美国总统候选人为两周后的辩论做准备
【中美创新时报2024 年 6 月 15 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）拜登总统和挑战者唐纳德·特朗普在他们的第一次辩论中面临着同样的问题：如何在大多数美国人表示已经下定决心的激烈竞争中影响选民。对此，《波士顿环球报》作了下述综合报道。
候选人已经开始工作，在 6 月 27 日于亚特兰大举行的 2024 年第一次面对面对决之前与亲密顾问进行了磋商。该论坛提供了一个打破僵局的高风险机会，但在这个舞台上也存在明显的危险，在这个舞台上，俏皮话或妙语可能无效，但任何失言或失误都有可能在政治上造成致命后果。
据知情人士透露，总统最近访问法国时带了辩论简报，他们要求匿名详细介绍准备情况。
据知情人士透露，拜登的团队已安排了从周三开始在戴维营的一段较长时间进行辩论准备，前幕僚长罗恩·克莱恩将领导这项工作。克莱恩拒绝置评。
拜登还将与值得信赖的政治助手一起参加辩论，包括安妮塔·邓恩、迈克·多尼隆、塞德里克·里士满、国家安全顾问杰克·沙利文、史蒂夫·里切蒂和副幕僚长布鲁斯·里德。
目前尚不清楚该团队是否会举行模拟辩论，就像他们在 2020 年所做的那样，当时拜登的私人律师鲍勃·鲍尔扮演了特朗普的角色，并不懈地追击这位被提名人，为他应对预期的人身攻击做好准备。
“在第一次辩论前的一个月，拜登-哈里斯竞选团队将把注意力集中在特朗普危险的竞选承诺和疯狂的言论上，”拜登的高级竞选助手之一 Jen O’Malley Dillon 在 5 月底的一份备忘录中写道。 “我们将确保让决定这次选举结果的选民们记住特朗普担任总统期间造成的混乱和伤害。”
特朗普的准备工作同样由一小群助手负责，包括苏西·威尔斯、克里斯·拉西维塔和杰森·米勒，以及政策助手和演讲撰稿人文斯·黑利和拉斯·沃辛顿。前白宫高级官员凯莉安妮·康威也在帮助特朗普。盟友说，这位前总统一直鄙视正式的准备和模拟辩论，更喜欢与助手非正式地讨论答案和反驳。
两位在 2020 年帮助特朗普的著名人物失踪了，鲁迪·朱利安尼在冠状病毒大流行最严重的时候在白宫处理了大部分准备工作，以及前新泽西州州长克里斯·克里斯蒂。朱利安尼因试图推翻 2020 年选举结果而面临自己的法律和财务挑战，而克里斯蒂在 2021 年 1 月 6 日美国国会大厦遭到袭击后与特朗普决裂。
米勒表示，特朗普的辩论准备自然而然地来自于他多次出现在媒体上和参加集会。
“特朗普总统每周都要接受许多艰难的采访，并站着发表冗长的集会演讲，展示了精英的耐力，”米勒在一份声明中说。“他不需要工作人员的安排。”（彭博社）
托马斯乘坐亿万富翁的飞机旅行次数更多
华盛顿——根据参议院司法委员会获得的文件，克拉伦斯·托马斯大法官从未披露过他乘坐德克萨斯亿万富翁哈兰·克罗的私人飞机的三次旅行。
该委员会的民主党人获得的文件列出了三次之前没有报告过的访问：一次是 2017 年去蒙大拿州冰川国家公园附近的一个城市；另一次是 2019 年 3 月去他的家乡佐治亚州萨凡纳；另一次是 2021 年去北加州。
每次旅行的目的尚不清楚，法官的披露表格中没有列出这些旅行的原因也不清楚。然而，所有航班都涉及短期停留：其中两次是往返，不包括过夜。
这一披露突显了托马斯多年来对朋友慷慨解囊的依赖程度，以及他拒绝报告这些关系的一致性。
托马斯说，有人建议他不需要披露没有在最高法院审理案件的朋友提供的个人款待。
这一声明几乎肯定会加剧最高法院提高透明度的斗争。立法者要求法官遵守与行政和立法部门类似的道德标准的努力已经失败。即使在公众的强烈关注下，法院于秋季公布了第一部道德准则，专家们也立即指出，它缺乏执行机制，如果法官违反了它，也不会受到处罚。
托马斯没有立即回应置评请求。他的律师埃利奥特·S·伯克没有回应有关旅行细节的问题，但在一份声明中为这些旅行辩护。
伯克说，克罗向立法者提供的信息“属于‘个人招待豁免’，托马斯法官无需披露”。
伯克说，自规则改变以来，“托马斯法官完全遵守了新的披露要求。”（纽约时报）
特朗普现在对煤炭行业保持沉默
唐纳德·特朗普第一次竞选总统时，他戴上矿工头盔，告诉煤矿工人，当他进入白宫时，他们会“赢，赢，赢”。
现在，随着特朗普再次竞选总统，他很少提到美国煤矿工人，也不再对他们的未来做出宏大的承诺。
专家表示，这种转变反映了政治和经济现实。其中最重要的是：特朗普监督了煤炭的衰落，而不是拯救了煤炭。尽管特朗普废除了气候法规，并任命了一位煤炭游说者领导该国最高环境机构，但在其总统任期内，仍有 75 家燃煤电厂关闭，该行业裁员约 13,000 人。
“没有一名煤矿工人重返工作岗位，也没有一名电厂被挽救，”代表煤矿工人的劳工组织美国矿工联合会 (United Mine Workers of America) 的发言人 Erin E. Bates 表示。
“我认为他意识到这些承诺在他任期内没有兑现，现在可能也不会兑现，”她说。“从政治上讲，他的竞选活动可能没有回报，因为他会做出更多违背承诺的行为。”（纽约时报）
特朗普 78 岁生日又到了
佛罗里达州西棕榈滩——唐纳德·特朗普在 78 岁生日的前一天，国会共和党人为他唱了《生日快乐》，并向他赠送了蛋糕和礼物。对于一位在 2021 年 1 月 6 日国会骚乱后被许多议员排斥的前总统来说，这是一次非凡的忠诚表现。
周五，特朗普将迎来另一场生日庆祝活动，这一次他的第二故乡将有数千名支持者参加。
