Chris Krebs, who led the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity arm and was fired by President Trump last month after publicly debunking the sitting president’s conspiracy theories challenging the legitimacy of the election process, on Sunday warned of dire consequences as a result of Trump and Republican lawmakers’ refusal to acknowledge that President-elect Joe Biden won the election.
On Saturday night, Krebs panned Trump for waging more baseless election fraud claims during his appearance at a Georgia rally in support of the state’s Republican senators running for re-election. Krebs tweeted that the rally was an “active, coordinated disinformation campaign to undermine confidence in our elections.”
I’d much rather be watching football right now. Yet everyone should watch the rally to see an active, coordinated #disinfo campaign to undermine confidence in our elections. This is not stumping for candidates. This is corrosive to democracy. I’d rather be watching football.
— Chris Krebs (@C_C_Krebs) December 6, 2020
The next morning, Krebs reiterated his stance during an interview on CBS on Sunday morning.
After saying that “it is well past the time where all leaders of the Republican Party” must accept that Joe Biden is the president elect, Krebs was asked about what he thinks the consequences are regarding the sitting president’s attempts at sowing doubt on the election process.
“I do think it’s corrosive to confidence in the election, in democracy,” Krebs said. “You know, the point of elections, it’s often been said by election officials, is that you’re trying to convince the loser that they lost. But to do that, you have to have willing participants that are honest brokers. And we’re just not seeing this right now.”
Krebs said that there has been no evidence that has supported Trump’s baseless election fraud claims and that “it is time to move on,” especially in light of the Georgia Senate runoffs next month that will determine the balance of the Senate.
“You should have confidence, particularly Georgia voters should have confidence in the election and they need to get out for the January 5th Senate runoff,” Krebs said.
Krebs, who’s described himself as a lifelong Republican, was then pressed on why he thinks most Republicans won’t outright acknowledge that Biden is president-elect.
Krebs replied that he’s unsure of the motivations behind Republicans who still won’t come around to publicly acknowledging that Biden on the election, before calling on leaders in the national security community and in the Republican Party to “stand up to accept the results and move forward.”
“We cannot allow this to continue, certainly not past January 20th, certainly not for the next four years,” Krebs said. “Any sort of lost cause movement would be just horribly destructive to democracy.”
Watch Krebs’ remarks below:
.@C_C_Krebs, a lifelong Republican, isn’t sure why more members of his party won’t acknowledge #election2020 results.
He warns @margbrennan not doing so is “corrosive to confidence in the election" and democracy
WATCH –> pic.twitter.com/vmWcMRYwpA
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) December 6, 2020
