5:33
5 takeaways from postmaster general's grilling
Louis DeJoy insists the Postal Service can handle all election mail.
Video by Jessie DiMartino
5:33
But later on, he wavered.
“Regardless of whether it’s efficient or not, what is the harm in just putting those machines back until election day just for the peace of mind – for the confidence of the American people?” asked Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
DeJoy reiterated his position that “we don’t need the machines.”
The two sparred over the merits of Khanna’s case, with DeJoy telling him, “In Washington, it makes plenty of sense. To me, it makes none.”
Eventually, however, DeJoy folded – with a laugh: “Get me the billion [dollars] and I’ll put the [mail-sorting] machines in.”
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/dejoy-1-gty-er-200824_1598300903453_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Democrats home in on DeJoy’s selection as postmaster general
Democrats engaged in pointed questions about DeJoy’s selection as postmaster general – a subject that has emerged as a focus of theirs in recent weeks.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, for example, has asked for materials related to DeJoy’s hiring from the Board of Governors after learning of “several, previously undisclosed communications between Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and the Board of Governors regarding the search process.”
DeJoy responded Monday, denying that “Steven Mnuchin had nothing to do with my selection, okay?”
“Did you talk to Secretary Mnuchin about taking the job? There was a report that you two had lunch together to discuss it,” asked Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.
“It is totally inaccurate and outrageous,” DeJoy fired back.
DeJoy also addressed allegations leveled last week by David Williams, the former vice chair of the Board of Governors, who told lawmakers last week that he resigned “when it became clear to me that the administration was politicizing the Postal Service with the Treasury Secretary as the lead figure for the White House in that effort.”
On Monday, DeJoy said, “I don’t know what Mr. Williams’ contention is, or what his problem is with me.”
DeJoy repeatedly accuses Democrats of asking ‘outrageous’ questions
On multiple occasions, DeJoy called Democrats’ confrontational lines of inquiry “outrageous” and refused to answer questions he deemed “not worthy of response.”
His frequent use of these defense mechanisms demonstrated the combative nature of the hearing, which ran nearly eight hours.
In a testy moment of testimony, DeJoy faced questions about his political donations to Republican causes, deflecting allegations of a potential conflict-of-interest as an “outrageous claim.”
“I’m not going to answer these types of questions,” DeJoy said. “I’m here to represent the postal service.”
Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., asked whether DeJoy’s “backup plan [is] to be pardoned like Roger Stone.”
DeJoy laughed it off: “I have no comment on that. It’s not worth a comment.”
DeJoy also labeled questions about his selection as postmaster general and his decision not to re-engage mail sorting machines as “outrageous.”
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