ELECTION RESULT AS TRUMP DENIES TENSIONS ON RISE
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U(D54G1D)y+&!/!#!?!z WASHINGTON — President Trump’s refusal to concede the election has entered a more dan- gerous phase as he stokes resist- ance and unrest among his sup- porters and spreads falsehoods aimed at undermining the integri- ty of the American voting system. More than a week after Presi- dent-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. was declared the winner, Mr. Trump continues to block his successor’s transition, withholding intelli- gence briefings, critical informa- tion about the coronavirus pan- demic and access to the vast ma- chinery of government that Mr. Biden will soon oversee. Some former top advisers to Mr. Trump have said that his refusal to cooperate is reckless and un- wise. John F. Kelly, Mr. Trump’s former chief of staff, called it “crazy” on Friday. John R. Bolton, the president’s former national se- curity adviser who wrote a scathing memoir about his time in the administration, said the refus- al “harms the country.” “Every day that he delays un- der the pretense that he’s simply asking for his legal remedies ulti- mately is to the country’s disad- vantage,” Mr. Bolton said on ABC’s “This Week” program on Sunday morning. The president’s attempt to cling to power played out against a backdrop of protests by Trump supporters and opponents late Saturday, with sporadic clashes near the White House. The police arrested 21 people as one pro- tester was stabbed and four offi- cers were injured. Rather than seek to calm tensions, Mr. Trump lashed out. “ANTIFA SCUM ran for the hills,” he posted on Twitter on Sat- urday as he urged the police to TENSIONS ON RISE AS TRUMP DENIES ELECTION RESULT Biden Team Blocked From Vital Details By MICHAEL D. SHEAR The president’s backers rallied in Washington on Saturday. KENNY HOLSTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Continued on Page A15 The trouble broke out inside the main counting room in Detroit late on the morning of Nov. 4. It was the day after Election Day, and until then the process of tabulating votes from the city’s various counting boards had gone smoothly inside the TCF Center, the cavernous convention hall that plays host to the North Amer- ican International Auto Show. As batches of ballots came in by van, workers methodically in- spected and registered them at 134 separate tables, each moni- tored by voting rights observers and so-called election challengers from each party. But the posture of the Republi- can challengers shifted as the count swung in favor of Joseph R. Biden Jr. and word spread that President Trump would sue. One witness, a nonpartisan observer, Julie Moroney, heard a Republi- can organizer say, “Now we’re go- ing to challenge every ballot.” Republican volunteers sud- denly ramped up their objections across the room: accusations that the workers doing the counting were entering obviously incorrect birth years or backdating ballots. In some cases, the volunteers lodged blanket claims of wrongdo- ing. “What are you doing?” a worker asked a Republican ob- server who was challenging bal- lots before he was able to even be- gin to inspect them, a Democratic observer, Seth Furlow, recalled. The Republican observer re- sponded, “I was told to challenge every one.” Mr. Furlow vividly recalled his discomfort with a scene in which mostly white Republican chal- lengers were confronting the mostly Black elections workers. Already, the police had escorted a handful of particularly disrup- tive observers from the room. But tensions increased when election officials noticed that the number of challengers had grown well be- yond what each side was permit- ted and barred entry in a bid to re- duce their ranks. Shouts of “stop the count” went up among Repub- licans. The fraud that the Republicans claimed to observe was not fraud at all, a Michigan state judge de- termined on Friday in rejecting a lawsuit filed by allies of Mr. Trump. The various instances of supposed malfeasance were in fact well-established procedures Plan to Make Losing Look Like a Win By JIM RUTENBERG and NICK CORASANITI Continued on Page A16 More than 82,000 people have come forward with sex-abuse claims against the Boy Scouts of America, describing a decades- long accumulation of assaults at the hands of scout leaders across the nation who had been trusted as role models. The claims, which