6 | WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL EDITION
world
President Trump has widened his war
on critics of color with new attacks on
the Rev. Al Sharpton and other political
opponents, even as he has gathered his
own African-American allies at the
White House to defend him against
charges of racism.
In a third straight day of broadsides
against black figures, Mr. Trump de-
nounced Mr. Sharpton on Twitter as “a
con man” who “Hates Whites & Cops,”
and he again assailed Representative
Elijah E. Cummings and his Baltimore-
based district, drawing rebukes from
Maryland Republicans as well as Demo-
crats.
Mr. Trump’s determination to intensi-
fy the furor rather than move on guaran-
teed that it would continue to dominate
the political debate in Washington and
force many of the president’s fellow Re-
publicans to choose whether to stand by
him, break with him or, as most have
done, find a way to keep out of the dis-
cussion.
The president linked the clash with
Mr. Cummings to his earlier demand
that four Democratic congresswomen of
color “go back” to their home countries,
and he cast it in electoral terms. “If the
Democrats are going to defend the Radi-
cal Left ‘Squad’ and King Elijah’s Balti-
more Fail, it will be a long road to 2020,”
he tweeted. “The good news for the
Dems is that they have the Fake News
Media in their pocket!”
To defend himself, Mr. Trump enlisted
a couple of his reliable African-Ameri-
can supporters. He brought a group of
about 20 “Inner City Pastors,” as he
called them, to the White House for a
meeting on Monday about how to help
the black community. Aides said the
event had been planned long before the
fight with Mr. Cummings as part of a bid
by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-
in-law and senior adviser, to win Afri-
can-American votes next year.
But if the White House had hoped for a
show to shield the president from his de-
tractors, it did not materialize. Mr.
Trump, who enjoys inviting news cam-
eras into meetings to showcase his vis-
itors and expound on his views, kept the
encounter behind closed doors, and just
two of those who attended publicly testi-
fied afterward on the White House
driveway to the president’s good faith in
wanting to improve life for African-
Americans.
“The president is concerned about the
whole nation, about everybody in the
nation,” said Alveda C. King, a niece of
the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a
leader of an anti-abortion group who
also belongs to “Women for Trump” and
is a Fox News contributor. “So I want us
to remember that we’ve been designed
to be brothers and sisters. One member
of the human race. Not separate races.”
The Rev. Bill Owens, the founder of
the Coalition of African-American Pas-
tors, a group that opposes same-sexmarriage, said that he found it “hard to
believe” that Mr. Trump was a racist, cit-
ing the president’s support for opportu-
nity zones and an overhaul of criminal
justice laws.
Asked about the president’s attacks
on Mr. Cummings, Mr. Owens de-
murred. “Well, those are his words,” he
said. “I don’t want to second-guess what
he says because I hear a lot of things.”Mr. Trump’s latest tweets provoked
increasingly angry reactions in Balti-
more and increasingly acute concerns
inside the West Wing. Gov. Larry Hogan
of Maryland, a Republican, criticized the
president’s attack on the state’s largest
city as “outrageous and inappropriate,”
and an ally of both Mr. Cummings and
Mr. Trump in the House defended the
congressman against the president.
Several White House officials ex-
pressed agreement during a senior staff
meeting on Monday morning that the
president’s attacks were a bad move, ac-
cording to people informed about the
discussion, but they were uncertain who
could intervene with him — or if anyone
would even dare try.They privately scoffed at the idea that
it was strategy, rather than impulse,
concluding that any political benefit he
might derive by revving up his conser-
vative, largely white base could be offset
by alienating more moderate voters in
the suburbs of states like Wisconsin and
Michigan.
Three advisers said the president
complained about Mr. Cummings
throughout the weekend. Two of those
advisers said the real source of his ire
was the decision by the House
Oversight and Reform Committee,
which Mr. Cummings leads, to authorize
subpoenas for all work-related texts and
emails sent or received by Mr. Kushner
and Ivanka Trump, the president’s elder
daughter and senior adviser, on person-
al accounts.
