The New York Times - USA (2020-07-28)

THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALTUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020 Y A

WASHINGTON — An hour be-
fore Dr. Anthony S. Fauci threw
the first pitch at the season opener
between the New York Yankees
and the Washington Nationals,
President Trump stood on the
briefing room stage at the White
House and declared that he, too,
had been invited to throw out his
own opening pitch.
“Randy Levine is a great friend
of mine from the Yankees,” Mr.
Trump, referring to the president
of the baseball team, told report-
ers on Thursday as Dr. Fauci was
preparing to take the mound.
“And he asked me to throw out the
first pitch, and I think I’m doing
that on Aug. 15 at Yankee Sta-
dium.”
There was one problem: Mr.
Trump had not actually been invit-
ed on that day by the Yankees, ac-
cording to a person with knowl-
edge of Mr. Trump’s schedule. His
announcement surprised both
Yankees officials and the White
House staff.
But Mr. Trump had been so an-
noyed by Dr. Fauci’s turn in the
limelight, an official familiar with
his reaction said, that he had di-
rected his aides to call Yankees of-
ficials and make good on a long-
time standing offer from Mr. Le-
vine to throw out an opening pitch.
But no date was ever finalized.
After his announcement, White
House aides scrambled to let the
team know that the president was

actually booked on Aug. 15, al-

though they have not said what he

plans to do. Over the weekend, Mr.

Trump officially canceled.

“Because of my strong focus on

the China Virus, including sched-

uled meetings on Vaccines, our

economy and much else, I won’t

be able to be in New York to throw

out the opening pitch for the

@Yankees on August 15,” Mr.

Trump wrote on Twitter on Sun-

day, using a racist name for the co-

ronavirus. “We will make it later

in the season!”

And so continues the tense rela-

tionship between Mr. Trump, a

president who hates sharing me-

dia attention and Dr. Fauci, a re-

nowned infectious disease expert

who doesn’t mind the spotlight.

He appeared this month in a

spread in InStyle magazine,

lounging (fully clothed) poolside.

To be sure, there are bigger

problems on either man’s plate:

Mr. Trump is struggling to explain

his administration’s missteps on a

pandemic that has killed more

than 140,000 Americans. Dr. Fauci

is struggling to assert himself as a

public health-minded voice of an

administration that seems to have

little interest in science and some-

times even less interest in him.

Both men are baseball fans. Mr.

Trump grew up playing the sport,

and Dr. Fauci, with his Washing-

ton Nationals-themed coro-

navirus mask, has nearly reached

alternate mascot status. Both are

ostensibly too busy to be bogged

down with baseball rivalries, but

when Dr. Fauci was announced as

opening day pitcher for the Na-

tionals last Monday, Mr. Trump

was annoyed at the attention Dr.

Fauci received, an administration

official familiar with his reaction

said.

This is not the first time Mr.

Trump has made such a request to

fend off a potential upstaging. In

April, the day before Vice Presi-

dent Mike Pence was to speak at

the Air Force commencement cer-

emony in Colorado, Mr. Trump

suddenly announced that he

would be speaking at West Point.

That was news to officials at West

Point.

Last week, Dr. Fauci was deter-

mined to come to the Nationals

mound prepared. Growing up in

Brooklyn, he played shortstop on

a local Catholic youth team. Days

before the pitch on Thursday, he

went to Horace Mann, an elemen-

tary school in northwest Washing-

ton, to rehearse on the lawn.

“I pitched and pitched,” he said

in an interview on Monday. “I

threw my arm out. I hadn’t thrown

a baseball literally in decades. Af-

ter I practiced my arm was hang-

ing around my feet.”

But he said he made a fatal er-

ror. Without a baseball field at the

school to practice on, he had to

measure 60 feet — the distance

from a major-league mound to

home plate — himself, and acci-

dentally came up around 20 feet

short.

Once he arrived on the mound

at Nationals Park, he realized the

vast expanse, and his visit went

south. He cocked his arm back

only slightly, crooked, and flung

the ball diagonally into the grass,

far from Sean Doolittle, the Na-

tionals player assigned to catch

the pitch.

“He looked to me like he was

like 500 feet away. That made me

throw it much harder than I had

been practicing,” Dr. Fauci said. “I

completely miscalculated the dis-

tance from the mound.”

Dr. Fauci said his invitation

from the Nationals came weeks

ago as a thank you from Ted Lern-

er’s family, which owns the team,

after he advised them and club of-

ficials on the correct protocols for

testing and staying safe while

playing.

