Former top U.S. cybersecurity official Chris Krebs is urging elected Republicans to condemn threats against election workers and push back against false claims about the election.
Testifying before the Senate on Wednesday, Krebs was asked if he believes President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have done enough to condemn threats against election workers. He said, “I’m not aware of much in terms of condemning the threats of violence.”
“I think it’s, again, an affront to democracy that the citizens of the United States of America that are responsible for executing this sacred democratic institution of elections are being threatened on a daily basis,” he continued.
“I mean, you name it, whether it’s emails, whether it’s phone calls, whether it’s people showing up at your house. This is not an America I recognize. And it’s got to stop. We need everyone across, you know, the leadership ranks to stand up. I would appreciate more support from my own party, the Republican party, to call this stuff out and end it.”
Finally, he added, “We’ve got to move on. We have a President-elect.”
Watch the video below:
Chris Krebs: "This is not an America I recognize. It's got to stop…I would appreciate more support from my own party, the Republican Party, to call this stuff out and end it. We got to move on. We have a president-elect in President-elect Biden. We have to move on." pic.twitter.com/T14UfsQyhm
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 16, 2020
He also noted Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and Georgia voting systems manager Gabriel Sterling, who have pushed back on Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud in the election, have received threats.
Krebs has previously addressed the threats made against election workers and argued that it is “un-American and undemocratic” that they are “getting the blowback here.”
He also raised concerns that it will be hard to recruit people to be election workers if they are afraid they will receive threats after an election.
President-elect Joe Biden’s victory was made official after the Electoral College voted on Monday.
Shortly after that vote, several Republican senators said that Biden had won the election and acknowledged him as the president-elect. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a speech on Tuesday, “Yesterday electors met in all 50 states. So, as of this morning, our country has officially a president-elect and a vice president-elect.”
“Today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden,” he added.
However, Trump has maintained it is “too soon to give up.”
