VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,476 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2019

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WASHINGTON — Breathtak-ing in scope, defiant in tone, theWhite House’s refusal to cooper-ate with the House impeachmentinquiry amounts to an un-abashed challenge to America’s

longstanding consti-tutional order.

In effect, Presi-dent Trump is mak-ing the sweeping

assertion that he can ignoreCongress as it weighs his fatebecause he considers the im-peachment effort unfair and theDemocrats who initiated it bi-ased against him, an argumentthat channeled his anger even asit failed to pass muster withmany scholars on Wednesday.

But the White House case,outlined in an extraordinaryletter to Democratic leaders onTuesday, is more a political argu-ment than a legal one, aimed lessat convincing a judge than con-vincing the public, or at least aportion of it. At its core, it is bornout of the cold calculation thatMr. Trump probably cannot stopthe Democrat-led House fromimpeaching him, so the real goalis to delegitimize the process.

Just last week, Mr. Trumpacknowledged that Democratsappeared to have enough votesto impeach him in the House andthat he was counting on theRepublican-controlled Senate toacquit him. By presenting theinquiry as the work of an unholyalliance of deep-state saboteursand Democratic hatchet men, hehopes to undermine its credibil-ity, forestall Republican defec-tions and energize his votersheading into next year’s re-election campaign.

“As a general matter, paintingthe process as highly partisan

Defiant Ploy by President Pushes System to Its Limit

Strategy to Discredit Process and Rally the G.O.P. Base

By PETER BAKER

NEWSANALYSIS

President Trump said he wasprepared for a lengthy battle.

DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A19

WASHINGTON — House Dem-ocrats prepared on Wednesday toforce the Trump administrationanew to answer questions in theirimpeachment investigation, oneday after President Trump andthe White House declared thatthey would defy Congress in oneof the most extraordinary as-sertions of executive authority inmodern times.

House chairmen leading the im-peachment inquiry planned to is-sue additional subpoenas for wit-ness testimony and records relat-ed to Mr. Trump’s dealings withUkraine as soon as Thursday, law-makers and aides said, after apause for the Jewish High HolyDays.

They want to force executivebranch officials to answer to theirdemands, generating a detailedrecord of refusals that could shapean impeachment article chargingMr. Trump with obstructing Con-gress. Democrats also still seeother meaningful avenues forgathering evidence that goaround the Trump administra-tion’s defiance, including ques-tioning private citizens, former of-ficials, career diplomats near re-tirement and the whistle-blowerswhose revelations fueled the in-quiry.

“There is more we want to do,”said Representative Jim Himes ofConnecticut, the second-rankingDemocrat on the House Intelli-gence Committee. He called theWhite House’s stonewalling “abrazen political move to try toalign what has been a fragmentedand uncertain strategy to defendthe president.”

The Democrats’ investigationearned a prominent endorsementas former Vice President JosephR. Biden Jr., a leading presidentialcandidate, said in a speech onWednesday in New Hampshirethat Mr. Trump should be im-peached for “shooting holes in theConstitution.” Mr. Biden set asidemonths of restraint complicatedby the president’s unsubstantiat-ed allegations about Mr. Biden’sown dealings with Ukraine.

But the White House’s promiseto put a “full halt” on cooperatingwith the impeachment inquirywas likely to force Democrats tomore quickly confront questionsabout how long and how exten-sively to investigate Mr. Trumpwhen ample evidence of his ac-tions is already in the open.

Democrats Will TestWhite House Vow

of a ‘Full Halt’

By NICHOLAS FANDOS

Continued on Page A19

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Turkeylaunched a ground and air assaulton Wednesday against a Syrianmilitia that has been a crucialAmerican ally in the fight againstISIS, days after President Trumpagreed to let the operation pro-ceed.

As Turkish warplanes bombedSyrian towns and troops crossedthe border, the chaos in Washing-ton continued, with PresidentTrump issuing seemingly contra-dictory policy statements in the

face of strident opposition fromhis Republican allies in Congress.

