US President Donald Trump answers questions at a news conference in the White House Brady Briefing Room in Washington, DC, on August 12, 2020.
Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said negotiations on additional funding for coronavirus relief in an accident are on Capitol Hill in large part because Democrats want to give billions of dollars to support the U.S. Postal Service and support voting mail in mail.
“They need that money to run the Post Office so it can take all those millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said in a Fox Business interview Thursday morning. “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can not have universal mail-in-voice because they are not equipped to have it.”
“If we do not make a deal, that means they do not get the money, that means they can not have a universal post-in vote. They just cannot have it,” Trump said. “Kind of a crazy thing. Very interesting.”
Trump was asked what specifically caused a decline in communications between the White House and Democrats over Capitol Hill.
The president has repeatedly claimed that the 2020 elections will be “rigged” and riddled with fraud if an expected rise of post-in-ballots is allowed to take place. Election experts say these claims are false.
The president’s most recent remarks suggest he believes he can oppose extended mail-in voting plans, and the Postal Service’s ability to accommodate them, if he refuses to vote to fund those efforts.
Democrats, meanwhile, fear that a report of recent operational changes made by the new postmaster general, a major donor to Republicans and Trump-backed commissions, could jeopardize the integrity of the election.
Members of both parties have called on the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, to reverse the weekend changes, which have been blamed by the postal workers’ lawyers for extensive postal delays.
“We get complaints about the entire board” from a drop in mail delivery, said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, in an interview with CNBC.
“Everything the post delays is the opposite of what the people in this country want and deserve,” Dimondstein said.
Democrats, as part of their $ 3 trillion Covid-19 relief proposal, want to record a $ 25 billion infusion for the Post Office, which flourished billions of dollars during the pandemic. That incentive package also includes $ 3.6 billion for election funding, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said is in part to ensure that there are enough polling stations and that they are long enough distributed and open to curb the spread of the virus. .
“It’s a health problem. You should not have to choose between your health and the ability to cast your vote,” said Pelosi, who accused Trump of “undermining the health of our democracy” by refusing to raise money. for absent votes as the Postal Service.
Talks between Democratic leaders and the White House have been halted as the two sides remain “miles apart” on a deal for more relief funding, according to Pelosi.
Trump’s comments to Fox Business elaborated on his previous claims that voting via email is impossible if he does not approve the funding.
“They recognize that they want $ 3.5 billion, and they will not make a deal that is good for the American people. That’s why they will not get the $ 3.5 billion. That’s why they can not do the universal mail-in. vote, “Trump said Wednesday during a White House press release.
“It’s very simple. How are they going to do it if they do not have the money to do it?” he said.
A split over mail-in votes
With the coronavirus crisis still raging, many voters who would otherwise vote in person are expected to be sent by polling stations for fear of contracting or spreading the disease, which has infected more than 5 million and at least 164,000 people killed in the US
State leaders, in turn, have made moves to increase access to mail-in voting. More than three-quarters of all U.S. voters will be able to vote by mail in the November election without giving an excuse to do so, and a handful of states send votes directly to households, according to a New York Times analysis. .
Among them is Nevada, which was sued by the Trump campaign and the GOP after its Democratic governor signed a law to automatically cast ballots.
Democrats say they are much more likely than Republicans to vote for president by post, according to a new poll / CNBC poll of likely voters in the battlefield states.
The poll, which was conducted between Friday and Sunday and surveyed 2,701 likely battlefield voters, found 64% of Democrats said they expected to vote by mail, compared to just 14% of Republican respondents and 36 % of the Independents. The question has an error margin of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.
On Thursday, Americans encouraged Americans to vote in person without acknowledging public health concerns.
“You know, there’s nothing wrong with going out and voting,” Trump told Fox Business.
Trump has previously downplayed the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and has put states under pressure to lift its strict lockdown measures soon, which contributed to an economic downturn earlier in the year. More recently, he has urged administrators to reopen schools for personal learning, claiming that children have a low risk of harm from Covid-19 and that virtual school management is a poor alternative.
Although some experts say that email voting may be more susceptible to fraud than traditional voting in a booth, instances of voter fraud are too rare.
But Trump has, without proof, claimed that voting for mailing is very vulnerable to foreign mediation – even in June tweeting that other nations will print “millions” of votes that will be used in the 2020 election.
Congress presses DeJoy
While Trump advises against voting via mail-in, the Postal Service and DeJoy in particular have come under fire from lawmakers in Congress.
DeJoy, 63, was selected by the USPS board in May – each a nomination of Trump. A former CEO of supply-chain logistics, he is the first postmaster general in nearly two decades to have not been a career employee of the agency, according to the Associated Press.
Since his tenure at USPS began in mid-June, DeJoy has been pushing for the implementation of austerity measures he said are intended to resist the sick government agency.
Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Postal Service Board of Governors last week, DeJoy said he was “strongly focused on the far-reaching inefficiencies in our operations.” He stressed that the Post Office views financial oblivion unless “dramatic” changes are made in its structure.
That change includes, among other things, a collapse of overtime and late journeys for mail carriers, meaning that mail would be left in distribution centers until the next day if carriers could not deliver it as part of their normal routes.
Pelosi and sen. Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said DeJoy confirmed these and other changes after meeting with him last week.
The result, APWU’s Dimondstein told CNBC, is that mail is delayed.
“It’s not just one place, it’s not just one incident. This is now a systemic problem in the entire Post Office,” Dimondstein said.
In a bilingual letter sent last Thursday, led by House Oversight Speaker Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y., and rep. Peter King, RN.Y., more than 80 MPs urged DeJoy to reverse the reported changes.
“Millions of Americans rely heavily on the Postal Service to supply essential items – including medications – particularly during the coronavirus pandemic,” the letter said. “The operational changes that are likely to take place across the country cast doubt on the ability of sick and populated people to take their medicines on time, which could have dire consequences.”
A day later, Maloney along with Massachusetts Senator Warren of Massachusetts and seven other Democrats in Congress asked USPS Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb to exercise control over the changes taking place under DeJoy.
“After initially denying that these changes occurred, the Postal Service recently confirmed to staff that they did occur,” the letter said.
“These changes threaten the well-being of millions of Americans who rely on the Postal Service to provide checks, presentations and any post of social security of any kind – and they appear to pose a potential threat to post-voting and the 2020 general election. “
Maloney called on DeJoy to testify before her commission on Sept. 17. On Tuesday, she introduced a bill banning the Postal Service from carrying out one of the reported operational changes “until the COVID-19 pandemic is over.”
In another letter sent Wednesday, she and Pelosi, along with 173 other House Democrats, called on DeJoy to reverse his new policy.
DeJoy lamented last week that, “While there will likely be an unusual increase in the volume of polling stations due to the pandemic, the Postal Service has sufficient capacity to deliver all polling stations safely and on time in accordance with our delivery standards, and we will do so. “
He also denied that his “good relationship” with Trump influenced his decisions.
“The idea that I would ever make decisions about the Post Office in the direction of the president, like anyone else in the administration, is completely off-base,” he said.
Trump praised DeJoy on Wednesday as he attacked the USPS for mismanagement in the past.
“The new man – who’s a great person, a great businessman – he just got there a while ago. The Post Office has been very, very decades poorly executed,” Trump said.
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