Election securityTrump Fires Security Chief Who Said 2020 Vote Was “Most Secure” in U.S. History

By Jeff Seldin

Published 18 November 2020

Barely two weeks after the polls closed in an election he is now projected to lose, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to fire CISA’s director Christopher Krebs, the official responsible for spearheading efforts to secure the vote. Since the 3 November election, Trump, his campaign, and some of his supporters have issued a continuous stream of allegations about the integrity of the election, but evidence of massive voter fraud or other irregularities on a scale necessary to swing the election in Trump’s favor has not materialized. Late last Thursday, a coalition of federal and state officials, including CISA, further rejected the allegations as baseless. Krebs himself had also taken an active role in debunking rumors and unfounded allegations in the days and weeks following the election, taking to Twitter to dismiss some conspiracy theories as “nonsense.”

Editor’s note: Five days ago, on 13 November 2013, David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth wrote in the New York Times, under the title “Christopher Krebs Hasn’t Been Fired, Yet,” that: “Mr. Krebs’s government agency [Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA*] contradicted President Trump’s false claims that the election was rigged. At this point, Mr. Krebs, a former Microsoft executive, still has a job.” On Tuesday, 17 November 2020, President Trump fired Krebs in a tweet.

* CISA is a standalone U.S. federal agency, an operational component under Department of Homeland Security (DHS) oversight.

Barely two weeks after the polls closed in an election he is now projected to lose, U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter to fire the official responsible for spearheading efforts to secure the vote. 

Trump late Tuesday berated the director of the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency, Christopher Krebs, for making what he called a “highly inaccurate” statement about the election, alleging the November 3 presidential election was marred by “massive improprieties and fraud.”   

“Effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency,” Trump added. 

Krebs responded to his firing on social media, using a newly verified personal Twitter account. 

“Honored to serve,” he said. “We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomrorow. (sic) #Protect2020”

Tensions over alleged voter fraud had been brewing for months — Trump repeatedly sounding alarms about potential fraud in the run-up to this month’s election, focusing his concern on the expanded use of mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

He renewed those allegations on November 5, two days after the election, announcing on Twitter that his campaign would be challenging results in many of the states projected to go for his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, due to “Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud.” 

However, despite a continuous stream of allegations from his campaign and his supporters, evidence of massive voter fraud or other irregularities on a scale necessary to swing the election in Trump’s favor has not materialized.   

Late last Thursday, a coalition of federal and state officials, including CISA, further rejected the allegations as baseless. 

“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history,” the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) Executive Committee and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council said. “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised.”