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"˜A conspiracy': Alarms sound after postal worker reports removal of sorting machines

on August 12, 2020
By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

The removal of key equipment from Post Offices should be viewed as nothing less than "sabotage," said one observer.

The head of the Iowa Postal Workers Union alleged Tuesday that mail sorting machines are "being removed" from Post Offices in her state due to new policies imposed by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major GOP donor to President Donald Trump whose operational changes have resulted in dramatic mail slowdowns across the nation.

Asked by NPR"˜s Noel King whether she has felt the impact of DeJoy's changes, Iowa Postal Workers Union President Kimberly Karol-a 30-year Postal Service veteran-answered in the affirmative, saying "mail is beginning to pile up in our offices, and we're seeing equipment being removed."

"I don't see this as cost-saving measures. I see this as a way to undermine the public confidence in the mail service."
-Kimberly Karol, Iowa Postal Workers Union

Karol went on to specify that "equipment that we use to process mail for delivery"-including sorting machines-is being removed from Postal Service facilities in Iowa as DeJoy rushes ahead with policies that, according to critics, are sabotaging the Postal Service's day-to-day operations less than 90 days before an election that could hinge on mail-in ballots.

"In Iowa, we are losing machines. And they already in Waterloo were losing one of those machines. So that also hinders our ability to process mail in the way that we had in the past," added Karol, who said she is "not a fan" of the postmaster general. Washington state election officials have also raised concerns about the removal of mail sorting machines.

"I grew up in a culture of service, where every piece was to be delivered every day. And his policies, although they've only been in place for a few weeks, are now affecting the way that we do business and not allowing us to deliver every piece every day, as we've done in the past," said Karol. "I don't see this as cost-saving measures. I see this as a way to undermine the public confidence in the mail service. It's not saving costs. We're spending more time trying to implement these policy changes. And it's, in our offices, costing more over time."

Observers reacted with alarm to Karol's comments, viewing them as further confirmation that DeJoy is deliberately attempting to damage the Postal Service with the goal of helping Trump win reelection in November.

"It's a conspiracy to steal the election, folks," tweeted The Week"˜s political columnist Ryan Cooper.

Freelance journalist Erin Biba said there's "absolutely no way to see" the removal of mail sorting machines from Post Offices as anything other than "sabotage" of the most popular government institution in the U.S.

"It's so blatant," added Biba.

Mail Delays Fuel Concern Trump Is Undercutting Postal System Ahead of Voting

The president's long campaign against the Postal Service is intersecting with his assault on mail-in voting amid concerns that he has politicized oversight of the agency.

By Michael D. Shear, Hailey Fuchs and Kenneth P. Vogel
NY Times
8/13/2020

WASHINGTON - Welcome to the next election battleground: the post office.

President Trump's yearslong assault on the Postal Service and his increasingly dire warnings about the dangers of voting by mail are colliding as the presidential campaign enters its final months. The result has been to generate new concerns about how he could influence an election conducted during a pandemic in which greater-than-ever numbers of voters will submit their ballots by mail.

In tweet after all-caps tweet, Mr. Trump has warned that allowing people to vote by mail will result in a "CORRUPT ELECTION" that will "LEAD TO THE END OF OUR GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY" and become the "SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES." He has predicted that children will steal ballots out of mailboxes. On Thursday, he dangled the idea of delaying the election instead.

Members of Congress and state officials in both parties rejected the president's suggestion and his claim that mail-in ballots would result in widespread fraud. But they are warning that a huge wave of ballots could overwhelm mail carriers unless the Postal Service, in financial difficulty for years, receives emergency funding that Republicans are blocking during negotiations over another pandemic relief bill.

At the same time, the mail system is being undercut in ways set in motion by Mr. Trump. Fueled by animus for Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and surrounded by advisers who have long called for privatizing the post office, Mr. Trump and his appointees have begun taking cost-cutting steps that appear to have led to slower and less reliable delivery.

In recent weeks, at the direction of a Trump campaign megadonor who was recently named the postmaster general, the service has stopped paying mail carriers and clerks the overtime necessary to ensure that deliveries can be completed each day. That and other changes have led to reports of letters and packages being delayed by as many as several days.

Voting rights groups say it is a recipe for disaster.

"We have an underfunded state and local election system and a deliberate slowdown in the Postal Service," said Wendy Fields, the executive director of the Democracy Initiative, a coalition of voting and civil rights groups. She said the president was "deliberately orchestrating suppression and using the post office as a tool to do it."

Kim Wyman, the Republican secretary of state in Washington, one of five states where mail-in balloting is universal, said Wednesday on NPR's "1A" program that "election officials are very concerned, if the post office is reducing service, that we will be able to get ballots to people in time."

During his eulogy on Thursday for Representative John Lewis, former President Barack Obama lamented what he said was a continuing effort to attack voting rights "with surgical precision, even undermining the Postal Service in the run-up to an election that is going to be dependent on mailed-in ballots so people don't get sick."

Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general, defended the changes, saying in a statement that the ban on overtime was intended to "improve operational efficiency" and to "ensure that we meet our service standards."

Mr. DeJoy declined to be interviewed. David Partenheimer, a spokesman for the Postal Service, said that the nation's post offices had "ample capacity to adjust our nationwide processing and delivery network to meet projected election and political mail volume, including any additional volume that may result as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic."

A plunge in the amount of mail because of a recession - which the United States entered into in February - has cost the Postal Service billions of dollars in revenue, with some analysts predicting that the agency will run out of money by spring. Democrats have proposed an infusion of $25 billion. On Friday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Republicans, who are opposed to the funding, of wanting to "diminish the capacity of the Postal System to work in a timely fashion."

Arthur B. Sackler, who runs the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a group representing the biggest bulk mailers, said the changes were concerning even though his organization did not take a position on voting by mail.

"Like any other mail, this could complicate what is already going to be a complicated process," Mr. Sackler said. "A huge number of jurisdictions are totally inexperienced in vote by mail. They have never had the avalanche of interest that they have this year."

Many states have already loosened restrictions on who can vote by mail: In Kentucky, mail-in ballots accounted for 85 percent of the vote in June's primary. In Vermont, requests for mail-in ballots are up 1,000 percent over 2018.

Michigan voters had requested nearly 1.8 million mail-in ballots by the end of July, compared with about 500,000 by the similar time four years ago, after the secretary of state mailed absentee ballot applications to all 7.7 million registered voters.

In the suburban Virginia district of Representative Gerald E. Connolly, a Democrat who leads the House subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service, 1,300 people voted by mail in a 2019 primary - last month, more than 34,000 did.

