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Trump says postmaster general wants to make USPS "great again”

15 August 2020
Dan Ackermann

President Trump continued his ongoing attacks on mail-in voting during a press conference Saturday, claiming without strong evidence that voting by mail will make the U.S. a “laughingstock."

What he's saying: When asked if Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's has Trump's backing, the president responded: "Yeah, he wants to make the post office great again."

"Universal mail-in voting is going to be catastrophic. It's going to make the U.S. a laughingstock all over the world," Trump said.

  • He noted that,"Absentee voting is great," just days after Palm Beach County election officials sent his and First Lady Melania Trump's mail-in ballots for Florida’s Aug. 18 primary election.
  • "...but now they want to send in millions and millions of ballots and you see what's happened. They're being lost, they're being discarded ... it's going to be a catastrophe."
  • "There’s no way they’re going to get it accurately," Trump said of universal mail-in voting.
  • "The problem with the mail-in voting, number one, you're never going to know when the election's over."
  • Trump also predicted it could take “months” or “years” to know the results of the November elections.

Context: DeJoy has implemented a number of changes to the Postal Service, shaking up its leadership and eliminating overtime and certain delivery policies.

Congress is seeking $25 billion in aid for USPS ahead of an anticipated spike in mail-in voting this November due to the coronavirus pandemic.

  • Trump has repeatedly vowed to block funding to help the agency as it prepares to processes mail-in ballots unless Democrats agree to some Republican compromises in the coronavirus stimulus bill.
  • DeJoy, who took over USPS in June, is a Trump donor and defender.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.