时代周刊 总统议程最有力的执行者 杰夫·塞申斯(1)（在线收听）

THE ENFORCER

执行者

JEFF SESSIONS IS CHANGING AMERICA FOR DONALD TRUMP, WHETHER THE PRESIDENT APPRECIATES IT OR NOT

杰夫·塞申斯正在为唐纳德·特朗普改变美国，不管总统是否领情

BY MOLLY BALL

文/莫莉·鲍尔

WHEN JEFF SESSIONSWAS A BOY OF 7 OR 8, HE HAD a dog that followed him everywhere.

杰夫·塞申斯七八岁的时候，他有一只跟他寸步不离的小狗。

But one day, the dog got him in trouble.

然而，有一天，那只狗给他惹了麻烦。

Sessions had run with the mutt into the woods of rural Alabama, figuring it knew where it was going.

塞申斯跟着这那只小傻狗跑进了亚拉巴马州乡下的一片树林里，以为它自己知道方向。

By the time he realized he was wrong, the two of them were hopelessly lost.

当他意识到自己错了的时候，他们两个已经彻底迷路了。

“They closed all the stores and everyone had to go looking for me,” Sessions recalled with a chuckle.

“大家关了所有的店铺，所有人都去找我了，”塞申斯笑着回忆说。

“My excuse was, I was just following him.”

“我就借口说我是跟着小狗才迷路的。”

Sessions told me this story on March 15—the day before he fired former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe—

塞申斯是3月15——也就是他解雇前联邦调查局副局长安德鲁·麦凯布的前一天——给我讲的这个故事，

from his blue vinyl club chair on the military jet that had whisked the U.S. Attorney General away from Washington.

当时他正坐在那架曾经载着这位司法部长飞速离开华盛顿的军用飞机的蓝色塑料太空椅里。

It had the ring of a parable: beware those who seem the most loyal to you; it is they who will lead you astray.

这个故事有种寓言的意味：要提防那些看似对你最为忠诚的人；因为把你引入歧途的正是他们。

Donald Trump once followed Sessions’ lead,

唐纳德·特朗普曾经追随塞申斯的领导，

promising as a candidate the crackdowns on crime, immigration and trade for which Sessions crusaded in the Senate.

作为一名候选人，塞申斯就表现出了打击犯罪、移民和贸易等他后来在参议院热切改革的问题的能力。

The first Senator to endorse Trump, Sessions gave him credibility with the far right and provided the intellectual framework for his law-andorder sloganeering.

作为第一位支持特朗普的参议员，塞申斯让特朗普得到了极右派的信任，还为他的法治口号提供了理论框架。

And as Attorney General, he has turned Trump’s rhetoric into reality, emerging as the most effective enforcer of the President’s agenda.

作为司法部长，他把特朗普的言论变成了现实，成了总统议程最有效的执行者。

But if the fixation on law and order brought Sessions and Trump together, it is also what has rent them asunder.

然而，如果说对法律和秩序的执着让塞申斯和特朗普走到了一起，那么，让两人分道扬镳的也是这一执着。

When Sessions recused himself a year ago from the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election,

一年前，赛辛斯自请回避俄罗斯干预2016年美国总统大选调查时，

he set in motion the chain of events that culminated in the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller.

就引发了一连串最终以罗伯特·米勒被任命为特别顾问达到高潮的事件。

Trump has never forgiven him.

在这件事情上，特朗普从未原谅过他。

In public and private, the President has denigrated the proud former Senator, calling him an “idiot,” “beleaguered” and “disgraceful.”

无论是在公开场合还是私底下，总统都诋毁过这位自鸣得意的前参议员，说他“白痴”、“四面楚歌”、“可耻”。

The broken relationship has turned the job of a lifetime into an exercise in humiliation.

这段最终破裂的关系让这份千载难逢的工作成了一次羞辱。

Rumors that Sessions’ neck is on the chopping block are constant, and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has been angling to replace him.

有关赛申斯已经被送上断头台了的传言不断，而美国环境保护署署长斯科特·普鲁伊特一直在试图接替塞申斯。

As Sessions and I spoke on the plane, he was headed to Nashville to give a speech to a police chiefs’ convention,

塞申斯和我在飞机上谈话时，他正前往纳什维尔，出席一次警察局长会议，

followed by a stop in Lexington, Ky., to meet with prosecutors, police and families affected by the opioid crisis.

之后还要在肯塔基州的列克星敦稍作停留，与一众检察官、警察和受阿片类药物危机影响的家庭会面。

All the while, Fox News played on mute above his head, its chyrons questioning whether Sessions was about to be fired.

谈话期间，《福克斯新闻》一直在他的头顶静音播放着，节目里的滚动新闻刚好问到了赛辛斯是否即将被解雇这一问题。