A lawyer representing President Donald Trump’s campaign said comments that he made Monday about the ex-cybersecurity chief were sarcastic and have been misconstrued.
Joe diGenova, who previously served as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told Newsmax host Howie Carr on Monday night that former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency chief Chris Krebs should be “drawn and quartered” and “shot.” President Donald Trump fired Krebs on Nov. 17 after he released a statement saying the Nov. 3 election was the “most secure” election in U.S. history.
“My comments were obviously sarcastic and made in jest,” diGenova told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a phone interview Tuesday morning. “I mean him no harm. He has been doing enough harm to himself and the country.” (RELATED: Trump’s Order To Begin Transition To Biden Admin Isn’t A Concession, Trump Says)
DiGenova’s comments were widely shared online after Washington Examiner reporter Daniel Chaitin tweeted a clip of the incident. CNN, Politico, Newsweek and The Guardian have all published stories reporting that diGenova had called for violence against Krebs.
VIDEO of former U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova, who is now a member of the Trump legal team, saying on Newsmax that former Trump cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs “should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.” pic.twitter.com/hbJUy76ixQ
— Daniel Chaitin (@danielchaitin7) December 1, 2020
“An attorney for the Trump campaign on Monday issued a call for violence against Chris Krebs,” CNN reported.
DiGenova said the backlash online doesn’t surprise him and called it “faux outrage.”
Krebs has been critical of Trump since he was ousted. In an appearance on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday, he stood by his Nov. 17 statement defending the integrity of the election.
“There is no foreign power that is flipping votes,” Krebs said, according to CBS News. “There’s no domestic actor flipping votes. I did it right. We did it right. This was a secure election.”
Trump has yet to concede to the election and has disputed the election results in key swing states on Twitter, claiming that there was widespread voter fraud. However, multiple news organizations, including The Associated Press and Fox News, declared Joe Biden the winner of the election and Trump administration officials have reportedly started the transition process.
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