在椭圆形办公室一场无关活动中，唐纳德·特朗普未被问及参议员艾丽莎·斯洛特金，但这位总统显然仍觉得有必要抨击这位密歇根州民主党人。特朗普表示，斯洛特金参议员“应该受审……我们拭目以待”亚伦·鲁帕尔（@atrupar.com）“密歇根州参议员昨天发表了一番令人惊讶的言论，他们想吓唬人，吓唬年轻人，让他们永远不要在特朗普政府或共和党政府工作，他们想去吓唬人，”他说特朗普补充说，“即使是最自由派的评论员”也对斯洛特金感到惊讶，总统将斯洛特金描述为一个“愚蠢的人”，她“发表了一番非常、非常危险的言论。”
At an unrelated event in the Oval Office, Donald Trump wasn’t asked about Sen. Elissa Slotkin, but the president apparently felt the need to lash out at the Michigan Democrat anyway. Trump says that Sen. Slotkin "should be tried … we'll see what happens" Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)“The senator from Michigan made a statement yesterday that was amazing, where they want to frighten people, young people from ever working in the Trump administration or a Republican administration, that they want to go and they want to frighten people,”he said Trump added that “even the most liberal commentators” were amazed by Slotkin, whom the president described as a “stupid person” who “made a statement that was very, very dangerous.”
接着，特朗普更进一步，表示这位参议员“因她所做的事应该受审”，但他并未详细说明他认为斯洛特金犯了什么罪。
Then, taking it still further, Trump said the senator “should be tried for what she did,” although he didn’t elaborate on what crime he believes Slotkin had committed.
很可能，许多听到总统言论的人根本不知道他在说什么，即使这位共和党人的言论在某些极右翼圈子里可能颇受欢迎。
It’s likely that many of those who heard the president’s remark had no idea what he was talking about, even if the Republican’s message was likely well-received in some far-right circles.
斯洛特金实际说的话并不特别引人注目。上周——总统记错了日期——这位参议员在芝加哥大学的一场学术活动上发言，她就那些在腐败官僚体系中工作的人应承担的责任发表了一段简短的即兴评论，并劝阻年轻人加入腐败的官僚体系。“我希望刚毕业的年轻人说，‘我该去特朗普政府工作吗？’”“我希望他们说，‘主啊，这可能会给我带来一大堆我不想要的问题，所以让我避免参与。’”
What Slotkin actually said wasn’t especially remarkable. Last week — the president got the date wrong — the senator spoke at an academic event at the University of Chicago, where she made a brief, unscripted comment about accountability for those who work within a corrupt bureaucracy and discouraged younger people from joining corrupt bureaucracies. “I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration?’”“I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that.’”
参议员补充说，有意义的国会监督不应只针对特朗普，还应针对那些‘帮助他’、‘替他办事’的官员。随着讨论的继续，Vox 的阿斯特德·赫恩登指出，特朗普已把忠诚者安插在关键岗位，使得追究他的责任变得困难，随后斯洛特金提出，揭露白宫腐败可能会让人们在其任期最后两年不愿加入政府。
The senator added that meaningful congressional oversight should focus not just on Trump, but on officials who’ve “enabled him” and are “doing his bidding.”As the discussion continued, Vox’s Astead Herndon noted that Trump has put loyalists in key positions, making it difficult to hold him accountable, at which point Slotkin made the case that shining a light on White House corruption would likely discourage people from joining the administration in its final two years.
这位密歇根州民主党人于 10 月 13 日星期二发表了这些相当温和的言论，却没有人关心。次日没有任何主流媒体刊登关于斯洛特金言论的报道，也没有人认为总统会很快威胁要起诉。
The Michigan Democrat made these rather anodyne comments on Tuesday, Oct. 13, and no one seemed to care. No articles about Slotkin’s remarks appeared in any major news organizations the next day, and no one had reason to think presidential threats of prosecution would soon emerge.
但正如《大西洋》杂志的乔纳森·柴特所指出的，事件发生约五天后，“一股保守派愤怒的巨浪突然向这位参议员倾泻”，包括犹他州共和党参议员迈克·李以及各类保守媒体在内的声音纷纷谴责。特朗普本人本周早些时候对记者说：“斯洛特金说应该进行起诉，以吓阻人们从政。”然而这从未发生。总统把捏造的评论归咎于参议员，因为温和的事实不足以支撑可信的抹黑。
But as The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait noted it was roughly five days after the event that “a tidal wave of conservative outrage suddenly crashed over” the senator, with condemnations coming from Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and a variety of conservative media voices. Trump himself told reporters earlier this week, “Slotkin said that there should be prosecutions in order to scare people from going into politics.”Except that never happened. The president attributed made-up comments to the senator, since the benign truth wasn’t good enough to sustain a credible smear.
回顾整个荒诞的“争议”，有几个要点尤为突出。首先，特朗普及其党派对任何审查、问责或国会对腐败指控的监督表现出的恐惧程度，显而易见。
Stepping back, a few elements to this nonsensical “controversy” stand out. First, the degree to which Trump and his party appear terrified of any scrutiny, accountability or congressional oversight into corruption allegations is tough to miss.
第二，共和党人急于论证民主党试图将政府武器化——尽管共和党人自己正以史无前例的程度公然将政府武器化——以至于他们不得不编造如此荒谬的说法。
Second, Republicans are so desperate to make the case that Democrats are trying to weaponize government — even as Republicans themselves brazenly weaponize government to a degree without modern precedent — that they’re forced to concoct absurdities like these.
第三，这是右翼如何凭空制造愤怒的典型案例。“游戏规则是这样的，”《新共和国》的格雷格·萨金特解释道，“右翼宣传者不诚实地剪辑民主党人的言论，制造出迫害特朗普支持者的黑暗阴谋印象。一大群人在社交媒体上发帖，并得到埃隆·马斯克算法的推动。很快，单纯的噪音本身就将故事从右翼圈子推向主流媒体，在那里，对双方‘立场’的公平呈现将其转化为一场‘争议’。大功告成！”
And third, this is a classic example of how the right manages to manufacture outrage out of nothing. “So here’s how the game works,” The New Republic’s Greg Sargent explained“Right-wing propagandists dishonestly clip a Democrat’s comments to conjure up the impression of a dark plot to persecute supporters of Donald Trump. A bunch of them post on it with an algorithmic boost from Elon Musk. Soon the sheer noise itself vaults the story out of the right-wing ecosphere and into mainstream coverage, where the evenhanded airing of both sides’ ‘positions’ transforms it into a ‘controversy.’ Paydirt!”
至于特朗普的司法部——该部门已经发起过一次针对斯洛特金的失败起诉——是否同意这位参议员“应因她所做之事受审”，拭目以待。
As for whether Trump’s Justice Department, which already launched one failed effort to prosecute Slotkin agrees that the senator “should be tried for what she did,” watch this space.
《如何（以及为何）共和党人制造关于艾丽莎·斯洛特金的伪争议》MS NOW
The post How (and why) Republicans manufactured a faux controversy about Elissa Slotkin MS NOW