Mr. Trump acquiesced to theTurkish operation in a call withTurkey’s president on Sunday,agreeing to move Americantroops out of Turkey’s way despiteopposition from his own State De-partment and military.

On Wednesday, hours after theoperation began, he condemned it,calling it “a bad idea.”

By that time, Turkish fighterjets were streaking through thesky over Syrian towns, while artil-lery shells boomed overhead.Traffic was jammed with terrified

civilians fleeing south in truckspiled high with possessions andchildren.

After about six hours ofairstrikes, Turkish troops andtheir Syrian rebel allies crossedthe border, opening a ground of-fensive.

At least seven people werekilled in the Turkish attacks onWednesday, according to the Ro-java Information Center, an activ-

ist group in northeastern Syria.The Syrian Observatory for Hu-man Rights, a conflict monitorbased in Britain, put the toll ateight.

Turkey’s long-planned move toroot out American-allied Kurdishforces in northeastern Syria couldopen a dangerous new front inSyria’s eight-year-old war, pittingtwo United States allies againsteach other and raising the specterof sectarian bloodletting. Even be-fore it began, it had set off fiercedebates in Washington, withmembers of Congress accusing

TURKEY ATTACKS U.S. ALLY IN SYRIA

Turkish soldiers prepared to enter Syria on Wednesday as part of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plan to root out Kurdish forces.BURAK KARA/GETTY IMAGES

Days After Giving Green Light, Trump Calls Assault on Kurdish-Led Militia ‘a Bad Idea’

By BEN HUBBARDand CARLOTTA GALL

Continued on Page A8

SAN FRANCISCO — The lightswent off in stages in Northern Cal-ifornia on Wednesday, from theforests near the Oregon border,down the spine of the Sierra Neva-da and finally through the densehillside communities across theBay from San Francisco.

Hundreds of thousands ofhouseholds lost power when Cali-fornia’s largest utility, Pacific Gas

and Electric, shut down a vastweb of electrical lines as a precau-tion against wildfires. Not know-ing how long the outage wouldlast, residents hurried to gas sta-tions and supermarkets, stockingup on essentials as if a hurricanewere bearing down.

It was an extraordinary mo-ment for California. In the statethat brought the world the iPhoneand the internet as most peopleknow it, residents fumbled for

flashlights, hauled jerrycans ofgasoline and read instructions onhow to manually open their auto-matic garage doors. In the fifth-largest economy in the world,hundreds of thousands of peoplewere forced off the grid.

The vast scope of the powershutdown suggested a new layerof vulnerability for California. Astate prone to earthquakes,tsunamis, mudslides and wildfires

Facing Fire Risk, Expanses of California Go DarkBy THOMAS FULLER

Continued on Page A13

FERNAND LEGER/ARS, NY/ADAGP, PARIS; HELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION, INC./ARS, NY; WINNIE AU FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

With a $450 million expansion, the museum has completed its latest metamorphosis. Page C1.A Growth Spurt for MoMA

BERLIN — A heavily armedgunman with a live-streaminghead camera tried to storm a syn-agogue in eastern Germany onWednesday as congregants ob-served the holiest day in Judaism.Foiled by a locked door, he killedtwo people outside and woundedtwo others in an anti-Semiticspree that smacked of far-rightterrorism.

Hours later the police an-nounced the arrest of a suspect inthe assault in the city of Halle, oneof the most brazen in a string of re-cent attacks aimed at Jews in Ger-many. Police officials declined toconfirm if the suspect was thegunman or whether he had anyaccomplices.

The methodology of the assail-ant bore a striking resemblance tothe rampage by a far-right extre-mist against two mosques inChristchurch, New Zealand, morethan six months ago, in which hebroadcast his killings live on so-cial media. Fifty-one people diedin that attack.

