Chris Cuomo on Wednesday night blasted newly-revealed 'Anonymous' author Miles Taylor for lying about his true identity during an August interview with Anderson Cooper, asking the network contributor, 'Why should CNN keep you on the payroll?'
The tense exchange came as part of Taylor's first interview since he outed himself earlier Wednesday as the unnamed author of a bombshell 2018 New York Times article that chronicled a 'resistance' within the Trump administration.
'You lied to us, Miles,' Cuomo told the former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff. 'You were asked in August if you were “anonymous” here on CNN with Anderson Cooper, and you said ‘no.’
'Now, why should CNN keep you on the payroll after lying like that?' he continued to Taylor, who signed on as a network contributor in September.
Taylor, who resigned from the White House last June, said he decided to strategically withhold his identity to force Trump to address his written accusations directly, rather than personally attack him.
'When I published the warning, I said in the book that if asked I would strenuously deny I was the author. And here’s the reason,' Taylor said.
'We have seen over the course of four years, that Donald Trump’s preference is to find personal attacks and distractions to pull people away from criticisms of his record.
'I wrote that work anonymously to deprive him of that opportunity and to force him to answer the questions on their merits,' he added.
Taylor also issued a personal apology to Anderson Cooper, insisting he ‘owes him a beer’.
Former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff and author of the infamous ‘Anonymous’ 2018 New York Times op-ed Miles Taylor revealed that Trump once said he wanted migrants to be ‘gassed, electrified and shot’ at the border to deter asylum seekers
During the segment, Taylor was also quizzed by Cuomo that, if the Trump administration was as bad as he claimed in his op-ed, then why he didn’t stay in the White House longer to counteract Trump’s ‘bad policies' and ‘help the country’.
‘People ask me all the time, if it was so bad, Miles, why didn't you stay? And my answer is because it was so bad on a daily basis, the things the president wanted us to do were unethical, immoral, un-American and in some cases blatantly illegal,’ Taylor responded.
‘Now for a time period, I think we did a pretty damn good job in year one putting the bad ideas back in the box. My god there were failures.’
When asked to ‘put some meat on the bones’, Taylor offered an example of a discussion he allegedly shared with Trump in the Oval Office.
Taylor claimed he and the president had been talking about migrants - specifically women and children - seeking refuge at the border, when the Trump asked DHS to ‘gas, electrify, and shoot' them.
Cuomo responded by asking, ‘We're talking about women and children seeking a better life in the United States fleeing violence and persecution. And the commander in chief is saying he wants to electrify them?’
Taylor said the president made the statement ‘verbatim’. Then, when he noticed the shock on the faces of the people in the room, he reportedly said, ‘well, maybe you could just shoot them in the legs to slow them down.’
A visibly astonished Cuomo clarified: ‘You told them that it was mostly women and children and he said that they should be shot or gassed, seriously? ‘
‘Correct,’ Taylor responded, adding: ‘And if that's not gut wrenching to you, then you are not human.’
Taylor said such 'unethical' conversations were commonplace in the Oval Office with Trump.
He claimed the president also offered presidential pardons at the border for illegal activity and ordered officalls to seal the border and close it off for all migrants, which is ‘against US law’. He said Trump also asked them to bring back the border separation policy, which separates children from their parents.
Taylor claimed Trump would say ‘I don’t care what you need. Just break the law and do it’.
Former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor has been blasted as a ‘two-faced liar’ after he revealed himself to be the anonymous author of a controversial 2018 New York Times op-ed about Trump
When asked to ‘put some meat on the bones’, Taylor said he had been talking with the president about migrants – most of whom are women and children - seeking asylum in the US, when the president asked DHS to ‘gas electrify and shoot' them at the border
After revealing himself to be 'Anonymous', Taylor was criticized throughout Wednesday for his apparent part played in allowing Trump’s now-forbidden border separation policy to be implemented in the first place.
When asked by how he allowed such a policy to be enacted, Taylor distanced himself from any responsibility.
'[It's not] a policy I embrace, support, or standby,’ he responded. ‘Family separation was one of the most disgusting, abhorrent policies of this administration and it was emblematic of how terrible ideas got rushed through the policy process before the consequences could be considered.
‘We fought our asses off behind the scenes to make sure that didn't go into effect,’ he added. ‘The White House said, “We’re doing it anyway”.’
When the policy was abandoned following a public outcry, Taylor claims Trump said: ‘I want to resume it and I want to make it harsher and I want to rip every kid apart from their parents.’
