After stunning the world by announcing that he had brokered the historic peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E), President Donald Trump fueled the Democratic Party narrative that he was planning to suppress votes in his bid for re-election.
Trump stated that he opposed funding for the United States Postal Service (USPS) because he feared that the money would be used to fund mail-in ballot voting, the voting option that he and many other Republicans believe will lead to widespread voter fraud.
"They want three and a half billion dollars for something that'll turn out to be fraudulent, that's election money basically,” stated Trump on Fox News They want three and a half billion dollars for the mail-in votes. Universal mail-in ballots. They want $25 billion, billion, for the Post Office. 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”
"But if they don't get those two items that means you can't have universal mail-in voting because you they're not equipped to have it," Trump added.
Trump’s postal service remarks were met with harsh criticism from House Democrats, including Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.
.@USPS isn't about politics, it's about keeping America running.
It's about getting letters to servicemembers, keeping 600K people employed, shipping items for small businesses & ensuring everyone can safely vote.
But Trump is blatantly using it to obstruct your right to vote. https://t.co/phUS17bXh7
— Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (@RepDMP) August 13, 2020
Rep. Mucarsel-Powell stated that the postal service wasn’t “about politics,” rather about “keeping 660k people employed” and delivering the mail. Mucarsel-Powell added that Trump was “blatantly” using the USPS in order to “obstruct” voter’s “right to vote.”
Mucarsel-Powell’s Democratic colleague, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, went as far as to blame recent interruptions in mail service and late delivery of mail on the Trump administration, stating that Trump has put in place “specific actions” to “erode” the USPS for “ideological and political reasons.”
Partisan politics & conspiracy theories cannot prevent us from fairly funding and effectively running this critical agency.” Added Murphy.
Democrats contend that because existing absentee ballot programs have proven to be successful around the country, a blanket mail-in ballot program for all Americans should be put in place.
My office is getting a lot of calls from constituents who have not received important mail or have received it late. This is because of specific actions by the administration to erode @USPS for ideological and political reasons. It must stop.
— U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy (@RepStephMurphy) August 13, 2020
