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THE FIX THE FIX

Democrats’ post-Mueller issueissue Democrats’ post-Mueller A ARON B LAKE

look like you’ve drawn those conclusions beneeded to be met. And after Attorney General look like you’ve drawn those conclusions beneeded be met. Attorney General A ARON B LAKE the investigation is complete. Democrats William P. Barr reported thistopast weekAnd thatafterfore fore investigation is complete. Democrats Barr reported past week that have boxed themselves in,the to some degree, by Mueller had neither William accused P.Trump of ob- this or the better part of the past two years, havewere boxed themselves Mueller had neither accused Trump ob- crimes better part of the past two arguing thatofthese committed andin, to some degree, by struction noryears, exonerated him, Nadler suggestDemocratic leaders or intheWashington that crimes were committed and struction norslanted. exonerated him, Nadler suggestDemocratic leadersedin Washington then having Muellerarguing — after anthese intensive Barr’s letter might be politically have successfully quelled the impeachthen having —Mueller ed Barr’s be politically slanted. successfully impeachnearly two-year-long investigation conclud-— after an intensive It’sthe entirely possible that’sletter true.might As I’ve ment fervor that hashave existed within quelled nearly two-year-long investigation — concludIt’s entirely possible true.can’t As be I’veproved. ment been fervor that has existed within ing they Whatever else Muelargued, there are real questions about Barr’s that’s their ranks. The worry has clearly about ing will theyremain can’t bethat proved. argued,ofthere are real questions about Barr’s their ranks. worry about ler has found, the fact he Whatever else Muelrole andbeen the appropriateness him personally overreach: that Democrats wouldThe look over-has clearly has found, the fact will remain that he the appropriateness of him personally thatPresident Democrats exonerating would look overdecided these weren’t ler crimes. Trump role on and obstruction, when zealous in politicallyoverreach: prosecuting decided these weren’t crimes. exonerating Trump on obstruction, when Democrats zealousand initpolitically prosecuting President It’s possible could uncover Trump for alleged misdeeds, would It’s possible Democrats could uncover for allegedinmisdeeds, and it would something more incriminating, and backfire — like it did Trump on Republicans something more incriminating, and backfire — like it did on Republicans in some have wagered that Schiff’s assured1998 — by making Trump sympathetic. some have wagered 1998 — by making ness suggests he already has. That’s rank that Schiff’s assuredAnd yet, with impeachment lookingTrump sympathetic. ness he already has. That’s rank And yet, with impeachment looking speculation, though, and it’ssuggests just as possiall but off the table following the release speculation, though, butconclusions, off the table following the release ble he and other top Democrats are and it’s just as possiof the Mueller report’sall chief ble he and other of the Mueller report’s chief conclusions, simply too invested in these ideas to back top Democrats are they’re finding themselves with a simisimply invested off them now. Abandoning thetoo cause now in these ideas to back larly fraught balancingthey’re act. finding themselves with a simioff them now. Abandoning the cause now larly fraught balancing act. would mean tacitly admitting they were Even though special counsel Robert S. would mean Even though counsel Robert S. wrong and would surely result in atacitly disil- admitting they were Mueller III declined to accuse Trumpspecial of wrong and would surely result in a disilIII declined lusioned base. obstruction of justiceMueller or his 2016 cam- to accuse Trump of obstruction ofgovjustice or his 2016 camBut at this point, tolusioned overridebase. the conpaign of collusion with the Russian But atin this point, to override the conpaign of collusion with the Russian govclusions of a special counsel Ameriernment, Democratic leaders have largeclusions a special ernment, Democratic cans’ minds, Democrats wouldofneed to counsel in Amerily stuck to their previous assertions that leaders have largecans’ minds, Democrats would need to stuck to theirand previous assertions that produce some real smoking guns. They both appear to havelytaken place produce somecomreal smoking guns. They both appear to have taken place and would need something extremely should be probed further. would need something extremely comshould probed further. ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG pelling, rather than the circumstantial “Undoubtedly there is be collusion,” ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG pelling, wound rather than “Undoubtedly is collusion,” cases Mueller has apparently up the circumstantial House Intelligence Committee Chair- there “Undoubtedly there is collusion,” House Intelligence cases Mueller has apparently wound up House Intelligence Committee Chair“Undoubtedly there is collusion,” House Intelligence with. man Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) told The Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said this past Schiff week, (D-Calif.) toldMueller The Committee Schiff (D-Calif.)And saidifthis past they wind upwith. with much of the Washington Post thisman pastAdam week. B. Schiff despite declining toChairman back thatAdam accusation. And and if they wind up with much of the Washington Post this past week. Schiff week, despite Mueller declining to back same that accusation. evidence as Mueller simply had said for weeks that “clear evidence” same evidence as Mueller and simply had said for weeks that “clear evidence” offer harsher conclusions, it risks looking poMueller hadn’t. Unless and until we see the of collusion exists, and this was a double down. Mueller hadn’t. Unless until we see the Itoffer collusion exists, and this was a double motivated. risksharsher lookingconclusions, like they it risks looking poactual reportdown. and its obstruction-related find- andlitically He also assured he ofwould probe whether litically motivated. risks looking like they actual report and its obstruction-related find-the work Hebyalso assured he would probe whether have disregarded of the man they It had ings, we don’t know how problematic Trump’s Trump is compromised the Russians, arguhavein disregarded work of the man they had ings,true we don’t know how problematic Trump’s Trumpto is have compromised Russians, arguinvested so much time defendingthe from conduct might be. It’s also that Democrats ing Mueller doesn’t appear looked atby the invested so much time in defending from conduct might be. It’s also true that Democrats ing Mueller doesn’t appear have to have looked Trump’s attacks because they desired particuearned theatpower to probe these questhat question. Trump’s attacks because earned the power these quesquestion. lar outcomes. And Republicans will credibly be they desired particutions themselves, by have virtue of winning the to probe Rep. Jerrold Nadlerthat (D-N.Y.), the head of the lar outcomes. And Republicans will credibly be tions themselves, by virtue of winning the Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the head of the able to make the case that they prejudged House in the 2018 election. House Judiciary Committee in charge of obmake theabove. case that they prejudged House in the 2018 election. House appears Judiciary Committee in charge ofimpeachment, obthose outcomes, basedable upontothe quotes But as with just because they struction-related questions, similarly outcomes, based upon the quotes above. But as with impeachment, just struction-related appears In because a lot ofthey ways, those it could look like the can movesimilarly forward aggressively doesn’t mean it assured. He said earlier this month thatquestions, it was Inhave a lot of ways, it could look like the canthing movetoforward doesn’t mean it would assured. He said earlier month it was worst-case scenario looked with an paythat off. And it’s one say youaggressively want “very clear” that Trump had obstructed justice,thiswill worst-case scenario would have looked with an will pay off. it’s one to say you want “verythe clear” that of Trump justice, impeachment. to reach your own conclusions; it’sAnd another to thing even as he acknowledged burden proofhad obstructed n impeachment. n to reach your own conclusions; it’s another to even as he acknowledged the burden of proof BY

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CONTENTS

This publication was prepared by editors at The This publication was prepared Washington Post for printing and distribution by our by editors at The Washington Post All for articles printingand and distribution by our partner publications across the country. partner publications across articles and columns have previously appeared in The Post or onthe country. AllPOLITICS have previously appeared in The Post or on washingtonpost.com andcolumns have been edited to fit this THE NATION and have been edited THE to fitWORLD this format. For questions orwashingtonpost.com comments regarding content, format. For questions or comments regarding content, please e-mail weekly@washpost.com. If you have a COVER STORY weekly@washpost.com. If youLIFESTYLES have a question about printingplease quality,e-mail wish to subscribe, or question aboutplease printing quality, wish to subscribe, would like to place a hold on delivery, contact your BOOKS or would like to place a hold on delivery, please contact your local newspaper’s circulation department. OPINION local newspaper’s circulation department. © 2019 The Washington Post / Year 5, No. 25 FIVE MYTHS © 2019 The Washington Post / Year 5, No. 25

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CONTENTS 4 8 10 12 17 18 20 23

ON THE COVER Monica Diaz lives ON at THE POLITICS with her husband 4 in a tent theCOVER Monica Diaz lives withhad her husband in a tent at the THEbase NATION 8 She of Union Station. THEworked WORLD 10 notbase all night and sleptof Union Station. She had worked COVER STORY 12 because of construction noise. all night and not slept because of construction noise. LIFESTYLES 17S. WILLIAMSON Photo by MICHAEL BOOKS 18PostPhoto by MICHAEL S. WILLIAMSON of The Washington of The Washington Post OPINION 20 FIVE MYTHS 23

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OPINIONS

Russia shouldn’t misjudge the Mueller moment DAVID IGNATIUS is a Washington Post opinion columnist covering foreign affairs.

