As Election Day 2020 gets closer, the United States Postal Service has come under increased scrutiny as voting by-mail has become the reality for more Americans than ever before. However, the increased scrutiny has led to some misleading hot takes by prominent celebrities and Democratic lawmakers that have the potential dangerous consequence of undermining public confidence in the election. Republicans are calling them out as lawmakers prepared to hear from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy at a House Oversight Committee hearing next week.
This past week, actress Jamie Lee Curtis helped spread the false narrative that the Trump Administration is trying to steal the election being propagated by anti-Trump The Lincoln Project:
And I have photo proof. https://t.co/FaiK42nyWX pic.twitter.com/tLzd4WZpgz
— Jamie Lee Curtis (@jamieleecurtis) August 14, 2020
While the actress later said that her tweet was a joke, she kept the original tweet up. Removal of sorting machines and mail drop boxes are routine measures done in response to shifting mail volume.
Prominent Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters spread the false narrative that America's seniors social security checks are at risk:
Hard to believe, considering Social Security stopped sending paper checks in March 2013 https://t.co/QCwoH57RDC
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) August 16, 2020
Former NBA player Rex Chapman took to Twitter to insinuate that the Trump Administration of locking mail drop boxes to make it more difficult for people to vote:
This is broken-brain stupid for several reasons—beginning with the fact that there are years-old LA area news stories explaining the postal service locks up boxes because of thieves—but I personally love how these Burbank mailboxes are somehow the fault of a senator from Kentucky https://t.co/1bijLtxeUT
— Grant Addison (@jgrantaddison) August 17, 2020
Republican leadership has fought back against the false claims:
Democrats have no shame. They are pushing conspiracy theories about the USPS to undermine faith in the election and distract from their own failures.
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) August 17, 2020
Whether Americans choose to vote in-person or vote absentee, I have full confidence in the integrity of our electoral process.
In a press release released issued earlier today, House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-KY) stated:
The Democrats’ wild and baseless conspiracy theory about the United States Postal Service is irresponsible and only undermines the American people’s faith in the integrity of the election and our institutions. The Committee on Oversight and Reform has a tremendous opportunity to put this conspiracy theory to bed and I hope my Democratic colleagues will join me in reviewing the facts and identifying areas of reform so that USPS works best for the American people.
He continued:
If Americans do choose to vote by mail, we all agree that ballots must be fairly delivered by the Postal Service in a timely manner to the American people. This is an incredible revenue-generating opportunity for an organization that has bemoaned a downward trend in mail volume. The Postal Service also owes it to the American people to improve their operations – this is a fact that even Democrats agreed with when it was politically convenient to do so. I look forward to continuing to work with the USPS leadership to make the Postal Service more efficient and fiscally sustainable and ensure ballots are fairly delivered and collected by the Postal Service.
The fact of the matter is that no amount of money will fix issues with unreasonable vote by-mail deadlines that some states have or the fact many states are currently ill-prepared for high volumes of mail voting, such as New York and Pennsylvania. Democrats should be focused on working with Republicans to enact common sense reforms to make November's election run smoothly. Instead, they are more interested in using the COVID-19 pandemic as a vehicle to enact dangerous, unprecedented changes to our election system.