‘Trump may be crazy, but he’s not stupid’: Bernie Sanders lashes out at president’s opposition to funding postal service

Senator Bernie Sanders has hit out at Donald Trump’s opposition to provide funding for the US Postal Service, claiming he is attempting to “suppress” the US vote in November’s election.

Mr Trump, who has been a vocal critic of the use of widespread mail-in voting amidst the coronavirus pandemic, said on Thursday that he opposes the provision of funding for the service proposed by Democrats.

The president revealed on Wednesday that Democrats are asking for $3.5bn (£2.6bn) to facilitate universal mail-in voting and $25bn (£19bn) to fund the USPS ahead of November’s presidential election.

Mr Trump openly admitted he opposes the funding for the postal service to assist mail-in ballots this November, and has repeatedly claimed that mail-in voting will lead to widespread fraud in November’s election.

“What this is about is not complicated. Trump may be crazy, but he’s not stupid.” Sen Sanders told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in response to Mr Trump’s remarks on Thursday.

“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," he added.

Mr Trump has said he believes the service will not be able to cope with the surge in the amount of mail-in ballots during the election if denied the extra funding.

“They want three and a half billion dollars for something that’ll turn out to be fraudulent, that’s election money basically. They want three and a half billion dollars for the mail-in votes. Universal mail-in ballots. They want $25 billion, billion, for the Post Office,” Mr Trump said during an interview on Fox News.

“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,” he added.

The president has continually falsely insisted that an increase in mail-in voting will lead to widespread voter fraud.

Documented cases of mail-ballot fraud are extremely rare and experts have said successful voter fraud would be very unlikely, Reuters reported.

Sanders also rebuked Mr Trump for the comments earlier Thursday on Twitter calling it “a blatant attempt at mass voter suppression.”

“If you believe in democracy,” Sen Sanders told CNN, “you do not support a President who is literally trying to destroy the Postal Service because he does not want people in the middle of a pandemic to vote.”

The US postal service said it has lost $2.2bn in the three months running up to the end of June amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the new postmaster general warning the agency is in a “dire” financial position.

“Our financial position is dire, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume, a broken business model, and a management strategy that has not adequately addressed these issues,’’ Louis DeJoy said.

“Without dramatic change, there is no end in sight,’’ he added.

Mr DeJoy, a Trump supporter who has previously donated to his campaign, implemented sweeping changes to the service that a number of politicians have said ”threaten the timely delivery of mail – including medicines for seniors, paychecks for workers and absentee ballots for voters – that is essential to millions of Americans.’’