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“ ‘They want $3.5 billion for something that will turn out to be fraudulent. They want $3.5 billion for the mail-in votes, OK. Universal mail-in ballots. They want $25 billion for the post office. Now they need that money in order to have the post office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. Now in the meantime they aren’t getting there. By the way, those are just two items, but if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting, because they’re not equipped to have it.’ ”
Those comments above came from President Donald Trump on Thursday, as he again delivered criticism of the U.S. Postal Service and mail-in voting.
Trump made his remarks during a Fox Business Network interview, when he was asked about the issues preventing a deal with Democratic lawmakers on another coronavirus relief package.
“You’ve seen how bad it’s been with this Carolyn Maloney scam,’” Trump also said, referring to a Democratic primary election in New York between Maloney, a veteran Democratic congresswoman, and her challenger, Suraj Patel. Trump alleged that she “probably lost, but they said, ‘Mail-in ballots — it’s all mixed up.’” Election officials in New York last week declared Maloney the winner.
During the interview, the president also reiterated his past claims that the stock market SPX, -0.36% DJIA, -0.53% would crash if Democratic challenger Joe Biden wins the White House race in November.
Trump has spent months bashing mail-in voting, though he did change his tune on the topic this month when it comes to the swing state of Florida.
Related:‘The Postal Service is a joke’: Trump threatens to block loan if agency doesn’t raise prices
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Trump following his remarks.
“The president says he’s not putting up any money for absentee voting, and he’s not putting up any money for the Postal Service — undermining the health of our democracy,” the California Democrat told reporters on Thursday.
Biden also responded to Trump’s comments.
“Pure Trump. He doesn’t want an election,” the former vice president said.
From the archives:Trump pressured U.S. postmaster general to jack up shipping rates for Amazon
Trump’s new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, recently disputed reports that his agency is slowing down election mail or any other mail and said it has “ample capacity to deliver all election mail securely and on time” for the November election. DeJoy, a major Trump donor, also has drawn criticism for sidelining two dozen USPS officials, and he is facing scrutiny for maintaining a stake in his former company, which is a USPS contractor, and for buying stock options in Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +0.30%, a key USPS customer.
