WaPo: New Postmaster Likely Coordinating Election Strategy With GOP Officials
JakeThomas
The Washington Post reported Friday that President Trump’s new postmaster general has been in regular contact with Republican Party officials as he rolls out controversial changes to Postal Service operations.
- Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, “a longtime GOP fundraiser, is in frequent contact with top Republican Party officials and met with the president in the Oval Office last week in advance of a tense meeting that DeJoy had with Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), according to people with knowledge of recent events who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly.”
- DeJoy said in a letter to postal workers this week that “he remains committed to returning the Postal Service to solvency but also said he intends to protect service for the fall election.”
- He said reported delays of mail delivery are merely “unintended consequences” of changes that will ultimately improve service, The Post reported.
- The newspaper added that the Trump administration “began courting DeJoy, a billionaire and Trump donor, long before the pandemic began, but since his installment he has become a central figure in the election controversy, ushering in dramatic changes within the Postal Service, banning overtime and shuffling seasoned executives as well as sorting equipment.”
DeJoy’s changes to operations come as President Trump has made clear that he will not allow additional funding for the Postal Service in preparation for the November election, in which mail-in balloting is expected to increase.
“They need that money in order to make the post office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” said the president, claiming again that mail ballots would be “fraudulent,” one of more than 80 attacks he has made against the election’s integrity since March, according to a tally by The Washington Post. Many of his assertions have been misleading or unfounded.
“If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money,” he added. “That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting. They just can’t have it.”
