Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is mad as hell about how Trump and his lackey postmaster general are trying to wreck the U.S. Postal Service and he’s vowing “not to let that happen.”
August 15, 2020

Manchin is no leader of the Trump Resistance. But he sounded pretty darned riled up on MTP Daily yesterday about Trump’s attempt to steal the election both with his refusal to properly fund the Postal Service and by having his unqualified crony postmaster general destroy it.

MANCHIN: [The post office] is a lifeline to many West Virginians and it’s something we have an affection for because a lot of people get their necessities – whether it be their healthcare, whether it be, basically, their medicine, whether it would be their checks, their lifeline. And a lot of areas in rural America and rural West Virginia do not have good connectivity so broadband, high speed, all that’s not available. That's the only lifeline they have.

And if they think they're going to discredit it and turn it over to the private sector, it’s gonna be one heck of a fight from me and many other Democrats and Republicans. I just wish my Republican colleagues would speak up. They’re having the same concerns I have.

Host Chuck Todd asked if Manchin has “any confidence” in Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

MANCHIN: Not at all, Chuck, not at all, no. No. No. … He shouldn't even be there to begin with and any way you can get rid of him, please do so. He won’t even talk to us, Chuck. … I understand he's not talking to anybody. The answer we got from one of his top people was, well, he's not gonna talk to anybody in Congress, probably until September or whenever, when he figures out how to run his post office. He's going to destroy it before he figures out how to run it and we’re not gonna let that happen.

What Manchin worries about, he said, is the postal service losing the confidence and support of the public. If that occurs, “I guarantee you we'll lose our Postal Service as we know it and i'm not going to let that happen,” he said.

Manchin sounded just as fed up with Trump.

MANCHIN: If this is the intent of the president, to basically have a scenario and the theories that he comes up with continuously, and you know, I've tried to work with the president. I've always -- whoever my president is, I want my president to succeed. But Chuck, I've given it my best shot, I really have. And I’m gonna continue to try, but this is wrong. …

Basically he's trying to make -- have a scapegoat if the election doesn't go his way. This is not what the Postal Service is about. This is not what they're trained to do and it's not the lifeline that they provide for so many people. We cannot let this be -- you know, to be used in this way, it's just so callous. And the people that depend on it so much, it's unbelievable. And the people who are working, the carriers, they're not caught -- they don't want to be caught up in a political fight.

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