Dr. Fauci’s broadcast appear-

ances are generally controlled by

the White House, but the appear-

ance at Nationals Park did not

have to go through the usual clear-

ance process at the National Insti-

tutes of Health, which takes in his

other media and event requests.

Asked whether he had advice if

Mr. Trump were able to confirm a

date with the Yankees, Dr. Fauci

said the president should be sure

to “throw high” and with “a big

loft.”

“The worst thing to do is bounce

it like I did,” he said.

Off the baseball field, Dr. Fauci’s

star turn has not gone over as well

in the White House.

In past weeks, he has ques-

tioned senior administration offi-

cials about the effort to curb his

television appearances, and he

has criticized other officials who

have made disparaging remarks

about him.

“I think they realize now that

that was not a prudent thing to do,

because it’s only reflecting nega-

tively on them,” Dr. Fauci said this

month of White House aides, in-

cluding Peter Navarro, Mr.

Trump’s trade adviser who wrote

an op-ed questioning Dr. Fauci’s

credibility.

As the prominence of the coro-

navirus task force faded in recent

weeks, he was left out of a new

group of White House officials

that meets on the virus, led by Jar-

ed Kushner, the president’s son-

in-law and senior adviser, and Dr.

Deborah L. Birx, the coronavirus

response coordinator.

First Pitch Was on His Mind

If Not on Anyone’s Calendar

By KATIE ROGERS

and NOAH WEILAND

President Trump, with the retired Yankee Mariano Rivera last

week, had said he planned to travel to the Bronx on Aug. 15.

DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — Melania
Trump, the first lady, announced
on Monday a plan renovate the
White House Rose Garden, a sig-
nature showcase of power used by
presidents for decades, as her
husband enters a crucial stretch
of his re-election effort.
The project, which includes
electrical upgrades for television
appearances, a new walkway and
new flowers and shrubs, is meant
to be an “act of expressing hope
and optimism for the future,” ac-
cording to remarks Mrs. Trump
delivered to the Committee for the
Preservation of the White House
on Monday morning. “Our coun-
try has seen difficult times before,
but the White House and the Rose
Garden have always stood as a
symbol of our strength, resilience
and continuity.”
Mrs. Trump’s husband has not
exactly focused on those princi-
ples during his many appearances
in the Rose Garden, repeatedly
breaking norms on how presi-
dents use the space as it has be-
come his preferred venue for an-
nouncing executive actions,
boasting about the economy and
extending political battles.
Over the course of his term,
President Trump has ushered re-
porters into the garden in 40-de-
gree weather to rail against Dem-
ocratic leaders and announce an
end to a record-length govern-
ment shutdown. He has hosted
gatherings with his fans, who
have picked profanity-laced fights
with journalists among the roses.
Lately, largely confined to the
White House and struggling to re-
spond to the dire economic and
public health consequences of the
coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Trump
has taken to delivering me-
andering news conferences in 90-
degree heat. Aides say he believes
the natural lighting favors his
complexion.
Mrs. Trump’s project is taking
place as Mr. Trump is employing
the so-called Rose Garden strat-
egy, coined by political strategists
to describe the tactics incumbent
presidents use to bolster their
campaign efforts: ceremonial
signings, dedications, executive
announcements and, yes, press
availabilities in the Rose Garden.
But with his campaign-rally-like
appearances, Mr. Trump has
pushed the boundaries further
than his predecessors.
“It’s just such a traditional ven-
ue when a president wants to get
national attention for something
he’s doing or something he’s say-
ing,” Lori Cox Han, who teaches

political science at Chapman Uni-

versity in California and has writ-

ten about how presidents use the

Rose Garden, said in an interview.

“There’s not a lot that’s been tradi-

tional about this presidency or

about how we view the president

or the first lady, but for Melania,

this is one of those opportunities

to be seen as a traditional first

lady.”

Mrs. Trump’s project, which

will be supported by the National

Park Service and funded by pri-

vate donations, according to the

White House, began in earnest

last year and should take three

weeks to complete, an administra-

tion official said.

Updates to the electrical infra-

structure will make it easier to

televise the president. According

to a landscape report submitted

by the preservation committee

and shared with The New York

Times, the plan will also add two

limestone walkways, one to the in-

ner perimeter of the garden. The

second, 85 feet long with a dia-

mond pattern, will stretch from

the Palm Room to the south

grounds.

The plan will also replace crab

apple trees with white rose shrubs

and add new drainage systems. A

new assortment of white “J.F.K.”

and pale pink “peace” roses will

also be planted.

“In a way, the metaphor of open-

ness and improved access became

our overall plan concept,” Perry

Guillot, the landscape architect

overseeing the project, wrote in a

memo summarizing the changes.