In taking on Mr. Sharpton, the presi-
dent confronted a fellow veteran of New
York’s often inflammatory racial poli-
tics. Mr. Trump was evidently peeved
that Mr. Sharpton traveled to Baltimore
on Monday to denounce the attacks on
Mr. Cummings.
“I have known Al for 25 years,” Mr.
Trump wrote. “Went to fights with him &
Don King, always got along well. He
‘loved Trump!’ He would ask me for fa-
vors often. Al is a con man, a trouble-
maker, always looking for a score. Just
doing his thing. Must have intimidated
Comcast/NBC. Hates Whites & Cops!”
Mr. Sharpton, a longtime civil rightsleader and MSNBC host, fired back dur-
ing his appearance in Baltimore.
“Called me a troublemaker?” he said.
“Yes, I make trouble for bigots. I made
trouble for him with Central Park. I
made trouble with him for birtherism.
I’m going to keep making trouble for
bigots. As far as me being a con man, if
he really thought I was a con man, he’d
be nominating me for his cabinet.”Mr. Sharpton and Mr. Trump did get
along in the past, even as they clashed
over the case of the Central Park Five
involving black and Hispanic teenagers
who were accused of raping a white
woman but were later exonerated. Mr.
Sharpton grew increasingly critical af-
ter Mr. Trump began falsely accusing
President Barack Obama of having been
secretly born in Kenya.Mr. Sharpton has his own complicated
history on race. He was an outspoken
activist through a string of racially
charged episodes in New York in the
1980s and 1990s, and was regarded in
that era alternately as a champion of so-
cial justice or as a self-promoting provo-
cateur. He drew broad criticism as one of
the most vocal supporters of Tawana
Brawley, an African-American teenager
whose claims of rape by a gang of white
men in 1987 were exposed as a hoax.
Mr. Sharpton has reinvented himself
as a more measured, mainstream na-
tional voice on civil rights, and he ran for
president in 2004. His National Action
Network has become a force on the polit-
ical left and even Mr. Trump twice at-
tended its conventions.
The flare-up with Mr. Sharpton came
after Mr. Trump assailed Mr. Cummings
over the weekend, saying the congress-
man should spend less time criticizing
the president’s handling of detained mi-
grants at the border and more time fix-
ing his “disgusting, rat and rodent in-
fested” district where “no human being
would want to live.”
After he was accused of perpetuating
racist stereotypes about the majority-
black district, Mr. Trump tweeted that it
was Mr. Cummings who was a racist and
that his fellow Democrats were playing
“the Race Card.” On Monday, he nick-
named Mr. Cummings “King Elijah,” ac-
cusing him of “25 years of all talk, no ac-
tion!”
Representative Mark Meadows of
North Carolina, a senior Republican on
Mr. Cummings’s committee and a friend
of the chairman’s, broke his silence on
Monday. Mr. Meadows, who when ac-
cused of racism himself was defended
by Mr. Cummings, sent a text to former
Senator Rick Santorum, a CNN com-
mentator, to read on air.
“No one works harder for his district
than Elijah,” Mr. Meadows said in the
text as read by Mr. Santorum. “He’s pas-
sionate about the people he represents,
and no, Elijah is not a racist. I am friends
with both men, President Trump and
Chairman Cummings. I know them both
well, and neither is a racist.”
Other Republicans rejected the sug-
gestion that Mr. Trump singles out law-
makers of color.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, that’s ridiculous
— no, he does not,” said Senator Kevin
Cramer, Republican of North Dakota. “If
African-American lawmakers are going
after him, he goes after them. If a white
lawmaker goes after him, he goes after
them.”
Mr. Trump has told aides he sees his
latest outbursts as smart strategy. The
president has long been petrified of los-
ing his base, and some aides believe he
will need to maximize turnout from the
voters who helped put him in the White
House the first time given the highly
partisan environment.
