The United States Postal
Service has emerged as a central figure in the 2020 election as
President Donald Trump steps up attacks on the agency as part of his
crusade against voting by mail in November amid the coronavirus
pandemic – including saying he won’t fund it in order to hinder
its ability to deliver mail-in ballots.
Trump – who has falsely
claimed that mail-in ballots lead to voter fraud even though he
himself has repeatedly cast absentee ballots in Florida – said that
he did not want to give the Postal Service money because it would
then be able to deliver mail-in ballots to voters across the country.
(Clarissa-Jan Lim and
Ryan Brooks. “The US Postal Service Is Now A Trump Target In The
2020 Election. Here's What's Going On.” BuzzFeed News. August 15,
2020.)
The postal dealings are so
shady and intentional. Trump appointed Louis DeJoy, a businessman
and top Trump donor, postmaster general and CEO of the USPS in early
May, much to the alarm of Democrats and ethics watchdogs.
DeJoy came into the USPS
with little related experience and a lot of red flags. In 2014, his
company, New Breed Logistics, was bought by transportation and
logistics company XPO Logistics, a USPS contractor. DeJoy sat on
XPO’s board and still held a large equity stake in the company when
he became postmaster general, CNN reported, raising a potential
conflict of interest.
Lim and Brooks report …
“He also owned between
$100,000 and $250,000 in Amazon stock when he was appointed to the
USPS. Though he divested those shares in June, DeJoy also bought
between $50,000 and $100,000 in stock options for Amazon, CNN
reported, raising questions about why he would be investing in a
competitor to an agency he leads. (Amazon has its own delivery
network that carries non-Amazon packages, as well as its own.) Sen.
Elizabeth Warren has called for an investigation into DeJoy’s
purchase of Amazon stock options.
“DeJoy has raised
millions for Republicans and held fundraisers for Trump and the RNC.
In 2019, he was named the finance chair for the 2020 Republican
National Convention, a job that involved leading fundraising for the
planned convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. The convention has
since been largely moved out of the state because of the coronavirus
and Trump’s feud with North Carolina’s Democrat governor.
“DeJoy has already made
broad changes to the Postal Service in the few months that he has
served as postmaster general, shuffling leadership around and
instituting large cost-cutting measures, including prohibiting
employees from working overtime, telling them to leave mail behind if
it slows down their route, and removing mailboxes around the country.
The USPS, under pressure, reportedly said that it would suspend the
removal of mailboxes.
“DeJoy’s appointment
to the USPS has led to concern that the Trump administration is
attempting to further exert control over the independent agency.
Dimondstein said the union is concerned that DeJoy’s appointment
was intended to undermine the Postal Service 'to pave the way for a
privatization agenda.'”
(Clarissa-Jan Lim and
Ryan Brooks.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clarissajanlim/trump-post-office-usps-election-funding.)
In Congress, House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats (including a handful
of Republicans) wrote a letter to DeJoy voicing their concerns about
the changes to Postal Service operations. They say …
“If implemented now,
as the election approaches, this policy will cause further delays to
election mail that will disenfranchise voters and put significant
financial pressure on election jurisdictions.”
On August 12, Rep. Carolyn
Maloney introduced a bill to roll back changes that had been
introduced at post offices. Maloney said …
“Our Postal Service
should not become an instrument of partisan politics, but instead
must be protected as a neutral, independent entity that focuses on
one thing and one thing only -- delivering the mail. Millions of
people rely on the Postal Service every day to communicate, to access
critical medications, and to vote.”
Rep. Gerry Connolly,
D-Va., chair of the House subcommittee on government operations, said
Trump is acknowledging that he wants to hold up funding for the U.S.
Postal Service to hinder Americans from voting. Connolly reported …
“The president admits
his motive for holding USPS funding hostage is that he doesn’t want
Americans to vote by mail. Why? It hurts his electoral chances. He’s
putting self-preservation ahead of public safety, for an election he
deserves to lose.”
Democratic nominee Joe
Biden told reporters that the president’s unwillingness to approve
funding for the USPS was “pure Trump.”
“He doesn’t want an
election,” he added.
Biden’s campaign
released a statement Thursday declaring …
“The President of the
United States is sabotaging a basic service that hundreds of millions
of people rely upon, cutting a critical lifeline for rural economies
and for delivery of medicines, because he wants to deprive Americans
of their fundamental right to vote safely during the most
catastrophic public health crisis in over 100 years.”
(Deb Riechmann and
Anthony Izaguirre. “Trump Says He Opposes Additional U.S. Postal
Funding That Would Help Anticipated Mail-In Ballot Surge.” Time.
August 13, 2020.)
NAACP President Derrick
Johnson told BuzzFeed News that “this is the most blatant attempt
to suppress voters in modern history at least since the voter
suppression tactics of the 1960s.”
Democrats have pushed for
$10 billion in all for the Postal Service in talks with Republicans
on a huge COVID-19 response bill. That figure, which would include
money to help with election mail, is down from a $25 billion plan in
a House-passed coronavirus measure.
Democrats are insisting on
emergency aid to the beleaguered Postal Service and to state and
local election agencies that expect to be flooded with mail-in
ballots. Their well-founded fear is that with the mail slowed,
ballots won't arrive in time to be counted, and millions of Americans
will be disenfranchised.
That concern compounded on
August 14 when, the Postal Service informed many states that they
could not guarantee the timely delivery of ballots this fall.
The Truth is
Self-Evident
Trump is undermining the
post office to increase his reelection chances. For months, he has
been loudly proclaiming, without evidence, that widespread mail-in
voting would lead to "massive fraud." In doing so, Trump
has been pre-spinning the election results, setting up what could be
a winter of litigation and turmoil centered around the counting of
mail-in ballots.
Trump said out loud and on
national television, that he intends to destroy the United States
Postal Service in an attempt to stop people from voting safely during
a pandemic. Trump's own words on August 13:
“If we don’t make a
deal (his view of stimulus aid) that means they (Democrats) don’t
get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting.
They just can’t have it. Sort of a crazy thing.”
Trump is practicing voter
suppression. His “deals” are not about reform or compromise. His
warnings of mail-in ballots being crooked are lies meant to frighten
and prejudice voters. Trump's tactics – and those of DeJoy – are
AGAINST supporting voters’ rights to state laws, their rights to
receive a ballot, and their rights to return it through the mail
during a global pandemic.
Think of it. The president
of the United States has simply declared his intent to meddle with
free and fair elections in this country. His grifting strategy is
evident – do the corruption in the open so that somehow people
might think it's “above-board.”
Jack Holmes, Politics
Editor at Esquire, said it so well …
“The Republican
Party's record has been clear for going on a decade: stop people who
don't vote Republican from voting at all. Now they're just telling
you straight up. The United States has never been a full democracy,
but in the Year of Our Lord 2020, the Party of Lincoln is working
overtime – and publicly debasing itself – to make that problem
worse, not better. Just another national disgrace.”
(Jack Holmes. “The
President Has Openly Declared He’s Destroying the Post Office to
Suppress Votes.” Esquire. August 13, 2020.)
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