Louis DeJoy, postmaster general and Trump lackey, sat in front of the House Committee on Oversight and the American people on Monday and actually said this: "There are many inaccuracies about my actions that I wish to again correct," DeJoy said. "First, I did not direct the removal of blue collection boxes or the removal of mail processing equipment. Second, I did not direct the cutback on hours at any of our postal offices, and finally I did not direct the elimination or any cutback in overtime. I did, however, suspend these practices to remove any misperceptions about our commitment to delivering the nation's election mail."
DeJoy reiterated his claim from his Friday hearing in the Senate that he's only responsible for making sure that the trucks leave the offices on time. Even when those trucks are going across country completely empty. "Trucks leave empty," Joe Jolley, a postal employee with the postal workers union, told News Channel 5 in Nashville. "They leave completely empty. We pay a truck to travel to Memphis, a 53-foot truck with no mail on it."
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Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee confronted DeJoy with that report Monday. “Mail trucks are being forced to leave on schedule, even when completely empty,” Cooper said. “Imagine 53-foot trucks forced to travel hundreds of miles completely empty, due to your so-called reforms.” He had the truck records from that report, holding them up and hopefully putting them in the congressional record. “That’s not efficiency. That’s insanity.” He continued, “Do your mail delays fit Trump’s campaign goal of hurting the post office, as stated in his tweets? Are your mail delays implicit campaign contributions?” That gave DeJoy the opening, unfortunately, to refuse to answer. “I’m not going to answer these types of questions,” DeJoy responded. “I’m here to represent the postal service―there’s nothing to do with, all my actions have to do with improving the postal service.”
DeJoy was combative and hostile throughout the course of the hearing, refusing to take responsibility for the disaster that his operational changes have wrought. He refused to offer any kind of plan to ensure that the USPS will process ballots on time, saying "Uhh, I need to get back to you [ …] I can probably give you some type of summarized objectives that we can try to fulfill." Probably. DeJoy also flatly refused, again, to restore any of the hundreds of mail sorting machines that have been taken away in states nationwide.
These exchanges are just one of many that requires investigative follow up from the House, with subpoenas and with more witnesses. One of those witnesses has to be Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
