没有人谈论“怪人或胡须人”——这是皮特·赫格塞斯明确表示，在他任期内不受美国武装部队欢迎的几类人中的两类。
There was no talk of "weirdos or beardos" –two among several categories whom Pete Hegseth has made it known are unwelcome in the US armed forces under his watch.
但一个留胡须的人一定一直在他心头，他才会在周二早上8点这个不合时宜的时刻，在五角大楼会见记者。
But a man with a beard had to be uppermost in his mind for him to meet journalists in the Pentagon at the ungodly hour of 8am on Tuesday.
他为什么还要去面对一个他常常骂作“假新闻”的群体？与第四权交往，并非这位国防部长清晨——甚至一天中的任何时间——会做的事。
Why else would he be addressing a group he commonly disses as the "fake news"? Consorting with the fourth estate is not the sort of thing this defense secretary does first thing in the morning – or indeed, any time of the day.
他近六个月来刻意避免举行任何一次新闻发布会——这相当于用装甲运兵车碾碎了所有正常的问责观念——而与此同时，一场不受欢迎的对伊朗战争在竞选活动期间持续进行。然而，他却在自己和记者本应吃早餐的时候，召集媒体关注。
He had ostentatiously avoided holding a single press briefing in nearly six months – thus driving an armored personnel carrier through all normal notions of accountability as an unpopular war with Iran rumbled on during an election campaign. Yet here he was summoning media attention at a time when he – and they – should have been having breakfast.
对于这种反常的举动，赞扬应归于托马斯·马西，这位来自肯塔基州的、即将卸任的、留着浓密胡须的共和党众议员，他已对赫格塞斯发起弹劾，指控其在管理美国强大军队方面犯有重罪和轻罪。
For this sudden departure from type, praise belongs to Thomas Massie, the outgoing – and lusciously hirsute – Republican representative from Kentucky, who has launched articles of impeachment against Hegseth, citing high crimes and misdemeanors in his scattergun stewardship of the US's mighty military.
正是这一举动，迫使这位自封的战争部长召开了一场不寻常的新闻发布会。
It was this that had driven the self-anointed secretary of war to call an unaccustomed news conference.
赫格塞斯一直抨击军队中的胡须和不良仪容，想必对马西的面部毛发深感鄙夷。
Hegseth, who has railed against beards and poor grooming in the military, presumably feels deep contempt for Massie's facial follicles.
但在持续25分钟、充满愤慨的露面中，他没有提及这些。事实上，他设法完全避开了马西的名字。
But he made no mention of them in a 25-minute appearance bristling with affronted indignation. In fact, he contrived to omit mention of Massie's name at all.
相反，赫格塞斯在一次似乎充满他自己不满情绪的讲话中，多次用“心怀不满”来形容他这位无名的对头——尤其是对几个月来第一次会面的记者们。
Instead, Hegseth applied the adjective "disgruntled" to his nameless nemesis several times in an address that seemed to throb with his own feelings of disgruntlement – not least with the journalists he was meeting for the first time in months.
从句法上看，这可能比特朗普前一天将马西描述为“彻头彻尾的失败者”有所提升。
Syntactically, that probably represented an upgrade on Donald Trump's description of Massie the day before as "a stone cold loser".
马西是共和党国会议员中的异议人士，他对赫格塞斯提出了八条弹劾条款，这些条款可能会得到民主党——以及一些共和党同僚的支持。
Massie, a contrarian in Republican congressional ranks, has introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth that are likely to find support from Democrats – and maybe some fellow Republicans.
其中包括严重指控，如违反美国宪法，以及未经国会授权对伊朗发动战争。
Among them lie serious charges, including violating the US constitution and waging war against Iran without congressional authorization.
赫格塞斯还被指控违反国会的战争权力决议，该决议要求美军在未经授权的敌对行动中撤出，期限为60天。
Hegseth also stands accused of violating Congress's war powers resolution, which requires the withdrawal of US forces from unauthorized hostilities after 60 days.
还有指控称，他对加勒比海地区涉嫌贩毒者实施非法军事打击，非法拘捕委内瑞拉总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗，对也门实施未经授权的军事打击，并无视旨在尽量减少平民伤亡的法律。
There are also accusations of carrying out illegal military strikes against suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean, unlawfully capturing Venezuela's president, Nicolás Maduro, unauthorized military strikes against Yemen and ignoring laws intended to minimize civilian casualties.
最后，他被指控滥用职权，报复民主党参议员马克·凯利，后者曾敦促军方成员不服从非法命令。对赫格塞斯来说，这一切都是一场“闹剧和把戏”。
Finally, he is accused of abusing his power by retaliating against Mark Kelly, a Democratic senator, who had urged members of the military to disobey illegal orders. For Hegseth, it was all a "farce and a stunt".
“在我们美国共和国的250年历史中，没有一位陆军部长或国防部长因执行合法军事行动而被弹劾，而我们的情况是，行动还很成功，”他抱怨道。
"In the 250 years of our American republic, no secretary of war or secretary of defense has ever been impeached for carrying out lawful military operations, and in our case, successful ones at that," he complained.