"We are worried about new management at the Postal Service that is carrying out Trump's avowed opposition to voting by mail," Mr. Connolly said. "I don't think that's speculation. I think we are witnessing that in front of our own eyes."

Erratic service could delay the delivery of blank ballots to people who request them. And in 34 states, completed ballots that are not received by Election Day - this year it is Nov. 3 - are invalidated, raising the prospect that some voters could be disenfranchised if the mail system buckles.

In other states, ballots can be tallied as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, but voting rights groups say ballots are often erroneously delivered without a postmark, which prevents them from being counted.

The ability of the Postal Service "to timely deliver and return absentee ballots and their work to postmark those ballots will literally determine whether or not voters are disenfranchised during the pandemic," said Kristen Clarke, the president of the National Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

In New York, where officials urged people not to cast ballots in person during June's primary, counting of mail-in ballots is still underway weeks later, leaving some crucial races undecided. In some cases, ballots received without postmarks are being discarded.

Making the problem worse, New York law requires that election officials wait to begin counting mail-in ballots until the polls close on Election Day. Other states allow counting to begin earlier, though most insist that no results be revealed until after voting ends. In Arizona, officials can begin tallying votes 14 days early. In Florida, officials can begin verifying signatures on ballots 22 days before the election.

Mr. Trump and his allies have seized upon the New York debacle as evidence that he is right to oppose mail-in ballots. Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, called it an "absolute catastrophe," and the president referred to New York in a tweet that said, "Rigged Election, and EVERYONE knows it!"

But Mr. Trump - who himself has repeatedly voted by mail in recent elections - has set in motion changes at the Postal Service that could make the problem worse.

A series of Postal Service documents titled "PMGs expectations," a reference to the postmaster general, describe how Mr. Trump's new leadership team is trying to cut costs.

"Overtime will be eliminated," says the document, which was first reported by The Washington Post. "Again, we are paying too much overtime, and it is not cost effective and will soon be taken off the table. More to come on this."

The document continues: "The U.S.P.S. will no longer use excessive cost to get the basic job done. If the plants run late, they will keep the mail for the next day."

Another document, dated July 10, says, "One aspect of these changes that may be difficult for employees is that - temporarily - we may see mail left behind or on the workroom floor or docks."

With the agency under financial pressure, some offices have also begun to cut back on hours. The result, according to postal workers, members of Congress and major post office customers, is a noticeable slowdown in delivery.

"The policies that the new postmaster general is putting into place - they couldn't lead to anything but degradation of service," said Mark Dimondstein, the president of the American Postal Workers Union. "Anything that slows down the mail could have a negative impact on everything we do, including vote by mail."

The Postal Service, which runs more than 31,000 post offices in the United States, has struggled financially for years, in part because of its legal obligation to deliver mail everywhere, even remote locations that would be unprofitable for a private company.

A 2018 report by the Treasury Department recommended an overhaul of the Postal Service, which the report said accumulated losses of $69 billion from 2007 to 2018.

But the administration's critics say the changes being put in place by Mr. DeJoy are part of a political agenda to move toward privatization of the Postal Service.

In mid-July, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York and the chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and Mr. Connolly wrote a letter to Mr. DeJoy raising questions about the ban on overtime and the other changes.

"While these changes in a normal year would be drastic," the lawmakers wrote, "in a presidential election year when many states are relying heavily on absentee mail-in ballots, increases in mail delivery timing would impair the ability of ballots to be received and counted in a timely manner - an unacceptable outcome for a free and fair election."

Mr. Trump has been assailing the Postal Service since early in his presidency, tweeting in 2017 that the agency was becoming "dumber and poorer" because it charged big companies too little for delivering their packages.

The president has repeatedly blamed Mr. Bezos, who is also the owner of The Washington Post, for the financial plight of the Postal Service, insisting that the post office charges Amazon too little, an assertion that many experts have rejected as false.

In the past three years, the president has replaced all six members of the Postal Service Board of Governors.

In May, the board, which includes two Democrats, selected Mr. DeJoy, a longtime Republican fund-raiser who has contributed more than $1.5 million to Mr. Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns, to be postmaster general. According to financial disclosures, Mr. DeJoy and his wife, Aldona Wos, who has been nominated to be the ambassador to Canada, have $115,002 to $300,000 invested in the Postal Service's major competitor, UPS.

Two board members have since departed. David C. Williams, the vice chairman, left in April over concerns that the Postal Service was becoming increasingly politicized by the Trump administration, according to two people familiar with his thinking. Ronald Stroman, who oversaw mail-in voting and relations with election officials, resigned in May.

One of the remaining members, Robert M. Duncan, is a former Republican National Committee chairman who has been a campaign donor to Mr. Trump.

In accusing the administration of politicizing the Postal Service, the president's critics point to a recent decision to send a mailer detailing guidelines to protect against the coronavirus. The mailer, which featured Mr. Trump's name in a campaignlike style, was sent in March to 130 million American households at a reported cost of $28 million.

According to Postal Service emails obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, Mr. Trump was personally involved.

"I know that POTUS personally approved this postcard and is aware of the USPS effort in service to the nation - pushing information out to every household, urban and rural," John M. Barger, a governor of the postal system, wrote in an email to the postmaster general at the time.

In another email, Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, told a member of the board that Dr. Stephen C. Redd, a deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "will make this happen." The mailer received a go-ahead from the White House before it was sent out, the emails show.

S. David Fineman, who served on the board under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said that during his time, the board rarely if ever had contact with the White House.

"I've never seen anything quite like this," he said. "No one would have thought that we would have sought the input of the administration."

Urgent bill to end "˜deliberate sabotage' of the Postal Service by Trump donor introduced by House Dems

on August 13, 2020
By Common Dreams

Declaring that Congress must act swiftly to "stop the Trump administration's deliberate sabotage" of the U.S. Postal Service ahead of the November elections, House Democrats on Wednesday unveiled legislation that would reverse Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's disruptive new policies and prevent additional changes at the agency until the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sponsored by House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the Delivering for America Act (pdf) would bar USPS leadership from implementing or approving "any change to the operations or the level of service provided by the Postal Service from those in effect on January 1, 2020, that would impede prompt reliable, and efficient services."

Specifically, the legislation would prohibit:

    Any change in the nature of postal services which will generally affect service on a nationwide or substantially nationwide basis;
    Any revision of service standards;
    Any closure or consolidation any post office or reduction of facility hours;
    Any prohibition on payments of overtime pay to Postal Service officers or employees;
    Any change that would prevent the Postal Service from meeting its service standards or cause a decline in measurements of performance relative to those service standards;
    Any change that would have the effect of delaying mail, allowing for the non-delivery of mail to a delivery route, or increasing the volume of undelivered mail.