Like the Christchurch killer, theHalle assailant recorded himself,in a 35-minute video of shooting,mayhem and hateful language. Inaccented English, he identifiedhimself as Anon, denied the Holo-caust, denounced feminists andimmigrants, then declared: “Theroot of all these problems is theJew.”

He then drove to Halle’s Hum-

Gunman StrikesGerman TempleOn Yom KippurThis article is by Melissa Eddy,

Rick Gladstone and Tiffany Hsu.

Continued on Page A7

With discontent growing in Russia, ashaman set off unheard-of protests inone of Siberia’s biggest cities. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-10

His Strategy: Exorcise PutinThe election of Steven Reed as the firstblack mayor of Montgomery, Ala., pro-vided a long-sought jolt of joy. PAGE A12

NATIONAL A12-19

‘This Is Our Season’The popular video app has caught theattention of marketers, who are eagerto hire its young stars. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-8

TikTok and Teenagers

After poor box-office numbers for “LateNight,” the company shrank its ambi-tious release plan for a big fall movie,“The Aeronauts.” PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-8

Amazon Alters Film StrategySt. Louis will play for the N.L. pennantafter scoring 10 first-inning runs on theway to a 13-1 rout of Atlanta in Game 5of a division series. PAGE B11

SPORTSTHURSDAY B9-12

No Contest: Cardinals Move On

The developers of lithium-ion batteries“laid the foundation of a wireless, fossil-fuel-free society.” PAGE A10

3 Share Nobel in Chemistry

Google and Uber workers found laborguidance in a book based on ideas fromthe radical Wobblies. PAGE B1

Old Ideas Inspire New Workers

The stories of two young men — one aneager police officer, the other a troubledfather — whose lives collided. PAGE A20

NEW YORK A20-21

Two Paths End in TragedyThe governor wants to halt payrolldeductions for dues and make stateunion members opt in yearly. PAGE A14

Threat to Unions in Alaska

Four years after his son’s fatal accident,the Australian musician has released“Ghosteen,” an eerie, meditative album.A review by Jon Pareles. PAGE C5

ARTS C1-8

Nick Cave Wrestles With Loss

Gail Collins PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

President Richard M. Nixonwas running low on bipartisan al-lies.

Indictments were piling. Im-peachment was coming. He wasnot a crook, he insisted, thoughthat 18½-minute gap in the Water-gate tapes did make the town won-der.

But from the Senate floor inApril 1974, Joseph R. Biden Jr., a

31-year-old freshman Democrat,addressed his congressional eld-ers with a plea: Let the Republi-can president have his say.

“In the case of an impeachmenttrial, the emotions of the Ameri-can people would be strummed, asa guitar, with every newscast andeach edition of the daily paper,”Mr. Biden warned. “The incessant

demand for news or rumors ofnews — whatever its basis of le-gitimacy — would be overwhelm-ing.”

He urged against “Alice-in-Wonderland” justice: “sentencefirst, verdict afterwards.” He saidthat if he had to render a judgmenton that day, his choice would be“Not Guilty.” Mr. Biden was no fanof the president’s, he said — andmight well find him culpable onceall facts were aired. But this was atime for “restraint.”

“I have a feeling,” he said, “thatmy children and my grandchil-dren will be looking back on what Isaid or did not say in April of 1974.”

Forty-five years later, Mr. Bidenfinds himself consumed by an im-peachment drama of a differentsort. He is at the center of theemerging Democratic caseagainst President Trump, who in aJuly phone call pressed the presi-

Biden’s Years in Senate FueledHis Wariness of Impeachment

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER

THE LONG RUN

Witness to History

Continued on Page A16

ISIS GUARDS IN U.S. HANDS Thetwo were in a group that brutal-ized Western hostages. PAGE A9

Late EditionToday, cloudy, breezy, occasionalrain and drizzle, high 59. Tonight,cloudy, breezy, rain, low 5a. Tomor-row, morning showers, breezy, high60. Weather map is on Page A24.

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