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Ali Zaidi, White House Deputy National Climate Adviser, Discusses Biden Soon to Unveil Steps to Confront Climate Change; Mike Pence Returns to Capitol Hill, Is Urged By Republicans to Run for President in 2024; Report: U.S. CEOs Made 324 Times More Than Average Workers; Funeral Mass for Ivana Trump Underway in New York. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 20, 2022 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:30:00]

ALI ZAIDI, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY NATIONAL CLIMATE ADVISER: We're literally sending out money that will help expand cooling centers right away.

Folks who don't have air conditioning in their homes, states have the resources to get that air conditioning to low-income and vulnerable individuals all around the country.

So that's what this is all about. It's about moving forward faster and faster.

Joe Biden is not going to stop. He started on day one. And he's going to stop when the job is done. And that is achieving his clear and ambitious and bold climate goals.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: His goal that he has articulated is to reduce emissions by 50 percent by 2030. Can he get there with executive action alone?

ZAIDI: The reality is we're going to get to that goal as a country by galvanizing folks in states and local governments, by galvanizing the private sector, which, by the way, has put $100 billion forward to move us forward on electric vehicles.

We're going to get there by taking action from the executive branch and the from the legislative branch.

And we're going to achieve those goals not only to reduce emissions -- and this is really important to the president -- but improve the lives that people live.

Cleaner air, cleaner water, cleaner communities, and a more resilient and strong economy that can outcompete the rest of the world.

CABRERA: Ali Zaidi, thank you very much for joining us. I appreciate your time.

ZAIDI: Thank you, Ana.

CABRERA: We'll listen to the president's remarks, again, coming up in the next hour.

Meantime, for the first time since he left office, former Vice President Mike Pence returns to Capitol Hill. Why he's there and what Republicans said to him when we come back.

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[13:36:38]

CABRERA: The last time he was on Capitol Hill, he was leaving office. The time before that, rioters wanted to hang him.

But today, former Vice President Mike Pence was back on the Hill and greeted by a much different crowd, one that apparently wants him to run for president.

With us now is Olivia Troye. She was Pence's adviser during his time in office.

Olivia, Pence was meeting today with members of the Conservative Republican Study Committee. And we're reporting that they thanked him for his courage on January 6th and they also encouraged him to run for president in 2024.

You worked closely with him. Should he? Will he?

OLIVIA TROYE, FORMER ADVISER TO VP MIKE PENCE: Yes, that's quite the dichotomy within the Republican Party. You have the growing rift between those that support Trump and continue to back him and remain loyal to him.

And then you have the rest of the Republicans, who are trying to figure out how to navigate around him and, in many cases, wanting to support someone like Mike Pence.

This is a very friendly group to him. He chaired this group for many years when he was in Congress. And I think he was there to focus on more traditional Republican issues.

I know the focus was to the national debt, foreign affairs. And apparently, he was praised for certifying the election.

It's fascinating to watch this behind closed doors, yet publicly, Republicans are very gun shy, I would say, talking about this issue because they know it's a lightning rod for someone like Donald Trump.

Should he run for president? I know he has aspirations to do so. And I think we'll have to see how this plays out for him, given where the Republican base is right now and how much of a stronghold Trump has on the party.

CABRERA: Have you been in touch with him about potential run in 2024? Do you know where his head is at?

TROYE: I've certainly been in touch with circles in his sphere of influence. Look, it is a known thing in Pence's orbit and for those of us who

worked for Mike Pence that I think he desired to make a run for the Oval Office. I think that's partially why he joined the Trump administration on this ticket.

I think that you'll see him continue to tout some of the policies that he supported that he felt were a success. I think you'll see him run on that while also trying to carefully balance, obviously, this conflict that he has ongoing with the former president.

CABRERA: This Friday, both men will be in Arizona at dueling rallies, backing rival candidates. Very different visions for the GOP's future. Trump's candidate in Arizona is still embracing lies that Trump won the 2020 election.

How critical are these midterms for Republicans and the party's legacy?

TROYE: Look, I think they're incredibly important for Republicans. And I would say they're very important for the country as a whole.

Here you have -- Donald Trump out there consistently supporting election deniers.

As of June, I think there were -- in more than half of the governors races, there's an election denier running in them. That's a pretty dangerous proposition for the country in the future and our democracy.

Look, I'm glad that Mike Pence is going out to Arizona to support the candidate that's running against Kari Lake, who has been out there spreading false conspiracies and election lies still today.

[13:40:01]

You know, I think it's also interesting that, apparently, she spent quite a bit at Trump properties. So this is quite a profitable enterprise that Trump has created.

Not only is he out there having people that support his interests and, in the past, overturning a safe and free election, but he's making money off of Americans and candidates running today.

