ominous message as g.o.p. delivers trump nominated · 8/25/2020  · ominous message recasting...

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It is an enduring political ques-tion amid a pandemic recession,double-digit unemployment and arecovery that appears to be slow-ing: Why does President Trumpcontinue to get higher marks oneconomic issues in polls than hispredecessors Barack Obama,George W. Bush and George H.W.Bush enjoyed when they stood forre-election?

Mr. Trump’s relative strengthon the economy and whether Jo-seph R. Biden Jr. can cut into itover the next 10 weeks are amongthe crucial dynamics in battle-ground states in the Midwest andthe Sun Belt that are expected todecide the election. Many of thesestates have struggled this sum-mer with rising coronavirus infec-tion and death rates as well as joblosses and vanishing wages andsavings — hard times that, historysuggests, will pose a threat to an

incumbent president seeking re-election.

Yet polling data and interviewswith voters and political analystssuggest that a confluence of fac-tors are raising Mr. Trump’sstanding on the economy issue,which remains a centerpiece ofhis pitch for a second term and isexpected to be a major theme ofthe Republican National Conven-tion this week.

The president has built an en-during brand with conservativevoters, in particular, who continueto see him as a successful busi-nessman and tough negotiator.Many of those voters praise hiseconomic stewardship before thepandemic hit, and they do notblame him for the damage it hascaused. In interviews, some ofthose voters cited record stock

Crises Aside, Trump CountsOn Economy to Seal Appeal

By JIM TANKERSLEY

Continued on Page A15

President Trump and his politi-cal allies mounted a fierce andmisleading defense of his politicalrecord on the first night of the Re-publican convention on Monday,while unleashing a barrage of at-tacks on Joseph R. Biden Jr. andthe Democratic Party that wereunrelenting in their bleakness.

Hours after Republican dele-gates formally nominated Mr.Trump for a second term, the pres-ident and his party made plainthat they intended to engage insweeping revisionism about Mr.Trump’s management of the coro-navirus pandemic, his record onrace relations and much else. Andthey laid out a dystopian picture ofwhat the United States would looklike under a Biden administration,warning of a “vengeful mob” thatwould lay waste to suburban com-munities and turn quiet neighbor-hoods into war zones.

At times, the speakers and pre-recorded videos appeared to bedescribing an alternate reality:one in which the nation was notnearing 180,000 dead from the co-ronavirus; in which Mr. Trumphad not consistently ignored seri-ous warnings about the disease;in which the president had notspent much of his term appealingopenly to xenophobia and racialanimus; and in which someoneother than Mr. Trump had presid-ed over an economy that begancrumbling in the spring.

Donald Trump Jr., the presi-dent’s son, delivered a vehementaddress that framed the electionas a choice between “church, workand school” and “rioting, lootingand vandalism.”

The younger Mr. Trump alsopraised his father’s management

TRUMP NOMINATED AS G.O.P. DELIVERS OMINOUS MESSAGE

Recasting History onVirus, Race and

His Record

This article is by Jonathan Mar-tin, Alexander Burns and AnnieKarni.

President Trump attacked Joseph R. Biden Jr. and other Democrats as the Republican National Convention began in Charlotte, N.C.DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A13

A delegate on Monday beforethe in-person roll-call vote.

TRAVIS DOVE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

KENOSHA, Wis. — When An-nie Hurst stepped outside herhouse on Sunday night, she sawsomething that made her scream.

Across the street, a police offi-cer was aiming his gun at JacobBlake, her neighbor, as he tried toget into his car with three of hischildren in the back seat. The offi-cer grabbed him by his shirt andfired several times, shooting himin the back.

Within hours, graphic video ofthe shooting was racing across so-cial media, and Kenosha eruptedinto protest, looting and firesdowntown.

By late afternoon Monday, more

than 100 members of the Wiscon-sin National Guard had been sentto Kenosha, demonstrators weregathering for another night of pro-test, and the Kenosha Police hadordered a curfew in the city, begin-ning at 8 p.m.

