President Donald Trump on Wednesday addressed the revelation that Miles Taylor, a former mid-level official at the Department of Homeland Security, was the “Anonymous” author of a New York Times op-ed critical of his administration, calling Taylor a “low-level low-life” he had never met.

“You know this ‘Anonymous’ that everybody’s been looking for?” Trump said at a rally in Arizona. “It turned out to be an anonymous 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 — I don’t know what for, but they tell me incompetence.”

“You know where he works now? He works at CNN. Can you believe it?” Trump said with a chuckle. He added that he was concerned it was one of his advisers, Hope Hicks, or son-in-law Jared Kushner, or Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) or Rand Paul (R-KY).

“If you heard about ‘Anonymous,’ it was like it was somebody right next to me,” Trump said. “I thought it might’ve been Hope Hicks. I thought it might’ve been Jared. I thought it might’ve been Mike Lee, from the great state of Utah. I was extremely worried about Rand Paul.”

CNN anchor Jake Tapper announced Wednesday that Taylor — a CNN contributor — was the author of a September 2018 op-ed critical of Trump. The Times described him at the time as a “senior administration official,” although he was the deputy chief of staff to the DHS Secretary at the time. Taylor subsequently authored a book under the same pseudonym. He had served as chief of staff to former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Acting Secretary Chad Wolf.

After leaving the administration, Taylor began working for Google in 2019, and became the company’s lead for advanced technology and security strategy in July. However, he went on leave the following the month after outcry by Democrats, including some in Congress, who objected to his prior work for the Trump administration. Democratic leaders of the Hispanic, Black and Asian Pacific American caucuses in the House had said they were “troubled with Google’s decision to hire someone from the Trump administration” who had defended DHS policies related to immigration.

“This guy’s a low-level low-life,” Trump said at his rally in Arizona. “I have no idea who he is other than I got to see him a little while ago on television.”

He added: “He worked with the — listen to this — the fake news New York Times. And he’s an employee of Google. Isn’t that nice? The whole thing was just one more giant hoax from the Washington swamp and a corrupt special interest group.”

Watch above via the Trump campaign.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/3ea3D1Z