Even though he continues to publicly pledge his fealty to failed one-term, twice-indicted former president Donald Trump, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) secretly loathes Trump and considers him a danger to the country, according to a former Trump aide.
Miles Taylor, former chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security, told The Guardian that he too had once believed Trump wasn’t a threat to the United States, but he quickly changed his mind and began speaking out publicly.
“The flirtation with putting another hyper-populist far-right person in the White House is effectively civic suicidal ideation,” Taylor said. “In the course of writing this, the personal guardrails being ripped off in my life looked an awful lot like what’s happening right now where our collective silence, at least in the Republican Party, about this guy is leading us potentially towards self-destruction.”
Taylor added, “Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t people sounding the alarm but, by and large, the leading figures of the Republican Party refuse to repudiate this man and continue to support him. We are doing this again, even though those people say privately he’s a threat.”
In his book, Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump, that has been released today, Taylor explains McCarthy’s view of Trump.
“He thought Trump was a buffoon and a danger, and I’m sure Kevin still thinks that privately. Those people publicly, because they’re afraid, are still supporting the man. That collective anonymity is putting us in pretty seriously great danger.”
There are other Republicans in Congress who feel the same way, according to Taylor, but they too are afraid to say so publicly.
“Some of the people who were incredibly critical of me for publishing anonymous critiques of the president are the same people who, when I interviewed them, asked that I not use their names so that they could speak candidly,” Taylor said. “They asked if they could be anonymous in the book. You can’t even make that sh*t up: that’s insane hypocrisy.”
“After I submitted to the publisher, I went back to some of these people multiple times and said, ‘I really think you should consider letting me put you on the record here, let’s make this an opportunity for you to be on the record pushing back against this,’” Taylor said. “‘Oh, no, no, no, no. It doesn’t make sense right now. I’m better positioned in my job in Congress or within the party to steer the direction.’”
Anyone who values democracy needs to speak out, Taylor insists.
“To them I would say: I thought the same thing and was completely f*cking wrong because we weren’t able to steer in the right direction. Look, you guys aren’t having an effect. He’s still dominating. Stop fooling yourselves. The best impact you can have will be to speak out from within the tribe because it is air cover for other people to do the same. I’m afraid we’re sleepwalking back into the exact same mistakes we made last time and that’s why I called this Blowback.”