The scene of a white police offi-cer shooting a Black man contin-ues to occur with devastating fre-quency in the United States, evenat the end of a summer marked bywidespread protests and calls for

reform after the killing of GeorgeFloyd in Minneapolis.

Kenosha, a city of 100,000 that ageneration ago was a carmakingpowerhouse, is the latest placewhere a police shooting left resi-dents reeling. The shooting, whichwas captured in a brief but searingvideo by another neighbor, drewimmediate condemnation fromGov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, aDemocrat, and set off protests andlooting overnight throughout Ke-nosha’s small downtown area onthe shore of Lake Michigan.

The shooting instantly becamea rallying cry for demonstrators incities like Portland, Ore., Madison,Wis., and Chicago, and a topic inthe presidential race, where Wis-consin is a crucial battleground

Wisconsin City Erupts After a Police ShootingBy JULIE BOSMAN

and SARAH MERVOSH

Continued on Page A19

In Kenosha, Black ManIs Struck in the Back

Multiple Times

The leadership of Jerry FalwellJr., one of the most prominentevangelical supporters of Presi-dent Trump, appeared to be near-ing an end at Liberty Universityafter a report emerged on Mondayof sexual indiscretions involvingMr. Falwell, his wife and a pool at-tendant.

Top officials at Liberty, whichMr. Falwell helped build into ahugely influential, $1.6 billion cen-ter of evangelical power, wereseeking to finalize the terms of Mr.Falwell’s departure as the univer-sity’s president and chancellor.

The situation was confusing onMonday night, with a schoolspokesman telling news organiza-tions that Mr. Falwell had re-signed, Mr. Falwell denying thosereports, and an official withknowledge of the behind-the-scenes drama asserting that theterms were still being negotiated.

“Falwell has not yet resigned,but he’s in negotiations with theschool over his future,” said a per-son who was in touch with keyplayers in the negotiations onMonday but was not authorized tospeak on the record.

On Monday evening Mr. Falwelltold Virginia Business, a localmonthly magazine, that reports ofhis resignation were “completelyfalse” and that he did not plan tostep down.

It was clear that Mr. Falwell’ssupport had eroded. A LibertyUniversity spokesman, ScottLamb, said the leadership of theschool’s board had been in discus-sion with Mr. Falwell and ex-pected to make a statement onTuesday.

“It’s a mess,” said Dustin Wahl,

Falwell in TalksTo Leave Post

At University

This article is by Ruth Graham,Elizabeth Dias and Frances Robles.

Continued on Page A19

Catie McKee was nervous. Itwas last October, and the 31-year-old hedge fund analyst, who hadbeen scrutinizing the mortgageson the nation’s malls, was con-vinced that some of those mallswould default on their loans. Sheand her colleagues had even bet asubstantial amount of money onthat likelihood.

Ms. McKee was about to makeher case to Carl Icahn, one of thecountry’s best-known investors,who had made a similar wagerand invited her team to discussthe trade. Nothing would bolsterher confidence — and theprospects for her trade — morethan if the billionaire and onetimecorporate raider backed her up.

She needn’t have worried. AsMs. McKee sat in Mr. Icahn’swood-paneled boardroom with a

sweeping view of Manhattan’sCentral Park, discussing her the-sis with the 83-year-old investor,she realized they shared the sameoutlook. Both agreed that e-com-merce, changing consumer habitsand evolving demographics had

pummeled all malls to some de-gree in recent years, but somewere far worse off than others. Soby betting on their demise, bothcould profit handsomely — whichthey did.

Mr. Icahn, whose hostile take-over of TWA in the 1980s estab-lished him as a major dealmaker,has made $1.3 billion on the tradesince that meeting. And the in-vestors that made the trade within

‘The Big Short 2.0’: How Bets Against Shopping Malls Paid OffBy KATE KELLY

Continued on Page A7

Pandemic Dealt a Blowto a Struggling Sector

July 25 Aug. 1 Aug. 10 Aug. 20

Texas, Ga., Tenn.

