"You lied to us": CNN anchor confronts "anonymous" author for previous denial

Former Homeland Security official Miles Taylor on Wednesday defended his August denial that he authored an anonymous New York Times editorial that described a "resistance" within the Trump administration — an article he now claims to have written.

The state of play: Taylor said Wednesday he refuted having written the op-ed because he wanted President Trump to challenge the claims in his book "on their merits," rather than launching personal attacks on him.

Flashback: Taylor in August denied on CNN — where he is now an on-air contributor — that he was behind the op-ed.

What's new: "You lied to us Miles," anchor Chris Cuomo said in the interview on Wednesday evening. "You were asked in August if you were Anonymous here on CNN with Anderson Cooper and you said no. Now why should CNN keep you on the payroll after lying like that?"

What he's saying: "We have seen over the course of four years that Donald Trump's preference is to find personal attacks and distractions to pull people away from criticisms of his record," Taylor said.

• "I wrote that work anonymously to deprive him of that opportunity, and to force him to answer the questions on their merits. I'll tell you what happened, Chris. The end result is the president couldn't."
• "When asked by Anderson, whether I was 'Anonymous' during that time period, I said what I was going to do. I temporarily denied it. But I always said I would ultimately come out under my own name."
• "I owe an apology for having to maintain that necessary misdirection for that period of time in order for that argument to work."

The big picture: Taylor already publicly endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in a video funded by Republican Voters Against Trump, accusing the president of wanting to "exploit the Department of Homeland Security for his own political purposes and to fuel his own agenda."