OMINOUS MESSAGE AS G.O.P. DELIVERS TRUMP NOMINATED · 2020. 8. 25. · PAGE A20 NATIONAL A17-21...
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U(D54G1D)y+%!\!$!$!z It is an enduring political ques- tion amid a pandemic recession, double-digit unemployment and a recovery that appears to be slow- ing: Why does President Trump continue to get higher marks on economic issues in polls than his predecessors Barack Obama, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush enjoyed when they stood for re-election? Mr. Trump’s relative strength on the economy and whether Jo- seph R. Biden Jr. can cut into it over the next 10 weeks are among the crucial dynamics in battle- ground states in the Midwest and the Sun Belt that are expected to decide the election. Many of these states have struggled this sum- mer with rising coronavirus infec- tion and death rates as well as job losses and vanishing wages and savings — hard times that, history suggests, will pose a threat to an incumbent president seeking re- election. Yet polling data and interviews with voters and political analysts suggest that a confluence of fac- tors are raising Mr. Trump’s standing on the economy issue, which remains a centerpiece of his pitch for a second term and is expected to be a major theme of the Republican National Conven- tion this week. The president has built an en- during brand with conservative voters, in particular, who continue to see him as a successful busi- nessman and tough negotiator. Many of those voters praise his economic stewardship before the pandemic hit, and they do not blame him for the damage it has caused. In interviews, some of those voters cited record stock Crises Aside, Trump Counts On Economy to Seal Appeal By JIM TANKERSLEY Continued on Page A15 President Trump and his politi- cal allies mounted a fierce and misleading defense of his political record on the first night of the Re- publican convention on Monday, while unleashing a barrage of at- tacks on Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Democratic Party that were unrelenting in their bleakness. Hours after Republican dele- gates formally nominated Mr. Trump for a second term, the pres- ident and his party made plain that they intended to engage in sweeping revisionism about Mr. Trump’s management of the coro- navirus pandemic, his record on race relations and much else. And they laid out a dystopian picture of what the United States would look like under a Biden administration, warning of a “vengeful mob” that would lay waste to suburban com- munities and turn quiet neighbor- hoods into war zones. At times, the speakers and pre- recorded videos appeared to be describing an alternate reality: one in which the nation was not nearing 180,000 dead from the co- ronavirus; in which Mr. Trump had not consistently ignored seri- ous warnings about the disease; in which the president had not spent much of his term appealing openly to xenophobia and racial animus; and in which someone other than Mr. Trump had presid- ed over an economy that began crumbling in the spring. Donald Trump Jr., the presi- dent’s son, delivered a vehement address that framed the election as a choice between “church, work and school” and “rioting, looting and vandalism.” The younger Mr. Trump also praised his father’s management TRUMP NOMINATED AS G.O.P. DELIVERS OMINOUS MESSAGE Recasting History on Virus, Race and His Record This article is by Jonathan Mar- tin, Alexander Burns and Annie Karni. President Trump attacked Joseph R. Biden Jr. and other Democrats as the Republican National Convention began in Charlotte, N.C. DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES Continued on Page A13 A delegate on Monday before the in-person roll-call vote. TRAVIS DOVE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES KENOSHA, Wis. — When An- nie Hurst stepped outside her house on Sunday night, she saw something that made her scream. Across the street, a police offi- cer was aiming his gun at Jacob Blake, her neighbor, as he tried to get into his car with three of his children in the back seat. The offi- cer grabbed him by his shirt and fired several times, shooting him in the back. Within hours, graphic video of the shooting was racing across so- cial media, and Kenosha erupted into protest, looting and fires downtown. By late afternoon Monday, more than 100 members of the Wiscon- sin National Guard had been sent to Kenosha, demonstrators were gathering for another night of pro- test, and the Kenosha Police had ordered a curfew in the city, begin- ning at 8 p.m. The scene of a white police offi- cer