Former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor revealed that he was the anonymous author of a viral 2018 New York Times op-ed highly critical of President Trump, sparking outrage and mockery on social media.
Taylor, who publicly endorsed Joe Biden in August, called Trump “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.”
He was recently hired by CNN in September as a contributor. In an Aug. 21 interview with anchor Anderson Cooper, Taylor was asked if he was the article of the anonymous article.
“No I’m not … I’ve got my own thoughts on who that might be,” Taylor responded.” I wear a mask for two things, Anderson: Halloween and pandemics. So, no.”
Taylor was described as a “senior administration official” by The New York Times in the September 2018 piece. While serving in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), he helped carry out the administration’s child separation policy but was not listed on the department’s leadership page at the time.
In his revelation Wednesday, Taylor called upon “everyone to step out of the shadows” to oppose Trump, promoting mockery and criticism online of Taylor and The New York Times.
Taylor wrote the Times’s op-ed in September 2018 and resigned from DHS in April 2019.