So I'd rather have Mike Pence out there with Governor Ducey pushing back on these people.

I wish that happened in Maryland. Because we saw someone win the Republican nomination in the governor's race that attended a QAnon event earlier this spring and was busing people on January 6th to the capitol and was tweeting that Mike Pence was a traitor.

I think these people are dangerous for the country. I think the Republicans are better off to continue to push back on them.

If Mike Pence is the person to do that, which I think he is, given his own life was put at risk, then I think that we are better off for him doing it. CABRERA: Olivia Troye, thank you very much for joining us and offering

your insights and perspective.

An update on the effort to codify same-sex marriage into law. Senator Rob Portman, Republican, says he believes there's a chance enough of his fellow Republicans in the chamber will get onboard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you feel like Republican views on this issue are changing?

SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R-OH): Yes, I think that's obvious when you look at the House vote and you look at just the shifting sentiment about this issue throughout the country.

I think this is an issue that many Americans, regardless of their political affiliation, feel has been resolved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Senator Portman is a co-sponsor of this bill on the Senate side. He said his views changed after his son came out a few years ago.

Yesterday, 47 House Republicans joined Democrats to vote in favor of this effort. In the Senate, it takes 60 votes for the bill to succeed. So that means at least 10 Republicans would need to support it.

The push to protect same-sex marriage picked up steam after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Up next, apparently, it really pays to be a CEO these days, literally. A new report shows just how much the nation's top execs are raking in, when we come back.

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[13:47:09]

CABRERA: Wages have been going up. That's the good news. The bad? Inflation is even higher. Meaning the average worker has actually taken a pay cut. The average CEO, however, their paychecks are exploding.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is looking into this for us.

Vanessa, what's going on here? Is this greed-flation?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: A little bit perhaps. But what we're seeing is CEOs' pay is rising much faster than the average employee.

Just look at the numbers. The average CEO took home last year about $18.3 million. That is 324 times more than the average worker. That's a huge pay disparity. But when we look at it compared to inflation, that's where you really

start to get a little bit of a sense of why this is so important.

So the CEO pay went up by 18.2 percent last year. Worker wages up by 4.7 percent. But when you start putting it into perspective, inflation last year was 7.1 percent.

So CEO pay out tracked that by about double. Worker wages well below at 4.7 percent.

So Amazon is the company that had the largest pay disparity between the CEO and employees. Andy Jassy, $212 million last year, the average worker $32,855.

Look right here and you can see it for yourself, that is a huge disparity between CEO and employee.

CABRERA: So could a CEO like this guy from Amazon just cut his pay and give that money to his employees?

YURKEVICH: Not exactly, because salaries are such a small portion of a CEO's overall compensation.

Just look at Expedia CEO Peter Kern. His overall comp is nearly $300 million but his salary is $1 million because a lot of his compensation is tied up in stocks.

Same thing for we just mentioned Andy Jassy, $212 million overall, $175,000 in salary. The same thing with Disney's CEO. You can see that spread right there.

So unfortunately, a salary cut may not do as much for employees.

But the real question being asked, is this pay disparity, who does it benefit? Obviously, the success of the company, when the company is doing so well, it sort of benefits the CEO rather than the employee.

CABRERA: Wow. Eye-opening numbers. Maddening numbers.

Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you.

YURKEVICH: Thank you.

[13:49:41]

CABRERA: We'll be right back.

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CABRERA: Right now, the life of Ivana Trump is being celebrated at a funeral mass at a Manhattan church. She died last week after she fell in her home. You can see the casket arriving just moments ago.

And CNN's Jason Carroll is outside that church.

Jason, former President Trump is expected to attend? JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And it looks as if his

motorcade has just shown up just a few moments ago. As I see now over my shoulder here at St. Vincent's Church, the motorcade now arriving. He is here to pay respects to his ex-wife, Ivana Trump.

Their children, Eric, Don Jr, Ivanka are also here. They were here as her casket was carried up the steps. They will be eulogizing her as the service gets underway.

[13:55:56]

Also someone else who's going to be eulogizing her, one of her very good friends of many years, Dennis Bosso, a designer, who sent me a message not long ago. He wanted to remind people that this is going to be a celebration of her life.

He said the following, he said, "She was always a champion for all women around the world. Smart, beautiful, and most of all, devoted mother to her three children."

So again, this is a private service, now just getting underway. The family is here to pay their respects for Ivana Trump.

Back to you.

CABRERA: Jason Carroll, thank you for that reporting.

Our hearts go out to that whole family.

And that does it for us today. I'll see you back here tomorrow. Until then, you can follow me on Twitter, @Ana Cabrera.

The news continues with Victor and Alisyn right after this.

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