shooting a Black man contin- ues to occur with devastating fre- quency in the United States, even at the end of a summer marked by widespread protests and calls for reform after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Kenosha, a city of 100,000 that a generation ago was a carmaking powerhouse, is the latest place where a police shooting left resi- dents reeling. The shooting, which was captured in a brief but searing video by another neighbor, drew immediate condemnation from Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, a Democrat, and set off protests and looting overnight throughout Ke- nosha’s small downtown area on the shore of Lake Michigan. The shooting instantly became a rallying cry for demonstrators in cities like Portland, Ore., Madison, Wis., and Chicago, and a topic in the presidential race, where Wis- consin is a crucial battleground Wisconsin City Erupts After a Police Shooting By JULIE BOSMAN and SARAH MERVOSH Continued on Page A19 In Kenosha, Black Man Is Struck in the Back Multiple Times The leadership of Jerry Falwell Jr., one of the most prominent evangelical supporters of Presi- dent Trump, appeared to be near- ing an end at Liberty University after a report emerged on Monday of sexual indiscretions involving Mr. Falwell, his wife and a pool at- tendant. Top officials at Liberty, which Mr. Falwell helped build into a hugely influential, $1.6 billion cen- ter of evangelical power, were seeking to finalize the terms of Mr. Falwell’s departure as the univer- sity’s president and chancellor. The situation was confusing on Monday night, with a school spokesman telling news organiza- tions that Mr. Falwell had re- signed, Mr. Falwell denying those reports, and an official with knowledge of the behind-the- scenes drama asserting that the terms were still being negotiated. “Falwell has not yet resigned, but he’s in negotiations with the school over his future,” said a per- son who was in touch with key players in the negotiations on Monday but was not authorized to speak on the record. On Monday evening Mr. Falwell told Virginia Business, a local monthly magazine, that reports of his resignation were “completely false” and that he did not plan to step down. It was clear that Mr. Falwell’s support had eroded. A Liberty University spokesman, Scott Lamb, said the leadership of the school’s board had been in discus- sion with Mr. Falwell and ex- pected to make a statement on Tuesday. “It’s a mess,” said Dustin Wahl, Falwell in Talks To Leave Post At University This article is by Ruth Graham, Elizabeth Dias and Frances Robles. Continued on Page A19 Catie McKee was nervous. It was last October, and the 31-year- old hedge fund analyst, who had been scrutinizing the mortgages on the nation’s malls, was con- vinced that some of those malls would default on their loans. She and her colleagues had even bet a substantial amount of money on that likelihood. Ms. McKee was about to make her case to Carl Icahn, one of the country’s best-known investors, who had made a similar wager and invited her team to discuss the trade. Nothing would bolster her confidence — and the prospects for her trade — more than if the billionaire and onetime corporate raider backed her up. She needn’t have worried. As Ms. McKee sat in Mr. Icahn’s wood-paneled boardroom with a sweeping view of Manhattan’s Central Park, discussing her the- sis with the 83-year-old investor, she realized they shared the same outlook. Both agreed that e-com- merce, changing consumer habits and evolving demographics had pummeled all malls to some de- gree in recent years, but some were far worse off than others. So by betting on their demise, both could profit handsomely — which they did. Mr. Icahn, whose hostile take- over of TWA in the 1980s estab- lished him as a major dealmaker, has made $1.3 billion on the trade since that meeting. And the in- vestors that made the trade within ‘The Big Short 2.0’: How Bets Against Shopping Malls Paid Off By KATE KELLY Continued on Page A7 Pandemic Dealt a Blow to a Struggling Sector July 25 Aug. 1 Aug. 10 Aug. 20 Texas, Ga., Tenn. Arkansas Nevada Alabama Mississippi Louisiana Florida South Carolina Calif., N.M., Utah Arizona Idaho United States Change in new coronavirus cases per million residents since July 25 Experts Say Policies Slowed Coronavirus Spread After a Surge in Cases Source: New York Times database from state and local governments LAUREN LEATHERBY AND GUILBERT GATES/THE NEW YORK TIMES +100 0 –100 –200 –300 While infection rates in the United States remain among the world’s highest, all the states driving the decline in