Trump sacking Homeland Security agency director for rejecting president’s electoral conspiracy theories



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“Chris Krebs’ recent statement on the security of the 2020 election was very inaccurate, in that there were massive irregularities and fraud,” Trump said in a tweet before repeating several theories of conspriacy without basis on election. “Therefore, with immediate effect, Chris Krebs has been dismissed as Director of the Agency for Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security.”

CNN reported that Krebs, who headed the cyber branch of the Department of Homeland Security, should be fired.

In the run-up to the election, Krebs had often quietly disputed the president’s repeated false claims about mail-in ballots, but did everything possible not to get drawn into criticizing his boss for spreading lies.

But in the days that followed, Krebs took a more forceful approach by posting regularly on Twitter – often with screaming red siren emojis – fact-checks on the allegations and conspiracy theories pushed by Trump, his allies and his supporters. supporters across the country.

Krebs was responsible for a widely acclaimed overhaul of the department’s cybersecurity efforts and increased coordination with state and local governments, as CISA’s first director. He was one of the most senior federal national security officials who oversaw an election which obviously went very well.

Foreign opponents could not influence any of the votes, the CISA said, and it was “the safest election in American history,” according to them and the larger group of public and private election officials. That was the statement the president decided to fire Krebs for on Tuesday night.

Krebs kept control of the facts of the president’s conspiracy until the final hours of his tenure, tweeting earlier Tuesday that allegations of manipulation of electoral systems “have been unfounded or are technically inconsistent.” He quoted a letter signed by 59 election experts which also said that “anyone who claims that an American election was ‘rigged’ is making a extraordinary claim “and called them” alarming claims “.

Shooting Krebs, a US official told CNN, “would cross a red line” and set off alarm bells throughout the national security apparatus.

Yet his sacking comes after several of the Pentagon’s top civilian officials were replaced with officials perceived to be loyal to the president, and reports of Trump’s growing frustration with CIA Director Gina Haspel.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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