TRANSCRIPT: Senator Warren Talks About Protecting the USPS on TODAY Show
"People depend on the post office. We're depending on it for our democracy, for votes. But people also depend on it for retirement checks, their social security, people depend on it to get medication through the mail." "Good for Nancy Pelosi for bringing the House back. I believe Mitch McConnell needs to bring the Senate back as well. I called for that publicly yesterday."
Washington, DC - Today, United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was on NBC's TODAY Show to discuss efforts by President Donald Trump and his medagdonor turned Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to undermine the United States Postal Service.
A transcript of Senator Warren's remarks is below.
TRANSCRIPT:
CM: Let's start with what Kristen just left off there. That new poll that's out that shows Vice President Biden with a lead albeit shrinking depending on which poll you're looking at. But when it comes to the economy specifically, the issue that most Americans say is most important to them, Vice President Biden is trailing right now and that's with record unemployment, that's with businesses large and small shutting down all over this country. How can that be? How can it be that more Americans seem to trust this president more with the economy than Vice President Biden?
EW: Well I think what we're going to see is exactly that conversation during the convention. You know Americans understand that we face three crises right now: the coronavirus, a collapsing economy, and the problem of racial inequality -- the conversation that has been put off for far too long. And here's the thing about Joe Biden. He has plans not only to address what's broken, but his intent is to build back better. And he has really got the kind of detail that touch people's lives. And he's someone that we can count on. You know he's not a man full of empty promises and lies, he's a man of real integrity, a man in public service who will fight from the heart and a man who has real plans to rebuild our economy. I think we're going to hear a lot about that over the next few nights of this convention and I feel confident that when people hear it, they're going to know who they want for president, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for Vice President.
CM: The convention of course gets away tonight and you're singing Mr. Biden's praises now but a few months ago you were somewhat critical of the Vice President and there are still a significant number of folks in your party, a large swatch of the Democratic party, the progressive wing of the party which you've become a standard bearer, they say that Mr. Biden and Senator Harris are not representative of that particular party, the progressive wing of the party. Why should progressives come around now Senator?
EW: Look we are united and we are gonna show that this week. We are gonna show that in November. Because look at where people are on the big big issues. For example Vice President Biden and Kamala Harris -- they want to see us expand Social Security, they want to see us cancel a big chunk of student loan debt, they want to see us expand access to child care. Where are Donald Trump and the Republicans on every one of those issues? No, no no. The choices are clear. The choices are clear on economic issues, the choices are clear on who you're out there fighting for. What Donald Trump is doing is fighting for the same people he always fights for. The billionaires, his cronies, people who've already made it big. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris they're there to fight for people, for hardworking people across this country, and to rebuild this economy from the grassroots up. I'm gonna be in this fight with them all the way.
CM: Let's talk about the post office for a moment. As you know states are being told by the Post Office that the USPS can't handle the volume of mail in ballots, overtime being restricted to a number of postal workers, reduced hours, hundreds of mail sorting machines going away. There's of course been this call from the Speaker of the House for lawmakers to come back and consider legislation, there's talk of hauling in the postmaster general for a hearing as well, but beyond that what real recourse do lawmakers have less than 90 days out from the election?
EW: So look good for Nancy Pelosi for bringing the House back, I believe Mitch McConnell needs to bring the Senate back as well. I called for that publicly yesterday. People depend on the post office. We're depending on it for our democracy, for votes. But people also depend on it for retirement checks, their social security, people depend on it to get medication through the mail. This idea that Donald Trump is going to do everything he can to destroy the post office because he knows he's losing this election, this is fundamentally wrong. We all see what's happening here. So I think Nancy is doing exactly the right thing. We're gonna keep up the pressure, put the pressure on Mitch McConnell. You know this is one of those times when people across this country -- whether you're a Democrat, or a Republican, or an independent, make your voice heard. Support your local post office. The person who's delivering your mail just wants to get that done every day. We've counted on that in this country from our very founding and Donald Trump wants to break it just so that votes won't be counted so he can try to claim a victory when he loses in November, it's wrong and we should all be opposed.
CM: Senator really quickly, just 30 seconds. You mentioned at the end of your campaign the role of sexism, and how that contributed to you not getting the nomination perhaps. Senator Harris, Black woman. How concerned are you that sexism, and or racism, is going to play a role this time around?
EW: Look, Donald Trump is gonna do his best to raise every racist, nasty, ugly, false argument that he can. But we are all there to support Kamala Harris. She's terrific, I've known her for more than a decade, we've worked together. We're gonna to be there to call it out every time it happens. Kamala is gonna make a terrific Vice President and we're gonna turn our backs on Donald Trump and his efforts to try to stir racism and hatred in this country. We're better than that.
CM: Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren. Senator Warren thank you. Good luck with the virtual convention as well.
EW: Thank you.
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