美国国家公共电台 NPR Sen. Kamala Harris Announces 2020 Presidential Candidacy

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Senator Kamala Harris is running for president. The California Democrat¹ made the announcement this morning.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA")

KAMALA HARRIS: My parents were very active in the civil rights movement, and that's the language that I grew up hearing. And it was about a belief that we are a country that was founded on noble ideals, and we are the best of who we are when we fight to achieve those ideals.

GREENE: Senator Harris joins a growing field of Democrats² looking to take on President Trump³ in 2020. And NPR's Scott Detrow is going to be covering the 2020 campaign and joins us now. Hi there, Scott.

SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE⁴: Good morning.

GREENE: OK, so no surprise there's been a lot of talk of her candidacy for some time now. What's her pitch?

DETROW: Yeah, Harris has been a U.S. senator for the past two years. But she seems to be framing her run around her long career as a prosecutor⁵, first as San Francisco district attorney, then California attorney general. So you're hearing that in her interview this morning with "Good Morning America" and also in the early videos and material from her campaign, talking a lot about representing voters just like she represented the state and the city in the courtroom. Of course such a focus on law enforcement could be a liability in a Democratic primary, where a lot of liberal voters are just pretty skeptical⁶ of law enforcement in the current environment.

GREENE: Even though she's putting the focus more in earlier parts of his career, I mean - her career, she has been in the Senate. One thing we often talk about is once you serve in Congress, like, you have a record...

DETROW: Yeah.

GREENE: ...That people can pick through when they're running for office. So tell us about her two years.

DETROW: Yeah, she has really gotten a lot of national attention and got it pretty quickly based on her seat on some key Senate committees - the Intelligence Committee and the Judiciary Committee. She put that prosecutor background to use in hearings early on, really hammering Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other Trump administration officials during that series of nationally televised hearings about the Russia investigation⁷. Same thing happened last fall during those contentious⁸ Brett Kavanaugh confirmation⁹ hearings for the Supreme¹⁰ Court.

Like other Democratic candidates, Harris has spent a lot of time campaigning during the midterms. And she just got a lot of attention over the last few weeks on a national book tour promoting a new memoir¹¹ that came out at a very good time if you're going to be running for president.

GREENE: Indeed.

DETROW: But, you know, it's still all relative. And as a new face on the national stage, she's going to have to work to get known by more casual voters who will be voting a year from now going forward.

GREENE: And besides trying to get that name recognition, which is a challenge for many candidates, what other challenges does she face in this primary?

DETROW: Yeah, circling back to that law enforcement background, this is...

GREENE: Yeah.

DETROW: ...An era where Black Lives Matter is a very powerful force in Democratic politics. At the time she was a prosecutor, she was a high-profile, prominent liberal prosecutor. But the ground has really shifted a lot since her time in the DA's office, and she's going to face a lot of questions from voters.

She is adamant¹² that voters don't want to make what she calls a false choice between policing and racial justice. And you could hear her trying to walk that balance during her interview this morning.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GOOD MORNING AMERICA")

HARRIS: It is a false choice to suggest that communities don't want law enforcement. Most communities do. They don't want excessive force. They don't want racial profiling. But then nobody should.

DETROW: You know, but Harris is in a unique position here. She's a black woman. Her father was Jamaican. Her mother is Indian, one of just three black U.S. senators. So expect her to talk a lot about that background and life experience as she tries to distinguish herself in a crowded Democratic field. The fact that she was announcing her run on Martin Luther King Jr. Day was very purposeful.

GREENE: Well crowded field - like, really crowded - like, we're talking maybe as many as two dozen candidates when things actually get started. So who's next?

DETROW: Well, she is the third high-profile candidate to make it official announcing - joining Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand, two other senators. Several other big names - we're waiting to hear their announcements, including New Jersey¹³ Senator Cory Booker, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. I think the one Democrat a lot of other candidates are waiting to hear from is former Vice¹⁴ President Joe Biden. If he decides to run, he will be an early frontrunner, a very serious candidate.

GREENE: All right, California Senator Kamala Harris is running for president on the Democratic side, and we'll be awaiting more candidates joining that group soon - that news coming from NPR's Scott Detrow. Scott, thanks.

DETROW: Sure thing.

1 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。

2 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》

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 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。

5 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

6 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

7 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

8 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

9 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。

10 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。

11 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。

12 adamant   

adj.坚硬的，固执的

参考例句：

• We are adamant on the building of a well-off society.在建设小康社会这一点上，我们是坚定不移的。
• Veronica was quite adamant that they should stay on.维罗妮卡坚信他们必须继续留下去。

13 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

14 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。