The Washington Post - 09.11.2019

A6 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAy, NOVEMbER 9 , 2019

BY KEVIN WILLIAMS AND TIM CRAIG

ALEXANDRIA, Ky. — Bonnie
Cronin proudly calls herself “a
staunch Republican,” an avid
supporter of President Trump
and a conservative on key issues
in national politics.
But she turned against her
state’s Republican governor this
week. While Cronin voted for
Gov. Matt Bevin in 2015, she cast
an unapologetic vote for his
Democratic challenger on Tues-
day. Enough Kentucky Republi-
cans followed suit to deny Bevin
reelection, a shift that many
political analysts view as an
unsettling sign for two other
Republicans who need suburban
support to win reelection next
year: Trump and Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
But in the southern suburbs of
Cincinnati, traditionally more
conservative than other subur-
ban areas, Republicans say their
vote against Bevin has little to do
with their views on national
politics. Cronin, for one, remains
supportive of Trump and doubts
McConnell is at risk of repeating
Bevin’s fate.
“The differences between vot-
ing for a Democrat governor and
a Democrat senator is having the
ability to vote on national is-
sues,” said Cronin, 59, listing the
state matters on which Bevin
disappointed her.
“He made promises that he

wasn’t keeping. He said he was pro-education but brought in charter schools,” said Cronin, a retired school speech therapist. “His whole attitude was that you had to bend to his will.” Even as Kentucky’s contested gubernatorial election grinds on, pending a recanvass of the votes, Democrat Andy Beshear’s appar- ent v ictory over B evin i s sparking intense debate here about whether the results were an anomaly or a sign the political winds may be shifting, even slightly, in this Republican-lean- ing state. The current vote has Beshear defeating Bevin by about 5, votes, a win that included flip- ping several suburban counties from red to blue. Whether those communities will stay blue is a key question as the state heads toward a potentially competitive U. S. Senate race next year, with Democrat Amy McGrath, a retired Marine and combat pilot, campaigning to unseat McCon- nell. There is little doubt that Trump will win Kentucky in 2020, but in this suburban part of the state, where new housing developments packed with well- educated voters meet the tobac- co fields and the hills of Appala- chia, the results of Tuesday’s election contain a potential re d flag for Republicans nationwide. The fast-growing counties of

Boone, Campbell and Kenton have traditionally been solidly Republican, and Trump won a combined 62 percent of the vote in 2016 after he swept all three. In 2015, Bevin carried those three counties by a combined 16,500 votes after he won about 59 percent of the vote. On Tuesday, Beshear flipped Campbell and Kenton counties amid a surge in turnout that was replicated statewide in urban and suburban communities. As a result, Bevin’s overall margin in suburban Cincinnati cratered to just 3,745 votes. D. Stephen Voss, an associate political science professor at the University of Kentucky, said the results in northern Kentucky as well as in Fayette County, which includes Lexington and University of Kentucky, should worry Republicans nationwide. Beshear won about 73,000 votes in Fayette County — about 4, more votes than even Democrat Hillary Clinton won there during the higher-turnout 2016 presi- dential election. “The problems the GOP na- tionally faced in 2018 have carried over to 2019 in Kentucky,” Voss said. “This is yet another election where there was a rebel- lion against the GOP among educated, relatively affluent, c enter-right communities, and if that happens in 2020, not only are Republicans going to suffer a bloodbath nationwide, they will

need to start worrying about a permanent realignment.” But Kentucky Republicans note the party’s losses Tuesday were limited to the governor's election. GOP candidates easily won five other statewide, nonju- dicial races, including Daniel Cameron in the race for attorney general. Cameron is a former aide to McConnell, and his un- successful Democratic challenger attempted to link him to his former boss. And they note that Kentucky has a long tradition of electing Democratic governors. Bevin was only the state’s second Re- publican governor in 50 years. In Beshear, son of former Demo- cratic governor Steve Beshear, Kentucky voters found a known quantity whose moderate posi- tions on gun control and abor- tion made him palatable. For those reasons, some Re- publican voters here say Bevin’s loss was not a referendum on the GOP. At Ingram Spare-Time Grill, a cozy mom-and-pop restaurant serving up fluffy omelets and slabs of bacon, diners still think that McConnell, who has been in office since 1985, will coast to reelection next year. “I don’t think McConnell is vulnerable. Realistically, this is a Republican state; the urban cen- ters are up for grabs, but that is all,” said Keith Brown, 57, a health-care worker who lives in

