Download pdf - FROM WAGING WAR MAY KEEP TEHRAN · 2020. 1. 14. · Mr. Blume, who was raised in a Democratic household in New York and said he voted for Repub-licans and Democrats in presiden-

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DUBUQUE, Iowa — Almost ex-actly four years ago, Donald J.Trump touched down at an airporthangar here, delivered a donationto a group that provides servicedogs to veterans and, before invit-ing a few kids to run around on hisBoeing 757, criticized the wars inthe Middle East that many localfamilies had sent their sons anddaughters to fight in.

“I’m the guy that didn’t want togo to war,” he told a crowd of sev-eral hundred. “It’s just unjust, it’sa mess,” Mr. Trump went on,promising that if he ever did de-ploy the military anywhere, itwould be “so strong, so powerfulthat nobody is going to mess withus anymore.”

That November, DubuqueCounty voted Republican in thepresidential election for the firsttime since 1956, when Dwight Ei-senhower was on the ballot.

Mr. Trump’s success in placeslike Dubuque — heavily white,working class, union-friendly andCatholic — remade the Republi-can electorate. And his path to asecond term depends heavily onwhether those voters turn theirbacks on the Democratic Partyagain.

But the specter of a new conflictin the Middle East — this timewith Iran — threatens the politicalcoalition that Mr. Trump built in2016 by running against a nationalRepublican Party that many vot-ers came to see as indifferent andunresponsive, particularly whenit came to the human cost of war.

“All he’s been saying is, ‘We’regetting out of there, we’re gettingout of there, we’re getting out ofthere,’” said Mark Blume, a con-tractor in Dubuque who stoppedinto the local American Legion af-ter work one evening last week fora beer.

Mr. Blume, who was raised in aDemocratic household in NewYork and said he voted for Repub-licans and Democrats in presiden-tial elections but did not vote foreither Mr. Trump or Hillary Clin-ton in 2016, expressed fatigue withthe president’s erratic style. If itweren’t for that, he would be lessuncertain about voting for Mr.Trump, who he believes has donea better than expected job as pres-ident.

“He’s putting those kids in

Trump 2020?Moves on Iran

Raise Doubts

2016 Vow Questionedby Key Constituency

By JEREMY W. PETERS

A hangar at the Al Asad air base in Iraq that was hit by Iranian missiles last week in a retaliatory strike against U.S. forces. Page A6.SERGEY PONOMAREV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A13

MILTON, W.Va. — In the earlymornings, Chastity and Paul Pey-ton walk from their small andbarely heated apartment to TacoBell to clean fryers and take or-ders for as many work hours asthey can get. It rarely adds up to afull-time week’s worth, often noteven close. With this income andwhatever cash Mr. Peyton canscrape up doing odd jobs — whichare hard to come by in a smalltown in winter, for someone with-out a car — the couple pays rent,utilities and his child support pay-ments.

Then there is the matter of food.“We can barely eat,” Ms. Peyton

said. She was told she would begetting food stamps again soon —a little over $2 worth a day — butthe couple was without them formonths. Sometimes they madetoo much money to qualify; some-times it was a matter of workingtoo little. There is nothing reliablebut the local food pantry.

Four years ago, thousands ofpoor people here in Cabell Countyand eight other counties in West

Virginia that were affected by astate policy change found them-selves having to prove that theywere working or training for atleast 20 hours a week in order tokeep receiving food stamps con-sistently. In April, under a rulechange by the Trump administra-tion, people all over the countrywho are “able-bodied adults with-out dependents” will have to dothe same.

The policy seems straightfor-ward, but there is nothingstraightforward about the reality

Cuts to Food Stamps Squeeze West Virginia’s Working Poor

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON


Dinner time at a homeless mis-sion in Huntington, W.Va.

ANDREW SPEAR FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

With President Trump facing animpeachment trial over his effortsto pressure Ukraine to investigateformer Vice President Joseph R.Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Bi-den, Russian military hackershave been boring into the Ukrain-ian gas company at the center ofthe affair, according to securityexperts.

