On Four Congresswomen President Steps Up Attackand JACOB BERNSTEIN WASHINGTON esidentr P Trump,...

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VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,390 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2019 U(D54G1D)y+$!;!?!#!} LOS ANGELES — The memory of the rapper Nipsey Hussle still looms large over Los Angeles. On one mural, his spray-painted im- age is adorned with angel wings; on others it is surrounded by in- spirational quotes. A city intersec- tion has been named in his honor. And a strip mall he owned in South Los Angeles has become a memo- rial, with a steady flow of tourists and flowers. Two days after Hussle was shot and killed in the parking lot of that mall in March, city leaders stood behind a bank of microphones and addressed a shaken Los Angeles. The mayor called Hussle “an art- ist who touched our city.” The po- lice chief hailed him as a peace- maker. The head of the police com- mission said he had plans to meet with Hussle to discuss ways to re- duce gang violence. Yet in the same moment that the city’s leaders were rushing to embrace Hussle as a hero of South Los Angeles, officials in the Police Department and city attorney’s office were investigating him. Ac- cording to the city authorities and others briefed on the matter, they had an open investigation into Hussle, his property and his busi- ness associates to determine whether the strip mall at the cor- ner of Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue was a hub of gang activity. The investigation into Hussle’s empire, which the city has not publicized, continues in the wake of the killing, raising the possibil- ity that the city will take action against the rapper’s business partners. As part of the investiga- tion, the city pressured Hussle’s Los Angeles Is Still Investigating a Rapper Who Died as Its Hero By TIM ARANGO Continued on Page A11 Shortly after Ghislaine Maxwell arrived in New York from Eng- land in the early 1990s, she was looking for a new start. She had just lost her father, a British media mogul, along with much of her family fortune and her social standing. Soon she was on the rise with the help of her new boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein, a rich financier. It was the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship. With Mr. Epstein, Ms. Maxwell was able to resurrect the lifestyle she cov- eted. She flew on his private jet, she settled into his mansions in New York and Florida and she eventu- ally landed her own five-story townhouse in Manhattan. For Mr. Epstein, who had grown up in Co- ney Island and was a college drop- out, the gregarious Ms. Maxwell provided new social pathways. Her friends in high places includ- ed Britain’s Prince Andrew, who became a frequent guest in Mr. Epstein’s homes. Now, with Mr. Epstein under federal indictment on charges of sexually trafficking and abusing girls, there are mounting ques- tions about what else happened in his close relationship with Ms. Maxwell. He has pleaded not guilty, and she has denied any wrongdoing and has not been criminally charged. But in recent years, Ms. Maxwell has struck confidential settlements in civil court with two women who say she participated Scrutiny for ‘Lady of the House’ At the Heart of a Financier’s Life Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2005. She worked with him for over a decade. JOE SCHILDHORN/PATRICK McMULLAN Continued on Page A21 By MEGAN TWOHEY and JACOB BERNSTEIN WASHINGTON — President Trump, under fire for comments that even members of his own party called racist, amplified his attacks on four Democratic con- gresswomen of color on Monday, saying that they hated America and that one of the first two Mus- lim women elected to Congress sympathized with Al Qaeda. In an extraordinary back and forth from opposite ends of Penn- sylvania Avenue, Mr. Trump ap- peared to revel in the viciousness of his brawl with the four progres- sive women who have become the young faces of the Democratic Party. He goaded them into a re- sponse from Capitol Hill in which they denounced the president’s rhetoric and his policies, charging that he was pressing the agenda of white nationalists from the White House. “He’s launching a blatantly rac- ist attack on four duly elected members of the United States House of Representatives, all of whom are women of color,” said Representative Ilhan Omar, Dem- ocrat