Krebs doubles down after threat: ‘2020 election was most secure in US history’

The ousted head of cybersecurity for the U.S. said he stands by his determination that the 2020 election was the most secure in the nation’s history.

In an op-ed for The Washington Post published after a Trump campaign lawyer said he should be shot, Christopher Krebs wrote about specific efforts the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency undertook ahead of the 2020 election.

These included aiding states in the expansion of voting systems that provide paper records rather than direct recording electronic (DRE) machines, which generate no such record, he wrote. Ahead of the 2020 election, Louisiana was the only state using DRE machines.

“This point cannot be emphasized enough: The secretaries of state in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania, as well officials in Wisconsin, all worked overtime to ensure there was a paper trail that could be audited or recounted by hand, independent of any allegedly hacked software or hardware,” Krebs added.

Krebs attributed Georgia’s ability to conduct a full hand recount of its vote to the improvements made to its election security.

“Clearly, the Georgia count was not manipulated, resoundingly debunking claims by the president and his allies about the involvement of CIA supercomputers, malicious software programs or corporate rigging aided by long-gone foreign dictators,” he wrote, referencing conspiracy theories around Dominion Voting Systems and the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

President Trump, who has not conceded and has repeatedly claimed without evidence that there was massive fraud in the election, fired Krebs shortly after Krebs pronounced the election the most secure in U.S. history. Krebs has also stood by his assessment in an interview with “60 Minutes,” saying, “We did a good job. We did it right. I’d do it a thousand times over.”

Joe diGenova, a lawyer for the Trump reelection campaign, said on “The Howie Carr Show” that Krebs should be “taken out at dawn and shot” for his comments. DiGenova has since claimed the remark was “in jest.”

Krebs suggested earlier this week that he may take legal action against diGenova for the remarks.

“We are a nation of laws, and I plan to take advantage of those laws,” Krebs told NBC’s “Today” Tuesday. “I’ve got an exceptional team of lawyers that win in court, and I think they’re probably going to be busy.”