Russian claims this past week that they’ve been exonerated by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s final report make my skin crawl. But they highlight the critical question of how the United States and Russia can begin to move back toward a saner relationship. ¶ Frankly speaking (as Russians like to say), the first step is for Russia to stop pretending that it didn’t interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The Kremlin got caught redhanded, one could say, and if it keeps claiming otherwise, it obstructs the dialogue it says it wants. Moscow shouldn’t misjudge the moment. The special counsel’s report affirmed the judgment of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia interfered during the 2016 race. Mueller’s strongest cases, in fact, were the indictments that detailed how 13 operatives from Russia’s Internet Research Agency manipulated social media, and how 12 GRU intelligence officers hacked Democratic Party information and passed stolen emails to WikiLeaks. Russian commentators were nearly as jubilant as the White House, after Attorney General William P. Barr released his summary of the special counsel’s findings. “Significant taxpayer resources went into disproving an obvious fake,” crowed a Foreign Ministry statement. “The agents of conspiracy have been discredited,” tweeted Alexey Pushkov, a foreign-policy expert in Russia’s parliament. President Trump may enjoy the Kremlin fist pumps. But they’re the wrong way to restart a serious dialogue between Moscow and Washington. A restart won’t work unless it is founded on mutual trust between the two nations, as opposed to mutual backscratching by Trump and Russian

President Vladimir Putin. Andrey Krutskikh, the Kremlin’s leading cyber expert, dropped a hankie in an article this past week in the Moscow newspaper Kommersant. He said that “some voices” were reemerging in the United States, as opposed to ritual “anti-Russian propaganda.” He proposed that the two nations resume “depoliticized expert dialogue” about cybersecurity, like the quiet conversations that took place during the Obama administration. “Russia has nothing to fear — nor do we have anything to conceal,” Krutskikh said. He said the United States should agree to disclose the secret pre-election contacts between the United States and Russia in 2016 about U.S. “concerns over the intrusion into its electronic infrastructure.” This sounds dubious; Russia was conducting a covert action against the United States, which means that it was deniable. Moscow’s statements in 2016 would reinforce its claim that it didn’t do what both U.S. intelligence and Mueller’s indictments say it did. Chris Painter, who was the Obama administration’s top cyber diplomat, told me Wednesday that a resumption of

ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a news conference after their meeting in Helsinki last July.

working-level contacts about cyber would be fine. But he cautioned against any top-rank contacts about cyber issues now, because they might allow Russia to pretend the 2016 cyberattacks didn’t happen. “If you resume high-level dialogue, that says everything’s okay — no harm, no foul,” explains Painter. This would be a mistake, he argues, because it would allow Moscow “to white wash what has happened.” A policymakers’ discussion about cyber and other issues “has to have clearly defined goals and outcomes that advance our interests.” What about a broader conversation between the United States and Russia — dealing with big, potentially explosive problems such as Ukraine, Syria and nuclear arms control? As with cyber issues, the answer is that the two sides need to talk, but they need to build a solid foundation. “We should begin in a modest way, not with a full-up armscontrol negotiation, but by starting an ongoing dialogue about strategic stability” argues Stephen J. Hadley, who was national security adviser for President George W. Bush. He suggests a range of confidencebuilding measures that might seek to avoid confrontations in outer space and cyberspace.

Hadley argues the basic rationale for a reset: “The lack of dialogue between the two countries is not in either country’s interest. It is also potentially dangerous.” A warier view comes from Thomas Donilon, who served as national security adviser under President Barack Obama. He thinks the United States shouldn’t engage Russia until its own house is in better order — with full disclosure of the Mueller report on what the Russians did in 2016, better protection for U.S. election security and repair of the United States’ damaged alliances in Europe. Trump administration officials argue that their Russia policy is based on U.S. interests. It has imposed sanctions when necessary, but has also tried to keep open channels between Trump and Putin. If officials have plans for any major post-Mueller opening, they don’t say so. If Russia wants lasting improvement in its relations with the United States, it should stop its Trumpian gloating about the Mueller report and start rebuilding the basics of trust. Mueller’s apparent affirmation that there was “no collusion” creates some space for better relations, but if Trump supporters are Moscow’s only champions, any reset with Russia will blow a fuse. n

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TOM TOLES

BY DANA SUMMERS

Asking Lookingmen at history about female in 90-year veeps lives MONICA DAVID VON HESSE DREHLE is a Post Washington columnist Post writing about opiniongender columnist and its impact focusingononsociety. national affairs and politics.

Lately, In earlyaspring, fashionable 1929,question there wasfor a new malegovernor 2020 presidential in New York, contenders a young requires man whothem had seemed to pretend to be they’ve goingalready places on won histhe family Democratic name and his nomination money and his and smile they’re until now polio on took the hunt himfor down. a running Now hemate. was back, Would but they, whatas future theirlay vice ahead presidential for Franklin partner, D. Roosevelt? choose a woman? The Out in candidates Hollywood, listen Warner to theBros. question released and its then first begin feature the with delicate both work soundofand emphasizing color. The National that gender Football parityLeague — ostensibly had survived a priority itsfor ninth many Democratic season: The voters Providence — is also Steam a priority Roller took for them. the title So important, ahead of the in fact, that Frankford, they are Pa., theYellow most qualified Jackets and candidate the Detroit to achieve Wolverines. it, even more than any of the women who are running. gallivanting around the Overseas, with the German neighborhood Are these men in flip-flops. doing exactly She economy Cory Booker: apparently “If I am on elected the mend, as what also follows feminists thehave newsalways very closely, asked the nominee, career of right-wing I’m going to firebrand make male whichallies means to do, thewhich professional is use sure Adolfthere Hitler is might genderbe diversity in twilight. on their polarizers positions of cable of power TV have to reach lots of the So, too, ticket.” the career of Britain’s down time toand scare help the women bejabbers up? out Or are of soon-to-be Beto O’Rourke: former “It finance would be they her. The doing world something is goingmore to pot, crafty very minister, difficult a broke not to aristocrat select a — mom handing occasionally out vicewarns presidencies me. So, woman named Winston with so many Churchill. like let me reassuring remind her patsofon some the of head, the extraordinary And in Muskogee, womenOkla., who are mom while thingsallowing she — and voters the world to still—put a running was born.right now.” man have in survived the Oval and Office? accomplished Julián We wished Castro: her“For happy sure.” birthday since “Has her anyone 1929 debut. told Biden that recently. Joe Biden Ninety reportedly years old used to black Start women with the aren’t Great his prop for considered sound ancient, preempting but judging the from votes?” Depression, askedwhich Stephen arrived Crockett about question YouTube,entirely 90 is theby new planning 70. Or the to on seven themonths Root. “Has intoanyone mom’s told life and simultaneously new 25. There are jump 90-year-old into the Biden upended thateverything. Stacey Abrams At itsisn’t worst, to race gymnasts, and announce 90-year-old his running be theplayed globalwith?” economic collapse put 1 mate marathoners, as Stacey90-year-old Abrams, who lost of every Where3 is U.S. theworkers line between out of a job the mountain Georgia climbers gubernatorial and 90-yearcondescension and revived Hitler’s and inclusion? career. So election old bodybuilders. but became A guy a liberal in Where many lives is the were lineruined between in mom’s shooting Philadelphia star.chinned A spokesman 24 pullups for powerful part of themen world being thatamigrants pathway to Biden in a row denied at agethat 90, which such a is plan was gender fleeing from parityall and over just the being Midwest selfever roughly hatched. 23 more than I’ve done in congratulatory were lumped into gatekeepers? a single bucket: myAll entire of the life. candidates’ answers “Okies.” Why are men being asked areMom’s right, sort thingof,iswhile dancing alsoatbeing her whether Yet thethey’d Depression choosewas a female only the deeply grandchildren’s unsatisfying, weddings sort of.and

