Washington: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired Christopher Krebs, the cyber chief of the Department of Homeland Security, who has publicly rejected Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud.
Krebs, a former Microsoft executive, was nominated in 2018 by Trump as the first director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, which is known as CISA.
Trump announced Krebs’ termination on Twitter, stating that his statement on the security of the 2020 election was ‘highly inaccurate’. However, Twitter flagged both tweets with warning labels saying, “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”
“The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud – including dead people voting, Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, “glitches” in the voting machines which changed…” he tweeted.
“…votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more. Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency,” he said in another tweet.
Trump also said that though his administration takes credit for making the election impenetrable by foreign powers, the Democrats and Dominion Voting Systems were more successful.
“The only thing secure about our 2020 Election was that it was virtually impenetrable by foreign powers. On that, the Trump Administration takes great credit. Unfortunately, the Radical Left Democrats, Dominion, and others, were perhaps more successful!” he said.
Earlier, Krebs had said that several election experts had agreed that the allegations of manipulation of polling systems were “unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent”.
“ICYMI: On allegations that election systems were manipulated, 59 election security experts all agree, “in every case of which we are aware, these claims either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent,” tweeted Krebs.
Krebs’ departure adds to a growing list of Trump administration officials who have been fired or stepped down in the wake of the general election, with Trump firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper and eying letting go Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Gina Haspel and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray, according to The Hill.
Since President-elect Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the US Presidential elections, Trump has continued to claim widespread voter fraud in the polls, and has promised to legally challenge the results.