of Minnesota and the target of Mr. Trump’s most outrageous charges. “This is the agenda of white nationalists, whether it is happening in chat rooms, or it is happening on national TV, and now it’s reached the White House garden.” The exchange was the latest episode in a presidency in which Mr. Trump has skittered from con- demnations of black athletes kneeling during the national an- them to insults lobbed at develop- ing countries to a defense of pro- testers at a white supremacist march. But now Mr. Trump is go- ing after members of the majority party in the House, capable of fighting back. The congresswomen vowed not to be baited into a sprint to the bot- tom with a president they con- demned as racist, xenophobic, mi- sogynistic and criminal. Their leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, pledged to put a resolution on the floor condemning the president’s language — putting House Repub- licans on defense. But Mr. Trump showed no sign President Steps Up Attack On Four Congresswomen Democrats Fire Back in Extraordinary War of Words By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS Continued on Page A14 WASHINGTON — The lack of widespread Republican con- demnation of President Trump for his comments about four Democratic congresswomen of color illustrated both the tighten- ing stranglehold Mr. Trump has on his party and the belief of many Republicans that an attack on progressivism should in fact be a central element of the 2020 campaign. While a smattering of Republi- cans chastised Mr. Trump on Monday, most party leaders in the House and Senate and much of the rank-and-file remained quiet about the president’s week- end tweets directing dissenters to “go back” where they came from. He followed up on those comments on Monday with harsh language directed at “peo- ple who hate America” — an inflammatory accusation to be leveled against elected members of the House. With Mr. Trump far more popular with Republican voters than incumbent Republican members of Congress, most are loath to cross the president and risk reprisals. The case of Repre- sentative Justin Amash, the Michigan lawmaker who was forced to leave the party after he dared to suggest Mr. Trump should be impeached, serves as a cautionary tale. At the same time, many Re- publicans are seeking to label the four congresswomen and their ideas as “far left,” seeing it as a potential foundation of a sweep- ing critique of Democrats in 2020. In an appearance on Fox News, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, called the four “a bunch of com- munists,” a step beyond the president, who said he was at the moment only willing to go so far as calling them “socialists.” Both the willingness of Repub- licans to attach extremist labels to Democrats and the Democrat- ic assault against Mr. Trump as a racist and white supremacist presage a particularly bitter 2020 campaign. NEWS ANALYSIS Muted G.O.P. Sends Signal for 2020 By CARL HULSE Continued on Page A14 It was a scene straight out of South Florida, circa Election 2000, only there were no hanging chads or butterfly ballots to obsess over. With a hand recount of some 91,000 votes cast in a Democratic primary for a district attorney post in New York City just begin- ning on Monday, it did not take long for the first commotion to arise: a stray mark discovered on a ballot. A crowd immediately gathered. Lawyers for the two leading can- didates, Melinda Katz and Tiffany Cabán, surrounded the ballot, along with officials from the Board of Elections. A poll worker held the ballot aloft, as eyes peered in. Was the mark an accidental stroke? Or deliberate? If the lat- ter, the vote, which had been cast for Ms. Cabán — who is trailing Ms. Katz by only 16 votes — would be declared invalid. The contest, for Queens district attorney, has local and national implications. It is seen as a meas- ure of how willing Democratic vot- ers are to soften the tough-on- crime policies that have long typi- fied this working-class borough, and to follow the example of places like Boston and Philadel- phia, where criminal justice re- formers have won top prosecutor jobs. The election also served as an- other test of the power of progres- sives to take control of the Demo- cratic Party. The Queens Democratic Party had been run by Joseph Crowley, the once-powerful Democrat who lost in an upset last year to Repre- sentative Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez. Ms. Cabán, 