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Trump Slammed For Terminating Cybersecurity Director Who Dismissed His Election Conspiracies
President Donald Trump's first term in office has been infamous for the stratospheric turnaround among the White House staff.
Many of the White House's most notable departures were the result of politically motivated firings from Trump—after all, "you're fired" has been the President's mantra since his days as a reality television star.
Trump fired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman and European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland after the two complied with a Congressionally issued subpoena to testify before the House Select Committee on Impeachment last year. He fired former FBI Director James Comey for pursuing ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. He fired Comey's acting successor, Andrew McCabe, for the same reason.
These were just some of the transparently political firings from the White House.
Now, as Trump doubles down in his refusal to accept the reality that President-elect Joe Biden defeated him in the 2020 election, the President has now fired the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) head, Chris Krebs.
As CISA director, Krebs repeatedly debunked Trump's lies about widespread voter fraud tipping the 2020 election to Biden.
He's done so on his personal Twitter account...
And through statements issued by CISA itself, one which read:
"The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result."
While Krebs was attempting to salvage a modicum of faith in the democratic process that's defined the United States since its inception, his fact-checks were taken as personal slights to Trump, who's infinitesimal chances of securing a second term hinge on eroded public trust in American democracy.
With that in mind, Trump fired Krebs by tweet on Tuesday.
Trump claimed the firing was a result of "highly inaccurate" statements on election security; ironically enough, the very tweet denouncing this "highly inaccurate" information was flagged by Twitter for...containing highly inaccurate information.
...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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2020
Except for Krebs' termination, every claim Trump made in the above tweets is false.
Trump's own lawyers concede in court cases that Republican poll watchers were permitted in counting facilities and photo evidence shows they were present. The few glitches that switched Trump votes to Biden votes were immediately identified and didn't affect the vote totals. Many of the dead people the Trump campaign claims have voted are actually alive and well. No one voted late, ballots were counted after the election, as has been the process in every American presidential election in history.
Krebs has taken to Twitter to defend himself.
People didn't hesitate to call out Trump for the blatantly political termination.
Even some Republicans were concerned at Krebs' dismissal.
Asked if he wished Trump didn't fire Krebs, Portman said: "Yeah I think he was very good. I think what he was trying to do in an unprecedented way was to connect with every state in the country, and give them what they needed to protect and have a firewall ..against cyberattacks
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 18, 2020
Krebs will likely be one of the few former Trump appointees whose reputation post-Trump remains more or less unblemished.