特朗普胜利返回华盛顿——混乱随即而来
【中美创新时报2024 年 11 月 14 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）拜登总统周三欢迎当选总统特朗普来到白宫——这是特朗普四年前拒绝的和平权力交接的传统部分。当当选总统和共和党人庆祝他们的新“美好世界”时，一项意外的提名让一些人考虑他们是否应该拥有“美好”的东西。《波士顿环球报》记者Jim Puzzanghera、Sam Brodey 和 Tal Kopan 对此作了下述报道。
当选总统唐纳德·特朗普周三走上众议院共和党人会议的舞台，全场起立鼓掌，热情地与党内领导人握手，笑容满面，他的竞选主题曲，李·格林伍德的《上帝保佑美国》从国会山酒店宴会厅的扬声器中响起。
“好吧，非常感谢。这是一次非常愉快的聚会。 “赢了不是很好吗？”他一边说，一边调整麦克风，一些众议院共和党人也为他们的掌声欢呼。“赢了总是很好。”
特朗普祝福众议院议长迈克·约翰逊继续领导众议院共和党会议，在最终的竞选中，共和党会议几乎肯定会保住多数席位。然后，他前往白宫会见拜登总统——这是权力和平过渡的传统标志，但四年前，当角色互换时，特朗普本人却没有参加。
“政治很难。在很多情况下，这不是一个非常好的世界，但今天的世界很好，”特朗普说。
“很好”是共和党人的关键词，特朗普上周飞抵因选举胜利而重塑的华盛顿。自 2021 年 1 月 20 日耻辱地离开以来，他的飞机首次降落在马里兰州安德鲁斯联合基地，特朗普在华盛顿遇到了一个截然不同的政治世界。在国会选举后的第一个整天复工时，共和党人庆祝了他们全面重返权力舞台，而民主党人则在努力应对失去权力的问题。
当天晚些时候，情况会变得更加明朗。
在国会大厦内，参议院共和党人开会选举了 18 年来他们的第一位新领导人：南达科他州参议员约翰·图恩，他将领导他们占主导地位的 53 个席位。
然而，到周三下午，图恩面临的挑战开始显现，似乎“美好”的氛围正受到潜在混乱的威胁，这与特朗普的第一任期形成鲜明对比。
特朗普宣布，他提名佛罗里达州众议员马特·盖茨为司法部长，他因涉嫌性交易未成年人而受到司法部的调查，但没有被起诉，并面临众议院道德委员会对同一事项的调查。到周三晚上，盖茨辞去了国会议员的职务，这实际上结束了国会道德调查。
国会大厦里的共和党参议员们被记者们蜂拥而至，要求他们对此作出反应，他们声称自己没有看到这条新闻，躲在关闭的电梯门后面，难以置信地叹了口气，仿佛 2017 年又重演了一遍。
“我确信，这将是一场吃爆米花的确认听证会，”北卡罗来纳州参议员 Thom Tillis 说，他还补充说，他认为盖茨还有很多工作要做才能获得确认。缅因州参议员 Susan Collins 表示，她听到这个消息时“感到震惊”。当被问及她是否认为提名是认真的时，阿拉斯加州参议员 Lisa Murkowski 说：“就我而言，不是。”
德克萨斯州参议员约翰·科宁刚刚以微弱优势输给了图恩，他表示盖茨“将接受审查，并接受司法委员会的质询，我想我们会问他一些问题。”当提到盖茨的道德调查时，科宁面无表情地说：“嗯，可能会提到。”他跳进电梯时，引得大家笑声不断。
怀俄明州参议员辛西娅·卢米斯在前往参议院的路上被问及是否支持盖茨的提名时停了下来。“你知道，我想我会去投票，让这个问题悬而未决，”她说完就匆匆离开了。
在宣布选择盖茨之前，特朗普已经提名前民主党众议员塔尔西·加巴德担任国家情报总监，这让两党的议员都感到紧张。塔尔西·加巴德以同情俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京等独裁者而闻名。特朗普周二晚间宣布任命退伍军人、福克斯新闻名人皮特·赫格塞斯为国防部长，两党议员都对此提出了质疑。
“这里面有几个意外，”南达科他州参议员迈克·朗兹在被问及他对特朗普内阁人选的看法时说，当时加巴德和盖茨还没有宣布。
如果说特朗普在准备让华盛顿再次陷入疯狂时自己的情绪有任何模棱两可之处，那么他在众议院共和党会议上的胜利之旅就说明了这一点。在最终投票结果公布时，众议院共和党人即将保住微弱多数，他欣喜若狂，在掌声中畅饮。特朗普随行的两名成员也受到了起立鼓掌：他的联合竞选主席苏西·威尔斯，她将成为新任白宫办公厅主任；以及亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克，特朗普已任命他帮助领导新的“政府效率部”。
“我猜我不会再次参选，除非你们说‘他很棒。我们得想点别的办法’，”特朗普说，人群哄堂大笑。众议院共和党人后来表示，特朗普暗示他可能会寻求第三任期，这只是在开玩笑——宪法禁止这样做。
“这显然是个玩笑，”田纳西州众议员蒂姆·伯切特说。“我俯身对身边的某人说，‘明天的头条新闻就是特朗普试图破坏宪法，这绝对是大错特错。’”
特朗普权力交接的第一天才上午 11 点，显然，已经需要提醒了。
共和党人说，这一切都只是他们欢欣鼓舞的一部分。
“没有人比唐纳德·J·特朗普更能带领我们的国家走出危机，不仅在美国，而且在全球，”德克萨斯州共和党众议员特洛伊·内尔斯在离开会场时对记者说，他戴着一条鲜红白蓝的“特朗普2024”领带。“这是一个伟大的日子，在场的每个人都应该微笑。你们都应该微笑。”
可以理解的是，民主党人没有微笑。
他们列队进入国会大厦，面临着自2018年以来华盛顿首次完全失去权力的情况。他们正在考虑失去连任的挚爱同事的离职。例如，参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦在谈到落败的俄亥俄州参议员谢罗德·布朗时情绪激动，她将取代这位资深进步人士成为参议院银行委员会的民主党领袖。
在每周的新闻发布会上，参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默——即将被降职为少数党领袖——被问及他是否为党失去对参议院的控制权承担任何责任。 “我们做对了一些事情，也做错了一些事情，”他说。“我们要从发生的事情中吸取教训，继续前进。”
