Bernie Sanders on Funding Postal Service: 'Trump May Be Crazy, but He's Not Stupid'

By Marty Johnson, The Hill

16 August 20

en. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday lashed out at President Trump on postal service funding, hours after the president signaled that he was opposed to giving additional funds to the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service (USPS) because he thinks it will allow Democrats to expand mail-in voting for November's elections.

"What this is about is not complicated," Sanders said to CNN's Anderson Cooper while discussing Trump's rhetoric on mail-in voting. "Trump may be crazy, but he's not stupid. And he looks at polling. He is behind. And I think what he and his friends believe [is] that if they can suppress the vote — make it harder for people to vote — they have a better chance to win the election."

Earlier in the day, Trump railed against funding the USPS and mail-in voting.

"They want $25 billion for the post office. Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots," Trump said. "Now in the meantime, they aren't getting there. By the way, those are just two items. But if they don't get those two items that means you can't have universal mail-in voting, because they're not equipped to have it."

Trump later pivoted slightly, saying that he would support funding for the USPS but not Democrats' effort to expand mail-in voting.

Sanders, the longtime Vermont senator and former Democratic presidential candidate, also took to Twitter to rip Trump for his comments.

"No, Mr. President. We won't let you sabotage the election," Sanders tweeted. "This is a democracy, not a damn dictatorship. Your reign of authoritarianism will soon end."