Taylor, the chief of staff of Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, wrote a lengthy statement explaining why he had written the 2018 banner as part of a “resistance” within the Trump administration working to thwart the worst of the Trump trend. Taylor says he wants to force Trump to respond to accusations he is escalating without the ability to attack a particular messenger. Mr. Trump has called the opposition op-ed.
The decision was not an easy one, I disagree with it, and I understand why some consider it a question of dismissing the harsh allegations against the president sitting under anonymity but my reasoning is straightforward, and I stand by that, “Taylor wrote.
“My critical remarks have forced the president to answer them directly about their virtues or not at all, rather than distracting them through slander and defamation,” Taylor said. “I want to focus on the debate myself.”
Taylor joined CNN as a contributor in September 2020.
“I am a Democrat and I wish this president every success,” Taylor said in a statement issued Wednesday. “But too often, during times of crisis, Donald Trump proved he was an unqualified man, and his personal shortcomings made the failure of that leadership so significant that they could be measured in the lives of lost Americans.”
Taylor said he hoped the people in the administration would vote against Trump more, noting that many of his superiors had done so in different ways since leaving office.
“I have seen firsthand Trump’s inability to work for two and a half years in office. Everyone sees it, although most are reluctant to speak out for fear of retaliation,” Taylor wrote.
On the occasion of 2018, entitled “I am part of the internal opposition in the Trump administration,” Taylor did not write anonymously, saying “several senior bosses on his own board are working diligently from within to make parts of his agenda the worst possible trend.”
But Taylor said the original assertion was incorrect.
“The country cannot rely on unscrupulous officials who are not elected around the president to guide him in the right direction,” Taylor said Wednesday.