Christopher Krebs, the former federal cybersecurity chief who was fired by President Donald Trump after issuing a statement saying the Nov. 3 election was secure, said Tuesday he has not seen anything "based in reality" that would change his opinion but admitted there are still opportunities where a case of fraud could be proven.
"It is important to distinguish between the security of the systems and the ability to resist foreign interference, foreign tampering, and machine algorithms and fraud," Krebs, the former director of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told NBC "Today" anchor Savannah Guthrie. "Fraud is a criminal act that will be dealt with and investigated by the appropriate law enforcement entities."
Krebs said the statement issued on Nov. 12 about the security of the election didn't come just from his own agency, but from "everyone involved in the elections from state and local election officials, other federal agencies. In fact, the vendors that support elections."
Krebs added that he knows the election was secure because 90% to 95% of the votes cast had a verifiable paper audit trail, meaning the voters' intents were registered on paper.
"Regardless of what happens next, in this subsequent canvas, audit, and recount process, if there is some sort of machine that's compromised, there's subsequent checks, including like we just saw in Georgia with the hand recount of every ballot and the outcome was consistent," said Krebs.
Meanwhile, Krebs said it never really crossed his mind that he could be fired for his statement.
"What we adopted, the approach that we took from the beginning in terms of securing the 2020 election, was a non-partisan approach," said Krebs. "We're seeing that play out with secretaries of state across the country whether they're Democrat or Republican."
Krebs, who had been appointed by Trump, pointed out he's a lifelong Republican who served "with honor" under the president and who also served in President George W. Bush's administration.
"I will always be thankful to President Trump for the opportunity ... that's an honor of a career and I will always be thankful for that. Again, when you enter federal service you pledge an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution from foreign and domestic, country over party. That's what we did. Approached it in a non-partisan way, and we did it right."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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