The half-acre Rose Garden has

undergone several iterations

since it was first introduced in

1913 by Ellen Axson Wilson, the

first wife of President Woodrow

Wilson, but most Americans asso-

ciate it with a redesign that began

in 1961, when President John F.

Kennedy enlisted Rachel Lambert

Mellon, a socialite and family

friend, to assist Jacqueline Ken-

nedy with revamping the garden.

Mrs. Mellon, known as Bunny,

designed a large rectangular

space bordered by two diamond-

pattern planting beds. That de-

sign was studded with boxwood

shrubs, magnolia and crab apple

trees, and — of course — pale

pink, yellow and white roses.

Completed in 1962 over about four

weeks, Mrs. Mellon’s redesign set

the standard for updates since.

(Nancy Reagan again consulted

with Mrs. Mellon on a restoration

project, citing some troublesome

crab apple trees, in 1981.)

“Such a project deserves the

same museum standard of re-

search and deliberation that is ac-

corded the first- and second-floor

public rooms of the nation’s

‘house,’ ” Leslie Bowman, a mem-

ber of the Committee for the Pres-

ervation of the White House, said

in a statement, “and the commit-

tee was pleased to be invited to

participate.”

The renderings of Mrs. Trump’s

project adhere closely to the de-

sign Mrs. Kennedy unveiled more

than half a century ago. Since the

beginning of her time in the White

House, Mrs. Trump has channeled

Mrs. Kennedy’s legacy as first

lady, including working with the

White House Historical Associa-

tion, an organization Mrs. Ken-

nedy founded in 1961. Stephanie

Grisham, Mrs. Trump’s press sec-

retary, said in a statement that the

historical significance of the Rose

Garden “inspired the first lady to

dedicate her time and effort into

ensuring scholar and historic

preservation went into every de-

tail of the renovation.”

Mr. Trump has been less subtle

in his attempts to draw that com-

parison. “We have our own Jackie

O.,” the president said on “Fox &

Friends” last year, referring to the

name Mrs. Kennedy took when

she remarried. “It’s called Mela-

nia, Melania T.”

Mrs. Trump, who studied archi-

tecture (though she did not re-

ceive her degree) and worked as a

model, has spent some of her time

in the White House focusing on

aesthetic upgrades. Her child-fo-

cused initiative, Be Best, has been

targeted by critics who say its

anti-bullying efforts are under-

mined by her husband’s behavior,

though in recent weeks she has

distributed food boxes and Be

Best-themed items to charities

around Washington.

She has updated several living

areas and features of the White

House grounds, including the

bowling alley and the tennis pavil-

ion. When she shared an update

on construction of the tennis pa-

vilion in March, Mrs. Trump re-

ceived criticism for promoting a

design project as the American

death toll from the coronavirus

began to rise.

“I encourage everyone who

chooses to be negative & question

my work at the @WhiteHouse to

take time and contribute some-

thing good & productive in their

own communities. #BeBest,” Mrs.

Trump wrote on Twitter at the

time. Weeks later, she was pho-

tographed wearing a mask,

months before her husband would

consent to wearing one on cam-

era.

Historians see the timing of her

Rose Garden project as a way to

protect her own legacy as the elec-

tion draws nearer. Mrs. Trump is

credited by her husband for pay-

ing close attention to their media

coverage, and the latest headlines

show Mr. Trump trailing the pre-

sumptive Democratic nominee,

former Vice President Joseph R.

Biden Jr.

“One reading of this project is

that maybe Melania Trump is

sensing that she has a relatively

brief time in the White House,”

said Katherine Jellison, a profes-

sor at Ohio University who studies

first ladies. “And if she’s going to

make her mark in the way Jackie

Kennedy did in her brief time, a

project of this sort would be ap-

propriate.”

No Place for Crab Apples in the First Lady’s Refurbished Rose Garden

By KATIE ROGERS

Left, the Rose Garden seen from the West Wing of the White House. A soundproof wall, below right, has been built to seal off the Oval Office from renovations.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

President Trump on Monday

mounted his most forceful and de-

tailed legal attack yet on the sub-

poena for his tax returns by the

Manhattan district attorney, argu-

ing the request was “wildly over-

broad” and “issued in bad faith,” a

new court filing shows.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked a

federal judge in Manhattan to de-

clare that the subpoena from the

district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance

Jr., a Democrat, was “invalid and

unenforceable.”

They also asked that the judge

issue an order barring Mr. Vance

from “taking any action to en-

force” the subpoena — which

sought years of tax and other fi-

nancial records from his account-

ants — and that he block Mr.

Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars

USA, from turning over any of the

information.

