Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman joins Kristin Myers to discuss how Trump would agree to $25B for the USPS if Democrats made concessions in stimulus aid.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Well, the war against the Post Office has heated up today, after former president Barack Obama said that President Trump was attempting to, quote, starve the Post Office. For more on the latest moves in this battle involving USPS, we are joined by Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman. Hey, Rick.

RICK NEWMAN: Hey.

KRISTIN MYERS: So give us the latest details. I-- honestly, I rarely use the Post Office, so it is interesting to-- fascinating, really-- that the Post Office has become a part of this political tug of war between the president and the Democrats right now.

RICK NEWMAN: Well, I will point out, anybody who gets packages from Amazon or any other delivery service probably does get deliveries from the Postal Service. You don't always know where it comes from. That's one of the things that ticks off President Trump. But he really started a bit of a bonfire-- maybe you could call it a dumpster fire-- yesterday when he said in that interview on Fox Business that he opposes additional funding for the Postal Service that is in the Democrats' version of the latest stimulus bill because he basically thinks it would expand voting.

So he all-- he has all but acknowledged that he does not want people to vote by mail because he thinks more people will, therefore, vote, and that this would be bad for Republicans. Now, he keeps saying there's more fraud through mail-in voting. There's no evidence of that. And there's also no evidence that it gives Democrats an advantage over Republicans. In fact, there are some what you would call red states, like Utah, for example, Montana also controlled by Republicans, that have mail-in voting. Most people in those states vote by mail. So Trump is just convinced it's going to be a problem, so he's standing in the way of this additional funding.

You know, the Postal Service is kind of a basket case. It is always-- it always loses money, and there are definitely some long-term structural problems with the Postal Service. But that's not what this is about right now. This is about will the Postal Service be able to deliver mail-in ballots, assuming there is a big surge of mail-in voting in November.

KRISTIN MYERS: So I want to know if you think that the president actually will shell out some money, because we got some news that he said today that he would agree to up to 25 billion in funding. He said, quote, "sure, if they give us what we want," referring to the Democrats. Do you think that's going to help stimulus negotiations at all?

RICK NEWMAN: I think the Democrats at this point cannot possibly back down on their demand for more funding for the Postal Service. And the Democrats are actually after two things. We should just point out the difference. So they want that $25 billion. That's just for basic operational funding, not necessarily related to delivering mail-in ballots, but just to plug the holes, basically. But then they also want another $3.6 billion that would go to states to help with mail-in balloting, so help, you know, buy drop boxes, for example, if that's what states need, or pay for the postage of all this extra mailing of ballots and things like that.

Now that Trump has made this such a public issue, I think he-- there's absolutely no way Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Congress and other Democrats, I don't think there's any way they can back down from this because Trump has now said what he's after. They have a pretty good cause. I mean, in general, even if people don't use the mail, Kristin, you know, people like the fact that the mail comes reliably. They expect it to come reliably. So I think Trump has picked a fight here in a way that's going to be very hard for him to win.

KRISTIN MYERS: And New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy-- he is a Democrat, I want to point out for everyone-- says that they're now going to be adopting mail-in voting. I feel like a lot of states are making this move, where they say they want to adopt mail-in voting, even though it is going to be costly. I know Democrats want upwards of 4 billion to assist in this measure, and I know that they're scrambling to try to get it done. Do you think even more states, in the run-up to the election, are going to say, hey, we're definitely going to be adopting this?

RICK NEWMAN: Yeah, for sure. But it's-- this is not an all-or-nothing thing. It's not that, if you decide to expand mail-in voting, then people will only be able to vote by mail. I mean, what New Jersey has said, the governor there said that what they have decided to do is mail every voter a ballot. So if you're registered, you will get a ballot in the mail. And then there are a variety of things you can do. You could mail it back, or you could drop it off at one of these drop boxes, or you could take it to a polling place on Election Day.

I think a lot of states are expanding mail-in voting in different ways such as this, but basically what they're trying to do is give people an option for how they want to return their ballot, and at the same time operate fewer polling places where people go in person and also, you know, have fewer polling workers there in person, obviously to limit exposure to the coronavirus.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, well we'll have to see how the Postal Service continues to be a pawn in this game, or this war, should I say, between the Dems and the president. Thanks so much, Rick.

RICK NEWMAN: See you.