美国国家公共电台 NPR From Little-Known Candidate For Congress To The Spotlight

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We're going to stay on the topic of impeachment¹. The saga² has revealed a new character this week, Robert Hyde. He is a little-known landscaper and congressional candidate in a small Connecticut town. He somehow turned up among a cast of characters involved with the Trump³ administration's campaign to pressure Ukraine for an investigation⁴ of the Bidens. Now authorities in the U.S. and Ukraine have launched investigations⁵ into him. NPR's Bobby Allyn has been reporting from Simsbury, Conn., and brings us this report.

BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE⁶: Earlier this week, not many people here in this community west of Hartford had ever heard of Rob Hyde, a 40-year-old former Marine⁷ who used to run a landscaping business. He's a fierce defender⁸ of President Trump, sometimes emphasizing his support with expletives or outlandish claims. He started attending Republican fundraisers in Washington and Florida and then launched his own bid for a U.S. House seat. Brad Karsky, who runs an Italian restaurant here, says Hyde used to be a bar-side regular.

BRAD KARSKY: He was a bigger-than-life kind of guy - pretty boisterous⁹, outgoing kind of gentleman.

ALLYN: Karsky says Hyde was often talking about his time in the Marines as a security detail in Iraq.

KARSKY: He liked to be seen, and he would sit at the bar and was very vocal¹⁰. When he was in the restaurant, everybody knew it.

ALLYN: Now the State Department, FBI and Ukraine's interior ministry¹¹ also know about him. That's because a new data dump from House Democrats¹² contain text messages between Hyde and indicted¹³ Giuliani associate Lev Parnas. In the texts, Hyde purports¹⁴ to be spying on then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

Ellen Retelle is a local educator who's been perplexed¹⁵ watching the latest chapter of the impeachment story reach this quiet New England community. Hyde, she says, won't be getting her vote for Congress.

ELLEN RETELLE: He seems unstable¹⁶ and unreliable and similar to a lot of the characters who are involved in this Ukrainian scandal on the peripheral¹⁷ edges that are doing some really odd things.

ALLYN: Records show he's racked up serious debt at the Trump National Doral Resort in Florida. He's posted selfies on his social media with Trump and other Republican officials. The local press has been chronicling a long history of financial and legal struggles. He's been in contact with NPR for days but refused to sit down for an interview. He did, however, talk to the Hartford Courant, which posted interview snippets on Twitter. All those surveillance texts, he says - it was a big joke.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROBERT HYDE: So when they're sending me these texts, and I'm, like, whatever, dude. Yeah - under surveillance. Just joking.

ALLYN: New documents show Hyde was in contact with an unidentified Belgium number and appeared to be passing along intel about the ambassador's whereabouts. But Hyde says he never meant for his messages to be taken seriously.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HYDE: Who would be surveilling a U.S. ambassador? Like, who could do it? Like, you can't that. I'm a Simsbury landscaper. I got into the politic¹⁸ games in D.C. on a national level - the swamp.

ALLYN: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doesn't consider the texts a laughing matter. Pompeo told Sinclair Broadcast Group that he's dubious¹⁹ about the surveillance claims, but U.S. officials are still looking into it.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MIKE POMPEO: We will do everything we need to do to evaluate whether there was something that took place there. I suspect that much of what's been reported will ultimately prove wrong.

ALLYN: The state's GOP has asked Hyde to drop his congressional bid. But Hyde says he loves what Trump stands for and is keeping his candidacy alive.

Bobby Allyn, NPR News, Simsbury, Conn.

MARTIN: One more note about impeachment - tomorrow, we'll be checking back in with our impeachment expert, historian Timothy Naftali. We'll be asking him some of the questions you've been tweeting at us. So if you have questions about the upcoming Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, it's not too late to have them answered on the air. Are you curious about something that no one is talking about? Are you confused about the process or the next steps? You can tweet your questions to @npratc.

1 impeachment   

n.弹劾；控告；怀疑

参考例句：

• Impeachment is considered a drastic measure in the United States.在美国，弹劾被视为一种非常激烈的措施。
• The verdict resulting from his impeachment destroyed his political career.他遭弹劾后得到的判决毁了他的政治生涯。

2 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。

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 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。

5 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。

6 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。

7 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

8 defender   

n.保卫者，拥护者，辩护人

参考例句：

• He shouldered off a defender and shot at goal.他用肩膀挡开防守队员，然后射门。
• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。

9 boisterous   

adj.喧闹的，欢闹的

参考例句：

• I don't condescend to boisterous displays of it.我并不屈就于它热热闹闹的外表。
• The children tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play.孩子们经常是先静静地聚集在一起，不一会就开始吵吵嚷嚷戏耍开了。

10 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。

11 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

12 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》

13 indicted   

控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The senator was indicted for murder. 那位参议员被控犯谋杀罪。
• He was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder. 他被大陪审团以两项谋杀罪名起诉。

14 purports   

v.声称是…，（装得）像是…的样子( purport的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She purports to represent the whole group. 她自称代表整个团体。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The document purports to be official but is really private. 那份文件据称是官方的，但实际上是私人的。 来自辞典例句

15 perplexed   

adj.不知所措的

参考例句：

• The farmer felt the cow,went away,returned,sorely perplexed,always afraid of being cheated.那农民摸摸那头牛，走了又回来，犹豫不决，总怕上当受骗。
• The child was perplexed by the intricate plot of the story.这孩子被那头绪纷繁的故事弄得迷惑不解。

16 unstable   

adj.不稳定的，易变的

参考例句：

• This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实，装不了这么多书。
• The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。

17 peripheral   

adj.周边的，外围的

参考例句：

• We dealt with the peripheral aspects of a cost reduction program.我们谈到了降低成本计划的一些外围问题。
• The hotel provides the clerk the service and the peripheral traveling consultation.旅舍提供票务服务和周边旅游咨询。

18 politic   

adj.有智虑的；精明的；v.从政

参考例句：

• He was too politic to quarrel with so important a personage.他很聪明，不会与这么重要的人争吵。
• The politic man tried not to offend people.那个精明的人尽量不得罪人。

19 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。