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Former
DHS
official
says he
wrote
'Anonymous'
Trump
critique
By
KEVIN
FREKING
and
ZEKE
MILLER
apnews.com
WASHINGTON
- A
former
Trump
administration
official
who
penned a
scathing
anti-Trump
op-ed
and book
under
the pen
name
“Anonymous”
revealed
himself
Wednesday
as a
former
chief of
staff at
the
Department
of
Homeland
Security.
The
official,
Miles
Taylor,
said in
a tweet
six days
before
Election
Day that
Donald
Trump is
“a man
without
character”
and
“it’s
time for
everyone
to step
out of
the
shadows.”
Taylor
has been
an
outspoken
critic
of
Trump’s
in
recent
months
and had
repeatedly
denied
he was
the
author
of the
column —
even to
colleagues
at CNN,
where he
has a
contributor
contract.
He left
the
Trump
administration
in June
and
endorsed
Democrat
Joe
Biden
for
president
this
summer.
In a
statement,
White
House
press
secretary
Kayleigh
McEnany
called
Taylor a
“low-level,
disgruntled
former
staffer”
who “is
a liar
and a
coward
who
chose
anonymity
over
action
and
leaking
over
leading.”
“This is
everything
people
hate
about
Washington
—
two-faced
liars
who push
their
own
agendas
at the
expense
of the
People,”
she
later
tweeted.
“This is
the
epitome
of the
swamp!”
White
House
chief of
staff
Mark
Meadows
called
Taylor’s
revelation
“a
monumental
embarrassment,”
tweeting,
“I’ve
seen
more
exciting
reveals
in
Scooby-Doo
episodes.”
Taylor’s
anonymous
essay
was
published
in
September
2018 by
The New
York
Times,
infuriating
the
president
and
setting
off a
frantic
White
House
leak
investigation
to try
to
unmask
the
author.
In
the
essay,
the
person,
who
identified
themselves
only as
a senior
administration
official,
said
they
were
part of
a secret
“resistance”
force
out to
counter
Trump’s
“misguided
impulses”
and
undermine
parts of
his
agenda.
The
author
wrote,
“Many
Trump
appointees
have
vowed to
do what
we can
to
preserve
our
democratic
institutions
while
thwarting
Mr.
Trump’s
more
misguided
impulses
until he
is out
of
office.”
The
Times
identified
the
author
as a
“senior
official”
in the
administration
and
received
some
criticism
online
Wednesday
for
inflating
Taylor’s
credentials.
The
newspaper,
which
said it
had
granted
Taylor
anonymity
because
his job
would be
jeopardized
if his
identity
was
revealed,
on
Wednesday
confirmed
Taylor
was the
author
because
he has
waived
his
right to
confidentiality,
and had
no other
comment.
The
allegations
incensed
the
president,
bolstering
his
allegations
about a
“deep
state”
operating
within
his
government
and
conspiring
against
him. And
it set
off a
Beltway
guessing
game
that
seeped
into the
White
House,
with
current
and
former
staffers
trading
calls
and
texts,
trying
to
figure
out who
could
have
written
the
piece.
Trump,
who had
long
complained
about
leaks in
the
White
House,
also
ordered
aides to
unmask
the
writer,
citing
“national
security”
concerns
to
justify
a
possible
Justice
Department
investigation.
And he
issued
an
extraordinary
demand
that the
newspaper
reveal
the
author.
Instead,
the
author
pressed
forward,
penning
a
follow-up
book
published
last
November
called
“A
Warning”
that
continued
to paint
a
disturbing
picture
of the
president,
describing
him as
volatile,
incompetent
and
unfit to
be
commander
in
chief.
To a
certain
extent,
he’s
since
been
overshadowed
by other
former
government
officials,
both
during
the
impeachment
hearings
and
after,
who went
public
condemning
Trump’s
behavior
with
their
names
attached.
Taylor’s
behavior
also
leaves
questions
for CNN.
He was
asked
directly
by the
network’s
Anderson
Cooper
in
August
whether
he was
“Anonymous”
and
answered:
“I wear
a mask
for two
things,
Anderson,
Halloween
and
pandemics.
So, no.”
Josh
Campbell,
a
national
security
correspondent
for CNN,
tweeted
that he
had also
asked
Taylor
if he
was
“Anonymous”
and was
told no.
In
an essay
published
Wednesday
on
Medium.com,
Taylor
said he
published
the
op-ed
and book
anonymously
because
he
wanted
the
focus to
be on
the
arguments,
instead
of who
was
writing
them.
“We
got the
answer,”
he
wrote.
“He
became
unhinged.
And the
ideas
stood on
their
own two
feet.”
Taylor
said the
nation
could no
longer
rely on
bureaucrats
to steer
Trump
toward
what’s
right
since
“he has
purged
most of
them
anyway.”
“He
doesn’t
deserve
a second
term in
office,”
he
wrote,
“and we
don’t
deserve
to live
through
it.”
Former
GOP
consultant
Reed
Galen,
one of
the
founders
of the
anti-Trump
group
The
Lincoln
Project,
tweeted
that
Taylor
“isn’t a
hero.”
He
added:
“He sat
in those
rooms,
in those
councils
of power
and
allowed
the
banality
of evil
to work.
...
Heroism
isn’t
silence
until
it’s
convenient
and
personally
advantageous
to stand
up.”
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