A4 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 , 2019
next spring. His campaign advis-
ers have been testing the ground-
work for a super PAC as one way to
infuse cash into his efforts. But
that may also come with political
downsides in an environment in
which most candidates are build-
ing an army of small-dollar do-
nors.
Patrick has spent the past sev-
eral days trying to recruit a top
campaign staff but has been re-
buffed by several potential hires.
Several of his longtime advisers —
who earlier had been prepared to
join his campaign — are now
working elsewhere.
John Walsh, who helped Pat-
rick’s rise as governor and later
served as chairman of the Massa-
chusetts Democratic Party, is run-
ning the reelection campaign of
Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.).
Doug Rubin, who was Patrick’s
chief of staff and one of his closest
advisers, is working for Tom Stey-
er’s presidential campaign. Bakari
Sellers, who was helping plot out
Patrick’s campaign a year ago and
has significant South Carolina
connections, has since backed
Harris.
“If you can get unvarnished,
vintage Deval Patrick out there to
the world, anyone would be crazy
to underestimate what that can
do,” said one operative in Massa-
chusetts who has worked with
Patrick in the past but is not in-
volved with the campaign. “But
the landscape is tougher when
you come in at this point.”
Rosy Gonzalez Speers, a former
Patrick adviser who most recently
worked for Andrew Gillum’s gu-
bernatorial bid in Florida, has
been one of those advising Pat-
rick. They have talked with sever-
al potential campaign managers,
according to people knowledge-
able about those conversations,
but so far have not announced
who might run the operation.
[email protected]Wesley Lowery contributed to this
report.also diagnosed last year with
Stage 1 uterine cancer but now has
a good prognosis. His two daugh-
ters, both in their early 30s, were
also opposed to the race, but are
now said to be more amenable.
The rigors of a presidential
campaign could also reopen a
painful chapter involving Pat-
rick’s sister.
Patrick’s former brother-in-
law, Bernard Sigh, was sentenced
in June to more than six years in
prison after he was convicted of
several charges, including the kid-
napping and rape of Patrick’s sis-
ter.
Patrick in 2014 removed the top
two officials at the state’s Sex Of-
fender Registry Board in part be-
cause they had tried to force his
brother-in-law to register as a sex
offender for an earlier conviction
in California of raping Patrick’s
sister. The incident became an
issue during the final month be-
fore Patrick’s 2006 election, some-
thing he attributed to “dirty poli-
tics.” The disclosure of the matter,
he said, “nearly destroyed their
lives.”
He also lacks the financial re-
sources needed for a campaign
that will probably stretch intoTwo senators from neighboring
states, Warren and Bernie Sand-
ers (I-Vt.), will also be on the bal-
lot.
A New Hampshire poll released
by Suffolk University in May 2018
found Patrick in the middle of the
pack at 4 percent.
Patrick, who is African Ameri-
can, is aiming to gain ground
among black voters in states such
as South Carolina, something
which has not been achieved by
either Democratic Sens. Kamala
D. Harris (Calif.) or Cory Booker
(N.J.), according to polling. The
field also has featured current and
former governors who have strug-
gled to gain traction and other
moderates who have been unable
to catch fire.
One of the reasons Patrick ini-
tially decided not to run was the
strain it would put on his family.
“The process is cruel,” he told
Boston public radio station
WBUR last year. “Every family has
its warts, has its issues... has
things they’d rather keep private,
and we do as well.”
His wife, Diane, was hospital-
ized for depression after a bruis-
ing and racially divisive 2006 gu-
bernatorial campaign. She wasnow have two candidates fighting
for the nomination. (A third, Rep.
Seth Moulton, dropped out of the
race earlier in the year.)
But he is likely to face deep
scrutiny in the Democratic prima-
ry over his corporate ties. He once
worked for Texaco and Coca-Cola
and served on the board of sub-
prime mortgage lender Ameri-
quest.