coronavirus cases have at least some local mask mandates. Page A6. Louis DeJoy denounced suggestions that he was working to help President Trump politically. PAGE A20 NATIONAL A17-21 Postal Chief on Defense New York’s attorney general asked a judge to order Eric Trump to comply with an inquiry. PAGE A21 Trump Son’s Testimony Sought In Brooklyn, Maya Phillips watches two plays — in person. Above, Daniel Allen Nelson in “Beast Visit.” PAGE C2 ARTS C1-7 Live Theater. Remember That? While little known, predatory bacteria rank among the world’s fiercest and most effective hunters. PAGE D1 SCIENCE TIMES D1-8 Enlisting a Germ-Fighter Catherine O’Hara of “Schitt’s Creek” and Cecily Strong of “S.N.L.” discuss their love of outsize characters. PAGE C1 Larger Than Life Despite furloughs that have kept tens of millions of Europeans employed, a tsunami of job cuts is about to hit as companies downsize. PAGE B1 BUSINESS B1-5 Layoffs Loom in Europe Bret Stephens PAGE A23 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23 The Dodgers are 22-8, midway through a season that will be remembered for health rules, postponed games and expanded playoffs. On Baseball. PAGE B7 SPORTSTUESDAY B7-9 7th Inning Stretch Is Near A former patient contracted a new strain of the virus while traveling in Europe, researchers reported. PAGE A4 A Reinfection in Hong Kong German doctors treating Aleksei A. Navalny in Berlin say he is the latest prominent Kremlin foe to be attacked with a toxic substance. PAGE A10 INTERNATIONAL A9-11 Putin Critic Was Poisoned A claim made by the president that the treatment had reduced deaths by 35% was “grossly misrepresented.” PAGE A8 TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8 Plasma Data Was Exaggerated President Trump was trying to rewrite history and enlist front- line Covid workers to the cause. The strain showed. Flanked in the East Room of the White House by Americans involved in the fight against the coronavirus — a nurse, a trucker, a postal worker, another nurse — Mr. Trump set off on Monday for more than four rose-colored minutes recasting the recent past to his Night 1 convention audience. “Tell me a little about your stories,” he asked his guests at first. But he had a few of his own: about dastardly Democrats and governors who disappointed him, about his preferred nick- names for the virus and the insufficient gratitude for his government’s efforts. “We have delivered billions of dollars of equipment that gover- nors were supposed to give, and in many cases they didn’t get,” he complained. “So the federal government had to help them, and all of the people that did this incredible work, they never got credit for it. But you understand where it came from.” At least twice, Mr. Trump called the pandemic “the China virus,” seeking to deflect blame. “I don’t want to go through all the names,” he said at one point, “because some people may get insulted. But that’s the way it is.” And this is the way it was, as ever, on Monday night: a re- election team that had pledged a message of uplift and unity be- forehand — with its candidate struggling in the polls amid poor appraisals of his pandemic re- sponse — and a principal who knows no other way but rampag- ing and revisionism. All night, the proceedings played out in this perpetual tug. Any aspirational appeals from speakers like Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassa- dor, and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chamber’s only Black Republican, seemed doomed to be shadowed by the often ominous tone of the evening. Some of the convention’s open- ing sequences often more closely resembled Mr. Trump’s preferred Fox News programming, with a roster of contributors holding NEWS ANALYSIS Focus on Grievance Instead of Uplift By MATT FLEGENHEIMER Continued on Page A16 Late Edition VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,796 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2020 Today, partly sunny, hot, afternoon thunderstorms, potentially severe, high 91. Tonight, cloudy, low 66. To- morrow, mostly sunny, high 81. Weather map appears on Page C8. $3.00
Transcript of OMINOUS MESSAGE AS G.O.P. DELIVERS TRUMP NOMINATED · 2020. 8. 25. · PAGE A20 NATIONAL A17-21...
C M Y K Nxxx,2020-08-25,A,001,Bs-4C,E2
U(D54G1D)y+%!\!$!$!z
It is an enduring political ques-tion amid a pandemic recession,double-digit unemployment and arecovery that appears to be slow-ing: Why does President Trumpcontinue to get higher marks oneconomic issues in polls than hispredecessors Barack Obama,George W. Bush and George H.W.Bush enjoyed when they stood forre-election?
