The Wall Street Journal - 31.07.2019

A4| Wednesday, July 31, 2019 PWLC101112HTGKBFAM123456789OIXX *** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

can’t do and shouldn’t fight

for,” she said.

“I get a little bit tired of

Democrats afraid of big ideas,”

said Mr. Sanders, a senator

from Vermont. “Republicans

are not afraid of big ideas.

They could give a trillion dol-

lars in tax breaks to billion-

aires and profitable corpora-

tions, they can bail out the

crooks on Wall Street, so

please don’t tell me that we

cannot take on the fossil fuel

industry and nothing happens

unless we do that.”

Mr. Delaney wasn’t alone in

taking shots at the more pro-

gressive candidates. Montana

Gov. Steve Bullock, making his

debate debut, also suggested

the party was drifting into ter-

ritory too far to the left to win

a general election.

“Let’s not kid ourselves, he

will be hard to beat,” Mr. Bull-

ock said of Mr. Trump, adding

that the party has been push-

ing too much “wish-list eco-

nomics” rather than focusing

on how to “win back the

places we lost.”

A major portion of the dis-

cussion featured Ms. Warren

and Mr. Sanders defending

Medicare for All from attacks

by other contenders.

Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio said

ContinuedfromPageOne

that Mr. Sanders didn’t know

that benefits under Medicare

for All would be as good or

better than their current pri-

vate insurance negotiated by

their union representatives.

“I do know that. I wrote the

damn bill,” Mr. Sanders shot

back.

“I’m the only one on this

stage who actually has experi-

ence in the health-care busi-

ness, and with all due respect,

I don’t think my colleagues

understand the business,” said

Mr. Delaney, who co-founded a

company that gave loans to

small health-care providers.

Mr. Sanders retorted: “It’s

notabusiness.”

Overshadowing the event,

sponsored by CNN, were Mr.

Trump and the Democratic

Party’s debate over how best to

beat him: by going big and bold,

or being more measured and

perhaps electable.

The historically large Dem-

ocratic field is also its most

diverse, although the random

distribution of debate partici-

pants resulted in all of Tues-

day’s debaters being white.

Intraparty divisions are

likely to be on display again

Wednesday night when former

Vice President Joe Biden and

Sen. Kamala Harris of Califor-

nia—the pairing that gener-

ated the most sparks in the

first round in late June—will

join eight other candidates.

On Tuesday, some more

moderate candidates even

poked at Mr. Sanders’s man-

nerisms. Former Colorado Gov.

John Hickenlooper remarked

on the Vermont senator

throwing up his hands during

one exchange. And during a

back-and-forth over plans to

address climate change, Mr.

Ryan admonished Mr. Sanders:

“You don’t have to yell.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Min-

nesota indirectly criticized sup-

dence,” Mr. Newsom, a Demo-

crat, said.

The case is likely to land in

federal court, joining two

other cases over the presi-

dent’s tax returns.

“The state of California’s

attempt to circumvent the

Constitution will be answered

in court,” said Jay Sekulow,

counsel to the president.

Legal experts have said that

states may be barred from

adding qualifications to the

Constitution’s age, citizenship

and residency requirements

for presidential candidates,

based on the Supreme Court’s

rejection of state laws impos-

ing congressional term limits

in 1995. But states do have

more control over presidential

elections than congressional

elections.

States are allowed to limit

ballot access by requiring can-

“The bottom line is he lied

about sexually assaulting me,”

she said. “He did it. He did it

multiple times.”

Col. Spletstoser spoke pri-

vately with committee mem-

bers last week, congressional

aides said. She was accompa-

nied Tuesday by her attorney,

Air Force Lt. Col. Nora Rule,

and sat quietly in the back of

the hearing room as many of

the senators said they con-

cluded Gen. Hyten had been

falsely accused.

Sen. Martha McSally (R-

Ariz.), said it wasn’t a case of

he said-she said. Rather, “the

full truth was revealed in this

process ....The truth is that

Gen. Hyten is innocent of

these charges.”

“Sexual assault happens in

the military,” said Sen. Mc-

Sally, a former fighter pilot

who has said she he was

raped by a superior officer

while she was in the Air Force.

“It just didn’t happen in this

case.”

Two of the senators who

have most aggressively chal-

lenged the U.S. military’s han-

dling of sexual assault cases—

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D.,

Mass.) and Sen. Kirsten Gilli-

brand (D., New York)—weren’t

at the hearing. Both are presi-

dential candidates and were to

debate in Detroit this week.

