Setting the stage for their excuse if President Trump won reelection, ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Sunday Today spent the morning accusing the President of a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election. ABC called it the “mail-in voting scandal” while NBC dubbed it the “Postal Service crisis;” accusing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of allegedly doing Trump’s dirty work, even though they admit they don’t have any hard evidence of wrongdoing.
Near the top of ABC’s coverage of the purported scandal, White House correspondent Rachel Scott leaned on serial liars Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to make the baseless accusations:
RACHEL SCOTT: Democrats calling on the new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy to resign. Congressman Adam Schiff tweeting: “He's slowed delivery, banned overtime, and decommissioned mail-sorting machines right before the election, during a pandemic.”
SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Within this administration is an attempt to make sure your vote doesn't count and doesn't count as cast.
“Protesters filling the streets outside DeJoy's home. Carrying signs reading, ‘don't stamp out democracy,’” Scott boasted. Further proving she was getting her talking points from the DNC, Scott concluded by noting that “Democratic aides” told her “Nancy Pelosi is considering bringing back the chamber early to address those concerns with the post office.”
After bringing on Clinton lackey and faux journalist George Stephanopoulos a short time later, GMA co-anchor Dan Harris wanted him to address the “mail-in voting scandal” and wondered if the Trump administration’s “changes” to the Post Service “represent a real threat to the health of this election?”
“It could. I mean, there's a good chance you're going to have huge backlogs of mail across the country as you see these cutbacks and overtime and other changes the postal service is making,” Stephanopoulos claimed.
At no point did ABC offer any hard evidence to back up their conspiracy theory. They only provided vague claims that mail delivery has slowed down. Stephanopoulos even admitted, “the Post Service is equipped to get out billions of pieces of mail, they do it every Christmas.” Though, he did seem to let the cat out the bag in regards to their intentions, noting that long count times “could lead to questions about the legitimacy of the election.”
Over on NBC, fill-in anchor Hallie Jackson, fresh back from maternity leave, also admitted “the USPS can handle a lot of mail (…) We see it every year around the holidays.” But that didn’t stop her pearl-clutching over the “Postal Service crisis” to political director Chuck Todd.
Chiding the President as the one who “needs to back off on his rhetoric here,” Todd pushed his “anecdotal” evidence of a crime (conspiracy theory), including claims Trump was stealing mailboxes:
But physically it seems as if, you know, it's hard to ignore all these anecdotal reports all around the country, whether it's slow mail in Montana, removed mailboxes in Oregon. There's just a lot of odd stuff happening at an odd time.
“I really think he is playing with fire here,” Todd warned, suggesting Trump would lose the rural vote.
It’s interesting how, with all their caterwauling about Trump supposedly damaging the election, they didn’t mention how Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) screwed up the mail-in voting system for the Democratic primary in New York.
Their pushing of a baseless conspiracy theory was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from State Farm on ABC and Walmart on NBC. Their contact information is linked if you want to tell them about what they’re funding.
The transcripts are below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s Good Morning America
August 16, 2020
8:03:47 a.m. Eastern(…)
RACHEL SCOTT: Democrats calling on the new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy to resign. Congressman Adam Schiff tweeting: “He's slowed delivery, banned overtime, and decommissioned mail-sorting machines right before the election, during a pandemic.”
SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Within this administration is an attempt to make sure your vote doesn't count and doesn't count as cast.
SCOTT: DeJoy, a GOP donor, was tapped by President Trump to take the job at the post office. Now under fire for cost-cutting measures that have slowed mail delivery nationwide. The President coming to his defense.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don't know -- I don't know what he's doing. I can only tell you, he's a very smart man.
SCOTT: Protesters filling the streets outside DeJoy's home. Carrying signs reading, “don't stamp out democracy.” Across the country, states bracing for a record number of mail-in voting, now confronted with a warning from the post office -- that millions of ballots might not be delivered in time to be counted.
[Cuts back to live]
And Democratic aides tell ABC News that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is considering bringing back the chamber early to address those concerns with the post office. Whit?
WHIT JOHNSON: This fight is only heating up.
(…)
8:10:22 a.m. Eastern
DAN HARRIS: Let me talk, though, about this mail-in voting scandal, with these changes that are being made to the post office right now, do they represent a real threat to the health of this election?
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: It could. I mean, there's a good chance you're going to have huge backlogs of mail across the country as you see these cutbacks and overtime and other changes the postal service is making.
Now, the Post Service is equipped to get out billions of pieces of mail, they do it every Christmas. The question is, how these cutbacks are going to affect that, combined with moves to limit at what point mail has to be postmarked in order to be counted. I think one thing that is very likely, is if we have a close election, even if a large number of voters are not disenfranchised it's going to take an awful long time to count those votes and that could lead to questions about the legitimacy of the election.
(…)
NBC’s Sunday Today
August 16, 2020
8:07:32 a.m. Eastern(…)
HALLIE JACKSON: Definitely a lot to look ahead to as the convention happens this week. All of it, of course, against the backdrop of this Postal Service crisis. We know that the USPS can handle a lot of mail, right? We see it every year around the holidays. But these changes at the post office have a lot of people concerned about what this means for mail-in ballots. What needs to happen to restore potentially public confidence to get things back on track here?
CHUCK TODD: Well, I think number one what needs to happen to establish public confidence is the President needs to back off on his rhetoric here. I do think he has added to this concern that people have about the mail. But physically it seems as if, you know, it's hard to ignore all these anecdotal reports all around the country, whether it's slow mail in Montana, removed mailboxes in Oregon. There's just a lot of odd stuff happening at an odd time.
And I'll say this, Hallie. I think this is extraordinarily risky for the President on the political front because one of his bases of support is rural America. Well, the Postal Service is extraordinarily not only popular in rural America, it's arguably as important of a lifeline as there is in this country. Slowing down the mail is going to hurt him with voters that are normally very, very supportive of him. He is -- I really think he is playing with fire here.