Several advisers said they were
aghast that he was making such a target
of Mr. Cummings. If anyone had tried to
persuade the president of that, they
were keeping it to themselves on Mon-
day. But many advisers sounded de-
feated as they talked about a tweet-
storm they hoped would end soon.As attacks build, Trump gathers his black allies
Peter Baker reported from Washington,
and Maggie Haberman from New York.
Emily Cochrane contributed reporting
from Washington.WASHINGTONWidening dispute forces
many Republicans into
a tough choice or silenceBY PETER BAKER
AND MAGGIE HABERMANThe Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime civil rights leader, became the target of attacks by the president after traveling to Baltimore to denounce criticism of a black lawmaker.KENA BETANCUR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGESPresident Trump’s criticism of Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland has
drawn outrage. The president linked the clash to his attack on four congresswomen.DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMESSeveral White House officials
scoffed at the idea that the
attacks were the result of
strategy, rather than impulse.As aides and allies watched Joseph R.
Biden Jr.’s first debate performance last
month, their initial optimism about his
abilities turned to alarm as Senator Ka-
mala Harris laced into him over race
and busing.
It wasn’t just Mr. Biden’s halting an-
swers that worried some of them. They
thought he was showing his age — that,
at 76, he appeared slow off the mark, un-
certain about how to counterpunch, as
he allowed Ms. Harris to land clean hits
without interruption.
Within minutes, aides sent talking
points to supporters titled “regarding
the civil rights exchange,” and had infor-
mation on his record ready for a late-
night conference call. But his top advis-
ers and other Democrats knew his un-
steady response — ending with his list-
less comment that his “time is up” —
would exacerbate questions about
whether Mr. Biden, a veteran debater,
was nimble enough to handle intense
campaign moments or to beat President
Trump on a debate stage next year.
“It felt like he was a step slow,” said
Mike Lux, a Democratic strategist who
was a top Iowa staffer for Mr. Biden dur-
ing his 1988 presidential campaign and
is so far neutral this cycle. “If Joe comes
back strong in the next few debates, I
think it’ll be fine. But I do think he looked
kind of old in this debate. ”
As Mr. Biden prepares for the debate
this Wednesday night, which will in-
clude a rematch with Ms. Harris, he and
his advisers are grappling with how to
make sure he doesn’t appear so shaky,
cognizant that a repeat performance
could do lasting damage to his campaign
and erode his advantage in the polls.
Several advisers emphasized that Mr.
Biden is in excellent health, and said he
would be more prepared to defend his
record and more willing to draw con-
trasts with his opponents than he was at
the June debate.
But interviews recently with morethan 50 Democratic voters and party of-
ficials across four states, as well as with
political strategists and some of Mr. Bi-
den’s own donors, showed significant
unease about Mr. Biden’s ability to be a
reliably crisp and effective messenger
against Mr. Trump.
While the president’s own style of
communicating is often contentious —
his bellicose tweets, his misstatement of
facts, his demeaning language about mi-
norities and immigrants — he has a
largely united Republican Party behind
him. Mr. Biden is still trying to prove
himself to Democrats as their best hopein 2020; many of those interviewed
were most concerned about his agility,
and linked it to the sensitive subject of
Mr. Biden’s age.
Some voters couched their misgiv-
ings in euphemisms about wanting
“new ideas” or “new people.” Some ex-
pressed fears of appearing ageist — a re-
flection of the good will Mr. Biden enjoys
with much of the Democratic rank-and-
file. Others referenced their own lives: If
they have “slowed down” upon reaching
a certain age, the thinking goes, Mr. Bi-
den must have as well. And a few people
were blunt.“Seventy-plus is too old,” said John
Hampel, 68, of West Des Moines, Iowa,
who said he would like to support a cen-
trist candidate. Mr. Biden would fit that
ideological bill, but Mr. Hampel, citing
his own age, continued, “I think he
should pass the torch.”
