Trump news: Under-fire postmaster general says he has 'no intention' of returning mail sorting machines

Senate committee interrogates US Postal Service chief as GOP prepares for 2020 convention

Barack Obama gives unprecedented speech attacking Trump at DNC 2020

Donald Trump said he would send law enforcement officers to polling locations for this November's presidential election in comments branded "an attack on America" by a former White House ethics chief.

“We're going to have sheriffs, and we're going to have law enforcement, and we're going to have hopefully US attorneys, and we're going to have everybody and attorney generals (sic),” Mr Trump told Fox News after host Sean Hannity asked if he would have "poll watchers".

Meanwhile, his Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said on Friday there was “no intention” to return mail sorting machines that were removed in recent weeks, after it was reported that at least 671 machines were removed in critical voting states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin and Georgia, among others.

The postmaster general said those machines were “not needed”, while adding that he supports vote-by-mail efforts amid the pandemic.

Mr DeJoy, who has overseen sweeping cuts at the agency following his appointment by the president in June, told a US Senate committee he would be voting by mail in fall elections and insisted that the "American people should feel comfortable that the Postal Service will deliver on this election" despite the president's constant threats to undermine the agency.

On Friday, the president and his family held a funeral service for his brother Robert Trump, who died on 16 August. He was 71. The president held a service in the East Room of the White House.

A group of anti-Trump Republicans have meanwhile seized on the arrest of former Trump campaign chief and senior White House adviser Steve Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty to fraud in an an alleged US-Mexico border wall crowdfunding scheme. He is the subject of an advert targeting Fox News views during next week's 2020 Republican National Convention.

GOP officials and the president are preparing for the event following Joe Biden's official nomination as the Democrats' nominee after his party's week-long convention, during which Democrats and several Republicans condemned the current administration and the president's response to the coronavirus pandemic and economic fallout.

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Key Points

• Sheriffs will be sent to polling locations, Trump tells Fox News
• Joe Biden formally accepts nomination at final night of Democratic National Convention
• President distances himself from Steve Bannon following his arrest
• Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says he has 'no intention' of returning mail sorting machines

[22 August 2020 00:00 · Alex Woodward]

Exclusive: Carter Centre to launch first-ever US election initiative, citing ‘erosion’ of democracy

 The democracy promotion organisation founded by former president Jimmy Carter is to launch its first-ever United States election initiative this year, citing an “erosion” of democracy in the country.

The Carter Centre has monitored more than 110 elections in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia since 1989 as part of democracy promotion efforts around the world. Although there are no plans yet to monitor polls in the US, this will be the first time it has engaged in a US election at all.

“We are now at a point where we have taken an institutional decision to explore some direct engagement on US election issues. And this is a departure from our whole history trying not to do that,” David Carroll, director of the centre’s Democracy Programme, told The Independent.

[22 August 2020 00:21 · Alex Woodward]

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