lawyers said far eclipsed the number of abuse accusations filed in Catholic Church cases, continued to mount ahead of a Monday deadline es- tablished in bankruptcy court in Delaware, where the Boy Scouts had sought refuge this year in a bid to survive the demands for damages. Paul Mones, a lawyer who has been working on Boy Scouts cases for nearly two decades, said the prevalence of abuse detailed in the filings was breathtaking and might reflect only a fraction of vic- tims. “I knew there were a lot of cases,” Mr. Mones said. “I never contemplated it would be a num- ber close to this.” One coalition of attorneys, oper- ating as the group Abused in Scouting, has clients from all 50 states along with cases in which the abuse occurred overseas at places such as military bases in Japan and Germany. The accus- ers range in age from 8 to 93. While the vast majority are men, some women have also filed com- More Than 82,000 File Sexual-Abuse Claims Against Boy Scouts By MIKE BAKER An Imminent Deadline in Bankruptcy Court Continued on Page A19 DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES Dustin Johnson, who finished 20 under par, getting the winner’s jacket from Tiger Woods. Page D1. A Masters Tradition, After a First KELBAJAR, Azerbaijan — The cars, trucks and vans jamming the mountain roads deep into the night on Saturday brimmed with all the possessions that the fleeing Armenians could rescue: uphol- stered furniture, livestock, glass doors. As they left, many set their homes on fire, enveloping their exodus in acrid smoke and illumi- nating it in an orange glow. Near some of the burning houses stood older ruins: the remains of homes abandoned a quarter-century ago, when Azerbaijanis fled and Arme- nians moved into the region. In the southern Caucasus Mountains at the border of Eu- rope and Asia, this weekend was a turning point in a decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over isolated and mountainous lands that both sides believed rightfully were theirs. Back in the 1990s, it was the Azer- baijanis who were forced to leave. Now, it is the Armenians, a re- newed tragedy for them and a tri- umph for their foes. Under a Russia-brokered peace deal ending a six-week war that killed thousands, Azerbaijan on Sunday was set to take control of a swath of the breakaway, ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Ka- rabakh, which is part of Azerbai- jan under international law. “How can I burn this?” said Ashot Khanesyan, a 53-year-old Armenian, referring to the home he had built and was about to desert in the town of Kelbajar. His neighbors had urged him to de- stroy the house, he said, but, “My conscience won’t let me.” He was packing his chickens, tying up their feet with white string, but he said he would leave In Azerbaijan, A Teary Start To War’s End Armenians outside a monastery in the Kelbajar district of Azerbaijan. A peace deal is forcing the Armenians to leave the enclave. MAURICIO LIMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES By ANTON TROIANOVSKI and CARLOTTA GALL Continued on Page A8 Just a few weeks ago, Kem Kemp, a high school teacher in Houston, knew no one personally who had tested positive for the co- ronavirus. Then her roommate came down with a deep cough and was diagnosed with Covid-19. Her brother, a dentist in Amarillo, Texas, also tested positive. A neighbor fell sick with the virus. Two faculty members at the pri- vate school where she teaches were required to quarantine. And in the last few days, so were two of the students she advises. “Before, we were watching the numbers on the news,” said Ms. Kemp, 62. “Now it’s started creep- ing into my neighborhood, my school, my home — right where I’m existing.” As Covid-19 cases surge in al- most every part of the country, re- searchers say the United States is fast approaching what could be a significant tipping point — a pan- demic so widespread that every American knows someone who has been infected. But, as re- flected in the polarized response to the virus, the public remains deeply divided about how and whether to fight it, and it is un- clear whether seeing friends and relatives sick or dead will change that. Many who have seen people close to them seriously affected say they are taking increased pre- cautions. Others, though, are fo- cusing on how most people re- cover and are shrugging off the vi- rus — and calls for concerted ef- forts to