Chris Cuomo in New York City on Wednesday wearing a mask after being told off for not wearing one in his apartment building
Taylor said it was at this time he decided to resign from the Trump administration.
He told Cuomo why he decided to out himself as the ‘Anonymous’ now, less than a week before the 2020 election, is because he believes the American people are ‘paying attention right now’.
‘I'll guarantee you, Chris, last summer as soon as I left my job I came out with a bullhorn and said this is who Donald Trump is. Within 48 hours the news story would be over. Nobody would pay attention and they wouldn't care,’ he said.
‘But right now Americans are reviewing the president's resume and his character. And it is mission critical that people like me but others come out now when the voters are listening and tell them who this man really is.’
When asked to ‘put some meat on the bones’, Taylor said he had been talking with the president about migrants – most of whom are women and children - seeking asylum in the US, when the president asked DHS to ‘gas electrify and shoot' them at the border
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 at the border but was not listed on the department's leadership page at the time
Taylor also warned against what he said would prove to be a ‘catastrophic’ and 'irrevocable' four years if Trump is elected for a second White House term next week.
He said he fears the president will feel completely emboldened to pursue ‘Nazi-like immigration policies’, such as bringing back border separation.
‘That’s where that's really where they want to go is turn this country into fortress America rather than the shining city on a hill,’ he said.
Taylor also theorized that he believed the president would ‘sell out our allies and befriend our enemies’, putting the country in danger.
‘He’s already shown a proclivity for dictatorships and dictators around the world,’ he said. ‘The president will pull out of NATO, pull our troops back from places where they're fighting forward so Americans don't have to fight bad guys here at home on our city streets. I think if the guard rails come off, which they have, the president will feel unimpeded.’
Almost immediately as the segment began, Cuomo put Taylor on blast for lying to fellow co-host Anderson Cooper mere weeks ago, when he denied he was Anonymous.
'You lied to us, Miles' Cuomo said, in reference to Cooper's interview, which aired in late August.
‘No I'm not [Anonymous] ... I've got my own thoughts on who that might be,’ Taylor said at the time. ‘I wear a mask for two things: Halloween and pandemics. So no.’
His emphatic denial resurfaced on social media on Wednesday, leading to a number of Trump administration officials branding him a ‘liar’, and therefore casting doubt on the accuracy of the information he provided in the original Times article.
Leading the charge of outrage was White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who tweeted: ‘PROOF: Miles Taylor, who now admits to being “Anonymous”, once told us he was NOT Anonymous. He LIED!
‘This is everything people hate about Washington,’ she continued, ‘two-face liars who push their own agendas at the expense of the People. This is the epitome of swamp!’
Cuomo followed on that theme at the beginning of the broadcast, not only asking why the public should believe him when he blatantly lied before, but also why should CNN keep him ‘on the payroll after lying like that’, having recently signed on as a network contributor.
‘Chris, it is a great question, and I will just give you the blunt truth,’ Taylor responded. ‘When I published the warning, I said in the book that if asked I would strenuously deny I was the author. And here's the reason. Because the things I said in that book where ideas that I wanted Donald Trump to challenge on their merits. We have seen over the course of four years that Donald Trump's preference is to find personal attracts and distractions to pull people away from criticisms of his record.
‘I work that work anonymously to deprive him of that opportunity and to force him to answer the questions on their merits. I'll tell you what happened, Chris. The end result is the president couldn't. He failed to deny what was in that book,’ he said.
Taylor also issued a personal apology to Anderson Cooper, insisting he ‘owes him a beer’.
In the hours after Taylor outed himself as the Times source, President Trump has said he doesn't know who the former DHS chief of staff is, then later demanded he be prosecuted anyway.
At a rally in Goodyear, AZ, Trump devoted a section to attacking Taylor saying he should be 'prosecuted' and joking that he worried that Anonymous might be Hope Hicks or Jared Kushner.
He referred to Taylor as 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 he works now he works at CNN - can you believe it?' he said, to boos from the crowd.
Taylor called Trump’s claims he doesn't know who he is ‘ridiculous’, insisting he worked in close proximity to the president on a regular basis in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room, on Air Force One, and in numerous other settings.
‘It is ridiculous for the president to deny this,’ Taylor said. ‘Earlier this year he told the press, don't worry, I know who anonymous is. When I summer in my own name the president responded and said this guy is a low life and a real stiff and demonstrated awareness of where I was.
‘Today the president reverted and showed amnesia,’ he continued. ‘So I think the bigger concern here is the president maybe needs to have a memory check done by one of the doctors.