“Club 47” 粉丝团的成员将在佛罗里达州西棕榈滩聆听特朗普的演讲，该地距离特朗普的海湖庄园只有很短的车程。据 Club 47 总裁拉里·斯诺登 (Larry Snowden) 称，此次活动的 5,000 张门票以每张约 35 美元的价格售罄，靠近舞台的座位票价为 60 美元。
特朗普现在比现年 81 岁的民主党总统拜登年轻三岁。
为了纪念他的大选对手的生日，拜登的竞选团队编制了一份“特朗普 78 项历史性……‘成就’”清单，其中包含媒体对政策提案的报道链接，包括“削减社会保障和医疗保险”、特朗普担任总统期间共和党在美国众议院和参议院失利，以及对他法律案件的一些提及。
“代表美国，我们提前送给您 79 岁生日的礼物：确保您永远不再担任总统，”拜登竞选团队发言人詹姆斯·辛格在生日祝福中补充道。（美联社）
题图：支持者观看了 2020 年 10 月 22 日唐纳德·特朗普和乔·拜登之间的总统辩论。MELINA MARA/华盛顿邮报
附原英文报道：
Candidates prepare for debate in two weeks
Updated June 14, 2024,
President Biden and challenger Donald Trump face the same problem in their first debate: How to sway voters in a tight race where most Americans say they’ve already made up their minds.
The candidates are already at work, conferring with close advisers before the first face-to-face showdown of 2024 on June 27 in Atlanta. That forum offers a high-stakes opportunity to break through the deadlock, but with clear perils on a stage where one-liners or zingers may prove ineffective but where any gaffe or misstep threatens to be politically fatal.
The president brought debate briefing books with him on his recent trip to France, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to detail the preparations.
Biden’s team has blocked off an extended stretch at Camp David starting Wednesday to work on his debate preparation, which former chief of staff Ron Klain will lead, according to the people. Klain declined to comment.
Biden will also be joined by trusted political aides, including Anita Dunn, Mike Donilon, Cedric Richmond, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Steve Ricchetti, and deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed.
It’s unclear if the team will hold mock debates, as they did in 2020 when Biden’s personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, played the role of Trump and relentlessly went after the nominee to prepare him for an expected onslaught of personal attacks.
“In the month leading up to that first debate, the Biden-Harris campaign will zero in on Trump’s dangerous campaign promises and unhinged rhetoric,” Jen O’Malley Dillon, one of Biden’s top campaign aides wrote in a memo in late May. “We will make sure that the voters who will decide this election are reminded of the chaos and harm Trump caused as president.”