combat it. The United States surpassed 11 million reported virus cases on Sunday, with one million of those tallied in just the last week. The daily average of new cases is up by 80 percent from two weeks ago. More than 69,000 people were in Once a Distant Threat, Covid Moves In Next Door This article is by Amy Harmon, Lucy Tompkins, Audra D. S. Burch and Serge F. Kovaleski. But Greater Exposure Dulls Alarm Among Many Americans Continued on Page A5 WASHINGTON — America’s two major parties had hoped the 2020 presidential election would render a decisive judgment on the country’s political trajectory. But after a race that broke records for voter turnout and campaign spending, neither Democrats nor Republicans have achieved a dominant upper hand. Instead, the election delivered a split decision, ousting President Trump but narrowing the Demo- cratic majority in the House and perhaps preserving the Republi- can majority in the Senate. As Jo- seph R. Biden Jr. prepares to take office and preside over a closely divided government, leaders in both camps are acknowledging that voters seem to have issued not a mandate for the left or the right but a muddled plea to move on from Trump-style chaos. With 306 Electoral College votes and the most popular votes of any presidential candidate in history, Mr. Biden attained a vic- tory that was paramount to many Democrats, who saw a second Trump term as nothing less than a threat to democracy. Yet on the electoral landscape, both parties find themselves stretched thin and battling on new fronts, with their traditional strongholds increasingly under siege. Indeed, Democrats and Re- publicans are facing perhaps the most unsettled and up-for-grabs electoral map the country has seen in a generation, since the parties were still fighting over California in the late 1980s. This competition has denied ei- Parties Hunting for a Message After a Split-Decision Election By JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEXANDER BURNS Continued on Page A14 “It’s just straight bangers and music to make people happy,” the American-born Nigerian singer Davido said of his latest album, “Fem.” PAGE C1 ARTS C1-6 An Afrobeats Voice President Trump’s nine-point loss in Chaska reflected a larger trend in sub- urban counties across the U.S. PAGE A10 NATIONAL A10-19 A Minnesota Suburb Shifts The Ethiopian prime minister’s two- year feud with the country’s former leaders has exploded into war. PAGE A6 INTERNATIONAL A6-9 Erstwhile Rulers in Revolt The new administration will overhaul one of President Trump’s more divisive cabinet departments. PAGE A11 Homeland Security Makeover Jacinda Ardern’s selection of a Maori woman as foreign affairs minister high- lights her progressive priorities. PAGE A7 Blazing Trails in New Zealand New York City schools will for now stay open for in-person classes, but Mayor Bill de Blasio is facing fresh questions about if and when to close them. PAGE A4 TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-5 Parents Breathe Sighs of Relief Chris Nikic, 21, became the first person with Down syndrome to conquer the Ironman triathlon, offering lessons in perseverance and hope. PAGE D6 SPORTSMONDAY D1-8 ‘Do Not Put a Lid on Me’ Charles M. Blow PAGE A22 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23 Anya Phillips helped give pulse to punk rock’s anti-establishment credo, dress- ing Debbie Harry and becoming an “It girl.” She was 26. PAGE A20 OBITUARIES A20-21 Overlooked No More Thousands of medical practices are closing, as doctors and nurses retire early or take less intense jobs. PAGE B1 BUSINESS B1-6 Stress Fractures Big employers and colleges are using Covid trackers that could bring more invasive forms of surveillance. PAGE B1 A Walking Privacy Risk? Late Edition VOL. CLXX .... No. 58,879 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2020 Today, mostly sunny, very windy, high 53. Tonight, mainly clear, sea- sonably cool, low 41. Tomorrow, brisk, cooler, some clouds, high 48. Weather map appearing Page A18. $3.00
Transcript of ELECTION RESULT AS TRUMP DENIES TENSIONS ON RISE
C M Y K Nxxx,2020-11-16,A,001,Bs-4C,E1
U(D54G1D)y+&!/!#!?!z
WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump’s refusal to concede theelection has entered a more dan-gerous phase as he stokes resist-ance and unrest among his sup-porters and spreads falsehoodsaimed at undermining the integri-ty of the American voting system.
