Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Calls for Impeachment Grow in Congress; U.S. Women's Soccer Wins World Cup; Trump to Give Speech Today on U.S. Environmental Leadership. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 8, 2019 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

MOLLY BALL, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, we'll see. I mean, I think that she's going to be increasingly tested by these divisions within the caucus. We're going to see, this week, as the debate heats up over Pentagon funding --

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Yes.

BALL: -- whether she can keep those liberal members in the tent. Her tactic has always been to sort of use the left to triangulate. Because she identifies as a liberal, because she's from one of the most liberal districts in the country, even though she is not nearly, I think, as liberal as her district in San Francisco, she has always sort of -- especially since Republicans have spent hundreds of millions of dollars portraying her as the epitome of San Francisco liberalism, she then --

HARLOW: Sure.

BALL: -- takes that and says, "Well, they call me a liberal. I guess I am. That means that I'm on your side. But this is the most we can get done practically." Look, I don't think this is really an ideological division so much as a tactical one. And what Speaker Pelosi is saying is, "I understand that you have these ideas, but are you working within the system? Are you working within the process?"

So she's saying, "You may have support out there in -- on Twitter or in the real world. Do you have support in the conference?" And that's what we're going to see, is are these liberals willing to play hardball with the leadership. Are they going to make Nancy Pelosi's life more difficult.

Because although there was a lot of complaining about that border bill, Nancy Pelosi did get her version through the House. And then she did get the Senate bill through the House.

HARLOW: That's true.

TIFFANY CROSS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can I --

HARLOW: That's true.

CROSS: -- can I just push back really quickly --

HARLOW: Yes, of course.

CROSS: -- Poppy? I told -- I hear you, Molly. I completely agree. But I do think this actually is an ideological and a tactical division within these women.

So they're all four women of color, who voted against this bill. And the reality that I think there's trouble reconciling within this country is, if these were white babies being treated this way in these detention facilities, if these were white women being held in overcrowded facilities, being told to drink from toilets, there certainly would be more of a national outcry. And I think that's so important and resonating with these four women who said, "We cannot trust this administration."

And there has been continual evidence of Donald Trump misusing funds. I mean, we just say on July Fourth, but as a candidate and as a president, he has misused funds. So I think there is something about these women saying, "Why would we blindly trust this man? Why would we allow ICE to have more funding?" We just found out today that ICE is using facial recognition technology. Well, states haven't passed laws to allow that.

Undocumented immigrants, when they signed up, they didn't know that they were --

HARLOW: To (ph) -- OK. Right.

CROSS: -- turning their information over to ICE.

HARLOW: You're (ph) --

CROSS: So I think these are relevant issues.

HARLOW: You're referencing the "Washington Post" reporting --

CROSS: That's right.

HARLOW: -- that says that ICE has been using facial recognition technology to scan photos at the DMV of driver's licenses, even of people not, you know, accused of committing crimes. And that raises a whole host of other questions, certainly.

Molly, I found this attack, actually, on Nancy Pelosi from former Republican, now-Independent Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan on yesterday with Jake, fascinating. And it's about the issue of impeachment, and why she hasn't gone there against the president. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JUSTIN AMASH (I-MI): From a principled moral position, she is making a mistake. From a strategic position, she is making a mistake. If she believes -- as I do -- that there's impeachable conduct in there, then she should say so. She should tell the American people, "We're going to move forward with impeachment hearings and potentially articles of impeachment."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Does that move the needle, Molly? Having a former Republican -- founder of the Freedom Caucus until he left or was booted, now independent -- saying that Pelosi is just principally, morally wrong on this?

BALL: I don't know. I mean, before this all came up with the border bill, we were all talking about the divisions within the House Democratic Caucus over impeachment, primarily. And that is still a hot issue. There is still, I think -- and we're going to see more of this when Mueller testifies in a couple of weeks. There's going to be increasing calls from the Democrats and from Justin Amash, who's pushing this issue.

But if you listen to what he said, he said that there's a moral case and a tactical case. And he thinks that if she believes there's impeachable conduct, she should go ahead with it. And that is what we're hearing from an increasing number of Democrats as well, is sort of wanting this process to get going, given that Speaker Pelosi has basically said she believes that there has been impeachable conduct.

HARLOW: Yes.

BALL: She has just said that she thinks it's a political loser.

HARLOW: It was a really interesting interview with him. People should listen to it if they missed it yesterday.

Guys, thank you so much. Molly Ball, Tiffany Cross. Thanks.

BALL: Thank you.

[10:34:31] HARLOW: All right. Great news this morning for women's U.S. soccer. A second straight title, World Cup title, for women's U.S. soccer. Now, their fight at home is an even bigger one, a fight for equal pay.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. This just in to CNN. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has just signed a law that would allow Congress to get ahold of President Trump's state tax returns. Of course, this comes amid the escalating fight with top administration officials and Congress, trying to get the president's federal tax returns. We'll see how this develops.