Trump’s prep is similarly being run by a tiny circle of aides, including Susie Wiles, Chris LaCivita, and Jason Miller as well as policy aides and speechwriters Vince Haley and Russ Worthington. Kellyanne Conway, a former top White House official, is also helping Trump. The former president has always disdained formal preparation and mock debates, allies say, preferring to informally workshop answers and retorts with aides.
Two prominent figures who helped Trump in 2020 are missing, Rudy Giuliani, who handled much of that prep from the White House during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Giuliani is facing his own legal and financial challenges over efforts to undo the 2020 election result, while Christie broke with Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Miller said Trump’s debate prep comes naturally from his many media appearances and rallies.
“President Trump takes on numerous tough interviews every single week and delivers lengthy rally speeches while standing, demonstrating elite stamina,” Miller said in a statement. “He does not need to be programmed by staff.” (Bloomberg)
Thomas took more trips on billionaire’s plane
WASHINGTON — Justice Clarence Thomas never disclosed three trips aboard the private jet of Texas billionaire Harlan Crow, according to documents obtained by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The documents, obtained by Democrats on the panel, list three visits that have not been previously reported: one to a city in Montana, near Glacier National Park, in 2017; another to his hometown, Savannah, Georgia, in March 2019; and another to Northern California in 2021.
The purpose of each trip was not immediately clear, nor was the reason for their omission on the justice’s disclosure forms. However, all of the flights involve short stays: two were round trips that did not include an overnight stay.
The revelation underlined the extent to which Thomas has relied on the generosity of his friends over the years and the consistency with which he declined to report those ties.
Thomas has said that he had been advised he did not need to disclose gifts of personal hospitality from friends who did not have cases before the Supreme Court.
The announcement is all but certain to fuel the fight over greater transparency at the Supreme Court. Lawmakers’ efforts to require that justices be held to ethics standards similar to those for the executive and legislative branches have faltered. And even as the court, under immense public scrutiny, announced its first ethics code in the fall, experts immediately pointed out its lack of an enforcement mechanism or penalties should a justice have violated it.
Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His lawyer, Elliot S. Berke, did not respond to questions about details of the trips, but defended the trips in a statement.
The information, supplied to lawmakers by Crow, “fell under the ‘personal hospitality exemption’ and was not required to be disclosed by Justice Thomas,” Berke said.
Berke said that, since the rule change, “Justice Thomas has fully complied with the new disclosure requirement.” (New York Times)
Trump now quiet on coal industry
The first time Donald Trump ran for president, he slapped on a miner’s helmet and told coal workers they would be “winning, winning, winning” when he entered the White House.
Now, as Trump campaigns for another chance at the presidency, he rarely mentions America’s coal miners and has stopped making grand promises about their future.
The shift reflects political and economic realities, experts said. Top among them: Trump oversaw coal’s decline, not its salvation. Despite the fact that Trump gutted climate regulations and appointed a coal lobbyist to lead the country’s top environmental agency, 75 coal-fired power plants closed and the industry shed about 13,000 jobs during his presidency.
“Not a single coal miner went back to work or power plant saved,” said Erin E. Bates, a spokeswoman for the United Mine Workers of America, the labor organization representing coal miners.
“I think he’s realizing those promises were not met during his term and they’re probably not going to be met now,” she said. “Politically, it probably doesn’t pay for his campaign to make more broken promises.” (New York Times)
Trump’s 78th marked again
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.— Donald Trump spent the day before his 78th birthday being feted by Republicans in Congress who sang “Happy Birthday” and presented him with a cake and gifts. It was a remarkable show of loyalty for a former president who was shunned by many of the same lawmakers after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
On Friday, Trump was to get another birthday celebration, this time with thousands of supporters in his adopted home state.
Members of the “Club 47″ fan group were to hear from Trump in West Palm Beach, Florida, a short drive from his Mar-a-Lago residence. The event sold out of 5,000 tickets at about $35 apiece, with closer spots to the stage costing $60, according to Club 47 President Larry Snowden.
Trump is now three years younger than Democratic President Biden, who is 81.
To mark the birthday of his general election rival, Biden’s campaign compiled a listing of “78 of Trump’s historic… ‘accomplishments,’” with links to media coverage of policy proposals including “cutting Social Security and Medicare,” Trump’s presidency during GOP losses in the US House and Senate, and a number of references to his legal cases.
“On behalf of America, our early gift for your 79th: Making sure you are never President again,” Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer added to the birthday wishes. (AP)