“The Mazars subpoena is so

sweeping that it amounts to an un-

guided and unlawful fishing expe-

dition into the President’s person-

al financial and business deal-

ings,” the lawyers wrote.

Mr. Trump’s arguments came

just weeks after the Supreme

Court cleared the way for Manhat-

tan prosecutors to seek his finan-

cial records, in a decision that was

seen as a major defeat for Mr.

Trump and a statement on the lim-

its of presidential power.

Mr. Vance had subpoenaed Mr.

Trump’s accounting firm last Au-

gust for eight years of his personal

tax returns and those of his family

business as part of an investiga-

tion into hush-money payments to

Stormy Daniels, an adult-film ac-

tress who said she had an affair

with Mr. Trump.

The president, who has denied

the affair, has fought the subpoena

for almost a year, arguing that a

sitting president is immune from

state criminal investigations.

The Supreme Court rejected

Mr. Trump’s position on immunity,

but it said he could return to the

lower court, where his legal battle

began, and raise new objections to

the subpoena. The filing on Mon-

day focused on the subpoena it-

self, rather than the broader legal

issues that were before the Su-

preme Court.

Mr. Vance’s office, which is

scheduled to respond to Mr.

Trump’s latest filing on Monday,

has accused Mr. Trump of inten-

tionally dragging out the sub-

poena fight to effectively shield

himself from criminal investiga-

tion, and obtain the kind of immu-

nity to which the Supreme Court

said he was not entitled.

“What the president’s lawyers

are seeking here is delay,” Carey

R. Dunne, a senior lawyer in Mr.

Vance’s office, told the lower court

judge, Victor Marrero, in a hear-

ing on July 16. “I think that’s the

entire strategy here.”

Mr. Dunne said that the longer

Mr. Trump fought the case, the

greater the likelihood that the

statute of limitations would expire

for any possible crimes that might

have been committed.

Jay Sekulow, one of Mr. Trump’s

lawyers, denied the accusation at

the time. “Our strategy seeks due

process,” he said in an email.

Mr. Vance’s prosecutors have

argued that Judge Marrero has al-

ready decided most of the issues

Mr. Trump has raised. Last Octo-

ber, the judge wrote a 75-page

opinion that rejected the presi-

dent’s argument that he was im-

mune from all investigations.

In that ruling, Mr. Vance’s office

has argued that Judge Marrero

found there was no demonstrated

bad faith or harassment in Mr.

Vance’s decision to issue the sub-

poena, and that the judge rejected

Mr. Trump’s claim that there was

evidence of any motive other than

enforcement of the law.

Mr. Vance’s office has been

looking into whether any New

York State laws were broken in

connection with the hush-money

payments arranged in 2016 for

Ms. Daniels and another woman

by Michael D. Cohen, the presi-

dent’s former lawyer and fixer.

Mr. Cohen later pleaded guilty to

federal campaign finance vio-

lations for his role in the pay-

ments, and was sentenced to a

three years in prison.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers, in the new

court filing, said they had initially

cooperated with the district attor-

ney’s investigation, turning over

hundreds of documents in re-

sponse to an earlier subpoena the

prosecutors had issued to the

Trump Organization.

But the president’s lawyers said

they balked when they learned,

during negotiations over the

scope of the first subpoena, that

the prosecutors believed it also

covered Mr. Trump’s tax returns.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers said that

Mr. Vance’s office then retaliated

by issuing a new subpoena to the

accounting firm in an effort to “cir-

cumvent the president.”

Trump Lawyers Call Demand

For Taxes ‘Wildly Overbroad’

By BENJAMIN WEISER

and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK

An article on Monday about coro-
navirus antibodies referred incor-
rectly to a clinical testing com-
pany. It is Quest Diagnostics, not
Quest Labs.

SPORTS

An article on Sunday about the
W.N.B.A. dedicating its season to
Breonna Taylor, who was fatally
shot by police in Louisville, Ky.,
misstated the length of the 2020
W.N.B.A. season. It will be 22
games (for each team), not
weeks.

ARTS

An article on Saturday about the

actor Johnny Depp’s lawsuit

against a British newspaper

misstated the reasons that Wino-

na Ryder and Vanessa Paradis

did not testify at the trial. It was

because Depp’s team decided not

to call them, not because the

defense team chose not to chal-

lenge their testimony.

OBITUARIES

An obituary on Thursday about

the singer and actress Annie Ross

referred incorrectly to her son,

Kenny Clarke Jr. He died in 2018;

he does not survive her.

Errors are corrected during the press

run whenever possible, so some errors

noted here may not have appeared in

all editions.

Corrections