Pelosi: Undermining Elections Makes Trump and Republicans “Enemies of the State”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says the choice to undermine the 2020 general election and gutting the United States Postal Service (USPS) makes President Donald Trump and Republicans “enemies of the state.”

“We take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. And sadly, the domestic enemies to our voting system and honouring our Constitution are right at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with their allies in the Congress of the United States,” Pelosi told MSNBC. “They’re doing everything they can [to] suppress the vote with [their] actions: scare people, intimidate by saying law enforcement will be there, diminish the role of the postal system in all of this. It’s really, actually shameful. Enemies of the state.”

Pelosi advised Americans not to listen to President Trump’s false statements about mail-in voting, saying they’re meant to “intimidate” people from voting.

“One thing I will say to the American people: Do not pay attention to Donald Trump. It is his goal to scare people from voting, to intimidate them by saying he’s going to have law enforcement people at the polls. To welcome, in fact, Russian intervention, letting [Russian President Vladimir] Putin decide who will be President instead of the American people,” she said. “But ignore him, because his purpose is to diminish the vote, to suppress the vote. And shame on the Republicans for enabling that to happen.”

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Earlier this morning, the president claimed that implementing mail-in voting would result in a “catastrophic disaster.”

“For our Country to be sending 80 million UNSOLICITED BALLOTS is very unfair and a roadmap to disaster,” he wrote, without citing any evidence for his claim. “Even recent small and easier to control elections which did this are a catastrophic disaster. Fraudulent & missing Ballots like never seen before. 20% and 30% off. STOP!”

Over the weekend, the Democratic-controlled House passed a bill that would send $25bn to USPS amid controversy over Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s proposed rollbacks. DeJoy claims he was the victim of a “false narrative” accusing him of creating postal delays during an election year, despite last week agreeing to postpone institutional changes until after the election.

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.