Capito said she was “disappointed” and embarrassed by Trump’s personnel decisions: “I can’t explain that.” Others were more forthright.
Senator Mitt Romney (a Republican from Utah) described Trump’s move as a “terrible mistake,” adding that Cripps was “an exceptional talent who’s doing a great job in overseeing the protection of our cyber capabilities.”
The shooting also sparked renewed fears that the president will spend his final weeks in the White House recklessly ousting officials who bypassed him and making erratic political transitions that cannot be easily undone.
Senator John Cornyn (Republican from Texas), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters, “This is the president’s prerogative, but I think it adds to the confusion and chaos.” “And I’m sure I’m not the only one wanting some back to a little more – I don’t even know what’s normal anymore.”
In fact, few Republicans have ever opposed the Cribs. Senator Josh Hawley (R from Missouri), a staunch supporter of the president, said Cripps did a “fantastic” job in his role due to the lack of foreign interference in the 2020 campaign.
Crebs’ removal from action comes amid a purge of senior officials perceived as insufficiently loyal to the president, who is actively working to prevent President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team from beginning the power transfer. Defense Secretary Mark Esper was the first to go, and there are broader concerns that Trump might fire CIA Director Gina Haspel or FBI Director Christopher Ray afterward.
Senator Mike Brown (R) admitted, “If it just seems to be a flurry of it, it raises more questions.”
And while Republicans express some concern about these moves, they also acknowledge that there is not much they can do to stop the president in his last 63 days in office.
Senator Ted Cruz (Republican from Texas) said of Cripps: “Look, I think we’re in a period of time, the president has a decision on who wants to be in office and who doesn’t.” “From everything that I saw, it seemed that he did a capable job in a difficult and important role.”
Some Republican senators on Wednesday were reluctant to criticize Trump’s decision to sack Cripps, even as they praised his work at the CISA summit.
“The president does not choose who works in my office. So we may have an opinion about our interactions with these individuals but at the end of the day, the president chooses who works in the executive branch,” said the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Marco Rubio (Florida).
Trump card Disqualified Cripps in a tweet continued his unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud and pushed back the recent statement by Cripps and other senior officials that the November 3 elections were “the safest in American history”. Without evidence, Trump said that statement was “extremely inaccurate” and thus “Chris Krebs’ effect was immediately terminated.”