"Our Postal Service should not become an instrument of partisan politics, but instead must be protected as a neutral, independent entity that focuses on one thing and one thing only-delivering the mail," Maloney said in a statement. "Millions of people rely on the Postal Service every day to communicate, to access critical medications, and to vote."

"At this juncture in our nation's history, when the number of Americans voting by mail for this presidential election is expected to more than double from the last, Congress must protect the right of all eligible citizens to have their vote counted," Maloney added. "A once-in-a-century pandemic is no time to enact changes that threaten service reliability and transparency."

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a House Oversight Committee member and co-sponsor of the new bill, tweeted that "Congress must stop the Trump administration's deliberate sabotage to disrupt mail service in the leadup to November elections."

During talks with the Trump administration over a broad Covid-19 relief package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) demanded the reversal of DeJoy's policies barring overtime and prohibiting postal workers from sorting mail ahead of their morning deliveries.

But the relief negotiations collapsed last week, leaving the postmaster general's policies in place and the USPS without desperately needed emergency funding.

The Delivering for America Act comes as DeJoy-a major Republican donor to President Donald Trump-is facing a Senate investigation and growing calls to step down over his sweeping policy changes, which have resulted in major mail backlogs nationwide and sparked concerns about the timely delivery of mail-in ballots in November.

Postal workers have also blamed DeJoy's new policies for drastic reductions in Post Office hours and removal of mail sorting equipment at USPS facilities across the country.

In a statement Wednesday, Connolly said "Postmaster General DeJoy could better use his time by shelving his "˜reorganization plan' and instead imploring Republicans and the president to provide the Postal Service the financial resources needed to ensure a smooth process of mail-in ballots for the November election."

Trump openly admits to sabotaging Post Office to boost his re-election chances

on August 13, 2020
Raw Story
By Brad Reed

President Donald Trump told Fox Business's Maria Bartiromo on Thursday that he is blocking needed funds to the United States Postal Service as a way to thwart Democrats' efforts to have mail-in voting during the 2020 presidential election.

When asked a question about giving the Post Office the resources needed to handle millions of mail-in ballots this fall, the president said he was not interested in providing the funds.

"Now they need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots," Trump said, according to CNN's Abby Philip. "But if they don't get those two items that means you can't have universal mail-in voting."

The president has regularly attacked mail-in voting, although he has made some exceptions for states such as Florida that both have mail-in voting and are run by Republican governors.

After multiple reports from around the country cropped up about severe delays in postal service delivery in recent weeks, there has been speculation that the president is intentionally ordering the Post Office to slow down ahead of the election so that he can more easily challenge mail-in ballots that are delivered late this fall.

**************

"˜Damned evil': Trump shocks Americans with open boasts about defunding the Post Office before election

on August 13, 2020
Raw Story
By Brad Reed

President Donald Trump has shocked many Americans with his declaration that he doesn't want to give the United States Postal Service enough funding to count ballots that have been sent via mail.

When asked by Fox Business's Maria Bartiromo about extra funding for the Post Office during a Thursday morning interview, Trump explicitly tied his refusal to give the USPS what it needed with his desire to block mail-in voting.

"Now they need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots," Trump said. "But if they don't get those two items that means you can't have universal mail-in voting."

Americans watching the interview quickly took to Twitter to express their shock and outrage - check out some reactions below.

    Not yet 9:30 AM, and we already have today's impeachable offense. Deliberately underfunding the Post Office so people affected by COVID, or worried about getting it, can't vote is pretty dammed evil. https://t.co/CeBWi8IceN

    - Radley Balko (@radleybalko) August 13, 2020

    Trump admits to politicizing the Post Office to steal an election conducted by mail https://t.co/IszgYHo5Yc

    - Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) August 13, 2020

    We need to call this what it is: a brazen attempt to steal the election by invalidating vote by mail ballots. In the process, he's putting people's lives at risk by COVID. https://t.co/7Gr8fPrYSX

    - Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) August 13, 2020

    Undermining the USPS is voter suppression-and it's intentional. https://t.co/QE7XDjJqqk

    - Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) August 13, 2020

    Wrecking a fundamental constitutional institution founded by Benjamin Franklin in order to prevent a full count of ballots in your reelection campaign sounds pretty bad! https://t.co/cjpJVKJF2h

    - Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) August 13, 2020

    the media must start describing this for what it is: a massive voter suppression effort orchestrated by the president.

    every republican should be forced to answer for it.

    for a party that spent the last decade "combating voter fraud" it should be easy to condemn. https://t.co/EKB6abmIER

    - mike casca (@cascamike) August 13, 2020

    He keeps admitting his plans out loud and then his allies are like "no no, there was no quid pro quo in Ukraine!! He was just telling them to do something so they'd get something he was withholding" https://t.co/lnlGw6wVtj

    - Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) August 13, 2020

    Trump is straight up admitting that he's blocking funding for the post office to prevent millions of Americans from excercising their right to vote.

    Saying the quiet part out loud that he's trying to rig the election. Unprecedented for a sitting president https://t.co/tLru1VWKSu

    - Stephen Wolf (@PoliticsWolf) August 13, 2020

    He's going to kill the post office to suppress voting. We need people in the streets over this, not litigation. https://t.co/t8uHv383WB

    - Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) August 13, 2020

    He is stealing the election. A robbery in broad daylight. https://t.co/3fpurwmlMq

    - Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) August 13, 2020

    The @USPS is an essential service and enshrined in our constitution. Trump is intentionally trying to sabotage it to win an election. This is just another example of how Trump thinks he's above the law. #SaveTheUSPS https://t.co/pfwThLxjzT

    - David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) August 13, 2020

    Here's a friendly reminder that a robber's not better than a burglar. Sure, the burglar's a sneak creeping in the dark while you're out. And a robber's the honest chap telling you it's your money or your life. But there are no points for honesty on the losing end of a gun barrel. https://t.co/Oz0oVrrOaD

    - Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) August 13, 2020

    President Trump openly announcing to the world that he intends to sabotage the November presidential election and not a peep from Republicans. https://t.co/cEjy8kTsAw

    - Kevin M. Levin (@KevinLevin) August 13, 2020

    The USPS is enormously popular with the public & enjoys broad bipartisan support because of it. 4 million people a day get their prescription drugs. 100k veterans have a job at USPS. Everyone has equal access and rural America is cut off without it. Congress must act. #ReliefNow https://t.co/a6FkMgxhVe

    - Sara Nelson (@FlyingWithSara) August 13, 2020

    IMPEACH HIS FAT ASS AGAIN https://t.co/sHBMBs5INc

    - Antifacist sentimentalist (@JesseLaGreca) August 13, 2020

    If this happened in other countries, past US presidents and the State Department would have condemned it for what it is: an attempt by the incumbent to abuse the powers of his office to manipulate an upcoming election in his favor. https://t.co/yA6EyjgKtk

    - Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) August 13, 2020

    "The Congress shall have Power "¦ To establish Post Offices and post Roads" Article 1, Section 8, Clause 7. President Trump is very publicly & transparently undermining the Post Office to steal an election, which will also jeopardize access to medicine for 10's of millions. https://t.co/X4vsUKha3J

    - David Rothschild (@DavMicRot) August 13, 2020

    Hey remember when we used to make fun of dodgy Latin America nations as messy and call them corrupt banana-republics?