More than a week after Presi-dent-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. wasdeclared the winner, Mr. Trumpcontinues to block his successor’stransition, withholding intelli-gence briefings, critical informa-tion about the coronavirus pan-demic and access to the vast ma-chinery of government that Mr.Biden will soon oversee.
Some former top advisers to Mr.Trump have said that his refusalto cooperate is reckless and un-wise. John F. Kelly, Mr. Trump’sformer chief of staff, called it“crazy” on Friday. John R. Bolton,the president’s former national se-curity adviser who wrote ascathing memoir about his time in
the administration, said the refus-al “harms the country.”
“Every day that he delays un-der the pretense that he’s simplyasking for his legal remedies ulti-mately is to the country’s disad-vantage,” Mr. Bolton said onABC’s “This Week” program onSunday morning.
The president’s attempt to clingto power played out against abackdrop of protests by Trumpsupporters and opponents lateSaturday, with sporadic clashesnear the White House. The policearrested 21 people as one pro-tester was stabbed and four offi-cers were injured. Rather thanseek to calm tensions, Mr. Trumplashed out.
“ANTIFA SCUM ran for thehills,” he posted on Twitter on Sat-urday as he urged the police to
TENSIONS ON RISEAS TRUMP DENIES
ELECTION RESULTBiden Team Blocked
From Vital Details
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
The president’s backers ralliedin Washington on Saturday.
KENNY HOLSTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Continued on Page A15
The trouble broke out inside themain counting room in Detroit lateon the morning of Nov. 4.
It was the day after ElectionDay, and until then the process oftabulating votes from the city’svarious counting boards had gonesmoothly inside the TCF Center,the cavernous convention hallthat plays host to the North Amer-ican International Auto Show.
As batches of ballots came in byvan, workers methodically in-spected and registered them at134 separate tables, each moni-tored by voting rights observersand so-called election challengersfrom each party.
But the posture of the Republi-can challengers shifted as thecount swung in favor of Joseph R.Biden Jr. and word spread thatPresident Trump would sue. Onewitness, a nonpartisan observer,Julie Moroney, heard a Republi-can organizer say, “Now we’re go-ing to challenge every ballot.”
Republican volunteers sud-denly ramped up their objectionsacross the room: accusations thatthe workers doing the countingwere entering obviously incorrectbirth years or backdating ballots.In some cases, the volunteerslodged blanket claims of wrongdo-ing.
“What are you doing?” aworker asked a Republican ob-server who was challenging bal-lots before he was able to even be-gin to inspect them, a Democraticobserver, Seth Furlow, recalled.The Republican observer re-sponded, “I was told to challengeevery one.”
Mr. Furlow vividly recalled hisdiscomfort with a scene in whichmostly white Republican chal-lengers were confronting themostly Black elections workers.
Already, the police had escorteda handful of particularly disrup-tive observers from the room. Buttensions increased when electionofficials noticed that the numberof challengers had grown well be-yond what each side was permit-ted and barred entry in a bid to re-duce their ranks. Shouts of “stopthe count” went up among Repub-licans.
The fraud that the Republicansclaimed to observe was not fraudat all, a Michigan state judge de-termined on Friday in rejecting alawsuit filed by allies of Mr.Trump. The various instances ofsupposed malfeasance were infact well-established procedures
Plan to Make LosingLook Like a Win
By JIM RUTENBERGand NICK CORASANITI
Continued on Page A16
More than 82,000 people havecome forward with sex-abuseclaims against the Boy Scouts ofAmerica, describing a decades-long accumulation of assaults atthe hands of scout leaders acrossthe nation who had been trustedas role models.
The claims, which lawyers saidfar eclipsed the number of abuse
accusations filed in CatholicChurch cases, continued to mountahead of a Monday deadline es-tablished in bankruptcy court inDelaware, where the Boy Scoutshad sought refuge this year in abid to survive the demands fordamages.
