美国国家公共电台 NPR Gordon Sondland, The Ambassador Whose Texts Put Him At The Center Of Ukraine Scandal

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We're going to introduce you now to one of the people at the center of the House impeachment¹ inquiry². Gordon Sondland is testifying before House investigators³. He is the U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Up to now, the country has known him for a single text message. In that message to another diplomat⁴, he defended President Trump⁵'s involvement in Ukraine. He said there was no quid pro⁶ quo in the president's requests from Ukrainian officials.

In prepared testimony⁷, Sondland says more. He says that text message just conveyed what President Trump told him. He says he didn't know the president wanted a probe of a political rival, Joe Biden.

So who is Gordon Sondland? On this dramatic day, Rachel Martin takes a long look.

RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE⁸: Gordon Sondland has an important job. He is the U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Here's a bit of a video he made with his family introducing him after he was named.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GORDON SONDLAND: My family is the most important thing to me. We spend a lot of time together. We travel together.

KATHERINE DURANT: I grew up here in Portland, Ore., and I'm very excited about the opportunity to spend more time in the EU and specifically in Brussels.

MARTIN: They did this introductory video because the U.S. ambassador to the EU is not really a position that makes someone a household name. No, what has elevated Gordon Sondland into the public consciousness is something that wasn't part of his original job, an assignment that put him on the ground in Ukraine. And it's the reason he's testifying today. The day after that now-infamous call between President Trump and President Zelenskiy, Gordon Sondland spoke⁹ with Ukrainian TV.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: You're the U.S. ambassador to the EU, but you've been spending a great deal of time in Kyiv. Why is that?

SONDLAND: Well, President Trump has not only honored me with the job of being the U.S. ambassador to the EU, but he's also given me other special assignments.

MARTIN: Details are emerging about those special assignments. This week, we learned from testimony that acting¹⁰ White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney pushed out the diplomats¹¹ who had been in charge of Ukraine policy. And he put three other people at the helm instead who apparently¹² gave themselves a nickname. Here's Sondland again on Ukrainian TV.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SONDLAND: We have what are called the three amigos. And the three amigos are Secretary Perry; again, Ambassador Volker and myself. And we've been tasked with sort of overseeing the Ukraine-U.S. relationship between our contacts at the highest levels of the U.S. government and now the highest levels of the Ukrainian government.

MARTIN: In that same interview, Sondland said he spoke to President Trump just a few minutes before he placed that call to Zelenskiy, although in his testimony today, Sondland minimizes that conversation. He says it was short and not substantive¹³. His now-famous text messages came a month and a half later. That's when he denied that there was any quid pro quo in President Trump's conversation with Zelenskiy. He was sure in his denial, he says, because he clarified the issue personally with President Trump.

The phrase quid pro quo has now become a kind of shorthand to describe this entire debacle, but it's a phrase Gordon Sondland uses himself to explain his own negotiating philosophy. Here he is describing, at a business breakfast in Portland back in 2016, how he used to facilitate phone calls between the former Democratic governor of Oregon and President George W. Bush.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SONDLAND: We would make these requests. And they were done quietly. They were done with rifle precision. And there was always a quid pro quo: the governor would help the president with something, and the president would help the governor with something. And it was very transactional.

MARTIN: Transactional was a word I heard a lot when asking friends and former colleagues about Gordon Sondland, so was pragmatic. As a hotel developer tight in GOP circles working in liberal Portland, Ore., Sondland had to figure out how to work with a lot of people he didn't agree with.

DAVID NIERENBERG: I collect books and wine bottles. And Gordon, among other things, collects relationships.

MARTIN: This is David Nierenberg. He got to know Sondland when they both worked as fundraisers for Mitt¹⁴ Romney's presidential campaign back in 2012. He and others said that, back then, it was pretty clear Sondland wanted to hitch¹⁵ his wagon¹⁶ to a candidate who could make him an ambassador, preferably to a German-speaking country. Sondland's Jewish parents fled Germany during World War II. They ended up in Washington state and opened a dry cleaning business. It's a story Sondland has recently started telling a lot.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

SONDLAND: But I'm the first in my family that was born in the U.S. My parents were both European immigrants. I started...

They had to escape Nazi¹⁷ Germany. That was the beginning of the uprising of Hitler.

Yeah, my mother was able to escape. My father was smuggled¹⁸ out of Germany before things got bad.