    They at least have nice weather and lush mountains.https://t.co/TAa00Hyzpw

    - A.J. Delgado (@AJDelgado13) August 13, 2020

    Saying the quiet part out loud. #SaveUSPS https://t.co/MfLqMHqE30

    - People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) August 13, 2020

Veterans group hits draft-dodging Trump with new ad blasting his war on the mail

on August 13, 2020
Raw Story
By Sarah K. Burris

The veterans' rights group VoteVets is going after President Donald Trump for his war on the U.S. mail, explaining that while he might think it's about preventing Democrats from voting it's hurting veterans and soldiers.

"After five draft deferments and faked bone spurs excuses Trump is finally going to war - with the U.S. Postal Service," the ad begins. "Yeah, the Post Office. The one that American troops have relied on for over 200 years."

The ad showed old photos of soldiers getting mail from their families about news from home. It also explained that soldiers rely on the Postal Service to deliver their ballots while they're stationed overseas and bring them back home so they can participate in the democracy while defending it abroad.
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But more, when the service of these vets is finished, the ad explains that they depend on the Post Office to deliver their medication from the VA.

"Today and every single workday 330,000 veterans are due a prescription drug delivery by the U.S. Postal Service. And today, tens of thousands aren't getting their prescriptions because Donald Trump declared war on the mail. Firing workers, disrupting deliveries, defunding operations. The thing is, this is just a warm-up for the fall. Donald Trump plans to disrupt absentee ballots and vote-by-mail for millions of Americans in the middle of a pandemic he failed to control. Because Donald Trump knows if the mail delivers ballots to America's veterans, we'll deliver a message right back. You lose."

See the ad below:

    After five draft deferments Donald Trump has finally found a war he wants to fight - against the USPS!

    If he had served, he'd know veterans rely on the USPS for voting, medication, and employment.

    We take this VERY personally, and so should you. #TrumpYouLose pic.twitter.com/PjKPctrX3O

    - VoteVets (@votevets) August 13, 2020

Watch: https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrumpYouLose?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

USPS warns Pennsylvania it can't deliver all mail ballots by the legal deadline

on August 14, 2020
Raw Story
By Matthew Chapman

On Thursday, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Postal Service is warning the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania it may be unable to deliver the required volume of mail-in ballots before the legal deadline of receipt.

"The warning came in a July 29 letter from Thomas J. Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president for the Postal Service, to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, whose department oversees elections," reported Jonathan Lai and Ellie Rushing. "That letter was made public for the first time late Thursday in a filing the Pennsylvania Department of State submitted to the state Supreme Court, in which it asked the court to order that mail ballots be counted as long as they are received up to three days after the Nov. 3 election."

"If the court agrees, it will increase the likelihood that the results of the presidential race between President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden won't be known for days after the election," continued the report. "The post office's letter to the state, which came as President Donald Trump has mounted false attacks on mail voting, warned that "˜certain deadlines for requesting and casting mail-in ballots are incongruous with the Postal Service's delivery standards.'"

Trump's appointment of GOP donor and former logistics executive Louis DeJoy as postmaster general has raised a number of alarms, as his tenure has already seen a number of policy changes and leadership shakeups that are reportedly slowing down mail service.

Already mail-in ballots are expected to be cast in far greater volume than usual this year, owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Obama denounces Trump bid to deter voters with attack on post office

    USPS warns mail-in votes might not arrive in time to be counted
    Obama: president trying to "˜actively kneecap' postal service

Oliver Milman
Guardian
Fri 14 Aug 2020 22.19 BST

Trump leaves the White House for his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Trump has explicitly said he is against giving money to the USPS to help it meet voter demand.

There are growing fears over the handling of November's US presidential election after it emerged that the US Postal Service (USPS) has warned it cannot guarantee mail-in votes will be counted in almost every state in America and Barack Obama accused Donald Trump of trying to "discourage people from voting".

In letters to 46 states, and the District of Columbia, the USPS has warned that it could not guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted - possibly affecting tens of millions of votes across almost the whole country.

The news was reported first in the Washington Post.

A record number of Americans are expected to vote via the USPS because of concerns over in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far claimed more than 160,000 US lives.

One of the letters was sent to Pennsylvania's top official overseeing elections, warning that a one-week turnaround for mail-in ballots may not be possible.

Pennsylvania is a key swing state won by Donald Trump by less than 1% in 2016, and it could play a pivotal role again in 2020. Voters are able to request a mailed ballot up to seven days before the election, but ballots returned after election day cannot be counted.

In response to the growing crisis in the USPS Obama - who has generally carefully avoided attacking Trump directly - launched a remarkable broadside against his successor.

In a podcast with David Plouffe, his former campaign manager, Obama said: "What we've seen in a way that is unique to modern political history is a president who is explicit in trying to discourage people from voting. What we've never seen before is a president say, "˜I'm going to try to actively kneecap the postal service to encourage voting and I will be explicit about the reason I'm doing it.'"

Obama added: "That's sort of unheard of."

Voting by mail has become a politically charged issue, with Trump claiming that mail-in ballots will benefit his rival, the Democrat Joe Biden, and lead to fraud. Experts have confirmed that the mail-in ballot system has long been safe from any fraudulent tampering, with Trump and members of his family repeatedly using the methods themselves.

Democrats have proposed $3.6bn in election funding to help states with vote processing, with another $25bn for the cash-strapped USPS to help it meet the expected demand from the 180 million voters who are registered to vote.

But Trump has explicitly said he opposes these measures as he wants to deter mail-in voting.

"If we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money," the president told Fox Business on Thursday. "That means they can't have universal mail-in voting. They just can't have it." Trump also repeated his claim, again with no evidence, that mail-in ballots would be "fraudulent".

Those remarks triggered widespread outrage, especially among Democrats and civil liberties groups.

