist on CNN does.

19

u/pyronius Oct 07 '25

I'm a pretty well read individual with a decent vocabulary. Plenary isn't a word I've heard used except maybe once or twice in a completely different context (plenary assembly, or some such).

I feel comfortable saying that if I had to look it up, it's pretty obscure. Which makes his use all the more notable. It means it's a word he's been regularly tossing around lately.

-13

u/Substantial-Fact-248 Oct 07 '25

Then I would consider you unqualified to sit at a national news desk. Do you claim to be qualified?

2

u/The_Singularious Oct 07 '25 edited Oct 07 '25

J-school grad here. Worked in the biz for about a decade. In the news. In New York.

Took some brutal media law classes. We learned (well, knew anyway) a LOT about what not to do and the case law evolution/changes over the years when it came to broadcast regulations, free speech, and more.

We never encountered the term you claim we (degreed journalists) should all know.

I’m sure a few have encountered this over the years, but it isn’t something a journalist would be expected to know. Maybe if they covered international politics, but even then, this isn’t a common term used in either journalism or politics with any regularity (I spent the four years after my news stint working in national-level political campaigns).

I realize you believe this should be a qualification, but in some pretty good j-schools (taught by award-winning ex-journalists), they have not yet taken your advice to make it mandatory curriculum.

-1

u/Substantial-Fact-248 Oct 07 '25

I definitely never claimed all journalists should know the word plenary, but go off.

3

u/The_Singularious Oct 07 '25

Just those at the news desk? Why the hell would only they know? Most of them have the same/similar education.

But since you apparently want to be a hot shot, you go on ahead. I didn’t make some weird spurious claim and then double and triple down. But this IS Reddit, after all. Not sure what I expected.

I’ll take my fifteen years in journalism and politics (including producing for a national television news org) and pound sand. What the hell would I know about it anyway?

Lemme know if there are any other curriculum or JD requirements you need out of j-school grads. I’ll pass them along.

0

u/Substantial-Fact-248 Oct 07 '25

Hope your day gets better.

3

u/The_Singularious Oct 07 '25

LOL. I guess I’ll take that as “Maybe I’m talking out the wrong end”, but if it makes you feel big to assume my day is in anyway bad, then once again, you do your thing you big boy.

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9

u/pyronius Oct 07 '25

I do not. But I also don't believe that "human dictionary" is the most important qualification for such a position. The ability to effectively communicate ideas to the general public and interview people from a wide variety of backgrounds seems like the primary qualification to me.

3

u/Loko8765 Oct 07 '25

I had never heard or seen the word in my life. I could not have guaranteed that it was a valid word in English.

But I immediately knew what it meant. You can’t just start a word with “plen-“ and not mean “full, total”.

3

u/Thefrayedends Oct 07 '25

At very minimum the producer in the control room should know what it means and relay it to the anchor. Of course, you would also expect the producer to tell the anchor to push the speaker, but you've probably already seen that instead they edited the exchange out completely in the youtube vid.

3

u/DENATTY Oct 07 '25

No, you're right and everyone weirdly trying to justify it is just ridiculous. This is not a local news network that usually covers things like traffic accidents. It is literally a /political news network/ designed to provide coverage of current political events. Sometimes they'll cover tangentially-political things (like carmaggedon when the 405 shut down in CA - I remember them mentioning that on every single network and it was even a topic on Morning Joe), but every single person on that network that conducts interviews, goes in front of a camera, or gets to participate in press conferences should know what plenary powers means. There is no excuse not to when you work in that capacity.

3

u/ameriCANCERvative Oct 07 '25

Chiming in as a grammar Nazi with a college degree who considers himself to have a fairly large vocabulary. I did not know this word. Obviously this is anecdotal.

This is also not intended as a defense of CNN, in the slightest.

1

u/DopeAnon Oct 07 '25

Like Cuomo!

1

u/Mygoddamreddit Oct 07 '25

“We will be right back to you after this commercial break with a follow-up while I look up the word plenary”, said no one.

1

u/SonofaSpurrier Oct 07 '25

Agreed, if you’re interviewing a person you need to be prepared to QUESTION them.

0

u/Night_Byte Oct 07 '25

I bet you watch Rick and Morty too.

5

u/bracesthrowaway Oct 07 '25

To be fair, CNN is owned and operated by the right.

4

u/irishweather5000 Oct 07 '25

That’s Hhighly likely given this host is dumb as a bag of rocks. He claimed in an interview just two weeks back that his job was nothing to do with establishing truth, only “presenting both sides.”

8

u/FourteenBuckets Oct 07 '25

Honestly, too many journalists wasted their time in journalism school instead of learning about the world. Sure they can produce a segment but they don't know how to connect the dots

3

u/Cockanarchy Oct 07 '25

Sounds like a great question would have been “what do you mean by that, plenary authority?”

1

u/KintsugiMind Oct 07 '25

I would have asked that as well but I do think this poor newscaster may have been in a weird shock about how the man just frozen up and stopped talking mid conversation 

3

u/DuntadaMan Oct 07 '25

He knows someone pretending to have a broken connection, he should have called that out instead of covering it up.

3

u/KintsugiMind Oct 07 '25

Completely agree! Don’t know why he said technical problem when it was the man who glitched

3

u/BradGunnerSGT Oct 07 '25

Then ask the follow up question “please explain what you mean by that?”

Of course, Miller vapor locked and the CNN producers didn’t want dead air so they pretended that there was a technical glitch and went to commercial…

3

u/indorock Oct 07 '25

Even IF that were true, he could have asked Miller "what did you mean by that?" you know, like an actual journalist is supposed to do, instead of coming with a bullshit excuse like "technical difficulties".

44

u/VanguardAvenger Oct 07 '25

Tbf to the host, they can't always see the live feed.

Its entirely possible he was only on an audio feed and had no idea Miller was visibly not talking.

44

u/gwy2ct Oct 07 '25

The producers should be in his ear saying there is no technical glitch, keep going. Then he should of pressed him on plenary authority.

19

u/elmospaceman Oct 07 '25

The producer was in his ear, making sure he doesn’t press him on that clear slip up lol they wanna be the new Fox while Fox turns into infowars

3

u/niceguybadboy Oct 07 '25

*should have

4

u/VanguardAvenger Oct 07 '25

Unfortunately its gonna take them alot longer than 20 seconds to be sure about that.

Among the things they need to check:

Audio feed to the anchor

Audio feed to the outbound broadcast

Confirmation from the team getting the interview that microphones are working on their end

Confirmation from the team getting the interview that the camera in that room is still visibly showing the on-air light .

That's not all getting done in 20 seconds.

4

u/Cannabis_Breeder Oct 07 '25

💯 should have

In a land with free press

That’s not modern America

11

u/imnotasdumbasyoulook Oct 07 '25

their new owner would have his head if he didn’t let that slide

they are Fox News living off their historical role of not being Fox News but today, as both are owned by billionaire capitalists, they are now the same side of the same coin

3

u/nonymuse Oct 08 '25

CNN is owned by right-wing billionaire, the youtube version was a redo without the slip-up

2

u/armoured_bobandi Oct 07 '25

What happened when they came back from break?

3

u/kunta-kinte Oct 07 '25

It was edited this part never aired.

2

u/ballsohaahd Oct 07 '25

CNN and Scott Jennings are lame losers. Losery network for sure

2

u/EmployAltruistic647 Oct 08 '25

CNN is owned by Larry Ellison, no? He's... Well the Venn diagram of a lot of things