While some senators over-

looked the accusations, others

said Gen. Hyten’s handling of

the episode—including a long-

standing working relationship

with Col. Spletstoser—left

them with questions.

“The facts have left me

with concerns about your

judgment, leadership and fit-

ness to serve as the vice

chairman of the Joint Chiefs

of Staff,” said Sen. Joni Ernst

(R., Iowa).

The U.S. military has strug-

gled for years to address cases

of alleged sexual assault, and

senators have raised the issue

when generals and admirals

seek to lead the U.S. military.

Gen. Hyten leads the U.S.

Strategic Command, based at

Offutt Air Force Base in Ne-

braska.

A federal judge in Manhat-

tan has dismissed a lawsuit

filed by the Democratic Na-

tional Committee against Rus-

sia, the Trump campaign,

WikiLeaks and others, ruling

the committee’s allegations of

a wide-ranging conspiracy to

interfere in the 2016 election

were “moot or without merit.”

The lawsuit, filed in April

2018, alleged the defendants

conspired to hack into the

DNC’s computer network and

strategically leak stolen infor-

mation to undermine Hillary

Clinton’s presidential campaign

and improve Donald Trump’s

odds of winning the election.

The defendants in the law-

suit included Russia and the

country’s military intelligence

agency; WikiLeaks and its

founder, Julian Assange; the

Trump campaign and its one-

time chairman, Paul Manafort;

Mr. Trump’s son Donald Trump

Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kush-

ner and his longtime adviser

Roger Stone, as well as others

involved in the campaign.

In a written opinion issued

Tuesday, U.S. District Judge

John G. Koeltl held that Rus-

sia—which he said is “the pri-

mary wrongdoer in this al-

leged criminal enterprise”—

cannot be sued in U.S. courts

for government actions, under

federal law governing sover-

eign immunity.

“The remedies for hostile

actions by foreign govern-

ments are state actions, in-

cluding sanctions imposed by

the executive and legislative

branches of government,”

Judge Koeltl wrote.

As for the other defendants,

who are accused of dissemi-

nating the stolen materials,

Judge Koeltl said the First

Amendment protects such ac-

tivities, “the same way it

would preclude liability for

press outlets that publish ma-

terials of public interest.”

Adrienne E. Watson,

spokeswoman for the DNC,

said: “At first glance, this

opinion raises serious con-

cerns about our protections

from foreign election interfer-

ence and the theft of private

property to advance the inter-

ests of our enemies.”

In a tweet, President Trump

called the ruling “yet another

total & complete...vindication

& exoneration from the Rus-

sian, WikiLeaks and every

other form of HOAX perpe-

trated by the DNC, Radical

Democrats and others.”

In addition to having the

lawsuit dismissed, the Trump

campaign also sought to have

the DNC and its lawyers sanc-

tioned. Judge Koeltl denied

that bid Tuesday.

BYREBECCADAVISO’BRIEN

DNC Suit

Charging

Conspiracy

Is Tossed

U.S. NEWS

Air Force Gen. John Hyten
made his case Tuesday to be-
come the second-highest rank-
ing U.S. military officer, amid
a cloud of suspicion over alle-
gations of sexual misconduct
levied against him by a female
service member.
Gen. Hyten testified before
the Senate Armed Services
Committee, which is consider-
ing his nomination by Presi-
dent Trump to become the
next vice chairman of the Pen-
tagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The misconduct allegations
loomed over the proceedings.
Gen. Hyten began his testi-
mony by directly addressing
the accusations. “These alle-
gations are false,” he told the
committee. “Nothing hap-
pened. Ever.”
In the past three weeks, his
accuser, Army Col. Kathryn
Spletstoser, has publicly de-
tailed alleged incidents of mis-
conduct between February
2017 and February 2018,
which included unwanted kiss-
ing, touching and rubbing up
against her, according to the
officials.
In a probe this year, Air
Force investigators were un-
able to find evidence of the al-
leged improprieties or wit-
nesses to the misconduct, the
officials said. The Pentagon so
far hasn’t released any portion
of its report on the investiga-
tion, which the officials said is
more than 1,000 pages long.
Col. Spletstoser attended
the hearing, though the com-
mittee declined her request to
testify.
Speaking to reporters after-
ward, she said she felt “sand-
bagged” by the hearing and
feared women will conclude
that they shouldn’t come for-
ward with allegations of abuse
or misconduct because their
claims will be dismissed.

