Democrats blasted Trump’s targeting of Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor, top officials in his first administration, as ‘weaponizing’ the government.
Trump discusses 90-day tariffs pause, Dems say he’s ‘feeling the heat’
President Donald Trump addressed his announcement of a 90-day pause on global reciprocal tariffs, but Democrats say it’s due to pressure.
- Chris Krebs defied Trump in 2020 by declaring the presidential election the most secure in U.S. history.
- Writing as “Anonymous,” Miles Taylor authored an essay attacking chaos in Trump’s first administration while serving in the Department of Homeland Security.
WASHINGTON − President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered a federal investigation into two former top Department of Homeland Security officials, including one for saying the 2020 election Trump lost to Joe Biden was the most secure in U.S. history.
Trump’s Presidential Memoranda, signed in an Oval Office ceremony, were immediately criticized by House Democrats, who said the president was attacking government employees for saying things he didn’t like.
Trump’s orders revoked the security clearances for Christopher Krebs, the former head of DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Miles Taylor, a former senior DHS official who wrote a highly critical tell-all book about his time in Trump’s first administration.
White House staff secretary Will Scharf, when handing the order to Trump to sign, said it addressed Krebs’ access to government, existing clearances he might have, and instructed the Justice Department and “other aspects of your government to investigate some of the malign acts that he participated in while he was still head of CISA.”
Trump fired Krebs as the nation’s top civilian cybersecurity official soon after the November 2020 election for being an outspoken defender of the nation’s election security apparatus in the months leading up to Election Day, even as Trump repeatedly warned of massive fraud that never materialized.
On Wednesday, even though Trump actually appointed Krebs, he suggested he barely knew who he was.
“I don’t know that I met him. I’m sure I met him, but I didn’t know him. And he came out right after the election, which was a rigged election, badly rigged election. We did phenomenally in that election,” Trump said.
Trump then went on to say 2020 was “a very corrupt election,” an allegation disproven by numerous investigations.
In reference to Krebs, Trump added, “And we’re going to find out about this guy too, because this guy’s a wise guy. He said this is the most secure election in the history of our country. No, this was a disaster.”
Krebs was unavailable for comment.
‘Anonymous’ targeted by Trump
So was Miles Taylor, who Trump targeted with a similar Presidential Memorandum.
Taylor, a former chief of staff and a political appointee at the Department of Homeland Security, announced in October 2020 that he was the anonymous author of a scathing opinion piece about Trump in 2018 and a book in 2019 that attacked Trump’s leadership and described dysfunction within the administration.
Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee, which oversees DHS, issued a statement on X, criticizing Trump for a “steady stream of lies & still living in the past while he destroys the economy.”
“Chris Krebs did the job Trump appointed him to do & Miles Taylor spoke the truth,” the Democrats said. “Weaponizing the gov’t against those who failed to cow to him won’t make us forget that his Presidency is a disaster.”
What did Krebs say about the 2020 election?
In 2020 the DHS cyber chief presided over an elaborate election security effort guarding against foreign interference and fraud.
Immediately after the election, and while Trump was still contesting Biden’s victory, CISA issued a statement declaring that the general election was the most secure in U.S. history.
The statement served as a pointed rebuke to a president who had continued to make unsubstantiated allegations of voting fraud while Trump’s legal team pursued multiple legal challenges in battleground states.
“There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” CISA reported at the time, in an assessment joined by a coalition of election security groups, including the National Association of State Election Directors.
IRS agrees to share tax information to help Trump’s deportation plans
The IRS will share taxpayer information, including addresses, with Homeland Security to assist in locating undocumented immigrants.
Krebs was then ousted by Trump as part of a broader post-election purge of top national security officials.
Trump announced the dismissal in two tweets on Nov. 17, 2020. Twitter flagged both tweets with labels saying, “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”The former director acknowledged Trump’s action in a brief post on Tuesday: “Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomorrow.”