31, a former public Queens Peers At Each Vote, Blots and All By JOHN LELAND Election officials examined ballots Monday as part of a recount in the Queens district attorney’s race, which hangs on a 16-vote gap. MICHELLE V. AGINS/THE NEW YORK TIMES Continued on Page A19 WASHINGTON — Long before a surge of migrants from Central America overwhelmed the south- western border, the Trump admin- istration was already waging a broad assault on the rules deter- mining who can seek asylum in the United States. But on Monday, the administra- tion announced one of its most re- strictive rules yet for a system, en- shrined in international law, that Mr. Trump has called “ridiculous” and “insane.” In a move that would stop virtu- ally all Central American families who are fleeing persecution and poverty from entering the United States, Trump administration offi- cials said they would deny asylum to migrants who failed to apply for protections in at least one country they passed through on their way north. Under the new rule, Hondurans and Salvadorans would have to apply for — and be denied — asy- lum in Guatemala or Mexico be- fore they were eligible to apply for asylum in the United States. Gua- temalans would have to apply for and be denied asylum in Mexico. The rule would effectively limit asylum protections to Mexicans and those who cross the United States’ southwestern border by sea. But migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala make up the vast majority of asylum seekers who have tried to enter the United States in record num- bers this year. Border Patrol has arrested 510,412 migrant family members from Honduras, El Sal- vador and Guatemala at the southwestern border so far in fis- cal year 2019, compared with more than 3,200 Mexican family members. Many Africans, Cubans and Haitians who travel through Mex- ico to the southwestern border would also be barred from obtain- ing the protections. The administration made the Trump Moves to Block Another Road to Asylum By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS PAYDAY The ex-head of a nonprof- it shelter group made $3.6 million in the last fiscal year. PAGE A12 Migrants being ferried from Guatemala to Mexico last month. Under a new rule, Guatemalans would have to apply for and be denied asylum in Mexico before applying in the United States. OLIVER DE ROS/ASSOCIATED PRESS Continued on Page A13 Migrants Must Apply in at Least One Country They Pass Through Natural disasters are pushing chemi- cals into the environment, exposing people to an array of ailments. PAGE A10 NATIONAL A10-16 Storms Stir Stew of Toxins An ex-NASA intern who bought video- tapes of the moon landing for a song expects to hear good news soon. PAGE C1 ARTS C1-8 One Giant Leap for His Wallet The anxiety over feared health risks from wireless technology can be traced to a single scientist and a single chart. But both of them were wrong. PAGE D1 SCIENCE TIMES D1-8 Turning Off a Big 5G Alarm “There is no alternative” to the 2015 nuclear agreement that President Trump has rejected, the E.U.’s foreign policy chief said. PAGE A8 INTERNATIONAL A4-9 A Push to Salvage Iran Deal Revenue the United States has collected from tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods does not cover the cost of the president’s bailout for farmers hurt by China’s retaliation. PAGE B1 BUSINESS B1-5 Tariff Profits Fall Short of Costs Scores of reports to Colorado’s child abuse hotline landed in an inbox no- body knew to check. PAGE A11 4 Years of Abuse Tips Unread Dozens of Alaskan writers and advisers helped create a PBS children’s series with a Native American lead. PAGE C1 A More Inclusive PBS Michelle Goldberg PAGE A22 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23 As television and movie writers find themselves in a standoff with the four major talent agencies, some of them are beginning to criticize their unions’ tactics. PAGE B1 Dissent in Writers’ Ranks The year-old outbreak has now reached Goma, a heavily populated city near the border with Rwanda. PAGE A6 Ebola Spreads in Congo Activists are pushing FIFA to keep Iran out of the 2022 World Cup unless its ban on female spectators is lifted. PAGE B8 SPORTSTUESDAY B6-9 Leverage for Iranian Women Late Edition Today, partly sunny, warm, high 89. Tonight, partly cloudy, low 75. To- morrow, hot, more humid, afternoon thunderstorms in spots, high 91. Weather map appears on Page A24. $3.00