    What we've seen in a way that is unique "¦ is a president who is explicit in trying to discourage people from voting
    Barack Obama

Trump's critics have accused the president, who is badly trailing Biden in polling, of attempting to stymie the USPS to bolster his floundering re-election effort. Biden said the president's latest comments were "pure Trump". The presumptive Democratic nominee, who this week chose the California senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, added that Trump "doesn't want an election".

The mounting concerns over the democratic process have been fueled by an apparent slowdown in activity by the USPS, which is headed by a Trump appointee. The USPS plans to remove hundreds of high-volume mail processing machines across the country, ostensibly due to a reduction in letters and packages sent during the pandemic.

Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, has said that she fears "Republican sabotage of the USPS, including slowing mail delivery, is a Trump strategy to make voting by mail more difficult this fall". Clinton urged voters to requests ballots early and send them in as soon as possible.

The 300,000-member National Association of Letter Carriers said on Friday that the union's executive council had endorsed Democrat Joe Biden for president, warning "the very survival" of the postal service was at stake.

Trump, presiding over a disastrously handled pandemic that has ravaged the health of millions of Americans and plunged the country into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, has attempted to hurry along the reopening of schools and businesses, despite a surge in infections in many states, while attempting to paint Biden and Harris as an existential threat to the US.

On Thursday, Trump lent credence to a false and racist conspiracy theory that Harris was not eligible to serve as vice-president, saying that he considered the allegation "very serious". Harris, who would be the first black and Asian woman to be vice-president, was born in California and is able to serve in the role, or as president, under constitutional requirements.

Trump previously aired the same "birther" conspiracy about Obama, the first black US president.

*************

Trump officials could face criminal charges for USPS sabotage - and the president may not be able to pardon them

on August 14, 2020
Raw Story
8/15/2020

Members of the Trump administration could face legal jeopardy over efforts to sabotage U.S. Postal Service operations to interfere with the 2020 presidential elections.

"Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) made a criminal referral to the New Jersey Attorney General on Friday night, asking him to impanel a grand jury to look at possible breach of state election laws by President Trump, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and others for "˜their accelerating arson of the post office,' he said. Alarming headlines have emerged in recent days as many states prepare to facilitate widespread mail balloting due to the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump openly admitted he was withholding federal aid from the postal service to prevent mail-in voting, and USPS has notified 46 states and D.C. that it will struggle to deliver some mail ballots on time," The Daily Beast reported Friday.

If DeJoy or others were charged in New Jersey for state crimes, Trump could not pardon them as his power only applies to federal crimes.

    What trump and his crony are doing is criminal. Period. https://t.co/GpsyCbg85o

    - Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@PascrellforNJ) August 14, 2020

New Jersey isn't the only state investigating the possible violations of the law.

In Arizona, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs on Friday wrote a letter to state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, asking him to investigate whether crimes have been committed.

    In Arizona, it's against the law to "delay the delivery of a ballot." I've asked Attorney General Brnovich to investigate recent changes at USPS, and whether or not the Trump administration has committed a crime. pic.twitter.com/fwEV86RIIT

    - Secretary Katie Hobbs (@SecretaryHobbs) August 14, 2020

***********

Inspector General probing Trump's Postal Service moves - and the ethics of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy: report

Raw Story
8/15/2020
By Sky Palma

According to a new report from CNN, the internal watchdog at the United States Postal Service is investigating policy changes at the agency under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. The watchdog is also looking into whether or not DeJoy is complying with federal ethics rules.

"Lawmakers from both parties and postal union leaders have sounded alarms over disruptive changes instituted by DeJoy this summer, including eliminating overtime and slowing some mail delivery," CNN reports. "Democrats claim he is intentionally undermining postal service operations to sabotage mail-in voting in the November election - a charge he denies."

US Postal Service warns it cannot guarantee all mail ballots for presidential electionsd

on August 15, 2020
By Agence France-Presse

The U.S. Postal Service is warning states coast to coast that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted, even if mailed by state deadlines, raising the possibility that millions of voters could be disenfranchised.

Voters and lawmakers in several states are also complaining that some curbside mail collection boxes are being removed.

Even as President Donald Trump rails against widescale voting by mail, the post office is bracing for an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The warning letters sent to states raise the possibility that many Americans eligible for mail-in ballots this fall will not have them counted. But that is not the intent, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in his own letter to Democratic congressional leaders.

The post office is merely "asking elected officials and voters to realistically consider how the mail works, and be mindful of our delivery standards, in order to provide voters ample time to cast ballots through the mail," wrote DeJoy, a prominent Trump political donor who was recently appointed.

The back-and-forth comes amid a vigorous campaign by Trump to sow doubts about mail-in voting as he faces a difficult fight for reelection against Democrat Joe Biden.

Though Trump casts his own ballots by mail, he's repeatedly criticized efforts to allow more people to do so, which he argues without evidence will lead to increased voter fraud that could cost him the election. Meanwhile, members of Congress from both parties have voiced concerns that curbside mail boxes, which is how many will cast their ballots, have abruptly been removed in some states.

At the same time that the need for timely delivery of the mail is peaking, service has been curtailed amid cost-cutting and efficiency measures ordered by the DeJoy, the new postmaster general, who is a former supply-chain CEO. He has implemented measures to eliminate overtime pay and hold mail over if distribution centers are running late.

The Post Office released letters it sent to all 50 states and the District of Columbia on its website. While some states with permissive vote-by-mail laws were given a less stringent warning, the majority with more restrictive requirements that limit when a ballot must be cast were given a more dire warning.

The laws, the letter said, create a "risk that ballots requested near the deadline under state law will not be returned by mail in time to be counted."

Many state officials criticized the move.

"˜Troubling development'

"This is a deeply troubling development in what is becoming a clear pattern of attempted voter suppression by the Trump administration," Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement. "I am committed to making sure all Virginians have access to the ballot box, and will continue to work with state and federal lawmakers to ensure safe, secure and accessible elections this fall."

Kim Wyman, the Republican secretary of state in Washington state, where all voting is by mail, said sending fall ballot material to millions of voters there is a "routine operation of the U.S. Postal Service."

"Politicizing these administrative processes is dangerous and undermines public confidence in our elections," she said in a statement. "This volume of work is by no means unusual, and is an operation I am confident the U.S. Postal Service is sufficiently prepared to fulfill."

Meanwhile, the removal of Postal Service collection mail boxes triggered concerns and anger in Oregon and Montana. Boxes were also removed in Indiana.

In Montana, postal officials said the removals were part of a program to eliminate underused drop boxes. But after the outcry, which included upset members of Congress, the officials said they were suspending the program in Montana. It was unclear if the program was also suspended in other states.

At least 25 mail boxes were removed in mid-July in Montana with another 30 scheduled to be taken away soon, said Julie Quilliam, president of the Montana Letter Carriers Association. She rejected the claim that the boxes were removed because of low usage.

