Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to a plot that threatens to undermine the security of the upcoming elections. A whistleblower has revealed that the Trump administration has directed the United States Postal Service to secretly…
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to a plot that threatens to undermine the security of the upcoming elections.
A whistleblower has revealed that the Trump administration has directed the United States Postal Service to secretly build an untested, illegal system to intercept mail ballots on their way to State election administrators. It is a system that will disenfranchise thousands of American citizens and throw the November elections into chaos.
The whistleblower reports that under this new system, the Trump administration is building their own list of who they think should be eligible to vote, and Postal Service workers will be required to scan bar codes on ballots to see if the voter appears on the Trump administration's list, a list that has not been made publicly available. They admit that it exists, but they have not shown the list to the public.
If just one bar code on just one ballot does not match a name on this secret list, then the whole batch of ballots numbering as many as 10,000 will not be delivered to the States to be counted.
Think about that. Do we really trust the Trump administration's secret list of who they think should be eligible to vote? And if one ballot is found not to match, should thousands of others also be seized? They are launching this system with no testing at all and with no time to identify and fix the bugs in the system.
That is to say nothing of the fact that they are doing this illegally. They have defied multiple court orders telling them to stop.
This secret system that they are forcing on the American people without the consent of Congress threatens to throw our elections into chaos. But the chaos is the point.
President Trump knows Republicans can't win the midterm elections on the merits--not with this economy, not with these tariffs, not with this war.
The Republicans have given up on trying to earn the votes of most Americans, and instead, they are trying to ensure that votes do not get counted, unless the voters are on their secret list.
Vote by mail is how millions of Americans, especially seniors, exercise their right to vote. President Trump even voted by mail himself just last month.
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in American elections. We must ensure our elections are secure, and I am open to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do that, but launching an untested, illegal, last-minute system that can silently wipe out thousands of legitimate ballots is a recipe for disaster.
I am joining a number of our colleagues in filing an amicus brief to stop this half-baked and dangerous attempt to interfere with American elections.
When Democrats take back the majority, we will end this nonsense. We will fight for every Americans' right to vote and defend our democracy from those who seek to undermine it from within.
Iran War
Mr. Speaker, the President's unnecessary war in Iran has now lasted 6 months with no end in sight. Mr. Speaker, 18 American servicemembers are dead. Countless civilians, including 100 children, have been bombed in their school.
This war has now cost $100 billion and counting. Think of what we could have done instead with $100 billion. We could have built 1 million new affordable homes for Americans. We could have repaired 80,000 bridges, made insulin free for every American who needs it, and given a $1,000 tax cut to every middle-class family. Instead, we are wasting this money on a completely unnecessary war with no end in sight.
Because of this stupid war, the Strait of Hormuz is closed, and the cost of gas is skyrocketing. There has been a 40 percent increase since before the war began. The average American has paid $500 more for gas in the last 6 months than they would have if the President had never bungled us into this stupid and unnecessary war.
To make it all worse, our top military leaders are sounding the alarm that we are depleting our munitions to the point that it has made us more vulnerable and less safe than we were before.
The American people are tired of politicians sending other people's kids to fight and die in unnecessary wars in the Middle East.
The President promised people that he would be different, but he is not. This is just another unnecessary war with no plan and no regard for what the American people actually need.
