美国国家公共电台 NPR Diplomat Kurt Volker Caught Up In Whirlwind Of Impeachment Inquiry

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Well, today is a first in the impeachment¹ inquiry². The first State Department official will testify before three congressional committees behind closed doors. It is Kurt Volker, who is U.S. special envoy³ for Ukraine. He resigned last week after being named in a whistleblower complaint about President Trump⁴'s dealings with Ukraine. So who is Volcker? What role did he play in all this? And what might his deposition⁵ reveal?

Let's turn to NPR diplomatic correspondent Michele Kelemen, who's with us this morning. Hi, Michele.

MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE⁶: Hi there, David.

GREENE: OK. What should we know about Kurt Volker?

KELEMEN: Well, Volker's a former foreign service officer. He served briefly⁷ as U.S. ambassador to NATO at the end of the Bush administration - George W. Bush that is. He's since led the McCain Institute in Washington and has consulted for a lobbying firm. And he was tapped two years ago for this part-time job of being special representative for Ukraine negotiations⁸.

The job was really to promote negotiations to end a war in eastern Ukraine and to push back against Russian aggression⁹. But he ended up doing much more than that, really. He oversaw¹⁰ a shift in policy to start sending defensive¹¹ weapons to Ukraine. That's something he advocated before. And now he's caught up in this political battle back home.

GREENE: Probably not exactly where he expected to be when he came into this job. So help me work through what role he played here. According to the whistleblower complaint, it looks like as President Trump was interested in getting Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden's son, Volker may have put Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in touch with Ukrainian government officials. Is that right?

KELEMEN: Yeah. That's right. It was Volker, along with the ambassador to the European Union - another Trump appointee - who are facilitating these contacts. And now, let me just set the scene for you...

GREENE: Yeah.

KELEMEN: ...About what's happening in Ukraine. You had a comedian¹² and a political novice¹³, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, winning elections. That surprised a lot of people. At the same time, you have Rudy Giuliani trying to dig up dirt about Joe Biden's son and looking into the origins of the Robert Mueller investigation¹⁴. You have a president who's fixated on that and has a negative view of Ukraine.

And then you have Volker, who seems to be trying to help this new Ukrainian leader get his footing. So he puts Giuliani in touch with aides to the Ukrainian president. The whistleblower, as you mentioned, painted it as Volker trying to help the Ukrainian government navigate¹⁵ - that was the word that was used - navigate the president's demands. The whistleblower also said that Volker was in Kyiv a day after that very well-known phone call that Trump had with Zelenskiy.

GREENE: So a lot for lawmakers to question Volker about. And Volker's one of the State Department officials, we should say, whose deposition Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tried to delay. So now this deposition is happening. Do you have a sense for exactly what questions lawmakers are going to be focusing on?

KELEMEN: Well, I think they need to get a - kind of an accurate picture of what he was trying to do there, what he knew about Giuliani's ask and what he knows about the president's decision to hold up military aid to Ukraine during this time - you know, was the president using that aid as leverage¹⁶ to pressure Ukraine to dig up dirt? - and also just what the State Department's role in all of this was.

Secretary of State Pompeo says U.S. policy was clear. That's what his team was focused on. But there seems to have been this sort of separate side policy happening at the same time.

GREENE: Let me ask you, Michele, about another State Department involvement here. The State Department's inspector¹⁷ general gave some documents to Congress yesterday. Giuliani admitted on CNN some of the documents came from him. What exactly were these documents?

KELEMEN: Well, the staffers and the one lawmaker who were there said they were shown a package of documents containing debunked¹⁸ conspiracy¹⁹ theories about the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. You know, this smear²⁰ campaign was certainly getting a lot of play in the right-wing media at the times, and none of that's really a surprise.

But since Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador, was abruptly²¹ fired in May, this provides some context to that. And she's also going to be one of the people expected to speak to the Hill committees on this impeachment inquiry.

GREENE: All right. NPR diplomatic correspondent Michele Kelemen for us this morning. Thanks, Michele.

KELEMEN: Thank you.

1 impeachment   

n.弹劾；控告；怀疑

参考例句：

• Impeachment is considered a drastic measure in the United States.在美国，弹劾被视为一种非常激烈的措施。
• The verdict resulting from his impeachment destroyed his political career.他遭弹劾后得到的判决毁了他的政治生涯。

2 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

3 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 deposition   

n.免职，罢官；作证；沉淀；沉淀物

参考例句：

• It was this issue which led to the deposition of the king.正是这件事导致了国王被废黜。
• This leads to calcium deposition in the blood-vessels.这导致钙在血管中沉积。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

8 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

9 aggression   

n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害

参考例句：

• So long as we are firmly united, we need fear no aggression.只要我们紧密地团结，就不必惧怕外来侵略。
• Her view is that aggression is part of human nature.她认为攻击性是人类本性的一部份。

10 oversaw   

v.监督，监视( oversee的过去式 )

参考例句：

• He will go down as the president who oversaw two historic transitions. 他将作为见证了巴西两次历史性转变的总统，安然引退。 来自互联网
• Dixon oversaw the project as creative director of Design Research Studio. 狄克逊监督项目的创意总监设计研究工作室。 来自互联网

11 defensive   

adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的

参考例句：

• Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题，使她警觉起来。
• The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。

12 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

13 novice   

adj.新手的，生手的

参考例句：

• As a novice writer,this is something I'm interested in.作为初涉写作的人，我对此很感兴趣。
• She realized that she was a novice.她知道自己初出茅庐。

14 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

15 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

16 leverage   

n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量

参考例句：

• We'll have to use leverage to move this huge rock.我们不得不借助杠杆之力来移动这块巨石。
• He failed in the project because he could gain no leverage. 因为他没有影响力，他的计划失败了。

17 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

18 debunked   

v.揭穿真相，暴露( debunk的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His theories have been debunked by recent research. 最近的研究揭穿了他的理论的真相。
• Some advertising slogans should be debunked. 某些夸大的广告用语应予揭露。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

20 smear   

v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑

参考例句：

• He has been spreading false stories in an attempt to smear us.他一直在散布谎言企图诽谤我们。
• There's a smear on your shirt.你衬衫上有个污点。

21 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。