MA Attorney General on Threats of Voter Suppression

MAURA HEALEY, MASSACHUSETTS ATTORNEY GENERAL: Look, we are in unprecedented times and let’s just review what the president has recently done to undermine free and safe and secure elections in this country, I can’t believe I’m even saying that, but let’s just review the last few weeks. He sabotaged the U.S. Postal Service to slow down mail-in ballots, he sent robocalls that threatened black voters with turning personal information over to debt collectors and the like, he’s threatened to send law enforcement in the military to the polls. And the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign have been filing dozens of lawsuits all over the country to try to stop early voting, to stop mail-in voting and do all sorts of things that are about keeping people from voting. I’ll tell you my job as attorney general and I’m joined by Democratic A.G.’s around this country to do two things. One to protect people’s exercise their vote. They have the right to vote, we just need to make sure that they are not kept from voting. And number two, to make sure that every vote is counted in this election.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, let me ask you then, you listed three major issues there, one of them was about the Post Office. You yourself as Massachusetts attorney general have brought a lawsuit. I mean, you sued to try to resolve an issue. Can you explain what that was and have you been successful?

HEALEY: Well, several weeks ago now it came to light that the postmaster general, who was a friend of Trump’s, had been put in charge recently and had made all sorts of changes that were illegal, that were without permission or authority from the Regulatory Commission that oversees the Postal Service. And in doing so, it appeared to be an effort to directly interfere with letter carriers and the Postal Service’s ability to deliver the mail. Obviously so important in this country because so many Americans are going to be voting by mail-in this election. Many of our states are now doing mail-in voting exclusively or as an option for the first time. And so, based on that, a number of states joined. We actually filed three different lawsuits, took him to court and won three separate nationwide injunctions stopping Trump and Postmaster General DeJoy from further undermining the Postal Service and restoring order to that agency. So, it’s an example, Christiane, of the kind of work that we need to do as A.G.s and how we’ve been there on the front lines as we have the last few years to do everything we can to make sure we have a free and secure election.