美国国家公共电台 NPR Ex-White House Stenographer: With No Official Transcript, Trump Can Muddle The Truth

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

As White House stenographer¹, it was Beck Dorey-Stein's job to write down every word of every interaction the president had with the press. She did the job for five years starting under President Obama. And then President Trump² was elected. Dorey-Stein says she knew, from the day he was inaugurated, things would be different.

BECK DOREY-STEIN: Trump's inaugural³ speech had this language that I had never heard before that was so divisive in a way that was terrifying. And so all of my friends actually got to go to the tarmac to say goodbye to President Obama. And I had to stay and type that transcript⁴. And I just remember being like, I'm not going to be able to do this very long. This is so horrifying⁵.

KING: Beck Dorey-Stein recently wrote about Trump's relationship with stenographers in an op-ed for The New York Times. She told me stenographers used to go everywhere with Obama. But when Trump came into office, everything changed.

DOREY-STEIN: Even during the transition, there was a lot of chaos⁶. Actually, my boss had to keep going down to the press office and trying to introduce herself. And she couldn't get past, like, this 22-year-old press wrangler⁷ who was like, well, I'll have to check back. I'll have to check back. So even for the first interview Trump did as president, there wasn't a stenographer present for that.

KING: And you were told, at one point, that President Trump does not like being recorded. Is that right?

DOREY-STEIN: He doesn't like microphones near his face, which makes it very difficult to record him, especially on Air Force One where the plane is loud enough that you really have to have a microphone right up in their face.

KING: Dorey-Stein wrote in her op-ed that the Trump transition team told one of her colleagues they wouldn't need a stenographer because, a lot of times, there will just be video. But she says it's not enough.

DOREY-STEIN: So the reason why video is not the same as a stenographer's audio is because, especially if it's media video, they can splice⁸ that video. They can change any quote into any quote that they want. And also, I would stay, and I would keep my recorders running just in case a reporter on his way out the door was like, Mr. President, one more thing. We wanted to make sure we had every interaction everywhere that was said. Even if the president didn't answer the question, we made sure to include the question in the transcript just to make sure we had an accurate depiction⁹ of what happened.

KING: Are stenographers allowed to be present during private meetings with the president and other officials? And I'm thinking, of course, of this meeting between President Trump and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, where one of the big concerns was it was just these two men and their interpreters. No one else was there. As a stenographer, would you have been allowed into that meeting?

DOREY-STEIN: We're there to protect the president. So if they wanted us, we would have certainly been there. Sometimes though, of course, heads of state are allowed to talk without stenographers present.

KING: President Trump has a very, very tense relationship with much of the press. He accuses them openly of making things up about him. Do you think he's doing himself a disservice by not using stenographers to basically back him up if he says, you know, CNN is lying? Well, get the stenographer's transcript, and we'll show you. CNN is not telling the truth.

DOREY-STEIN: He's doing the American people a disservice. It's quite possible President Trump is actually doing it intentionally¹⁰ because if there was a record of what happened, it would be hard for him to muddle¹¹ the truth as he has been - you know, he's having to walk his words back. And he's able to do that. He has that latitude¹² because he doesn't have a recording¹³. If a stenographer were in the room, all he would have to do is say check the transcript. And it's much easier to muddle the truth when you don't have a transcript.

KING: Beck Dorey-Stein is a former White House stenographer and author of the new memoir¹⁴ "From The Corner Of The Oval." Beck, thanks for coming on.

DOREY-STEIN: Thank you for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF GOGO PENGUIN'S "REACTOR")

1 stenographer   

n.速记员

参考例句：

• The police stenographer recorded the man's confession word by word. 警察局速记员逐字记下了那个人的供词。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A qualified stenographer is not necessarily a competent secretary. 一个合格的速记员不一定就是个称职的秘书。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

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 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

4 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。

5 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。

6 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

7 wrangler   

n.口角者，争论者；牧马者

参考例句：

• When the strangled wrangler dangles the mangled spangles on the bangle jangle.被绞死的辩论者晃荡时，手镯上撕碎的小金属片发出刺耳的声音。
• A wrangler is a cowboy who works with cattle and horses.牧马者是放牧牛马的牛仔。

8 splice   

v.接合，衔接；n.胶接处，粘接处

参考例句：

• He taught me to edit and splice film.他教我剪辑和粘接胶片。
• The film will be spliced with footage of Cypress Hill to be filmed in America.这部电影要和将在美国拍摄的柏树山乐队的音乐片段粘接在一起。

9 depiction   

n.描述

参考例句：

• Double rhythms, resounding through the lyric depiction and connecting with each other, indicate the thespian place of mankind and the cognition of the writer to this thespian place. 这双重旋律互为表里，表明了人类的某种悲剧性处境以及作家对这种悲剧性处境的感受和认识。
• A realistic depiction of scenes from everyday domestic life. 日常家居生活的写实画。

10 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

11 muddle   

n.困惑，混浊状态；vt.使混乱，使糊涂，使惊呆；vi.胡乱应付，混乱

参考例句：

• Everything in the room was in a muddle.房间里每一件东西都是乱七八糟的。
• Don't work in a rush and get into a muddle.克服忙乱现象。

12 latitude   

n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区

参考例句：

• The latitude of the island is 20 degrees south.该岛的纬度是南纬20度。
• The two cities are at approximately the same latitude.这两个城市差不多位于同一纬度上。

13 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

14 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。