Mr. Trump’s relative strengthon the economy and whether Jo-seph R. Biden Jr. can cut into itover the next 10 weeks are amongthe crucial dynamics in battle-ground states in the Midwest andthe Sun Belt that are expected todecide the election. Many of thesestates have struggled this sum-mer with rising coronavirus infec-tion and death rates as well as joblosses and vanishing wages andsavings — hard times that, historysuggests, will pose a threat to an
incumbent president seeking re-election.
Yet polling data and interviewswith voters and political analystssuggest that a confluence of fac-tors are raising Mr. Trump’sstanding on the economy issue,which remains a centerpiece ofhis pitch for a second term and isexpected to be a major theme ofthe Republican National Conven-tion this week.
The president has built an en-during brand with conservativevoters, in particular, who continueto see him as a successful busi-nessman and tough negotiator.Many of those voters praise hiseconomic stewardship before thepandemic hit, and they do notblame him for the damage it hascaused. In interviews, some ofthose voters cited record stock
Crises Aside, Trump CountsOn Economy to Seal Appeal
By JIM TANKERSLEY
Continued on Page A15
President Trump and his politi-cal allies mounted a fierce andmisleading defense of his politicalrecord on the first night of the Re-publican convention on Monday,while unleashing a barrage of at-tacks on Joseph R. Biden Jr. andthe Democratic Party that wereunrelenting in their bleakness.
Hours after Republican dele-gates formally nominated Mr.Trump for a second term, the pres-ident and his party made plainthat they intended to engage insweeping revisionism about Mr.Trump’s management of the coro-navirus pandemic, his record onrace relations and much else. Andthey laid out a dystopian picture ofwhat the United States would looklike under a Biden administration,warning of a “vengeful mob” thatwould lay waste to suburban com-munities and turn quiet neighbor-hoods into war zones.
At times, the speakers and pre-recorded videos appeared to bedescribing an alternate reality:one in which the nation was notnearing 180,000 dead from the co-ronavirus; in which Mr. Trumphad not consistently ignored seri-ous warnings about the disease;in which the president had notspent much of his term appealingopenly to xenophobia and racialanimus; and in which someoneother than Mr. Trump had presid-ed over an economy that begancrumbling in the spring.
Donald Trump Jr., the presi-dent’s son, delivered a vehementaddress that framed the electionas a choice between “church, workand school” and “rioting, lootingand vandalism.”
The younger Mr. Trump alsopraised his father’s management
TRUMP NOMINATED AS G.O.P. DELIVERS OMINOUS MESSAGE
Recasting History onVirus, Race and
His Record
This article is by Jonathan Mar-tin, Alexander Burns and AnnieKarni.
President Trump attacked Joseph R. Biden Jr. and other Democrats as the Republican National Convention began in Charlotte, N.C.DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Continued on Page A13
A delegate on Monday beforethe in-person roll-call vote.
TRAVIS DOVE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
KENOSHA, Wis. — When An-nie Hurst stepped outside herhouse on Sunday night, she sawsomething that made her scream.
Across the street, a police offi-cer was aiming his gun at JacobBlake, her neighbor, as he tried toget into his car with three of hischildren in the back seat. The offi-cer grabbed him by his shirt andfired several times, shooting himin the back.
Within hours, graphic video ofthe shooting was racing across so-cial media, and Kenosha eruptedinto protest, looting and firesdowntown.
By late afternoon Monday, more
than 100 members of the Wiscon-sin National Guard had been sentto Kenosha, demonstrators weregathering for another night of pro-test, and the Kenosha Police hadordered a curfew in the city, begin-ning at 8 p.m.
The scene of a white police offi-cer shooting a Black man contin-ues to occur with devastating fre-quency in the United States, evenat the end of a summer marked bywidespread protests and calls for
reform after the killing of GeorgeFloyd in Minneapolis.