Soon Gunther, Frieda and my sister Lucy found fortunate permanent refuge in Seattle, Wash....

MARTIN: David Nierenberg told me Sondland saw an ambassadorship as a way to square the circle of his family's legacy¹⁹ - as some kind of symbolic²⁰ justice.

NIERENBERG: It's not uncommon²¹ among the people I know who come through this experience to want to have relationships to powerful people in government because - let's face it - almost anyone who either personally survived or whose parents or grandparents survived the Holocaust²² did so because of the intervention²³ of someone who helped them.

MARTIN: And you think that explains Gordon Sondland's support of President Trump.

NIERENBERG: I think it may. I think it may.

MARTIN: It was a process, though. Sondland supported Trump, and then he didn't support him. And then Trump became the nominee²⁴, and Sondland went all in and made a million-dollar donation to Trump's inaugural²⁵ committee. He still had his eyes on the prize, a European ambassador post. And jobs like that are often doled²⁶ out to top donors²⁷. But Sondland made the donation quietly through four separate entities²⁸.

Len Bergstein spent a decade working as a consultant²⁹ for Sondland. He helped him push back against a big convention center hotel in Portland. He also observed him as he made political alliances around the state. Bergstein says Sondland is not an ideologue. He is a political pragmatist, and he would ally himself with whomever could help him achieve his dream posting in Europe.

LEN BERGSTEIN: Here was a chance. He'd tried to kind of ride the Romney horse into that position. He tried to be involved in the Jeb Bush campaign. And here was his - kind of like his ticket to the ball here. And I think with Trump, he saw a chance to do it.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SONDLAND: Good afternoon. It's an honor to appear before you as the president's nominee to serve as the United States' ambassador to the European Union.

MARTIN: Fast-forward 15 months and 26 days. And now, today, Ambassador Gordon Sondland has been subpoenaed³⁰ to testify before Congress. I asked Len Bergstein if he understands who Sondland is at his core.

Would you describe him as someone who has a strong moral compass or a clearly defined code of ethics³¹?

BERGSTEIN: You know, I've been thinking about that. And I'm not sure I'm able to kind of answer that. I didn't - he certainly never asked me to go over any lines. He was someone who not - wasn't looking to kind of bend the rules necessarily but was trying to bend the narrative³², trying to make sure that if he could tell his story in his way, he would win.

MARTIN: Bergstein then told me his own story about working with Sondland. It goes back to that convention center hotel project they were trying to hold up for so many years. When it finally did get resolved, Bergstein says Sondland got some property out of the deal. But it wasn't enough for him. Sondland wanted city leaders to draft a statement saying that he was a, quote, "pillar of the community." And they did.

BERGSTEIN: When I think back to that process, the closing of a very contentious³³ battle in Portland, Gordon was first and foremost interested in his own reputation. Thursday is going to be, I think, that pillar-of-the-community kind of moment that I think Gordon is looking for where he can kind of, like, define himself in the narrative so that in fact he doesn't get played as a bit-part villain³⁴ being manipulated by some others.

NIERENBERG: I have a sense of profound sadness for Gordon and for his family that he finds himself in this situation.

MARTIN: David Nierenberg tells me he was in touch with Sondland on email just a couple weeks ago.

NIERENBERG: I said to him, in so many words, please remember that Richard Nixon did not lose the presidency³⁵ because of the break-in at the DNC. Richard Nixon lost the presidency because of two years of lying about it and trying to cover it up. And so my advice to Gordon was, if there's anything about which you feel, with 20/20 hindsight, uncomfortable, then by all means be truthful³⁶ about it, be apologetic about it and make things right because you've got decades of life ahead of you. And the response I got was basically, thank you for your email. You've always given me good advice.

MARTIN: And Steve, today we're going to see if Sondland takes that advice.

INSKEEP: Yeah. His story does seem to have changed, though, from that simple no quid pro quo that he put in that text message, Rachel.

MARTIN: Right. So what is different now, according to his prepared remarks, is that he's saying, if there was a quid pro quo of some kind, he didn't know anything about it. He says he wasn't on the phone call between Trump and Zelenskiy. And in all the readouts that he got of that call, these summaries that people send out - the White House sends out - he didn't see any reference to Joe or Hunter Biden in any of that. So he felt perfectly³⁷ fine defending the president in those text messages. He says that tackling Ukrainian corruption³⁸, it's always been part of his portfolio³⁹, and that Burisma, the energy company that is where Hunter Biden has served on the board...