“这将是我们党团的一段学习期，”他说。
对于即将在动荡时期就职的新成员来说，这已经是一段学习期了。新泽西州参议员当选人安迪·金在陪妻子参加新参议员配偶活动时说：“我只是专注于确保自己能尽快上任，我们会顺其自然。”
金已经担任了三届众议员，但他仍在想办法绕过国会大厦的参议院那边。然而，和他那届新生班的其他几位成员一样，他对特朗普很熟悉。“特朗普当总统的时候，我也上过办公室，”他说。“你知道，我从中学到了很多东西，我想我可以用它们来做这份工作。”
题图：拜登在白宫祝贺当选总统特朗普赢得大选
附原英文报道：
Trump triumphantly returns to Washington — and chaos quickly follows
As the president-elect and Republicans celebrate their new ‘nice world,’ a surprise nomination has some considering if they should have ‘nice’ things
By Jim Puzzanghera, Sam Brodey and Tal Kopan Globe Staff,Updated November 13, 2024
Biden congratulates President-elect Trump on election win at the White House
President Biden welcomed President-elect Trump to the White House Wednesday — a traditional part of the peaceful handoff of power Trump declined four years ago.
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump walked onto the stage at a meeting of House Republicans Wednesday to a standing ovation, heartily shaking hands with party leaders and smiling broadly as his campaign anthem, Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” blared from the speakers in a Capitol Hill hotel ballroom.
“Well, thank you very much. This is a very nice gathering. Isn’t it nice to win?” he said, adjusting the microphone as some House Republicans added whoops to their applause. “It’s always nice to win.”
Trump gave his blessing to Speaker Mike Johnson to continue to lead the House Republican conference, which was almost certain to retain its majority as the final races are decided, then went to the White House to meet with President Biden — a traditional hallmark of a peaceful transition of power but one Trump himself skipped when the roles were reversed four years ago.
“[P]olitics is tough. And it’s, many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today,” Trump said.
“Nice” was the operative word for Republicans as Trump swooped into a Washington remade by his election victory last week. As his plane touched down at Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews for the first time since he jetted away from it in disgrace on Jan. 20, 2021, Trump encountered a drastically new political universe in Washington. Republicans celebrated a sweeping return to power — and Democrats grappled with their loss of it — on Congress’s first full day back at work after the election.
How drastic would become clearer later in the day.
Inside the Capitol, Senate Republicans met to select their first new leader in 18 years: Senator John Thune, of South Dakota, who will lead their commanding 53-seat majority.
