Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., says President Donald Trump has wanted to destroy the U.S. Postal Office for a long time, and his motivation this time is the 2020 presidential election.
The surge of interest in mail-in voting comes amid the coronavirus pandemic, as many officials want to avoid mass crowds gathering at voting sites come November.
Trump has continued to suggest fear of contracting COVID-19 is not a good enough excuse not to appear at the polls.
"The president wants to – he's wanted to – destroy the post office; he gets these little bugs in his head that have nothing to do with reality," Schumer told MSNBC's "Morning Joe," on Monday morning.
"He's wanted to destroy the post office – maybe even end it – for a long time."
Schumer was discussing recent Trump appointee Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's operational changes to the U.S. Postal Service, which include the reduction of overtime availability, restrictions on extra mail transporting trips, the reduction of the number and use of processing equipment and testing of new mail sorting and delivery policies, according to Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
DeJoy "is so far over his head and to cut back on overtime, to cut back on the number of employees, particularly during the COVID crisis, I'll get to elections in a second. What about people who need their medicines? What about the necessities that are now sent through the mail because people won't go out and shop in the store? There should have been an increase to begin with," Schumer, D-N.Y., told host Joe Scarborough.
"So, I think what's motivating Trump and his henchman there at the head of the post office, is to screw up the system so they can complain the elections weren't done properly. Because if the mail is late, it doesn't work."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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