Since leaving office in 2015, he
has been a managing director at
Bain Capital, the private equity
firm that became a target for
Democrats in 2012 when Obama
was running against Mitt Rom-
ney, the Republican presidential
nominee who co-founded the
company.
A spokesman for Bain did not
return several messages asking
whether Patrick still remains with
the firm. Patrick had been sched-
uled to speak Wednesday at an
investors’ conference in Colorado
Springs, but he backed out at the
last minute. Bain sent another
director instead.
One major challenge for Patrick
is that he has little time to build
the kind of grass-roots campaign
operation he prized himself on in
Massachusetts. He also may not
be able to break through and meet
the qualification standards need-
ed to get onto the debate stage.
“When I was thinking about it
many months ago — one of the
questions was: ‘How do you break
through in a field this large and
this talented without being a ce-
lebrity or a sensationalist?’ ” he
said on CBS in June. “And I’m
none of those things.”
The former governor already
has missed filing deadlines for
Arkansas and Alabama, which
could put him at a significant
disadvantage if the race goes late
and turns into a fight for dele-
gates.
Patrick will focus his campaign
closely on New Hampshire, but
there, too, he will need to make a
case that he brings something
new to an already crowded field.test begins with the Iowa caucus-
es. He will enter the race just days
after former New York mayor
Mike Bloomberg began making
his own plans to join the field.
The twin decisions come amid
lingering concern, particularly
among more-moderate Demo-
crats, about the leading centrist
candidate, former vice president
Joe Biden, as well as the rise on the
left of Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(Mass.). Bloomberg had initially
decided not to run because he
thought Biden would be too for-
midable an opponent. Patrick
spent several months in 2018 con-
sidering a bid, but ultimately de-
cided not to run, citing “the cruel-
ty of our elections process” and its
effect on his family.
Patrick has political strengths
and an ability to deliver such soar-
ing oratory that President Barack
Obama was accused of taking
lines from a 2006 speech of his. He
became a two-term governor us-
ing an uplifting life story and an
aspirational political brand, traits
that his allies say could serve him
well in a presidential campaign.
Patrick called Biden recently to
inform him of his decision, in part
because Patrick understands that
his candidacy will in some ways be
seen as a rejection of Biden, ac-
cording to a person who spoke
recently with Patrick. While Biden
has often mentioned his eight-
year partnership with “Barack,”
Patrick also shares a long history
with the former president, and
their political networks have of-
ten intertwined.
It was unclear Wednesday
night whether Patrick had spoken
with Warren, the U.S. senator
from his home state and someone
whose political rise he helped in
2012 when he defended her
against questions about her
claims of Native American heri-
tage. Patrick’s entry is already con-
founding and dividing many Mas-
sachusetts Democrats, who will
PATRICK FROM A
Former Mass. governor Deval Patrick to enter crowded 2020 field
STEPHAN SAVOIA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Deval Patrick, seen in 2014, is expected to announce his plan to run
for the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday.BY DAVID NAKAMURA,
KAREN DEYOUNG
AND SEUNG MIN KIM
President Trump expressed op-
timism that the United States and
Turkey are on their way to resolv-
ing the many differences between
them, but he provided few details
at a news conference with Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
after a day of White House meet-
ings.
Trump said a tentative cease-
fire is holding in northeastern
Syria and thanked Erdogan for
“his cooperation.” He said the two
leaders “made tremendous prog-
ress” toward more than quadru-
pling bilateral trade — to $100 bil-
lion — and “hopefully will be able
to resolve” a conflict over Turkey’s
purchase of a sophisticated Rus-
sian missile defense system.
Calling Turkey a “great NATO
ally and a strategic partner of the
United States around the world,”
Trump described their talks as
“wonderful and productive.”
He said he was paying no atten-
tion to House hearings in the
impeachment inquiry over
Ukraine that was taking place at
the other end of Pennsylvania Av-
enue. “I hear it’s a joke,” he said. “I
haven’t watched for one minute,
because I’ve been with the presi-
dent, which is much more impor-
tant as far as I’m concerned.”
