Byron York’s Daily Memo: Pelosi goes postal

PELOSI GOES POSTAL: While much of the political world was preparing for the start of the Republican convention, House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, were launching their ugliest attacks yet as they pursued their theory that President Trump, acting through Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, is crippling the U.S. Postal Service in order to steal the election.

Pelosi declared the president and Republicans in Congress “enemies of the state.” Yes, she really said that. Speaking on MSNBC, she said, “We take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. And sadly, the domestic enemies to our voting system and honoring our Constitution are right at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with their allies in the Congress of the United States.” She urged Americans to “support the postal system, which is Election Central. They’re doing everything they can, suppress the vote…diminish the role of the postal system in all of this. It’s really, actually shameful. Enemies of the state.”

If you are expecting a long, loud, and angry uproar similar to what took place when President Trump labeled the media “enemies of the people” — well, it’s not going to happen. A quick search of the Washington Post and New York Times in the hours after Pelosi’s declaration found zero mentions of the Speaker’s words.

Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine that will keep you up to date with what’s going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!

Meanwhile, in the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Democrats were staging an extraordinary scene during a hearing at which DeJoy was the star witness. Now it is, of course, a Washington tradition for Congress to bring an administration official into a hearing room and beat him up for a few hours. But the DeJoy hearing achieved seldom-reached heights of ugliness.

Start with Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper, who suggested, without evidence, that DeJoy had made illegal campaign contributions. First he insinuated, again without evidence, that DeJoy had reimbursed executives at his former company for contributions made to the Trump campaign. “The answer is no,” DeJoy said in a flat denial. Then Cooper, again without evidence, suggested that DeJoy was not only slowing the mail to help Trump win but that his actions constituted an illegal contribution to the president’s campaign. “Do your mail delays fit Trump’s campaign goal of hurting the Post Office, as stated in his tweets, and are your mail delays implicit campaign contributions?” Cooper asked.

DeJoy was incredulous. “I’m not answering thee types of questions,” he said. “I am here to represent the Postal Service. All of my actions have to do with improvement in the Postal Service.” Looking around, he asked, “Am I the only one in this room that understands we have a $10 billion a year loss?”

But Cooper saved the worst for last. “Mr. DeJoy, is your backup plan to be pardoned like Roger Stone?” he asked. DeJoy apparently decided further arguing was useless. “I have no comment on that,” he said. “It’s not worth my time.”

Several Democrats accused DeJoy of having a conflict of interest involving Amazon, which is a major customer of the Postal Service. They said repeatedly, without evidence, that DeJoy currently has an investment in Amazon. But DeJoy explained that while he once owned some Amazon stock, he got rid of all of it when he became Postmaster General.

“Do you own any financial interest, whether options or stocks, covered calls, do you own today any financial interest in Amazon?” asked Democratic Rep. Katie Porter. “I do not,” DeJoy said.

Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib simply would not accept that answer. “This appears to be a classic example of conflict of interest insider trading,” she said to DeJoy, without evidence. “Yes, or no, will you commit right now to divest any and all financial interests in Amazon to avoid illegal insider trading?” “I don’t own any Amazon stock,” DeJoy said. “You have financial interest. You can call it whatever you want, Mr. DeJoy,” Tlaib responded. “I don’t own anything with Amazon,” DeJoy answered.

And on and on. Democrats spent additional hours on their unsupported theories that DeJoy is moving mail collection boxes and decommissioning sorting machines as part of the effort to elect Trump. And while they were doing that, their leader, Speaker Pelosi, was declaring the president, and also his Republican supporters, “enemies of the state.” Don’t let events at the GOP convention obscure what the opposition party is doing on Capitol Hill.