美国国家公共电台 NPR Hillary Clinton Is 'Done,' But Not Going Away

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Hillary Clinton didn't expect to lose the election. She spent the last several months trying to figure out what happened. And those two words - what happened - are the title of her new book out today. NPR's Tamara Keith covered Clinton's campaign from start to finish and interviewed her near her home in New York.

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE¹: Hillary Clinton had imagined wearing her purple suit on her first trip to Washington, D.C., as president-elect, sending a signal about bipartisanship. Instead she wore it the morning after the election to give her concession² speech.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HILLARY CLINTON: Last night I congratulated Donald Trump³ and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans.

KEITH: It was over. Her frenetic campaign schedule, her plans well underway for a second Clinton presidency⁴ all came to a screeching⁵ halt. Two days later, Clinton ventured out to a nature preserve a couple of miles from her house in Chappaqua, N.Y. Last Friday, we went back there with her.

CLINTON: I just try to walk and think.

KEITH: In the weeks after the election, Hillary Clinton spent a lot of time walking in the woods in shock with nothing but time. She traded in her bright suits for yoga pants, and she did a lot of reflecting.

CLINTON: It was part of a process after the election to, you know, come to terms with having lost and my personal disappointment in letting millions of people down - also my fears about what a Trump presidency might mean for our country and the world. So I had a lot to think about.

KEITH: In her book, Clinton writes about James Comey, unfair media coverage⁶, Russian election interference, sexism, restrictive voter ID laws and character attacks from Bernie Sanders that stuck with her past the primary, all external factors she says contributed to her loss. More than once, she points out that she won the popular vote. But there's also a lot about what Hillary Clinton could have done better, and I asked her about that.

CLINTON: You know, I take ultimate responsibility for the loss. I was the candidate. I was the person whose name was on the ballot⁷. And I'll never - you know, I'll never get over that. And it was everything from the decision to use a personal email, which got blown up. It was a dumb mistake. I think it was a dumber scandal, but it hurt.

KEITH: In the book, Clinton writes, I've made mistakes, been defensive⁸ about them, stubbornly resisted apologizing. She says giving those paid Wall Street speeches was a mistake. She admits her campaign struggled to stay on message, and she spends an entire chapter talking about her failure to break through with white, working-class voters and how terrible she feels about saying this at a CNN town hall in March of 2016.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CLINTON: Because we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right, Tim? And we're going to make it clear that we don't want to forget those people.

KEITH: She says her words came out all wrong, and they haunted her for the rest of the campaign.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DAVID CUTLIP: We all heard what Hillary Clinton said.

CLINTON: Because we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.

CUTLIP: She said it, and she meant it.

KEITH: In coal country, President Trump got a lot of credit for what Clinton considered a false promise to bring back coal jobs. Meanwhile, she had a detailed⁹ plan for helping¹⁰ displaced workers in the region. Actually, during the campaign, she had a plan for just about everything.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CLINTON: You know, Hillary Clinton shows up with her plans. She tells you what she wants to do. Well, this is a job interview. I'm supposed to tell you what I want to do, and then I expect you to hold me accountable for actually getting it done and producing results.

(CHEERING)

KEITH: But now she writes many voters really didn't want to hear about plans and policies. They wanted a candidate to be as angry as they were. They wanted somebody to blame.

CLINTON: I don't think I sufficiently¹¹ embodied¹² that real great emotional need that people had to have a recognition of the anger. I was trying to answer the anger. I was trying to say, yeah, I know why you're angry. The 2008, 2009 financial crisis was horrible, and I know people are still suffering from it. But here's what we're going to do about it because I like to get up in the morning and say, OK, what are we going to do?

KEITH: I asked her, what was your biggest regret?

CLINTON: Losing is my biggest regret (laughter) and losing to someone who was not qualified¹³ and did not have the experience or the temperament¹⁴ to be president of the United States. That is my biggest regret.

KEITH: In her book and in this interview, Clinton takes numerous jabs at the man who now sits in the Oval Office. She says Trump's foreign policy moves have given aid and comfort to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un.

CLINTON: And I think he's being played. I think he doesn't even understand the kind of strategic overview¹⁵ of what's happening in the world.

