VOA慢速英语--前白宫顾问声称其在秘密情报室录音

Former White House Adviser¹ Says She Taped Inside Secret Situation Room

A former adviser to President Donald Trump² has released a recording³ she says she secretly made inside the White House’s high-security Situation Room.

The adviser, Omarosa Manigault Newman, began serving in the White House shortly after Trump took office in January 2017. She held the positions of assistant to the president and director of communications for the office of public liaison⁴. She left her job in the White House last December.

Manigault Newman had also worked for Trump during his presidential campaign. She had known him since they worked together in 2004 on the first season of the American reality TV show “The Apprentice⁵.” Donald Trump presented the show, and Manigault Newman was one of the people competing on it.

During the campaign and throughout her White House service, Manigault Newman was publicly supportive of the president and his policies. She had also defended Trump against accusations⁶ of racism⁷.

Manigault Newman has now written a book called “Unhinged” – to be released Tuesday - about her White House experiences. While publicizing the book, she released an audio recording of a discussion, she says, she secretly recorded inside the White House.

She says the discussion, with White House chief of staff John Kelly, took place in the highly-secured Situation Room. Manigault Newman released part of the recording Sunday on the NBC television show “Meet the Press.”

In the recording, which the Associated Press independently listened to, Kelly is heard saying he wants to talk with Manigault Newman about leaving the White House. Kelly said there were some “integrity issues” related to Manigault Newman. The issues were related to her use of government vehicles and “money issues and other things,” Kelly can be heard saying.

“If we make this a friendly departure…you can look at your time here in the White House as a year of service to the nation and then you can go on without any type of difficulty in the future relative to your reputation,” Kelly tells her.

Manigault Newman says she considered the statement a “threat.” She has defended her decision to secretly record it and says she has recorded additional White House conversations that she might be releasing as well.

But critics condemned⁸ Manigault Newman for secretly recording in the White House’s Situation Room.

Situation Room

The Situation Room was created by President John F. Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs disaster in 1961, according to a paper published on the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, website.

That crisis showed the need for a fast and secure communications center to handle large amounts of national security information coming in from many places to the president. Since then, the mission of the Situation Room has been to provide up-to-date intelligence and crisis support to the National Security Council and the president.

The Situation Room is used by the president and his advisers⁹ to manage the nation’s most important and secret foreign policy decisions and military actions. In the past, this included former President Barack Obama and his top aides watching in real-time the hunting down of al-Qaida leader Osama bin¹⁰ Laden¹¹.

Earlier this year, the White House said President Trump met with top advisers and held meetings in the Situation Room before the launching of airstrikes on Syrian military targets. The airstrikes were ordered to answer a chemical weapons attack in Syria.

Some national security experts and White House officials say Manigault Newman may have violated ethics¹² and security rules for making the secret White House recordings¹³.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was quick to criticize her actions. She said “the very idea” that an employee would secretly record inside the Situation Room "shows a blatant¹⁴ disregard for our national security.”

Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told a morning television show Monday Manigault Newman may have broken the law. “She’s certainly violating national security regulations, which I think have the force of law,” he said.

Ned Price served as a spokesman for the National Security Council in the Obama administration. He told the Associated Press he had “never heard of a more serious breach¹⁵ of protocol¹⁶.”

Price said while there is no one at the door of the Situation Room checking devices, there is a sign posted outside making clear that electronic devices are not permitted. Price also questioned why Kelly would have chosen to hold such a meeting in the Situation Room.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

integrity – n. honesty and the ability to do or know what is morally right

departure – n. the act of leaving a place

reputation – n. the opinion people have about someone or something based on their past behavior or character

ethics – n. rules of behavior based on ideas about what is morally good and bad

blatant – adj. not hidden, very clear

disregard – n. behavior that shows a person does not care about or have any interest in someone or something

regulation – n. rule or order issued by an executive authority or regulatory agency of a government and having the force of law

breach – n. action that breaks a rule, agreement or law

protocol – n. set of rules for how someone must behave in official situations

1 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。

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 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

4 liaison   

n.联系，（未婚男女间的）暖昧关系，私通

参考例句：

• She acts as a liaison between patients and staff.她在病人与医护人员间充当沟通的桥梁。
• She is responsible for liaison with researchers at other universities.她负责与其他大学的研究人员联系。

5 apprentice   

n.学徒，徒弟

参考例句：

• My son is an apprentice in a furniture maker's workshop.我的儿子在一家家具厂做学徒。
• The apprentice is not yet out of his time.这徒工还没有出徒。

6 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

7 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

8 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

9 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。

10 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

11 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

12 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

13 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

14 blatant   

adj.厚颜无耻的；显眼的；炫耀的

参考例句：

• I cannot believe that so blatant a comedy can hoodwink anybody.我无法相信这么显眼的一出喜剧能够欺骗谁。
• His treatment of his secretary was a blatant example of managerial arrogance.他管理的傲慢作风在他对待秘书的态度上表露无遗。

15 breach   

n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破

参考例句：

• We won't have any breach of discipline.我们不允许任何破坏纪律的现象。
• He was sued for breach of contract.他因不履行合同而被起诉。

16 protocol   

n.议定书，草约，会谈记录，外交礼节

参考例句：

• We must observe the correct protocol.我们必须遵守应有的礼仪。
• The statesmen signed a protocol.那些政治家签了议定书。