The controversial changes have effectively slowed down mail service by cutting back office hours, eliminating most overtime and in some cases even taking letter collection boxes off the streets. These photos were taken at a Bronx Post Office facility, although its unclear whether all these mailboxes were removed recently. Democrats are accusing the president of trying to steal the election. Lets not make provisions for people to be able to participate in this democracy without having to run the risk of contracting a disease that could kill them. I never thought that i would live to see the United States of america tolerate a tyrant who seems to just trample upon our constitution. John lewis would be so disappointed that he nearly gave his life to get the vote for people of color and to watch complicity of the republicans in holding on to this kind of shenanigans is just beyond me. This to me i never thought that i would see this country allow this to happen. Even so, the president continuing his attacks. He tweeted that the election will be a fraudulent mess and that we may never know who won. And he just made that same argument in a press conference. If the votes dont have to be in for seven and theyre not counting the votes, seven days later, that means how are they going to predict a winner on november 3rd . Lets get straight to cnn White House ReporterSarah Westwood in washington. The president just held this press conference. What else did he say about mailin voting . Reporter well, you heard the president railing against mailin voting saying if the Election Results are delayed, which experts have acknowledged is a possibility because mailin votes do take longer to count than regularly cast votes and theyre expected at a higher volume than ever before that somehow that would invalidate the Election Results so hes exploiting that again to cast doubt on the integrity of the mailin voting system. He said it would be a catastrophe at that press conference if mailin voting was implemented. He also sought to do something that weve seen him argue before, which is to conflate to say there is a big difference between absentee voting and mailin voting. The president recently requested his absentee ballot. But i want you to take a listen to him attempting to draw that distinction. We have a man in there for two months, hes a very talented man, a brilliant businessperson, hes done great. Hes a very nice man also, louis. He is working very hard. But the democrats arent approving the proper fundin for postal and theyre not approving the proper funding for this ridiculous thing that they want to do which is all mailin voting, universal you could call it absentee voting is great. Im an absentee voter. I requested, i got and sent in my vote. That works out very well. But now they want to send in millions and millions of ballots. And you see whats happening. Theyre being lost, theyre being discarded, theyre finding them in piles. Its going to be a catastrophe. Reporter now, just to fact check this, absentee voting and mailin voting generally conducted in the same way. You fill out your ballot, drop it in an envelope and put it in the mail. The difference that the president is trying to draw is really not that big of a distinction. Hes saying that democrats want to send ballots out to everyone, but currently that is only the case in nine states. In most states people still have to request their absentee ballots. Even if they arent providing an excuse, and thats being waived in many cases because of the coronavirus. A lot of state election laws are also in flux right now as officials grapple with how to conduct the election safely amid coronavirus. But in late july the Postal Service did warn 46 states and the district of columbia that their election laws are incompatible with mailin voting. That is their deadlines for applying for and turning in ballots just doesnt give the Postal Service enough time to get those delivered and allow those ballots to be cancelled the way the rules are currently structured. So theres a lot of concern about whether the post office will be able to handle all of this mailin voting volume and the president there saying that he will only approve the additional funding for the post office if democrats essentially concede to republican demands on capitol hill. So lots more to come there. The president was also asked again about this newsweek article questioning Kamala Harris eligibility to be on the ticket this year. He previously promoted this article. What did he say this time . Reporter thats right, ana. I want you to take a listen to what the president said about it this time, sort of dodging any responsibility for deflecting on an article thats been widely criticized. So i have nothing to do with that. I read something about it and i will say that he is a brilliant lawyer. I guess he wrote an article about it. So i know nothing about it but its not something that bothers me. Sir, when you do that, it creates why do you say that . I just dont know about it. Its not something that we will be pursuing. Let me put it differently. Mr. President , you know. Dont tell me what i know. Let me put it differently. Let me put it differently. To me, it doesnt bother me at all. I dont know about it. I read one quick article. The lawyer happens to be a brilliant lawyer, as you probably know. He wrote an article saying there could be a problem. Its not something that im going to be pursuing. Is he eligible, sir . I just told you, i have not gone into it in great detail. If shes got a problem, you would have thought that she would have been vetted you would have thought that she would have been vetted by sleepy joe. Reporter now harris, was born in oakland, california, and so there is no question about her eligibility to be Vice President were biden to win the election. That just sort of played into concerns that the president was going to lean