KEITH: So yeah, Hillary Clinton yells at the television a lot.

Do you ever turn on the news and not think, what would I do in this situation?

CLINTON: No. I do it every single time (laughter). And look; I was prepared to be president. I had prepared and worked at it. And I go a little bit batty when I hear, you know, him say, gee¹⁶, this is a really hard job; who knew health care was so complicated? I did.

KEITH: There's a chapter in Clinton's book on being a woman in politics where she argues that sexism and misogyny are real and need to be confronted.

Do you think America was not ready for a female president?

CLINTON: I think there's a significant percentage of Americans, many more in the Republican Party than in the Democratic Party according to all of the data, that is just not ready. They just cannot imagine it, and they are resistant¹⁷ to it.

KEITH: Clinton insists it's not just her, pointing to attacks on female Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris and the way Carly Fiorina was treated in the Republican primary.

CLINTON: If you think it's just about me, you don't have to deal with it 'cause, OK, I lost, you know? Have a nice time walking in the woods. But if you think it's endemic as I believe it is and that when a woman sticks her head up, she gets hit from both the right and the left by men who - primarily men who do not want to accept the reality of a woman being a leader, an executive...

KEITH: As for those hikes in the woods, shortly after the election, Clinton ran into a young woman with her baby and dog. The picture, posted on Facebook, spawned¹⁸ a meme - HRC in the wild. And out in the wild, there were many hugs and painful conversations with supporters who were mourning her loss as well.

CLINTON: Oftentimes they would burst into tears, which was difficult but understandable.

KEITH: And before long, Clinton got a sense that all these chance meetings weren't by chance at all. In fact during our interview, two women and a yellow Labrador approach.

CLINTON: Isn't this a glorious day?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Glorious day - I am so happy to see you.

KEITH: There are many people, including some Democrats¹⁹, who would be happier if Hillary Clinton stayed in the woods, didn't write this book, didn't re-open the wounds of 2016.

CLINTON: Well, they're going to be disappointed because I think it's important for people with my experience and my insight into what went on in the campaign but more generally about our country to speak out.

KEITH: Clinton says she is done running for office, but she plans to keep speaking up. Tamara Keith, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF WYNTON MARSALIS QUINTET'S "THE RAZOR RIM")

1 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。

2 concession   

n.让步，妥协；特许(权)

参考例句：

• We can not make heavy concession to the matter.我们在这个问题上不能过于让步。
• That is a great concession.这是很大的让步。

3 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。

4 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。

5 screeching   

v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫

参考例句：

• Monkeys were screeching in the trees. 猴子在树上吱吱地叫着。
• the unedifying sight of the two party leaders screeching at each other 两党党魁狺狺对吠的讨厌情景

6 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

7 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

8 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。

9 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

10 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

11 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

12 embodied   

v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含

参考例句：

• a politician who embodied the hopes of black youth 代表黑人青年希望的政治家
• The heroic deeds of him embodied the glorious tradition of the troops. 他的英雄事迹体现了军队的光荣传统。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

14 temperament   

n.气质，性格，性情

参考例句：

• The analysis of what kind of temperament you possess is vital.分析一下你有什么样的气质是十分重要的。
• Success often depends on temperament.成功常常取决于一个人的性格。

15 overview   

n.概观，概述

参考例句：

• The opening chapter gives a brief historical overview of transport.第一章是运输史的简要回顾。
• The seminar aims to provide an overview on new media publishing.研讨会旨在综览新兴的媒体出版。

16 gee   

n.马；int.向右！前进！，惊讶时所发声音；v.向右转

参考例句：

• Their success last week will gee the team up.上星期的胜利将激励这支队伍继续前进。
• Gee,We're going to make a lot of money.哇！我们会赚好多钱啦！

17 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

18 spawned   

（鱼、蛙等）大量产（卵）( spawn的过去式和过去分词 )； 大量生产

参考例句：

• The band's album spawned a string of hit singles. 这支乐队的专辑繁衍出一连串走红的单曲唱片。
• The computer industry has spawned a lot of new companies. 由于电脑工业的发展，许多新公司纷纷成立。

19 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》