Rep. James Clyburn says pausing post office cutbacks not enough

South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn joins Yahoo News Editor in Chief Daniel Klaidman and Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff to discuss Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s announcement that he would pause cutbacks to the postal service until after the election. Clyburn, who has been a critic of the cutbacks, says DeJoy has “shown us who he is”.

Video Transcript

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: You were among the House Democrats who had expressed a great deal of alarm about the cutbacks in service that the postal service had been planning. We just got news today that Mr. DeJoy is suspending those cutbacks until after the election. Does this alleviate your concerns?

JAMES CLYBURN: No, sir. Not one bit.

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Why not?

JAMES CLYBURN: Because as Maya Angelou says, when someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time. So he's shown us who he is, and I'm going to believe him. All of that took place after he had a personal meeting in the Oval Office with the president, when he went out to do all of this. So I've got to believe that it's not just him. I've got to believe, the president has said it himself, we can't let that happen, because if we let them use the mail to mail in ballots, we'll lose. The president said that. So I don't know why, all of a sudden, people are gonna think that this announcement changes things.

This president's got very little regard for the Constitution of the United States. The post office is enshrined in our Constitution, in existence before we ever had a constitution. I call it the thread, the major thread that holds the fabric of this country together. It was the post office more than any one entity that made our motto relevant, e pluribus unum, out of many one. The post office contributed to that more than any other institution in our society.