Topline
President Donald Trump on Thursday continued his all-out assault on former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor – who revealed Tuesday he was behind an anonymous New York Times op-ed in 2018 about internal resistance to the president within the administration – warning “bad things” will happen to him and calling for both him and the Times to be prosecuted.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again rally in Raymond James Stadium’s … [+]
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Key Facts
Trump initially called for Taylor to be prosecuted for writing the op-ed and an anonymous book expanding on it during a rally in Arizona on Wednesday, calling him a “low-level employee” who never worked in the White House and was “quickly removed from his job a long time ago.”
Taylor began as a senior advisor at DHS in 2017, ascending to the positions of deputy chief of staff later that year and then chief of staff, a job which he said involved briefing Trump in the White House, before resigning in June 2019.
At a rally in Florida on Thursday, Trump said there should be “major criminal liability” for Taylor – who he claimed left his position with “nothing but praise for the Trump – calling him “treasonous” and urging Google to fire him because “bad things are going to happen to him.”
Trump also called for the Times to be prosecuted for unspecified charges, calling the op-ed, written by Taylor, “fake news made up by the New York Times.”
Key Background
Taylor is far from the only political opponent Trump has called to prosecute in recent months. Trump has long called for Justice Department and Senate probes into his enemies, including former FBI Director Jim Comey, former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden, his Democratic opponent in the presidential election. Trump has also taken a hard line on leakers, calling them “traitors and cowards” and launching numerous internal probes into various leaks.
Chief Critic
“The state of open dissent in America: the President derides critics as “traitors” and “treasonous”; threatens to “prosecute” & “lock them up”; and ominously warns “bad things” will happen to them,” Taylor tweeted in response to Trump’s warning about “bad things” happening to him. “Is this who we are?”
Surprising Fact
Despite serving in the Trump administration, Taylor has endorsed Democratic candidate Joe Biden and cut ads for pro-Biden group Republican Voters Against Trump, claiming Trump promised pardons to officials who broke the law, withheld wildfire aid to California over his disdain for the state’s Democratic governor and declared “magical authorities” beyond the law. Taylor is among more than half a dozen former Trump officials – and hundreds of Republican former officials – who have endorsed Biden.
Crucial Quote
“Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,” Taylor wrote in the op-ed in 2018, declaring “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.”
Source: Forbes – Business
