‘Dangerous power grab’: top Democrats decry USPS system that could thwart mail-in voting
Representative Robert Garcia, ranking member of the committee on oversight and government reform, is speaking out following disclosure of a whistleblower report alleging the US Postal Service is poised to launch a computer system that could derail mail-in voting. Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal disclosed this whistleblower statement, which warned of potential mail-in voting chaos, on Tuesday.
“The Oversight Committee has received whistleblower reports that President Trump’s attack on vote-by-mail for the 2026 election is more serious than previously understood,” Garcia said in a statement. “This new secret tracking system at the US Postal Service is faulty, untested, and threatens to totally disrupt ballot delivery for millions of American citizens.”
“We are fighting in court to protect the right to vote by mail for all and will continue to investigate. This unconstitutional and dangerous power grab must be permanently and immediately blocked.”
Donald Trump in March signed an executive order requiring the creation of a national voter file. Trump’s executive order mandated that the US Postal Service make rules about a process that would require states to apprise them of voters who want mail-in ballots.
Trump’s executive order would require that the Postal Service prevent these voters from receiving mail-in ballots unless they are on a the USPS-approved eligible voter list. While the US Supreme Court paved the way for Trump’s efforts to limit mail-in voting, the issue is still being litigated in lower courts.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also slammed what he claimed were Trump-backed efforts to derail the mail-in voting.
“A whistleblower is warning of a ‘catastrophic failure’ in our mail-ballot system—all because Trump is turning USPS into a voter suppression machine,” the New York Democrat said on X. “Vote-by-mail is safe and secure. Trump himself voted by mail just last month. He knows he’s failing the American people, so he’s doing everything he can to rig the midterms.”
Key events
Summary
We’re wrapping up our live coverage for the day. Here are today’s key developments in US politics:
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Senator Ed Markey won the Democratic primary in Massachusetts, beating back a challenge from Seth Moulton, who argued his opponent was too old to be effective at his job. Progressive lawmakers and the organization Our Revolution hailed the victory.
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Democratic leaders in the US House sharply criticized two representatives for defecting and joining with Republicans in order to advance a procedural vote, describing it as a “significant breach of trust,” that requires “a serious response”.
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The US House of Representative voted to censure Chuck Edwards, a Republican congressman who the ethics committee found violated rules against sexual harassment in his conduct towards two young female staffers.
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The Trump administration seized on House Democrats voting against a resolution denouncing socialism, condemning the lawmakers as “sick [and] dangerous”. The resolution included language calling for the enactment of Trump’s SAVE America Act, a strict voting bill that would ban mail-in ballots and require voters to prove their citizenship.
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Donald Trump announced that he will nominate Hung Cao to serve as the next secretary of the US Navy.
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Kathy Hochul, New York’s governor, criticized Donald Trump for withholding $87m in counterterrorism funds from the state, describing the move as a betrayal of 9/11 victims.
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Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has apparently taken steps to advance the president’s efforts to limit voting.
The US Department of Justice announced that its antitrust division was expanding its investigation of beef prices to include eight of the country’s largest grocers.
The associate attorney general Stanley Woodward sent letters about recent rising costs to companies including Amazon, Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Publix, Albertsons, Aldi and Ahold Delhaize USA, the DoJ said.
Donald Trump has also accused meatpacking companies of driving up costs.
Our Revolution, the political group founded by Bernie Sanders after his 2016 campaign, hailed Ed Markey’s victory in the Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary.
“Tonight’s victory isn’t just a win for Ed Markey or for our progressive movement. It’s a rejection of the idea that generational change has to come at the expense of bold, progressive leadership,” Joseph Geevarghese, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement.
“From staking his political capital on the Green New Deal, to fighting for Medicare for All, abolishing ICE and taking on the corporations and billionaires rigging our economy, Ed has consistently been willing to go where the Democratic Party needs to go — often before the rest of Washington gets there.”
Democratic leaders in the US House sharply criticized two representatives for defecting and joining with Republicans in order to advance a procedural vote.
“The decision by two of our colleagues to blindside the entire House Democratic Caucus and join with the Republican majority to pass a procedural rule on the brink of failing represents a significant breach of trust,” Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, whip Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar, the caucus chair, said in a statement.
“It is an action that necessitates a serious response, and we have asked the Committee on Caucus Rules to take this up in short order.”
The statement was referring to moderates Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Jared Golden. The bills included a resolution condemning socialism, which also called for the enactment of Trump’s SAVE America Act, that eight Democrats voted to pass.
Hakeem Jeffries condemned the Trump administration in response to the death of Pierre Damas Bel, a Haitian college student who died by suicide after he lost his legal status and was required to wear an ankle monitor.
“Like hundreds of thousands of Haitians, Pierre fled dangerous conditions and received temporary protected status to build a better life for himself and patriotically contribute to our nation,” the House Democratic leader said, describing the administration’s actions as “despiable cruelty”.
“Instead, Donald Trump’s mass deportation machine ripped away Pierre’s legal status, threatened him with terrifying violence, forced him to wear an ankle monitor and humiliated him in front of his peers.”
