美国国家公共电台 NPR Jared Kushner Is In The Spotlight. But Is He In the Tradition Of American Nepotism?

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

OK. Have you heard the joke about Trump¹'s White House? Every day is take your kid to work day - boom. While that joke is actually making the rounds, it references a real legal issue which has come back into focus because of presidential adviser² Jared Kushner, who appeared last week before the Senate intelligence committee. Some critics say Kushner should lose his security clearance³ over his alleged⁴ Russian contacts. But few expect he will lose his job since he is, after all, married to the president's daughter. NPR's Peter Overby reports.

PETER OVERBY, BYLINE⁵: When Kushner got back to the White House after the Senate meeting, he spoke⁶, briefly⁷, with the press.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JARED KUSHNER: My name is Jared Kushner. I am senior adviser to President Donald J. Trump.

OVERBY: He's also the father of three of President Trump's grandchildren. Matthew Dallek is a professor of political management at George Washington University. He says nepotism⁸, the hiring of close relatives, has a long tradition in American politics.

MATTHEW DALLEK: I mean, look, we've never been a pure meritocracy or even close to one (laughter).

OVERBY: Dallek points to three nepotism cases in the White House itself in just the past 80 years. First, shortly before the U.S. entered World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt created an office of civilian⁹ defense¹⁰. He put first lady Eleanor Roosevelt in charge of volunteer participation¹¹. One thing she started was a dance program for children, something the British had already done for children in bomb shelters.

But when Mrs. Roosevelt hired a friend to run it, Dallek says...

DALLEK: It became the first major political scandal after Pearl Harbor.

OVERBY: And soon Mrs. Roosevelt was out of a job. This didn't lead Congress to pass any anti-nepotism laws, but the next case did.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

EARL WARREN: Mr. President, at your request, I have the very great honor to administer the oath of office to the following members of your Cabinet...

OVERBY: In 1961, Chief Justice Earl Warren swore in the Cabinet of President John Kennedy, including Kennedy's younger brother.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WARREN: ...Robert F. Kennedy, of Massachusetts, to be attorney general.

OVERBY: Robert Kennedy's appointment led to an anti-nepotism law in 1967. Jessica Levinson teaches political law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. She says the law targeted nepotism governmentwide.

JESSICA LEVINSON: To try and give the public some faith that the people who are being paid by them are the people who are best qualified¹² for their jobs.

OVERBY: The third case of nepotism is from 1993. President Bill Clinton put his wife, Hillary, in charge of a task force on health care reform.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BILL CLINTON: I think that in the coming months, the American people will learn, as the people of our state did, that we have a first lady of many talents.

OVERBY: And now President Trump has brought in both daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner as advisers¹³. Kushner has big assignments, from overhauling¹⁴ the federal bureaucracy to finding a peace settlement in the Middle East. Trump praised him at a pre-inauguration party.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If you can't produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can.

OVERBY: So while Trump is hardly the first president to turn to his family for talent, this is different. Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Kennedy and Hillary Clinton all knew politics and government from the inside. Jared and Ivanka arrived in the White House with no political experience. As Jessica Levinson notes...

LEVINSON: These are not people who have resumes - who could otherwise be hired for these jobs.

OVERBY: Still, the Justice Department has concluded Kushner is not covered by the nepotism law because the president can hire anyone he wants for his own White House staff.

Peter Overby, NPR News, Washington.

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 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

3 clearance   

n.净空；许可(证)；清算；清除，清理

参考例句：

• There was a clearance of only ten centimetres between the two walls.两堵墙之间只有十厘米的空隙。
• The ship sailed as soon as it got clearance. 那艘船一办好离港手续立刻启航了。

4 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

5 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。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

8 nepotism   

n.任人唯亲；裙带关系

参考例句：

• The congressman lashed the president for his nepotism.国会议员抨击总统搞裙带关系。
• Many will regard his appointment as the kind of nepotism British banking ought to avoid.很多人会把他的任命看作是英国银行业应该避免的一种裙带关系。

9 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

10 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

11 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

12 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

13 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

14 overhauling   

n.大修；拆修；卸修；翻修v.彻底检查( overhaul的现在分词 )；大修；赶上；超越

参考例句：

• I had no chance of overhauling him. 我没有赶上他的可能。 来自辞典例句
• Some sites need little alterations but some need total overhauling. 有些网站需要做出细微修改，而有些网站就需要整体改版。 来自互联网