BY LISA BENSON

VP second-worst instead of being thing asked to happen whether during her they’d childhood. be a woman’s When mom VP? was This 12, is the the Japanese point that attacked former Colorado Pearl Harbor. governor Her father John and Hickenlooper older brothersswears enlisted; heher was trying sister’sto young raisehusband when he bungled was killed his in action. own answer to the female vice president Mom was question. a “tomboy,” He first which saidis he to say would sheabsolutely ran as fast,consider climbed aas woman. high andThen jumped he kept as fartalking. as the “How neighborhood come we’re fellas. notWe’d asking call more her often, an athlete the women, today, but ‘Would women you be willing weren’tto athletes put a man then. onInthe fact, ticket?’ women ”had been voting for less than Heasounded decade when like the mom brocame who annually along. demands a Men’s History It puzzled Month, andbut troubled he swore herhe meant that kids thewith opposite. dark skin Theweren’t question is permitted wrong, he tosaid, attend because her school it or presumes swim in the that public a man pool would on be the scorching primary’s summer winner. days. “Women Even the I know telephone feel that booths is ain form Oklahoma of discounting,” were segregated. he said. A black “That man they was are lynched less likely in Chickasha, to win the near nomination.” Oklahoma City, in 1930 — even after Heaven the National knows there’s Guardanother arrived reason to protect women him. aren’t The mob asked trapped whether the guardsmen they would inside choose the jail a and male set fire running to it. mate. Because, of course The world they would. today And is notthey perfect. will. Because But it’s better choosing thanathe female world running mom inherited. mate would The wars be the are height of, smaller, what’sthe that industries word? Unelectable. cleaner, theI laws don’tmore knowjust. howLooking to thinkat about historythe in vice big bites president instead question. of Isound don’t bites know—how in 90-year men should slices of answer sweet and it. Ibitter don’tcake know —why we can every answer see a pattern feels off of improvement. to me while also being When a perfectly mom was sufficient born in early

response. spring, 1929, an old man was serving Maybe onit’s the that, U.S.after Supreme three American Court. Oliver centuries, WendellitHolmes would be Jr. nice was nearing for a woman 90; intohis sitmemory at the head of was the stored tablesome and not 25 at years someone’s of living right in a nation hand while wherebeing slavery reminded was that legal.aHe man fought was benevolent in some of the enough most savage to put battles her there. of U.S. history to end Not that abomination these men don’t and was deserve wounded toat run. Antietam Not that and they couldn’t Chancellorsville. each bring attention and elbow Holmes grease was toborn important in early issues. Not spring, that1841, a candidate’s just five years gender after should the death be of any James voter’s Madison. deciding factor Madison in casting was born a ballot. in early spring, 1751, But, a subject you canoflove a far-off Beto O’Rourke hereditaryand monarch still acknowledge in a the household ego of his running candidacy. on slave It takes labor. a certain He gaveconfidence us most of the to lose a Senate Constitution race, then and look the Bill at aoffield already Rights topopulated prick ourwith consciences experienced through centuries. senators who are women Just three and decide big strides the race takeisusstill missing from that something, early springtime and what to this it’s missing one. Three is you. lifetimes contain all theWhich triumph might andbe tragedy, part ofall thethe answer heroismI and wishhypocrisy I heard inof our responses shared national to thelife. vice president question. Mom’s favorite Deep reflection birthdayfrom gift the wascandidates, the arrival of not her about first the greatquestion, grandchild. butI hope abouthe’ll themselves live nine and decades theirand rolebeyond, in this moment and thatin he history: and his contemporaries “Of course I willwill seriously carry consider the torchfemale a good candidates, way farther and along whether the road.they It’s ashould path with be on turns my ticket. and potholes. And while It meanders, I’m at it, I’ll even ask myself doubles—back. I’ll atBut least seen entertain from a the question distance, — theofroad whether tendsI need in a good to be direction. on a ticket n at all.” n

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For caregiving grandparents, a shift More lowincome white families raising grandkids amid the opioid epidemic

Bill Pendleton, who was raising his granddaughter, Audrey Pendleton, watches her play the violin at their home in Draper, Utah, in 2014. She was then 15.

A NDREW V AN D AM

mericans have long raised their grandkids when their children are unfit or unable to do so. Many grandparents took over child care during the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, especially among African American families. Now grandparents are stepping up again, Census Bureau data shows. This time, the burden is largely shifting to low-income white families. As the middle generation has been hollowed out by the abuse of opioids and other substances, the oldest generation has become increasingly responsible for their grandkids, experts say. It’s a responsibility that many didn’t expect and weren’t prepared for. Retired folks find themselves trading their sedans for minivans, moving out of their adultonly communities, and searching for work to cover the expenses that come with raising a child. The shift tends to be sharpest in rural, mostly white states such as New Hampshire and West Virginia, which also ranked in the top three in substance-abuse death rates. These figures are for the five-year period ending in 2017, the most recent available. Death rates are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Synthetic opioids have hit black communities hard since then. The weight the opioid crisis has placed on grandparents was made heavier by changes to the foster-care system, experts say, particularly the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, which encouraged the placement of children with relatives. The limited data available on the Native American population shows a large and rising share of grandparents in those communities are also taking care of grandkids. The fastest-in-the-nation increase in children being cared for by grandparents was in South Dakota and concentrated in counties with large Native Ameri-

MICHELLE TESSIER/DESERET NEWS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Share of children who are cared for by grandparents Below federal poverty line

Above federal poverty line

12% 10 8

Black

White Rest of population

Rest of population

White

2 0 2000

2017

2000

2017

Notes: Poverty based on family earnings; black and white categories exclude those of Hispanic ethnicity; includes all households in which a grandparent is listed as primary caregiver. Source: Census Bureau via IPUMS THE WASHINGTON POST

can populations. Meanwhile, grandparent caregiving of black children has declined as the share of black children living in poverty has fallen. Statistics often focus on the number of grandparent caregivers, rather than the share of children who are cared for primarily by grandparents. These figures could be distorted by falling fertility rates and an aging population. Working grandparents Little about a grandmother’s work status, income or pension influences whether she’ll end up

caring for her grandchildren, according to a 2015 analysis of the long-running Health and Retirement Study in the journal Demography by Robin L. Lumsdaine (American University’s Kogod School of Business) and Stephanie J.C. Vermeer (Roland Berger Strategy Consultants). Their work adjusts for differences in family characteristics and health. “Care decisions are sometimes driven by the needs of the grandchildren’s parents, rather than the circumstances of grandparents,” Lumsdaine said. “The birth of a new grandchild increases the chances that a grandmother will

provide care by nearly 70 percent.” Retired grandmothers weren’t more likely to become caregivers, but grandmothers who became primary caregivers were 9.6 percent more likely to retire, Lumsdaine and Vermeer found. The researchers also found that about 10.5 percent of those retired caregivers would, like Hoxie, return to the workforce within two years — while still raising their grandchildren. Another 13 percent would stop caregiving entirely and return to work during that time. About 95 percent of caregiving relatives work outside of the official foster system, according to Generations United. They often lack official financial, practical and emotional support. In a 2013 analysis in Marriage and Family Review of caregivers in rural Montana, Sandra J. Bailey (Montana State University) and her collaborators found that “for many grandparents in our study, retirement became a distant or unreachable goal.” Grandparents who had grown up in a culture of rugged self-reliance now faced a rise in food, transportation, heating and child-care costs beyond what many could handle alone. “For grandparents still in the workforce or simply needing respite care, the cost of child care was shocking,” Bailey and her colleagues wrote. “Although many grandparents anticipated child care costs, the current rates were much higher than when they had parented the first time.” The latest figures from the Census Bureau show the share of Americans age 65 or older living in poverty has remained steady, even as the rate among younger groups has fallen. The silver lining? Research shows that compared with children in foster care with non-relatives, children raised by grandparents or other relatives are healthier, mentally and physically. They’re more likely to be kept together with their siblings and to report that they always feel loved. n

