Donald Trump has responded to the news a former staffer admitted writing an anonymous New York Times op-ed that criticised the US President
Speaking during a campaign rally in Arizona, Mr Trump said Miles Taylor, the author of the piece, “should be prosecuted”.
“You know Anonymous? You know this Anonymous, that everyone’s been looking for? That law enforcement could have found early if they wanted to? But everybody was looking for Anonymous,” Mr Trump said.
“It turned out to be a low-level staffer, a sleazebag, who’s never worked in the White House. Anonymous was a nobody, a disgruntled employee who was quickly removed from his job a long time ago, for they tell me incompetence.
“You know where works now? He works in CNN.
“He wrote a phony book. If you heard about Anonymous, it was like somebody that was right next to me. I thought it might have been Hope Hicks, I thought it might have been Jared (Kushner), I thought it might have been Mike Lee! I was extremely worried about Rand Paul.
“This guy’s a low-level lowlife, that I don’t know. I have no idea who he is, other than I got to see him a little while ago on television. And I think they threw him out a long time ago.
Tweet from @MilesTaylorUSA
“His phony book was just based on fake articles and left-wing outlets. He worked with … the fake news New York Times. And he’s an employee of Google, he works for Google … isn’t that nice?
“The whole thing was just one more giant hoax from the Washington swamp and a corrupt special interest group.
“I tell you what; this guy, in my opinion, he should be prosecuted. He should be prosecuted.”
Mr Trump’s broadside came after White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany issued her own searing rebuke.
“This low-level, disgruntled former staffer is a liar and a coward who chose anonymity over action and leaking over leading,” Ms McEnany said.
Mr Taylor, who worked for the Department of Homeland Security from 2017-2019, revealed himself as the anonymous author of the scathing 2018 article on Wednesday (local time).
In it, he described a chaotic White House and an unhinged commander in chief showing little regard for constitutional or political norms that posed a danger to the US and world.
- Read Miles Taylor’s full NY Times piece here
In an essay on published on the online platform Medium, Mr Taylor explained his decision to write the essay and a subsequent book called A Warning.
“I saw Donald Trump prove he is a man without character and his personal defects have resulted in leadership failures so significant that they can be measured in lost American lives,” he wrote.
“When I left the administration I wrote A Warning, a character study of the current commander in chief and a caution to voters that it wasn’t as bad as it looked inside the Trump administration – it was worse.”
In the anonymous NY Times piece, which drew widespread attention after claims its author was a senior administration official, Mr Taylor said some political appointees were actively working to undermine Mr Trump’s worst impulses.
The 2018 essay riled the President, who ordered his team to begin looking for leakers in the White House.
On Wednesday, Ms McEnany also criticised the NY Times for running the 2018 article.
“It is appalling a low-ranking official would be granted anonymity and it is clear the New York Times is doing the bidding of never-Trumpers and Democrats,” she said.
For part of his time at DHS, Mr Taylor was chief of staff for former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. She was widely criticised for overseeing a policy at the US southern border that allowed immigrant children to be separated from their parents.
“He was ineffective and incompetent during his time as DHS chief of staff,” Ms McEnany said.
For his part, Mr Trump denied knowing Mr Taylor – to which Mr Taylor responded by tweeting a picture of himself with the President in the White House Oval Office.
“That’s too bad. I remember you all too well,” he wrote.
Tweet from @MilesTaylorUSA
Mr Taylor has also been openly critical of the Trump administration while working as a contributor for CNN in the lead up to the November 3 US presidential election.
-with AAP
The post ‘Liar and a coward’: White House unleashes at ‘anonymous’ <i>NY Times</i> author appeared first on The New Daily.
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