Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are demanding President Donald Trump stop launching attacks against the United States Postal Service (USPS).
They released a statement on Friday, turning their focus to his criticisms of the Postal Service and policies put into place by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
“House and Senate Democrats call on the president to immediately cease his assault on the postal service, make clear that he will allow the 2020 election to proceed without his sabotage tactics and enable the American people the same opportunity he and the First Lady requested this week to vote by absentee ballot,” the Democratic lawmakers said.
They urged DeJoy to “quickly reverse” the changes he made to the agency’s operations because it has led to delays and service reductions and ultimately threatens to “undermine our democracy.”
Pelosi and Schumer claimed DeJoy pushes policies accelerating the “crisis at the Postal Service, delaying mail and jeopardizing the integrity of elections.”
NEW: Schumer/Pelosi call on Trump to "cease his assault on the Postal Service, make clear that he'll allow the 2020 election to proceed w/o his sabotage tactics + enable the American people the same opportunity he + the First Lady requested this week to vote by absentee ballot.” pic.twitter.com/aiX26SWF01
— Julie Tsirkin (@news_jul) August 14, 2020
Pelosi and Schumer mentioned the president’s comments he made yesterday threatening to “further starve” the postal service of the money the agency needs in order to deliver absentee ballots in time for the upcoming presidential election.
During an interview with Fox Business on Thursday, Trump said if Democrats do not receive the funding they are requesting for the postal service, they “can’t have universal mail-in voting,” as IJR previously reported.
Pelosi and Schumer accused Trump of putting his own re-election efforts in front of Democracy.
“The president’s comments today affirm that no patriotic tradition is immune from his abuse of power,” the statement reads.
It continues, “The president made plain that he will manipulate the operations of the post office to deny eligible voters the ballot in pursuit of his own re-election. The President’s own words confirm: he needs to cheat to win.”