BYNANCYA.YOUSSEF

Pentagon Nominee Denies Claims

Air Force Gen. John Hyten told a Senate panel that sexual-misconduct allegations against him are false. His accuser later said, ‘he lied.’

STEFANI REYNOLDS/CNP/ZUMA PRESS

didates to pay filing fees or

gather a certain number of

signatures.

They couldn’t, however, re-

quire that candidates be Prot-

estant or midwestern, said

Jessica Levinson, a professor

at Loyola Law School in Los

Angeles who focuses on elec-

tion law.

“This looks a little bit like

something in between,” she

said. “Because anybody who

wants to can release their

taxes.”

The California law applies

only to the primary, not the

general election, and that may

become a key legal distinction.

If Mr. Trump doesn’t appear

on the California primary bal-

lot but he wins the Republican

nomination, his name would

still be on the state’s general-

election ballot in November

2020.

Mr. Trump lost in California

in 2016, getting less than 32%

of the vote. And the over-

whelmingly Democratic state

isn’t expected to be competi-

tive for him next year.

Mr. Newsom’s signing state-

ment included opinions from

several prominent lawyers, in-

cluding University of Califor-

nia, Berkeley law school dean

Erwin Chemerinsky arguing

the law is constitutional in

part because it is politically

neutral and helps the state’s

voters be informed.

“This bill is clearly uncon-

stitutional and Gov. Newsom

should have listened to the

concerns of his predecessor,

Gov. [Jerry] Brown, who ve-

toed it two years ago,” said

Jessica Millan Patterson,

chairwoman of the California

Republican Party.

Mr. Brown in his 2017 veto

message said that he worried

the law might be unconstitu-

tional or that it could lead to

other, unwarranted require-

ments for candidates.

During the 2016 campaign,

Mr. Trump said he would re-

lease his tax returns. He

didn’t, breaking a 40-year tra-

dition among major-party can-

didates and presidents.

Democrats have been trying

to pry them loose since then.

—Rebecca Ballhaus

contributed to this article.

California will require pres-
idential candidates to hand
over their tax returns in order
to appear on the state’s pri-
mary-election ballot, setting
up a likely legal conflict with
President Trump over his con-
tinued refusal to disclose any
tax documents.
Under a law signed Tuesday
by Gov. Gavin Newsom, candi-
dates must turn over five
years of tax returns at least 98
days before the March 3 pri-
mary. The state would then re-
lease a redacted version of the
documents.
“These are extraordinary
times and states have a legal
and moral duty to do every-
thing in their power to ensure
leaders seeking the highest of-
fices meet minimal standards,
and to restore public confi-

BYRICHARDRUBIN

California Requires Tax Returns for Primary

The case is likely to

land in federal

court, joining two

other cases.

Democrats

Split on

Policy

People lined up outside the Fox Theatre in Detroit on Tuesday

before the start of the first of two Democratic presidential debates.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

port from Mr. Sanders and Ms.

Warren for proposals to forgive

all student loans and make col-

lege free, instead of making fi-

nancial aid need-based.

“My problem with some of

the plans is they literally

would pay for wealthy kids

and Wall Street kids to go to

college,” she said. “There’s no

difference. Everyone is free. I

don’t think it makes sense.”

Several of the candidates

called for a federal effort to

apologize for slavery and pro-

vide payments to the descen-

dants of enslaved people.

“So many Americans realize

there is an injustice that con-

tinues to form a toxicity un-

derneath the surface, an emo-

tional turbulence that only

reparations will deal with,”

self-help author Marianne Wil-

liamson said.

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke

of Texas, who entered the race

with high expectations but has

had a hard time gaining trac-

tion, struggled to find a break-

out moment on the stage.

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of

South Bend, Ind., showed little

taste for combat in debates.

“It’s time to stop worrying

about what the Republicans

will say,” Mr. Buttigieg said.

“If we embrace a far-left

agenda, they will say we’re

crazy socialist. If we embrace

a conservative agenda, they

will see we’re a bunch of crazy

socialists. Let’s stand up for

the right policy, go up there

and defend it.”

—Julie Bykowicz, Joshua

Jamerson, Eliza Collins,

Jesse Naranjo and Chad Day

contributed to this article.