alarms pentagon to counter iran bolton s ......2019/01/14  · pulling out american troops. at mr....

VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,207 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 2019

C M Y K Nxxx,2019-01-14,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

U(D54G1D)y+"!%!#!=!}

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. —After a painful midterm electionfor Florida Democrats thatshowed this crucial swing statedrifting away from them, a groupof party activists gathered at a Cu-ban restaurant last month to re-ceive some bitter medicine — and

a sober warning — to go with theircroquettes and plantain chips.

Democrats started organizingLatino voters too late, didn’t tailortheir message for an increasinglydiverse community and ulti-mately took Latino support forgranted, a Florida pollster toldabout 50 members of the Demo-cratic Hispanic Caucus of Brow-ard County.

Democrats will lose again in

2020 if they don’t move swiftly towin over Hispanics, the pollster,Eduardo Gamarra, told the group.“You just need to start now.”

With the swearing-in last Tues-day of two newly elected Republi-can leaders, Gov. Ron DeSantisand Senator Rick Scott, Floridahas become a more reliably redpolitical bastion, making the pathto Electoral College victory that

Democrats Seek a Hook as Florida Drifts Away

By PATRICIA MAZZEIand JONATHAN MARTIN

Continued on Page A10

KIANA HAYERI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Afghan children as young as 8 are in prison for plotting suicide attacks. Officials worry about what to do when they grow up. Page A6.‘The Taliban Made Me Fight’

SAN JUAN, P.R. — Liz G. Ro-dríguez Quiñonez grew upschooled in being able to throwher body to the floor in the middleof the night, in the event that straybullets from a nearby shootoutcame crashing through her win-dow.

But it was only this past fallwhen Ms. Rodríguez, who oper-ates a food truck in a town justeast of the Puerto Rican capital,experienced her first murder:Standing by the stove in her truckone morning in September, sheheard a series of pops, thenscreaming, and realized that theman who was the intended targetof the gunfire was standing rightbehind her truck. She ducked —thanks to the training from heryouth — but there was no hope forthe man, who died only a few feetaway.

It was not yet noon.“I saw the dead body. He was

around 30 years old. It was horri-ble,” Ms. Rodríguez, 30, said with ashudder.

Puerto Rico has long had one ofthe highest murder rates in thecountry, almost all of it attributa-ble to gang violence. But a recentstring of brazen daylight killings,some of them captured on videoand widely shared on social me-dia, have shaken the populationand worried local and federal lawenforcement officials who thoughtthey had seen everything in theroiling, populous city of San Juan.

On Jan. 6, several men engagedin a morning shootout on the serv-ice road of a major thoroughfare inIsla Verde, near the airport, leav-ing one man dead. On Wednesday

San Juan SunIs Now No FoilFor Murderers

By ALEJANDRA ROSAand FRANCES ROBLES

Continued on Page A15

Lin-Manuel Miranda is bringing theshow to Puerto Rico, and putting a spot-light on the territory’s needs. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

An Island Visit for ‘Hamilton’Eight Democrats with backgrounds inscience won House seats in November,campaigning on issues like offshoredrilling and climate change. PAGE A9

NATIONAL A9-15

Bringing Science to CongressA new gathering of migrants forming inHonduras is giving President Trumpammunition in his standoff with Con-gress for a border wall. PAGE A8

INTERNATIONAL A4-8

New Caravan, Old Battle Lines

New England scored on its first fourpossessions and reached the A.F.C.championship game with ease. PAGE D1

SPORTSMONDAY D1-6

Patriots Dominate ChargersAt Rivendale Farms, outside Pitts-burgh, robots milk the cows and maysoon start pulling weeds. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-5, 8

The High-Tech Small Farm

Debates on race, gender and sportsfollow Serena Williams from the U.S.Open to Australia. PAGE D1

In Spotlight, on Court and OffPG&E, in a wildfire-linked financialcrisis, also plans to tell employees thatit faces a potential bankruptcy. PAGE B3

California Utility Chief Exits

French fishermen suspect smugglersare breaking into their boats, seekingsafer passage for migrants to get toBritain. France Dispatch. PAGE A4

