Louis DeJoy just bet on himself – and lost

| 6:00 pm EDT August 24, 2020
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When the House Oversight Committee publicly revealed over the weekend that it had internal documents proving that Trump Postmaster Louis DeJoy had committed perjury during his Senate testimony, the goal was to get DeJoy to realize he was in trouble and come clean during his House testimony today.

That didn’t happen. DeJoy could have pulled a Gordon Sondland by telling the real truth during his House testimony today, in the hope that the House would decide not to ring him up for felony perjury. Instead, DeJoy decided to double down on his lies during his testimony today. He essentially bet on himself and his ability to dominate today’s hearing, in a way that would leave House Democrats too afraid to keep pursuing the matter beyond today. Unfortunately for DeJoy, he lost that bet.

To be clear, Louis DeJoy’s testimony today could have gone even worse for him. He didn’t quite have a Jack Nicholson moment like in A Few Good Men. But he did embarrass himself pretty badly. Congresswoman Katie Porter managed to prove that DeJoy incompetently knows nothing about the Post Office he’s running, including the cost of mailing a postcard. Congressman Jim Cooper managed to land a punch when he asked DeJoy if he was hoping to be pardoned by Donald Trump for the federal crimes he’s committing within the Post Office.

As is always the case with these things, neither side had a magic wand today. No one fell through a trap door. But this hearing was an incremental victory for the House, and yet another incremental loss for Louis DeJoy. DeJoy’s failure today places more pressure on Mitch McConnell to allow the House Post Office legislation to come to a vote.