The hacking attempts againstBurisma, the Ukrainian gas com-pany on whose board Hunter Bi-den served, began in early No-vember, as talk of the Bidens,Ukraine and impeachment wasdominating the news in the UnitedStates.

It is not yet clear what the hack-ers found, or precisely what theywere searching for. But the ex-perts say the timing and scale ofthe attacks suggest that the Rus-sians could be searching for po-tentially embarrassing materialon the Bidens — the same kind ofinformation that Mr. Trumpwanted from Ukraine when hepressed for an investigation of theBidens and Burisma, setting off a

chain of events that led to his im-peachment.

The Russian tactics are strik-ingly similar to what American in-telligence agencies say was Rus-sia’s hacking of emails from Hilla-ry Clinton’s campaign chairmanand the Democratic NationalCommittee during the 2016 presi-dential campaign. In that case,once they had the emails, the Rus-sians used trolls to spread andspin the material, and built anecho chamber to widen its effect.

Then, as now, the Russian hack-ers from a military intelligenceunit known formerly as theG.R.U., and to private researchersby the alias “Fancy Bear,” used so-called phishing emails that ap-

Hackers Went to Work as Trump Inquiry BeganBy NICOLE PERLROTH

and MATTHEW ROSENBERGTactics Imply Russians

Sought to EmbarrassBidens on Ukraine


Low in polls and money, Senator CoryBooker ended his bid to be the Demo-cratic presidential nominee. PAGE A12

NATIONAL A10-16

Booker Drops Out of Race

The Trump administration formallyremoved China’s designation as a cur-rency manipulator on the eve of a tradeagreement. PAGE A9

INTERNATIONAL A4-9

A Concession to ChinaMore than two dozen states are ex-pected to debate issues like whethercollege athletes can cut endorsementdeals or hire agents. PAGE B12

SPORTSTUESDAY B8-12

Weighing College Amateurism

Queen Elizabeth II will allow PrinceHarry and his wife, Meghan, to becomepart-time royals. PAGE A5

Approval for Royals’ New Life

Pennsylvania’s old steel center beganan economic revival over a decade ago.But the president may benefit. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

Jobs Abound in Lehigh Valley

Tiffany & Company began renovatingits flagship store, moving 114,000 piecesto a temporary space nearby. PAGE A17

NEW YORK A17-19

Little Blue Boxes on the MoveAirborne toxins are not just a modernproblem; they may have helped toshape human evolution. Above, a cyclistin the New Delhi smog. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-6

The Legacy of Air Pollution

Officials said the man and woman whokilled four at a Jersey City market alsohad a long-range bomb. PAGE A17

New Hate Attack Details

The film starring Joaquin Phoenix hasearned 11 nominations, with “The Irish-man,” “Once Upon a Time . . . in Holly-wood” and “1917” close behind. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

‘Joker’ Leads Oscar Field

Paul Krugman PAGE A22EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

It is an enduring part of base-ball strategy: As a batter is at theplate, his teammates carefullywatch a catcher’s fingers to figureout what pitch is about to bethrown.

It is all fair play as long as teamsdo not enhance the abilities of thenaked eye and clever minds witheither cameras or electronic de-vices that allow teammates to sig-

nal the batter whether a fastball ora breaking ball is on the way.

But that is exactly what theHouston Astros did during their2017 championship-winning sea-son, clouding that World Series ti-tle and causing one of baseball’s

biggest cheating scandals inyears, Major League Baseball offi-cials said on Monday in a scathingreport detailing the team’sscheme.

By the end of the day, HoustonGeneral Manager Jeff Luhnowand Manager A.J. Hinch — thetwo men who helped propel theAstros to the top of the sport —had been suspended and thenfired, while their club was left with

Cheating Scandal Tarnishes a World Series TitleBy JAMES WAGNER Astros Fire Two Leaders

Suspended by M.L.B.


Attorney General William P.Barr declared on Monday that adeadly shooting last month at anaval air station in Pensacola,Fla., was an act of terrorism, andhe asked Apple in an unusuallyhigh-profile request to provide ac-cess to two phones used by thegunman.

