The Washington Post - USA (2022-06-12)

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CONTENT © 2022

The Washington Post / Year 145, No. 189

‘Hardening’

schools When we

reimagine public

space as a fortress,

we lose OUTLOOK

Tech faceoff

The Netherlands

confronts Meta

over plan for data

center BUSINESS

Kids in the cage

Regulated in some

states, banned in

others, youth MMA

is on the rise SPORTS

$ 102

ABCDE

Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington. M2 V1 V2 V3 V

Warmer, thunderstorm 81/71 • Tomorrow: Warmer 90/74 C14 Democracy Dies in Darkness SUNDAY, JUNE 12 , 2022. $3.

7

MICHAEL S. WILLIAMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST

Angela Rubino squirts fuel into a fire in her yard in Rome, Ga., so that participants

in a Republican meeting on a chilly morning can warm themselves.

Trying to survive pro-impeachment vote:

S.C. Republican will fight to keep his seat. A

Ex-president pushes back: Ivanka Trump’s

testimony exposes family strain. A

BY JEFF STEIN

With the average price of gas

nationwide topping $5 per gallon

Saturday, surging fuel prices

across the United States are creat-

ing new strains for millions of

consumers and businesses, while

compounding intractable politi-

cal challenges for the Biden ad-

ministration.

The spike in gas, oil and diesel

prices has saddled all kinds of

businesses with higher costs that

will force them to raise prices on

their customers and pull back on

new investments. It risks a slow-

down in consumer demand, as

households cut back on other

expenditures to accommodate

their new fuel costs. Gas purchas-

es on their own make up only a

relatively small portion of most

families’ budgets, but energy is so

crucial to the functioning of the

economy more broadly that the

price increases bring along high-

er prices in many other sectors.

The soaring prices show no

sign of abating in the immediate

future, as global forces continue

to prevent disrupted supply from

keeping up with strong demand

from countries that are rebound-

ing quickly from the pandemic.

Western sanctions against Russia

over its invasion of Ukraine have

wreaked havoc with global energy

markets, but the most dramatic

measure — the European Union’s

ban on Russian oil imports — will

not even go into effect until the

end of this year. Gas prices could

also be further pushed up by

drivers hitting the road for sum-

mer vacations, and the lifting of

covid restrictions in some Chi-

nese cities is expected to lead to

rebounding fuel demand there,

putting further upward pressure

on prices internationally.

SEE GAS PRICES ON A

Soaring gas prices

vex consumers

and White House

$5 PER GALLON, WITH NO SIGN OF ABATING

Key domestic threat facing Biden before midterms

BY MICHAEL SCHERER,

JOSH DAWSEY

AND ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER

One day last month, Mike Pence

secretly huddled with some of

Michigan’s top donors, including

the kingmaking DeVos family, as

he pitched his vision for the Re-

publican Party before flying to

Georgia to campaign against for-

mer president Donald Trump’s

choice for governor.

Tom Cotton, the Republican

senator from Arkansas, has devel-

oped a long PowerPoint presenta-

tion about how previous candida-

cies for president failed — and has

shown it to donors and others

during meetings on how he would

run a successful campaign.

Advisers and allies of Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis, meanwhile,

have discussed the margins for his

2022 reelection that would help

put him in position to run for

president in 2024 — aiming to beat

the three percentage point margin

that separated Trump and Presi-

dent Biden in the state in 2020.

With months to go before the

midterm elections, the shadow

campaign for the 2024 Republican

nomination is well underway,

with at least 15 potential candi-

dates traveling the country, draw-

ing up plans, huddling with do-

nors or testing out messages at

various levels of preparation. The

quadrennial circus — described by

more than 20 people with direct

knowledge who spoke on the con-

dition of anonymity to discuss pri-

vate machinations — has kicked

into gear despite the public hints

from Trump that he too plans to

join the scrum “a third time.”