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POLITICS

He has Trump’s ear — and his support BY J OSH D AWSEY, A SHLEY P ARKER AND D AMIAN P ALETTA

ick Mulvaney is trying to achieve as acting White House chief of staff what he never could as a conservative firebrand in Congress. Mulvaney this past week helped persuade President Trump to get behind a legal effort aimed at striking down the Affordable Care Act over the objections of some in the administration and Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. His pitch came during scheduled “policy time” with Trump on Monday and spanned several meetings throughout the day. It was met with resistance from some on the president’s legal team and his Justice Department, as well as with skepticism from Vice President Mike Pence, who favors overturning President Barack Obama’s namesake healthcare law but only if Republicans are ready with an alternative, according to White House officials familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private talks. But Trump — fresh off a victory lap following the conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation — agreed with Mulvaney and was eager to forge ahead into dismantling his predecessor’s health law. “The Republican Party will soon be known as the party of health care,” the president enthused while walking into a lunch of Republican senators Tuesday. He seemed to try to justify his administration’s unexpected decision, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that “if the Supreme Court rules that Obamacare is out, we’ll have a plan that is far better than Obamacare.” Mulvaney and his allies have told Trump that joining a lawsuit to overturn the ACA will help him fulfill a campaign promise, but congressional Republicans worry he’s sent the president on a suicide mission. While Republicans

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST

As acting chief of staff, Mulvaney persuades president to get behind effort to dismantle ACA are united in their opposition to Obama’s signature health-care law, they remain divided on how to replace it, and Democrats are eager to exploit this tension while making health care a centerpiece of the 2020 campaign. The behind-the-scenes role played by Mulvaney — who in Congress was a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus and earned a reputation for frustrating Republican leadership — highlights the way he has operated as a top aide to Trump, first as budget director and now as acting chief of staff. If Trump is well-known within the White House for having little interest in both policy and nuance, Mulvaney seems to specialize in it. But the acting chief of staff has also sought to frame his long-held views in a way that won’t undermine the president. This has allowed Mulvaney to use his proximity to power to directly shape major policy proposals that echo his priorities during a congressional career spent more in

shouting from the sidelines than in rooms where deals were made. He used his budget office perch to craft spending plans that drastically reduced funding for programs such as education, environmental protection and housing. Earlier this year, following a partial government shutdown he supported, it was Mulvaney who helped aggressively engineer the controversial emergency declaration plan to fund large sections of a border wall without congressional approval — and dubbed it “D-Day,” White House officials said. It was a move that deeply frustrated many Senate Republicans, but Mulvaney told the president that senators wouldn’t override him. And now he has pushed Trump into a health-care fight many in the party are eager to avoid. “The greatest political liability one can accrue is advocating for the disruption in coverage for Americans who are currently pleased with their own health care,” said Josh Holmes, a former

Mick Mulvaney has tried to be President Trump’s inside-theBeltway fixer, familiarizing himself with rules and laws to help his boss avoid stumbling blocks. Mulvaney’s aides have deliberately worked to keep his profile low.

senior adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). “What’s happened in the last six months is the Democrats have taken the health-care issues and have walked to the precipice of the cliff and are ready to drop off. The only thing that’s saving them is a Republican grabbing them by the collar and jumping off instead.” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who chairs the Freedom Caucus and is close with Mulvaney, said the acting chief is taking the right approach. “The 2020 elections will be more about domestic policy than they will be about foreign policy,” Meadows said. “It’s Mick Mulvaney’s sweet spot.” In a new court filing Monday night, the Justice Department argued that the Affordable Care Act should be thrown out in its entirety. The filing was made with the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans. A federal judge in Texas ruled in December that the entire law is invalid, in an opinion that went considerably further than the administration’s position at the time. White House officials say Mulvaney is generally well-liked within the West Wing, allowing robust debate and empowering various advisers and officials. He helped foster his personal relationship with Trump over golf — and was on the course with the president as recently as this past week. Mulvaney’s defenders say that on health care, he is simply helping Trump achieve his policy objectives. When the Texas ruling was first announced, for instance, Trump tweeted that the decision was “great news for America!” Mulvaney’s budgets as OMB director have also prioritized the president’s goals over some of those Mulvaney advocated for as a fiery and conservative lawmaker. His fiscal plans have jacked up spending for military programs, a priority for Trump, and stopped short of imposing major structural changes to Medicare because Trump ordered it. Trump, however, grew angry last year when he learned Mulvaney was behind a budget request for the wall that only requested $1.6 billion. n

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‘Humbled’ Boeing changes ‘Humbled’ tacticsBoeing clusion — one way or the other — as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction.” Mueller’s report itself said pointedly, “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” BY D OUGLAS M ACaccording M ILLAN to Barr’sAaccount. AND ARON G REGG The attorney general, though, wentn further, writing that he and the weeks after a Boeing Rosenstein that Java the jetliner “concluded crashed in the evidence developed during the Sea near Indonesia last year, Special Counsel’s is killing all 189investigation on board, the not sufficient to establish manufacturer defendedthat the President committed plane’s safety features an andobstrucpubliction-of-justice ly resisted callsoffense.” to make changes to determination was made its “Our system and pilot training prowithout regard to, and is not cedures. based the constitutional conThison, month, following a second siderations surround indeadly crashthat of a 737 Max, a the worlddictment and criminal prosecuwide grounding of the planes by tion of a sitting president,” regulators, a stock slide andBarr the wrote. loss of a multibillion-dollar conIn an interview with aFox News tract, Boeing is taking new apRadio, Trump’s former personal proach. The company invited hunlawyerof John Dowd saidpartners it was dreds pilots and airline “unprofessional” for assembly Mueller not to its Renton, Wash., fato have made a clear cility Wednesday in a determinahastily artion that Trump toshould notnew be ranged meeting explain prosecuted for obstruction of jussafety enhancements. tice. Boeing’s shift in tone — CEO “YourMuilenburg job is to decide,” said, Dennis said inhe a stateadding, “There was no evidence of ment this past week that the comobstruction here.” pany has been “humbled” — reDemocrats a different flects growing took pressure on the tack. Beforebottom he became company’s line asattorney its fleet general, Barr submitted to the Jusof jetliners sits idle at airports. It tice comes Department an that 18-page also as airlines have memo orders highly for critical of what he placed hundreds of adsurmised737 was Max Mueller’s ditional jets theory begin for to how the president obstructed question those investments. A jusfew tice. Barr hasIndonesia’s noted that he did so weeks ago, national withoutGaruda, inside knowledge of the airline, said it canceled its probe,for and asserted that order 49he jetshas because of “conthe document was “narrow in sumers’ low confidence” in the airscope.” following the crashes. planes But his iscritics have suggested Boeing responding to rising that his concerns dim view of that aspect of public about its Max Mueller’s might have helped planes to work save the company’s imhim and landprevent the attorney general job. age the loss of more Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) business, saidN.Shem Malmquist, said thisBoeing past 777 week thatandhea an active captain thought professor it was “completely inapvisiting at the Florida propriate” Barr to have conInstitute of for Technology. cluded did tack not — ob“Theythat tookTrump a different a struct justice, and that the in attortack they should have taken the ney general was tryingsaid. to “shape first place,” Malmquist theThe narrative” unfairly. company’s changing reMueller a consponse may“doesn’t be partlymake a function of clusion, but hethe goes out of his way how unusual situation is, said to saySeifman, the president is not exonerSeth an analyst at JPated in this regard, and Mr. Barr in Morgan. 48“The hours turns around way thatthat it took off inand the says: ‘Oh looked at it. press andno, onI’ve social media isHe’s not exonerated.that He Boeing hasn’t committed something is used to,” thatsaid. offense,’ ” Cicilline said on he “It probably took some CNN.to put together a public strattime hiswith appointment in May egySince to deal that.”