Transcript of On Four Congresswomen President Steps Up Attackand JACOB BERNSTEIN WASHINGTON esidentr P Trump,...

VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,390 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2019

C M Y K Nxxx,2019-07-16,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

U(D54G1D)y+$!;!?!#!}

LOS ANGELES — The memoryof the rapper Nipsey Hussle stilllooms large over Los Angeles. Onone mural, his spray-painted im-age is adorned with angel wings;on others it is surrounded by in-spirational quotes. A city intersec-tion has been named in his honor.And a strip mall he owned in SouthLos Angeles has become a memo-

rial, with a steady flow of touristsand flowers.

Two days after Hussle was shotand killed in the parking lot of thatmall in March, city leaders stoodbehind a bank of microphones andaddressed a shaken Los Angeles.The mayor called Hussle “an art-ist who touched our city.” The po-lice chief hailed him as a peace-maker. The head of the police com-mission said he had plans to meetwith Hussle to discuss ways to re-

duce gang violence.Yet in the same moment that

the city’s leaders were rushing toembrace Hussle as a hero of SouthLos Angeles, officials in the PoliceDepartment and city attorney’soffice were investigating him. Ac-cording to the city authorities andothers briefed on the matter, theyhad an open investigation intoHussle, his property and his busi-ness associates to determinewhether the strip mall at the cor-

ner of Crenshaw Boulevard andSlauson Avenue was a hub of gangactivity.

The investigation into Hussle’sempire, which the city has notpublicized, continues in the wakeof the killing, raising the possibil-ity that the city will take actionagainst the rapper’s businesspartners. As part of the investiga-tion, the city pressured Hussle’s

Los Angeles Is Still Investigating a Rapper Who Died as Its HeroBy TIM ARANGO

Continued on Page A11

Shortly after Ghislaine Maxwellarrived in New York from Eng-land in the early 1990s, she waslooking for a new start. She hadjust lost her father, a British mediamogul, along with much of herfamily fortune and her socialstanding.

Soon she was on the rise withthe help of her new boyfriend,Jeffrey Epstein, a rich financier. Itwas the beginning of a mutuallybeneficial relationship. With Mr.Epstein, Ms. Maxwell was able toresurrect the lifestyle she cov-eted.

She flew on his private jet, shesettled into his mansions in NewYork and Florida and she eventu-ally landed her own five-storytownhouse in Manhattan. For Mr.Epstein, who had grown up in Co-ney Island and was a college drop-out, the gregarious Ms. Maxwellprovided new social pathways.Her friends in high places includ-ed Britain’s Prince Andrew, whobecame a frequent guest in Mr.Epstein’s homes.

Now, with Mr. Epstein underfederal indictment on charges ofsexually trafficking and abusing

girls, there are mounting ques-tions about what else happened inhis close relationship with Ms.Maxwell.

He has pleaded not guilty, andshe has denied any wrongdoingand has not been criminallycharged. But in recent years, Ms.Maxwell has struck confidentialsettlements in civil court with twowomen who say she participated

Scrutiny for ‘Lady of the House’At the Heart of a Financier’s Life

Jeffrey Epstein and GhislaineMaxwell in 2005. She workedwith him for over a decade.

JOE SCHILDHORN/PATRICK McMULLAN

Continued on Page A21

By MEGAN TWOHEYand JACOB BERNSTEIN

WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump, under fire for commentsthat even members of his ownparty called racist, amplified hisattacks on four Democratic con-gresswomen of color on Monday,saying that they hated Americaand that one of the first two Mus-lim women elected to Congresssympathized with Al Qaeda.

In an extraordinary back andforth from opposite ends of Penn-sylvania Avenue, Mr. Trump ap-peared to revel in the viciousnessof his brawl with the four progres-sive women who have become theyoung faces of the DemocraticParty. He goaded them into a re-sponse from Capitol Hill in whichthey denounced the president’srhetoric and his policies, chargingthat he was pressing the agenda ofwhite nationalists from the WhiteHouse.

“He’s launching a blatantly rac-ist attack on four duly electedmembers of the United StatesHouse of Representatives, all ofwhom are women of color,” saidRepresentative Ilhan Omar, Dem-ocrat of Minnesota and the targetof Mr. Trump’s most outrageouscharges. “This is the agenda ofwhite nationalists, whether it ishappening in chat rooms, or it ishappening on national TV, andnow it’s reached the White Housegarden.”

