A former high-ranking homeland security official in the first Trump administration is launching a new online hub Wednesday to facilitate protests and other resistance efforts against President Trump and his policies.
Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, is leading a group of dozens of former national security officials, whistleblowers and a bipartisan group of former elected officials to create a website called defiance.org.
In its mission statement, the bipartisan group says the tool is “designed to help Americans push back peacefully, lawfully, and defiantly against presidential abuses of power.”
Taylor told CBS News, “There are many organizations and a million efforts, but there has not been a clearinghouse for people who regularly seek ways to engage. This is a ‘Google’ for defiance, where people can go to see their options to push back lawfully, peacefully and defiantly.”
In September 2018, Taylor wrote an anonymous opinion piece in the New York Times that said there was a “quiet resistance” to President Trump within his own administration, made up of people “working diligently” to block what he called the president’s “worst inclinations.” He disclosed two years later that he had written the op-ed.
The announcement of the new site is intended to capitalize on momentum from the October “No Kings” rallies earlier this month, which attracted participants across the country.
The site launched Wednesday with a video of actor Robert DeNiro, a staunch Trump critic, urging protesters and critics to join forces.
“You can’t just sit on your ass and wait for the insanity and cruelty to pass. No,” DeNiro says in the video. “You gotta stand up and fight.”
In April, Mr. Trump signed an executive memo targeting Taylor, accusing him of manufacturing stories to sell a book, and ordered DHS, the Justice Department and other government agencies to investigate him and revoke his security clearances, as well as for those who worked closely with him. Mr. Trump also ordered an investigation into the alleged dissemination of classified documents while Taylor worked for the government. Taylor denies he leaked any such material.
Defiance.org is described in its mission statement as a “nationwide ‘mutual aid’ pact to defend those under attack.” It aims to support nonprofit partners, and says it will join “peaceful protests and legal defense efforts.”
Taylor told CBS News supporters of the effort include Stephanie Grisham, a press secretary from the first Trump administration, and former aide Olivia Troye, both of whom have become vocal critics of the president.
Dozens of former elected leaders and Trump critics, including former Republican congressmen Reid Ribble, Denver Riggleman and Joe Walsh, are also supporting the new portal.
Taylor said the mutual aid feature of the portal is intended to help those targeted by the administration. He said a future effort could include rallying legal, political and community leaders to support Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who is under investigation by the Justice Department, if he is charged. Taylor said the Defiance.org hub would be used to galvanize and organize legal help, courthouse supporters and public statements in support of Schiff or against the Trump administration.
Riggleman told CBS News the group would seek to “protect Americans against political overreach and targeted retaliation.”
The White House has harshly criticized Taylor in the past, including in this statement in April.
“While serving as an administrative staff assistant at the Department of Homeland Security, Taylor stoked dissension by manufacturing sensationalist reports on the existence of a supposed ‘resistance’ within the federal government that ‘vowed’ to undermine and render effective (sic) a sitting President,” the White House said.