this suburb 15 miles south of Cincinnati. He voted for Bevin both times he was on the ballot. During his four years in office, Bevin got in a high-profile spat with teachers over pay raises and pensions, triggering an army of educators to campaign heavily against him. Voters also ex- pressed displeasure with the way Bevin handled other local issues, including plans to replace the aging Brent Spence Bridge, the main span connecting the state to Ohio. A few days before the election, he pitched tolling the bridge, which was highly unpop- ular with voters. Heather Lawson, 32, and a grill cook at Spare-Time, said it was the local issues that soured her on Bevin after she voted for him in 2015. “I didn’t vote for [Bevin] because of what he was d oing t o the teachers, taking away their pensions,” Lawson said. That displeasure has not transferred to Trump or McConnell, she said. “I will vote for him in 2020,” she said of Trump. Cara Ryver, a middle school teacher in Flemingsburg, an hour southeast of Cincinnati, also said her vote against Bevin on Tuesday had nothing to do with Trump. A lot of people in Kentucky’s educational ecosys- tem felt “hoodwinked” by the governor, she said. “As soon as he started running his mouth about teachers, it

didn’t take long for us to see the real Bevin,” s aid Ryver, 38. Unlike Beshear, McGrath would have an uphill climb trying to unseat McConnell, she said. Other voters agree. “I really think this is a one-off thing. I think McConnell has been around long enough and has enough support that I don’t really see it working the same way for [McGrath] that it did for Beshear,” says Winchester resi- dent Tim Toews, 40, and a train- ing coordinator at a hemp pro- cessing plant. Toews said he voted for Bevin in 2015 but not on Tuesday, citing his treatment of teachers. “The state has a history of giving Republican governors a chance every once in a while, a nd then they do something dumb and lose it,” Toews says. But Voss, the political science professor at the University of Kentucky, noted a region doesn’t realign from one party to another overnight. As was the case in Northern Virginia, Voss said it takes voters time to become comfortable voting for another party, and that is why he said Kentucky Republicans should be nervous about Tuesday’s out- come. “People will vote against a party a couple times, without realigning, but eventually, that becomes a habit,” Voss said. [email protected]

Ky. Republicans who turned against Bevin say they still support Trump

try to ensure that. Credico said in court Friday that Stone influenced his deci- sion not to testify before the committee. “A lot of people played a role,” he said, “Mr. Stone among them.” Trial evidence shows Stone texted Credico in April 2018: “You are a rat. A stoolie. You backstab your friends-run your mouth my lawyers are dying Rip you to shreds.” Stone later added: “I am so ready. Let’s get it on. Prepare to die.” At one point, Stone texted Credico that he would “take that dog away from you,” according to trial evidence. Credico said he was “sure” Stone knew how important his therapy dog Bianca was to him when he sent that message. But later when questioned by Stone’s defense lawyer, Credico said he never really feared for Bianca’s safety. Credico said he was more concerned about jeopardizing the reputation of his friend Mar- garet Kuntsler, who did legal work for WikiLeaks and helped Credico land an Aug. 25, 2016, interview with Assange for his radio show. Once, on Stone’s behalf, Credico said he asked her for WikiLeaks’ help finding emails implicating Clinton in an incident in Libya. Kuntsler testified that she ignored the message, but Credico said Stone threatened to falsely name her as his “backchannel.” Credico described Stone re- peatedly asking him to “do a Frank Pentangeli,” referring to a

character from “The Godfather: Part II” who is intimidated into saying at a Senate hearing that he cannot recall information he actually knows. The defense has suggested that Stone was asking Credico to use his skills as a comic impres- sionist to imitate Pentangeli. Credico testified he understood the references as a direction to “throw... off the House Intelli- gence Committee.” Credico told the jury that directive made no sense because “there’s a ton of photos and text messages.... If I did a Frank Pentangeli, I would look like a fool.” But Credico said he was worried that if he testified hon- estly, he might become the vic- tim of “some kind of smear job” by Stone. On cross-examination, Stone’s attorney painted Credico as a liar who made Stone believe he had a close connection to Assange. Credico readily admitted: “There were exaggerations, there were lies, there were rebuffs, yes.” The defense tried to argue that Credico refused to testify before the House committee not because Stone threatened him but because of his own liberal political leanings. “You did not want to be associated with the Donald Trump campaign?” Buschel asked. “A bsolutely. Would you?” Cred- ico replied, adding later: “I did not want to be connected with Donald Tr ump at all.” [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

