CNN contributor and former administration bureaucrat Miles Taylor revealed Wednesday that he was the so-called “senior administration official” who wrote an op-ed for The New York Times in 2018 with many unsubstantiated accusations against President Trump. CNN’s Chris Cuomo managed to snag Taylor’s first interview since coming out and that too was filled with unsupported accusations of “Nazi-like” policies and delusions of grandeur with comparisons to the authors of the Federalist Papers.
Presented here were some of the most ridiculous and hyperbolic statements Taylor made to Cuomo, with the CNN host seemingly buy every word of it. And it’s worth noting that Taylor was a serial liar, telling people over the years that he wasn’t “Anonymous.”
Trump Wanted to ‘Gas, Electrify, and Shoot’ Women and Children on the Border
Deep into their almost half-hour interview, Taylor took to boasting about he and other unnamed officials “did a pretty damn good job in year one [of] putting the bad ideas back in the box.” Intrigued by the self-congratulations, Cuomo asked: “What did you stop from happening? Miles, put some meet on the bones for us.”
Taylor provided ZERO evidence and swore on his life that President Trump wanted to kill women and children crossing the border (click “expand”):
TAYLOR: The President at one point wanted us to gas, electrify, and shoot migrants at the border. What we're talking about, Chris, is innocent women and children who are seeking a better life in the United States fleeing violence and persecution. And the commander-in-chief is telling us he wants to gas them, he wants us to electrify the fence.
CUOMO: He literally said it? Was it ever put in writing or was it passed on by somebody else?
TAYLOR: Swear on my life verbatim, Oval Office of the White House of the president of the United States that he mused about shooting them. And then when there was clear shock on the faces of the people in the room, the President said, well, maybe you could just shoot them in the legs to shoot them down so they couldn’t get to the border.
“You told him that it was mostly women and children and he said that they should be shot or gassed, seriously,” Cuomo asked again. “Correct. Correct, Chris,” Taylor confirmed.
Trump Will Enact ‘Nazi-Like’ Policies If Allowed to Stay in Office
At one point, Cuomo wondered what Taylor feared from a second term of President Trump. Taylor immediately started to advocate for CNN viewers to vote for Democratic nominee Joe Biden because Trump was supposedly going to turn the United States into a Nazi fortress.
“I think the President will feel completely emboldened to pursue not just these almost Nazi-like immigration policies—I don’t say the lightly, that's pretty harsh term to levy against the President,” he proclaimed. “But that’s really where they want to go is turn this country into fortress America rather than the shining city on a hill.”
He added: “And finally Chris, I think the damage he's done to our democratic institutions, he will double down on that. Damaging the courts, damaging the oversight power of Congress, and expanding the power of the executive so far that it's unreasonable.”
I’m Just Like James Madison Writing of the Federalist Papers
In explaining why he wrote the Times op-ed and published an anti-Trump book without going public, Taylor elevated himself to the same level as some of America’s Founding Fathers. Citing how the Federalist Papers were written under the pseudonym “Publius,” Taylor suggested he was just like Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison:
And if you go back in time, Chris, our Founding Fathers did this. When they wrote the Federalist Papers to defend the passage of the Constitution, did they do it in their own names? They did it under pseudonyms and they did it for a reason. Is Madison and the other authors didn't want it to be about them and their personalities. They wanted people to debate the ideas. And I wrote this, Chris, because I wanted people to debate the ideas and Donald Trump's character and record.
I Didn’t Publish the Book for Money
In the same answer as his self-righteous comparison to the Founding Fathers, Taylor insisted he wasn’t interested in lining his pockets. “To be clear, this was never about eminence. Right? That’s why it was written without attribution. It was never about money. That's why I pledged to proceeds of the book almost entirely to charity,” he argued without providing evidence.
Adding: “It is a character study of one man, the President of the United States. And it wasn’t me throwing other colleagues under the bus. The point was to focus on him and his record.”
I Owe Anderson Cooper a Beer for Lying to Him
To Cuomo’s credit, the issue that “matters most” to him was how Taylor had lied to CNN colleague Anderson Cooper (and other journalists) in August when Cooper pressed him on whether he was anonymous.
“But I always said I would ultimately come out under my own name. But that said, I owe Anderson Cooper a beer, I owe him a mea culpa,” Taylor said. “And the same thing for other reporters who, at that time periods, asked me are you anonymous, and I said no because I wanted that work to stand on its own two legs and deprive the President an opportunity to do one more personal attract to distract from his record.”
According to Taylor, his cloak and dagger tactic was supposedly all in good faith:
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.
And if the earlier self-righteousness wasn’t nauseating enough, Taylor demanded towards the end of the interview that all Americans take off their own Anonymous masks and “step out of the shadows” like him: “That’s why forget anonymous. Anonymous is over. Let’s stop talking about it. And let's all stop being anonymous in our criticisms of America’s politics and the discord in our discourse. It is time for Americans to speak up, to vote, to repudiate this man and vote him out of office.”
