Former Homeland Security Department official Miles Taylor joined CNN as a contributor in August, the cable news network confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
Taylor, who served in the department from 2017 to 2019, including as chief of staff, has become as a vocal critic of President Trump, first emerging in a Washington Post op-ed in August in which he accused Trump of trying to politicize the DHS and undermining the security of the nation.
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Among his allegations, Taylor said Trump made requests to favor his base at all hours of the day, including adding spikes to the top of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and shutting off congressionally appropriated funds to a foreign ally who angered him.
“Meanwhile, Trump showed vanishingly little interest in subjects of vital national security interest, including cybersecurity, domestic terrorism and malicious foreign interference in U.S. affairs,” Taylor wrote.
In an ad for the political group, Republican Voters Against Trump, Taylor resurfaced an old accusation that Trump offered pardons to DHS officials who broke the law in order to curb immigration.
Trump denied he ever did such a thing when the claims were first reported by the Washington Post and New York Times in the fall of 2019.
Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf also denied several of Taylor’s assertions and accused him of having political motives given the timing of his public criticism of Trump and his endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Following the recent anonymously sourced story in the Atlantic, in which anonymous sources said Trump referred to fallen soldiers as “losers” and dead Marines as “suckers,” Taylor said he believes more senior Trump administration officials will speak out against the president in the coming days.
In an interview with CNN over the weekend, Taylor said he has been encouraging former colleagues to come forward about their experience working under Trump.