The exchange was the latestepisode in a presidency in whichMr. Trump has skittered from con-demnations of black athleteskneeling during the national an-them to insults lobbed at develop-ing countries to a defense of pro-testers at a white supremacistmarch. But now Mr. Trump is go-ing after members of the majorityparty in the House, capable offighting back.

The congresswomen vowed notto be baited into a sprint to the bot-tom with a president they con-demned as racist, xenophobic, mi-sogynistic and criminal. Theirleader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,pledged to put a resolution on thefloor condemning the president’slanguage — putting House Repub-licans on defense.

But Mr. Trump showed no sign

President Steps Up AttackOn Four Congresswomen

Democrats Fire Backin Extraordinary

War of Words

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS

Continued on Page A14

WASHINGTON — The lack ofwidespread Republican con-demnation of President Trumpfor his comments about fourDemocratic congresswomen ofcolor illustrated both the tighten-ing stranglehold Mr. Trump hason his party and the belief ofmany Republicans that an attackon progressivism should in factbe a central element of the 2020campaign.

While a smattering of Republi-cans chastised Mr. Trump onMonday, most party leaders inthe House and Senate and muchof the rank-and-file remainedquiet about the president’s week-end tweets directing dissentersto “go back” where they camefrom. He followed up on thosecomments on Monday withharsh language directed at “peo-ple who hate America” — aninflammatory accusation to beleveled against elected membersof the House.

With Mr. Trump far morepopular with Republican votersthan incumbent Republicanmembers of Congress, most areloath to cross the president andrisk reprisals. The case of Repre-sentative Justin Amash, theMichigan lawmaker who wasforced to leave the party after hedared to suggest Mr. Trumpshould be impeached, serves as acautionary tale.

At the same time, many Re-publicans are seeking to label thefour congresswomen and theirideas as “far left,” seeing it as apotential foundation of a sweep-ing critique of Democrats in2020. In an appearance on FoxNews, Senator Lindsey Graham,Republican of South Carolina,called the four “a bunch of com-munists,” a step beyond thepresident, who said he was at themoment only willing to go so faras calling them “socialists.”

Both the willingness of Repub-licans to attach extremist labelsto Democrats and the Democrat-ic assault against Mr. Trump as aracist and white supremacistpresage a particularly bitter 2020campaign.

NEWS ANALYSIS

Muted G.O.P. SendsSignal for 2020

By CARL HULSE

Continued on Page A14

It was a scene straight out ofSouth Florida, circa Election 2000,only there were no hanging chadsor butterfly ballots to obsess over.

With a hand recount of some91,000 votes cast in a Democraticprimary for a district attorneypost in New York City just begin-ning on Monday, it did not takelong for the first commotion toarise: a stray mark discovered ona ballot.

A crowd immediately gathered.Lawyers for the two leading can-didates, Melinda Katz and TiffanyCabán, surrounded the ballot,along with officials from the Boardof Elections. A poll worker heldthe ballot aloft, as eyes peered in.

Was the mark an accidentalstroke? Or deliberate? If the lat-ter, the vote, which had been castfor Ms. Cabán — who is trailingMs. Katz by only 16 votes — wouldbe declared invalid.

The contest, for Queens districtattorney, has local and nationalimplications. It is seen as a meas-ure of how willing Democratic vot-ers are to soften the tough-on-crime policies that have long typi-fied this working-class borough,and to follow the example ofplaces like Boston and Philadel-phia, where criminal justice re-formers have won top prosecutorjobs.

The election also served as an-other test of the power of progres-sives to take control of the Demo-cratic Party.

The Queens Democratic Partyhad been run by Joseph Crowley,the once-powerful Democrat wholost in an upset last year to Repre-sentative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Ms. Cabán, 31, a former public

Queens PeersAt Each Vote,

Blots and AllBy JOHN LELAND

Election officials examined ballots Monday as part of a recount in the Queens district attorney’s race, which hangs on a 16-vote gap.MICHELLE V. AGINS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A19

WASHINGTON — Long beforea surge of migrants from CentralAmerica overwhelmed the south-western border, the Trump admin-istration was already waging abroad assault on the rules deter-mining who can seek asylum inthe United States.