"Some of the boxes scheduled to be removed from downtown Billings are nearly overflowing daily," Quilliam wrote in a Facebook message.

All three members of Montana's congressional delegation - two of whom are Republican - raised concerns about the removal of mail boxes in letters sent to Postmaster DeJoy.

"These actions set my hair on fire and they have real life implications for folks in rural America and their ability to access critical postal services like paying their bills and voting in upcoming elections," said Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat.

Republican Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte, also a Republican, raised similar concerns in letters to DeJoy about the effect the removal of the mail boxes might have on delivery times. All three asked for information on how the agency decided which boxes to remove and whether any more removals were planned.

"During the current public health crisis it is more important than ever the USPS continue to provide prompt, dependable delivery service," said Gianforte.

Postal Service spokesperson Ernie Swanson said the Oregon removals were due to declining mail volume and that duplicate mail boxes were taken from places that had more than one. The Postal Service said four mail boxes were removed in Portland this week.

"First-class mail volume has declined significantly in the U.S., especially since the pandemic," Swanson said. "That translates to less mail in collection boxes."

Separately, the National Association of Letter Carriers, which represents 300,000 current and retired workers, endorsed Biden.

The union said Trump has been hostile to the post office and has undermined it and its workers while Biden "is - was - and will continue to be - a fierce ally and defender of the United States Postal Service," said union president Fredric Rolando.

Trump will almost certainly challenge the results if he loses - here's how that could play out

Raw Story
on August 16, 2020

This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

As he did in 2016, Donald Trump is constantly claiming that if he loses in November it will be proof that the vote was rigged against him. He tweets regularly, contrary to the available evidence, that mail-in voting will lead to massive amounts of voter fraud when such fraud hasn't been a significant problem in any presidential election in modern history.

Because Trump seems unlikely to accept the results of the vote if he loses, there is widespread speculation that Trump's will litigate every ballot it can. But Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University, tells AlterNet that the Trump campaign might not have to file a challenge itself, as his supporters might claim that they had been disenfranchised by some sort of fictitious scheme to "rig" the vote. "It could come from the Trump campaign or it could be psychologically supported by the Trump campaign," she says.

If it did come from the Trump campaign, Levinson says they would likely make arguments that would echo claims Trump has made repeatedly. "What the Trump campaign will argue is that too many people voted and there was fraud in the system. They may say ineligible people got ballots," Levinson says. "They might say dead people voted. They'll use all of the typical voter fraud tropes."

Levinson doesn't think any of these arguments would result in the election being swung in Trump's favor, but she says it could be a way for the campaign to make the election appear to have been illegitimate.

"A likely scenario would be that it looks like Trump is doing decently well in the Electoral College on election night, but then as more votes are counted because we're going to have this influx of vote-by-mail and not all of them need to be in and counted by election day, then it starts to look better and better for Biden," Levinson says. "Then these lawsuits would be a form of psychological warfare. They would serve the purpose of calling into question the changing result" as absentees were counted in the days and weeks after November 3.

If a lawsuit claimed that there was a violation of state law during the electoral process, the relevant state's supreme court would have the final word on the matter. If there's a claim that a federal law was violated, the case would go to a federal court, and it could end up making its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Any lawsuit that held up certifying a winner in some way would have to be resolved by January 20th, because otherwise the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 dictates that the Speaker of the House, likely Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), would become president.

"That would be a very American way to get the first female president," Levinson jokes.

Levinson says that Chief Justice John Roberts, who is known as a fierce defender of the Court's institutional legitimacy, wouldn't want to have the election be settled by the Supreme Court, and would prefer that any lawsuit would be resolved by a state court or a lower federal court. She says if it does end up in the Supreme Court, it's very likely that the case wouldn't be strong enough and that a majority would vote against Trump's side. She says she doesn't see a "baseless" case helping Trump stay in office.

And Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a law professor at Harvard University, tells AlterNet that he can imagine a scenario where the Democrats are the ones suing over election results. "One bad scenario is that a swing state's election is close and that many mail-in ballots - enough to maybe change the result of the election - arrive too late to be counted because of deliberate delays by the post office," Stephanopoulos says. "The disadvantaged side (probably Democrats) would then sue, arguing that the mail-in voters' right to vote was burdened by the post office delays and by the state's policy of not counting late-arrived ballots."

Stephanopoulos says he expects that the current Supreme Court would be "hostile to this claim despite its normative appeal." He says the Court has never ruled in favor of a voting rights plaintiff, and it "would be unlikely to start when its decision might benefit a Democrat and when it could plausibly deny the claim."

Adam Winkler, a law professor at UCLA, tells AlterNet that if the results were so close that there was no clear winner, the 12th Amendment would throw the election to the House where each state's delegation would cast a vote to decide who would be the next president. "It's got to be in the back of Mitch McConnell's mind that there's a 12th Amendment remedy here that keeps Donald Trump in the presidency without overturning democracy, without overturning the Constitution, without doing anything but following the Constitution," Winkler says. "A majority of House delegations are Republican-controlled."

It wouldn't be the first time that's happened. John Quincy Adams was elected president in 1824 by a vote in the House despite the fact he had won fewer Electoral College votes than Andrew Jackson. Winkler says he doesn't think it's a likely scenario, but it's within the realm of possibility.

It's impossible to predict exactly how the election will play out, but with so many states unprepared for a surge of mail-in voting, Trump will probably be able to point to various glitches to claim there was voter fraud throughout the country. Levinson says she doesn't think that'll work, but it could make the time between election day and inauguration day quite tumultuous.

"The best we can extrapolate from past history is that the problems won't be rampant voter fraud. They'll be mistakes. They'll be confusion," Levinson says. "They'll be mistakes based on lack of education and lack of infrastructure. The arguments President Trump is making about purposeful voter fraud I do not think would be successful because it's simply not something that exists in reality on the scale that it would change a presidential election."

Hi Rad and all,

What Trump and Dejoy are doing to destroy the Postal Service and sabotage the election is alarming and dangerous to us all. This is part of Trump's October surprise---he is stealing the election right in front of us.

Since so many Democrats plan to vote by mail, this is an emergency.

I'm hoping people around the country are contacting their Senators and Representatives (I've been calling Pelosi and Schumer every day), to stress how important this is.

If the Senate and House can somehow come to an agreement to fund the Postal Service, let's hope Mnuchin and DeJoy don't stop the funding from being distributed. This is one of their tactics.

Am also hoping that people will vote early and hand in their ballots at ballot boxes or state offices rather than let the Postal Service handle them. Am concerned DeJoy will find a way to throw out all mail-in ballots.

