commit to impeachment key moderate democrats · law that favors every south asian faith other than...

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,544 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2019

C M Y K Nxxx,2019-12-17,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

U(D54G1D)y+,!#!$!=!}

WASHINGTON — Democraticlawmakers representing conser-vative-leaning districts an-nounced one by one on Mondaythat they would cast votes thisweek to impeach PresidentTrump, signaling that a criticalbloc of the most politically vulner-able Democrats is pulling togeth-er behind the party’s effort to seekhis removal from office.

Two days ahead of a historicvote on two articles of impeach-ment, about a half-dozen first-term Democrats in districts thatMr. Trump won in 2016 — all im-peachment skeptics — said theyhad become convinced that theyhad no choice but to move forwardwith official charges of highcrimes and misdemeanorsagainst the president.

The House is all but certain topass two articles of impeachment,for abuse of power and obstruc-tion of Congress, against Mr.Trump on Wednesday on a mostlyparty-line vote, making him thethird president in history to be im-peached.

In comments to constituents,interviews and opinion pieces,and statements issued by their of-fices on Monday, the moderateDemocrats said they were em-bracing impeachment fully aware

that their decision could cost themtheir congressional careers.

“What the president did waswrong,” said Representative BenMcAdams of Utah, whose districtskews Republican by 13 percent-age points. “His actions warrantaccountability. I cannot turn ablind eye, thereby condoning thispresident and future presidents,Republican or Democrat, to do thesame.”

“I will vote yes, knowing fullwell the Senate will likely acquitthe president in a display of parti-san theater that Republicans andDemocrats perform disturbinglywell,” Mr. McAdams added in astatement that criticized howmembers of both parties havehandled the impeachment debate.

Mr. McAdams and more thantwo dozen other moderate Demo-crats were at the forefront of thepolitical wave that swept theirparty into the House majority in2018 and gave the gavel toSpeaker Nancy Pelosi, who her-self was an impeachment skepticuntil charges emerged this fallthat Mr. Trump had pressuredUkraine to help him in the 2020election.

The allegation that the presi-dent abused his power to exact po-

Key Moderate DemocratsCommit to Impeachment

House Members in Right-Leaning Districts Join in Party’s Effort to Oust Trump

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

Continued on Page A17

NEW DELHI — Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi’s govern-ment has rounded up thousands ofMuslims in Kashmir, revoked thearea’s autonomy and enforced acitizenship test in northeasternIndia that left nearly two millionpeople potentially stateless, manyof them Muslim.

But it was Mr. Modi’s gamble topass a sweeping new citizenshiplaw that favors every South Asianfaith other than Islam that has setoff days of widespread protests.

The law, which easily passedboth houses of Parliament lastweek, is the most overt sign, oppo-nents say, that Mr. Modi intends toturn India into a Hindu-centricstate that would leave the coun-try’s 200 million Muslims at a cal-culated disadvantage.

Indian Muslims, who havewatched anxiously as Mr. Modi’sgovernment has pursued a Hindunationalist program, have finallyerupted in anger. Over the pastfew days, protests have brokenout in cities across the country.

Mumbai. Chennai. Varanasi.Guwahati. Hyderabad. Bhopal.Patna. Pondicherry. The disturb-ances keep spreading, and onMonday they tied up several ar-eas of the capital, New Delhi.

Mr. Modi’s government has re-

sponded by calling out troops,shutting down the internet andimposing curfews, just as it didwhen it clamped down on Kash-mir. In New Delhi, police officersbeat unarmed students withwooden poles, dragging themaway and sending scores to the

hospital. In Assam, they shot andkilled several young men.

India’s Muslims had stayed rel-atively quiet during the other re-cent setbacks, keenly aware of theelectoral logic that has pushedthem to the margins. India isabout 80 percent Hindu, and 14

percent Muslim, and Mr. Modi andhis party won a crushing electionvictory in May and handily controlthe Parliament.

