Please don't argue in bad faith, and actually read the links provided.
The issue here is that the current Postmaster General fired the administrators who were pushing back against the "optimizations" he is making and wants to make to USPS policies. The final goal is to privatize USPS, which has been a Republican dream since the Reagan era.
Yes, I read all articles about the USPS the day they are published across a wide range of journals.
However, I'm simply looking for a direct, factual claim that supports that these firings were directly intended to slow down mail delivery so as to cause problems during the forthcoming election. So far all the claims I've seen are indirect; further, the PG has explicitly said they are prepared to handle mail-in votes during the upcoming election.
It's entirely unclear whether firing administrators (rather than mail carriers and postal office workers, etc) has a direct effect on mail delivery rates and accuracy in the short-term.
>However, I'm simply looking for a direct, factual claim that supports that these firings were directly intended to slow down mail delivery so as to cause problems during the forthcoming election. So far all the claims I've seen are indirect
You realize that this is an absolutely inane thing to ask right? The direct implication is that Trump is slowing down the USPS in order the guarantee his re-election - are you looking for a quote from Trump himself that he's doing this, because I doubt we will ever see one until it's too late.
Sure, I agree that Trump appears to be signalling that he is attempting to prevent mail in ballots from being delivered but it's really hard to picture how this strategy helps him?
IE, I'm struggling to put together some sort of specuative game theory about the election that leads to him being president again.
No, those executives don't deliver mail. They did make all the decisions about how mail is delivered, who does it, and when. By centralizing the power structure DeJoy has put himself in the position of being able to make arbitrary decisions about postal delivery with very little immediate oversight.
The USPS is playing an unusually large role in this election and Trump (and, let's not forget, state-level actors that continue to take active measures in US elections) has indicated that he's open to messing with mail delivery to win.
