Trump Blocking Postal Service in Hopes of Winning November Election

Joe Biden said it was "Pure Trump. He doesn't want an election.”

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said it was "voter suppression to undermine the safest method to vote during a pandemic, and force Americans to risk their lives to vote".

Negotiations over a big new virus relief package have all but ended, with the White House and congressional leaders far apart on the size, scope and approach for shoring up households, reopening schools and launching a national strategy to contain the coronavirus.

While there is some common ground over $100 billion for schools and new funds for virus testing, Democrats also want other emergency funds that Trump rejects.

“They want $3.5 billion for something that will turn out to be fraudulent. That’s election money, basically,” Trump said during Thursday's call-in interview.

Democrats have pushed for a total of $10 billion for the Postal Service in talks with Republicans on the Covid-19 response bill.

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That figure, which would include money to help with election mail, is down from a $25 billion plan in a House-passed coronavirus measure.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has said that the agency is in a financially untenable position, but he maintains it can handle this year's election mail.

A major donor to Trump and other Republicans, DeJoy is the first postmaster general in nearly two decades who is not a career postal employee.

“Although there will likely be an unprecedented increase in election mail volume due to the pandemic, the Postal Service has ample capacity to deliver all election mail securely and on-time in accordance with our delivery standards, and we will do so," he told the Postal Service's governing board last week.

Memos obtained by The Associated Press show that Postal Service leadership has pushed to eliminate overtime and halt late delivery trips that are sometimes needed to ensure mail arrives on time, measures that postal workers and union officials say are delaying service.

Additional records detail cuts to hours at post offices, including reductions on Saturdays and during lunch hours.

Democrats, and a handful of Republicans, have sent DeJoy several letters asking him to reverse his changes and criticizing what they say is a lack of openness by the agency.

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