Trump Admits Blocking Post Office Funding to Stop Mail-in Votes.
HILL: Developing overnight, Florida records show President Trump and the first lady requested mail-in ballots this week. This as the president has continued his attacks on voting by mail. And it comes after the president admitted that withholding more money from the U.S. Postal Service would make it difficult to process mail-in ballots.</s>TRUMP (via phone): They want $25 billion -- billion -- for the post office. They need that money in order to have the post office work so it could take all OF these millions and millions of ballots. Now in the meantime, they aren't getting there -- by the way, those are just two items. But if they don't get those two items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting, because they're not equipped to have it. If we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money. That means they can't have universal mail-in voting.</s>HILL: Joining us now is CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip. Now, Abby, we should point out that the Postal Service has said they are confident that they can handle the mail-in ballots this time around. But what's fascinating is that, in the last 24 hours or so, the president has gone from muddying the waters, trying to sow, you know, discord and doubt, to blatantly saying, We don't want to give the post office the money, because we want to make sure that an American's right to vote isn't counted.</s>ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, Erica, this is one of those things that people have been trying to figure out. Is -- in the president's mind, is there a connection between the post office and its fate, and this election? And then he comes out and says it, that in his mind, there is a connection. He does not want to fund the post office so -- so that he can stop mail-in voting from being implemented across the country and hamper the post office's ability to process millions of ballots. I can't tell you how -- how unusual and alarming that is, frankly. I mean, I think that the post office does not just process ballots. They also process mail for Americans on all kinds of different fronts. We're talking about prescriptions. We're talking about checks, paychecks, tax checks, all kinds of things like that. But there have been some real questions about the president's influence in the post office. And I think we're seeing now that he's clear that he wants to hold off on anything that could stabilize the post office's finances, whether it has to do with ballots or not, all because he thinks that this is the way to ensure that he has his best chances in November.</s>BERMAN: There is a definitional struggle over democracy right now. A literal struggle over democracy and the ability to vote that's going on around the country, and some of it's playing out right before our very eyes in explicit terms. That is what, as you so rightly point out, Abby, was so stunning about yesterday. The president just flat- out said it. But there's also stuff happening that a lot of people aren't seeing. The post office has removed, across the country, several machines that have the ability to sort large quantities of mail, and now postal workers are concerned that could slow down the balloting. That's happening on one side. On the other side of this definitional struggle over democracy, Pennsylvania overnight -- and this is a big deal -- Pennsylvania is asking the state supreme court there to extend when ballots can be accepted, mail-in ballots can be accepted in that state. They will no longer have a deadline, as they do, of 8 p.m. election night. They'll now be able to receive ballots for up to three days after election day. That's the other side of this, and that's a big deal, especially in a swing state.</s>PHILLIP: Yes, there is this tug-of-war going on, and you're seeing it. We are getting reports from all over the country about concerns that postal officers are having about mail delays. And that key Pennsylvania decision -- or not decision, but filing last night that we reported on, basically, it says that the state wants to be able to accept ballots after election day up to three days. END