Stephen Miller

Stephen N. Miller was born on August 23, 1985, in the affluent North of Montana neighborhood in Santa Monica, California, the second of three children of Miriam () and Michael Miller. Miller is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. His family's lineage escaped Russian pogroms and the Holocaust. Miller's mother, Miriam, was a Columbia University graduate and became a social worker. She grew up in a family of New Deal Democrats, but according to biographers, like the majority of the era's Californians, had conservative views. Miller's father, Michael, was a lawyer and worked in the Miller family real estate business. In 1998, when Miller was thirteen, his parents sold their home and bought a smaller home in a less affluent area. Miller went to Hebrew school at Beth Shir Shalom, where classmates thought of him as a contrarian. Jean Guerrero writes that his favorite musician was Elvis Presley and favorite film was Martin Scorsese's Casino (1995). Guerrero writes that at times he copied the look of Robert De Niro portraying a mobster, and that he dressed up like the movies for trips to Las Vegas where he was a skilled craps player. During high school and continuing into university, Miller often wore a suit. He told Elder that he liked to make a good first impression. As an adult, he continued to wear expensive, American-made, bespoke suits. He wrote that Santa Monica's principal and its district superintendent blamed Miller for having caused a tax increase initiative to fail. According to Miller's article, the principal distributed a memorandum to teachers, ordering them to discuss the Iraq War in a neutral and balanced manner. In Guerrero's estimation, by his graduation in 2003, Miller had received more publicity than "probably any other student in class". University (2003–2007) , where Miller studied (pictured in 2019) Miller began attending Duke University in 2003 In 2004, outraged at Duke's decision to schedule a Palestine Solidarity Movement conference, Miller founded the university's chapter of Horowitz's Students for Academic Freedom and rallied students to oppose the conference. The following year, he was the author of a column in The Duke Chronicle, Duke's student newspaper, titled "Miller Time." Miller continued to critique multiculturalism. His combative debate strategy, particularly in his column, earned Miller a reputation for pugnacity. Miller invited Horowitz to speak at Duke, who in turn named Miller to lead the Terrorism Awareness Project, an initiative that conflated Muslims and Arabs with terrorists. Miller appeared on Fox & Friends (1998–present) to promote the effort. In the aftermath of the Duke lacrosse rape hoax, Miller defended the three members of the Duke Blue Devils men's lacrosse team who were accused of rape, arguing that they had been presumed guilty for being white males. He appeared on Nancy Grace (2005–2016) to further advocate for the lacrosse players. After reports emerged that the accuser, Crystal Mangum, had concealed the results of a negative DNA test, Miller continued to discuss the issue, condemning an advertisement that noted the persistent fear of students "who know themselves to be objects of racism and sexism" in an interview with Bill O'Reilly on ''The O'Reilly Factor (1996–2017). Miller later told McKay Coppins of The Atlantic'' that his support of the players was his greatest college achievement. By junior year, Miller had joined the Duke Conservative Union. He had become the organization's executive director by the beginning of his senior year, a position that allowed him to fundraise. Through the union, Miller met Richard B. Spencer, who later became known as a white supremacist. The two organized an immigration debate in March 2007. Although he told Nancy Grace he wanted to be a prosecutor and that Horowitz knew that he would like to be a senator, Miller skipped his scheduled LSAT that was required for law school admission applications. Later, Miller said he was focused on establishing a memorial for the September 11 attacks. ==Early career==