DeJoy needs to be fired immediately and am hoping the Democrats will at least go to court and file an injunction against him.

The USPS Board of Governors actually can fire him. Here are 2 articles from Daily Kos that list the 6 members and their email addresses:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/15/1969474/-Join-the-Fight-Contact-the-USPS-Board-of-Directors-Directly?utm_campaign=recent

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/15/1969542/-Let-the-USPS-Board-of-Governors-Know-What-You-Think-About-the-Actions-of-Louis-DeJoy-and-His-Cronies?utm_campaign=recent

Praying for us all,

Soleil

Six states are huddling to decide whether they can sue Trump's government for intentional Post Office delays: report

on August 17, 2020
Raw Story

The Washington Post reported Sunday that at least six state attorneys general are meeting to discuss whether they can use lawsuits against the administration to try and kill the U.S. Postal Service.

"State leaders are scrambling to see whether they can change rules to give voters more options, and Democrats are planning a massive public education campaign to shore up trust in the vote and the Postal Service," said the report.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Sunday that she was calling Congress back to work on a post office bill that would mandate no changes to be made to the post offices that weren't already in place on Jan. 1, 2020. They also announced an emergency hearing about mail delays later this month.

"He is undermining the safest voting method during a pandemic and forcing people to cast a ballot in person," said Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D). "It is reprehensible."

There is a fear that the president has acted in an attempt to block mailed ballots, which he thinks will give more people an easier ability to vote. Traditionally, the more people who vote, the more chance a Democrat stands at winning, Trump acknowledged.

"The things they had in there were crazy," Trump complained about the Democratic stimulus bill. "They had things - levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again."

   Trump, on expanding voting: "They had levels of voting, that if you ever agreed to it you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again." pic.twitter.com/ly4LYQqmo8

   - Jacques Calonne (@JacquesCalonne) March 30, 2020

The race to action comes amid escalating worries that even if the president does not succeed in blocking mail voting, he has created a dangerous crisis of confidence that could jeopardize whether Americans view the eventual outcome as legitimate.

"He has succeeded enough that everybody is working overtime to clean up the mess," said Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan voting rights group.

On Friday, the Postal Service warned that 46 states might not be able to deliver their ballots in time to be counted to count in November. Voters are franticly asking questions as Americans look for ways to stay safe while still casting a ballot.

"This is not just terrible policy, but it may be illegal under federal law and other state laws as well," the Post cited Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D). "A lot of work is being done literally as we speak over the weekend and at nights to try to figure out what Trump and DeJoy are doing, whether they have already violated or are likely to violate any laws and how we can take swift action to try to stop this assault on our democracy."

"We are exploring all available options, but we also want to make clear that people should continue to make use of mail options and not be deterred by the president's effort to undermine the election," said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (D).

"The reason the president doesn't want people to vote by mail is that polls show that people who want to vote by mail tend to vote for Vice President Biden," Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a regular critic of Trump, said in a video interview with the conservative Sutherland Institute. "People who tend to want to vote in-person tend to want to vote for President Trump. So this is a political calculation."

************

FBI urged to investigate Trump's postmaster general for potential violations of two federal laws

on August 17, 2020
By Matthew Chapman

On Monday, Reps. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, calling for a federal investigation into the delays at the Postal Service.

"Multiple media investigations show that Postmaster DeJoy and the Board of Governors have retarded the passage of mail. If their intent in doing so was to affect mail-in balloting or was motivated by personal financial reasons, then they likely committed crimes," said the letter. Lieu and Jeffries in particular cited 18 U.S.C. § 1701, which makes "knowingly and willfully" obstructing mail delivery a federal crime, and 18 U.S.C. § 595, which criminalizes using the power of a federal agency to influence an election.

"There is overwhelming evidence that Postmaster General DeJoy and the Board of Governors have hindered the passage of mail. At least 19 mail sorting machines, which can process 35,000 pieces of mail per hour, have been dismantled and over 671 are slated for reductions later this year," continued the letter. Furthermore, "For several years, the President has repeatedly attacked the legitimacy of mail-in voting," and "There is also evidence that the Postmaster General has a financial stake in multiple financial entities that are either competitors to or contractors for the Post Office," including Amazon and XPO Logistics.

"Postmaster General DeJoy and the Board of Governors have already taken action to delay the passage of mail," concluded Lieu and Jeffries. "Those actions may be violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1701 and § 595, and there is already significant factual predicate established in the multiple media reports to warrant an investigation by the FBI of Postmaster General DeJoy and the Board of Governors. We therefore urgently request that you open such an investigation."

*********

Trump has had nearly 20 intelligence briefings about election threats - he's done nothing: report

on August 17, 2020
Raw Story

FoxNews.com reported the story Sunday, outing the president for refusing to warn Americans that we are again under the attack from nefarious international actors attempting to stir up trouble in the American election.

According to the U.S. Intelligence Community, Trump, former Vice President Joe Biden, the political committees and Congress members have all been briefed on the classified information since the middle of May.

"An official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told Fox News that the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, within ODNI, Bill Evanina, has been leading the election threat briefings," said the report.

Officials said that the briefings were held by the National Counterintelligence and Security Center within ODNI, Bill Evanina, the FBI and Homeland Security were also present during the presentations.

"The steps we have taken thus far to inform the public and other stakeholders on election threats are unprecedented for the Intelligence Community," a statement from Evanina's office said. "We will continue to provide updates."

Russia is already interfering in the 2020 election, trying to start conflicts online and perpetuating conspiracy theories throughout social media. The country was outed for their 2016 work to throw the election for Trump, according to special counsel Robert Mueller's exhaustive report.

It isn't expected that Trump will do anything to block election interference. Instead, he's waged war against those delivering ballots to Americans.

Trump faces "˜humiliation and possible imprisonment' if he won't leave after losing: CNN legal analyst

on August 17, 2020
Raw Story
By Brad Reed

Most polls suggest that President Donald Trump is on track to lose the 2020 presidential election - but what happens if he tries to stay in office even after being defeated?

CNN legal analyst Paul Callan writes that things could get "ugly" if the president challenges the election results and refuses to concede, although in the end he expects that the president will not be successful in his efforts to cling to power.

"Were he to attempt such a maneuver, however, history suggests it would end with his personal humiliation, disgrace, and possible imprisonment on criminal charges," Callan explains. "In 1807 former Vice President Aaron Burr was tried for treasonous acts against the United States"¦ though Burr was acquitted, it seems clear that an attempt to illegally seize and retain presidential power would violate a variety of criminal conspiracy laws."

Callan speculates that, if Trump is truly insistent about not leaving the White House, even the military could get involved to tell the president that it will have no part in participating in a coup.