The platform CNN provided to Miles “Anonymous” Taylor’s unsubstantiated claims was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from AT&T and IHOP. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they’re funding.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Cuomo PrimeTime
October 28, 2020
9:01:11 p.m. EasternCHRIS CUOMO: First what matters most, certainly to me. You lied to us, Miles. 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?
MILES TAYLOR: Chris, it is a great question, and I will just give you the blunt truth. 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 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.
I'll tell you what happened, Chris. The end result is the President couldn't. He failed to deny what was in that book. And in fact, to this day, the White House has failed to challenge the narratives that were in that book or the narratives that I have explained in my own name over the past four months speaking out about the president.
So, when asked by Anderson, whether I was Anonymous during that time period, I said what I was going to do. I temporarily denied it. But I always said I would ultimately come out under my own name. But that said, I owe Anderson Cooper a beer, I owe him a mea culpa. And the same thing for other reporters who, at that time periods, asked me are you anonymous, and I said no because I wanted that work to stand on its own two legs and deprive the President an opportunity to do one more personal attract to distract from his record.
But look, I'm here tonight to say that was me, and I hope people challenge me on those accounts and I hope the White House looks back at those accounts and looks at them and tries to actually say whether they're true or not because there is an army of people who have come out, Chris, who will validate them
(…)
9:04:20 p.m. Eastern
CUOMO: Why not come out when you wrote the book and avoid the idea of a mysterious money grab?
TAYLOR: Yeah. No. I think it's a really good point. But I want to start on the point of money grab. To be clear, this was never about eminence. Right? That’s why it was written without attribution. It was never about money. That's why I pledged to proceeded of the book almost entirely to charity. And it wasn’t about a score-settling tell-all memoir, which I have grown sick of in Washington, D.C.
It is a character study of one man, the President of the United States. And it wasn’t me throwing other colleagues under the bus. The point was to focus on him and his record.
And if you go back in time, Chris, our founding fathers did this. When they wrote the Federalist Papers to defend the passage of the Constitution, did they do it in their own names? They did it under pseudonyms and they did it for a reason. Is Madison and the other authors didn't want it to be about them and their personalities. They wanted people to debate the ideas. And I wrote this, Chris, because I wanted people to debate the ideas and Donald Trump's character and record.
But again I want to point out to you I had no fear about putting my own name on the line here, and that's why I did it months ago, so people could come out and challenge me. They could pick apart my record. They could pick out my stories.
(…)
9:12:39 p.m. Eastern
TAYLOR: People ask me all the time, if it was so bad, Miles, why did 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. 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. That’s not so say we didn’t fail. My god there were failures in the first few years of this administration.
CUOMO: What did you stop from happening? Miles, put some meet on the bones for us.
TAYLOR: That's a great question. So, the President of the United States -- the one I always go back to is the border. And I was never an immigration guy. I came into the administration as a national security guy. And as I became the deputy chief of staff, I had to take over immigration and of course chief of staff.
The President at one point wanted us to gas, electrify, and shoot migrants at the border. What we're talking about, Chris, is innocent women and children who are seeking a better life in the United States fleeing violence and persecution. And the commander-in-chief is telling us he wants to gas them, he wants us to electrify the fence.
CUOMO: He literally said it? Was it ever put in writing or was it passed on by somebody else?
TAYLOR: Swear on my life verbatim, Oval Office of the White House of the president of the United States that he mused about shooting them. And then when there was clear shock on the faces of the people in the room, the President said, well, maybe you could just shoot them in the legs to shoot them down so they couldn’t get to the border.
CUOMO: You told him that it was mostly women and children and he said that they should be shot or gassed, seriously?
TAYLOR: Correct. Correct, Chris. And if that's not gut wrenching to you, then you are not human. And we would talk about these things behind the scenes.
(…)
9:25:32 p.m. Eastern
CUOMO: What is your biggest fear about what happens if the President has a second term?
TAYLOR: I think the President will feel completely emboldened to pursue not just these almost Nazi-like immigration policies—I don’t say the lightly, that's pretty harsh term to levy against the President. But that’s really where they want to go is turn this country into fortress America rather than the shining city on a hill.
But worse still for me, as a lifelong national security professional is I believe the President is going to sell out our allies and defriend our enemies and put this country in danger. He's already shown a proclivity for friendships with despots and dictators around the world. And he’s kicked out best friends to the curb. That kind of thing is going to put this country in danger for the long run.
The President will want to do things like pull out of NATO, pull out of our international agreements, put our troops in places—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. That’s what he’s going to do.
I think if the guard rails come off, which they have, but even more in a second term, the President will feel unimpeded.
And finally Chris, I think the damage he's done to our democratic institutions, he will double down on that. Damaging the courts, damaging the oversight power of Congress, and expanding the power of the executive so far that it's unreasonable. This is not a conservative president. You know why? Because conservative presidents always believed in small government. Donald Trump's government is so big and expansive that it invades our lives and our minds every single day.
(…)
