Postmaster General Louis DeJoy faced a House Oversight Committee Monday in an often contentious and frustrating hearing during which he repeatedly insisted that the only change he was responsible for at the U.S. Postal Service was making the trucks run on time. He refused to acknowledge that sorting machines have been removed on his watch, that overtime got cut on his watch, and that all the mail deliveries that have been slowed down were a result of these cuts that he's not responsible for and not interested in finding out who is.
That was actually the response from DeJoy to Rep. Katie Porter from California in one line of questioning. She outlined all the changes which he says either didn't happen or he didn't order, and asked, "If you did not order these actions to be taken, please tell the committee who did." DeJoy then said, "I do not know," acknowledging that yes, all this stuff actually happened. Porter then asked, "Will you commit to reversing these changes?" and DeJoy says "No." So it's sort of "nothing to see here, no changes and if there are any they're meaningless," to "I refuse to reverse these changes." That double-speak from DeJoy was the undercurrent of the entire hearing.
The Democrats entered with a smoking gun: the Postal Service report showing that the delays in mail delivery started in July, after DeJoy had begun his changes, and not earlier in the year because of the onset of coronavirus. It’s a report DeJoy had not released to Congress ahead of this hearing as he was required to; the report instead came from a whistleblower. "Mr. DeJoy, you're withholding information from us," Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the chair of the committee, said in her opening statement, "concealing documents and downplaying the damage that you’re causing." She promised that if the panel doesn't receive all of the documents requested prior to and during the hearing by Wednesday, "you can expect a subpoena." That includes a request from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for DeJoy's personal calendar, suggesting that AOC and the Democrats might know something about some of the meetings DeJoy has been having that he isn't making public.
There's also more than a hint that Democrats were setting DeJoy up for his fairly obvious lies, like the one about how he's not responsible for any of the changes that he says haven’t occurred—except for making the trucks run on time!—but that he's not going to do anything about. This exchange with Maloney is particularly telling. She reminds him that he testified in the Senate on Friday, and was asked by Sen. Gary Peters if he had discussed any of these changes with Trump, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, or anyone on the Trump campaign, "and you said no." But, she continued, "I believe Mark Meadows has accompanied you to meetings on Capitol Hill, and for the record, do you stand by your statement?”
"I'm trying to remember the answer I gave," DeJoy answered. Which is as big a tell that he's lied to Congress as it gets. Because if you're telling the truth, then you don't have to try to remember what you said. There's definitely going to be follow up to this hearing.
