我對特朗普的采訪差點(diǎn)被他的一條推文攪黃

Times Insider delivers behind-the-scenes insights from The New York Times.

“時(shí)報(bào)內(nèi)情”(Times Insider)專欄為讀者呈現(xiàn)《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》所發(fā)報(bào)道的幕后故事。

WASHINGTON — The day started early. Four of us from the Washington bureau were part of a team set to interview President-elect Donald J. Trump over lunch at The New York Times headquarters in Manhattan. Our first step? Get to New York.

華盛頓——那一天，我早早起床。來自華盛頓分社的我們四個(gè)人是一個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)的成員，要在午餐期間采訪候任總統(tǒng)唐納德·J·特朗普(Donald J. Trump)。采訪地點(diǎn)定在位于曼哈頓的《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》總部。我們的第一步?當(dāng)然是去紐約了。

Our plan was easy: Take Amtrak’s 8 a.m. Acela, the high speed train from D.C. to New York Penn Station, and walk eight blocks up 8th Avenue to the Times building. The train was scheduled to arrive shortly before 11 a.m., well ahead of the 1 p.m. start to the luncheon interview. We planned to strategize on the train about potential questions and follow-ups for Mr. Trump, and could write on our laptops if other news broke that morning.

我們的計(jì)劃很簡單：搭乘美鐵(Amtrak)早上8點(diǎn)從華盛頓特區(qū)開往紐約賓夕法尼亞站的高鐵阿西樂(Acela)，再沿著第八大道步行八個(gè)街區(qū)到達(dá)時(shí)報(bào)大廈?；疖囉?jì)劃于上午11點(diǎn)之前到站，遠(yuǎn)早于下午1點(diǎn)開始的午餐采訪。針對可能會(huì)向特朗普提出的問題及需要跟進(jìn)的內(nèi)容，我們打算在車上制定好策略。如果上午出現(xiàn)其他突發(fā)新聞，我們也能在筆記本電腦上寫稿。

Then Mr. Trump tweeted at 6:16 a.m.:

結(jié)果，特朗普早上6點(diǎn)16分發(fā)了一條推文：

Donald J. Trump(@realDonaldTrump)：I cancelled today's meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice.

唐納德·J·特朗普(Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump)：我取消了今天和失敗的@nytimes的會(huì)面，因?yàn)樗麄冊谧詈笠豢谈牧藭?huì)議相關(guān)條款。這可不太好。

A flurry of emails ensued. “Really? Is this fake news? It matters for what outfit I choose,” wrote Julie Hirschfeld Davis, a fellow White House correspondent.

一連串的電子郵件接踵而至。“是真的嗎?是不是假新聞?這關(guān)系到我選什么衣服，”另一名白宮記者朱莉·赫希菲爾德·戴維斯(Julie Hirschfeld Davis)寫道。

“At least he had the good manners to do it before we got on the train!” wrote Mark Landler, another member of our White House team.

“至少他是禮貌地在我們上火車之前這么做的!”我們白宮團(tuán)隊(duì)的另一名成員馬克·蘭德勒(Mark Landler)寫道。

Eventually, there was a decision. We would all cancel our train tickets and regroup at the bureau, two blocks from the White House. (That proved to be a fateful move.) “Dean says meeting definitely canceled,” Elisabeth Bumiller, the Washington bureau chief, emailed.

最后，我們做出了決定。所有人都把火車票退掉，在距離白宮兩個(gè)街區(qū)的分社碰面。(事后證明，這是一個(gè)災(zāi)難性的舉動(dòng)。)“迪恩(指時(shí)報(bào)執(zhí)行主編迪恩·巴奎[Dean Baquet]——編注)說會(huì)議明確取消，”華盛頓分社社長伊麗莎白·巴米勒(Elisabeth Bumiller)在電子郵件里說。

Elisabeth and I got to the bureau early and turned our attention to a morning television appearance by one of Mr. Trump’s senior advisers suggesting that the president-elect no longer wanted to pursue charges against Hillary Clinton, a change from his heated rhetoric during the campaign. Mark and Julie worked from home, shifting to what passes for a traditional workday in the postelection period.