‘I wasn't the president's best friend. But I was a senior official in this administration who watched him up close and personal in the most important department in his eyes in his administration.’
In the hours after Taylor outed himself as the Times source, President Trump has claimed not to know him, but later demanded he be prosecuted anyway. Taylor called Trump’s claims he doesn't know who he is ‘ridiculous’, insisting he worked in close proximity to the president on a regular basis, in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room, on Air Force One, and numerous other settings
After Miles Taylor revealed himself, President Trump said 'I don't know him'
Taylor was one of a group of Republicans who endorsed Biden this summer ahead of the Democratic National Convention.
He went public with his criticism of Trump in August. Near that same time, 'Anonymous' also endorsed Biden.
Trump officials continued to pile on Taylor throughout Wednesday.
'This is the least impressive, lamest political 'reveal' of all time,' said Hogan Gidley, the former deputy White House press secretary who's now a spokesperson for the campaign.
'I worked with DHS officials while I was in the White House, and even I had to research who Miles Taylor was. He's just another standard-issue arrogant, Washington, DC swamp bro who loved President Trump until he figured out he could try to make money by attacking him,' he added.
Ben Williams, a senior communications adviser in the White House, called Taylor a 'little circus clown.'
'Among the long list of colossal embarrassments, and there are many, the best is Miles Taylor writing an op-ed trashing the administration he took a paycheck from... and then lying to CNN, the network he now works for, when asked about it on air. What a little circus clown,' he wrote on Twitter.
The New York Times op-ed describes a 'quiet resistance' that wasn't designed to bring Trump down – only to curb his worst impulses. Taylor later wrote the book 'A Warning' that came out in November of last year
Trump weighed in on Taylor in August when the former DHS staffer endorsed Biden and slammed the president in his ensuing media tour.
He called Taylor a 'DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE' who I 'do not know (never heard of him),' and went on to complain that the media is embracing Taylor with 'open arms.'
'Said to be a real 'stiff,'' Trump also offered. 'They will take anyone against us!' he railed.
In response, Taylor produced a picture of him alongside Trump in the Oval Office, where they're both giving the camera a thumbs up.
He served at DHS between 2017 and 2019 and said he 'witnessed the damning results firsthand' of Trump's 'personal deficiencies.' He served as chief of staff for then-DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, which would have put him in meetings with White House officials on matters of immigration and national security.
When he published the New York Times op-ed, he was a deputy to agency's then chief of staff.
In an online introduction to the 2017 New York Times piece, which became an immediate controversy, the Times said the author's 'identity is known to us' and the person's 'job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers.'
Several Trump figures were named as the possible author, including Vice President Mike Pence and then-counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway.
The identity of 'anonymous' consumed the president and his aides for some time and became one of Washington's favorite guessing games.
The New York Times op-ed describes a 'quiet resistance' that wasn't designed to bring Trump down – only to curb his worst impulses.
The op-ed lost its impact over the years as a number of high-profile former Trump staffers bashed the president publicly, including former National Security Adviser John Bolton and former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Trump blasted 'Anonymous' when the op-ed was originally published
The uncertainty over who wrote it was one of the reasons the Times op-ed caused such a firestorm as most of the speculation on the author's identity focused on high-level White House officials.
'Ours is not the popular 'resistance' of the left,' the author wrote in the piece. 'We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.'
'It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what's right even when Donald Trump won't.'
'But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.'
'So rather than risk the invocation of the Constitution's 25th Amendment, the prescribed route for removing a president, he boasts that 'we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until – one way or another – it's over.'
Anonymous denied being part of a deep state conspiracy: 'This isn't the work of the so-called deep state. It's the work of the steady state.'
He later wrote the book 'A Warning' that came out in November of last year.
The president attacked the author in 2018, suggesting alternatively that the op-ed might be an act of treason, and that the author might be a fictitious creation of the Times rather than a real person.
'Does the so-called 'Senior Administration Official' really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source?' he tweeted at the time.
'If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!'
He also tweeted a single word: 'TREASON?'
The White House conducted an unsuccessful mole hunt for the person. Trump tasked then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions with finding out who wrote the piece.
The Times op-ed described the president as 'impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective' in the way he manages the government, and said the author is part of an organized 'resistance' whose goal is 'to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Trump's more misguided impulses until he is out of office.'
Sarah Sanders, then the White House press secretary said in a statement at the time that the essay was 'pathetic, reckless, and selfish' and challenged the Times to 'issue an apology.'
'This is just another example of the liberal media's concerted effort to discredit the President,' she said then.
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