Breaching the English Channel

Israel’s prime minister acknowledgedan attack on Iranian weapons ware-houses, confirming a campaign to curbIran’s influence. PAGE A4

Israel Confirms Strike in Syria David Leonhardt PAGE A21

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A20-21

Calls for action have followed a film thatexplored abuse accusations against theR&B star, but hurdles remain. PAGE C1

In Pursuit of R. Kelly

A Trump administration order wasintended to force transparency, but therollout is turning into a fiasco. PAGE A14

Decoding Hospital Price Lists

After 15 years of renovations, a cen-turies-old church welcomes back its 40or so remaining members. PAGE A17

NEW YORK A17-19

Relic of Old Brooklyn Reopens

THREAT TO TURKEY PresidentTrump warned of sanctions if thecountry attacks Kurds. PAGE A7

TOM BRENNER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Secret Service officers guarded the White House on Sunday as a winter storm arrived. Page A15.Snow Falls on a Shutdown

NEWS ANALYSIS

WASHINGTON — So it hascome to this: The president ofthe United States was asked overthe weekend whether he is aRussian agent. And he refused todirectly answer.

The question, which camefrom a friendly interviewer, notone of the “fake media” journal-ists he disparages, was “the mostinsulting thing I’ve ever beenasked,” he declared. But it is aquestion that has hung over hispresidency now for two years.

If the now 23-day governmentshutdown standoff between Mr.Trump and Congress has seemedugly, it may eventually seemtame by comparison with what isto come. The border wall fight isjust the preliminary skirmish inthis new era of divided govern-ment. The real battle has yet tobegin.

With Democrats now in chargeof the House, the special counselbelieved to be wrapping up hisinvestigation, news media outletscompeting for scoops and thefirst articles of impeachmentalready filed, Mr. Trump facesthe prospect of an all-out politicalwar for survival that may makethe still-unresolved partial gov-ernment shutdown pale by com-parison.

The last few days have offeredplenty of foreshadowing. Thenewly empowered Democratssummoned the president’s long-time personal lawyer to testifyafter he implicated Mr. Trump inan illegal scheme to arrangehush payments before the 2016election for women who claimedto have had affairs with him.Legal papers disclosed that Mr.Trump’s onetime campaignchairman shared polling datawith an associate tied by pros-ecutors to Russian intelligence.

New reports over the weekendadded to the sense of siege at theWhite House. The New YorkTimes reported that after Mr.Trump fired the F.B.I. director,James B. Comey, in 2017, thebureau opened an investigationinto whether the president wasworking for the Russians. AndThe Washington Post reportedthat Mr. Trump has gone out ofhis way as president to hide thedetails of his discussions withPresident Vladimir V. Putin ofRussia even from members of hisown administration.

What all this adds up to re-mains unclear. Whether it willlead to a full-blown impeachmentinquiry in the House has yet tobe decided. But it underscoresthe chance that with candidatesalready lining up to take him onin 2020, Washington will spendthe months to come debating thefuture of Mr. Trump’s presidencyand the direction of the country.

“The reality,” said Andy Sura-bian, a Republican strategist andformer special assistant to Mr.Trump, is “that the next twoyears are going to be nonstoppolitical war.”

The White House has begunrecruiting soldiers. The newWhite House counsel, Pat Cipol-

Trump Faces‘Nonstop’ War

For SurvivalPolitical Fight for WallMay Be Just the Start

By PETER BAKER

Continued on Page A12

WASHINGTON — Not so longago, left-wing activists were dis-missed as fringe or even kookywhen they pressed for proposalsto tax the superrich at 70 percent,to produce all of America’s powerthrough renewable resources orto abolish Immigration andCustoms Enforcement.

Then along came AlexandriaOcasio-Cortez — and her social-media megaphone.

In the two months since herelection, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez hashad the uncanny ability for a first-term member of Congress to pushthe debate inside the DemocraticParty sharply to the left, forcingparty leaders and 2020 presiden-tial candidates to grapple with is-sues that some might otherwise

prefer to avoid.The potential Democratic field

in 2020 is already being quizzedabout her (Senator Kamala Harrispraised her on “The View”), emu-lating her digital tactics (SenatorElizabeth Warren held an Insta-gram chat in her kitchen thatlooked much like one of Ms. Oca-sio-Cortez’s sessions) and em-bracing some of her causes.

