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Donald Trump fires his top election security official
The outgoing US president has refused to accept the election outcome, continues to falsely claim he has won, and has barred his administration from cooperating with the transition team of Biden
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired a top election security official from an agency of his own administration that certified the elections as the most secure in US history. Trump has refused to acknowledge he lost to President-elect Joe Biden and has launched legal challenges.
“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,” Trump wrote on Twitter, and added, replaying his long list of unfounded allegations, “therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.”
The CISA, as the agency is called, is part of the department of homeland security. Krebs was appointed by Trump.
The outgoing president has refused to accept the election outcome, continues to falsely claim he has won, and has barred his administration from cooperating with the transition team of Biden.
President Trump’s allies in the Republican Party and conservative commentators have publicly said he must be allowed to exhaust his legal options, which he is doing but with diminishing returns. Calls are growing from him to accept the result and move on.
A recount of votes is currently under way in Georgia, which Biden won. Troves of previously uncounted ballots were discovered, but not enough to change the outcome. Michigan is close to finalising its tally and the president-elect is way ahead. Wisconsin has completed its official count of votes and Biden is ahead, but the Trump campaign has until Wednesday evening to seek a recount, against a payment of nearly $8 million.
The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits, which are being argued by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to prevent Pennsylvania, the key battleground state that tipped the election in favour of Biden, from certifying its outcome. Biden has continued to increase his tally in the state.
