Rep. Maxine Waters claimed that President Trump may use the United States Postal Service to tamper with mail-in ballots to help him win reelection in 2020.
The California Democrat told MSNBC on Monday that Trump is a “deplorable human being” who is capable of breaking any law to secure his reelection. She said that Democrats must make it a top priority to conduct oversight of the executive branch ahead of the November election.
“The first thing we should be doing now is understanding what the president is already doing to the U.S. Postal Service. He has sent his henchmen over to run it, and I’m already getting complaints from people who are saying that they believe that the president of the United States is managing the delivery systems, slowing it down, interfering with people being able to get their mail,” Waters said.
“And so, I believe what I’m hearing, and we should put this at the top of our agenda that we are not going to allow the president of the United States to dismantle the United States Post Office and undermine the possibility that absentee votes could be used in the next election,” she continued.
Waters said that Trump will blame Democrats if he does not win the election and that lawmakers must “anticipate” his actions to prevent any nefarious behavior.
“If he does not win, he’s going to say that it was a fraudulent election. That somehow, this election has been undermined by the Democrats. He’s going to blame us for it. And so we can anticipate what he’s going to do because he has defined himself. He has shown us who he is,” she said.
“He has shown us what he’s capable of doing. This man is capable of doing whatever he thinks is in his best interest, be damned the people. And so, we should be putting it on top of our agenda,” she added.
Trump appointed Louis DeJoy, a Republican donor, to be postmaster general in June. DeJoy has been tasked with making cuts to the Postal Service to help address budget shortfalls. One proposal is to have some mail be delayed one additional day to reduce costs by ending “late trips” and allowing mail to wait until morning to be delivered.
Other Democrats have expressed concern about DeJoy’s proposed cuts, including New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell, who called the plan a “direct attack on American democracy itself.”
Many states have expanded access to vote-by-mail options in recent months because of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has been a vocal critic of vote-by-mail.
