PBS高端访谈:过渡团队官员知悉弗林与俄罗斯方面进行通话

Hari Sreenivasan: In a news story the New York Times this weekend there's more evidence that Michael Flynn was acting¹ on behalf of President Trump²'s transition team when he was in contact with the Russian ambassador to the United States. Joining me now from Washington D.C. is one of the reporters on that story Sharon LaFreniere. So what did the White House say at the time of his firing and what did you find?

Sharon Lafraniere: So the narrative³ until Friday was that Michael Flynn had talked to the Russian ambassador about the sanctions on December 29th and there was nothing illegal or unethical about that. But he did not own up to it when Vice⁴ President Pence and others in the White House asked him about it. But what we learned on Friday was that before he talked to the Russian ambassador and after he talked to the Russian ambassador, Mike Flynn was in touch with senior members of the transition team. So that raises the question of why were they saying that they were left in the dark if others on the transition team knew what he was doing?

Hari Sreenivasan: There was a tweet that one of your colleagues Michael Schmidt put out this is a photograph that looks like an e-mail by K.T. McFarland and she says they're among a couple of things. She says ‘My take' and then one of the things she says in there that stood out to a lot of people that ‘this would box Trump diplomatically with Russia if there's a tit for tat escalation⁵, Trump will have difficulty improving relations with Russia which has just thrown USA Election to him.' The word thrown ‘USA election' – is this a phrase that somebody would say casually⁶? Is there something more to this?

Sharon Lafraniere: What the White House says is that she was not saying that Russia threw the election to Trump. She was saying that the Democrats⁷ are spinning it as Russia through the election to Trump and that's not what she meant. So it could be a misreading. But it is clear from the e-mails that she was very concerned about the sanctions and the Trump team was upset about these sanctions. They saw that's like a last minute grenade that the Obama administration was throwing in their lap on the way out the door. And it was a way for the Obama administration to discredit⁸ Trump's victory because the sanctions were in response to Russia's meddling⁹ in the elections. And they're trying to box them diplomatically so he can't improve relations with Russia. And you know overall this is a big problem for us and she ends that now with General Flynn will be talking to the Russian ambassador tonight. So her e-mail then is forwarded to six other transition officials including Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon. And and then two days later Michael Flynn has another conversation with Kislyak and he himself briefs senior members of the transition team about that conversation and again it is about sanctions. So it sort of begs the question if Sean Spicer, Priebus, and Bannon all knew that he was talking to the Russian ambassador about sanctions, who was being left in the dark?

Hari Sreenivasan: What do these e-mails show? Is it a matter of impropriety going against the wishes of the Obama administration or is there something illegal about having these sorts of conversations?

Sharon Lafraniere: No there isn't. It appears there's nothing illegal about having these sorts of conversations and about the Obama administration didn't want them to have these conversations. They had asked them you know please don't subvert¹⁰ U.S. policy. There can only be one president at the time. If you're going to have conversations with foreign officials and stakeholders that's fine but bring along a State Department person so there a record of that and none of that happened.

1 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

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 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

4 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。

5 escalation   

n.扩大，增加

参考例句：

• The threat of nuclear escalation remains. 核升级的威胁仍旧存在。 来自辞典例句
• Escalation is thus an aspect of deterrence and of crisis management. 因此逐步升级是威慑和危机处理的一个方面。 来自辞典例句

6 casually   

adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地

参考例句：

• She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
• I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。

7 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》

8 discredit   

vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑

参考例句：

• Their behaviour has bought discredit on English football.他们的行为败坏了英国足球运动的声誉。
• They no longer try to discredit the technology itself.他们不再试图怀疑这种技术本身。

9 meddling   

v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He denounced all "meddling" attempts to promote a negotiation. 他斥责了一切“干预”促成谈判的企图。 来自辞典例句
• They liked this field because it was never visited by meddling strangers. 她们喜欢这块田野，因为好事的陌生人从来不到那里去。 来自辞典例句

10 subvert   

v.推翻；暗中破坏；搅乱

参考例句：

• The rebel army is attempting to subvert the government.反叛军队企图颠覆政府统治。
• They tried to subvert our state and our Party. This is the crux of the matter.他们是要颠覆我们的国家，颠覆我们的党，这是问题的实质。