into perhaps racist and sexist tropes when dealing with Kamala Harris and obviously due to his embrace of the birther Conspiracy Theory related to obama that drew a lot of attention, the president promoting that theory related to kamala earlier this week. Again, facts first. No question she is eligible, she was born in the u. S. Back to this issue on mailin voting, something thats critical amid a pandemic, former u. S. Attorney general eric holder seems to think the Trump Administration is acting illegally in reference to whats going on with the Postal Service and he tweeted today a federal law statute that reads whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail shall we fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months or both. Lets get your legal questions answered with cnn legal analyst elie honig. Elie, one viewer wants to know what can be done legally to stop the president s effort to deprive the u. S. Postal service of funding it needs to process mailin ballots. Ana, this is such an important issue. We are seeing a real threat right now to the core of our democracy, the right to vote. So what can be done . First of all, lets start with congress. Now, under the Constitution Congress controls the spending power so congress can allocate the money that the Postal Service needs to handle this expected influx of absentee and mailin ballots, but the president has made very clear he intends to veto that, which he can do utilizing his constitutional veto power. But then congress can actually override a president ial veto. Now, thats hard to do. You need twothirds of the house and the senate, so we need to see republican and democratic members coming together. But the point is, congress, you can fix this. Its simply a question of political will. Second, lawsuits. Were seeing lawsuits to extend those deadline dates that sara talked about before to allow states to keep on counting mailin ballots for three days, ten days, 14 days. The numbers vary state by state after november 3rd. Those lawsuits have been filed across the country and those will determine whether the deadlines are extended. And finally the Postal ServiceInspector General we just learned has opened an investigation, which could expose any waste, fraud, abuse or even as attorney general holder mentioned potential criminality. This will determine whether people can vote safely by mail and whether those votes can be counted. We have seen the president muddy the waters as it comes to universal mailin voting and whether its legal for states to send mailin ballots to all registered voters. Whats the answer . So that question is being asked right now in our courts. I believe the answer will be yes. So states determine their own manner of voting. We are seeing more states mail out absentee ballots to all registered voters. Now, the voters still have to fill out the ballots, certify and sign. The Republican National committee has challenged this and filed a lawsuit in the nevada. But the main obstacle for the rnc is they have no evidence of significant fraud. Thats the thing about courts, its hard to win without evidence. Well see how that case plays up but i think it will be a real uphill climb for the rnc. Another viewer wants to know who holds legal power over how and when we vote. The president , congress, states or somebody else . Its a great question. As with so many things in our legal system, power is divided up between different players. First of all, Congress Sets a National Uniform date for the general election and controls federal funding subject to the veto process we just talked about. But the states, the states really hold the power here. They control their own manner of voting. They provide most of their own funding for elections. Now, the president has no direct legal power over how people vote, but he certainly has influence because there are plenty of state governors and other state officials who agree and are willing to carry out his agenda. And just because nothing can ever be too easy, as were seeing essentially everybody can sue everybody and we are seeing that happen right now. Now, there will not be one Big Supreme Court case that revolves all of this before the election. Instead, we are seeing various legal battles cropping up across the United States. But we, ana, will stay on top of all of them, make sure our viewers stay informed. This is way too important to let it go. Ive seen it on social media. I know youve gotten flooded with questions. People are fired up about this issue because it is such a fundamental part of our democracy. Elie honig, thank you. Thank you so much for being there for us. And thanks to our viewers for sending in those great questions. Now, the u. S. Has more coronavirus than any other country. We are averaging 1,000 deaths per day. Weve been averaging that for almost three weeks now. All as our children are returning to school. So why is testing declining . Well try to get some answers for you, next. Youre live in the cnn newsroom. Some Companies Still have hr stuck between employees and their data. Entering data. Changing data. More and more sensitive, personal data. And it doesnt just drag hr down. It drags the entire business down with inefficiency, errors and waste. Its ridiculous. So ridiculous. With paycom, employees enter and manage their own data in a single, easy to use software. Visit paycom. Com, and schedule your demo today. Robinwithout the commission fees. So, you can start investing today wherever you are even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. It is the most heartbreaking part of the pandemic, seeing the number of people who have died. And in the United States that number is staying high. This weekend the u. S. Is on track for another average of 1,000 deaths or more from covid19 in just a 24hour period. The total number of american deaths reported since the start of the pandemic now over 