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Trump lashes out at 60 Minutes in furious tweets over interview with fired elections official

Ousted cybersecurity official speaks out for first time since firing, saying president’s fraud claims are without basis

Shweta Sharma
Monday 30 November 2020 07:51 GMT
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Ousted Trump cybersecurity official speaks out for first time since firing
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Donald Trump hit out on CBS News in a furious tweet late on Sunday, accusing the network of airing a “ridiculous, one-sided” interview his former elections security chief.  

Christopher Krebs was Mr Trump’s head of cybersecurity and infrastructure security, until the president fired him for declaring the 2020 election to be “the most secure in American history”.

In his first TV interview since being ousted from the White House, Mr Krebs told the 60 Minutes programme that he stood by his assertion and defended his record as cybersecurity chief. “We did a good job. We did it right. I'd do it a thousand times over,” he said. 

The president slammed the news channel after the interview aired, accusing CBS of not contacting the Trump campaign for comment about Mr Krebs’ remarks.

Mr Trump claimed that security at the election had been an “international joke”.

“Our 2020 Election, from poorly rated Dominion to a Country FLOODED with unaccounted for Mail-In ballots, was probably our least secure EVER!” he tweeted.

Twitter almost immediately flagged the post, saying that “this claim about election fraud is disputed”, as it has with many of his tweets since the 3 November election.  

Alongside the 60 Minutes interview, Mr Krebs posted a series of tweets on Sunday, in which he again refuted claims of widespread voter fraud. Mr Krebs wrote that ballot “dumps” as claimed by some Republicans did not happen, and that outcomes have been consistent in several states despite recounts and audits.  

The president fired Mr Krebs last month, announcing that he would be "terminated" from his job with the Department of Homeland Security because his statements about the election were "highly inaccurate”.

Refusing to concede, Mr Trump has filed lawsuits challenging the results in several swing states, as he tries to overturn election results which are strongly in favour of president-elect Joe Biden. He is yet to have any success, and many of the cases have now been thrown out by the courts.

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