But Indian Muslims are feelingincreasingly desperate, and so are

India Erupts in Protests as Modi Presses Vision for Hindu NationBy JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

and MARIA ABI-HABIB

Students protesting a citizenship law seen as anti-Muslim faced off with the police on Monday.REUTERS

Continued on Page A6

As scrutiny of Purdue Pharma’srole in the opioid epidemic intensi-fied during the past dozen years,its owners, members of the Sack-ler family, withdrew more than$10 billion from the company, dis-tributing it among trusts andoverseas holding companies, ac-cording to a new audit commis-sioned by Purdue.

The amount is more than eighttimes what the family took out ofthe company in the 13 years afterOxyContin, its signature product,was approved in 1995. The audit islikely to renew questions abouthow much the Sacklers shouldpay to resolve more than 2,800lawsuits that seek to hold Purdueaccountable for the opioid crisis.

The family has offered to con-tribute at least $3 billion in cash aspart of a settlement to resolvethousands of lawsuits brought bystate and local governmentsagainst Purdue. But 24 states, ledby Massachusetts and New York,have refused to sign onto theagreement, arguing that the Sack-lers should pay more.

The new report, a 350-page fo-

As Drug CrisisGrew, Sacklers Took In Billions

By JAN HOFFMANand DANNY HAKIM

Continued on Page A18

MONROE, La. — With two chil-dren and a third on the way, CieraDismuke worked five jobs lastyear while earning just under$15,000. Although the Trump ad-ministration often boasts that itdoubled the federal child tax cred-it to $2,000 per child, Ms. Dis-muke, like millions of Americans,earned too little to fully qualify. In-stead, she got $934 a child, an in-crease of just $75.

Letha Bradford, a teacher’saide, qualified for an equally smallincrease, despite a householdbudget so tight that she listens toher son’s high school footballgames outside the stadium to savethe admissions fee. Michael Spiel-berg, a Sam’s Club attendant, alsoreceived only a partial credit,while his son, Josh, who has As-perger’s syndrome, doubled up onclasses, hoping to graduate earlyand turn his job bagging groceriesinto full-time work.

“Food has been a bit of a strug-

gle,” said Josh, 16.The 2017 tax bill, President

Trump’s main domestic achieve-ment, doubled the maximumcredit in the two-decade-old pro-gram and extended it to familiesearning as much as $400,000 ayear (up from $110,000). The cred-it now costs the federal govern-ment $127 billion a year — farmore than better-known pro-grams like the earned-income taxcredit ($65 billion) and foodstamps ($60 billion).

But children with the greatesteconomic needs are least likely tobenefit.

While Republicans say the in-crease shows concern for ordi-nary families, 35 percent of chil-dren fail to receive the full $2,000

because their parents earn too lit-tle, researchers at Columbia Uni-versity found. A quarter get a par-tial sum and 10 percent get noth-ing. Among those excluded fromthe full credit are half of Latinos,53 percent of blacks and 70 per-cent of children with single moth-ers.

“The child tax credit is the larg-est federal expenditure for chil-dren, but it excludes from the fullbenefit the kids who need it themost,” said Sophie Collyer, a mem-ber of the research team at Colum-bia, who analyzed the programwith her colleagues ChristopherWimer and David Harris. “This isa significant flaw in its designthat’s at odds with the administra-tion’s claims about the achieve-ments of the tax bill.”

Because the credit rises withearnings, a single parent with twochildren has to earn more than$30,000 a year to collect the fullamount.

Republicans say that the credit

Tax Credit for Children Leaves Neediest BehindBy JASON DePARLE

Christina McKeigan, a divorced mother of three, earned $23,000 last year and was eligible for about half the federal child tax credit.ANDREA MORALES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A14

Expanded by Presidentbut Denied to Parents

Who Earn Less

Boeing next month will tempo-rarily stop making the 737 Max, itsmost popular passenger jet, thecompany said on Monday.

The decision, after a two-dayboard meeting, is the culminationof the worst crisis in the compa-ny’s 103-year history and followstwo crashes that killed 346 people.Boeing had repeatedly signaledthat the plane would be cleared toreturn to the sky before the end ofthe year.

Boeing’s decision could ripplethrough the American economy.The company is America’s largestmanufacturing exporter and itviews the 737 Max as critical to itsfuture.

