Sanders ‘not worried’ about Stephen Miller becoming White House chief of staff

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday said he’s “not worried” about Stephen Miller becoming President Trump’s new White House chief of staff.

“Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker pointed out Sanders’s history of criticizing Miller and asked if he could see himself working with him. Sanders said he believes Trump is “mentally unbalanced, erratic, but he’s not stupid and he’s a good politician.”

“And I think when Trump looks out on the world and he sees millions of people working for starvation wages, he might not be unsympathetic to raising the minimum wage to a living wage,” Sanders continued. “He would love, I think, to take credit for doing what every other major country does, guaranteeing healthcare to all people.”

Sanders added, “So I’m not worried about Miller. Do I think we can work with Trump? Maybe. By no means guaranteeing it, but it is certainly worth the effort.”

After Democrats made sweeping gains in the 2026 midterm elections, many have also called for investigating and executing oversight on the Trump administration.

Sanders urged his Democratic colleagues who he generally caucuses with to not “spend all of our time investigating Trump.”

“We ought to stand up for working class families, make a real difference in their lives,” he said.

Miller was tapped to replace Susie Wiles as the White House chief of staff following the Republican defeat during the midterms. A longtime ally to Trump and champion of his rhetoric, Miller pledged “my absolute loyalty, my unwavering commitment and my total devotion to your success and the success of this country” in remarks on Friday.

The Vermont senator has long criticized Miller’s right-wing views on immigration and other issues. Sanders dismissed Vice President Vance’s claim that the democratic socialist and Miller sounded as though they were aligned on the issue of closing the U.S.-Mexico border as it related to American workers during an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins last month.

He said that it was Republican “mythology” that any Democrats campaigned on opening the southern border and explained that the country should appreciate “the hard work” of migrants already in the country and move toward “comprehensive immigration reform and a path for citizenship.”

“So you don’t think you sound like Stephen Miller?” Collins asked.

“No,” Sanders said with a chuckle. “Please, no.”

He had also clapped back at Miller’s claim that the U.S. runs and controls Venezuela following the U.S. capture of President Nicolás Maduro in January.

“Well, Mr. Miller gave a very good definition of imperialism,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper when asked to respond to Miller’s remarks.