The USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy woke up to a “noise demonstration” on Saturday with protesters gathering outside his D.C. apartment building and stuffing fake absentee ballots into the lobby door. The event, which was organized by climate activism group Shut Down DC, was intended to rally against mail-in voter suppression. This week, USPS sent warning letters to 46 states and D.C. saying the government agency could not guarantee that every mail-in ballot could be delivered in time to be counted in the November presidential election. That news came just a day after President Trump admitted he was blocking federal aid to the USPS.
Trump has spent much of the pandemic disparaging the idea of mail-in voting as fraud, despite requesting one for himself for Florida’s primary. DeJoy, who Trump appointed in May, has no experience in the agency and was previously the head of fundraising for the Republican National Convention and a top Trump donor. He has come under growing scrutiny amid major delivery delays and concerns that recent developments at the USPS could jeopardize mail-in voting. Though Trump praised DeJoy on Saturday as a “brilliant businessperson” who “wants to make the post office great again,” some Democratic lawmakers accused him of sabotaging the postal service to help Trump in the upcoming election. Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN) tweeted Saturday that he had asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call the House back into session to deal with the USPS crisis. “We need to subpoena the Postmaster General, and if he fails to appear, we should send the Sgt at Arms to arrest him,” he tweeted.