伊麗莎白和我早早到了分社，并把注意力放在了特朗普的一名高級顧問亮相的一檔早間電視節(jié)目上。這名顧問稱，候任總統(tǒng)不再希望起訴希拉里·克林頓(Hillary Clinton)。這有別于特朗普在競選期間的激烈言辭。在家辦公的馬克和朱莉也轉(zhuǎn)移了注意力，以為這是大選結(jié)束后一個(gè)平淡無奇的工作日。

And then, at 9:13 a.m., came an email from our publisher’s executive assistant: “Updated Invitation: It’s still happening.” Arthur Sulzberger Jr., The Times’s publisher, had apparently contacted Mr. Trump’s office and convinced him to reconsider. Mr. Trump later tweeted (at 10:40 a.m.): “The meeting with the @nytimes is back on.”

然后，上午9點(diǎn)13分，我們出版人的行政助理發(fā)來了一封電子郵件：“最新邀請：仍按計(jì)劃進(jìn)行。”時(shí)報(bào)的出版人小阿瑟·蘇茲伯格(Arthur Sulzberger Jr.)似乎聯(lián)系了特朗普的辦公室，并說服他重新考慮。后來，特朗普(上午10點(diǎn)40分)發(fā)推文說：“恢復(fù)與《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》的會(huì)面。”

What followed was a logistical nightmare: How could we get from Washington to New York in time to meet with Mr. Trump? I logged onto the American Airlines website to no avail; the site wouldn’t book a flight with less than an hour before departure. Mark had similar trouble. Julie, though, had better luck: She called our travel service and got a seat on a plane, and was soon in a cab to Reagan National Airport.

接下來的事情，是一場組織安排上的噩夢：我們怎么才能及時(shí)從華盛頓趕到紐約，與特朗普見面?我登陸美國航空公司(American Airlines)的網(wǎng)站，但因網(wǎng)站不提供起飛前一小時(shí)內(nèi)的訂票服務(wù)而一無所獲。馬克遇到的難題類似。不過朱莉的運(yùn)氣好一些：她給我們的旅行社打電話，買到了一張機(jī)票，很快便坐上了開往里根國際機(jī)場的出租車。

Elisabeth and I jumped into a cab at 9:30 as Nicholas Fandos, the bureau’s intrepid clerk, called the travel service to book us tickets on the 10 a.m. Acela, which was scheduled to get into New York at 12:48 p.m. A $20 cab ride later, and with minutes to spare, we boarded the train. Julie made her flight thanks to a 40-minute delay at the airport. Mark, who lives further out in Chevy Chase, got stuck in Washington.

9點(diǎn)30分，分社勇敢無畏的員工尼古拉斯·凡多斯(Nicholas Fandos)打電話給旅行社，為伊麗莎白和我訂到了上午10點(diǎn)發(fā)車、預(yù)計(jì)于中午12點(diǎn)48分抵達(dá)紐約的車票后，我們匆匆上了一輛出租車?；?0美元打車到車站后，離發(fā)車只剩下幾分鐘。我們上了車。多虧機(jī)場出現(xiàn)了40分鐘的延誤，朱莉也趕上了飛機(jī)。住在更遠(yuǎn)的切維蔡斯的馬克則被困在了華盛頓。

Our plans for polishing our interview approach fell by the wayside. Elisabeth and I prioritized 10 questions and emailed them to Julie and to Maggie Haberman, our New York-based White House correspondent, who managed to print them out just before the interview started.

我們完善采訪方式的計(jì)劃被扔至一邊。伊麗莎白和我確定了10個(gè)問題的優(yōu)先順序，并通過電子郵件把它們發(fā)給了朱莉和本報(bào)駐紐約的白宮記者瑪吉·哈伯曼(Maggie Haberman)。哈伯曼趕在采訪開始的前一刻將它們打印了出來。

The Acela pulled into Penn Station a few minutes late, arriving at 12:55 p.m. We bounded up the escalators, across the plaza to Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street and started jogging. By the time we reached 36th street, a cab pulled up to let someone off. Elisabeth and I jumped in, hoping that it might be faster. It wasn’t. At 39th Street, as the interview with Mr. Trump started, we handed over another $20 bill, jumped out and started running again.

