Former Trump official says the GOP is the 'number 1 national security threat' to the US, bigger than ISIS or Russia

• An ex-Trump official said the GOP is the top national security threat to the US.
• "Unless my Party reforms, its extremist elements represent the leading threat to our democracy," he said.
• Democracy scholars have issued similar warnings about the GOP, particularly since January 6.

A former Trump administration official on Thursday said the Republican party is the top national security threat to the US, as the party's rank-and-file lawmakers continue to support former President Donald Trump's baseless claims of election fraud that incited the Jan. 6 insurrection and use it as a rationale to impose voting restrictions.

"I've spent my whole career not as a political operative. I've never worked on a campaign in my life other than campaigning against Trump. I'm a national security guy. I've worked in national security against ISIS, al Qaeda and Russia," Miles Taylor, a former Homeland Security official, said in an appearance on MSNBC's "The Reid Out."

"And the number one national security threat I've ever seen in my life to this country's democracy is the party that I'm in - the Republican Party. It is the number one security national security threat to the United States of America," Taylor added.

The former Homeland Security official has been an outspoken critic of Trump and his influence in the GOP. Taylor launched an anti-Trump GOP group and endorsed President Joe Biden during the 2020 campaign season, and in October was revealed as the anonymous author of a 2018 New York Times op-ed article that said there was a "resistance" in the Trump administration.

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Though Trump is no longer in the White House, he continues to wield unparalleled authority in the Republican party. Taylor on Thursday warned Americans that they should be concerned for the future of the country if this trend continues.

"If [House Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy continues to pay homage to a twice-impeached presidential loser, I think should give all Americans pause and make them worry about the future of this country and national security," Taylor said.

-The ReidOut (@thereidout) July 15, 2021

Taylor doubled-down on his remarks in a tweet on Friday.

"I stand by my statement. Unless my Party reforms, its extremist elements represent the leading threat to our democracy," he said.

Scholars on democracy have issued stark warnings following the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, as the GOP vies to whitewash the fatal attack and Republican-led legislatures nationwide take extraordinary steps to restrict voting.

"With Trump gone, I hoped the Republican party might recalibrate, moving away from his illiberal, anti-democratic and irrational behavior and embracing a conservative, but firmly reality-based and small 'd' democratic politics," Sheri Berman, a professor of political science at Barnard College and author of "Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Régime to the Present Day," told Insider last month.

"That the Republican party has proven to be a greater threat than Trump - a single individual - bodes poorly for the health of American democracy," Berman added.