Ex-U.S. cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs tells 60 Minutes how he knows the 2020 election wasn't rigged
Christopher Krebs and his team spent years working to build the new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and help protect U.S. elections, among other critical infrastructure, before President Trump abruptly fired him over Twitter for putting out a joint statement calling the 2020 election the "most secure in American history." Krebs explained on Sunday's 60 Minutes why he's so sure the election was free from hacking and foreign meddling, and why Trump and his fringy lawyers are wrong to allege otherwise.
"I'm not a public servant anymore, but I feel I still got some public service left in me," Krebs told Scott Pelley, explaining why he's speaking out publicly. "And if I can reinforce or confirm for one person that the vote was secure, the election was secure, then I feel like I've done my job."
Krebs said his biggest priority after gaming out "countless" scenarios for foreign election interference was paper ballots. "Paper ballots give you the ability to audit, to go back and check the tape and make sure you go the count right," he said. "And that's really one of the keys to success for a secure 2020 election — 95 percent of the ballots cast in the 2020 election had a paper record associated with it." You can see how that worked in the Georgia hand recount, he added.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Krebs said he found the efforts from Trump and his lawyers to "undermine confidence in the election, to confuse people, to scare people" upsetting because it's actively "undermining democracy" but also because the some of the tens of thousands of election workers putting in 18-hour days are now "getting death threats for trying to carry out one of our core democratic institutions, an election."
In 60 Minutes Overtime, Krebs explained why he set up the CISA "Rumor Control" site, and why he's especially proud of his explainer on the impossibility of hacking voting results.
Krebs also said he isn't aware of anyone at the White House asking CISA to throw doubt on the integrity of the election, and he explained that his team frequently briefed everyone from local election officials to Cabinet agencies and the White House about CISA's efforts. "Everybody, for the most part, got it," he said.
"I had a job to do, we did it right, I would do it over again 1,000 times," Krebs said. "CISA did the right thing. ... State and local election officials did the right thing."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
The best homes of the year
Feature Featuring a grand turret entrance in New York and built-in glass elevator in Arizona
By The Week Staff Published
-
Nordstrom family, investor to take retail chain private
Speed Read The business will be acquired by members of the family and El Puerto de Liverpool, a Mexican real estate company
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Biden commutes most federal death sentences
Speed Read The president downgraded the punishment of 37 of 40 prisoners on death row to life in prison without parole
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Top Russian general killed in Moscow blast
Speed Read A remote-triggered bomb killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Why Assad fell so fast
The Explainer The newly liberated Syria is in an incredibly precarious position, but it's too soon to succumb to defeatist gloom
By The Week UK Published
-
NATO chief urges Europe to arm against Russia
Speed Read Mark Rutte said Putin wants to 'wipe Ukraine off the map' and might come for other parts of Europe next
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New Syria government takes charge, urging 'stability'
Speed Read The rebel forces that ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad announced an interim government
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Romania's election rerun
The Explainer Shock result of presidential election has been annulled following allegations of Russian interference
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Russia's shadow war in Europe
Talking Point Steering clear of open conflict, Moscow is slowly ratcheting up the pressure on Nato rivals to see what it can get away with.
By The Week UK Published
-
South Korea roiled by short-lived martial law
Speed Read President Yoon Suk Yeol's imposition of martial law was a 'clear violation of the constitution,' said the opposition parties who have moved to impeach him
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Syrian rebels seize Aleppo in surprise offensive
Speed Read The rebels made gains against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and reignited Syria's 13-year-old civil war
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published