Paul Mones, a lawyer who hasbeen working on Boy Scouts casesfor nearly two decades, said theprevalence of abuse detailed in
the filings was breathtaking andmight reflect only a fraction of vic-tims.
“I knew there were a lot ofcases,” Mr. Mones said. “I nevercontemplated it would be a num-
ber close to this.”One coalition of attorneys, oper-
ating as the group Abused inScouting, has clients from all 50states along with cases in whichthe abuse occurred overseas atplaces such as military bases inJapan and Germany. The accus-ers range in age from 8 to 93.While the vast majority are men,some women have also filed com-
More Than 82,000 File Sexual-Abuse Claims Against Boy ScoutsBy MIKE BAKER An Imminent Deadline
in Bankruptcy Court
Continued on Page A19
DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Dustin Johnson, who finished 20 under par, getting the winner’s jacket from Tiger Woods. Page D1.A Masters Tradition, After a First
KELBAJAR, Azerbaijan — Thecars, trucks and vans jamming themountain roads deep into thenight on Saturday brimmed withall the possessions that the fleeingArmenians could rescue: uphol-stered furniture, livestock, glassdoors.
As they left, many set theirhomes on fire, enveloping theirexodus in acrid smoke and illumi-nating it in an orange glow. Nearsome of the burning houses stoodolder ruins: the remains of homesabandoned a quarter-century ago,when Azerbaijanis fled and Arme-nians moved into the region.
In the southern CaucasusMountains at the border of Eu-rope and Asia, this weekend was aturning point in a decades-longconflict between Armenia andAzerbaijan over isolated andmountainous lands that both sidesbelieved rightfully were theirs.Back in the 1990s, it was the Azer-baijanis who were forced to leave.Now, it is the Armenians, a re-newed tragedy for them and a tri-umph for their foes.
Under a Russia-brokered peacedeal ending a six-week war thatkilled thousands, Azerbaijan onSunday was set to take control of aswath of the breakaway, ethnicArmenian region of Nagorno-Ka-rabakh, which is part of Azerbai-jan under international law.
“How can I burn this?” saidAshot Khanesyan, a 53-year-oldArmenian, referring to the homehe had built and was about todesert in the town of Kelbajar. Hisneighbors had urged him to de-stroy the house, he said, but, “Myconscience won’t let me.”
He was packing his chickens,tying up their feet with whitestring, but he said he would leave
In Azerbaijan,A Teary Start
To War’s End
Armenians outside a monastery in the Kelbajar district of Azerbaijan. A peace deal is forcing the Armenians to leave the enclave.MAURICIO LIMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
By ANTON TROIANOVSKIand CARLOTTA GALL
Continued on Page A8
Just a few weeks ago, KemKemp, a high school teacher inHouston, knew no one personallywho had tested positive for the co-ronavirus. Then her roommatecame down with a deep cough andwas diagnosed with Covid-19. Herbrother, a dentist in Amarillo,Texas, also tested positive. Aneighbor fell sick with the virus.Two faculty members at the pri-vate school where she teacheswere required to quarantine. Andin the last few days, so were two ofthe students she advises.
“Before, we were watching thenumbers on the news,” said Ms.
Kemp, 62. “Now it’s started creep-ing into my neighborhood, myschool, my home — right whereI’m existing.”
As Covid-19 cases surge in al-most every part of the country, re-searchers say the United States isfast approaching what could be asignificant tipping point — a pan-demic so widespread that everyAmerican knows someone whohas been infected. But, as re-flected in the polarized response
to the virus, the public remainsdeeply divided about how andwhether to fight it, and it is un-clear whether seeing friends andrelatives sick or dead will changethat.
Many who have seen peopleclose to them seriously affectedsay they are taking increased pre-cautions. Others, though, are fo-cusing on how most people re-cover and are shrugging off the vi-rus — and calls for concerted ef-forts to combat it.
