Bernie Sanders has said that Donald Trump’s attacks on voting via mail and in his administration’s attempt to block funds for the U.S. Post Office amount to “a crisis for American democracy” ahead of the November presidential election.
The Vermont Senator’s remarks came as House Democrats tightened their control over cuts to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), which will be vital in an effort to minimize the risk to voters while the country is still struggling to contain the outbreak of coronavirus.
‘What you are witnessing is a President of the United States who is doing everything he can to suppress the vote, making it harder for people to participate in post-a balloting at a time when people are living their lives on the line set will have to go through to a polling station and vote, ”Sanders told NBC’s Meet the Press on NBC on Sunday, referring to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is a crisis for American democracy. We need to trade and trade now. ”
An unusual number of Americans are expected to vote by mail this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. In recent months, U.S. states have seen record numbers of Americans go to the polls and cast ballots in primary and other elections.
However, there are concerns about whether the USPS, which is already facing a severe financial crisis, will be able to get votes from voters and return them to polling stations on time to count them.
The postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, a major Republican donor and Trump ally, has been accused of deliberately making further recent cuts to the USPS. Democrats in Congress announced on Sunday that DeJoy and Robert Duncan, the chairman of the Postal Service Board, had been invited to a Aug. 24 hearing by the House oversight committee. The hearing will examine the recent removal of mailboxes and closures of sorting machines nationwide.
Leaders of postal services “must answer to Congress and the American people as to why they are pushing this dangerous new policy that threatens to silence the votes of millions, just months before the election,” said spokesman Nancy Pelosi and other former Democrats in a statement Sunday. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York called on the Senate to follow suit.
DeJoy has strongly denied any political interference, and Trump said in a press release on Saturday that DeJoy was in fact trying to “make the post office great again.”
But last week, Trump openly admitted that he blocked $ 25 billion in proposed aid to the post office because he wanted to make it harder to vote by mail. The president has also sought to blame Democrats for fueling the crisis by holding talks on a $ billions incentive bill for the postal service.
The announcement of the hearing coincided with efforts by White House aides and postal officials to call back on the president’s rhetoric, arguing that the measures taken so far were “routine” and promised that by November they would not more mailboxes or sorting machines would be clogged.
“There are no sorting machines going offline between now and the election,” Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff, told CNN’s State of the Union. ‘That’s what my Democratic friends are trying to scare [over].
“The president of the United States will not be interested in anyone who casts their vote in a legitimate way, whether it is the post office or something else.”
In a statement, USPS spokesman Kim Frum acknowledged complaints about the removal of mailboxes in several states, but stressed that it was due to an ongoing evaluation of operational practices.
“Given the recent concerns about customers, the postal service will delay the removal of boxes for a period of 90 days while we evaluate the concerns of our customers,” Frum said.
Neither Meadows nor Frum indicated that the removed mailboxes would be returned as disassembled sorting machines.
Trump has, without proof, pointed out that voting rights by mail lead to massive ballot box fraud, even though cases of mail-in-vote fraud are virtually non-existent. Some Republicans, including Utah Senator Mitt Romney, have been critical of Trump’s position.
Both President and First Lady Melania have asked Trump to vote by mail in Florida, a state that makes no distinction between absentee ballots, of which Trump has said he has approval, and mailings, which he promises .
The president traps Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in the polls and his focus on the USPS is widely seen as an attempt to sow chaos. Voting by post does not benefit one party over the other, but Trump’s comments suggest that if fewer people vote, it will improve his chances of re-election.
On Sunday, Meadows said he would welcome a return to the summer recess from members of Congress working on a standalone funding bill for the USPS, something Sanders has called for, and that Pelosi has said she is silent.
“Congress needs to come back and bring its actions together and work,” Meadows said, claiming that Republicans had offered $ 10 billion for the USPS, but that Democrats kept things. As Sanders pointed out, House Democrats passed the Heroes Act in May, providing $ 25 billion for the postal service, but the measure lay dormant in the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
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