Mark Meadows gets busted on-air for lying to Jake Tapper about disabling USPS sorting machines

[Cetacea]

Toward the end of a long and combative interview with Mark Meadows, CNN “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper called out Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff for lying to him earlier in the segment when he claimed no Post Office high-volume sorting machines were being hauled away to slow down mail delivery.

In the first few minutes of the CNN interview, when confronted with reports about the machinery being decommissioned, Meadows insisted it was lie and part of a narrative cooked up by Democrats. He then challenged Tapper’s producer to find out the facts and “whisper” them into the CNN host’s ear.

Approximately ten minutes later, they did just that.
Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.

“In terms of the fact check that you asked me to look into, one of my great producer did, it’s in terms of the machines,” Tapper began. “Chris Bentley, president of the National Postal Mail Handler’s Union Local 297, which covers Kansas and part of Missouri, two good Trump states, told CNN that postal management has already taken out four machines in Kansas City, two machines in Springfield, Missouri, and one machine in Wichita, Kansas. That is earlier this year under this new postmaster general.”


https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/mark-meadows-gets-busted-on-air-for-lying-to-jake-tapper-about-disabling-usps-sorting-machines/

[underpants]

1. They are denying this is happening?

What kind of weird alternative universe do they live in?

[empedocles]

2. Happened to see that bit. Just part of the traitortrump job definition.

[COLGATE4]

4. No alternate reality. Trump has merely freed them

to respond to any charges with lies. There's no penalty for doing it and people ate now so accustomed to it that it hardly makes a ripple.

[crickets]

6. Sad truth. nt

[calimary]

25. Monkey see, monkey do.

Birds of a feather and all that.

[COLGATE4]

40. That's why monkeys when irritated (like

being asked questions they can't answer) fling shit at the questioner.

[eleny]

8. It's their familiar "fake news" and "Democrat hoax" memes rolled into one

[underpants]

11. Yeah I guess so.

[Lock him up.]

30. An alternative universe called "mob" led by a mob bo$$.

RICO THE TRUMP MOB, ITS BO$$ AND ITS ACCOMPLICE$

[CaptYossarian]

3. They're slowing down the mail in red states?

[maxrandb]

5. They're slowing down the mail in BLUE areas of red states

Fixed it for you.

[CaptYossarian]

7. I see it now. Thanks.

[Cetacea]

9. Are they returning the mail boxes to Portland? n/t

[Gothmog]

10. From Marc Elias

Link to tweet

[Cetacea]

13. Thank you for that map. n/t

[Mike 03]

14. This is crucial. Thank you for posting!

[Gothmog]

29. I was part of the Clinton Victory Counsel program and have been working on voter protection

Marc is a great attorney

[oasis]

23. Trump's postmaster targets Dem areas for mail service reduction.

Dems need to rush this to the House oversight committee.

[Botany]

27. It certainly appears that @USPS is targeting Democratic areas with near surgical

It certainly appears that @USPS is targeting Democratic areas with near surgical precision for reductions of sorting capacity.

And look who is # in the nation. Columbus, OH.

[Gothmog]

28. There will be litigation on this

Marc is the Democratic Party's top election law attorney

[Hoyt]

12. Honestly, there is a difference between removing sorting machines "to slow down mail delivery" and

removing it to put in other facilities with higher volume, decommissioning old equipment being replaced by newer/better equipment, changing letter sorters to package sorters when packages are increasing and letters are declining, etc.

Found some stats on blue mail boxes. In 1985, there were 400,000 in USA. Now it's down to 160,000. I can assure you that is not due to an attempt to slow down the mail for the election.

Vote, request ballots early, mail them back quickly, drop them off at election board if possible, vote in-person early, etc., and thumb your nose at trump and his supporters.

[grantcart]

16. Ten years ago I was in the huge regional processing center in SD

It felt like it was the size of a football stadium 80% dark with huge machines in the dark.

In the corner there were 5 much smaller machines that were running at the speed of light.

They said that because of the speed of the new machines they only need to run them 6 hours a day.

There was one other specially designed machine for Netflix only which accounted for 25% of their revenue.

All to say they are constantly updating the technology and some machine replacement is always happening.

Their handling of these issues makes the rollout of the new Coke look good.

[Hoyt]

18. Good input. I worked in a smaller organization and we replaced our mail machine twice in a few years

when we stared having big mailings going to 20,000 people. The increase in technology was significant.

[LisaL]

20. Nobody has said any of these machines were replaced.

Removed and destoryed-yes. Replaced-no.