Ocasio-Cortez Helps Propel Her Party to the Left

By SHANE GOLDMACHER

Continued on Page A19

Late Edition

WASHINGTON — Senior Pen-tagon officials are voicing deep-ening fears that PresidentTrump’s hawkish national securi-ty adviser, John R. Bolton, couldprecipitate a conflict with Iran at atime when Mr. Trump is losingleverage in the Middle East bypulling out American troops.

At Mr. Bolton’s direction, theNational Security Council askedthe Pentagon last year to providethe White House with military op-tions to strike Iran, Defense De-partment and senior American of-ficials said on Sunday.

The request, which alarmedthen-Defense Secretary Jim Mat-tis and other Pentagon officials,came after Iranian-backed mili-tants fired three mortars or rock-ets into an empty lot on thegrounds of the United States Em-bassy in Baghdad in September.

In response to Mr. Bolton’s re-

quest, which The Wall Street Jour-nal first reported, the Pentagon of-fered general options, including across-border airstrike on an Irani-an military facility that wouldhave been mostly symbolic. ButMr. Mattis and other military lead-ers adamantly opposed retaliat-ing, arguing that the attack wasinsignificant — a position that ulti-mately won out, these officialssaid.

Such a strike could have causedan armed conflict and could haveprompted Iraq to order the UnitedStates to leave the country, said asenior American official, whospoke on the condition of ano-nymity to discuss internal policydeliberations.

Since Mr. Bolton took over fromH.R. McMaster in April, he has in-tensified the administration’s pol-icy of isolating and pressuringIran — reflecting an animusagainst Iran’s leaders that datesback to his days as an official inthe George W. Bush administra-

Continued on Page A11

BOLTON’S REQUESTTO COUNTER IRANALARMS PENTAGON

STRIKE OPTIONS SOUGHT

Fears That a Hawk WillPrecipitate a Conflict

in the Middle East

By ERIC SCHMITTand MARK LANDLER

John R. Bolton asked for mili-tary options last year.

ANDREW HARNIK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

lawful.Nearly three decades later,

President Trump has nominatedMr. Barr to return as attorneygeneral. But unlike the self-re-strained Mr. Bush, Mr. Trump rev-els in pushing limits — a tempera-ment that, when combined withMr. Barr’s unusually permissiveunderstanding of presidentialpower, could play out very differ-ently for the rule of law than it didlast time.

“There are concerns about hisindependence, given his long-standing and expansive views ofexecutive power,” said Senator Di-anne Feinstein of California, theranking Democrat on the Judicia-

WASHINGTON — The meet-ing of President George Bush’scabinet on Jan. 8, 1991, was evenmore high-stakes than usual. Iraqhad invaded Kuwait. Half a millionAmerican troops were deployedand ready to attack. But manylawmakers were demanding avote before any war.

Rejecting mainstream constitu-tional views, William P. Barr, thedeputy attorney general, told Mr.Bush that he wielded unfetteredpower to start a major land war onhis own — not only without con-gressional permission, but even ifCongress voted against it.

“Mr. President, there’s no doubt

that you have the authority tolaunch an attack,” Mr. Barr said,as he later recalled.

Ultimately, Mr. Bush was cau-tious about invoking that maxi-malist theory of executive powerand asked lawmakers for supportanyway — a prudent step that Mr.Barr, whom Mr. Bush soon elevat-ed to attorney general, also rec-ommended. Congress’s vote en-sured the Persian Gulf war was Continued on Page A11

Barr Could Embolden a Limit-Pushing PresidentBy CHARLIE SAVAGE Attorney General Pick

Has Expansive Viewof Executive Power

Today, mostly sunny, another coldday, high 35. Tonight, clear, season-ably cold, low 26. Tomorrow, mostlysunny, not as cold in the afternoon,high 39. Weather map, Page A16.

$3.00