No matter that an impeachment hearing in the House alone seems far off, given the caution of key Democrats on the matter, not to mention Republican control of the Senate. “Many tremble at the idea, fearing how Trump’s supporters will react to an impeachment inquiry, worrying that it will further polarize an already deeply divided nation or that there will not be enough votes in the Senate to convict him, even if the House votes to impeach,” former New York Representative Elizabeth Holtzman, a member of the House Judiciary Committee that voted to impeach President Richard Nixon, writes in her new book, The Case for Impeaching Trump.
仅仅在众议院举行弹劾听证会似乎还很遥远，而考虑到关键民主党人在这件事上的谨慎态度，就更不用说共和党控制参议院了。“许多人对这一想法感到震惊，担心特朗普的支持者将如何应对弹劾调查，担心这会进一步分化一个已经严重分裂的国家，或者参议院没有足够的票数来判定他有罪，”前纽约州众议员伊丽莎白·霍尔茨曼是投票弹劾理查德·尼克松总统的众议院司法委员会成员，她在自己的新书《弹劾特朗普案》中如是写道。
Nixon had similar fantasies of “the people” coming to his rescue as Congress and prosecutors closed in. But as it turned out, the “creature of the establishment,” as Watergate chronicler Elizabeth Drew recently described Nixon in The New York Times, bowed to reality and resigned: “Nixon, a lawyer who had been a member of the House of Representatives, a senator and a vice president, was more accepting of the political order.”
尼克松也有过类似的幻想：当国会和检察官审判他时，“人民”会来拯救他。但事实证明，尼克松是“当权派的产物”，正如水门事件记录者伊丽莎白·德鲁最近在《纽约时报》上对尼克松的描述那样：“尼克松曾是众议院议员、参议员和副总统，但作为一名律师，他更愿意接受这种政治秩序。”
But the current occupant of the Oval Office, she pointed out, is an entirely different creature. “Mr. Trump, with no government experience, and little knowledge of how the federal government works, has been a free if malevolent spirit, less likely than even Nixon to observe boundaries,” Drew wrote. But Holtzman expressed confidence in an interview that the president would go when impeachment was inevitable. “He’s a lot of bravado, but in the end he’s a coward and a wimp,” she says.
但她指出，现任总统完全不同。“特朗普没有政府工作经验，对联邦政府的运作方式也知之甚少，他是一个自由但心怀恶意的人，甚至比尼克松更不可能遵守边界，” 德鲁在1975年出版的开创性著作《华盛顿日报》写道 。但霍兹曼在接受采访时表示，他认为弹劾不可避免时，总统将会消失。“他总是虚张声势，但实际上他是个胆小鬼和懦夫，”她说。
If Nixon’s final days are any guide, however, the system is in for a whole lot of shaking before Trump exits. He has already followed Nixon’s path in trying to rid himself of his principal nemeses, FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Jeff Sessions (replaced with a pliant temp, Matthew Whitaker). But he has stopped short of firing special counsel Mueller, as Nixon did with independent Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, in the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” of October 1973; that provoked a national uproar and the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy, William Ruckelshaus.
然而，如果说尼克松当总统的最后几天有什么指导意义的话，那就是在特朗普下台之前，整个体制将经历一场剧烈的震荡。特朗普已跟随尼克松的脚步，试图摆脱他的主要对手联邦调查局局长詹姆斯·科米和司法部长杰夫·塞辛斯(换成温顺的临时工马修·惠特克)。但他没有像尼克松在1973年10月臭名昭著的“周六夜大屠杀”中解雇水门独立检察官阿奇博尔德•考克斯那样解雇特别顾问米勒；当时的解雇引起了全国骚动，司法部长埃利奥特·理查森和他的副手威廉·鲁克尔绍斯辞职。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
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