Kenosha, a city of 100,000 that ageneration ago was a carmakingpowerhouse, is the latest placewhere a police shooting left resi-dents reeling. The shooting, whichwas captured in a brief but searingvideo by another neighbor, drewimmediate condemnation fromGov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, aDemocrat, and set off protests andlooting overnight throughout Ke-nosha’s small downtown area onthe shore of Lake Michigan.
The shooting instantly becamea rallying cry for demonstrators incities like Portland, Ore., Madison,Wis., and Chicago, and a topic inthe presidential race, where Wis-consin is a crucial battleground
Wisconsin City Erupts After a Police ShootingBy JULIE BOSMAN
and SARAH MERVOSH
Continued on Page A19
In Kenosha, Black ManIs Struck in the Back
Multiple Times
The leadership of Jerry FalwellJr., one of the most prominentevangelical supporters of Presi-dent Trump, appeared to be near-ing an end at Liberty Universityafter a report emerged on Mondayof sexual indiscretions involvingMr. Falwell, his wife and a pool at-tendant.
Top officials at Liberty, whichMr. Falwell helped build into ahugely influential, $1.6 billion cen-ter of evangelical power, wereseeking to finalize the terms of Mr.Falwell’s departure as the univer-sity’s president and chancellor.
The situation was confusing onMonday night, with a schoolspokesman telling news organiza-tions that Mr. Falwell had re-signed, Mr. Falwell denying thosereports, and an official withknowledge of the behind-the-scenes drama asserting that theterms were still being negotiated.
“Falwell has not yet resigned,but he’s in negotiations with theschool over his future,” said a per-son who was in touch with keyplayers in the negotiations onMonday but was not authorized tospeak on the record.
On Monday evening Mr. Falwelltold Virginia Business, a localmonthly magazine, that reports ofhis resignation were “completelyfalse” and that he did not plan tostep down.
It was clear that Mr. Falwell’ssupport had eroded. A LibertyUniversity spokesman, ScottLamb, said the leadership of theschool’s board had been in discus-sion with Mr. Falwell and ex-pected to make a statement onTuesday.
“It’s a mess,” said Dustin Wahl,
Falwell in TalksTo Leave Post
At University
This article is by Ruth Graham,Elizabeth Dias and Frances Robles.
Continued on Page A19
Catie McKee was nervous. Itwas last October, and the 31-year-old hedge fund analyst, who hadbeen scrutinizing the mortgageson the nation’s malls, was con-vinced that some of those mallswould default on their loans. Sheand her colleagues had even bet asubstantial amount of money onthat likelihood.
Ms. McKee was about to makeher case to Carl Icahn, one of thecountry’s best-known investors,who had made a similar wagerand invited her team to discussthe trade. Nothing would bolsterher confidence — and theprospects for her trade — morethan if the billionaire and onetimecorporate raider backed her up.
She needn’t have worried. AsMs. McKee sat in Mr. Icahn’swood-paneled boardroom with a
sweeping view of Manhattan’sCentral Park, discussing her the-sis with the 83-year-old investor,she realized they shared the sameoutlook. Both agreed that e-com-merce, changing consumer habitsand evolving demographics had
pummeled all malls to some de-gree in recent years, but somewere far worse off than others. Soby betting on their demise, bothcould profit handsomely — whichthey did.
Mr. Icahn, whose hostile take-over of TWA in the 1980s estab-lished him as a major dealmaker,has made $1.3 billion on the tradesince that meeting. And the in-vestors that made the trade within
‘The Big Short 2.0’: How Bets Against Shopping Malls Paid OffBy KATE KELLY
Continued on Page A7
Pandemic Dealt a Blowto a Struggling Sector
July 25 Aug. 1 Aug. 10 Aug. 20
Texas, Ga., Tenn.
ArkansasNevada
AlabamaMississippi
LouisianaFlorida
South Carolina
Calif., N.M., Utah
Arizona
Idaho
United States
Change in new coronavirus cases per million residents since July 25
Experts Say Policies Slowed Coronavirus Spread After a Surge in Cases
Source: New York Times database from state and local governments LAUREN LEATHERBY AND GUILBERT GATES/THE NEW YORK TIMES
+100
0
–100
–200
–300
While infection rates in the United States remain among the world’s highest, all the states driving the decline in coronavirus cases have at least some local mask mandates. Page A6.
