Trump admits to blocking cash to USPS to stop mail-in votes

Workers help a voter put their mail-in ballot in Florida. Pic/AFP

President Donald Trump frankly acknowledged on Thursday that he's starving the US Postal Service (USPS) of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him the election.

In an interview on Fox Business Network, Trump explicitly noted two funding provisions that Democrats are seeking in a relief package that has stalled on Capitol Hill. Without the additional money, he said, the Postal Service won't have the resources to handle a flood of ballots from voters who are seeking to avoid polling places during the coronavirus pandemic.

"If we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money," Trump told host Maria Bartiromo. "That means they can't have universal mail-in voting; they just can't have it." For Democrats, Trump's new remarks were a clear admission that the president is attempting to restrict voting rights. Rival Joe Biden said it was "Pure Trump. He doesn't want an election."

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