On Saturday, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to rant about the legislation that House Democrats scheduled a vote on that would financially support the Postal Service amidst the ongoing Coronavirus crisis. He posted an apparent brazen lie about the situation — he claimed that Postal Service leaders have said that they don’t need financial assistance, but they’ve said the exact opposite. Earlier this year, the Postal Service’s Board of Governors — all of whom were appointed by Trump himself — were “asking Congress for a $25 billion cash injection to offset expected losses, a $25 billion grant to fund “shovel ready” projects to modernize USPS and $25 billion in unrestricted borrowing authority,” a report from Government Executive explained.
Trump tweeted:
‘Representatives of the Post Office have repeatedly stated that they DO NOT NEED MONEY, and will not make changes. This is all another HOAX by the Democrats to give 25 Billion unneeded dollars for political purposes, without talking about the Universal Mail-In Ballot Scam that they are trying to pull off in violation of everything that our Country stands for.’
….that they are trying to pull off in violation of everything that our Country stands for. Vote NO to the Pelosi/ Schumer money wasting HOAX which is taking place now. Then fight the $51 million unasked for Ballots. Only ABSENTEE BALLOTS are acceptable!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2020
Democrats are not trying to pull off a “Universal Mail-In Ballot Scam.” First of all, mail-in ballots are not and have never set to be used universally across the country; they’re simply getting adopted at higher rates in some areas in particular. Furthermore, Trump’s implication that sending ballots out universally is an automatically scam-ridden system is a lie — five states were already doing almost entirely mail-in elections before the Coronavirus even set in. (Separately, Trump has also tried to distinguish between “absentee” and “universal mail-in” ballots on account of the fact that voters have to specifically request “absentee” ballots — but the procedure after receiving the ballot is the exact same.)
Meanwhile, $25 billion in apparent direct cash assistance was set to be included in the Delivering for America Act, which is what the House was set to vote on this Saturday. The legislation also addresses concerns about policy and operations changes at the Postal Service that have slowed down the mail and raised concerns about the security of mail-in ballots in the upcoming elections, when mail-in ballots are expected to be used in high numbers due to the ongoing Coronavirus crisis. The virus, of course, makes gathering in person at polling places potentially dangerous, especially for vulnerable populations, and the legislation includes a temporary prohibition on major service-affecting changes at the Postal Service.
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump below:
