TRUMP ESCALATES PUSH TO ERODE TRUST IN VOTE · 01/10/2020  · Continued on Page A9 President Trump...

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ISCHGL, Austria — They camefrom across the world to ski in themost famous resorts of the Austri-an alps.

Jacob Homiller and his collegefriends flew in from the UnitedStates. Jane Witt, a retired lec-turer, arrived from London for afamily reunion. Annette Garten,the youth director at a tennis clubin Hamburg, was celebrating herbirthday with her husband andtwo grown children.

They knew in late February andearly March that the coronaviruswas spreading in nearby northernItaly, and across the other borderin Germany, but no one wasalarmed. Austrian officials down-played concerns as touristscrowded into cable cars by day,and après-ski bars at night.

“The whole world meets in Is-chgl,” said Ms. Garten.

Then they all went home, unwit-tingly taking the virus with them.Infected in Ischgl (pronounced“ISH-gul”) or in surrounding vil-

lages, thousands of skiers carriedthe coronavirus to more than 40countries on five continents.Many of Iceland’s first knowncases were traced to Ischgl. InMarch, nearly half the cases inNorway were linked to Austrianski holidays.

Nine months into an outbreak

that has killed a million peopleworldwide, Ischgl is where the eraof global tourism, made possibleby cheap airfares and open bor-ders, collided with a pandemic.For decades, as trade and traveldrew the world closer, publichealth policy, enshrined by treaty,encouraged global mass tourism

by calling for open borders, evenduring outbreaks.

When the coronavirus emergedin China in January, the WorldHealth Organization didn’t flinchin its advice: Do not restrict trav-el.

But what is now clear is that the

From Austria Ski Resort, Virus Hitched a Ride Around the WorldThis article is by Selam Gebreki-

dan, Katrin Bennhold, Matt Apuzzoand David D. Kirkpatrick.

A dance floor on top of a slope in Ischgl, Austria, where unimpeded tourism ran into a pandemic.ANDREA MANTOVANI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A6

The White House has blocked anew order from the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention tokeep cruise ships docked untilmid-February, a step that wouldhave displeased the politicallypowerful tourism industry in thecrucial swing state of Florida.

The current “no sail” policy,which was originally put in placein April and later extended, is setto expire on Wednesday. Dr.Robert R. Redfield, the director ofthe C.D.C., had recommended theextension, worried that cruiseships could become viral hotspots, as they did at the beginningof the pandemic.

But at a meeting of the corona-virus task force on Tuesday, Dr.Redfield’s plan was overruled, ac-cording to a senior federal healthofficial who was not authorized tocomment and so spoke on condi-tion of anonymity. The adminis-tration will instead allow the shipsto sail after Oct. 31, the date the in-dustry had already agreed to in its

own, voluntary plan. The rejectionof the C.D.C.’s plan was first re-ported by Axios.

Dr. Redfield, who has beenscolded by President Trump forpromoting mask wearing and cau-tioning that vaccines won’t bewidely available until next year,worried before the Tuesday deci-sion that he might get fired, andhad considered resigning if he

White House Kills C.D.C. PlanTo Extend Ban on Cruise Ships

By SHEILA KAPLAN

Carnival Cruise Lines ships inthe Port of Miami in April.

ANGEL VALENTIN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A9

President Trump’s refusal tocondemn an extremist right-winggroup in his first debate with Jo-seph R. Biden Jr. sent a shudderthrough the Republican Party at acritical moment in the 2020 cam-paign on Wednesday, as promi-nent lawmakers expressed un-ease about Mr. Trump’s conductamid mounting fears that it coulddamage the party on Election Day.

It was the second time in twoweeks that a collection of partyleaders broke with Mr. Trumpover behavior they regarded asbeyond the pale. Last week, Re-publicans distanced themselvesfrom Mr. Trump’s unwillingness topromise a peaceful transfer ofpower if he loses the election.

This time, the subject was racistextremism and the president’s re-sponse to a demand from Mr. Bi-den during Tuesday night’s de-bate that he denounce the ProudBoys, an organization linked withwhite supremacy and acts of vio-lence. Mr. Trump answered bytelling the group to “stand backand stand by,” a message taken bymembers of the organization as avirtual endorsement.

On Wednesday, Senator MitchMcConnell of Kentucky, the ma-jority leader, called it “unaccept-able not to condemn white su-premacists,” without criticizingMr. Trump by name, while Sena-tor Lindsey Graham of South Car-olina said the president should“make it clear Proud Boys is a rac-ist organization antithetical toAmerican ideals.”

The exchange on white suprem-acy provided one of the most in-flammatory moments of a debatethat unfolded as a chaotic specta-cle, as Mr. Trump hijacked the pro-ceedings with interruptions andmockery that left elected officials,foreign observers, business lead-ers, rank-and-file voters, the mod-erator and one of the two candi-dates onstage agog at the un-seemly antics of a sitting presi-dent. The behavior prompted thecommission that oversees presi-dential debates to say it wouldmake changes to the format forthis year’s remaining matchups,including, potentially, the abilityto shut off a candidate’s micro-phone.

Mr. Trump’s unruliness —which provoked Mr. Biden intocalling the president a “clown”and telling him to “shut up” —threatened to tear new schisms in

G.O.P. Distressed byFailure to Disavow

a Racist Group

This article is by AlexanderBurns, Jonathan Martin and Mag-gie Haberman.

Continued on Page A17

President Trump’s angry in-sistence in the last minutes ofTuesday’s debate that there wasno way the presidential electioncould be conducted without fraudamounted to an extraordinarydeclaration by a sitting Americanpresident that he would try tothrow any outcome into thecourts, Congress or the streets ifhe was not re-elected.

His comments came after fouryears of debate about the possi-bility of foreign interference inthe 2020 election and how tocounter such disruptions. Butthey were a stark reminder thatthe most direct threat to theelectoral process now comesfrom the president of the UnitedStates himself.

Mr. Trump’s unwillingness tosay he would abide by the result,and his disinformation campaignabout the integrity of the Ameri-can electoral system, went be-yond anything President Vladi-mir V. Putin of Russia could haveimagined. All Mr. Putin has to donow is amplify the president’smessage, which he has alreadybegun to do.

Everything Mr. Trump said inhis face-off with Joseph R. BidenJr., the Democratic presidentialnominee, he had already deliv-ered in recent weeks, in tweetsand at rallies with his faithful.But he had never before put it alltogether in front of such a largeaudience as he did on Tuesdaynight.

The president began the de-bate with a declaration thatballoting already underway was“a fraud and a shame” and proofof “a rigged election.”

It quickly became apparentthat Mr. Trump was doing morethan simply trying to discreditthe mail-in ballots that are beingused to ensure voters are notdisenfranchised by a pandemic— the same way of voting thatfive states have used for yearswith minimal fraud.

He followed it by encouraginghis supporters to “go into thepolls” and “watch very carefully,”which seemed to be code wordsfor voter intimidation, aimed atthose who brave the coronavirusrisks of voting in person.

Baseless Attacks ThreatenProcess in Place Since 1788

NEWS ANALYSIS

By DAVID E. SANGER

Continued on Page A18

SEPT. 29, ASKED IF HE WOULD URGE CALM IF THE ELECTION WAS NOT DECISIVE: ‘I am urging

my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully, because

that’s what has to happen. I am urging them to do it.’ ASKED TO EXPLAIN:

‘I’ll tell you what it means — it means you have a fraudulent election.’

SEPT. 24, TO REPORTERS: ‘We want to make sure the election is honest, and

I’m not sure that it can be.’ SEPT. 17, IN A TWEET: ‘Because of the new and

unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be

sent to “voters”, or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result

may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want.

Another election disaster yesterday. Stop Ballot Madness!’ NOV. 9, 2018,

IN A TWEET, AS A SENATE RACE IN ARIZONA REMAINED TOO CLOSE TO CALL: ‘Just out — in

Arizona, SIGNATURES DON’T MATCH. Electoral corruption - Call for a new

Election? We must protect our Democracy!’ NOV. 8, 2016, IN AN ELECTION DAY

INTERVIEW ON FOX NEWS: ‘There are reports that, when people vote for

Republicans, the entire ticket switches over to Democrats — you’ve

seen that — it’s happening at various places today, it’s been reported.’

FEB. 3, 2016, IN A TWEET: ‘Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted

Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place

or Cruz results nullified.’ NOV. 6, 2012, IN A TWEET AFTER PRESIDENT OBAMA’S

VICTORY: ‘We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington

and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!’

TRUMP ESCALATES PUSH TO ERODE TRUST IN VOTE

RUTH FREMSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES

President Trump’s repeated and unfounded attacks on election integrity date back to at least 2012.

The group of Trump campaignofficials came carrying cellphonecameras and a determination tohelp the president’s re-election ef-forts in Philadelphia. But theywere asked to leave the city’snewly opened satellite election of-fices on Tuesday after being toldlocal election laws did not permitthem to monitor voters coming torequest and complete absenteeballots.

On social media and right-wingnews sites and in the presidentialdebate on Tuesday night, Presi-dent Trump and his campaignquickly suggested nefarious in-tent in the actions of local electionofficials, with the president claim-ing during the debate that “badthings happen in Philadelphia”and urging his supporters every-where to “go into the polls andwatch very carefully.”

The baseless descriptions of thevoting process in Philadelphia

were the latest broad-brush at-tempt by the Trump campaign toundermine confidence in thisyear’s election, a message deliv-ered with an ominous edge at thedebate when he advised an extre-mist group, the Proud Boys, to“stand back and stand by” in hisremarks about the election.

The calls for his followers tomonitor voting activity are clear.What’s less apparent is how theTrump campaign wants this toplay out.

Mr. Trump and his campaign of-ten seem to be working on twotracks, one seemingly an amped-up version of mostly familiar elec-tion procedures like poll watching,the other something of a more per-ilous nature for a democracy.

In the first, Justin Clark, a law-yer for the Trump campaign, tolda conservative group this year ofplans to “leverage about 50,000volunteers all the way through,from early vote through ElectionDay, to be able to watch the polls.”

President’s Call to Monitor PollsRaises Voter Intimidation Fears

This article is by Danny Hakim,Stephanie Saul, Nick Corasanitiand Michael Wines.

Continued on Page A17

The city is buying parkland and plant-ing trees in areas where people of colorhave long been underserved. PAGE A23

Denver Aims at Leafy EqualityThe agency providing health care totribal communities struggled to meetchallenges of the pandemic. PAGE A8

Indian Health Service Woes

Senate Republicans used a hearing withJames B. Comey, the ex-F.B.I. head, toundercut the Russia inquiry. PAGE A22

NATIONAL A14-23

Comey Defends Wiretap MoveThe restaurant industry hopes to easemonths of hardship, but is unsure ifcustomers will come back. PAGE A4

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-10

Indoor Dining Returns to CityThe major league playoffs had a fullslate as all 16 teams in the postseasonwere scheduled to play. PAGE B8

SPORTSTHURSDAY B8-10

All Baseball, All the TimeStock market volatility is increasing asinvestors worry about the outcome ofthe presidential race. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

Investors Fret Over ElectionWars have never prevented the cityfrom putting on its famous carnival. Butthe pandemic has forced a suspensionof the parade, at great cost. PAGE A11

INTERNATIONAL A11-13

Parade Is Off, and Rio Is Glum

Even as tenure deadlines are eased,many faculty members say they aregetting less work done because of childcare needs. PAGE B1

For Women, a Tenure Crisis

Reports by House Democrats and Re-publicans asked spy agencies to focusmore on pandemic and trade. PAGE A12

Pleas for Intelligence on China

Nicholas Kristof PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27

From outdoor pavilions to a wardrobeworthy of Narnia, designers are takingcreative leaps during challenging times.

SPECIAL SECTION

Emboldened DesignOpposite Chadwick Boseman in his finalfilm, Viola Davis delivers a star turn inthis August Wilson adaptation. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’

Breanna Stewart plays through theW.N.B.A. postseason while continuingher social justice advocacy. PAGE B10

Ready for Finals and Election

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 58,833 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020

Today, mostly sunny, low humidity,high 72. Tonight, becoming cloudy,rain late, low 58. Tomorrow, rain inthe morning, clearing later, cooler,high 64. Weather map, Page A28.

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