Mr. Barr’s appeal was an esca-lation of a continuing fight be-tween the Justice Departmentand Apple pitting personal pri-vacy against public safety.

“This situation perfectly illus-trates why it is critical that thepublic be able to get access to dig-ital evidence,” Mr. Barr said. Hecalled on technology companies tofind a solution and complainedthat Apple had provided no “sub-stantive assistance,” a charge thatthe company strongly denied onMonday night, saying it had beenworking with the F.B.I. since theday of the shooting.

Detailing the results of the in-vestigation into the Dec. 6 shoot-ing that killed three sailors andwounded eight others, Mr. Barrsaid the gunman, Second Lt. Mo-hammed Saeed Alshamrani — aSaudi Air Force cadet trainingwith the American military — haddisplayed extremist leanings.

Mr. Alshamrani warned on lastyear’s anniversary of the Sept. 11,2001, attacks that “the countdownhas begun” and posted other anti-American, anti-Israeli and jihadistsocial media messages, somewithin hours of attacking the base,Mr. Barr said. “The evidenceshows that the shooter was moti-vated by jihadist ideology,” the at-torney general said.

The government has also re-moved from the country some 21Saudi students who trained withthe American military, Mr. Barrsaid. He stressed that investiga-tors found no connection to theshooting among the cadets, butsaid that some had links to extre-mist movements or possessedchild pornography. Mr. Barr saidthe cases were too weak to pros-ecute but that Saudi Arabia kickedthe trainees out of the program.

The battle between the govern-ment and technology companiesover advanced encryption and

Clash LoomingIn Bid to OpenKiller’s iPhones

Barr Presses Apple onPensacola Shooting

By KATIE BENNER


LONDON — Iran is caught in awretched economic crisis. Jobsare scarce. Prices for food andother necessities are skyrocket-ing. The economy is rapidlyshrinking. Iranians are increas-ingly disgusted.

Crippling sanctions imposed bythe Trump administration havesevered Iran’s access to interna-tional markets, decimating theeconomy, which is contracting atan alarming 9.5 percent annualrate, the International MonetaryFund estimated. Oil exports wereeffectively zero in December, ac-cording to Oxford Economics, asthe sanctions have preventedsales, though smugglers havetransported unknown volumes.

The bleak economy appears tobe tempering the willingness ofIran to escalate hostilities with theUnited States, its leaders cog-nizant that war could profoundlyworsen national fortunes. In re-cent months, public anger overjoblessness, economic anxietyand corruption has emerged as apotentially existential threat toIran’s hard-line government.

Only a week ago, such senti-ments had been redirected by out-rage over the Trump administra-tion’s Jan. 3 killing of Iran’s topmilitary commander, Maj. Gen.Qassim Suleimani. But protestsflared anew over the weekend inTehran, and then continued onMonday, after the government’sastonishing admission that it was— despite three days of denial —responsible for shooting down aUkrainian jetliner.

The demonstrations were mostpointedly an expression of con-tempt for the government’s cover-up after its downing of the Ukrain-ian jet, which killed all 176 peopleon board. But the fury in thestreets resonated as a rebuke forbroader grievances — diminish-ing livelihoods, financial anxiety

BROKEN ECONOMYMAY KEEP TEHRANFROM WAGING WAR

THREAT TO HARD-LINERS

Hostilities Toward U.S.Could Further Strap

Angry Population

By PETER S. GOODMAN


Elizabeth Warren said Bernie Sandersonce told her a woman couldn’t win thepresidency. He denied it. PAGE A13

A Crack in Candidates’ Bond

NEW MESSAGE “It doesn’t reallymatter” why he ordered a killing,the president wrote. PAGE A15

JONATHAN BACHMAN/GETTY IMAGES

Quarterback Joe Burrow led L.S.U. to a college football championship against Clemson. Page B12.These Tigers Came Out on Top

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,572 + © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2020

Late EditionToday, cloudy, afternoon showers,high 48. Tonight, partly cloudyskies, mild, low 42. Tomorrow, partlysunny, mild afternoon, high 54.Weather map appears on Page A14.

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