VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,105 © 2018 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2018 U(D54G1D)y+&!z!&!=!: WASHINGTON — For more than two weeks he held back. Against all his instincts, Presi- dent Trump for the most part resisted directly attacking the woman whose sexual assault allegation has jeopardized his Supreme Court nomination. The accuser was to be treated with kid gloves, like “a Fabergé egg,” as one adviser put it. But Mr. Trump could resist only so long and told aides it was time to turn up the heat. So when he revved up a political rally this week by mocking Christine Bla- sey Ford, he indulged his desire to fight back and galvanized his conservative base even at the risk of alienating the very mod- erate Republicans he needs to confirm Judge Brett M. Kava- naugh to the Supreme Court. The president’s scathing and derisive impression of Dr. Blasey, who has accused Judge Kava- naugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers, came at the same time his Republican allies stepped up their efforts to challenge her veracity. Seizing on a sworn statement from a former boyfriend, Republicans sug- gested that she had not been fully truthful in her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. The gloves-off approach could further complicate Mr. Trump’s efforts to confirm Judge Kava- naugh to the Supreme Court by winning over three undecided Republican senators who have insisted that Dr. Blasey’s allega- tion be taken seriously, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The Senate will begin voting on Judge Kavanaugh on Friday and was expected to hold a final vote over the weekend. All three condemned the presi- dent’s rally riff on Wednesday, using phrases like “wholly in- appropriate,” “kind of appalling” In Risky Shift, President And G.O.P. Slam Accuser NEWS ANALYSIS Harsh Turn as Votes Hang in Balance By PETER BAKER Continued on Page A17 WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell had just arrived at Reagan Washington National Airport on Monday afternoon to resume the battle over the Su- preme Court nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh when he was met by an unwelcoming commit- tee — a group of women who an- grily confronted him. “Do you always turn your back on women like this?” one de- manded of Mr. McConnell, Repub- lican of Kentucky and the majority leader, as his security detail cleared the way. “Especially wom- en of color who are all sexual as- sault victims?” asked another. Mr. McConnell is not Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, who was moved by similar pro- tests to seek a new F.B.I. inquiry into claims of sexual assault against Judge Kavanaugh. Mr. McConnell, undeterred by his crit- ics, instead stared straight ahead and marched through the con- course. And that is exactly how he is approaching the confirmation fight — marching straight ahead, unfazed by his opponents, toward his goal of seating Judge Kava- naugh on the court. “We will not be intimidated by these people,” Mr. McConnell de- clared Wednesday in another floor speech where his anger over the treatment of Judge Kava- naugh spilled out. “There is no chance in the world that they’re going to scare us out of doing our duty.” Underscoring his commitment, Mr. McConnell took the procedur- al steps later Wednesday to set up a key test vote on Judge Kava- naugh’s confirmation for Friday. To Mr. McConnell, his nearly singular duty these days is filling federal court vacancies with con- servatives, so with a second Su- preme Court confirmation in less than two years in sight, he has a lot on the line. If he is successful, Unfazed by Protests, McConnell Focuses on Tilting Courts By CARL HULSE and JONATHAN MARTIN Mitch McConnell of Kentucky leads Republicans in the Senate. ERIN SCHAFF FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Continued on Page A17 Cardi B had just stepped off- stage after performing for thou- sands in Central Park when a loud pop pierced the air, sounding like a gunshot and igniting fears of a shooting. Backstage, police com- manders scrambled to find out what was going on, and quickly determined no shots had been fired. They rushed to the stage to tell the crowd. “Remain calm,” Assistant Chief Kathleen O’Reilly pleaded into a microphone, saying the sound had been a fence falling over. But it was too late. Frantic con- certgoers ducked and rushed for a limited number of exits. Some people screamed “Shooter!” Bar- riers and tall fences were toppled. People fell and were trampled. Many fled shoeless. Some police officers even contributed to the pandemonium, telling people to duck and run. Though no one was seriously in- jured, the chaos at the Global Citi- zen Festival on Saturday jolted law enforcement authorities, se- curity experts and policymakers. It has forced an examination of whether the police need new ways of curbing the risk of crowd panic in an era when mass killings have heightened public fear of attacks. By the next day, police com- manders had determined that it had not been a falling barrier that had started the original stampede. It was, instead, a fight between two people near the stage. As con- certgoers scattered, they stepped on empty water bottles, causing loud popping sounds. Once the false reports of a shooting spread, controlling the Noise Wasn’t Gunfire, but Crowd’s Panic Was Real, and Dangerous By ASHLEY SOUTHALL and ALI WINSTON Continued on Page A21 DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES Melania Trump, in Ghana on Wednesday, visited a fort once used by slave traders. Page A10. Touring Africa, a First Lady at Ease ADAM DEAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Many homes in Indonesia were destroyed last week by liquefaction, a churning of the earth that left people buried in rubble. Page A4. Where the Ground Turned to Jelly HONG KONG — The com- ments were couched in careful language, but the warning about China’s direction was clear. China grew to prosperity in part by embracing market forces, said Wu Jinglian, the 88-year-old dean of pro-market Chinese econo- mists, at a forum last month. Then he turned to the top