MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Thursday shined a light on shocking new examples of "sabotage" of the United States Postal Service by President Donald Trump's administration.
"I just mentioned some breaking news about what's going on with this ongoing story of the administration admitting now they are trying to sabotage the post office before we all vote absentee by mail in this election because of the coronavirus," Maddow reported. "Today, the president really did come out and say he's undermining the postal service and denying it funds so that they can't handle ballots for the election."
Maddow also noted a Thursday night report in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
"The U.S. Postal Service has warned Pennsylvania that some mail ballots might not be delivered on time because the state's deadlines are too tight for its "delivery standards," prompting election officials to ask the state Supreme Court to extend the deadlines to avoid disenfranchising voters," the newspaper reported. "The warning came in a July 29 letter from Thomas J. Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president of the Postal Service, to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, whose department oversees elections."
"It appears to be getting worse by the hour," Maddow warned.
Maddow also noted a recent report by the Sun Journal in Maine.
Customers across southern Maine will be waiting on as many as 80,000 pieces of mail that will arrive late because of new U.S. Postal Service policies, the president of a local postal workers' union said.
"Rather than wait an extra 10 minutes for the mail to be ready, the trucks left the postal service's Southern Maine Processing and Distribution Center in Scarborough exactly on time Monday morning, leaving behind roughly 80,400 letters that will be delivered late as a result, said Scott Adams, general president of the American Postal Workers Union Local 458. He estimated the processing center sorts approximately one million pieces of mail on a typical Sunday night," the newspaper reported.
And she noted a Thursday report from Vice News.
"The United States Postal Service is removing mail sorting machines from facilities around the country without any official explanation or reason given, Motherboard has learned through interviews with postal workers and union officials. In many cases, these are the same machines that would be tasked with sorting ballots, calling into question promises made by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that the USPS has 'ample capacity' to handle the predicted surge in mail-in ballots," Vice reported.
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