New data obtained by The Guardian provides a more specific look at how the changes implemented by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy affected the U.S. Postal Service's on-time first-class mail delivery rate after he took over the role in June.
In what North Carolina A&T history professor and former postal worker Philip Rubio described as a "remarkable graphic illustration," The Guardian shows that rates plummeted not long after DeJoy stepped in. The USPS was delivering first-class mail on time about 93 percent of the time during most of the first half of 2020, just shy of its 95 percent goal, and was averaging nearly 91 percent at the moment of leadership transition. But by August the national rate had dipped to about 81.5 percent, and was even lower in some postal districts, reaching as far south as 63.6 percent in northern Ohio and just over 61 percent in Detroit, although it's worth pointing out that Detroit had also fallen well below the national average for multiple weeks earlier in 2020, jumping back up shortly before DeJoy arrived. As The Guardian notes, those districts are both in key swing states, which will likely raise some eyebrows, given that DeJoy has already had critics accuse him of trying to slow deliveries with an increase in mail-in ballots expected for the general election because of the coronavirus pandemic.
DeJoy denied those allegations during congressional testimony and explained that any slowdowns that occurred were the result of a bumpy transition. DeJoy went on to pause the reforms he put in place until after the election, but The Guardian's analysis shows that delivery speed is still lagging in several districts. View the trends of delivery rates in postal districts across the country at The Guardian. Tim O'Donnell
Jared Kushner's coronavirus task force volunteers in charge of procuring personal protective equipment, such as masks, for virus hot spots were instructed were instructed to prioritize requests from President Trump's friends and supporters, Max Kennedy Jr., one of the volunteers, told The New Yorker.
Kennedy, the 26-year-old grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, said the group had to pay special attention to Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who he said was "particularly aggressive" in demanding masks be shipped to a hospital she favored.
Per The New Yorker, Kennedy — who in April sent an anonymous complaint to Congress detailing what he described as an incompetent White House response to the pandemic — also said the volunteers were told to direct millions of dollars worth of supplies to five pre-selected distributors, and he alleges he was instructed by one of the political appointees who directed the task force to create a model altering the projected number of COVID-19 fatalities because experts' models were "too severe." Kennedy, who has experience working at investment and consulting firms and was planning to take the LSATs, said he declined the assignment, explaining he knew nothing about disease modeling.
But beyond the specific complaints, Kennedy was concerned by the administration's over-reliance on volunteers like himself, which he believed was an attempt by the White House to sidestep government experts. "It was such a mismatch of personnel," he said. Read more at The New Yorker. Tim O'Donnell