If elected, Mr. Biden would become
the oldest president in history at his in-
auguration, at 78, surpassing Ronald
Reagan, who was 73 when he began his
second term. Among the other Demo-
crats running for president, Senator
Bernie Sanders is 77 and Senator Eliza-
beth Warren is 70.A Pew Research Center survey from
May found that only 3 percent of Demo-
crats and Democratic leaners said it was
best for a president to be in their 70s; 47
percent preferred someone in their 50s.
Mr. Trump, who would be the oldest
president ever if he wins a second term,
has faced questions about his own phys-
ical and mental fitness for years. He has
handed his critics unceasing fodder,
whether because of his stated aversion
to exercise or his penchant for impul-
sive, offensive and often-invented ob-
servations on all manner of topics.
Despite all that, Mr. Trump is seeking
to turn Mr. Biden’s age into an issue. He
has sniped publicly that Mr. Biden is not
the political athlete he once was, while
being even harsher in private. Meeting
with a group of union officials in the
West Wing this year, the president ap-
pealed for their support, in part by tap-
ping on his head and saying, “Biden is
losing it,” according to a participant in
the meeting who disclosed the presi-
dent’s comment on condition of ano-
nymity. His unsubstantiated attacks on
Mr. Biden, and more muffled disquiet
from some Democratic activists, infuri-
ate Mr. Biden’s friends and advisers and
are contrary to the view of Mr. Biden’s
doctor, Kevin O’Connor.
“Vice President Biden is in excellent
physical condition,” said Dr. O’Connor, a
retired Army colonel, who served as a
White House physician and was named
physician to the vice president in 2009.
“He is more than capable of handling the
rigors of the campaign and the office for
which he is running.”
Mr. Biden’s allies describe him as a fit-
ness fanatic and reasonably disciplined
eater who also enjoys ice cream and
cheeseburgers. As vice president, he fa-
vored staples like yogurt and juice, sal-
ads with protein and for dinner, pasta or
fish, said John Flynn, who served as mil-
itary aide, personal aide and as a senior
adviser to the then-vice president over
the course of about five years. Mr. Flynn
added that he sometimes briefed Mr. Bi-
den at the gym.“I work out every morning,” Mr. Bi-
den said this month. “I usually work on
the Peloton bike, and I lift.”
His aides insist that Mr. Biden has
more energy than they do. At a South
Carolina fish fry last month, allies note,
he outlasted rivals in greeting voters
late into the night. Senator Lindsey Gra-
ham, the South Carolina Republican,
has also vouched for Mr. Biden’s vigor,
saying on CBS in April, “if you travel
with Joe Biden, you won’t think he’s too
old.”
But for all of the energy Mr. Biden can
exude, he is also prone to uneven per-
formances. He is often warm and empa-
thetic toward voters — many of whom
emphasized that with age comes experi-
ence — and was quick and humorous at
a news conference in Portsmouth, N.H.,
this month. Yet he also meanders and
sometimes speaks so softly at events
that it can be difficult for attendees to
hear. After Mr. Biden tripped over a few
lines while addressing Planned Parent-
hood activists last month in Columbia,
S.C., one audience member, Marda Ko-
rnhaber, tried to be delicate.
“He didn’t come off, I’m trying not to
let the age thing,” Ms. Kornhaber, a hu-
man resources executive from Char-
lotte, N.C., said before stopping herself.
“But he did seem like he bumbled a few
times. That leaves me a little sad.”
It is unclear if the former vice presi-
dent’s aides want him to say anything
that will draw more attention to his age.
But Mr. Biden often says that it is fair to
raise the issue — and he has sought to
make light of it, even joking about chal-
lenging Mr. Trump to a push-up contest.
“I find it fascinating, they talk about
pass the torch, it’s the time,” Mr. Biden
said at a fund-raiser in California, where
he spoke in broad strokes about the
Democratic field. “And then they talk
about me being naïve. I thought at least
they’d give me credit that if I was that
old I wasn’t naïve.”Democrats fret as candidate’s age becomes an issue
Reid J. Epstein contributed reporting
from Des Moines.BY KATIE GLUECK
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