Should Trump file a lawsuit challenging the results of the election, he could theoretically delay rival Joe Biden's inauguration - but that would also backfire because it would make House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the interim president.

"While serving as interim president, Pelosi would undoubtedly order Trump's arrest and confinement in the Tower, the Trump Tower, under house arrest to await his treason trial," he writes. "Under such circumstances, despite the President's bluster about keeping his options open concerning presidential election fraud, Trump will pack his bags and head for his new low-tax Florida home if he loses the election."

All,

I am posting this because when  you watch the below clip you will hear this man say he heard Trump say that he has 'magical authority' .. ............

That would be his contract with Evil .....  God bless, Rad

**********

Ex-Trump official reveals why meeting with the president was "˜terrifying' - and why he now supports Biden

on August 18, 2020
By Alex Henderson, AlterNet

The Lincoln Project is not the only conservative group that has been airing ads attacking President Donald Trump: Republican Voters Against Trump has also been making a case against reelecting him. But they're tactic is different. Rather than getitng under Trump's skin, RVAT tries to persuade uneasy GOP voters to abandon the president by offering testimonials from people just like them.

In an ad RVAT tweeted on Monday, Miles Taylor - former chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - revealed that when he was serving in the admnistration, the things he witnessed were "terrifying."

"He was one of the most unfocused and undisciplined senior executives I have ever encountered," Taylor explains in the ad. "I came away completely convinced, based on first-hand experience, that the president was ill-equipped and wouldn't become equipped to do his job effectively - and what's worse, was actively doing damage to our security."

    NEW: Testimonial ad from Trump's Former DHS Chief of Staff @MilesTaylorUSA, declaring his support for Joe Biden and describing Trump's presidency as "terrifying" and "actively doing damage to our security."

    WATCH & go to https://t.co/Nz2NiSCquN for more. pic.twitter.com/iChqOdIIew

    - Republican Voters Against Trump (@RVAT2020) August 17, 2020

Taylor recalls, "We would go in to try to talk to him about a pressing national security issue: cyber attack, terrorism threat. He wasn't interested in those things. To him, they weren't priorities. The president wanted to exploit the Department of Homeland Security for his own political purposes and to fuel his own agenda."

According to Taylor, Trump opposed relief funding for California during devastating fires because he didn't want to help a blue state. And Trump, Taylor notes in the ad, didn't want to hear about security threats unless they affected him personally.

    Revelations by Trump's former DHS chief.
    POTUS
    - Tried to stop CA fire victim relief funding b/c blue state
    - Wanted to expand child separation
    - Wasn't interested in security threats unless they affected him personally
    - Made illegal requests & said he had "magical authorities" pic.twitter.com/fyeCpiG08f

    - Republican Voters Against Trump (@RVAT2020) August 17, 2020

"People who are still serving in the administration have said to me: just wait until the second term," Taylor warns. "It'll be no holds barred, it'll be shock and awe, we'll do what we want. Given what I've experienced in the administration, I have to support Joe Biden for president. And even though I'm not a Democrat - even though I disagree on key issues - I'm confident that Joe Biden will protect the country. And I'm confident he won't make the same mistakes as this president."

Watch: https://twitter.com/RVAT2020/status/1295428130170195968

History repeating: Trump is openly pushing Russian propaganda against Biden

on August 18, 2020
By Cody Fenwick, AlterNet

Though former Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not establish that Donald Trump or members of his campaign conspired with the Kremlin in 2016 to influence the election, he famously concluded:

    The presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump ("Trump Campaign" or "Campaign") showed interest in WikiLeaks's releases of documents and welcomed their potential to damage candidate Clinton.

    "¦

    The investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts"¦

And this is, undoubtedly, happening again. Despite everything that happened in 2016, the chaos and scandal it unleashed, and all we've learned about the Russian efforts to interfere an American Democracy since then, Trump is welcoming Russia's help once again.
Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.

On Sunday, Trump shared a tweet that included audio that U.S. intelligence has determined to be Russian propaganda.

As CNN reported:

    Late Sunday, Trump amplified a tweet that contained audiotapes of a 2016 conversation between Biden and then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko - material that was released earlier this year by Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker named by the US intelligence community in its August 7 statement about Russia's disinformation campaign against Biden. US authorities labeled Derkach's efforts as disinformation because they are intentionally designed to spread false or misleading information about Biden.

    By retweeting material that the US government has already labeled as propaganda - and doing so with the 2020 Democratic National Convention kicking off on Monday - Trump demonstrated once again that he is willing to capitalize on foreign election meddling for his own political gain.

The conversation does not actually implicate Biden in any wrongdoing. A voice, purportedly Poroshenko, seems to cast doubt on the claim that the prosecutor Biden pushed out of a top position in Ukraine while he was vice president was corrupt. However, it was the official position of the U.S. government that the prosecutor was corrupt, and his removal was a goal shared by international allies. Additionally, Poroshenko has dismissed the recordings as fake.

The AP reported:

    By amplifying the recording to his more than 85 million Twitter followers, Trump underscored the ease with which pro-Russian narratives can seep into American public discourse ahead of the 2020 election despite being flagged by intelligence officials as the product of a concerted Russian effort.

    Russia has also published disinformation under the guise of legitimate news stories, U.S. officials say, reflecting something of a shift in tactics from 2016, when Russia relied on a social media campaign to sow discord and also orchestrated the release of stolen Democratic emails.

To be clear: Trump has undoubtedly been briefed on what's going on. So either he knows what he's doing or is barely paying attention enough to care.

And he's not the only one. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has been warned that the investigation he's leading into Biden's past is tainted with Russian disinformation. But he has dismissed these concerns. And despite the obviously opportunistic nature of the inquiry - Republicans had no interest in Biden's actions in Ukraine until he became a candidate for president - he is shamelessly ramping it up. And he has openly admitted that the section of he could use the portion of his probe focused on Trump's "Obamagate" conspiracy theory to have an impact on the election.

"The more that we expose of the corruption of the transition process between Obama and Trump, the more we expose of the corruption within those agencies, I would think it would certainly help Donald Trump win reelection and certainly be pretty good, I would say, evidence about not voting for Vice President Biden," Johnson said in a recent interview, as Politico reported.

More broadly, the GOP has, again and again, rejected Democratic efforts to secure our elections and to forestall further foreign intervention in our politics. While not as overt as Trump and Johnson, the party as a whole has - tacitly or otherwise - become comfortable with letting Russia help the president. What was scandalous in 2016 has now become commonplace.

WATCH: Michelle Obama's full speech at the Democratic National Convention | 2020 DNC Night 1

Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKy3iiWjhVI