This new model of its work-horse 737 was begun under pres-sure in 2011 as the companysought to fend off competition

from its European rival, Airbus.But after the two crashes, pros-ecutors, regulators and two con-gressional committees are inves-tigating whether Boeing over-looked safety risks and playeddown the need for pilot training inits effort to design, produce andcertify the plane as quickly as pos-sible.

One focus for investigators is asoftware system known as MCAS,which was created for the Maxand was found to have played arole in both crashes. Shortly afterthe first crash, off the coast of In-donesia in October 2018, Boeingpromised a fix to MCAS. Then thesecond crash happened in March,in Ethiopia.

BOEING WILL HALTWORK ON 737 MAX

Ripple Effects Expectedfor U.S. Economy

By DAVID GELLESand NATALIE KITROEFF

Two crashes of Boeing’s 737Max killed 346 people.

LINDSEY WASSON/REUTERS

Continued on Page A15

A pared-down, family-friendly take onMozart’s “The Magic Flute” delights. Areview by Anthony Tommasini. PAGE C6

ARTS C1-8

Musical Magic at the Met OperaA doctor’s diary shows that high-demandemergency rooms leave little time fordeliberating over diagnoses or for coun-seling patients. Is there a fix? PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-6

Overnight Shift in the E.R.

It is illegal in France to move a bodywithout a death certificate, which only adoctor can sign. Waiting for a doctorcan take days. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-10

The Lingering DeadThe president got help from key statesin the Midwest in 2016, but as 2020nears, economic concerns may hinderhis case there. PAGE B8

BUSINESS B1-8

Trump’s Midwest Warnings

Undocumented immigrants lined up forblocks at Motor Vehicle offices on Mon-day, eager to apply to drive. PAGE A19

NEW YORK A19-20

Green Light for Licenses

After Harvey Weinstein said his workhad been forgotten, his accusers said hewanted “to gaslight society.” PAGE A20

Livid Over Weinstein InterviewIn Madrid, an exhibition at the Pradoexplores two often overshadowed fe-male artists of the Renaissance. PAGE C1

Move Aside, Old Masters

After being tried six times for the samefour murders, a Mississippi man wasgranted bail while prosecutors decide ifhe should be tried again. PAGE A12

Free Until 7th Trial, Maybe

The Supreme Court won’t get involvedin a ruling striking down a Boise, Idaho,law that made it illegal for homelesspeople to sleep outside. PAGE A13

Outdoor Sleeping Stays Lawful

Italian soccer officials introduced stepsto fight racist abuse of black players.One effort, a series of paintings of mon-keys, was labeled racist itself. PAGE B9

SPORTSTUESDAY B9-11

Trouble for Anti-Racism Effort

William Webster PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

For either Elizabeth Warren or BernieSanders to win the Democratic nomina-tion, one must prevail over the other inconsolidating the left. PAGE A11

NATIONAL A11-18

Their Problem Is Each Other

WASHINGTON — Rudolph W.Giuliani said on Monday that heprovided President Trump withdetailed information this yearabout how the United States am-bassador to Ukraine was, in Mr.Giuliani’s view, impeding investi-gations that could benefit Mr.Trump, setting in motion the am-bassador’s recall from her post.

In an interview, Mr. Giuliani, thepresident’s personal lawyer, de-scribed how he passed along toMr. Trump “a couple of times” ac-counts about how the ambassa-

dor, Marie L. Yovanovitch, hadfrustrated efforts that could be po-litically helpful to Mr. Trump.They included investigations in-volving former Vice President Jo-seph R. Biden Jr. and Ukrainianswho disseminated documentsthat damaged Mr. Trump’s 2016campaign.

The president in turn connectedMr. Giuliani with Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo, who askedfor more information, Mr. Giuliani

Giuliani Admits He Told TrumpUkraine Envoy Was in the Way

By KENNETH P. VOGEL

Continued on Page A17

Late EditionToday, rain and drizzle into early af-ternoon, high 38. Tonight, clearingskies, low 30. Tomorrow, sunshinethen clouds, snow showers late, high37. Weather map is on Page A22.

$3.00