CNN host Chris Cuomo pressed Miles Taylor, the former Trump administration staffer who revealed this week he was behind a 2018 New York Times op-ed and 2019 book attributed to “Anonymous,” why the network should keep him as a contributor after he lied to host Anderson Cooper about whether he authored the piece.
“You lied to use, Miles. You were asked in August here on CNN if you were Anonymous and you said no,” Cuomo told Taylor on Wednesday. “Now, why should CNN keep you on the payroll after lying like that?”
Taylor called it a “great question.”
“When I published [the book] I said I would strenuously deny that I was the author,” Taylor said. “The things that I said in that book were ideas that I wanted Donald Trump to challenge on their merits.”
Taylor went on to say he wrote the 2018 op-ed anonymously so Trump could not wage personal attacks against him.
“So, when asked by Anderson I temporarily denied it,” he said. “But I’ve always said I was going to come out under my own name. That being said, I owe Anderson a beer and I owe him a mea culpa.”
Earlier this year, Cooper asked Taylor if he had written the op-ed.
“I wear a mask for two things, Anderson: Halloween and pandemics. So, no,” Taylor said.
Taylor left the Trump administration, where he briefly served as chief of staff to former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, in June 2019 and became a CNN contributor.
After Taylor revealed himself as the author of the op-ed, Trump accused Taylor of being a “fraud” and called on CNN to fire him. During a rally Wednesday night, Trump also suggested Taylor be prosecuted.
Hours earlier, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany called Taylor a “liar” and a “coward” for hiding behind anonymity.