Bel, a 20-year-old who came to the US in 2024 and lost his temporary protected status in July, died on Monday. NBC News reported that while Bel’s immigration case made its way through the courts ICE required he wear an ankle monitor. Bel said he was “humiliated” by the experience and was bullied.
Ed Markey projected to win Democratic nomination for his US Senate seat in November
Chris Stein
Senator Ed Markey won the Democratic primary in Massachusetts on Tuesday, beating back a challenge from Seth Moulton, a congressman who tried to unseat him by arguing to voters his opponent was too old to be effective at his job.
Massachusetts is heavily Democratic, making the senator favored to win a third full term in the November general election, where he faces the Republican nominee John Deaton.
The 80-year-old incumbent, according to the Associated Press, easily defeated his 47-year-old rival, at a moment when Democratic voters agonize over the age of some lawmakers, a concern that was amplified by Joe Biden’s disastrous re-election bid in 2024, and Kamala Harris’s subsequent failure to keep Donald Trump from returning to the White House.
The Trump administration seized on House Democrats voting against a resolution denouncing socialism, condemning the lawmakers as “sick [and] dangerous”.
But there was more in the resolution than language critical of socialism “in all its forms”. The Associated Press reports that it called for the enactment of Trump’s SAVE America Act, a strict voting bill that would ban mail-in ballots and require voters to prove their citizenship.
The measure was approved approved 220-192 with a handful of Democrats joining with Republicans in support of the resolution. Democrats described the resolution as a trap ahead of the US midterm elections.
“This isn’t a serious bill,” Congressman Josh Gottheimer told Axios. The New Jersey representative is a moderate who has criticized Democratic Socialism.
“If you actually want to take on socialism instead of playing political games, you don’t slip in the SAVE [America] Act as a poison pill that you know no Democrat will vote for.”
Polls have just closed in Massachusetts where progressive Ed Markey, 80, faces a younger challenger in the US Senate Democratic primary in what is being described as a generational fight. His rival US representative Seth Moulton has argued Markey is too old to serve another term.
Read more on the race here:
Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he will nominate Hung Cao to serve as the next secretary of the US Navy.
Cao, a former Senate candidate in Virginia and retired navy captain, has been the acting secretary since April and was previously the under secretary.
“The Senate needs to confirm this Warfighter, ASAP, so he can continue the fantastic work he has been doing over the past 4 months,” Trump said of the nomination.
The news comes amid a shake up in US military leadership under defense secretary Pete Hegseth. This week army secretary Daniel Driscoll left his role after 18 months on the job, prompting Democrats to accuse Hegseth of having “hollowed out” the army’s senior ranks.
House votes 413-2 to censure Republican congressman after bipartisan panel found he ‘engaged in sexual harassment’
Chris Stein
The US House of Representative has voted to censure Chuck Edwards, a Republican congressman who the ethics committee found violated rules against sexual harassment in his conduct towards two young female staffers.
The vote was 413-2, with 207 Republicans joining 205 Democrats.
The largely ceremonial punishment saw Edwards stand in the well of the House chamber and be read the resolution. First elected in 2022 to represent a western North Carolina district, Edwards dropped his bid for re-election following the release of the bipartisan panel’s determination that he “may have created or fostered a hostile work environment and engaged in sexual harassment” by giving gifts and lavishing attention on the two women.
“A member of Congress should not single out a staffer and isolate them from other staff, make frequent comments regarding that person’s appearance and weight, send messages in the middle of the night, text staff deeply personal and seemingly romantic thoughts, intrude on personal occasions without invitation, pay for personal vacations, and spend thousands of dollars on gifts for staffers,” the report read.
In a speech on the House floor before the vote, Edwards defended himself, noting that the committee found he did not engage in sexual activity with the staffers or suggested it. He argued the ethics committee overreached in its conclusions, while apologizing both to the unnamed staffers and his wife.
“Regret is not an admission of sexual harassment, I can acknowledge poor judgment, regret the discomfort that some of my actions may have caused, and apologize to those who were hurt by this episode, while still disputing a conclusion that the evidence just simply does not support,” Edwards said.
North Carolina Republicans have replaced him on the ballot with state representative Jennifer Balkcom, who will face the Democratic nominee Jamie Ager in the November midterms.
Kathy Hochul, New York’s governor, criticized Donald Trump for withholding $87m in counterterrorism funds from the state, describing the move as a betrayal of 9/11 victims.
“Don’t undermine our public safety efforts. Don’t defund the police who thwart terror attacks. Don’t play political games with people’s lives,” Hochul said at a press conference on Tuesday alongside Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The funding is essential to keeping New Yorkers safe, Mamdani said, adding that it funds 12 bomb squads across the city, among other programs.
The US Department of Homeland Security told CBS News Hochul “is manufacturing a funding crisis” and accused Hochul and Mamdani of “[shielding] criminals from the law”.
“New York works with federal law enforcement every day to take dangerous criminals off the streets. So spare us the theatrics,” Hochul said in response. “And while you’re here, cut the $87 million check you owe our cops and counterterrorism officials.”
