Trump fires CISA head Chris Krebs for rejecting claims about voter fraud

The move was widely expected, following a CISA announcement last week denouncing Trump's claims about electoral fraud

Donald Trump has fired the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Chris Krebs, who had previously publicly contradicted the outgoing President's claims of widespread voter fraud during 2020 election.

Trump said on Twitter that he was terminating Krebs "effective immediately," because his recent statement on the security of the 2020 Presidential Election was "highly inaccurate" (this is a lie).

Trump said that there were "massive improprieties and fraud" during 2020 election, including dead people voting. He also repeated other groundless theories about the election in his tweet, which was flagged by the microblogging site as "disputed."

Responding to his termination, Krebs stated on Twitter: "Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomorrow."

While abrupt, Krebs' dismissal was not surprising. He had given many statements over the past weeks, without mentioning the President by name, which challenged Trump's false narrative of widespread fraud during the election.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Krebs mentioned a report that cited 59 election security experts, stating that there was no evidence of election system manipulation in the 2020 election outcome.

Last week, CISA said in a statement that there was no evidence to indicate that any voting system was deleted or compromised. CISA even described the 2020 elections as "the most secure in American history".

Krebs has served as the director of CISA since its founding in November 2018, in the wake of Russian interference in the 2016 election. He previously served as an undersecretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, and held cyber security policy roles at Microsoft.

Krebs won bipartisan praise during his tenure at CISA, as the Agency coordinated efforts from various government departments to protect electoral systems from domestic or foreign interference.

Sen. Mark Warner, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, described Krebs as "one of the few people in this administration respected by everyone on both sides of the aisle."

Some Congress members reacted angrily after news emerged that Krebs had been fired.

"By firing Mr. Krebs for simply doing his job, President Trump is inflicting severe damage on all Americans — who rely on CISA's defenses, even if they don't know it," said Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine.

Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, said that Krebs "did a really good job".

Representative Adam Schiff called Trump's decision "pathetic" and criticised him for retaliating against officials who are doing their duties.

Schiff also praised Krebs for his efforts to "inform the American people about what was true and what was not".