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President Trump to hold news conference after saying he wouldn't help USPS with mail-in voting

President Trump to hold news conference after saying he wouldn't help USPS with mail-in voting
Posted at 2:20 PM, Aug 13, 2020
and last updated 2020-08-13 17:19:46-04

President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold his daily news conference on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. ET from the White House briefing room.

Trump will likely face questions about mail-in voting after a Fox News interview aired Thursday morning where Trump said he would block funding for the US Postal Service. The service, which has slowed down mail processing, says it is in need of funding to speed up mail delivery.

The speed of mail deliveries has prompted concerns that ballots and ballot applications might not arrive in a timely manner. While a number of states have long conducted mail-in voting without issue, more voters are expected to utilize mail-in voting because of the coronavirus pandemic.

"They want three and a $500 million for something that'll turn out to be fraudulent, that's election money basically. They want $3.5 billion for the mail-in votes. Universal mail-in ballots. They want $25 billion, billion, for the Post Office. Now they need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots," Trump said.

Trump has long opposed funding to conduct mail-in voting, repeating claims that mail-in voting leads to fraud. Trump has long tried to sow doubts on US elections; after his 2017 inauguration, he formed a voting fraud commission that disbanded after the panel did not release any reports indicating widespread voting abuses.

Trump might also be questioned following comments from CDC Director Robert Redfield, who stated in an interview with WebMD that the coronavirus could cause a deadly fall.

“I'm asking you to do four simple things: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands and be smart about crowds. If we don't do that, as I said last April, this could be the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we've ever had.”