PBS高端访谈:民主党人正准备挑战特朗普提名官员

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: For more on the upcoming Cabinet confirmation¹ hearings, the latest on the president-elect's transition to the White House, and more, it's time for Politics Monday with Tamara Keith of NPR and Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for USA Today.

　　All right, welcome to both of you.

　　So, Tam, we just heard from Kellyanne Conway. What do you expect from these confirmation hearings?

　　TAMARA KEITH, NPR: They certainly will be interesting, but they will all be happening at the same time, so we will have to have split-screens to pay attention to everything.

　　And add on that screen Donald Trump² having a press conference on Wednesday on the same day that there are five confirmation hearings. It's going to be information overload³. Democrats⁴ will try to put up a fight, to draw out contrasts with Donald Trump potentially between his Cabinet picks and the president-elect. And they will try to make it as painful as possible, but there isn't much the Democrats can actually do.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Susan, do you expect this ethic⁵ — the lack of ethics⁶ review to be done for some of these nominees⁸ to continue to be an issue?

　　SUSAN PAGE, USA Today: Well, I think the Democrats will try to make it an issue, but it's not stopping the hearings.

　　Now, Mitch McConnell on Sunday on "Face the Nation" did say that they wouldn't hold votes on the floor until the ethics paperwork was done. So there is at least that. There is not a law that says they have to wait, but it's certainly been the practice in the past not to confirm somebody.

　　But the fact that the review won't have been done before the hearings for some of these candidates is a serious one for Democrats, because there are questions they won't be able to ask. There are things they don't know that they may find out through these ethics reviews. So, that's one reason Democrats are concerned about this issue.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Tam, are Democrats targeting in particular some of the nominees over others or how are they looking at this?

　　TAMARA KEITH: Well, that's the challenge that they're facing is that they have targeted eight nominees.

　　Well, eight is a very big number, and so they aren't — it's sort of a scattershot approach. There isn't like one nominee⁷ that they are just going to take down, in part because they don't have the votes to truly block anyone unless they get Republican help.

　　And at the moment, it doesn't look like they have it. Now, something could change. A hearing could go poorly. But at the moment, by the numbers, Democrats aren't in a strong position. They don't have much leverage⁹.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Susan, what is your reporting telling you about who is going to get the most attention from Democrats, or are they just spreading it out equally among all of them?

　　SUSAN PAGE: Well, I think there are some cases where there will be proxy¹⁰ fights.

　　And I think Rex Tillerson is a good example of that. Senate Democrats and even some Republicans don't have a chance to quiz Donald Trump about his policy toward Russia, but they can ask Rex Tillerson about it. And Rex Tillerson himself, as head of ExxonMobil, had a lot of dealings with Russia in general, with Vladimir Putin in particular.

　　So, I think that will be a big source of debate there. In some cases, I think they are going to target the person. I think that may be the case with Jeff Sessions, who has the first hearing tomorrow.

　　Now, you would think they would go easy on a senator, because it's an old boys club. But in this case, I think some of the Democratic senators have real concerns about things he has said in the past, especially dealing¹¹ with race relations, with voting rights and on immigration. So in that case, it may be taking a little more personal turn.

　　民主党人正准备挑战特朗普提名官员

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Tam, Susan just mentioned what Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, said over the weekend.

　　I'm trying to understand. Is this really different from what happened eight years ago, when President Obama's nominees were coming through, because he made it sound as if, oh, this is just the same thing we — same way we have always done it here.

　　TAMARA KEITH: Well, they have typically tried to defer¹² to presidents, and they have typically tried to have a big group ready to go when the president takes the oath of office.

　　However, Donald Trump's nominees, some of them, at least four of them, have not finished — who have hearings scheduled have not finished the ethics process, and that is out of the ordinary, as we heard in an earlier segment.

　　The only precedent¹³ that Republicans are pointing to goes back to when George W. Bush was first coming into office. And they have one example. So it is the best practice to have the ethics review done, and it is also a practice that has largely happened in the past.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Susan, I want to turn to something that happened last night, the Golden Globes Awards. We reported it earlier.

　　Meryl Streep, getting an award, uses her time to take on Donald Trump, and she pinned it on what she described as his mocking a reporter, news reporter, with disabilities, and we saw Mr. Trump come back and tweet about her today, calling her overrated and saying he didn't mock him.