By Wednesday afternoon, however, the contours of the challenge awaiting Thune began to take shape, and it was as if the “nice” vibe was being threatened with potential chaos in a distinct echo of Trump’s first term.
Trump announced his nominee for attorney general was Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, who was investigated by the Justice Department, but not charged, over allegations of sex trafficking a minor and was facing a House Ethics Committee probe into the same matter. By Wednesday evening, Gaetz resigned from Congress, which effectively ended the congressional ethics probe.
Swarmed by reporters for reaction, Republican senators in the Capitol claimed to not have seen the news, took shelter behind closing elevator doors, and sighed in disbelief, as if it were 2017 all over again.
“I’m sure it will make for a popcorn-eating confirmation hearing,” said Senator Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, who added he thought Gaetz had a lot of work to do to get confirmed. Maine Senator Susan Collins said she was “shocked” when she heard the news. And asked if she thought the nomination were serious, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said, “Not as far as I’m concerned.”
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who had just narrowly lost the party’s leadership race to Thune, said Gaetz “will be vetted and come before the Judiciary Committee, and I assume we’ll have some questions for him.” When Gaetz’s ethics investigation was mentioned, Cornyn deadpanned, “Well, that might come up,” eliciting laughter as he jumped into an elevator.
Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming paused on her way to the Senate floor when asked whether she would support Gaetz’s nomination. “You know, I think I’m going to go vote and just let that question just hang,” she said before hustling away.
Before announcing the Gaetz pick, Trump already had put lawmakers in both parties on edge by nominating Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic representative known for her sympathetic views toward autocrats such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, as his director of national intelligence. And lawmakers in both parties were already fielding questions over Trump’s announcement Tuesday night of Pete Hegseth, a military veteran and Fox News personality, as secretary of defense.
“Well, there’s been a couple of surprises in there,” said Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, when asked about his views on Trump’s Cabinet selections, before Gabbard and Gaetz had been announced.
If there were any ambiguity about Trump’s own mood as he prepared to make Washington frenetic again, his victory lap at the House Republican meeting made it clear. He was triumphant as he drank in the applause from House Republicans on the verge of retaining their narrow majority as the final votes were counted. The standing ovations extended to two members of Trump’s traveling party: his co-campaign chair, Susie Wiles, who will be the new White House chief of staff, and billionaire Elon Musk, whom Trump has tapped to help lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency.”
“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s good. We got to figure something else,’ ” Trump said as the crowd laughed. House Republicans later said Trump was only kidding when he suggested that he might seek a third term — which is barred by the Constitution.
“It was clearly a joke,” said Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett. “I leaned over to somebody beside me . . . and I said, ‘That’ll be the headlines tomorrow, Trump trying to thwart the Constitution, which there’s nothing further from the truth.’ ”
It was only 11 a.m. on the first big day of the Trump transition and, apparently, a reminder was already needed.
Republicans said it all was just part of their jubilant mood.
“There’s no one better to lead our country out of crisis, not only in America but across the globe, than Donald J. Trump,” Representative Troy Nehls, a Texas Republican, declared to reporters as he left the meeting wearing a bright red-white-and-blue “Trump 2024″ tie. “It’s a great day and everybody here should be smiling. You should all be smiling.”
Democrats, understandably, were not smiling.
They filed into the Capitol facing a complete loss of power in Washington for the first time since 2018. And they were contemplating the departure of beloved colleagues who lost reelection. Senator Elizabeth Warren, for instance, was emotional in talking about defeated Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a veteran progressive she is set to replace as the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.
At his weekly press conference, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer — soon to be demoted to minority leader — was asked if he accepted any blame for his party’s losing control of the chamber. “We did some things right; we did some things wrong,” he said. “We’re going to learn from our . . . from what happened and move forward.”
“This is,” he said, “going to be a period of learning for our caucus.”
It already was for the newest members, who are set to take office in a time of profound turbulence. As he walked his wife to an event for new senators’ spouses, Senator-elect Andy Kim of New Jersey said, “I’m just kind of focused on making sure I can get up and running as quickly as I can, and we’ll take it as it comes.”
Kim, a three-term representative already, was still figuring out how to get around the Senate side of the Capitol. Like several other members of his freshman class, however, there’s familiarity with Trump. “I’ve been in office before when Trump’s been president,” he said. “You know, I’ve learned a lot from that I think I can use to do this job.”
