Former Homeland Security official Miles Taylor on Friday confronted pro-MAGA pundit Scott Jennings on CNN’s “NewsNight” for changing his tune on President Donald Trump, noting that Jennings used to openly condemn Trump, calling him “an authoritarian” years ago.
The “NewsNight” panel was discussing recent fractures among Republicans over Trump’s battle against transparency regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case. Jennings said he traces the anger back to Trump’s “righteous” decision to bomb Iran earlier this year.
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“I trace it back further than that, Scott,” countered Taylor. “I trace it back to 10 years ago, when you said Donald Trump was an authoritarian. And you know what, Scott? I’ve got to hand it to you, that was a remarkable forecast. Because 10 years later, I think you called it.”
“Here’s Donald Trump today, the man with the heart and soul of a fascist, showing us he now has the bona fides by tonight ordering investigations into American citizens,” Taylor continued. “That’s why members of his administration … have turned against him.”
Jennings described Trump as an “authoritarian” in a 2016 opinion column in the Louisville Courier-Journal. He also said live on CNN after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots that Trump “clearly violated his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.”
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Jennings added that the riots were “an insurrection” that “should be labeled as such.”
He tried to counter Taylor, who was a former chief of staff to Trump’s ex-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen before writing a highly critical essay in 2018 that led Trump to order an official Department of Justice investigation into Taylor’s supposed treason.
“Why are you so upset he is running the executive branch?” Jennings asked Taylor, who fired back, “For the same reasons you predicted he shouldn’t, for the same reasons, Scott, you said that he violated his oath and he should never be back in that office.”
He reiterated, “That’s why I’m upset for the man being in the Oval Office.”