BY D OUGLAS M AC M ILLAN AND A ARON G REGG

2017 as special counsel, Mueller wrestled with the question of whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice once the FBI began investigating those close to him. Current and former White House officials who were questioned by Mueller’s investigators were reBoeing has continued to defend peatedly theand president the safetyasked of its how planes deflect spoke theautomation inquiry behind claims about that its softclosed doors whetherto eihe ware may have and contributed sought to two replace senior Justice ther of the crashes. Department officials to stymie the At the Renton event, officials investigation, according people from the aerospace gianttodefendfamiliar with the interviews. ed the embattled 737 Max as the A person familiar withofthe matculmination of 50 years aircraft ter said the obstruction case said was development in which they always difficult safety has“the beenmost the first priority.element” for pushed Mueller’sback team beThey also on the cause demonstrating person’s idea that something is ainherently intent onethe of aircraft the toughest aswrong is with developsignments forwithin federalBoeing. prosecutors ment process Com— andofficials becausealso the person under pany defended the scrutiny was to the presidentthat of the process used determine United States. His actions,requirethe perplane met government son said, far different legal ments. Thehave process used to certify meanings repercussions bethe plane isand the subject of congrescause his officea and the constisional of inquiries, Department of tutional protections Transportation audit and apowers crimithat come with it. The person, like nal probe by the Department of others Justice.interviewed for this report, spoke themaker condition ano-a The on plane has toofwalk nymity internal White fine linetoindiscuss its public statements. House andthat Justice Department Admitting any fault lies in matters. Boeing’s planes, including soft-

n the weeks after a Boeing jetliner crashed in the Java Sea near Indonesia last year, killing all 189 on board, the manufacturer defended the plane’s safety features and publicly resisted calls to make changes to its system and pilot training procedures. This month, following a second deadly crash of a 737 Max, a worldwide grounding of the planes by regulators, a stock slide and the loss of a multibillion-dollar contract, Boeing is taking a new approach. The company invited hundreds of pilots and airline partners to its Renton, Wash., assembly facility Wednesday in a hastily arranged meeting to explain new safety enhancements. Boeing’s shift in tone — CEO CLIFF OWEN/ASSOCIATED Dennis Muilenburg said in aPRESS statement this pastLINDSEY weekWASSON/REUTERS that the com“humbled” Barr wrote that Muellerpany “ulti-has been Special Counsel — reflects agrowing Robertpressure Mueller on the mately determined not to make bottom church line as its on fleet traditional prosecutorial company’s judg- departs of jetlinersthe sitsSunday idle at after airports. he It ment” on the question of obstrucalso comesturned as airlines that have over his tion and that his report “identifies placed orders for to hundreds of adreport the Justice no actions that, in our judgment, ditional 737 Max jets begin to Department. constitute obstructive conduct, question investments. Members ofMax A few had a would nexus to a pending or con- those ware, create legal liability Boeing 737 weeks Indonesia’s havenational templated proceeding, and were airplanes come for the company and damage its ago,Congress airline, canceled asked for it release of its done with corrupt intent, of Garuda, undersaid scrutiny after reputation for safety, saideach Scott orderatfor 49 jets because of “conthe full report, which which, under the Department’s two deadly crashes Hamilton, managing director sumers’ lowis in the airmore than 300 principlesCompany, of federal an prosecution inconfidence” 6 months. Leeham aviation planes following crashes. pages the long. guiding charging decisions, consultant. would need to be proven beyond At the same time, Boeing isBoeing be-a is responding to rising public reasonable doubt to establish an concerns about its Max ing pushed by regulators and cusplanes obstruction-of-justice tomers to address theoffense.” issues that to save the company’s image and prevent the loss of more Barr noted of the may have led tothat twomany catastrophic business, president’s actions “took place in said Shem Malmquist, crashes. While a preliminary rean active public view,” and heyear’s wroteLion that the port following last Air Boeing 777 captain and a specialpointed counselto“recognized crash the role visiting of that the professor at the Florida Institute ‘the evidence not establish sensors, there does has been no final of Technology. “They that the President involved in took a different tack — a conclusion on the was cause of either tack they an underlying crime related to should have taken in the crash. firstiniplace,” Malmquist said. Russian election interference.’ ” After that incident, Boeing The company’s changing reThat said factor, Barr tially it did notwrote, need to“bears make sponse upon thetoPresident’s intent with may be partly a function of changes the automation system unusual the situation is, said respect to obstruction.” suspected of playing a rolehow in the Seth Seifman, an analyst at JPTheIfletter does not make clear crash. the system malfunctions, Morgan. whetherhas Mueller and Boeing alwaysasked given Barr pilots an “The way that it took off in the Rosenstein make athe final detereasy way to to override automamination onexecutives the question of tion system, saidpress in obin-and on social media is not something that Boeing is used to,” structionwith or whether he intended terviews the media. hesuch said. to leave that to another body, “The appropriate flight crew re- “It probably took some time to put together a public stratas Congress. sponse to [a system malfunction], toindeal with that.” Mueller ofconcluded hisegy work regardless cause, is contained

Initially defensive, the company has shifted tone, reflecting the growing pressure on its bottom line

without ever interviewing Trump — who answered written questions — or issuing a subpoena to compel his testimony. A person familiar with the matter said the special counsel’s team discussed the subject extensively, with the office’s lawyers, including Miexistingtop procedures,” a spokesman chael Quarles, said inDreeben, an email James last November. Aaron Zebley and Mueller, those most The company “reinforced” engaged in the procedures in adiscussions. bulletin to pilots Those talks but centered that month, said on it whethwasn’t er it was legally feasible and changing the procedure. It what also the costs of a subpoena be emphasized that suchmight action to the be overall investigation, would premature because the person cause ofsaid. the crash was unknown. The company special submitted counsel’s ateam prowent and forth posedback software fix towith the Trump’s Federal representatives, through multiple Aviation Administration on Jan. iterations of the legal 21, the agency haspresident’s said. team. They were hopeful, the said perA Boeing spokeswoman son said, that“has Trump would meet the company been following voluntarily butpractice mindful after that they the standard any could notsupporting explicitly the threaten a accident, investisubpoena unless they were pregating authorities, examining our pared todesign issue one. aircraft and operation, and Overaction the course of his investigataking to enhance safety.” tion, Mueller charged 34 the people, Safety concerns over 737 including several on Trump associMax intensified March 10, ates, the vestiges of his work whenand a Boeing Max 8 operated by live on. Prosecutors in the minU.S. Ethiopian Airlines crashed attorney’s office forkilling the District of utes after takeoff, 157. The Columbia took over cases, FAA concluded, basedsome on satellite including the matter ofthe a mystery data and evidence from wreckforeign that resisted age, thatcompany the Ethiopian incidenta subpoena fromcrash Mueller’s office and the earlier near Indoneand tookenough its battle the way to sia had in all common that the Supreme global fleets ofCourt. the Max 8 should be Sen. Lindsey O. Graham grounded. (R-S.C.) said the attorney general On Wednesday, Mike Sinnett, told him hepresident would be “glad” to Boeing vice of engineerappear before the Senate Judiciing and chiefhas project engineer, deBoeing continued to defend ary Committee toplanes discussand thedeflect spetailed new flight control features the safety of its cial counsel’s findings, butat not inclaims which an alert will appear the that its automation softbefore could determine what bottom of the pilot display screen ware he may have contributed to eishould redacted . when oftwo thecrashes. plane’s external ther two ofbethe “IAthope it’d bedifferent much sensors capture meathe Renton event, before officials months, andaerospace not longergiant thandefenda few surements, something that could from the weeks,” said.737 Max as the indicate faulty data. ed theGraham embattled House Democrats said The briefing, a phalanx culmination ofbefore 50 years ofThursaircraft day that they are to auofdevelopment television cameras, occurred beinprepared which they said thorize subpoena forfirst the Mueller fore theahas company met with more safety been the priority. report, if pilots, Barr misses the April 2 thanThey 200 technical leaders, also pushed back on the deadline. But they stopped short airline representatives and regulaidea that something is inherently of promising tothe issue it. a stake tors — allwith of whom have in wrong aircraft developA737 subpoena is only the firstforof the Max, which has been ment process within Boeing. Comseveral bidden topotential fly passengers insteps the pany officials also legal defended the House Democrats are contemplatUnited States, Europe, China and process used to determine that the ing as they watch to see if Barr will elsewhere. plane met government requirewithhold materials asused they expect, BoeingThe wasprocess working to drum up ments. to certify or surprise by ultimately support for is a them flight control the plane the subject of system congrescomplying with their demands. overhaul and a new trainingof sional inquiries, a pilot Department “We dothat notitwant in regimen hopes willaallay Transportation auditanything and crimithe words of the attorney general,” safety concerns raised by pilotof nal probe by the Department agroups House Democratic staffer told and others. It plans to subJustice. reporters Thursday a to formal mit the software fixes towalk the a Thefinal plane makerin has briefing about thepublic party’s plans to FAA review, something that finefor line in its statements. pursue Mueller’s “We want could hasten the report. process of lifting Admitting that any fault lies in to see Robert Mueller’s the grounding order.including Boeing’s planes, softn words.” n

Initially defensive, the reflecting the growing

ware for t repu Ham Leeh cons At ing p tome may crash port crash sens conc crash Af tially chan susp crash Boei easy tion tervi “T spon rega

