美国国家公共电台 NPR With Women's Rights As A Focus, Attention Turns To Gillibrand

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

For years, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has made sexual harassment¹ one of the top issues on her political agenda. So this past fall, as allegations of harassment swept through the U.S. Capitol, it was no surprise that Senator Gillibrand became a leading voice on how to handle the issue. NPR's Scott Detrow examines how the cultural moment is also boosting her political stature².

SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE³: There's a small chance that if "Saturday Night Live" hadn't been so mean to David Paterson, Kirsten Gillibrand wouldn't be in the U.S. Senate.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")

FRED ARMISEN: (As David Paterson) And it's bad out there, Seth. And if you don't believe me, take a look at this graph that I got here. Now...

(LAUGHTER)

DETROW: In late-2008, Hillary Clinton was vacating her Senate seat, and the New York governor was trying to decide who should fill it. The show was mocking him over and over mostly for being blind.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")

SETH MEYERS: Governor, it's upside down.

ARMISEN: (As David Paterson) You bet it is.

(LAUGHTER)

DETROW: Paterson says his staff advised him to laugh along with the jokes. But when the upstate New York congresswoman came and met with him about the Senate job, Gillibrand urged him to fight back, saying it was wrong for the show to target a disability.

DAVID PATERSON: Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time. That consoling and yet strong support she gave me that moment stuck in my mind for a month and a half until I appointed her U.S. senator.

DETROW: There were many other reasons Paterson picked Gillibrand, but nine years later, she now has held the Senate seat longer than Hillary Clinton did. She also has a clear signature issue.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: If we have 26,000 sexual assaults and rapes⁵ every year in the military and only 3,000 victims are willing to report, you have a huge structural⁶ problem.

DETROW: That's Gillibrand back in 2013 urging the U.S. military to change how it responds to sexual assault accusations⁷. She has long pushed for policies like federal paid family leave and used her political organization to try and get more women to run for office. So when the #MeToo moment came to Congress, Gillibrand was ready. She sponsored a bill changing how Congress processes and responds to harassment complaints.

GILLIBRAND: The way it's set up in Congress is so horrible. I mean, it is literally⁸ designed to protect perpetrators.

DETROW: Several high-profile Republicans have signed on, including Texas Senator Ted⁴ Cruz. Gillibrand was also the first Democrat⁹ to call on Minnesota Senator Al Franken to resign despite a close relationship that included regular squash games between the two Democrats¹⁰.

GILLIBRAND: That was difficult. It was very difficult because this is somebody I really do care about and think has done great work in the Senate. But the truth is, if we are defending this behavior but not that behavior and talking about this - the gradations between sexual assault versus¹¹ harassment versus groping and then where on the body you're groping - I just don't think that's the right conversation to be having.

DETROW: A cascade¹² of Democrats quickly followed suit, but since then, there's been some backlash. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin urged Franken to withdraw his resignation, calling the demand from Gillibrand and other Democrats hypocritical.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JOE MANCHIN: It's just unbelievable to me how you can destroy a human being's life and his family and everything that they stand for without give him no chance.

DETROW: That was on CNN. Gillibrand says while Franken had a right to an ethics¹³ committee investigation¹⁴, she had a right to her opinion. This has all put Gillibrand in the news day after day, though her profile had been rising all year since a speech at the Women's March the day after President Trump¹⁵ was inaugurated.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GILLIBRAND: This is the moment that you are going to be heard.

(CHEERING)

DETROW: It all seems a far cry from January 2009 when Paterson and Gillibrand stood on a crowded Albany stage to announce her surprise appointment.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GILLIBRAND: I realize that for many New Yorkers, this is the first time you've heard my name, and you don't know much about me.

DETROW: One thing many New York Democrats quickly heard about - the relatively¹⁶ conservative views she held at the time on hot-button progressive issues like gun control.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GILLIBRAND: You know, in upstate New York, you typically shoot the Thanksgiving turkey. So that's what we do. And so I've always wanted to protect hunter's rights because it's such an important part of our culture. It's an important part of our heritage. It's an important part of upstate New York. So I'm going to be an advocate for hunters' rights, but there is so much area where there's common ground where I can work together with anti-gun - with really solving the problem of gun violence.

DETROW: Paterson says he picked Gillibrand knowing she'd be an excellent senator 10 years down the road.

PATERSON: I knew she would not be the best senator at the moment I appointed her. She struggled a little bit kind of explaining her positions.

DETROW: Gillibrand credits an early turnaround to something that keeps coming up during her interview with NPR - listening, whether that's listening to other lawmakers or to constituents¹⁷.

GILLIBRAND: There's areas in my own history where I didn't know why it was important, and when I did, I changed my opinion. And that certainly could be said for my views on trying to end gun violence and certainly my views on immigration reform.

DETROW: Gillibrand has been steadily¹⁸ increasing her stature in the Democratic Party and in the Senate over the last few years, so that's put her in a similar position that her predecessor¹⁹ was in. Listen to how Hillary Clinton fielded questions about a presidential run when she was still in the Senate and running for a second term.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HILLARY CLINTON: I'm going to stay focused on this election because I don't want to take anything for granted.

DETROW: Here's how Gillibrand is responding to those same questions.

GILLIBRAND: Well, I really aspire²⁰ to getting re-elected next year, so I'm very focused on that.

DETROW: Scott Detrow, NPR News.

1 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

2 stature   

n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材

参考例句：

• He is five feet five inches in stature.他身高5英尺5英寸。
• The dress models are tall of stature.时装模特儿的身材都较高。

3 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。

4 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

5 rapes   

n.芸苔( rape的名词复数 )；强奸罪；强奸案；肆意损坏v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的第三人称单数 )；强奸

参考例句：

• The man who had committed several rapes was arrested. 那个犯了多起强奸案的男人被抓起来了。 来自辞典例句
• The incidence of reported rapes rose 0.8 percent. 美国联邦调查局还发布了两份特别报告。 来自互联网

6 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

7 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。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

10 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》

11 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

12 cascade   

n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下

参考例句：

• She watched the magnificent waterfall cascade down the mountainside.她看着壮观的瀑布从山坡上倾泻而下。
• Her hair fell over her shoulders in a cascade of curls.她的卷发像瀑布一样垂在肩上。

13 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。

14 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

15 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。

16 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

17 constituents   

n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素

参考例句：

• She has the full support of her constituents. 她得到本区选民的全力支持。
• Hydrogen and oxygen are the constituents of water. 氢和氧是水的主要成分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

19 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

20 aspire   

vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于

参考例句：

• Living together with you is what I aspire toward in my life.和你一起生活是我一生最大的愿望。
• I aspire to be an innovator not a follower.我迫切希望能变成个开创者而不是跟随者。