“一次也没有，不管有没有战争权力决议，不管是里根在黎巴嫩，还是克林顿在科索沃，奥巴马在伊拉克和叙利亚，拜登在伊拉克和叙利亚。这就是标准。”但“心怀不满”的马西想要因“政策分歧”而将这一切颠覆。
"Not once, war powers resolution or not, not under Reagan in Lebanon, not under Clinton in Kosovo, not under Obama in Iraq and Syria, not under Biden in Iraq and Syria. That's the standard." But the "disgruntled" Massie wanted to turn all that upside down "over policy disagreements".
“事实就是这样，”赫格塞斯说。“不是重罪，不是轻罪，不是叛国，不是贿赂，也不是创始人撰写弹劾条款时所意图的那种罪行。”他们没有对劳埃德·奥斯汀这样做，他是他在五角大楼的民主党前任，在监督了从阿富汗的混乱撤军后，又失踪数天去接受癌症治疗，国防部长哀叹道。但免得有人以为他在扮演受害者，他声明道“这与我无关”。这——至少部分——是关于美国“勇敢的战士”的。
"That's what it is," Hegseth said. "Not high crimes, not misdemeanors, not treason, not bribery, not the kinds of offenses the founders intended when they wrote the impeachment clause." They hadn't done it to Lloyd Austin, his Democratic predecessor at the Pentagon after he oversaw a botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and then disappeared for several days to undergo treatment for cancer, the defense secretary wailed. But lest anyone thought he was playing the victim, he asserted the disclaimer "this isn't about me". It was – at least partly – about America's "brave warriors".
“今天把国防部长送上审判席，明天就轮到执行命令的男女官兵，”赫格塞斯说。但要警告，如果他们想攻击战士，“就得先从我身上踏过去”。
"Put the secretary on trial today and the men and women who carry out the orders tomorrow," Hegseth said. But be warned, if they want to go after the warriors, "they are going to have to come through me".
但最重要的是，这是关于特朗普的，他在第一个总统任期内两次被弹劾，而赫格塞斯现在说，他以自己为特朗普的替代目标感到自豪。
But most of it all, it was about Trump, who was impeached twice in his first presidency and who Hegseth now said he was proud to serve as a proxy target.
“他们现在正在第三次尝试，这次针对的是他内阁的一名成员，”他说。“如果与特朗普总统站在一起让我与那些人为伍，我每天都愿意与他们为伍。”接着，是时候攻击他不情愿邀请到五角大楼的那类人了。媒体无法承认特朗普对伊朗的军事成功，他声称，“因为他们恨总统，胜过爱我们的国家或我们的军队”。
"Now they're trying a third time, this time against a member of his cabinet," he said. "If standing with President Trump puts me in that company, I'll take that company every day of the week." Then it was time to attack the very class of people he had reluctantly invited to the Pentagon. The media could not admit Trump's military success against Iran, he claimed, "because they hate the president more than they love our country or our troops".
正是在这一点上，变得清晰起来：赫格塞斯主要面对的听众不在五角大楼，而在白宫。
It was at that point that it became clear the audience Hegseth was primarily addressing was not in the Pentagon, but in the White House.
通过热情地为特朗普辩护——特朗普迄今仍支持赫格塞斯，称他“赢得了两场战争”——他在保护自己，尤其是在总统可能仍将他作为上周共和党中期选举惨败的替罪羊的盛行猜测中，这一点更是如此。
By fervently defending Trump – who has so far stuck by Hegseth as a man who "won two wars" – he was shielding himself, all the more so amid rampant speculation that the president could still make him a fall guy for last week's Republican midterm debacle.
接着，他进入了记者提问这个危险的领域。有一个问题是关于斯蒂芬·米勒，特朗普的首席政策顾问和新任首席幕僚长。
Then it was to the hazardous territory of journalists' questions. One was about Stephen Miller, Trump's chief policy adviser and newly appointed chief of staff.
“一个了不起的美国爱国者，”赫格塞斯赞不绝口，毫无疑问是明智之举，考虑到他岌岌可危的处境。“在战争部，我们没有比斯蒂芬·米勒更好的朋友了。他将是一位出色的首席幕僚长。”当有人问到副总统JD·万斯时，语气明显转变了。万斯将共和党的失败归咎于伊朗战争，而人人都认为他怀有激烈的总统野心。“我非常尊重副总统，我当然也不会互相指责，”赫格塞斯说。
"An incredible American patriot," Hegseth gushed, no doubt wisely, given his delicate predicament. "We've got no better friend at the department of war than Stephen Miller. He'll be a fantastic chief of staff." The tone changed markedly when someone asked about Vice-President JD Vance, who has blamed the Iran war for the Republicans' defeat, and who everyone assumes harbors fierce presidential ambitions. "I respect the vice-president greatly, and I'm certainly not going to exchange any finger pointing," Hegseth said.
接着，他插了一句，说得如此之快，若非这句直击要害的话，几乎都会被忽略：“幸运的是，政治并非我的强项。”白宫里那位唯一的听众肯定听到了——也明白“强项”指的是谁。
And then, in an aside uttered so quickly it could almost have passed unnoticed were it not such a well-aimed blow, he added: "Thankfully, politics is not really my thing." The audience of one in the White House would surely have heard – and understood whose "thing" it was.