WATCH: Katie Porter Takes Just Seconds to Get Postmaster DeJoy to Admit He’s Ignorant of Basic Facts About Postal Service

Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) repeatedly stumped Postmaster General Louis DeJoy with basic questions about the U.S. Postal Service and burrowed in on his potential conflict of interests during a brutal House hearing on Monday.

Porter’s blunt cross-examination marked the end of a painfully ugly day for Trump’s new Postmaster appointee, during which he was slammed for being either “grossly incompetent” or “deliberately dismantling” the service, was accused of outright lying to Congress, and was mocked for possibly needing a presidential pardon from Trump in the future to cover for his misconduct.

During the Congresswoman’s time she began with a series of basic queries about the costs of mailing several different items, from postcards to Priority Mail packages. DeJoy repeatedly failed to know the simple answers.

“You don’t know the cost to mail a postcard?” Porter confirmed.

“I don’t.”

“What if I wanted mail — you said 55 cents for a first class stamp, what if it is a greeting card that is a square envelope, what is the postage?”

“I’ll submit that I know very little about the postage stamp.”

“And what is the starting rate for U.S. Post office — USPS priority mail?” Porter asked.

“The starting rate for what?”

“USPS priority mail.”

“Starting weight? 14 ounces,” DeJoy said, answering the wrong question.

“No, the rate. The price.”

“I don’t know. Don’t know.”

Porter then pushed DeJoy on the Post Office’s role in handling ballots — and again he could not answer.

“Do you know about within a million or so, could you tell me how many people voted by mail in the last presidential election?”

“No, I cannot.”

“To the nearest ten million?” Porter offered, widening the target even further.

“I will…”

“Is that a no?” Porter pressed.

“I would be guessing and I don’t want to guess.”

“Okay. So Mr. DeJoy, I’m concerned, I’m glad you know the price of a stamp,” Porter said, damning with faint praise. “But I’m concerned about your understanding of the agency. And I’m particularly concerned about it because you started taking very decisive action when you became Postmaster General. You started directing the unplugging and destroying of machines, changing of employee procedures, and locking of collection boxes.”

“As a professor, I’ve always told my students that one of the most important rules in life is to read the instructions. Did you actually read and independently acknowledge the plans before you ordered them to take effect?” she said.

“Again, I will repeat that I did not order major overhaul plans, the items you identify were not directed by me,” DeJoy claimed.

“Could you tell me who did order these changes if U.S. Postmaster General did not because the changes have resulted in — and you said yourself in –”

Following up moments later, Porter asked: “Mr. Dejoy, if you did not order these actions to be taken, please tell the committee the name of who did?”

“I do not know.”

“Mr. Dejoy, did you analyze these plans before they went into effect?” Porter said.

“As I’ve stated numerous times, the plans were in effect and being implemented before I arrived.”

“But, Mr. Dejoy, do you take responsible for these changes?

“I take responsibility from the day I sat in the seat for any service deterioration that has occurred,” he said. Numerous post offices around the country have complained of having sorting machines removed and there have been widespread reports of delayed mail as well as undelivered mail backing up in their facilities. Last week, nearly every state in the nation was warned that its local post offices might not be able to handle the expected spike in mail-in ballots for this upcoming election.

“Will you commit to reversing these changes?” Porter asked.

“No.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.