Louis DeJoy denounced suggestionsthat he was working to help PresidentTrump politically. PAGE A20
NATIONAL A17-21
Postal Chief on Defense
New York’s attorney general asked ajudge to order Eric Trump to complywith an inquiry. PAGE A21
Trump Son’s Testimony Sought
In Brooklyn, Maya Phillips watches twoplays — in person. Above, Daniel AllenNelson in “Beast Visit.” PAGE C2
ARTS C1-7
Live Theater. Remember That?While little known, predatory bacteriarank among the world’s fiercest andmost effective hunters. PAGE D1
SCIENCE TIMES D1-8
Enlisting a Germ-Fighter
Catherine O’Hara of “Schitt’s Creek”and Cecily Strong of “S.N.L.” discusstheir love of outsize characters. PAGE C1
Larger Than Life
Despite furloughs that have kept tens ofmillions of Europeans employed, atsunami of job cuts is about to hit ascompanies downsize. PAGE B1
BUSINESS B1-5
Layoffs Loom in Europe
Bret Stephens PAGE A23
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23
The Dodgers are 22-8, midway through aseason that will be remembered forhealth rules, postponed games andexpanded playoffs. On Baseball. PAGE B7
SPORTSTUESDAY B7-9
7th Inning Stretch Is Near
A former patient contracted a newstrain of the virus while traveling inEurope, researchers reported. PAGE A4
A Reinfection in Hong Kong
German doctors treating Aleksei A.Navalny in Berlin say he is the latestprominent Kremlin foe to be attackedwith a toxic substance. PAGE A10
INTERNATIONAL A9-11
Putin Critic Was Poisoned
A claim made by the president that thetreatment had reduced deaths by 35%was “grossly misrepresented.” PAGE A8
TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8
Plasma Data Was Exaggerated
President Trump was trying torewrite history and enlist front-line Covid workers to the cause.The strain showed.
Flanked in the East Room ofthe White House by Americansinvolved in the fight against thecoronavirus — a nurse, a trucker,a postal worker, another nurse —Mr. Trump set off on Monday formore than four rose-coloredminutes recasting the recentpast to his Night 1 conventionaudience.
“Tell me a little about yourstories,” he asked his guests atfirst. But he had a few of hisown: about dastardly Democratsand governors who disappointedhim, about his preferred nick-names for the virus and theinsufficient gratitude for hisgovernment’s efforts.
“We have delivered billions ofdollars of equipment that gover-nors were supposed to give, andin many cases they didn’t get,”he complained. “So the federalgovernment had to help them,and all of the people that did thisincredible work, they never gotcredit for it. But you understandwhere it came from.”
At least twice, Mr. Trumpcalled the pandemic “the Chinavirus,” seeking to deflect blame.
“I don’t want to go through allthe names,” he said at one point,“because some people may getinsulted. But that’s the way it is.”
And this is the way it was, asever, on Monday night: a re-election team that had pledged amessage of uplift and unity be-forehand — with its candidatestruggling in the polls amid poorappraisals of his pandemic re-sponse — and a principal whoknows no other way but rampag-ing and revisionism.
All night, the proceedingsplayed out in this perpetual tug.Any aspirational appeals fromspeakers like Nikki Haley, theformer United Nations ambassa-dor, and Senator Tim Scott ofSouth Carolina, the chamber’sonly Black Republican, seemeddoomed to be shadowed by theoften ominous tone of theevening.
Some of the convention’s open-ing sequences often more closelyresembled Mr. Trump’s preferredFox News programming, with aroster of contributors holding
NEWS ANALYSIS
Focus on GrievanceInstead of Uplift
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
Continued on Page A16
Late Edition
VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,796 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2020
Today, partly sunny, hot, afternoonthunderstorms, potentially severe,high 91. Tonight, cloudy, low 66. To-morrow, mostly sunny, high 81.Weather map appears on Page C8.
$3.00