SEE REPUBLICANS ON A

Shadow race underway

for 202 4 GOP flag-bearer

At least 15 contenders are

weighing presidential

bids, e ven if Trump runs

BY ROBYN DIXON

riga, latvia — As President
Vladimir Putin’s war against
Ukraine drags on, Russia’s teach-
ers are being turned into front-
line soldiers in an information
war designed to mold children
into loyal, militarized national-
ists. The nation’s powerful secu-
rity chiefs, leading propagandists
and parliamentary hard-liners
are pushing radical changes to
the education system, as the Edu-
cation Ministry takes a back seat.
Schools have been ordered to
conduct “patriotic” classes par-
roting the Kremlin line on the
war, and teachers who refuse
have been fired. Textbooks are
being purged of almost all refer-
ences to Ukraine and its capital,
Kyiv.
Russia’s parliament rejected as
unsatisfactory the Education
Ministry’s plan on how it would
review history textbooks, calling
this a matter of “national secu-
rity” and asking the head of
SEE RUSSIA ON A

Russia foists

propaganda

onto youths,

history books

former president Richard M.

Nixon and former president

Donald Trump also are clearly

identifiable, from their ruthless-

ness to the win-at-any-cost calcu-

lus of their politics. That their

presidencies played out differ-

ently — Nixon resigned amid

impeachment proceedings;

Trump served his entire term

and may seek another despite

twice being impeached, al-

though not convicted — is testa-

ment to a more deeply polarized

electorate, the erosion in the

strength of democratic institu-

tions and the transformation

and radicalization of the Repub-

lican Party.

SEE WATERGATE ON A

BY DAN BALZ

On Friday, America will mark

the 50th anniversary of the Wa-

tergate break-in. The scandal that

riveted the nation and forced the

resignation of a president is

taught in schools as a dark chap-

ter in history. It is more than that,

however. Its legacies have shaped

the conduct of politics and public

attitudes toward government

ever since.

Watergate, along with the Viet-

nam War, marked a dividing line

between old and new, ushering in

a changed landscape for politics

and public life — from a period in

which Americans trusted their

government to a period in which

that trust was broken and never

truly restored. “It’s a hugely im-

portant historic moment,” said

Julian Zelizer, a historian and

professor at Princeton University.

“And we entered a new era when

it was over.”

Though not a straight line by

any means, the links between

Watergate happened 50 years ago.

Its legacies echo to this very day.

The events

involving

President

Richard M.

Nixon shook

the nation’s

trust in its

government.

March for Our Lives

AMANDA ANDRADE-RHOADES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Thousands converged on the National Mall on Saturday to rally against gun violence. The

gathering was interrupted when some in the crowd panicked after they said they heard a man yell

“gun” during a moment of silence. Police said no weapons were found. Story, C

BY STEPHANIE MCCRUMMEN

IN ROME, GA.

“Jesus,” she said to herself, spot-

ting two clear bags full of shredded

paper.

She leaned further, balancing

herself to keep from pitching in,

grabbed the bags and jumped

down. She checked her clothes for

flecks of rust and bits of trash, and

then she drove the bags back to her

house, a neat, whitewashed Colo-

nial in a part of America where it

had become normal to believe

elections were stolen, that evi-

dence of this could be in a dump-

ster and that retrieving it was a

daring act of patriotism.

And that was how Rubino

thought of herself as she pulled

into her gravel driveway, as a

SEE CONSPIRACIST ON A

The town crier

In Ga., a voter known as

‘Burnitdown’ portends where

Trump’s movement is going

T

he dumpster was at the end

of a parking lot alongside

the county election office.

It was stained, rusted and

dented, and Angela Rubino sus-

pected that it contained evidence

of the corruption and moral decay

she had come to believe was grip-

ping the country. She’d been to the

election office and heard the shred-

der going. She’d never been in a

dumpster before, but this is what

the times required. Extreme mea-

sures.

It was a Monday night with

nobody around. She gripped the

side of the metal container and

pulled herself up, and as she leaned

over the edge and looked inside,

she felt a rush of vindication.