美国国家公共电台 NPR FACT CHECK: President Trump's False Claims On Migrant Caravan, Tax Cuts

FACT CHECK: President Trump¹'s False Claims On Migrant Caravan², Tax Cuts

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

President Trump is campaigning hard with just two weeks to go till the midterm elections, and he's keeping the fact-checkers busy. We're going to take a look now at some of the president's latest claims with NPR's Scott Horsley. Hey there, Scott.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE³: Hi, Audie.

CORNISH: First let's talk about the caravan of Central American migrants. The president has been talking a fair bit about that. They're making their way through Mexico in hopes of reaching the U.S. border. Now, President Trump has suggested that they're not just families looking for a better life. What is he saying instead?

HORSLEY: The president tweeted this week without offering any evidence that, quote, "criminals and an unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in with this caravan." He was pressed on that in the Oval Office today and conceded there's no proof to that claim. But he continues to insist the caravan and illegal immigration more generally pose a serious threat to the country.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Certainly you have people coming up through the southern border from the Middle East and other places that are not appropriate for our country. And I'm not letting them in.

HORSLEY: Now, it's not unheard of for people from the Middle East to try to cross the border illegally from Mexico, but it is extremely rare, Audie. Out of more than 300,000 people who were apprehended⁴ along the southern border last year, only about 80 were for - were from countries in the Middle East. And reporters who have been traveling with the caravan say they have not seen any Middle Easterners in that group.

CORNISH: There is no evidence then of Middle Eastern infiltration⁵. The president has not presented any. Why is he talking about it?

HORSLEY: Illegal immigration and the threat of terrorism have been potent⁶ rhetorical weapons for Donald Trump since he first launched his White House campaign more than three years ago. He believes - and there is some polling data to support this - that illegal immigration is an important issue for Republicans. He has been very clear on his plans to harp⁸ on hot-button issues like immigration and the Supreme⁹ Court in the homestretch of the midterm campaign.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: This will be the election of the caravan, Kavanaugh, law and order, tax cuts and common sense. That's what it is - common sense.

CORNISH: All right, so third on that list was tax cuts, which I think a lot of mainstream¹⁰ Republicans thought would be the first thing, right? That's the tax cut they passed in 2017. But we haven't been hearing too much about it. What's going on?

HORSLEY: The GOP tax cut has not worn terribly well. Right now it's polling at about 40 percent approval. A lot of people maybe don't feel like they've seen a big jump in their own take-home pay. There's also been some renewed attention paid to the federal deficit¹¹, which has ballooned as corporate¹² tax revenues shrank. The president believes he has a fix for this, though, and it's another tax cut. I want to play a piece of tape from his rally in Houston last night, Audie. But I have to warn you. Take this message with a big grain of salt.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: We're going to be putting in a 10 percent tax cut for middle-income families. It's going to be put in next week.

HORSLEY: Now, whatever you might think about the merits of another tax cut, Congress certainly is not going to be taking any action on that next week. They're not even in session until after the election. And what's more, nobody outside the White House seems to know what the president is talking about. The head of the House Ways and Means Committee belatedly put out a statement this afternoon saying he's willing to work with the president over the coming weeks. But this appears to be a bit of political vaporware that's just time for the election and a tacit admission that the actual tax cut that Republicans passed last year isn't selling very well.

CORNISH: So this middle-class tax cut is, I guess, aspirational¹³. But critics of the president are saying that he's doing something very specific on the campaign trail, that he is playing on people's fears. Help us understand what they're talking about.

HORSLEY: The president believes that fear works as a get-out-the-vote message, and he's been focusing a lot on kind of a grim, American-carnage-type rhetoric⁷. Take the Kavanaugh confirmation¹⁴. There are certainly a lot of Republicans who were delighted to have another conservative justice on the high court, but many were also offended by the vocal¹⁵ protesters that disrupted Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings. And the president's been playing off that. Take a listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: Democrats¹⁶ produce mobs. Republicans produce jobs.

HORSLEY: That's kind of a distillation¹⁷ of the president's exaggerated complaint that Democrats stand for lawlessness while the GOP stands for order. Obviously lots of Democrats would contest that characterization. And we should point out that while the president's job record is good, former President Obama's job record was even better.

CORNISH: That's NPR's Scott Horsley. Scott, thank you.

HORSLEY: You're welcome.

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 caravan   

n.大蓬车；活动房屋

参考例句：

• The community adviser gave us a caravan to live in.社区顾问给了我们一间活动住房栖身。
• Geoff connected the caravan to the car.杰弗把旅行用的住屋拖车挂在汽车上。

3 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。

4 apprehended   

逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解

参考例句：

• She apprehended the complicated law very quickly. 她很快理解了复杂的法律。
• The police apprehended the criminal. 警察逮捕了罪犯。

5 infiltration   

n.渗透；下渗；渗滤；入渗

参考例句：

• The police tried to prevent infiltration by drug traffickers. 警方尽力阻止毒品走私分子的潜入。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A loss in volume will occur if infiltration takes place. 如果发生了渗润作用，水量就会减少。 来自辞典例句

6 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

7 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

8 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。

9 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

10 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

11 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

12 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

13 aspirational   

志同的，有抱负的

参考例句：

• Most of the images that bombard us all are aspirational. 轰击的图像，我们都期望最大。
• Analysts said self-help and aspirational reading could explain India's high figures. 分析师们指出，自助读书、热爱读书是印度人均读书时间超过别的国家的主要原因。

14 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。

15 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

16 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》

17 distillation   

n.蒸馏，蒸馏法

参考例句：

• The discovery of distillation is usually accredited to the Arabs of the 11th century.通常认为，蒸馏法是阿拉伯人在11世纪发明的。
• The oil is distilled from the berries of this small tree.油是从这种小树的浆果中提炼出来的。