The most immediate tensions
surrounding Erdogan’s visit came
with Turkey’s military offensive
against Kurdish fighters in neigh-
boring Syria, begun last month
after Trump announced he would
withdraw U.S. troops from the
area. The withdrawal engendered
sharp bipartisan criticism on Cap-
itol Hill, where lawmakers of both
parties accused Trump of aban-
doning the U.S.-allied Kurds, who
had borne the brunt of the fight
against the Islamic State in Syria.
But Trump rebuffed lawmakers
who had called on him to cancel
the invitation, saying Erdogan
has lived up to an Oct. 17 agree-
ment negotiated with Vice Presi-
dent Pence to limit Turkey’s incur-
sion into Syria and allow it to
create a long-coveted buffer zone
at least 20 miles deep inside Syria.
Widespread reports of war
crimes committed by Turkish-
controlled Syrian militias that are
part of the invasion force are be-
ing investigated by the Pentagon.
At the same time, Turkey’s mili-
tary operations have displaced an
estimated 100,000 people from
their homes in northern Syria,
according to the United Nations.
Erdogan shared Trump’s as-
sessment of their talks as produc-
tive, but he also took the news
conference as an opportunity to
list outstanding grievances. Chief
among them is the U.S. failure to
extradite Turkish cleric Fethullah
Gulen, a permanent U.S. resident,
who Erdogan’s government
claims masterminded a 2016 coup
attempt.
So far, the Justice Department
has deemed evidence Turkey has
submitted for Gulen’s extradition
to be insufficient. “We are not
getting the best of news out of the
United States,” Erdogan said. But
he had brought additional infor-
mation with him, he said, and “in
light of these documents, I think
they will appreciate the situa-
tion.”
Erdogan also criticized the
House’s passage last month of a
resolution officially designating
the 1915 Turkish slaughter of an
estimated 1.5 million Armenians
as genocide, something Turkey
had strenuously lobbied against
for years.
At one point during Wednes-
day’s talks, Trump invited a group
of Republican senators critical of
Turkey to join them.
“We’re having a very good dis-
cussion,” Trump told reporters as
Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.),
Ted Cruz (Tex.), James E. Risch
(Idaho), Rick Scott (Fla.) and Joni
Ernst (Iowa) sat on couches be-
fore him and Erdogan in the Oval
Office.
“The purpose of this meeting is
to have an American civics lesson
with our Turkish friends,” said
Graham, who last month called
on Trump to “stand up to Erdo-gan” and branded the Turkish
leader as a “thug.”
In a briefing Tuesday for re-
porters, senior administration of-
ficials stressed the importance of
preserving Turkey as a NATO and
regional ally, no matter their dif-
ferences, adding that Trump “be-
lieves in working the hardest on
the hardest issues.”
At the news conference, Trump
said “the U.S.-Turkey alliance can
be a powerful alliance for security
and stability, not only in the Mid-
dle East, but beyond.”
That alliance has been sorely
tested in recent years. In Syria,
Turkey considers the Kurdish
fighters allied with the United
States to be terrorists who threat-
en Turkey’s security.
Erdogan recounted what he
said were both Turkish and Syrian
Kurdish attacks against the Turk-
ish military. “But some circles
who are empathetic towards
these terrorist organizations are
feeling deeply upset,” he said in a
clear reference to congressional
critics. “They are deeply dis-
turbed, and they are using this
information in order to cloud the
understanding of the public opin-
ion and that — that perception
with the eventual gain or goal of
harming our relations.”