SUNDAY, March,31, 31, 2019 2019 SUNDAY, MARCH

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POLITICS

A call to see the full Mueller report BY M ATT Z APOTOSKY, D EVLIN B ARRETT, C AROL D . L EONNIG AND J OHN W AGNER

uring a briefing at the Justice Department earlier this month, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III made a revelation that those supervising his work were not expecting: He would not offer a conclusion on whether he believed President Trump sought to obstruct justice. The decision — which a Justice Department official this past week said the special counsel’s office came to “entirely” on its own — left a gap ripe for political exploitation. After accepting Mueller’s report, Attorney General William P. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who were among those briefed March 5, made the call Mueller would not, determining that the evidence was insufficient to allege that Trump had obstructed justice. The decisive maneuver, outlined in a letter Barr sent to lawmakers last Sunday, sparked allegations that the two Trump appointees had rushed to a judgment no one asked them to make, and it is likely to be a key battleground in the intensifying political fight over the conclusion of Mueller’s work. Throughout the week, after Barr revealed Mueller’s principal conclusions — namely, that the special counsel did not establish any coordination between Trump and Russia on election interference, and found a mixed bag on the question of obstruction — Democrats attacked the attorney general and demanded release of the full Mueller report while some Republicans argued Trump should be given an apology. Trump, who had repeatedly derided the investigation as a “witch hunt,” said, when asked if Mueller had acted honorably: “Yes, he did.” Trump told reporters that “it wouldn’t bother me at all” if the Mueller report were released but said that decision is up to the attorney general. He also suggest-

WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES

Barr’s 4-page summary of 300-page investigation raises questions ed that those behind the investigation should be investigated for their own conduct. “They’ve done so many evil things,” the president said, without specifying whom he believed should be investigated. “It was a false narrative, it was a terrible thing. We can never let this happen to another president again. I can tell you that. I say it very strongly. Very few people I know could have handled it. We can never ever let this happen to another president again.” It was not clear when Barr might be able to turn over the report — or some portions of it — to lawmakers and the public.

Democrats on the Hill issued an April 2 deadline for Barr to turn over a copy of the report, which Barr told House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). was more than 300 pages long. But during his conversation with Nadler, Barr indicated that he would miss the April 2 deadline and would not commit to making public an unredacted copy of the report and the evidence that informed it. Some current and former law enforcement officials, meanwhile, said privately they were puzzled as to why Mueller ended his work without a firm recommendation

U.S. Attorney General William Barr departs his home in Virginia. Democrats in Congress have urged Barr to release the full text of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

on obstruction. The best window into Mueller’s probe that lawmakers and the public have so far is the four-page letter Barr released this past week that summarized the confidential report concluding Mueller’s nearly two-year investigation. On coordination, Barr indicated that Mueller wrote in his report, “[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” But on obstruction, Barr offered mixed sentiments. He wrote that Mueller “did not draw a con-

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POLITICS clusion — one way or the other — as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction.” Mueller’s report itself said pointedly, “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” according to Barr’s account. The attorney general, though, went further, writing that he and Rosenstein “concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel’s investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.” “Our determination was made without regard to, and is not based on, the constitutional considerations that surround the indictment and criminal prosecution of a sitting president,” Barr wrote. In an interview with Fox News Radio, Trump’s former personal lawyer John Dowd said it was “unprofessional” for Mueller not to have made a clear determination that Trump should not be prosecuted for obstruction of justice. “Your job is to decide,” he said, adding, “There was no evidence of obstruction here.” Democrats took a different tack. Before he became attorney general, Barr submitted to the Justice Department an 18-page memo highly critical of what he surmised was Mueller’s theory for how the president obstructed justice. Barr has noted that he did so without inside knowledge of the probe, and he has asserted that the document was “narrow in scope.” But his critics have suggested that his dim view of that aspect of Mueller’s work might have helped him land the attorney general job. Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) said this past week that he thought it was “completely inappropriate” for Barr to have concluded that Trump did not obstruct justice, and that the attorney general was trying to “shape the narrative” unfairly. Mueller “doesn’t make a conclusion, but he goes out of his way to say the president is not exonerated in this regard, and Mr. Barr in 48 hours turns that around and says: ‘Oh no, I’ve looked at it. He’s exonerated. He hasn’t committed that offense,’ ” Cicilline said on CNN. Since his appointment in May

CLIFF OWEN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Barr wrote that Mueller “ultimately determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment” on the question of obstruction and that his report “identifies no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct, had a nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding, and were done with corrupt intent, each of which, under the Department’s principles of federal prosecution guiding charging decisions, would need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to establish an obstruction-of-justice offense.” Barr noted that many of the president’s actions “took place in public view,” and he wrote that the special counsel “recognized that ‘the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference.’ ” That factor, Barr wrote, “bears upon the President’s intent with respect to obstruction.” The letter does not make clear whether Mueller asked Barr and Rosenstein to make a final determination on the question of obstruction or whether he intended to leave that to another body, such as Congress. Mueller concluded his work

Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs church on the Sunday after he turned over his report to the Justice Department. Members of Congress have asked for release of the full report, which is more than 300 pages long.

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SUNDAY, March, 31, 2019

COVER STORY

Working while Homeless STORY BY TERRENCE MCCOY PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEL S . WILLIAMSON

efore 10 a.m. on another cold Thursday, Monica Diaz stirred in her tent, filled with dread. It had been two weeks since the last cleanup, and city workers would again be here soon, with their dumpster truck and police cars, to clear out the encampment. Every morning was awful, but these were the worst of all, when Monica, who’d otherwise be resting before work, was forced to confront publicly what she did her best to hide: that she’s homeless. That she lives in a tent. That she just turned 40, and that this is somehow her life. “You ready?” Monica asked her husband, after a sleepless night at the base of Union Station, near CNN’s Washington bureau, where the noise never stopped and they’d huddled together with their dog, Sassy, against the cold. “Somewhat,” said Pete Etheridge, 31, sighing.

They looked around their tent, which not only held the sum total of their world but also reflected a way of life that has, over the past decade, fundamentally changed the face of American homelessness. As housing costs climb ever higher in booming urban areas, the significant growth in tent encampments nationwide has become one of the most visible signs of the nation’s failure to alleviate widening inequality. In Orange County, Calif., more than 700 people were cleared out of a tent city along the Santa Ana River last year after thousands signed a petition and Anaheim declared a state of emergency. Seattle, meanwhile, has allowed some tent cities to operate as de facto communities — long-term, regulated, even with phone numbers and addresses. And in Washington, the number of encampment cleanups has surged, according to city data, rising from 29 in 2015 to 100 in 2018. Monica, a stout, wavy-haired woman now living in her seventh tent after cleanup crews tossed the others, looked down the busy street

SUNDAY, March, 31, 2019

and tried to gird herself for the indignities to come. She needed to place her clothing and blankets into black trash bags, take down the blue and gray nylon tent and wheel everything out of eyesight in a shopping cart. Then she would watch as workers wiped away any trace of her from First Street NE, wheel it all back, pitch her tent again, take an ibuprofen p.m. and then sleep it all away until it was time to go to the fast-food restaurant for work. “We got to take it all the way down there,” she said, pointing toward the next street. Pete looked over everything that needed packing and was quietly shaking his head when a man in a brown coat approached. He’d come to cover the cleanup for Street Sense, a publication about homelessness, but now told them that the move had been canceled. The city was worried about hypothermia. Monica and Pete wouldn’t have to dismantle their lives — at least not today. “It’s canceled?” Monica said, putting a hand over her mouth and closing her eyes. “Oh, my

God! We were just about to move all of our stuff!” She hugged the man, and then Pete, the two of them overcome with such sudden relief that they began to cry. “I love you, baby,” he said, pressing his face to hers. “We’re going to make it,” she said, reaching up to wipe the tears away from his face. Behind them was a sign screwed to a metal post. It showed the date of the next cleanup. Feb. 28, it now said. Ten a.m. Two weeks from today.

ife in the tent: Everything looks blue. “Our efficiency on First” they jokingly call it, imagining a different existence. On one side is the “wardrobe closet,” where they store the clothing the church people gave them. In the middle is the “bedroom,” where they’ve laid down blankets and sleeping bags. Off to the other side are the “kitchen” and “bathroom,” where they put the groceries and

Left: Monica and her husband, Pete Etheridge, reach for a bag containing a fast-food hamburger and a Rice Krispie treat being offered by a passerby. They were resting in their tent with Sassy, their dog. Right: Monica and Pete live in the tent at left along First Street NE. One of their homeless neighbors, center, holds a sign seeking donations. Periodically, they are ordered to pack up and move their belongings when the city decides to clean up the encampment.

