As you read in the headline, ex-President Donald Trumped fired CISA director Chris Kebs, for debunking baseless claims of widespread electoral fraud.
CISA’s Rumor Control website seemed to have angered the White House, even, when they have avoided mentioning Donald Trump’s name.
How does this begin in the first place… And how it concluded?
Let’s find out.
Donald Trump Fired CISA Director
“Take the elevator… You’re fired” – The Apprentice.
On November 18 (Tuesday evening), Donald Trump tweeted about firing Krebs due to its agency’s “highly inaccurate” statement about the 2020 election.
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…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2020
Such a statement was backed up by a whole list of independent security experts, as well as signed by election officials across the country.
It was possibly, the most secure election in U.S. history, so far. He cited a considerable increase in the number of votes cast with a paper record, since 2016.
Ex-Director Chris Krebs was also, a former Microsoft executive who got appointed in 2017 by Trump’s White House to senior DHS role former.
He (Krebs) did a great job in the 2016 election when built trust between state election officials and federal counterparts, in a time when they were against each other.
He also traveled across the country in the 2018 midterms, to support local officials to update their software, being capable of keeping viligant for foreign hacking threats.
The CISA director did the same for the 2020 presidential vote campaign.
What type of foregoing, foreign hacking threats are we talking about?
Iranian and Russian hackers were suspected of preparing to access U.S. voter data in the run-up, but none of that happened. That was part of Trump’s debunked myths.
If you were cautious about media outlets around those days of Joe Biden’s victory, then you have probably heard how Trump kept the announcements of foreign and domestic mis/disinformation at its peak.
His allies raged online about all that had to do with the votes, and the false claims were only amplifying in the aftermath.
There was one particularly absurd conspiracy theory made by former Trump adviser, Steve Bannon, which Kreb knocked down as “nonsense.”
According to Bannon, there was a “Supercomputer”, controlled by the U.S. Government, that was stealing votes.
Krebs didn’t stop retweeting comments of the Ex-president’s ravings posted by elections experts until it was enough. Probably, when he tweeted “Honored to serve. We did it right” from his account, just minutes after Trump fired him.
Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomrorow. #Protect2020
— Chris Krebs (@C_C_Krebs) November 18, 2020
He already knew his days were numbered once the electoral support was heavily turning in favor of Joe Biden (president-elect). Chris Krebs expected it.
Bryan Ware, CISA official, and Kreb’s assistant director, also “suffered” the casualty of the post-election fallout. He was requested to resign two days later.
Of course, both acts were widely condemned within the cybersecurity community.
For example, John Brennan (the ex-CIA director who served under President Barack Obama) announced that “the firing of Krebs was just a “vendetta” by a president who is “trying to steal the election back” from Biden.”
He continued: “Donald Trump knows nothing about cybersecurity or technology and therefore he again continues to condemn those who say anything he disagrees with.”
Ted Lieu (California Congressman) did an interesting observation about the president appointing Krebs himself. He says that it makes it unlikely for the cybersecurity expert to lie about the veracity of the whole event.
Chris Krebs is a Trump appointee. There was no reason for Krebs to lie when he concluded the elections were secure and fair. @realDonaldTrump fired Krebs for telling the truth. @POTUS can keep firing people, but he can’t change the fact that he lost the presidential election. https://t.co/GA3x8d3UB4
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) November 18, 2020
U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner also backed the belief of Krebs being fired for telling the truth: “Chris Krebs is an extraordinary public servant and exactly the person Americans want protecting the security of our elections.”
More cybersecurity experts expressed disappointment over Kreb’s dismissal.
A large group thinks it was surreal and disheartening. Worrying at least, to find how the mission of identifying and blocking threat actors is then, “banned.”
What do you think?
Please, let us know… Because we support you!