Sanctions on Turkey were man-
dated under U.S. law when it pur-
chased Russia’s S-400 missile de-
fense system, although Trump has
delayed imposing them. The pur-
chase came after Turkey and the
United States failed to reach an
agreement over the price and con-
figuration of the U.S.-made Patri-
ot missile defense system. After
the Russian weapons were deliv-ered earlier this year, the adminis-
tration announced it was cutting
Turkey’s participation in the
U.S.-led consortium manufactur-
ing components for the F-35 com-
bat jet — a major blow to the
Turkish defense industry — and
canceled the Turkish purchase of
more than 100 of the planes.
Trump said Wednesday that
the S-400 issue “creates some very
serious challenges for us” but that
“we’ve asked our secretary of state
and ministry of foreign affairs
and our respective national secu-
rity advisers to immediately work
on resolving” the problem. He
provided no details, but senior
administration officials have said
that one possible solution may be
that Turkey will not unpack or
deploy the Russian system.
At a House hearing Wednesday,
Defense Department, military
and industry officials testified
that Turkey is still providing parts
for the F-35, despite its an-
nounced suspension from the
program, although alternative
providers have been located to
substitute for Turkish compo-
nents.
Senior administration officials
said Trump had offered Erdogan a
White House visit, a workaround
for the S-400 program and a trade
deal when he spoke to the Turkish
leader on Oct. 6 in a failed attempt
to prevent the military incursion
three days before it launched. In a
letter to Erdogan the day after
Turkish troops crossed the Syrian
border, Trump told him it should
stop, offering to “do a deal” andcautioning him: “Don’t be a fool!”
Turkish officials said the letter
was disrespectful and that Erdo-
gan had tossed it “in the bin.” But
Erdogan said Wednesday that he
had brought the Oct. 9 missive to
Washington with him and given it
back to Trump.
After initially withdrawing a
few dozen U.S. troops from the
border area to avoid a clash with
the advancing Turks, Trump said
he was going to pull the entire
1,000-troop force out of Syria.
Graham, a Trump confidant, ini-
tially called that “the biggest mis-
take of his presidency.” But he
later congratulated the president
on the cease-fire deal. Trump sub-
sequently agreed to leave about
600 troops in northeastern Syria.
In advance of their meeting
with Erdogan, Ernst and Scott
said that they planned to confront
him on the S-400 purchase.
“I want to make sure he under-
stands that we’re going to have to
implement sanctions,” said Scott,
a vocal critic of Erdogan. “The
president doesn’t have a choice.
And that’s not going to be good for
Turkey.”
Last month, an overwhelming
House majority voted to impose
separate sanctions on Erdogan’s
regime for its assault on Syria.
Risch, chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee,
and his Democratic counterpart,
Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), have
proposed a similar sanctions
package, as have Graham and Sen.
Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), but
neither bill has been scheduled
for a floor vote.
Several Democratic senators
joined Van Hollen in calling
Trump’s decision to host Erdogan
at the White House as “absolutely
shameful,” and some Republicans
voiced similar, if more muted,
concerns.
“This is an unfortunate time, in
my opinion, for the visit,” Sen.
Mitt Romney (R-Utah), the party’s
2012 presidential nominee, said
in an interview Wednesday. “I
would like Turkey to adopt appro-
priate human rights and demo-
cratic principles, to reject the pur-
chase of the Russian military sys-
tem and to be a more reliable
member of NATO.”
In a statement issued Wednes-
day morning, Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
said he “shared my colleagues’
uneasiness at seeing President Er-
dogan honored at the White
House.”
But, he said, “I urge this body to
remain clear-eyed about our na-
tion’s vital interests in the Middle
East and the fact that advancing
them will mean strengthening
our relationship with this NATO
ally, not weakening it further.”
