Staff of the White House Mark Meadows
Mark Randall MeadowsSunday shows preview: Mail-in votes, USPS funding dominates political discussion before conventions Chris Wallace matures both parties for coronavirus package scandal: ‘Pox on both their homes’ The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Trump goes again further; no deal on COVID-19 package MORE on Sunday, reports denied that several U.S. Postal Service (USPS) letter-sorting machines had been fired following orders from the postmaster general.
Meadows told CNN’s “State of the Union” that reports of hundreds of mail-order sorting machines being taken out of service were “a political narrative” and “not fact-based.”
NBC News reported on Friday that from an internal document revealed that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy
Louis DeJoySchumer: McConnell must return to House early as House passes Postal Service voucher Post-in-ballot box controversy ends when Democrats call for postmaster general to testify on Sanders labels Post subsidy for funding a ‘crisis for American democracy’ MAY completes 671 of USPS’s mail sorting machines in the US
“There are no sorting machines going offline between now and the election,” Meadows said. ‘That’s what my Democratic friends are trying to do to instill fear in them. That does not happen. ”
Meadows also called on House Democrats to return to DC to negotiate postal funding along with improved unemployment benefits, incentive controls and small business reform, adding that the president ‘will sign that.’
CNN’s Jake Tapper
Jacob (Jake) Paul TapperJuan Williams: Keeping the Light on Trump’s COVID Mistake: Chicago Mayor: We Can’t Let Federal Officials ‘Play Police’ in Our City Coronavirus Tests by Tsar: Nobody on the Task Force afraid to bring anything up ‘to Trump MORE shrugged back at the chief of staff, saying, “Are you saying that sorting machines are not taken offline and removed?”
“I’m saying sorting machines between now and the election will not be taken offline,” Meadows replied, asking Tapper to ask about ‘the’ that have been taken offline in the last few months. ‘
“Why were these sorters taken offline?” Tapper asked.
Meadows replied, “Let your producer share exactly where those sorting machines were taken offline. Let them whisper in your ear, because what I’m telling you is that you are picking up on a story that is not based on facts.”
“A sorting machine to handle 100 million ballots, it’s like a gnat on an elephant’s back,” Meadows added. “It will not matter that 8.6 billion posts go through the Postal Service each year.”
“There are no sorting machines that go offline between now and the election,” White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said @jaketapper when discussing the debate on postal service funding. https://t.co/M79UyNK2rI #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/QpgneVGwsx
– State of the Union (@CNNSotu) August 16, 2020
Later in the interview, Tapper noted that a union president told CNN that the Postal Service this year had four machines in Kansas City, Mo., two machines in Springfield, Mo. and one machine in Wichita, Can close.
Meadows argued that all sorting machines that do not form part of an “already placed reorganization” will remain in place and that the demolition is not “a new initiative of this postmaster general.”
Email voting has emerged as a major area of controversy ahead of the November election, with President Trump
Donald John TrumpPresident Trump’s brother, Robert Trump, dies at 71 Trump to attend GOP convention every day: reports Trump breaks with CDC director over potential for ‘worst case’ amid pandemic, flu season MORE and his allies claim that they would lead to widespread fraud. However, experts say that these claims are not guaranteed.
This report was updated at 10:33 p.m.
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