Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) had five minutes to question President Donald Trump’s manually elected Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Monday afternoon, and they did not waste a second.
The congresswoman’s first question looked like a softball. “What are the costs of a first-class postal class?” she asked. DeJoy got that right by answering $ 0.55, but it went downhill hard from here.
He did not know how much it would cost to send a postcard or a square envelope. Uncomfortable laughter, DeJoy admitted, “I will admit that I know very little about postage and stamps.”
After DeJoy failed to answer a few more basic questions about the agency he runs, Porter got to a more important question. “Do you know, within a million or so, you can tell me how many people voted by post in the last presidential election?” she asked. When DeJoy said he could not, she gave him the opportunity to answer “up to the nearest 10 million.”
“I would guess and I do not want to guess it,” he finally replied.
“OK, so Mr. DeJoy, I’m worried,” Porter said. “I’m glad you know the price of a stamp, but I’m concerned about your understanding of this agency. And I’m particularly worried about that, because you started taking very decisive action when you became postmaster general. You have begun to focus on washing and destroying machines, changing employee procedures and locking up collection boxes. ”
After another controversial back and forth, DeJoy then claimed that he did not know who carried out the revisions described by Porter, telling her, “the plans were in place and were being carried out before I arrived.”
“But Mr. DeJoy, do you take responsibility for these changes?” Porter asked.
“I take responsibility from the day I sit in the chair for any opposition that has occurred,” he said. But he would not promise to reverse the changes that have taken place, nor will he oblige him to resign from his post as an inspector general finding that he has committed ‘misconduct’ regarding his financial interests in companies. who are in direct competition with the agency he heads.
“You do not think there is any reason you should ever resign?” Porter asked.
“No reason I heard here today,” he replied.
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