But on Monday, the administra-tion announced one of its most re-strictive rules yet for a system, en-shrined in international law, thatMr. Trump has called “ridiculous”and “insane.”

In a move that would stop virtu-ally all Central American familieswho are fleeing persecution andpoverty from entering the UnitedStates, Trump administration offi-cials said they would deny asylumto migrants who failed to apply for

protections in at least one countrythey passed through on their waynorth.

Under the new rule, Honduransand Salvadorans would have toapply for — and be denied — asy-lum in Guatemala or Mexico be-fore they were eligible to apply forasylum in the United States. Gua-temalans would have to apply forand be denied asylum in Mexico.

The rule would effectively limitasylum protections to Mexicansand those who cross the UnitedStates’ southwestern border bysea. But migrants from Honduras,

El Salvador and Guatemala makeup the vast majority of asylumseekers who have tried to enterthe United States in record num-bers this year. Border Patrol hasarrested 510,412 migrant familymembers from Honduras, El Sal-vador and Guatemala at thesouthwestern border so far in fis-cal year 2019, compared withmore than 3,200 Mexican familymembers.

Many Africans, Cubans andHaitians who travel through Mex-ico to the southwestern borderwould also be barred from obtain-ing the protections.

The administration made the

Trump Moves to Block Another Road to AsylumBy MICHAEL D. SHEAR

and ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS

PAYDAY The ex-head of a nonprof-it shelter group made $3.6 millionin the last fiscal year. PAGE A12

Migrants being ferried from Guatemala to Mexico last month. Under a new rule, Guatemalanswould have to apply for and be denied asylum in Mexico before applying in the United States.

OLIVER DE ROS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Continued on Page A13

Migrants Must Apply inat Least One Country

They Pass Through

Natural disasters are pushing chemi-cals into the environment, exposingpeople to an array of ailments. PAGE A10

NATIONAL A10-16

Storms Stir Stew of ToxinsAn ex-NASA intern who bought video-tapes of the moon landing for a songexpects to hear good news soon. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

One Giant Leap for His WalletThe anxiety over feared health risksfrom wireless technology can be tracedto a single scientist and a single chart.But both of them were wrong. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-8

Turning Off a Big 5G Alarm

“There is no alternative” to the 2015nuclear agreement that PresidentTrump has rejected, the E.U.’s foreignpolicy chief said. PAGE A8

INTERNATIONAL A4-9

A Push to Salvage Iran DealRevenue the United States has collectedfrom tariffs on $250 billion worth ofChinese goods does not cover the costof the president’s bailout for farmershurt by China’s retaliation. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-5

Tariff Profits Fall Short of Costs

Scores of reports to Colorado’s childabuse hotline landed in an inbox no-body knew to check. PAGE A11

4 Years of Abuse Tips UnreadDozens of Alaskan writers and advisershelped create a PBS children’s serieswith a Native American lead. PAGE C1

A More Inclusive PBS

Michelle Goldberg PAGE A22

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

As television and movie writers findthemselves in a standoff with the fourmajor talent agencies, some of them arebeginning to criticize their unions’tactics. PAGE B1

Dissent in Writers’ RanksThe year-old outbreak has now reachedGoma, a heavily populated city near theborder with Rwanda. PAGE A6

Ebola Spreads in Congo

Activists are pushing FIFA to keep Iranout of the 2022 World Cup unless its banon female spectators is lifted. PAGE B8

SPORTSTUESDAY B6-9

Leverage for Iranian Women

Late EditionToday, partly sunny, warm, high 89.Tonight, partly cloudy, low 75. To-morrow, hot, more humid, afternoonthunderstorms in spots, high 91.Weather map appears on Page A24.

$3.00