The wild conspiracy theories sowed by the Democrats about intentional delays at the Post Office are at odds with the “independent fact checkers.” Ella Lee at USA Today declared it “Partly False” that “President Trump is intentionally slowing USPS deliveries to undermine mail-in voting, and mailed ballots need two weeks.”
Lee chose to check viral posts making their way around Instagram:
A viral Instagram post says USPS told Americans to allow ballots "14 days round trip," making Election Day for mail-in voters Oct. 20 — not Nov. 3. “Trump & cronies are intentionally slowing USPS deliveries to undermine mail in voting,” the Instagram post from @nobodyssweetheart reads....
"Mail delivery is slower now than at the peak of COVID in April," user @nobodyssweetheart told USA TODAY. "Search the #saveUSPS tag for primary sources from the Washington Post and other major papers."
This Instagram account is operated by an artist and comedian calling herself "Dyna Moe," and her page looks like a festival of Democratic memes.
Lee ran through the argument from the Left, about the new Postmaster General being a major donor to a Trump super PAC. But in the end, The USPS denied it:
“We are not slowing down election mail or any other mail,” Marti Johnson with USPS told USA TODAY. “Instead, we continue to employ a robust and proven process to ensure proper handling of all election mail consistent with our standards.”
Likewise, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews told the paper “The notion that President Trump asked the United States Postal Service to slow down its deliveries to millions of Americans across the country is baseless and absurd," insisting the president wants the postal service to run more efficiently, like a business.
Lee concluded:
The claim that President Donald Trump is intentionally slowing USPS deliveries to undermine mail-in voting and that USPS says voters should allow 14 days for mailed ballots is PARTLY FALSE, because some of it was not supported by our research. It’s true that USPS says voters should request their ballots at least 15 days prior to Election Day, though some states have different deadlines. But it is false to say mail is intentionally being slowed, despite reports that a new USPS system might inherently cause delays. The Trump administration said the president did not direct USPS to slow down its deliveries, and USA TODAY found no evidence of that claim being true either.
PS: On Monday, the president personally denied any delaying conspiracy:
Trump on whether he’s "slowing down the mail": "Not at all. Wouldn’t do that. No, I have encouraged everybody to speed up the mail, not slow the mail. I also want to have a post office that runs without losing billions and billions of $ a year, as it has been doing for 50 years." pic.twitter.com/ZhZe52sgOP
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 17, 2020