BY RACHEL WEINER, SPENCER S. HSU AND DEVLIN BARRETT

President Trump’s former
chief strategist Stephen K. Ban-
non testified against political
consultant Roger Stone on Fri-
day, telling a federal jury that he
thought of Stone as the Trump
campaign’s liaison to the anti-
secrecy group WikiLeaks.
Bannon, a high-profile figure
in the Trump campaign and the
early days of the Trump adminis-
tration, told the jury he was
appearing only because he had
been subpoenaed.
While Bannon was one of the
most anticipated witnesses at
Stone’s trial for allegedly lying to
Congress about his efforts in
2016 to contact WikiLeaks, he
was also one of the briefest,
spending l ess than an hour under
direct examination by prosecu-
tors.
His testimony bolstered the
government’s allegations that
Stone lied to the House commit-
tee investigating Russian elec-
tion interference when he denied
discussing with the Trump cam-
paign WikiLeaks’ release of
emails damaging to political rival
Hillary Clinton.
“He had a relationship, or told
me he had a relationship with
WikiLeaks,” Bannon said. “It was

something I think he would fre- quently mention.” “I was led to believe he had a relationship with WikiLeaks and [its founder] Julian Assange,” Bannon testified, based on Stone’s public statements and conversations going back years. Stone and Bannon had known each other for a long time before Bannon joined the Trump campaign in August 2016, and they spoke between a half-dozen and a dozen times between then and the November election, Bannon testified. Bannon said he discussed WikiLeaks with Stone as Stone was trying to learn more about hacked emails that might tank Clinton’s e lection run. The emails were stolen by Russian agents and shared with WikiLeaks, which released them at critical points in the 2016 election cycle, according to prosecutors. After releases in summer 2016, Stone emailed Bannon, writing that “Trump can still win, but time is running out,” a ccording to a copy of the message shown to jurors. “I know how to win, but it ain’t pretty.” Asked what Bannon understood Stone’s email to mean, Bannon noted Stone’s claimed WikiLeaks connection and said: “Roger is an expert in the t ougher side of politics. When you’re this

Bannon: Stone claimed

contacts with WikiLeaks

BY RICK MAESE AND MIKE DEBONIS

A college wrestling referee says
he reported sexual misconduct
involving a former doctor who’s
been accused of sexually abusing
nearly 300 men over a 17-year
period to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-
Ohio), a former assistant wres-
tling coach at Ohio State. The
congressman was dismissive, ac-
cording to a lawsuit filed Thurs-
day in federal court, and the doc-
tor, Richard Strauss, continued to
treat and abuse students at the
school.
Ohio State University says it’s
aware of 1,429 instances of fon-
dling and 47 instances of rape
involving Strauss, who commit-
ted suicide in 2005. Thursday’s
filing marks the 13th lawsuit
against the school.
Jordan has found himself at t he
periphery of the controversy be-
cause some former wrestlers have
said he was aware — or should
have been aware — of Strauss’s
misconduct. Jordan has denied
any knowledge of the abuse and
did so again on Friday.
“Congressman Jordan never
saw o r heard of any kind of sexual
abuse, and if he had he would’ve
dealt with it,” s aid Jordan spokes-
man Ian Fury. “Multiple investi-
gations have confirmed this sim-

ple fact.” The lawsuit comes as Jordan, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Commit- tee, has taken a leading role in the House impeachment inquiry of President Trump as perhaps Trump’s most aggressive defend- er. Inside numerous closed-door interviews over the past six weeks, Jordan and a senior Over- sight Committee aide reporting to him led GOP questioning. On Friday, Jordan was named to the House Intelligence Com- mittee, giving the stalwart Trump ally a key role in the president’s defense at public hearings on his potential impeachment. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in a statement that the move was temporary. To p House lawmakers of both parties have largely kept quiet about the Ohio State allegations, allowing investigations to play out. When the university issued a report in May finding that investigators could not make “conclu- sive determinations” about whether particular employees knew of Strauss’s conduct, Jordan claimed vindication. “You guys know me,” he told reporters at t he time. “If I thought one of our athletes was being harmed... I’d have done something.” The latest lawsuit includes 43 men who said they were abused by Strauss. Many are identified as John Doe, including a longtime referee who recounted an incident in either 1994 or 1995, in which the school paid him to work an event at its St. John

