COLUMBUS — Ohio’s Republican attorney general has joined the chorus of people, including Congressional Democrats, who are calling on President Donald Trump to cease his attempts to starve the U.S. Postal Service of money ahead of the November election.
Attorney General Dave Yost pleaded with Trump in a letter sent Sunday to postpone any needed changes to the Postal Service until after Election Day, warning that the “radical changes” would “place the solvency of the Post Office above the legitimacy of the Government itself.”
The letter comes after Trump frankly acknowledged he’s starving the Postal Service of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him the election.
RELATED: Ohio’s Secretary of State has plan to turn every mailbox in state into a drop box
At a news conference before the Oakland Park Station Post Office on Innis Road Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Columbus) warned the Trump administration not to “mess with the USPS.”
“Let me be clear that the White House’s baseless and senseless attacks on the USPS must be stopped. So, I call on President Trump and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to stop this nonsense, stop the sabotage, and to put the health, safety and well-being of Americans first,” she said.
The press conference came after the administration notified Ohio and 45 other states that there was a risk that mail-in ballots may not be processed in time to be counted for the presidential election.
Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, meanwhile, joined other Senate Democrats in writing two letters calling for answers from DeJoy on reports of mail service delays, which the senators say caused seniors and veterans to miss prescription medications, small businesses to lose money and consumers to wait for delayed packages.
DeJoy said Tuesday he was halting some operational changes Beatty, Brown and their fellow Democrats contended threatened mail-in voting until after the November election “to avoid even the appearance of impact on election mail.”
Beatty criticized DeJoy for failing to clarify his intentions on bringing back into service previously removed mail-sorting machines and mailboxes and the House is pushing ahead with a vote on legislation on the Postal Service.
“Today’s announcement by the Postmaster General is a small victory,” said Beatty, who says she will be returning to Washington to vote on the Delivering for America Act, which would prohibit Postal Service leadership from implementing changes to reduce postal operations or service that were in place prior to January 1.