General Discussion

It’s the unofficial position of VICE News that anyone under 18 is allowed to be an asshole. Saying outrageous things to test the limits of authority and social acceptance is as crucial to growing up as bad haircuts and regrettable T-shirt slogans. Provided such speech never crosses the line into hate or criminality, the consequences should be minimal. Live, learn, etc.

So we debated whether to publish this video of Stephen Miller, the 31-year-old senior aide to President Donald Trump. In the video, a high school–aged Miller jokingly calls torture “a celebration of life and human dignity,” and adds that cutting off the fingers of Saddam Hussein and his cronies is the “ideal solution” to America’s involvement in Iraq. Miller’s identity in the footage was confirmed by three contemporaneous sources, and it appears that the video was filmed in 2003, around the time of the invasion of Iraq.