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toiletries that Monica can manage to buy with the biweekly pay from her job. That was where she had to go one afternoon soon after a cleanup. Just past 3 p.m., she unzipped the tent and awkwardly stepped out into the brightness of day. Eyes puffy, hair ruffled, exhausted, she pulled up the hood of her coat. Pete secured the tent with a padlock, leaving Sassy behind in a cocoon of blankets, and the two of them walked toward Union Station, which, for scores of homeless people like them, functions as the epicenter of daily life. It is where they can use a restroom, buy a cheap meal at the Bojangles’ or McDonald’s, get warm. Here, there’s a largely invisible, parallel reality apart from the thousands of people whooshing through the station each day, catching trains, clutching coffee, going about the business of making it in a city powered by ambition. Some of those people are Monica’s customers, and rather than risk seeing them while she was so disheveled, she walked in through a service entrance, hood pulled down low. She passed the spot where the trucks drop off their cargo and where the restaurants throw away their waste, considering again the same question: How did it come to this? She knew that she’d made some mistakes. Some bills went unpaid and debts had accumulated while she tried — unsuccessfully — to get a college degree at Towson University, ruining her credit. Then four years ago, she was charged with distribution of a controlled substance, a case that was dropped. But this? Not that long ago, she’d had a house, a car and a job — one with benefits and potential for promotion to management, at the Price Rite supermarket in District Heights, Md. And then Pete — the quiet, big-hearted man who got her phone number seven years ago, after they bumped into each other several times on the streets of Washington, their hometown. He told her they kept running into each other for a reason, and soon he was coming over to her house and that was that. Home for him was now with her. The first place they shared was a one-bedroom apartment in Temple Hills, Md. Rent had been an easy $900, which they managed with their pay from her job at Price Rite and his job stocking groceries overnight at a Giant. Monica cooked them Dominican and Guatemalan food most nights, recipes she learned from her mother and grandparents, all of whom had long since died. By May 2016, they’d gotten engaged, with Monica posting a picture on Facebook of the silver rings they bought for each other. But while their world was solidifying inside the apartment, it was fraying outside. Lynnhill Condominiums, where they lived, a massive building filled with mostly low-income tenants, was buckling beneath the weight of housing code violations. In October 2016, the power was cut because of unpaid utility bills, and some residents started leaving. But not Monica and Pete. “I’m basically living paycheck to paycheck,” Monica told a

television reporter, looking then like a different person — earrings in, hair brushed, glasses on. “I have nowhere to go.” Less than a year later, the Prince George’s County Fire Department condemned the building. “For your safety, you are being ordered to evacuate,” a police offer said over a loudspeaker in the parking lot. But to where? “What did we do to deserve this?” Monica asked in another television interview, frantic. “We paid rent. We worked hard, you understand? So why would you do this to us?” Two years later now, long after they’d wound up on the streets and the condemned building had been sold to a real estate company, Monica and Pete walked up to the Union Station bus terminal. Nearby was a family bathroom. It was where Monica liked to go before work. There, she could lock the door, have a moment of privacy, breathe deeply and make herself clean again. But today the bathroom was under construction and closed. She sighed irritably. She knew how important it was not to look homeless. After Lynnhill was shuttered, and she was living on the streets for the first time, she held on to her Price Rite job for months. But her appearance deteriorated from sleep deprivation and infrequent showering, and she was fired for poor hygiene. Unwilling to let that happen again, she walked downstairs to the women’s restroom below. It was as chaotic as she’d feared — tourists, commuters and homeless women, everyone jostling, waiting for a turn at the mirror. Finally, it was hers.

Top: Monica and Pete walk through Union Station toward the streetcar platform. Above: Monica cleans up and does her hair as she gets ready for work in a restroom at Union Station.

Ten minutes later, she came out. Her hood was off. Her hair was up. White earrings shone from each lobe. Lip gloss sparkled. Pete smiled. “That Mulan look,” he said of her hair now pulled back in a bun, before they walked up to the H Street trolley, where she’d catch a ride to work. He stood by her, trying to cheer her up, telling her how nice she looked. But she only glared at him. “This is not me, babe,” she snapped, then caught herself, expression softening. “I’m just frustrated,” she said. “I don’t look the way I want to look. You keep telling me I’m pretty, but I don’t feel pretty.” Not wanting to talk about it anymore, she

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turned away from him and waited for the trolley to arrive, eyes searching the distance.

ays later, it began to snow early one morning, thick globs of it, and nearly everything closed along First Street. Pete was beginning to worry. He hadn’t seen Monica for hours, not since she’d walked to Union Station to use the restroom after waking up. He well understood how homelessness can destroy a person — he’d been on and off the streets since he was 13 — and could see the corrosion in Monica. Lately, she’d been disappearing for hours and talking about having “crazy thoughts.” What if she needed him now, and he wasn’t there?

Top: Pete is exasperated as he moves the final load of personal belongings ahead of a city cleanup. Above: Pete watches a member of the NoMa Clean Team power-wash the spot where he and Monica keep their tent.

He had to find her. “You seen my wife?” he asked one homeless man near the entrance of Union Station. The man shook his head. He kept on, searching for her in the food court, then on the ground level, going past where the fancy creams and chocolates and juices are sold, then to the McDonald’s, whose seats usually were filled with the homeless. Nothing. This is not what he’d promised Monica. During their first night of homelessness inside a bus shelter near a hotel they could no longer afford, he’d told her, “We’re going to be okay,” and had meant it. Soon they moved to Washington, where Mayor Muriel E. Bowser had made addressing the city’s homeless crisis one of her key issues. Maybe there, in the city where they’d once lived, they could get help. But they quickly learned, after seeking help from the city, that they were never the right type of homeless. They had a dog and weren’t willing to leave Sassy behind, so the shelters, almost all of which were gender-specific, weren’t an option. They also didn’t have children, for whom there are more city resources. Neither had addiction or mental health issues, diminishing their chances of getting housing, because, in the difficult calculations service providers must make, other people always needed help more. “A perfect storm of bad factors,” Ann Marie Staudenmaier, a housing lawyer with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, called their situation. “In the grand scheme of things, they’re just not a priority.” Pete now stopped another homeless man

KLMNO WEEKLY

near a Pret a Manger. “You seen my girly?” he asked. One bench to another, this park to the next, he and Monica had slept wherever seemed safe in those first few months, until a woman from a church gave them a tent. It was everything. Finally there was somewhere to store the things that made them feel less homeless — a chain with a gold cross, a pair of Converse shoes that Pete, who loved fashion, had adored. There was a sense of privacy. But then a city cleanup crew came through while they were out, and they returned to find that their tent and all of their things were gone. All around them were other homeless people who’d undergone or would soon undergo the same sudden deprivation. “Crushed” is how one homeless man, Montrel Williams, said he felt after a recent cleanup stripped him of all he had. “They’re taking what little we got.” To the city, the biweekly sweeps ensure that public places are safe and clean. But to housing lawyers, advocates and the homeless, they’re dehumanizing exercises that do little to redress homelessness and leave the people experiencing it worse off, materially and psychologically. Last year, the Washington law firm Covington & Burling filed a class-action lawsuit against the city, alleging it had destroyed unattended property during the cleanups and violated constitutional rights. The suit remains pending. Pete didn’t know which discarded tent had stored Monica’s Maryland driver’s license, but the loss had severed her last connection to her old life. Afterward, the only full-time job she could get paid under the table and less than half of minimum wage, with overnight hours. He’d tried to help, getting some work on construction sites, but they never seemed to get closer to their goal. They needed $2,000, he figured, to pay the first month’s rent and security deposit for an apartment to get off the streets. But now the problem was even more urgent: He couldn’t find Monica. “Where did she go?” he asked aloud as he walked. “Where did she go?” Then: There, at the bottom of the steps, near the Metro entrance inside Union Station, he glimpsed Monica on her phone, which she charged at the train station and could use only while connected to WiFi. She was laughing, smiling bigger than he’d seen in a long time. Whom was she talking to? “We got to have a girls’ night out,” she said into the phone. “We’re going to get pretty. I’m going to do your nails, and you’re going to do mine. We’re going to do our hair.” It was her half sister, Selena, 12, living in New York with their father, a man Monica barely knew. Monica was asking to come visit for the weekend, to get out of the cold. “Maybe sometime this weekend, if Daddy’s not too busy, because Daddy’s working two jobs,” she said into the phone. “I’m going to try to make it out there. You, me and Sassy, okay? I love you. I miss you so much. Tell Daddy, okay? Because I love you guys so much.” She hung up, crying now, knowing she