INSKEEP: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...He says that's a natural part of his portfolio. But again, he maintains that he never even knew that Hunter Biden sat on that board, which would mean he hadn't seen news reports about it and that he hadn't heard Rudy Giuliani talking about it incessantly⁴⁰ as early as last spring.

INSKEEP: Trying to explain why, when he said no quid pro quo, he was, in his version, just repeating the president's words, not stating his own actual knowledge.

MARTIN: Exactly.

INSKEEP: But you mentioned Rudy Giuliani. Does he talk about Rudy Giuliani in his prepared remarks?

MARTIN: Well, he does. And it's clear when you read it that he is trying to distance himself from the president's personal lawyer. He says at one point that President Trump did ask him to talk directly to Giuliani about concerns about Ukrainian corruption in general. And Sondland says that in that conversation, Giuliani actually brought up the 2016 election specifically, including the DNC server, which, as you know, is at the center of a widely disputed conspiracy⁴¹ theory. Giuliani also brought up Burisma and noted⁴² these as two issues he wanted Ukraine to investigate. Sondland says he didn't want to work with Giuliani but President Trump gave him no other choice.

Steve, there's one thing that's important to note here. There's an inconsistency in Sondland's prepared remarks. He says that "in late July 2019, Ambassadors Volker and Taylor and I" - quoting now - "exchanged emails in which we all agreed Zelenskiy should have no involvement in presidential elections." He maintains he didn't know anything about it, so that's a question that lawmakers are going to want to put to him today.

INSKEEP: OK. Thanks for your reporting, Rachel Martin. Really appreciate it.

MARTIN: You're welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

5 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。

6 pro   

n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者

参考例句：

• The two debating teams argued the question pro and con.辩论的两组从赞成与反对两方面辩这一问题。
• Are you pro or con nuclear disarmament?你是赞成还是反对核裁军？

7 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

8 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。

9 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

10 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

11 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

13 substantive   

adj.表示实在的；本质的、实质性的；独立的；n.实词，实名词；独立存在的实体

参考例句：

• They plan to meet again in Rome very soon to begin substantive negotiations.他们计划不久在罗马再次会晤以开始实质性的谈判。
• A president needs substantive advice,but he also requires emotional succor. 一个总统需要实质性的建议，但也需要感情上的支持。

14 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

15 hitch   

v.免费搭(车旅行)；系住；急提；n.故障；急拉

参考例句：

• They had an eighty-mile journey and decided to hitch hike.他们要走80英里的路程，最后决定搭便车。
• All the candidates are able to answer the questions without any hitch.所有报考者都能对答如流。

16 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

17 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

18 smuggled   

水货

参考例句：

• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Those smuggled goods have been detained by the port office. 那些走私货物被港务局扣押了。 来自互联网

19 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

20 symbolic   

adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的

参考例句：

• It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
• The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。

21 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

22 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

23 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

24 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

25 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

26 doled   

救济物( dole的过去式和过去分词 )； 失业救济金

参考例句：

• The food was doled out to the poor. 食品分发给了穷人。
• Sisco briskly doled out the United States positions on the key issues. 西斯科轻快地把美国在重大问题上的立场放了出去。

27 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

28 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

29 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

30 subpoenaed   

v.（用传票）传唤（某人）( subpoena的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The court subpoenaed her to appear as a witness. 法庭传唤她出庭作证。
• The finance director is subpoenaed by prosecution. 财务经理被检查机关传讯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

31 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

32 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

33 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

34 villain   

n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因

参考例句：

• He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
• The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。

35 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

36 truthful   

adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的

参考例句：

• You can count on him for a truthful report of the accident.你放心，他会对事故作出如实的报告的。
• I don't think you are being entirely truthful.我认为你并没全讲真话。

37 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

38 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

39 portfolio   

n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位

参考例句：

• He remembered her because she was carrying a large portfolio.他因为她带着一个大公文包而记住了她。
• He resigned his portfolio.他辞去了大臣职务。

40 incessantly   

ad.不停地

参考例句：

• The machines roar incessantly during the hours of daylight. 机器在白天隆隆地响个不停。
• It rained incessantly for the whole two weeks. 雨不间断地下了整整两个星期。

41 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。

42 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。