Democrats have largely been in support of mail-in voting and Republicans against it, but one congressman believes Donald Trump is trying to take control of the Post Office to “interfere” in this year’s presidential election.
Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) issued a warning on Friday that Trump could seek to take advantage of postal voting to manipulate the election’s outcome in his favor.
Speaking to ‘The Dan Obeidallah Show’ on SiriusXM, Raskin claimed the Republican Party doesn’t “want to have a real election” and is hard at work taking control of the Post Office – the institution that would presumably be in charge of handling most mail-in votes if in-person polling were to be banned in November due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Right-wing forces have been at war with the Post Office for a very long time,” Raskin said, adding that conservatives oppose the mail delivery service because it is “public” and “one of the first places that employed women and African Americans and other minorities.”
“We are going to be depending on the Post Office to deliver people their ballots and then have them return their ballots through the mail.”
Raskin’s comments come after a Washington Post report on Thursday claiming the Trump administration is considering using part of a potential $10-billion loan as leverage to change the structure and management of the Post Office.
The $10 billion is additional borrowing power covered by the $2-trillion CARES Act stimulus package passed last month. The money is subject to approval by the Treasury Department, which, the report claims, would require major structural changes to the Post Office should it officially ask for a loan.
The changes would reportedly include more oversight on top officials in the postal service, as well as higher shipping rates for customers.
The president appeared to respond to the report in a Friday tweet where he promised to “never let our Post Office fail.”
I will never let our Post Office fail. It has been mismanaged for years, especially since the advent of the internet and modern-day technology. The people that work there are great, and we’re going to keep them happy, healthy, and well!
Despite Raskin claims, mail-in voting has largely been supported by Democrats and dismissed by Republicans. Trump himself has said he believes mail-in voting presents too much opportunity for fraud.
Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has been one of many in the party to support the idea of mail-in voting. The former vice president even slammed Trump’s opposition to it as “un-American” during an online fundraiser on Thursday.
Like Raskin, Biden also believes the president will somehow “interfere” with the election, even drawing on the old trope of claiming “the Russians” are involved.
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