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Trump hosts Turkish leader at White House
President offers thanks
for a tentative cease-fire
in northern SyriaOLIVER CONTRERAS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
President Trump meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office and afterward
described their day of White House meetings as “wonderful and productive.”‘Out of Syria!’: Anti-Erdogan crowd
rallies outside the White House. BBY ANN E. MARIMOW
Congress can seek eight years of
President Trump’s tax records, ac-
cording to a federal appeals court
order Wednesday that moves the
separation-of-powers conflict one
step closer to the Supreme Court.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit let
stand an earlier ruling against the
president that affirmed Congress’s
investigative authority on a day
when the House was holding its
first public impeachment inquiry
hearing. Trump lawyer Jay Seku-
low said in response to Wednes-
day’s decision that the president’s
legal team “will be seeking review
at the Supreme Court.”
The D.C. Circuit was respond-
ing to Trump’s request to have a
full panel of judges rehear a three-
judge decision from October that
rejected the president’s request to
block lawmakers from subpoena-
ing his longtime accounting firm.
A majority of the court’s 11 ac-
tive judges voted against revisit-
ing the case. Three judges — Neo-
mi Rao, Gregory Katsas and Karen
LeCraft Henderson — indicated
that they would have granted the
rehearing and published dissent-
ing statements. Rao and Katsas,
both former Trump administra-
tion officials, were nominated to
the bench by the president.
“This case presents exception-
ally important questions regard-
ing the separation of powers,” Kat-
sas wrote.
He warned of the “threat to
presidential autonomy and inde-
pendence” and said it would be
“open season on the President’s
personal records” if Congress is
allowed to compel the president to
disclose personal records based
on the possibility that it might
inform legislation.
The court’s order does not mean
Trump’s tax records will be turned
over to Congress immediately. The
D.C. Circuit previously said it
would put any ruling against the
president on hold for seven days to
give Trump’s attorneys time to ask
the Supreme Court to step in.
Sekulow in a statement cited
the “well reasoned dissent” in
Trump’s decision to go to the Su-
preme Court.
Trump’s attorneys also are plan-
ning to ask the high court as soon
as Thursday to block a similar
subpoena for the president’s tax
records from the Manhattan dis-
trict attorney, who is investigating
hush-money payments in the lead-
up to the 2016 election. The New
York-based appeals court ruled
against Trump this month and
refused to block the subpoena to
his accounting firm, Mazars USA.
The D.C. Circuit case centers on
a House Oversight Committee
subpoena from March for the
president’s accounting firm re-
cords — issued months before the
beginning of its impeachment in-
quiry, related to Trump’s alleged
efforts to pressure Ukraine to in-
vestigate political rival Joe Biden.
The request for information fol-
lowed testimony from Trump’s
former personal attorney Michael
Cohen that Trump had exaggerat-
ed his wealth when he sought
loans. Lawmakers are investigat-
ing potential conflicts of interest,
including the accuracy of the pres-
ident’s financial disclosures.
A divided three-judge panel of
the court held in October that the
House had issued its subpoena for
“legitimate legislative pursuits,
not an impermissible law-enforce-
ment purpose,” as the president’s
lawyers had argued.
“Contrary to the President’s ar-
guments, the Committee possess-
es authority under both the House
Rules and the Constitution to is-
sue the subpoena, and Mazars
must comply,” wrote Judge David
S. Tatel, who was joined by Judge
Patricia A. Millett. Both were nom-
inated by Democratic presidents.
Rao, the dissenting judge on the
panel, restated her view that the
committee had exceeded its au-
thority with a legislative subpoena
“investigating whether the Presi-
dent broke the law.”
“By upholding this subpoena,
the panel opinion has shifted the
balance of power between Con-
gress and the President and al-
lowed a congressional committee
to circumvent the careful process
of impeachment,” she wrote.
The House subsequently
passed, after the initial panel
opinion, a resolution affirming its
impeachment inquiry.
But Rao wrote Wednesday that
the committee “is wrong to sug-
gest” that questions about the va-
lidity of the subpoena “are no lon-
ger of ‘practical consequence.’ ”
It is an open question, she said,
“whether a defective subpoena
can be revived by after-the-fact
approval.”
[email protected]Trump set
to pursue
high court
tax assist