Kean finally has political permission to change course on USPS

(Bridgewater, NJ) — In case you missed it, Tom Kean Jr. had an embarrassingly bad interview last week in which he refused to condemn the sabotage of the United States Postal Service — despite the countless New Jersey residents who rely on it for their small businesses and prescription drugs.

But we have good news for Kean: President Trump just gave him permission to change course. Now that the president has read the polls and started pretending to like the Postal Service, Tom Kean is sure to find the courage to express his “grave concerns” about the issue while patting himself on the back for his exemplary leadership from behind.

Tom Malinowski has been a leading advocate for funding and protecting the Postal Service so it can operate effectively during the pandemic and support a primarily mail-in election. In May, Malinowski championed Postal Service relief funding in the HEROES Act, and has said that it must be included in any new Covid relief bill. On Thursday, he joined 174 of his House colleagues in a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, calling for the reversal of recent policy changes that resulted in increased delays and undelivered mail. He supports Rep. Bill Pascrell’s request that New Jersey’s Attorney General investigate whether Trump and DeJoy are violating state election law through continued sabotage of the mail. He has also remained in regular communication with local postmasters to monitor their needs.

A transcript of Kean’s conversation is below. The full interview can be found here.

Aron: “It looks like the president is withholding funding from the postal service in order to up the stakes in this standoff over mail-in voting. What do you think when you see that he will withhold three and a half billion dollars that it’ll take to pay for this election?

Kean: “I think we’ve got to work together to make sure that we all make sure that every vote is cast and everybody has faith in the ballot and that it’s a safe and secure process whether it’s in person in certain places, or through the mail, or in drop-off boxes.

One of the things we saw very clearly in the primary–we had this experience in every single one of six counties in this congressional district–was that there were drop boxes and we need to make sure that those are monitored. And we did have early drop-offs at various county set headquarters and polling locations. And it’s very important, you know, over the course of this fall that people have confidence that the ballots are safe and secure and cast appropriately.”