CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript Interview with Joaquin Castro

Interview

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COOPER: Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro joins me right now. Congressman, are you satisfied with what you heard from the postmaster general today?

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): I'm not, Anderson, and I think the postmaster general should resign. His answers were not satisfactory. It's clear that the mail has slowed down considerably. He admitted as much.

And I had a chance to visit a post office in San Antonio a few days ago, and was very disturbed when we were told after my visit that there was a lot of delayed mail that was essentially hidden from me when I went to go visit.

And I know that the president has been very hostile towards mailed ballot voting, and because of that, has tried to sabotage the post office. But in the meantime while he's trying to do that, it's also affecting people's ability to get life-saving medicine, businesses being able to send and receive invoices and packages, people being able to pay their bills on time. So this is harming millions and millions of Americans right now.

COOPER: When asked about his conversations with President Trump around the issue, I just want to play for our viewers what he said.

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PETERS: Did you discuss those changes or their potential impact on the November election with the president or anyone at the White House? And I remind you, you're under oath.

DEJOY: I have never spoken to the president about the Postal Service, other than to congratulate me when I accepted the position.

PETERS: Prior to implementing the changes, did you discuss these changes or their impact on the election with any Trump campaign officials?

DEJOY: No, sir.

PETERS: Did you ever discuss any of this with Mark Meadows, any of these changes, what you've done?

DEJOY: No, (INAUDIBLE).

(CROSSTALK)

PETERS: You've never had discussions since you--

DEJOY: I haven't discussed anything with Mark Meadows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Does it sound unusual to you that he would have zero contact with the president or the White House when he's about to implement massive changes like these?

CASTRO: Yes, it does. And frankly, I don't think that's believable, that he hasn't had high level conversations with either the president, the president's chief of staff or somebody at the White House. Because he is making dramatic and drastic changes to the Postal Service right now.

But let's assume for a second that he hasn't had a conversation with the president. Why would he need a conversation with the president to get his instructions when the president has been very publicly hostile, has questioned the validity and the legality of mail voting? And so to me, that's somebody who is signaling exactly what he wants his new postmaster general to do.

COOPER: You alluded to this, and I just want to go into a little more detail on this. So you visited this local San Antonio post office. The workers said they were directed to deceive you on the visit and hide backlogging issues that they were dealing with. Do you know exactly what they were hiding?

CASTRO: Well, the claim was there there was a lot of mail that had piled up. And then rather than that mail being there for me to see, that there was this huge -- people's mail that's piled up there and been delayed, that they moved it away, they took it away so that I wouldn't see that there was anything wrong.

After that report came out, there had been other Postal Service workers in the San Antonio area who have also reached out and said that right now, overtime has been frozen, at least in San Antonio. And so what happens is, there are piles and piles of mail that are, at 8:30 in the morning, that are still left to be worked on and sorted and then delivered, that are left instead unattended. And that just keeps piling up.

So we've received a lot of complaints from residents here who said, I've been waiting an extra week for my medicine, or a package that I need for my business has taken two extra weeks to get to me. And so the administration, the Trump administration is harming people's everyday lives by sabotaging the post office.

[14:20:10]

COOPER: You know, the president has now vowed to send sheriffs and law enforcement to polling places on Election Day. Is that legal?

CASTRO: Well, we're going to have to -- actually, we're going to have to find that out, right? What his legal authority is to do that. But whether it's legal or illegal at this point -- and that determination needs to be made -- there's no doubt the reason that he's doing it. He's doing it as a way to intimidate people who are going to vote.

This president has been very hostile towards voting, towards Americans exercising their right to vote. And also has asked foreign nations for help -- Russia and even China a few months ago -- asking them basically to interfere in our elections. And so, you know, this has been a president -- the president probably in American history that has been the most hostile to people exercising their right to vote in this country.

COOPER: Congressman Joaquin Castro, appreciate your time. Thank you. CASTRO: Thank you.

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