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Congressional Democrats on Sunday demanded that the Postmaster General and the President of the U.S. Postal Service testify before Congress later this month on the agency’s recent “sweeping and dangerous operational changes” which they say ” slow down ”mail and“ jeopardize the integrity ”of the 2020 Election.
The demands of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y., and Senator Gary Peters, D-Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, are just the latest escalation in the mail order battle between Democrats and President Trump and Republicans.
Trump and the Republican Party have been warning for months of possible postal voting fraud. The RNC and the Trump campaign have filed lawsuits to fight back Democrats’ efforts to overhaul election laws in response to the pandemic; This, as Democrats say cases of actual voter fraud are limited and say Republicans are trying to suppress voter turnout to improve their chances of winning an election.
TRUMP SAYS DEMOCRATS COMPUTER BALLOT MAIL-IN PUSH HOLDING UP CORONAVIRUS STIMULUS PACKAGE
“The president has explicitly stated his intention to manipulate the postal service to deny access to eligible voters in the ballot in pursuit of his own re-election,” Democrats wrote in a joint statement Sunday.
Democrats went on to say that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is a “Trump mega-donor” and has “acted as an accomplice in the president’s campaign to cheat the election” by launching “sweeping new operational changes that degrade delivery standards and delay mail. “
USPS WARNS 46 STATES IT CANNOT GUARANTEE BALLOTS WILL ARRIVE IN TIME FOR ELECTION
Earlier this week, the USPS warned 46 states and the District of Columbia that it cannot guarantee that all mailed ballots will arrive in time to be counted in the November election.
“This poses a serious threat to the integrity of the elections and to our very democracy,” they wrote, referring to the warning from the USPS, which noted that even if voters meet all deadlines and follow procedures elections in their state, their vote may not be counted. .
“While House and Senate Democrats continue to respond urgently to combat postal service sabotage, House and Senate Republicans are missing.
Democrats then called on DeJoy and USPS Board Chairman Robert Duncan to testify in an “emergency hearing” before Maloney’s committee on August 24.
“The hearing will examine large-scale operational and organizational changes within the Postal Service that experts believe could degrade delivery standards, slow mail and potentially undermine the rights of eligible Americans to vote by mail in elections. next November elections, ”they wrote. . “The Postmaster General and senior postal service executives must answer Congress and the American people for their reasons for pushing these dangerous new policies that threaten to silence the voices of millions of people just months before the election. “
Meanwhile, Schumer, at a press conference Sunday, criticized DeJoy, saying he had a “public-to-be-damned attitude.”
Schumer, however, said he would introduce legislation this week that will require all election mail to be treated as first class mail by the USPS.
“I will draft legislation, I will introduce legislation,” Schumer said, noting that “all election mail is treated as first class, should be treated as first class by post.”
Pelosi has said she could bring the House back from August recess to vote on similar legislation, and Schumer said on Sunday that he “will demand that Leader McConnell bring back the Senate to vote as well.”
“We can’t let McConnell just ignore this problem, stay home and say we don’t have a problem like he has in the past,” Schumer said.
TRUMP POSTAL VOTING “ DISASTER ” WARNING
Democrats have asked for $ 25 billion, including $ 3.5 billion in electoral resources, to fortify the postal service in time for the elections to be included in the fourth coronavirus stimulus package. Trump has said the money from the Postal Service will not flow unless Democrats come to the coronavirus relief negotiating table and give Republicans concessions.
“Of course, if they give us what we want,” the president said of the money from the post at a press conference on Friday. “And that’s not what I want, it’s what Americans want.”
Trump said Thursday that postal voting would not be possible without the funding.
“It’s their fault,” Trump told FOX Business “Mornings with Maria”. “They want $ 3.5 billion for something fraudulent … for postal votes, universal ballots. They want $ 25 billion for the post office. They need that money for it. works and they can take those millions and millions of ballots. ”
The president said postal voting depended on funding.
“But if they don’t get those two items, they can’t have ballots in the mail,” he said.
The president then criticized the vote by mail. He said the ballots were “sent to dogs” and “dead people”, citing states like Virginia, where he said more than “500,000 bogus requests were sent to voters,” and in New York, where postal voting had caused a week. -long delay in announcing the results of some state primary races.
Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign has declared postal voting the “safest form of voting” amid the novel coronavirus.
FAUCI SAYS THERE IS ‘NO REASON’ AMERICANS CANNOT VOTE IN PERSON IN NOVEMBER
But earlier this week, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Anthony Fauci, said there was “no reason” Americans couldn’t vote in person for the presidential election of 2020, as long as voters follow proper social distancing guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think if it’s done carefully, as directed, there’s no reason I can see why that can’t be the case,” Fauci told ABC News this week. “If you wear a mask, if you observe physical distancing and you don’t have a situation of overcrowding, there is no reason why [people] shouldn’t be able to do that. “
Fauci added that people “physically or otherwise compromised” and who are not interested in physically going to the polls on election day, can use postal voting.
But Fauci doubled down, saying, “There’s no reason we can’t vote in person or otherwise.”
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