President Donald Trump has deepened his purge of officials who have contradicted his unfounded accusations of voter fraud, firing a high-level cybersecurity expert whose November 3 elections have been described as “the safest in American history. “
On a tweet Tuesday night, Trump said he had ended up with Christopher Krebs, the former Microsoft Corp executive, who became the first director of the Infrastructure security and cybersecurity agency, known as CISA.
“Chris Krebs’ recent 2020 election security was very inaccurate, since there were big irregularities and fraud: adding dead people who voted, banned election observers at polling stations, ‘problems’ in voting machines that replaced Trump’s votes to Biden, overdue votes and many others,” Trump tweeted, adding that he was ending Krebs” with immediate effect. “
Trump’s claims about the election have been unfounded and have been refuted by state election officials. And while Trump’s legally demanding situations have failed in key states, adding Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, the president has continued to claim that the election, which he lost to the president — elected Joe Biden, “rigged. “
Krebs was nominated in 2018 through Trump for a high-level position in cybersecurity and took over CISA, a component of the National Security Decomposer, later this year. a day of setbacks and controversy in the efforts of Trump and his supporters to question the election results.
In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court rejected its campaign’s key argument that Republican vote observers were too far away to monitor the count well, while in Michigan, Republican officials blocked the certification of the election result in Detroit’s domain before agreeing to certify the results.
Prior to the election, Krebs used cisA to demystify allegations of electoral fraud trafficked through the president and his supporters.
The ONLINE page CISA Rumor Control sought to dispel erroneous data about the 2020 election and included a video with Krebs. The site questioned accusations that votes had been cast on behalf of deceased persons and that “secret” watermarks on the ballots helped determine illegal votes. It’s still active Wednesday morning.
His departure comes when key officials from his firm and his relative, the Department of Homeland Security, resigned amid a broader purge through Trump after the election.
Bryan Ware, CISA’s deputy director of cyber security, resigned on November 12 after two years at the agency; Valérie Boyd, undersecretary of foreign affairs at DHS, also left; Matthew Travis, Deputy Director of Krebs, resigned on November 17 after being informed that he will not take over as CISA, according to three other people close to the case who requested anonymity because they are not legal to speak in public. Brandon Wales, a career bureaucrat and third on the Krebs line, now runs the agency, other people said. .
Matthew Masterson, CISA’s senior advisor on election security, reported on a tweet Wednesday morning that Krebs’ dismissal would deter the agency.
Krebs, who simply cannot be contacted for comment, won the bipartisan party for its role in holding safe elections in the United States in 2018 and this year. Some members of Congress reacted with anger to the announcement of their dismissal.
“By firing Mr. Krebs simply for doing his job, President Trump is causing serious harm to all Americans, who depend on CISA defenses, even if they don’t know,” said Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine and others – chairman of the Solarium Cyberspace Commission.
Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, said Krebs “did a very smart job. “”Clearly he was fired.
Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Standing Committee on Intelligence, praised Krebs’ efforts to safeguard the election and “inform other Americans of what is true and what is not. “
“Instead of rewarding this wonderful service, President Trump opposes Director Krebs and the officials who have done his duty. It’s pathetic,” Schiff said.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended Krebs’ decision, saying evidence that she had tweeted several misconceptions and saying that she believes her statements were “encouraged by something” such as “a party show or a non-public complaint. “
At his confirmation hearing in the Senate in 2018, Krebs said one of his most sensible priorities is to “strengthen the resilience of our country’s electoral systems. “
As he hypothesized that he lost his job, Krebs did not back down. In a tweet from his non-public account after his dismissal, he said, “We did well. “
– With that of Justin Sink, Shaun Courtney and Emma Kinery