The United States surpassed 11million reported virus cases onSunday, with one million of thosetallied in just the last week. Thedaily average of new cases is upby 80 percent from two weeks ago.More than 69,000 people were in
Once a Distant Threat, Covid Moves In Next DoorThis article is by Amy Harmon,
Lucy Tompkins, Audra D. S. Burchand Serge F. Kovaleski.
But Greater ExposureDulls Alarm Among
Many Americans
Continued on Page A5
WASHINGTON — America’stwo major parties had hoped the2020 presidential election wouldrender a decisive judgment on thecountry’s political trajectory. Butafter a race that broke records forvoter turnout and campaignspending, neither Democrats norRepublicans have achieved adominant upper hand.
Instead, the election delivered asplit decision, ousting PresidentTrump but narrowing the Demo-cratic majority in the House andperhaps preserving the Republi-can majority in the Senate. As Jo-seph R. Biden Jr. prepares to takeoffice and preside over a closelydivided government, leaders inboth camps are acknowledgingthat voters seem to have issuednot a mandate for the left or theright but a muddled plea to move
on from Trump-style chaos.With 306 Electoral College
votes and the most popular votesof any presidential candidate inhistory, Mr. Biden attained a vic-tory that was paramount to manyDemocrats, who saw a secondTrump term as nothing less than athreat to democracy.
Yet on the electoral landscape,both parties find themselvesstretched thin and battling on newfronts, with their traditionalstrongholds increasingly undersiege. Indeed, Democrats and Re-publicans are facing perhaps themost unsettled and up-for-grabselectoral map the country hasseen in a generation, since theparties were still fighting overCalifornia in the late 1980s.
This competition has denied ei-
Parties Hunting for a MessageAfter a Split-Decision Election
By JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEXANDER BURNS
Continued on Page A14
“It’s just straight bangers and music tomake people happy,” the American-bornNigerian singer Davido said of hislatest album, “Fem.” PAGE C1
ARTS C1-6
An Afrobeats VoicePresident Trump’s nine-point loss inChaska reflected a larger trend in sub-urban counties across the U.S. PAGE A10
NATIONAL A10-19
A Minnesota Suburb ShiftsThe Ethiopian prime minister’s two-year feud with the country’s formerleaders has exploded into war. PAGE A6
INTERNATIONAL A6-9
Erstwhile Rulers in Revolt
The new administration will overhaulone of President Trump’s more divisivecabinet departments. PAGE A11
Homeland Security MakeoverJacinda Ardern’s selection of a Maoriwoman as foreign affairs minister high-lights her progressive priorities. PAGE A7
Blazing Trails in New Zealand
New York City schools will for now stayopen for in-person classes, but MayorBill de Blasio is facing fresh questionsabout if and when to close them. PAGE A4
TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-5
Parents Breathe Sighs of ReliefChris Nikic, 21, became the first personwith Down syndrome to conquer theIronman triathlon, offering lessons inperseverance and hope. PAGE D6
SPORTSMONDAY D1-8
‘Do Not Put a Lid on Me’
Charles M. Blow PAGE A22
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23
Anya Phillips helped give pulse to punkrock’s anti-establishment credo, dress-ing Debbie Harry and becoming an “Itgirl.” She was 26. PAGE A20
OBITUARIES A20-21
Overlooked No MoreThousands of medical practices areclosing, as doctors and nurses retireearly or take less intense jobs. PAGE B1
BUSINESS B1-6
Stress Fractures
Big employers and colleges are usingCovid trackers that could bring moreinvasive forms of surveillance. PAGE B1
A Walking Privacy Risk?
Late Edition
VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,879 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2020
Today, mostly sunny, very windy,high 53. Tonight, mainly clear, sea-sonably cool, low 41. Tomorrow,brisk, cooler, some clouds, high 48.Weather map appearing Page A18.
$3.00