politician in the room, Liu He, China’s eco- nomic czar, and said “unharmoni- ous voices” were now condemn- ing private enterprise. “The phenomenon,” Mr. Wu said, “is worth noting.” Mr. Wu gave rare official voice to a growing worry among Chi- nese entrepreneurs, economists and even some government offi- cials: China may be stepping back from the free-market, pro-busi- ness policies that transformed it into the world’s No. 2 economy. For 40 years, China has swung be- tween authoritarian Communist control and a freewheeling capi- talism where almost anything could happen — and some see the pendulum swinging back toward the government. State-controlled companies in- creasingly account for growth in industrial production and profits, areas where private businesses once led. China has stepped up regulation of online commerce, real estate and video games. Com- panies could face higher taxes and employee benefit costs. Some in- tellectuals are calling for private enterprises to be abolished en- tirely. Dissenters in China these days must walk a careful line. But a sense of urgency — fueled in part by China’s slowing growth and ris- ing pressures from President Trump’s trade war — has driven a growing number of officials and economists to speak out on the government’s changing stance on private business. China Muscles In on Its Free-Market Prosperity By LI YUAN Communist Party Takes a Greater Role in the Private Sector Continued on Page A12 MADISON, W.Va. — Lula Hill voted in just about every election once she became old enough in 1952. Her coal mining family of registered Democrats believed that elections were like church services: You didn’t skip them. But over time, her sense of civic obligation faded. Mines started laying people off. Opioids started poisoning her neighbors. As her town lost its vigor, Ms. Hill watched as smiling politicians kept making promises and, in her view, growing richer. By the late 1990s, when political leaders — Democrat or Republican — talked about the greater good, she no longer believed them. “I just got to the point, I said, ‘I’m not going do it anymore,’” said Ms. Hill, sitting on a couch in the lobby of the hotel she owns and runs, the Hotel Madison, 30 miles south of Charleston. “I just can’t vote for any of them in good conscience.” She has not voted since 1996 and said she has no intention of starting in November. Ms. Hill is hardly alone in West Virginia, a state with one of the lowest rates of voter turnout in the country and where the Democratic senator, Joe Manchin III, faces a tough race. This year’s election carries enormous political stakes, but if Eager to Vote in the Midterms? Great! (You’re in the Minority) By SABRINA TAVERNISE Continued on Page A14 Vanessa Friedman reports from the runways in Paris, where at least one label (Thom Browne, above) was never entirely unveiled. PAGE D8 THURSDAY STYLES D1-10 They’ll Save Tons on Makeup Aaron Judge’s first-inning homer set the tone in the Yankees’ 7-2 win over the A’s in the A.L. wild-card game. PAGE B9 SPORTSTHURSDAY B9-13 No Doubt About It The recipients, including the first wom- an since 2009, used evolution in the design of practical molecules. PAGE A11 INTERNATIONAL A4-12 3 Share Nobel in Chemistry Manohla Dargis found a lot to like at the New York Film Festival, including Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” and Julian Schnabel’s “At Eternity’s Gate.” PAGE C1 ARTS C1-8 Calling All Cinephiles Marsha Blackburn, a firebrand Trump supporter, squares off against Phil Bredesen, a moderate. PAGE A13 NATIONAL A13-18 Tight Race in Tennessee Through the heart of trendy New York to a stunning Hollywood home, and back again to Brooklyn, where a garage became a townhouse. SPECIAL SECTION On Tour in Design Nicholas Kristof PAGE A23 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23 Eight teams have new coaches — some with disasters on their hands. We rank the jobs in order of difficulty. PAGE B10 N.B.A. From Lemons to Plums Vice President Mike Pence is to give a speech accusing China of aggressive moves and election meddling. PAGE A8 U.S. Outrage Toward China The ex-Assembly leader Sheldon Silver will stay out of prison pending appeal of his corruption conviction. PAGE A19 NEW YORK A19-21 Silver Remains Free America’s rivals in a trade war are clearly targeting rural areas where voters went for Donald Trump. PAGE B1 BUSINESS DAY B1-7 Tariffs Send Political Message The stage door of New York City Ballet is where dancers find fan mail, extravagant bouquets and the occasional request for auto- graphed toe shoes. But a very different sort of mes- sage was posted there anony- mously in September as the com- pany was preparing to open its fall season. It demanded “justice for the accused men of City Ballet,” called for a boycott of the com- pany and urged people to “stop be- lieving the word of jilted whores,” along with even cruder insults. The country’s premier ballet company, which has defined grace, speed and precision since the days of its co-founder George Balanchine, is now also a stage for the era’s #MeToo convulsions. Within the past nine months, it has weathered the abrupt retire- ment of its leader of more than three decades, Peter Martins, amid an investigation into reports of physical and emotional abuse. It forced out three of its 14 male principal dancers after they were accused of sharing texts of sexu- ally explicit photos of women. And it has begun to reassess its culture, installing safeguards now common in corporate America but far less so in the performing arts, where autocratic personalities of- ten hold sway. “We’ve really tried to make it a more nurturing environment, and not a kind of sink-or-swim envi- ronment, which in the dance world is kind of a common thing,” said Jonathan Stafford, the ballet master and former principal dancer who is leading the interim team running the company. Scandals Tear At House Built By Balanchine By ROBIN POGREBIN and MICHAEL COOPER Continued on Page A20 Late Edition Today, clouds and sunshine, late-af- ternoon or evening showers or thun- derstorms, high 80. Tonight, cloudy, low 59. Tomorrow, partly sunny, high 69. Weather map, Page B8. $3.00