ArkansasNevada

AlabamaMississippi

LouisianaFlorida

South Carolina

Calif., N.M., Utah

Arizona

Idaho

United States

Change in new coronavirus cases per million residents since July 25

Experts Say Policies Slowed Coronavirus Spread After a Surge in Cases

Source: New York Times database from state and local governments LAUREN LEATHERBY AND GUILBERT GATES/THE NEW YORK TIMES

+100

0

–100

–200

–300

While infection rates in the United States remain among the world’s highest, all the states driving the decline in coronavirus cases have at least some local mask mandates. Page A6.

Louis DeJoy denounced suggestionsthat he was working to help PresidentTrump politically. PAGE A20

NATIONAL A17-21

Postal Chief on Defense

New York’s attorney general asked ajudge to order Eric Trump to complywith an inquiry. PAGE A21

Trump Son’s Testimony Sought

In Brooklyn, Maya Phillips watches twoplays — in person. Above, Daniel AllenNelson in “Beast Visit.” PAGE C2

ARTS C1-6

Live Theater. Remember That?While little known, predatory bacteriarank among the world’s fiercest andmost effective hunters. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-8

Enlisting a Germ-Fighter

Catherine O’Hara of “Schitt’s Creek”and Cecily Strong of “S.N.L.” discusstheir love of outsize characters. PAGE C1

Larger Than Life

Despite furloughs that have kept tens ofmillions of Europeans employed, atsunami of job cuts is about to hit ascompanies downsize. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-5

Layoffs Loom in Europe

Bret Stephens PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

The Dodgers are 22-8, midway through aseason that will be remembered forhealth rules, postponed games andexpanded playoffs. On Baseball. PAGE B7

SPORTSTUESDAY B7-9

7th Inning Stretch Is Near

A former patient contracted a newstrain of the virus while traveling inEurope, researchers reported. PAGE A4

A Reinfection in Hong Kong

German doctors treating Aleksei A.Navalny in Berlin say he is the latestprominent Kremlin foe to be attackedwith a toxic substance. PAGE A10

INTERNATIONAL A9-11

Putin Critic Was Poisoned

A claim made by the president that thetreatment had reduced deaths by 35%was “grossly misrepresented.” PAGE A8

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-8

Plasma Data Was Exaggerated

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,796 © 2020 The New York Times Company TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2020

President Trump was trying torewrite history and enlist front-line Covid workers to the cause.The strain showed.

Flanked in the East Room ofthe White House by Americansinvolved in the fight against thecoronavirus — a nurse, a trucker,a postal worker, another nurse —Mr. Trump set off on Monday formore than four rose-coloredminutes recasting the recentpast to his Night 1 conventionaudience.

“Tell me a little about yourstories,” he asked his guests atfirst. But he had a few of hisown: about dastardly Democratsand governors who disappointedhim, about his preferred nick-names for the virus and theinsufficient gratitude for hisgovernment’s efforts.

“We have delivered billions ofdollars of equipment that gover-nors were supposed to give, andin many cases they didn’t get,”he complained. “So the federalgovernment had to help them,and all of the people that did thisincredible work, they never gotcredit for it. But you understandwhere it came from.”

At least twice, Mr. Trumpcalled the pandemic “the Chinavirus,” seeking to deflect blame.

“I don’t want to go through allthe names,” he said at one point,“because some people may getinsulted. But that’s the way it is.”

And this is the way it was, asever, on Monday night: a re-election team that had pledged amessage of uplift and unity be-forehand — with its candidatestruggling in the polls amid poorappraisals of his pandemic re-sponse — and a principal whoknows no other way but rampag-ing and revisionism.

All night, the proceedingsplayed out in this perpetual tug.Any aspirational appeals fromspeakers like Nikki Haley, theformer United Nations ambassa-dor, and Senator Tim Scott ofSouth Carolina, the chamber’sonly Black Republican, seemeddoomed to be shadowed by theoften ominous tone of theevening.

Some of the convention’s open-ing sequences often more closelyresembled Mr. Trump’s preferredFox News programming, with aroster of contributors holding

NEWS ANALYSIS

Focus on GrievanceInstead of Uplift

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER

Continued on Page A16

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