169,000 people. Health experts also say children are testing positive for the virus as an increased rate. More than 7 of all people known to be infected in the United States are kids. Its the same day that the state of alabama is reporting that more than 7,000 children in that state have tested positive. Two infants and a teenager in alabama have died from covid19. And today we learned a 15yearold boy in the atlanta area has died from coronavirus complications. He is the second youngest person to die in the state of georgia. And news from the testing front. The food and Drug Administration announcing today it has granted emergency use authorization to a new method that tests a persons saliva for the coronavirus. The fda says this test is cheaper than the current nasal swab test. Its faster and it gives similarly accurate results. Lets discuss these latest developments with the dean and professor of tropical medicine at Baylor College of medicine, dr. Peter hotez. I have to get to another development because as were talking about testing, weve been seeing testing declining week over week since the end of july. In fact you can see where you are in texas, their testing significantly decreased at the end of the month aside from that record day of testing on august 13th. Heres what Admiral Brett Giroir said about testing. Has the administration actually exhausted it, to get more supplies like reagents and tips and other testing supplies to the labs . Is that true, everything has been done . Im going to say definitively yes. Theres nothing else the administration can do to get more testing . Youll hear a dpa action coming next week. Would you say enough has been done to make sure that everyone who needs a test gets a test in this country . Everything that can possibly be done has been done. Doctor, do you agree . Do you think the government has done all they can . Well, i think brett giroir has done all that he can. I know hes really been working hard on this to try to ramp it up. But, you know, even he cant in his role as assistant secretary of health cant correct all of the underlying infrastructure problems that the country has had for a long time. So i know hes trying his very best, but its been really hard to this has been a constant problem since the beginning. I just wonder forgive me for interrupting, let me ask you really quick, though. The admiral also said this week we are doing the appropriate amount of testing now to reduce the spread, flatten the curve and save lives and yet weve been seeing the Positivity Rate in the majority of the states across the country still going up and testing still going down. Yeah. Let me kind of bring it home to make some sense of this because quite honestly i think theres a lot of confusion. Even im confused as to whats going on. For instance, here in texas we had we were doing 70,000 tests a day and then all of a sudden we dropped to 30,000, less than half, with no understanding why. With it there was a rapid doubling of the case Positivity Rate. We went from Something Like 13 to 25 positivity, which is incredibly high. Even the governor of texas has now called for an investigation. So theres still an enormous amount of confusion. Is it because people just dont want to bother waiting in lines anymore and arent getting tested so the only ones getting tested are those who are already sick and thats why the Positivity Rate is going up or is there Something Else going on . And i dont think its unique to texas. I think this is going on nationally. So the fact that we still havent gotten our arms around it is very discouraging, to say the least. Now, the fda today did issue an emergency use authorization to this quick inexpensive salivabased covid19 diagnostic test. What we know about it is that its highly sensitive. It takes just three hours to get results. 92 samples can be tested at just one time and labs are expected to charge just 10 a test. It all sounds like good news. Do you think this could be a gamechanger . Well, we certainly need it, ana. This is what i like about this, its a salivabased test which is a lot less invasive. Anybody can do saliva at home and you can then get the results hopefully with a pretty quick turnaround. This was a test that was developed at yale that still uses pcr so you still have to send it to a centralized facility. Its not quite where i want to be, where i hoped wed be at this time which is an antigen test, make it like a pregnancy test where you can get the answer at home. But its definitely an advance. Hopefully this was developed out of the yale school of Public Health and yale school of medicine where i used to be and i know many of the colleagues on the paper who wrote this and applied for emergency use authorization, so hopefully it will be an important advance because we need salivabased tests, we need rapid tests and really need that rapid antigen test to help finally fix this problem because we still struggle with it. The cdc updated its guidance for people who had coronavirus saying they no longer need to quarantine or get retested for three months, as long as they dont have any new symptoms. Now, they clarified that doesnt mean those people have immunity for three months but that the virus can present when someone is no longer contagious so thats why they shouldnt get retested. How could the virus be present but somebody not be contagious . Yeah, theres still a lot of confusion in the way those guidelines are written. I struggled over those guidelines as well. A lot of people, i think, confused those guidelines by thinking that the cdc was stating that immunity only lasts for three months, which is not the case. I think most people who get the sars 2 coronavirus have immunity for months, if not years just like they did with the first sars virus. So i think what were going to see this week hopefully or sooner is cdc kind of making this a little clearer, because