MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-08-16 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Media fear Mongering and LIEING headlines from PBS
|
Trump admits to NO SUCH THING.. READ THE ARTICLE.
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Trump admits he's blocking postal cash to stop mail-in votes
By —
7-9 minutes
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump frankly acknowledged that he’s
starving the U.S. Postal Service of money to make it harder to process
an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him
reelection.
In an interview on Fox Business Network, Trump explicitly noted two
funding provisions that Democrats are seeking in a relief package that
has stalled on Capitol Hill. Without the additional money, he said, the
Postal Service won’t have the resources to handle a flood of ballots
from voters who are seeking to avoid polling places during the
coronavirus pandemic.
“If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money,” Trump
told host Maria Bartiromo on Thursday. “That means they can’t have
universal mail-in voting; they just can’t have it.”
Trump’s statements, including the false claim that Democrats are seeking
universal mail-in voting, come as he is searching for a strategy to gain
an advantage in his November matchup against Joe Biden. He’s pairing the
tough Postal Service stance in congressional negotiations with an
increasingly robust mail-in-voting legal fight in states that could
decide the election.
In Iowa, which Trump won handily in 2016 but is more competitive this
year, his campaign joined a lawsuit Wednesday against two
Democratic-leaning counties in an effort to invalidate tens of thousands
of voters’ absentee ballot applications. That followed legal maneuvers
in battleground Pennsylvania, where the campaign hopes to force changes
to how the state collects and counts mail-in ballots. And in Nevada,
Trump is challenging a law sending ballots to all active voters.
His efforts could face limits. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday
rebuffed Republicans who challenged an agreement in Rhode Island
allowing residents to vote by mail through November’s general election
without getting signatures from two witnesses or a notary.
For Democrats, Trump’s new remarks were a clear admission that the
president is attempting to restrict voting rights.
Biden said it was “Pure Trump. He doesn’t want an election.”
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said it was ” voter
suppression to undermine the safest method to vote during a pandemic,
and force Americans to risk their lives to vote.”
Negotiations over a big new virus relief package have all but ended,
with the White House and congressional leaders far apart on the size,
scope and approach for shoring up households, reopening schools and
launching a national strategy to contain the coronavirus.
While there is some common ground over $100 billion for schools and new
funds for virus testing, Democrats also want other emergency funds that
Trump rejects.
“They want $3.5 billion for something that will turn out to be
fraudulent. That’s election money, basically,” Trump said during
Thursday’s call-in interview.
Democrats have pushed for a total of $10 billion for the Postal Service
in talks with Republicans on the 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.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has said that the agency is in a
financially untenable position, but he maintains it can handle this
year’s election mail. A major donor to Trump and other Republicans,
DeJoy is the first postmaster general in nearly two decades who is not a
career postal employee.
“Although there will likely be an unprecedented increase in election
mail volume due to the pandemic, the Postal Service has ample capacity
to deliver all election mail securely and on-time in accordance with our
delivery standards, and we will do so,” he told the Postal Service’s
governing board last week.
Memos obtained by The Associated Press show that Postal Service
leadership has pushed to eliminate overtime and halt late delivery trips
that are sometimes needed to ensure mail arrives on time, measures that
postal workers and union officials say are delaying service. Additional
records detail cuts to hours at post offices, including reductions on
Saturdays and during lunch hours.
Democrats, and a handful of Republicans, have sent DeJoy several letters
asking him to reverse his changes and criticizing what they say is a
lack of openness by the agency. Late Wednesday, Senate Democrats again
wrote DeJoy, this time saying postal leadership is pushing state
election officials to opt for pricier first-class postage for mail-in
ballots to be prioritized.
“Instead of taking steps to increase your agency’s ability to deliver
for the American people, you are implementing policy changes that make
matters worse, and the Postal Service is reportedly considering changes
that would increase costs for states at a time when millions of
Americans are relying on voting by mail to exercise their right to
vote,” the Democrats wrote.
Separately, in a letter last month, the Postal Service warned Michigan
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson that the agency might not be able to
deliver ballots in time to be counted under the state’s deadlines for
casting mail-in votes.
Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer said in a statement that
“certain deadlines concerning mail-in ballots, may be incompatible with
the Postal Service’s delivery standards,” especially if election
officials don’t pay more for first-class postage.
“To the extent that states choose to use the mail as part of their
elections, they should do so in a manner that realistically reflects how
the mail works,” he said.
In a memo to staff Thursday, DeJoy said his policies have brought
“unintended consequences that impacted our overall service levels,” but
added that the Postal Service “must make a number of significant changes
which will not be easy, but which are necessary.”
“This will increase our performance for the election and upcoming peak
season and maintain the high level of public trust we have earned for
dedication and commitment to our customers throughout our history,”
DeJoy wrote, according to the memo obtained by the AP.
Judy Beard, legislative and political director for the American Postal
Workers Union, said postal workers are up to the task of delivering
mail-in ballots this year.
“We definitely know that the president is absolutely wrong concerning
vote-by-mail,” she said.
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.
“The president admits his motive for holding USPS funding hostage is
that he doesn’t want Americans to vote by mail,” Connolly said in a
statement Thursday. “Why? It hurts his electoral chances. He’s putting
self-preservation ahead of public safety, for an election he deserves to
lose.”
Trump has requested a mail-in ballot for Florida’s primary election
Tuesday. Ballots were mailed Wednesday to both the president and first
lady Melania Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort, which Trump lists as his
legal address, according to online Palm Beach County elections records.
Both voted by mail in the presidential preference primary in March,
according to records.
--
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