Postal Service leader tested by Trump's mail voting crackdown

David Steiner, the head of the U.S. Postal Service, is facing bipartisan criticism over his handling of President Donald Trump's push to restrict mail voting, reviving attention to remarks Steiner made about Trump nearly two decades ago. In 2007, while serving as chief executive of Waste Management, Steiner told an audience at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service that if "The Apprentice" defined leadership, "count me out," and joked about Trump's hairstyle. Steiner said he did not recall the remarks and admitted he can be "flippant.", according to PBS NewsHour.

After Trump signed an executive order limiting mail ballots, Steiner pushed forward with a rule to enact it, telling the Associated Press he had no real alternative. Once the Supreme Court struck down that effort, he said his agency had stopped work on a contested piece of the plan: a portal for accessing voter registration information. Steiner would not call the order sound policy, saying courts should settle the matter and stressing that the Postal Service operates as an independent agency of the executive branch.

Several Democrats, including Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar and Senator Elissa Slotkin, have accused Steiner of enabling Trump, with Griswold calling him a "Trump lackey" and Slotkin a "pawn." Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, angered by mail delays, has called for Steiner's resignation and proposed blocking his bonus. Steiner maintains he is not a "political person," has no plans to resign, and dismisses the heated hearings as "theater."

Summarized by PolitiKool from PBS NewsHour’s reporting. Read the full story at PBS NewsHour →