　　Is this something that it's smart for him to engage in? How do you see this?

　　SUSAN PAGE: Well, it's untraditional for a president to take on Meryl Streep when she criticizes him at the Golden Globes, or Arnold Schwarzenegger when he doesn't get ratings as big as he did for that reality show that he took over.

　　And I think, you know, most political pundits¹⁴ would say, but this is a big mistake, it's not presidential. On the other hand, it's pretty authentic¹⁵. It's what got — it's the kind of attitude and the kind of swagger that got Donald Trump where he is today.

　　So I guess we will have to see if voters are comfortable with this approach, because, believe me, I think we're going to be seeing tweets like this for the next four years.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we shall see.

　　Finally, I want to ask both of you, we know, tomorrow night, President Obama, Tam, gives his farewell address. We're going to be covering it live here 9:00 Eastern. You have given some thought to the farewell of this president.

　　TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

　　Well, and I have given some thought to the farewells of lots of presidents. This is a long tradition going back to George Washington, who delivered the first farewell address.

　　And there tends to be a mix of looking backward and looking forward. George Washington offered warnings for people to come. So did Dwight Eisenhower.

　　President Obama, I imagine, and based on what his administration has said, is likely to fall into the category of people who — presidents who talk about American values and America's role in the world. And so I think that we can — you know, as he did on the campaign trail, talked about — on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton, talked about what he sees as American values, that might be the message that he tries to send with his farewell.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Susan, what are you looking for tomorrow night?

　　SUSAN PAGE: You know, the stakes got much higher when Hillary Clinton lost the election, because we now have President Obama trying to make his case that he's done a lot, and it's good, the country's in better shape than when he took over, and that is a legacy¹⁶ worth preserving, because Donald Trump is going to come in and try to dismantle¹⁷ big parts of that legacy.

　　So I think the stakes get higher for him. And also his party is a little bit in the wilderness¹⁸, trying to figure out where they go. And what will the role of Barack Obama be for the Democratic Party going forward? That might be one thing to listen for tomorrow night.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And I know a lot of people are asking that question, especially since he's going to continue to live in Washington, D.C. He is not going to be able to hide. Or I guess he will try to hide, but we will see.

　　Susan Page, Tamara Keith, thank you both.

　　TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.

　　SUSAN PAGE: Thank you.

1 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

2 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。

3 overload   

vt.使超载；n.超载

参考例句：

• Don't overload the boat or it will sink.别超载，否则船会沉。
• Large meals overload the digestive system.吃得太饱会加重消化系统的负担。

4 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 ethic   

n.道德标准，行为准则

参考例句：

• They instilled the work ethic into their children.他们在孩子们的心中注入了职业道德的理念。
• The connotation of education ethic is rooted in human nature's mobility.教育伦理的内涵根源于人本性的变动性。

6 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。

7 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。

8 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网

9 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。

10 proxy   

n.代理权，代表权；（对代理人的）委托书；代理人

参考例句：

• You may appoint a proxy to vote for you.你可以委托他人代你投票。
• We enclose a form of proxy for use at the Annual General Meeting.我们附上委任年度大会代表的表格。

11 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

12 defer   

vt.推迟，拖延；vi.(to)遵从，听从，服从

参考例句：

• We wish to defer our decision until next week.我们希望推迟到下星期再作出决定。
• We will defer to whatever the committee decides.我们遵从委员会作出的任何决定。

13 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

14 pundits   

n.某一学科的权威，专家( pundit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The pundits disagree on the best way of dealing with the problem. 如何妥善处理这一问题，专家众说纷纭。 来自辞典例句
• That did not stop Chinese pundits from making a fuss over it. 这并没有阻止中国的博学之士对此大惊小怪。 来自互联网

15 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

16 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。

17 dismantle   

vt.拆开，拆卸；废除，取消

参考例句：

• He asked for immediate help from the United States to dismantle the warheads.他请求美国立即提供援助，拆除这批弹头。
• The mower firmly refused to mow,so I decided to dismantle it.修完后割草机还是纹丝不动，于是，我决定把它拆开。

18 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。