美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Saving Lives' Or 'Selling Access'? Explaining The Clinton Foundation

'Saving Lives' Or 'Selling Access'? Explaining The Clinton Foundation

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Hillary Clinton has been on the defensive¹ this week over the Clinton Foundation and the question of whether donors² to that charity were given anything inappropriate in return. Donald Trump⁴ accuses Clinton of straight-up corruption⁵. Here he is in Tampa, Fla., yesterday.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DONALD TRUMP: She sold favors and access in exchange for cash. She sold it.

GREENE: NPR's Scott Detrow has been sorting through the facts around the Clinton Foundation. He's here to talk about this. Morning, Scott.

SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE⁶: Morning, David.

GREENE: So Hillary Clinton's campaign often points to the good the foundation does - providing malaria⁷ drugs, providing AIDS medication to save lives around the world. But all of that takes money. And I guess the big question that's the real focus here is whether something improper⁸ happens as the foundation cultivates these big donors.

DETROW: Yeah. They've raised about $2 billion since 2001. And a lot of that money has come from very powerful people around the world - also some foreign governments.

So the accusation⁹ is that it's pay-to-play - that in return for their contributions, these people were expecting access to Hillary Clinton, who was a senator, secretary of state and, all along, a possible future president - that they wanted to curry¹⁰ favor there. This has been a critique for a long time.

It's intensified¹¹ in recent weeks because of some new emails we've seen. There are conversations between foundation staffers and State Department officials asking for meetings and other favors for people who had donated a lot of money.

GREENE: And also intensified because of this story that suggested a figure that people are talking about that - that more than half of this big group of meetings she had while she was secretary of state were with donors to the foundation. Sort this out for me.

DETROW: Yeah. This is from the Associated Press. They did a story reporting that more than half of the private citizens she met with were foundation donors. And that got a lot of pushback, mostly because of that private figure.

The AP decided¹² not to count any of her meetings with government officials in the U.S., with government officials from other countries, which is, of course, the vast majority of what a Secretary of State does.

The Clinton campaign says they're looking - about 150 meetings - and ignored more than 1,700 meetings. But the thing is she did meet with a lot of people who had given a lot of money to the Clinton Foundation, including 20 people who had given more than $1 million.

GREENE: So we heard that quick clip from Donald Trump at the beginning sort of broadly. But he's made some very specific allegations suggesting pay-to-play. What are those, and what do they tell us?

DETROW: One example that's come up a lot is kind of illustrative - is UBS, the big Swiss bank. There was a big standoff between that bank and the IRS. When Hillary Clinton took office, the IRS wanted the bank to turn over details about Americans with secret bank accounts.

UBS didn't want to do that. Hillary Clinton brokered¹³ a deal as secretary of state with the Swiss government and the bank. They ended up turning over some of that information but not all of it. But then after that, the bank gave about a half million dollars more to the Clinton Foundation.

They also paid Bill Clinton one and a half million dollars for a series of speeches. That's one of several examples where the timing¹⁴ is suspicious.

GREENE: Mhmm.

DETROW: But you could also view it as a legitimate¹⁵ State Department issue. This was a high-profile international issue at the time. Hillary Clinton went on CNN last night and dismissed this idea.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ANDERSON COOPER 360")

HILLARY CLINTON: I know there's a lot of smoke. And there's no fire.

GREENE: Well - so a lot of smoke - no fire. I mean, is there evidence of a link? You say there's timing here. But is there some evidence of what Republicans are calling pay-to-play?

DETROW: Well, the timing is the biggest one. The other aspect here is that we're seeing fragments. We're seeing email requests. But we don't see the full thread and why a decision was made. You know, Peter Schweizer - he wrote the book about this, "Clinton Cash."

He has very close ties to Trump's new campaign CEO, Steve Bannon. And he has admitted there's no proof of the quid pro³ quo. There's just very suspicious timing on some of these.

You know, what is clear is that there's a lot of access - time with the secretary of state, getting your concerns in front of top staffers, face time. We spoke¹⁶ to an expert about these questions. His name's Larry Noble. He's with the nonprofit group the Campaign Legal Center.

LARRY NOBLE: Anybody who's been in politics for a long time and has played the money game is used to the idea that you've got to offer your donors something. And when they do make big contributions, they will expect something in return.

And it may be just the meeting. And nothing may be decided at the meeting. But they - and they may feel that that's part of the system. The Supreme¹⁷ Court thinks that's part of the system. But the public doesn't necessarily think that should be part of a democracy.

DETROW: And that taps into a key frustration¹⁸ that Donald Trump and others have expressed - that government is there for the rich and not everybody.

GREENE: OK. NPR's Scott Detrow, talking about the Clinton Foundation. Scott, thanks.

DETROW: Thank you.

1 defensive   

adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的

参考例句：

• Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题，使她警觉起来。
• The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。

2 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 pro   

n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者

参考例句：

• The two debating teams argued the question pro and con.辩论的两组从赞成与反对两方面辩这一问题。
• Are you pro or con nuclear disarmament?你是赞成还是反对核裁军？

4 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。

5 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

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 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

8 improper   

adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的

参考例句：

• Short trousers are improper at a dance.舞会上穿短裤不成体统。
• Laughing and joking are improper at a funeral.葬礼时大笑和开玩笑是不合适的。

9 accusation   

n.控告，指责，谴责

参考例句：

• I was furious at his making such an accusation.我对他的这种责备非常气愤。
• She knew that no one would believe her accusation.她知道没人会相信她的指控。

10 curry   

n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革

参考例句：

• Rice makes an excellent complement to a curry dish.有咖喱的菜配米饭最棒。
• Add a teaspoonful of curry powder.加一茶匙咖喱粉。

11 intensified   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
• The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

13 brokered   

adj.由权力经纪人安排（或控制）的v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的过去式和过去分词 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排…

参考例句：

• a peace plan brokered by the UN 由联合国出面协商的和平计划
• Your husband brokered the deal to go in, transfrer the assets and get our man out. 你丈夫后来插了一脚，把生意都抢了过去，我们的人也被挤了出来。 来自电影对白

14 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

15 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

16 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。

17 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

18 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。