Trump fires top U.S. cybersecurity official

Trump fires top U.S. cybersecurity official

President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired the top U.S. cybersecurity official Chris Krebs in a tweet, accusing him without evidence of making a "highly inaccurate" statement on the security of the U.S. election.

Bryan Wood reports.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday (November 17) fired his top U.S cybersecurity official, Chris Krebs, in a tweet.

Trump accused him of making a quote "highly inaccurate" statement on the security of the U.S election.

Krebs was the Director of the Homeland's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and worked on protecting the election from hackers.

Reuters reported last week, citing three sources close to Krebs, that he expected to be fired.

The Trump administration has asked for content to be edited or removed from a website run by the cybersecurity agency, which is dubbed "Rumor Control" that worked on debunking disinformation including the claim that Democrats were behind a mass election fraud scheme.

But under Krebs, election security officials have refused to delete accurate information.

The agency has drawn praise from both Democrats and Republicans for the handling of the U.S. election, including praise for Krebs for his bipartisan work in the past two years.