Joe Klein has harsh words for Miles Taylor, a very different ‘Anonymous’
Joe Klein Image by Getty/Leigh Vogel/Contributor
By PJ Grisar October 29, 2020
Before Miles Taylor, there was Joe Klein.
Klein was a reporter at Newsweek when he anonymously published “Primary Colors,” a bestselling roman à clef informed by his coverage of the 1992 Bill Clinton presidential campaign. In the summer of 1996 — after months of denial — Klein admitted he was, in fact, Anonymous.
So, what does Klein think of Taylor, the newly-confessed Department of Homeland Security official who, over two years ago, penned an anonymous Op-Ed claiming to be a member of the White House Resistance and later a book to the same effect?
“It’s apples and freight trains,” Klein said when reached by phone. “I wrote a satire. He was part of the worst administration in the history of our country and if he thought it was important enough to call the president on this, he should have done it publicly, because there are an awful lot of other people who were doing it publicly.”
This isn’t a new stance for Klein. In The Washington Post, the Time columnist called for this other Anonymous to step forward. “We are past the point of being coy about the president’s malfeasance,” Klein concluded in the lead-up to the publication of Taylor’s book, “A Warning.” “It is time to stand and deliver.”
That op-ed ran on October 30, 2019 — almost exactly a year to date from Taylor’s admission to CNN (the same network where he vehemently denied he was Anonymous just a couple months ago). So, too little too late?
“He should have done it a long time ago,” Klein said.
Don’t expect an Anonymous support group (Anon Anon?) anytime soon.
PJ Grisar is the Forward’s culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
