Emily Miller

On Friday August 28 2020, the F.D.A. commissioner, Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, removed Emily Miller as the agency’s chief spokeswoman. The White House had installed her in the post just 11 days earlier. Ms. Miller had previously worked in communications for the re-election campaign of Senator Ted Cruz and as a journalist for the conservative cable network One America News. Ms. Miller could not be reached for comment. Ms. Miller’s termination comes one day after the F.D.A.’s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, terminated the contract of another public relations consultant, Wayne L. Pines, who had advised Dr. Hahn to apologize for misleading comments about the benefits of blood plasma for Covid-19. Emily Miller was the Assistant Commissioner for Media Affairs at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She is the Chief Spokesman for the agency. Miller leads the media relations team to share agency news quickly and accurately. She serves as a confidential strategic advisor to the FDA Commissioner and senior leadership on how to best inform the public about public health developments and actions. Prior to her appointment, Miller was a strategic communication consultant who advised major corporations, private companies, top-level political campaigns and federal and state officials on solutions to reach various stakeholders. In this role, she was Communications Director and Spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz’s successful re-election campaign. Miller has extensive experience in strategic communications in the federal government. She was the Deputy Press Secretary at the U.S. Department of State during President George W. Bush’s administration. In that role, she worked directly with Secretaries of State Colin L. Powell and Condoleezza Rice to develop communication strategies to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives. On Capitol Hill, Miller was the Communications Director to the­ House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. She developed strategic communications plans to support the Republican majority leadership's legislative goals and served as senior spokesman. Miller’s journalism experience is in both national TV and newspapers. She was the Senior Political Correspondent for One America News, a national cable TV news channel. She covered the 2016 presidential campaign, Capitol Hill and the White House. Miller was previously the Chief Investigative Reporter for Fox 5 DC. Before TV, Miller was a print journalist, as the Senior Editor of the opinion pages at The Washington Times. Her journalism career started in network TV as a desk assistant at NBC News. She then moved to ABC News, where she was the researcher and then the associate producer for the Sunday show “This Week”. Miller graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. --- The White House installed Miller, a right-wing activist, to the FDA August 17. Though she has no background in science or medicine, she was appointed to the position of assistant commissioner and chief spokesperson for the regulatory agency, a position that is typically filled by non-political civil servants.