美国国家公共电台 NPR Rudy Giuliani's Business Ties Present Potential Conflicts Of Interest

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: 

Rudolph Giuliani, who's being mentioned as a possible secretary of state in a Trump¹ administration, is best known for having been mayor of New York City on 9/11. In fact the terrorist attacks were near the end of his eight-year administration. Since then, Giuliani has been in business as a consultant², as a public speaker.

Ever since he sought the Republican presidential nomination³ in 2008, he's been dogged by questions about the potential conflicts raised by his business career as head of Giuliani Partners. The New York Times reports on those questions, and Times reporter Eric Lipton joins us now. Hi. Welcome to the program.

ERIC LIPTON: Thank you.

SIEGEL: What are the potential conflicts that Giuliani would presumably have to answer for if he were to be, say, secretary of state?

LIPTON: The most significant has to do with when he worked for foreign governments. For example, Qatar in the Middle East - the state oil company there retained his firm, and Giuliani worked for Qatar on issues relating to their operations there. And so here you have a potential future secretary of state who had a prior business relationship with a country in the Middle East, that has an important partner to the United States in terms of the base - a base for military operations but also in terms of some discomfort⁴ relative to their role in supporting groups that may be contributing to terrorism.

So he has quite a number of these relationships. He worked for Trans-Canada, the company that proposed the Keystone Pipeline⁵. And while he didn't explicitly⁶ work on the Keystone Pipeline project, he did financially, you know, receive money from the company. And it's the State Department that was asked to decide whether or not the Keystone Pipeline should be approved.

SIEGEL: You mention Qatar. Back in late 2007 when Giuliani was riding high in the polls, he went on "Meet The Press," and late host of the program Tim Russert grilled⁷ him about his business deals. Here's what Giuliani told Russert about working for Qatar at that time.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MEET THE PRESS")

RUDY GIULIANI: The reality is that Qatar is an ally of the United States. There are a significant number of American troops that are stationed in Qatar. What we did for them and do for them is security for their facilities.

SIEGEL: Interestingly, this year, Republicans made hay out of the Clinton Foundation's dealings with Qatar.

LIPTON: Yeah, I mean there are a fair number of overlaps⁸ between what Rudy Giuliani did since he left office and some of the stuff that Hillary Clinton did. He was a - quite a prolific⁹ speech giver. He was speaking to Wall Street banks. He traveled the world before, you know, major corporations and also government entities¹⁰ at times. And he made tens of millions of dollars doing that.

And in one year alone, he made $11 million in 2006 from speeches he gave. So there's a fair number of things that will be looked back at. It doesn't mean that he's not confirmable. It just means these are things that will be looked at.

SIEGEL: Giuliani spoke¹¹ with your New York Times colleague Mark Landler for this story. How does he account for his business? Does he seem to see that there's - that there are hurdles¹³ he has to clear in order to be confirmed?

LIPTON: I mean he was quite enthusiastic in addressing questions yesterday when we spoke with him for about 20 minutes. And he went through the different engagements that he'd had, and he explained why he'd thought that they did not present conflict of interest.

And you know, one thing that it did offer him was an opportunity to travel around the world, to meet world leaders and to learn more about world issues. He was a very popular figure after the September 11 attacks, and he was offering, you know, advice on management and on security. And so he sees this as, you know, a normal business opportunity that he took part in. And that's nothing that should prevent him from serving as secretary of state.

SIEGEL: This story that you did was all about the potential conflicts that might be raised if Giuliani is nominated to be secretary of state. From the sound of it, he didn't regard that as a remote prospect¹⁴ at this point. Let's put it that way.

LIPTON: No, I mean he has - I mean he ran for president, you know? So he of course thought, you know, there was a potential he was going to be in public office. But I mean other than through the rise of Donald Trump, I mean there hasn't been much consideration of Giuliani coming back into the public sector¹⁵.

So I mean I think it clearly is going to be a subject of debate and potentially a hurdle¹² for him in the Senate. But it's unclear at this point if it's going to be something that will prevent him from getting confirmation¹⁶.

SIEGEL: Eric Lipton of The New York Times, thanks for talking with us.

LIPTON: Thank you.

1 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。

2 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。

3 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

4 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。

5 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

6 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

7 grilled   

adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• He was grilled for two hours before the police let him go. 他被严厉盘查了两个小时后，警察才放他走。
• He was grilled until he confessed. 他被严加拷问，直到他承认为止。

8 overlaps   

v.部分重叠( overlap的第三人称单数 )；（物体）部份重叠；交叠；（时间上）部份重叠

参考例句：

• The style in these two books largely overlaps. 这两本书的文体有许多处是一致的。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The new office overlaps the functions of the one already in existence. 新机构的职能与那个现存机构的职能部分重叠。 来自辞典例句

9 prolific   

adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的

参考例句：

• She is a prolific writer of novels and short stories.她是一位多产的作家，写了很多小说和短篇故事。
• The last few pages of the document are prolific of mistakes.这个文件的最后几页错误很多。

10 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。

11 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。

12 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

13 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句

14 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

15 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

16 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。