Chamber member Nancy Pelosi suggested that members of the August recession could be brought back to tackle problems with the U.S. Postal Service, while Democrats urged to appear at their local post offices amid the fight for post-in votes for to protect the 2020 presidential election.
Pelosi, D-Calif., Said Sunday that the “Election Central” post office has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic, even as President Trump and Republicans have been warning for months that universal post-in-vote polls could cause widespread voter fraud.
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“Alarmingly, we see across the nation the devastating effects of the president’s campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to decipher voters,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi went on to meet with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, calling him a ‘top Trump mega-donor’ who has ‘proven to be a complicated crony’ as he continues to support new operational changes that are ruining postal , delayed the mail, and – according to the Postal Service itself – threatens to deny eligible Americans the opportunity to cast their votes by mail in the upcoming elections on time. “
“These delays also threaten the health and economic security of the American people by delaying the delivery of life-saving medicines and payments,” Pelosi said. “The life, existence and life of our American democracy are threatened by the President.”
She added: “Therefore, I call on the House to return to session later this week to vote on Maloney’s presidency ‘Delivering for America Act’, which prohibits the Postal Service from carrying out any changes to operations or levels that it was on January 1, 2020. “
Pelosi also said in an effort “to save the postal service,” that members “should attend a day of action on Tuesday by appearing at a post office in their districts for a press event.”
“In a time of pandemic, the postal service is Election Central,” Pelosi said. “Americans would not have to choose between their health and their voice.”
A senior Democratic aide told Fox News that Pelosi could have members return to Capitol Hill from the August recess on Friday, and be ready for consultation on legislation for the USPS on Saturday – the weekend in between the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention.
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Pelosi’s remarks come after she, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y., and the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., Requested the Postmaster General and President of the U.S. Postal Service testify before Congress on August 24th. The Democrats said the testimony would be about the recent “sweeping and dangerous operational changes” at the agency that they claimed the post was “delayed” and “endangered” the integrity of the 2020 elections.
Trump and the Republican Party have been warning for months about possible fraud linked to voting via mail. The RNC and the Trump campaign have filed lawsuits to retaliate against Democrats’ efforts to restore voting laws in response to the pandemic; this, while Democrats say cases of actual voter fraud are limited and argue that Republicans are trying to suppress voter turnout to improve their chances of winning elections.
Earlier this week, the USPS warned 46 states and the District of Columbia that it could not guarantee that all e-mailed ballots would arrive on time to count in the November election.
Democrats have asked for $ 25 billion, including $ 3.5 billion in election resources, to strengthen the Postal Service in time for the election to be included in the fourth coronavirus stimulus package. Trump has said the money from the Postal Service will not come unless Democrats come to the negotiating table on coronavirus relief and give concessions to Republicans.
“Sure, if they give us what we want,” the post office president said during a news conference Friday. “And it’s not what I want, it’s what the American people want.”
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Trump said on Thursday that voting via email would not be possible without the funding.
“It’s her fault,” Trump told FOX Business ” Mornings with Maria. “They want $ 3.5 billion for something that is fraudulent … for the post-vote, universal post-vote. They want $ 25 billion for the post office. They need that money so it can work and they can take those millions and millions of ballots. ”
The president said voice-by-post is conditional on funding.
“But if they don’t get those two items, then they can’t have email voting,” he said.
The president went on to abolish the vote by post. He said polls were “sent to dogs” and “dead people,” citing states like Virginia, where he said more than “500,000 false ballots were sent to voters,” and in New York, where voting by mail in a week caused -long delay in announcing results for some races in the primary state.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign said that casting by post is the “safest form of voting” in the midst of the novel coronavirus.
But earlier this week, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said Dr. Anthony Fauci that “there is no reason” Americans can not vote personally for the 2020 presidential election, as long as voters follow good social distancing guidelines amid the pandemic of coronavirus.
“I think if done carefully, according to the guidelines, there’s no reason I can see why that may not be the case,” Fauci told ABC News this week. ‘If you wear a mask, if you observe the physical distance and do not have a full situation, then there is no reason why [people] would not be able to do that. ”
Fauci added that individuals who are “physically or otherwise compromised” and who are not interested in physically going to the polls after election day can use e-mail voting.
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But Fauci doubled down, saying, “There’s no reason why we can not vote personally as otherwise.”
Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