[Hoyt]

21. Moved to other facilities or not needed, just like 240,000 mailboxes have been removed since 1985.

[LisaL]

36. Sure. Not needed in large urban areas.

What's your deal, seriously? Look at the map where those machines were removed.

[Hoyt]

37. Do you have such a map and do you know how many machines remain? It's not like

the processing centers are going to sort mail by hand.

[yellowdogintexas]

47. there is a map upthread which shows the daily sort capacity reduction

Notice the circles, their size and locations. In Texas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and the DFW area have the greatest reduction. Even though the FW side of DFW is more Republican & the Dallas side is more Democratic, you can't separate that impact because the largest central sorting station is at the airport.

Move up to KY and TN Impact? Nashville/Davidson county which has not sent a Republican to Congress for at least 100 years; Memphis/Shelby county which is very blue; Louisville/Jefferson County which sends Kentucky's lone Democrat to the House.

Columbus is a huge reduction for a city of its size. I would speculate that is because of the presence of Ohio State University.

Even li'l ole red AZ - that dot down there is Maricopa County/Phoenix. Maricopa County is scaring the bejeebus out of the Republicans as it is getting bluer.

You couldn't convince me in a million years that this sudden decision to remove and "replace" is not timed to impact this election.

[Hoyt]

49. On the other hand, in a large populated area -- during declining use of letter mail -- you'd expect

lots of UNUSED capacity and target those for decommission, moving elsewhere, replacement with package sorting equipment, etc.

[LisaL]

19. Have you seen anything suggesting machines were replaced?

Machines were removed and destroyed. I have seen nothing to suggest any new machines were put in place. Especially considering these machines are expensive, and post office is supposedly low on funds.

[Hoyt]

22. Do you doubt that letter mail has declined in past few months, while packages have increased?

That alone could explain decommissioning and moving some machines.

[stopdiggin]

32. Thanks.

You would appear to be trying to be a voice of reason.
Sometimes that matters here on DU. Sometimes not so much. But I appreciate your efforts nonetheless.
----- -----

[LisaL]

35. Well, if you believe that, I have a nice bridge for sale.

Interested?

[yellowdogintexas]

48. Neither have I. I'd feel a lot better if there were at least a few going in

at larger service centers.

[George II]

15. Didn't see it, but no doubt Meadows responded with this:

[Cetacea]

17. LOL

[left-of-center2012]

24. If they remove automated sorting machines ...

That means mail sorting must be done by hand, and slower?

[ProfessorGAC]

26. According To What I Read, Absolutely

Most of the machines sort 160,000 pieces of mail per hour.
That's 44.44 pieces of mail per second! No human could even come near that!

[BlueIdaho]

31. Mark Meadows may be loyal to Trump but he's not very bright.

Typically - buffoons Like Meadows keep “failing up” as long as they are rabid enough Trump Humpers. Stop lying Mark - the whole world is watching...

[Illumination]

33. BUSTED!

[StocktonNative]

34. They shouldn't be making 'production' changes right now.

You flub up machine production and only have 80 days to fix it is insane.

Do that to a car manufacturing facility as a Pier producer and it would be your ass.

This is voter suppression to the max.

[Hulk]

38. I didn't see him getting "busted".

Again, these tools talk fast and kick up enough dust to leave the viewer confused...again. I think you saw what you wanted to see. It was like watching dodgeball in a torrential rain storm. He didn’t get busted at all.

[Lucinda]

39. KNR

[malaise]

41. Doesn't he have a history of lying?

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2019/02/16/boyle-column-did-mark-meadows-lie-his-college-degree/2872646002/

[C Moon]

42. I doubt they are only stopping the returned ballots, but the ballots that are to go out, as well.

This was thought out ahead of time: how best to stop the mail-in ballots, so Putin can control things from the voting booths, and the GOP can place threatening people outside the poll areas—maybe even Trump's new militia.

But what will be great, is when Biden still wins. I'm not sure about the house and senate, though.

[Cha]

43. Damn.. meadows is a gd Idiot! TY!

[RickGeneric]

44. There are at least three groups fighting for free and fair elections

There are at least three groups fighting for free and fair elections: The National Task Force, The Transition Integrity Project, Silver Linings Group.
https://theanalysis.news/interviews/what-if-trump-wont-go-col-lawrence-wilkerson/

[crickets]

45. Thanks for the link! nt

[Blue Owl]

46. Fuck these fucking fucks

Call 'em out, and lock 'em up!