Former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Chris Krebs said Sunday CBS’s “Face the Nation” that leaders of the Republican Party have “lost control” of the party’s voter base.
Partial transcript as follows:
BRENNAN: You know, talking about politics, you ran the rumor control site for the 2020 election in your previous role when you were within Homeland Security. What you said and the work you did on that is one of the reasons why President Trump fired you. Last night he again stood at a rally in Iowa and called for the complete overhaul of our election systems. These calls are not going away. Do you think that there is an active effort underway to undermine elections as Congressman Schiff started off our program saying?
KREBS: Without question, it’s happening at four different levels. Both state legislatures and state elected officials, some of the folks running for secretary of state in Arizona and Georgia, but we’re also seeing in the US Congress. The minority whip was on Fox News this morning with Chris Wallace, and he was talking about how the election was effectively stolen. He will not admit that Biden won- that President Biden won fair and square. And so, what we’re seeing is- as Congressman Schiff mentioned, is this constant erosion of confidence in the elect- the electoral system. And it is ultimately anti-democratic and we’re frankly in a death spiral as I see it. And, you know, two years, four years at the ballot box isn’t good enough, and there have to be other accountability measures for those that are going to continue to proliferate these lies.
BRENNAN: That’s an incredible statement. You’re a lifelong Republican, and you are acknowledging and pointing to leadership encouraging some of these things. How is that possible that this continues to happen?
KREBS: I mean, it’s- it’s base- it’s captured by the base, right? I mean, they’re- they’re afraid to speak up because they’re afraid the former president is going to try too primary them. And then the other piece is that they’ve activated and lost control of their voting base, the people that are going to put him in power. And they know that if they go against the former president that not only will he speak out against them, but they’re going to, you know, they’re going to start seeing people show up at their town hall. I mean, you’ve actually seen Republican members of Congress stop holding town halls because they’ve over activated their base and it’s gotten out of control. So again, this is a death spiral. They’ve lost control and they don’t have the ability to rein it back in.
BRENNAN: Chris Krebs, thank you very much for your analysis, though you’ve given me some heartburn. Thank you. It’s always good to talk to you. We will be back in a moment.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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