On Friday, a hearing in front of a Senate panel to answer questions about reports in serious delays in the mail while President Trump vows not to give the postal service any extra funding ahead of the vote because of COVID-19. Trump’s exact words, in fact, were ‘they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. If they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.’ It is a coincidence, Republican senators argued, that Trump’s statements and the mail delays are occurring at the same time.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testifies that he “had no idea” that the Postal Service had removed 700 collection boxes since his arrival on the job. https://t.co/oiWz8kqbmQ
— Vicky Ward (@VickyPJWard) August 21, 2020
Claim: Republicans, as well as Postmaster General Louis Dejoy, claimed that recent reports of serious mail delays were caused by the performance impact of COVID-19. Just like every business and service, the post office has been impacted in similar ways.
Fact: Mail delays at the rate they stand now did not begin in March, when shutdowns over COVID-19 began. In fact, postal workers (not Democratic lawmakers) began reporting serious delays approximately six weeks ago, shortly after Trump began his campaign to convince voters that mail-in voting leads to widespread fraud, with post offices in places like California reporting serious delays that had led to chaos.
‘Six weeks ago, U.S. Postal Service workers in the high desert town of Tehachapi, Calif., began to notice crates of mail sitting in the post office in the early morning that should have been shipped out for delivery the night before.
‘At a mail processing facility in Santa Clarita in July, workers discovered that their automated sorting machines had been disabled and padlocked.
‘And inside a massive mail-sorting facility in South Los Angeles, workers fell so far behind processing packages that by early August, gnats and rodents were swarming around containers of rotted fruit and meat, and baby chicks were dead inside their boxes.’
Effective questioning by Sen. Jacky Rosen — making clear that DeJoy did not do an analysis specifically taking into account how his policy changes would affect seniors, veterans, deployed service members, and others who desperately need on-time #USPS delivery.
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) August 21, 2020
Claim: The GOP claimed that Democrats had been fear mongering with lies about Dejoy being appointed by President Trump after he donated millions of dollars to the Trump campaign. Instead, they said, the postmaster general is elected by a bipartisan group of governors and are completely independent of the president.
Fact: a board of nine bipartisan governors elects a postmaster general. Those nine governors are hand-selected by the president of the United States.
JUST IN: USPS headquarters has instructed employees not to reconnect mail sorting machines that have been disconnected. Meanwhile, mail piles up.
Trump and his enablers continue to sabotage the postal service ahead of the election. This is clearly an attack on our democracy.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) August 21, 2020
Claim: Dejoy claimed that he had suspended all changes that were leading to reports of delays. This, GOP senators said, was good enough for them.
Fact: While Dejoy announced that he would suspend all changes to the postal system until after the election to avoid any appearance of wrong-doing, he will not undo the damage that has already been done. Postal workers (not Democratic lawmakers) report that they have been instructed not to reconnect the sorting machines. Drop-off boxes that have been removed are not being replaced. Republican Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) accused those postal workers reporting the changes that have caused such delays “highly scripted,” casting doubt on their stories as politically influenced by Democrats.
Sen Johnson says the constituent complaint calls about the postal service are “highly scripted.” He believes it’s a democratic hit job on the postmaster general.
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) August 21, 2020
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