Arena. The complaint says the man entered the locker room to change and shower after referee- ing the match. Strauss also came in, and both men were in an open shower room with several shower heads along each wall. They were the only two in there, but Strauss chose to shower next to the referee. “Before he knew it, [the referee] realized that some part of Dr.

Strauss’s body was touching him,” the lawsuit states. “[The referee] looked up and saw Dr. Strauss masturbating while staring right at [him].” The lawsuit says the referee recoiled and said, “What the hell, doctor?” He exited the shower and Strauss followed, according to the lawsuit, saying, “You have a nice penis and physique, there’s nothing wrong with the human body.”

The complaint states that the referee told Strauss his behavior was inappropriate and reported the incident to a pair of Ohio State coaches, including Jordan. “They responded, ‘Yeah, that’s Strauss,’ ” t he complaint states. In May, an independent inves- tigation paid for by Ohio State identified at least 177 male students who said they were abused by Strauss from 1979 to 1996. Even before the report, many for-

mer wrestlers from the school had publicly said that Jordan should have been aware of the abuse, given his position on the coaching staff and widespread rumors about Strauss. Jordan was an assistant at the school from 1987 to

That May report said that
many students had made com-
plaints and many Ohio State em-
ployees were informed of
Strauss’s actions, but it did not
name Jordan.
The report, which was written
by the Seattle law firm Perkins
Coie, said that with one exception,
investigators couldn’t make “con-
clusive determinations” about
whether coaches were aware of
complaints regarding Strauss’s al-
leged sexual misconduct.
Thursday’s lawsuit marks at
the least the second time that
someone suing the school has
said he reported Strauss’s miscon-
duct to Jordan, who has not been
named as a defendant in any of
the lawsuits.
Former wrestler Dunyasha
Ye tts has told NBC News that he
reported to Jordan and the team’s
former head coach that Strauss
attempted to pull down his pants
when the wrestler sought treat-
ment for a thumb injury. Yetts was
part of a lawsuit filed against the
school in June, though Jordan
was not named in the complaint.
“It’s good that people are start-
ing to come forward and say the
truth, which is that Jordan and
the other coaches knew what was
going on and they blew it off,”
Ye tts told NBC News on Thursday.
[email protected]
[email protected]

Jordan again accused of dismissing misconduct claims

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), center, was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State from 198 7 to 1995. In a lawsuit, a referee says Jordan dismissed his report that the team doctor acted inappropriately.

Congressman has denied knowing about abuse by Ohio State doctor

far behind, you’re going to have to use every tool in the tool box

... opposition research, dirty
tricks, the kind of things cam-
paigns use when you need to
make up some ground.”
On cross-examination by
Stone’s lawyer Robert Buschel,
Bannon conceded that Stone
never claimed to him that he had
advance access to the hacked
emails.
Stone, 67, listened intently, as
he has throughout the trial. A
longtime confidant of Trump’s,
he has pleaded not guilty, and his
attorneys have said any misstate-
ments he made to Congress were
unintentional.
Earlier in the day, f ormer radio
show host Randy Credico de-
scribed on the witness stand how

Stone urged him not to talk to Congress about their election year conversations. Credico said Stone threatened to damage the career of a close friend and even take away his dog. Stone is also accused of witness tampering for allegedly trying to thwart Credico’s testimony to Congress. Jurors have seen Stone’s w ords in texts and emails, but Credico described how he understood Stone’s increasingly angry messages. Prosecutors say Stone lied to protect the president when questioned in 2017 about WikiLeaks and the campaign. To keep the committee from unraveling those lies, prosecutors have said, Stone needed Credico to keep quiet and resorted to threats to

AL DRAGO/ASSOCIATED PRESS Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, arrives Friday to testify at political consultant Roger Stone’s trial.

The Washington Post - 09.11.2019

Get our desktop app

Company

Features

Documentation

Resources