阿西樂抵達(dá)賓夕法尼亞站的時(shí)間是中午12點(diǎn)55分，晚了幾分鐘。我們跳上自動(dòng)扶梯，穿過通往第八大道和33街的廣場，并開始小跑。跑到36街時(shí)，一輛出租車停車下客。伊麗莎白和我跳上出租車，希望這樣或許能更快一些。但事與愿違。到39街時(shí)，因?yàn)閷μ乩势盏牟稍L已經(jīng)開始了，我們遞給司機(jī)20美元后下了車，又開始跑了起來。

At the Times building, the elevators were crowded and slow. After a maddening ride to the 16th floor (and a quick screening by the Secret Service), Elisabeth and I entered the boardroom, about eight minutes late.

到了時(shí)報(bào)大樓，電梯擁擠不堪，運(yùn)行速度緩慢。搭乘令人抓狂的電梯上到16層(并迅速通過特勤局[Secret Service]的檢查)后，伊麗莎白和我在遲到大約八分鐘后走進(jìn)了董事會(huì)會(huì)議室。

Meanwhile, Julie was having her own delays. After landing on time at La Guardia Airport, she hopped into a cab, bound for the office. That worked until traffic — perhaps made even worse than usual because of Mr. Trump’s motorcade — ground to a halt at 37th Street, along with Julie’s cab.

與此同時(shí)，朱莉那邊也出現(xiàn)了延誤。按時(shí)在拉瓜迪亞機(jī)場落地后，她迅速坐上一輛出租車往辦公室趕。起初一切順利，直到包括她乘坐的出租車在內(nèi)的車流在37街停住不動(dòng)了?；蛟S是因?yàn)樘乩势盏能囮?duì)的原因，當(dāng)時(shí)的交通甚至比平時(shí)更糟糕。

She arrived at the interview a few minutes after Elisabeth and me, but in time to ask Mr. Trump about Stephen K. Bannon, the president-elect’s choice for chief White House strategist. “I apologize for my delayed flight,” she told the president-elect.

她比伊麗莎白和我晚幾分鐘到達(dá)采訪現(xiàn)場，還是趕上了向特朗普提問，問題是關(guān)于被他選為白宮首席策略師的史蒂芬·K·班農(nóng)(Stephen K. Bannon)的。“抱歉，我的航班晚點(diǎn)了，”她對候任總統(tǒng)說。

After the lunch, and Mr. Trump’s departure, Julie, Elisabeth and I hunkered down in the boardroom to write. Initially, the spread of food (salmon, beef tenderloin, frisée salad, barley salad with dried fruit) remained, but it was quickly cleaned up and taken away.

吃完午飯，且特朗普也離開后，朱莉、伊麗莎白和我趴在董事會(huì)會(huì)議室的桌子上開始寫稿。起初，桌上攤開的吃的(三文魚、牛里脊、生菜沙拉和水果干大麥沙拉)還在，但很快，它們就被清理走了。

Shortly after 7:30 p.m., stories mostly finished, the three of us packed up and headed for the third-floor newsroom to check in. Dean Baquet, the paper’s executive editor, had “a few small thoughts,” most of which were fairly painless. Editors checked quotes in the story against the interview transcript, which was finally completed.

晚上7點(diǎn)30分剛過，報(bào)道基本寫好了。我們?nèi)齻€(gè)收拾好東西，去三樓的編輯部報(bào)到。報(bào)社的執(zhí)行主編迪恩·巴奎(Dean Baquet)有“一些小想法”，大部分都很輕松。編輯們對照著終于完工的采訪文字記錄檢查了報(bào)道中的引語。

Elisabeth ran for the 9 p.m. train back to Washington, where she needed to catch a flight in the morning. Julie and I booked rooms at a nearby hotel and bought tickets on Wednesday’s 9 a.m. train.

伊麗莎白趕去乘坐晚上9點(diǎn)的火車回華盛頓，因?yàn)樗诙煸缟线€要趕一趟從華盛頓起飛的航班。朱莉和我在附近一家賓館訂了房間，并買好了周三上午9點(diǎn)的火車票。

Another eventful transition day done.

過渡時(shí)期精彩多變的一天又過去了。