美国国家公共电台 NPR--Additional classified documents are found at Biden's Delaware home

Additional classified documents are found at Biden's Delaware home

Transcript¹

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Richard Painter, who served as chief ethics² lawyer to the George W. Bush White House, about the probe into President Biden's handling of classified materials.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

We have Richard Painter back on the program to discuss the latest classified documents found at Biden's home. He was the top White House ethics official in the administration of former President George W. Bush. And he ran as a Democrat³ last year in a U.S. House race in Minnesota. Good morning.

RICHARD PAINTER: Good morning.

FADEL: So how problematic is the drip, drip nature of these revelations for the Biden White House?

PAINTER: Well, it would have been better if all of this had come out at the same time, if as soon as they had discovered the classified documents at the center operated by the University of Pennsylvania. The Justice Department, the FBI just did a complete search of those premises⁴ and the president's homes and found everything and then had made this public. But this is the way it's been handled thus far. I think the most important thing is to protect our national security and find out who has had access to these premises where documents were stored.

FADEL: Quite an unusual move for the FBI to search a sitting president's home. What did you make of that?

PAINTER: I think that's the appropriate thing to do. And this was consensual. It was not - they didn't need to go get a warrant. This is very different than the situation we had with former President Trump⁵, who refused to give documents back when asked for them. And this is a situation where the FBI could conduct a search with consent and find what was there. And then we want to figure out who might potentially have had access to the documents.

FADEL: Now, the last time we spoke⁶, you talked about how this appeared to be not criminal but a seriously sloppy⁷ handling of classified material. Do you still believe that's the case?

PAINTER: Yes, I believe there was sloppiness⁸ by staff members who packed these boxes up at the vice⁹ president's house. And now there may have been some at the Senate when he was in the United States Senate. And then at the other end, someone should have gone through the boxes to see if there was classified material in there or if there was...

FADEL: Yeah.

PAINTER: ...Anything else that shouldn't have been removed.

FADEL: Now, classified documents have distinctive¹⁰ marks on them. How do they get missed like this?

PAINTER: They do. And people should be a lot more careful. But we've had this before. My friend, Norman Eisen, who's the former ethics adviser¹¹ for President Obama, co-authored an excellent piece in Just Security, a blog on how this was quite similar to what happened with Alberto Gonzales, who was the White House counsel and then the attorney general under President Bush, left the White House a month or so before I arrived. And he took some classified documents inadvertently. Also, there were some handwritten notes. It's quite similar to the Biden situation. And no criminal charges were brought. But it was sloppiness. And we need to make sure that this kind of thing does not happen again.

FADEL: Now, President Biden campaigned on being more responsible, less scandal-prone than Trump. How does this affect the public's trust in the president?

PAINTER: Well, I think, still, this is an enormous improvement over what we saw in the Trump administration. But, of course, that's not the norm, I would hope, with respect to ethics and national security matters. And I do think the White House needs to take this seriously and fully¹² cooperate, disclose everything they know about who had access to the premises in the Biden houses. And then there are more - strongly urge the University of Pennsylvania to disclose everyone who had access to the Biden Center in Washington, D.C., as well as donors¹³ to the university, not to the center - some tens of millions from China - and all the other information that the U.S. Congress wants. I mean, we need full disclosure. That's the best way to handle these types of scandals - get all the information out as quickly as possible, be honest, and cooperate with the investigations¹⁴.

FADEL: Richard Painter is a former chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush. Thank you so much.

PAINTER: Thank you.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 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。

3 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

4 premises   

n.建筑物，房屋

参考例句：

• According to the rules,no alcohol can be consumed on the premises.按照规定，场内不准饮酒。
• All repairs are done on the premises and not put out.全部修缮都在家里进行，不用送到外面去做。

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 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。

7 sloppy   

adj.邋遢的，不整洁的

参考例句：

• If you do such sloppy work again,I promise I'll fail you.要是下次作业你再马马虎虎，我话说在头里，可要给你打不及格了。
• Mother constantly picked at him for being sloppy.母亲不断地批评他懒散。

8 sloppiness   

n.草率，粗心

参考例句：

• The choice of Sarah Palin epitomised the sloppiness. 选择佩琳作为竞选伙伴凸显草率。 来自互联网
• He chided the boy for his sloppiness. 它责怪这男孩粗心大意。 来自互联网

9 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

10 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

11 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

12 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

13 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》

14 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。