Mark Meadows vows no mail-sorting machines will be dismantled before election
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Sunday said the US Postal Service will not scuttle any mail-sorting machines between now and the election — and called on Democrats to make President Trump an offer to fund post offices for November’s vote.
“There’s no sorting machines that are going offline between now and the election. That’s something that my Democrat friends are trying to do to stoke fear out there. That’s not happening,” Meadows said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I can tell you that the sorting machines — listen, the volume of first-class mail that they have at the postal system right now, we haven’t seen that volume since I was 17 years old. It’s not a volume problem,” he continued.
The network reported this week that hundreds of sorting machines are slated for “reduction” this year, and that the agency began removing them in June.
The news came amid criticism over other actions by new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy aimed at making the Postal Service more efficient — including cutting overtime, shaking up the executive staff, and allowing mail to be left behind in distribution centers if it delays letter carriers.
Democrats have raised questions about whether the service will be able to handle the expected millions of vote-by-mail ballots being sent because of safety concerns during the coronavirus pandemic.
But President Trump, who has warned that mass mail-in voting would be rife with fraud, last week said he would sign a spending plan passed by Congress to bolster the cash-strapped USPS.
House Democrats in May passed a $3.5 trillion stimulus bill that includes $25 billion in funding for the Postal Service. But talks between the Trump administration, the House and Senate have hit a wall over the price of the stimulus package.
Meadows said Democratic lawmakers should return to Washington and begin negotiating again.
“If my Democrat friends are all upset about this, come back to Washington, D.C., where the president and I am right now … Let’s go ahead and get a stimulus check out to Americans. Let’s make sure that small businesses are protected with an extended PPP program and put the postal funding in there,” he said. “We will pass it tomorrow. The president will sign it.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she is mulling bringing lawmakers back from their August break to address the Postal Service controversy, and the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Sunday demanded that DeJoy and other USPS officials testify at an emergency hearing on Aug. 24.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also accused DeJoy of trying to “undermine” the USPS and called for hearings in the Senate this week.
“What has been — and continues — to go on with the postal service, the undermining and destructive policies that are so clearly intent on upending a system that has worked for generations has simply got to stop,” said the Senate minority leader during a news conference on Sunday.
“Bottom-line, we will not stand for the in-your-face slowing down of the mail and the undermining of Americans who depend on medications, VA benefits, paychecks, even food, and we will not allow this to take place all in an effort to hobble the November election — no way.”
On Saturday, Trump, who appointed DeJoy in May, called him a “fantastic man” who “wants to make the Post Office great again.”
“The steps he’s taking are trying to stop the tremendous losses that have taken place for many many years,” he said.
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