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SUNDAY, March,31, 31, 2019 2019 SUNDAY, MARCH

KLMNO WEEKLY

COVER STORY

wouldn’t make it to New York, that she didn’t have the money for a bus ticket. “You okay, babe?” Pete asked. “I’m at my breaking point,” she said. Payday was still three days away, she told him, and another cleanup was just after that, and she’d just had to panhandle for money to buy food. Panhandle, she said again, hating the sound of the word. “I’m so at my breaking point, I don’t know what to do.” So she did the only thing she could, walking slowly with Pete through the snow back to the tent, then laid down atop the concrete, curling up next to her waiting dog to try to rest before her next shift.

ot too long ago, Monica had worked at the cash register, chatting with customers as she rang up orders of chicken and fries. It was what she loved most about the job, getting to know the usuals, soaking in how they looked at her — as an equal, not as someone to hurry past on the sidewalk. But these days, Monica had come to trust herself less with that responsibility. A construction project was tearing up the street in front of their tent, and she felt herself fracturing. So she asked to be moved to the kitchen, where she worked late on Feb. 27, the night before the cleanup. Head down, she breaded and fried the chicken, talking to no one. She knew her co-workers didn’t understand what had been going on with her lately, why she’d become so withdrawn. “Why are you so tired?” several of them had asked.

Above: Colleen, 68, who lives in a tent just yards from Monica and Pete on First Street NE, gathers her belongings after moving them in anticipation of a city cleanup.

She wanted to be honest. But fearful that she’d lose her job if she told the truth — that a homeless person was handling food — she lied. It was her younger sister, Selena, she’d say. She was having problems with school, and Monica had to get up early to take her to class. That story seemed to satisfy them, but more and more she could feel the two worlds she’d always kept meticulously separate — the working one and the homeless one — beginning to converge. She worried one night that she’d yell at a customer over nothing and get fired. And then she’d be left not with two worlds, but one, the wrong one. It took all of her effort not to think about that possibility, not to think about the dumpster truck coming the next morning, to keep her focus on her job. Bread the chicken. Prep the fish. Cut the chocolate cake. Stir the collard greens. Box the pastries. Prepare everything for the morning, when the restaurant

Left: After washing up at Union Station to get ready for work, Monica breaks down on the way back to her tent.

would no longer cater to the drunks after the bars closed, but to the breakfast crowd. Then it was past 3 a.m., and she was leaving. She walked outside and saw Pete, waiting for her with Sassy. She petted Sassy and gave Pete a kiss, and together they all walked back to First Street, seeing the parked Bobcats looming just outside their tent, waiting for morning. They entered the tent and zipped it. Five hours later, they unzipped it. Monica emerged to see their encampment in upheaval. The man who’d lived beside them for months, who was drunk more often than not, was gone, to who knew where. A woman across the street, who raved at all hours about a Clinton conspiracy and yelled racist things at passerby, had pulled everything out of her tent, which she was taking down. The sidewalks were full: federal workers hustling into the Bureau of Labor Statistics, newscasters heading into the CNN offices, Howard University students who’d come to witness the cleanup. It was 38 degrees outside. As Sassy quivered, Monica piled everything they had into black trash bags, then handed them to Pete. Wordlessly, he placed them into a shopping cart, one after another, until a woman came up to him just after 9:30 and said something softly. He turned back to the tent, where Monica was packing. “It’s off,” he said of the cleanup. Another hypothermia warning. Inside the tent, she erupted. “Why do they keep doing this to us?” she said. “This is so frustrating!” “Come on,” he said, trying to soothe her. “It’s cold.” But she couldn’t stop, not now. Even if she suddenly was the person she’d never wanted to be — homeless, shouting in the streets. Workers in suits streamed past, ignoring the uncomfortable scene. Pete stood there, powerless to hold her together. “I’m so sick and tired of these people treating us like we’re idiots!” she said. “I’m tired of being like this. . . . This day has been on my mind for the longest time. I’ve been looking at that sign, the 28th!” Down she spiraled. “I’m dying out here!” she said to no one. “I’m dying out here! Please, I need help!” “Monica!” Pete finally shouted. “Calm your voice down!” Now she was addressing the people on the streets. “Acknowledge us!” she said. “We’re human beings! Please, just acknowledge us!” But people kept passing and, defeated, Monica and Pete slowly began taking the bags out of the shopping cart to reassemble their home. The wardrobe over here. The bedroom over there. Outside, another business day in professional Washington was underway and, inside, all Monica wanted to do was sleep. Nearby, the sign showing the next cleanup changed. March 14, it now said. Ten a.m. Two weeks from today. n

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KLMNO WEEKLY

FIVE MYTHS

The Ivy League BY

J EROME K ARABEL

The “Varsity Blues” admissions scandal shows just how far some wealthy parents will go to get their children into elite colleges. In one case at Yale, parents paid $1.2 million to make their daughter look like a star soccer player in a fake athletic profile. Why are Ivy League applicants — even the overwhelming majority who apply legitimately — so desperate to get in, and why is this set of schools so renowned? A number of myths surround the group of eight schools originally grouped together as a sports conference. MYTH NO. 1 In admissions, academic brilliance is paramount. Ivies do not see educating the next generation of rocket scientists, professors and assorted intellectuals as their primary task. Instead, they select students whose qualities seem most likely to make them future members of what the sociologist C. Wright Mills called the “power elite.” In reality, academic strength is just one of several dimensions by which candidates are ranked, including extracurriculars, athletics and the enigmatic “personal” ranking. MYTH NO. 2 Athleticism is like the other attributes schools value. Savvy parents and applicants are well aware that the Ivy League values athletic talent. But it is often listed as just one “hook” among many others, including legacy status, membership in a historically underrepresented minority group and socioeconomic disadvantage. But athletes are a special case and are given vastly more preference than other recognized categories. Varsity coaches exert tremendous influence by giving the admissions office a list of recruited athletes — a list that is usually respected. Equally outstanding musicians, artists, actors and dancers do not receive the same treatment. This

preference outweighs even the preference given to legacies or minorities. In a study of 30 selective institutions conducted by James Shulman and former Princeton president William G. Bowen, athletes were 48 percent more likely to be admitted than applicants without a hook, compared with 18 percent for racial minorities and 25 percent for legacies. STAN GODLEWSKI FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

MYTH NO. 3 Ivies are the nation’s most selective schools. It is true that it is very hard to get in; in 2017, more than 280,000 students applied to the eight Ivies, and less than 10 percent were admitted. But over the past few years Stanford has become even more selective than Harvard. In 2018, just 4.3 percent of Stanford’s applicants were admitted, compared with 4.6 percent at Harvard. And neither is quite as selective as another institution, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where the admissions rate is just 3 percent. Just four of the 10 most selective colleges in the country are Ivies — Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia. MYTH NO. 4 Aid and need-blind admissions have democratized the Ivies. Over the past half-century, Ivy institutions have adopted a policy of ignoring financial

Yale University has been embroiled in an admissions scandal.

considerations in admissions decisions; applicants’ inability to pay tuition won’t stop a school from admitting them. More recently, a number of Ivies have offered full scholarships covering room, board and tuition for students coming from families with incomes below $65,000. But these well-intentioned initiatives have produced disappointing results. A recent study by researchers at the Equality of Opportunity Project reveals that Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Penn and Brown have more students from the top 1 percent of the income distribution than from the bottom 60 percent.J MYTH NO. 5 Ivy League graduates dominate leadership roles. A number of studies have shown that Ivy League graduates are vastly overrepresented in

positions of corporate and political leadership: Almost a third of officers and directors in the corporate elite earned undergraduate degrees from elite schools. But overrepresentation is far from dominance. In a comprehensive 2017 study of “3,990 senior executives drawn from 15 sectors, including government,” researchers at the University of California at Riverside found that barely 10 percent attended Ivy League colleges. Ivy League graduates were most represented in industries involving media, including publishing, journalism and the arts — but even there, they were a decided minority. n Karabel, a professor of sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, is the author of “The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.”

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