Democratic leadership and several mainstream media outlets are accusing President Trump of purposely sabotaging the U.S. Postal Service in an attempt to steal the 2020 election.
There is no substantive evidence to back up this conspiracy theory, but leftists have shared random photos of USPS mailboxes being removed as supposed proof that the Trump administration is trying to undermine mail-in voting:
The USPS is literally backing up trucks to mailboxes and taking them away. Here are photos of mailboxes being “decommissioned” in SE Portland and Eugene, Ore. Check out how many are already on the trucks! But today’s news is probably going to be about “golden showers” instead. pic.twitter.com/qROzgpZS0P
— Janet Harris, M.P.Aff. (@ThinkUpstream) August 13, 2020
Even presidential candidate Joe Biden pushed this theory during a virtual fundraiser over the weekend, commenting, “They’re going around literally with tractor trailers picking up mailboxes. You ought to go online and check out what they’re doing in Oregon. I mean, it’s bizarre.”
However, the USPS has clarified that these pick-ups are standard procedure that allows the service to repair, replace, and relocate old mailboxes.
“These trucks are on the street daily,” USPS spokesman Steve Doherty said in a statement. “They’re part of our field maintenance fleet. This is why you may see one box on a corner that previously may have had two or three side by side. With declining letter volumes, we try to keep the system efficient.”
Democrats should know this.
After all, this was standard procedure during the Obama administration, too.
In fact, more than 14,000 USPS mailboxes were moved or removed entirely between 2011 and 2016, when Obama was president.
Moreover, Democrats have accused Trump of deliberately kneecapping the USPS — even though he signed a trillion dollar stimulus package that provided the service with emergency funds — but said nothing when Obama proposed slashing 12,000 USPS jobs to cut costs.
The Democrat former president even slammed the USPS as an inefficient service that hemorrhages money, earning a harsh rebuke from the president of the National Association of Postal Supervisors at the time, Ted Keating.
“I mean, if you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? No, they are,” Obama said at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire. “It’s the post office that’s always having problems.”