Well, fans chanted, "Equal pay" as the women's national team received their World Cup medals after their second straight win on Sunday. The team is suing the U.S. Soccer Federation over their pay. And their star is speaking out about that suit this morning.

[10:40:01] Andy Scholes joins us with more.

So much to celebrate there, Andy. Such a big win. But I would argue the bigger fight now, for them, is at home.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, that could be true, Poppy, you know. But I'll tell you what. If there was ever a team that symbolized talking the talk and then walking the walk, it is certainly this U.S. women's national team.

You know, what we just witnessed from them was just an incredible performance. They had so much going on off the field. You know, the fight for equal pay, Megan Rapinoe's back-and-forth with President Trump. But this team, still able to put it all aside and go out there and prove once again that they are the best team in the world, Team USA beating the Netherlands, two to nothing, yesterday, in the final.

They're on their way back to the U.S. right now after leaving France earlier this morning. And he's a pretty cool pic they took together before boarding their plane. They're going to arrive at Newark Airport at about 4:15 p.m. Eastern. They're going to have a parade Wednesday morning in New York.

And before leaving France, Rapinoe was asked how their dominant performance will affect the U.S. Federation's argument against them in their equal pay lawsuit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGAN RAPINOW, CO-CAPTAIN, U.S. WOMEN'S NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM: It's not good for them, is it?

(LAUGHTER)

I mean, I think, obviously, it's huge. You know, I think we've been a little shy to say that, you know, putting so much pressure on ourselves. Because I think we have a case no matter what. Obviously, we brought the lawsuit but this just, you know, sort of blows it out of the water -- it's like, is it even about that anymore? Is it just kind of about doing the right thing?

I think Federation is in a unique position to, you know, kind of ride this wave of good fortune and get on board and hopefully set things right for the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes, the players of the U.S. Soccer Federation will head to mediation sometime soon over pay. And over the past three years, the women's team has made more revenue than the men, despite being paid less.

TEXT: U.S. Women's Soccer Team Catching Up: Women's National Team, $50.8M. Men's National Team, $49.9M

SCHOLES: Now, that being said, the men did make the World Cup last year and the money difference in the World Cut is staggering. The men's World Cup in Russia last year made $6 billion in revenue, and paid out $400 million to the teams. The women's World Cup, meanwhile, is expected to generate only about $130 million in revenue total, paying out $30 million to the teams.

Now, there's no question, the women's team is more successful than the men here in the U.S. We all know their names. They sell more jerseys. But right now, there's still just so much more money in men's soccer, we're going to have to wait and see, Poppy, if the U.S. Soccer Federation decides to give the women a pay raise. They certainly deserve it after a fourth World Cup title.

But in the past, the federation has argued that the women's and men's teams are separate organizations that perform services for U.S. soccer. They have separate collective bargaining agreements. And they have separate budgets that take into account different revenue that the teams generate.

HARLOW: Yes, well you also have to be able to see the women's games in more places, Andy. I mean, there have been networks that have pulled their games, et cetera. Come on.

All right before you go, let's talk about the 15-year-old tennis phenom, Coco Gauff, back in action right now, playing at Wimbledon this morning.

SCHOLES: Yes.

HARLOW: How is she doing? And just big picture, I mean, for so many of us that aren't big, you know, tennis fans, she came out of the blue. Superstar.

SCHOLES: She certainly did. And she is definitely a superstar in the making, Poppy. Right now this morning, not looking good for Wimbledon future. She lost the first set to World number one Simona Halep, 6-3. Down 5-2 in the second set, but she was actually in a similar situation when she made that big comeback on Friday.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCHOLES: But Coco's just really become a crowd favorite at Wimbledon, after becoming the youngest to make it to the round of 16 in 28 years.

She doesn't turn 16 until March. Just an incredible, incredible run. I mean, Poppy, when you were 15, could imagine --

HARLOW: I mean --

SCHOLES: -- doing something like this? I know I sure couldn't.

HARLOW: -- I don't know what I was doing at 15. Nothing close to that. She is remarkable, rooting for her. Andy Scholes, thank you.

SCHOLES: All right.

[10:43:36] Soon, President Trump will give a speech, as in, just a few hours from now, touting his record on the environment. Really? We'll talk about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARLOW: All right. So in just a few hours, President Trump will give a speech, as the White House puts it, quote, "to recognize his administration's environmental leadership and America's leading role in the world."

But his speech would follow major steps in his administration to reverse over 80 environmental regulations put in place under the Obama administration.

TEXT: Environmental Regulation Rollbacks Under Trump: Completed, 49. In process, 34. Total, 83. Air pollution and emissions; Drilling and extraction; Infrastructure and planning; Animals; Toxic substances and safety; Water pollution

HARLOW: Let's talk about the facts here. Bill Weir, our chief climate correspondent, is with me. Also Christine Todd Whitman, a Republican, former EPA administrator under the George W. Bush administration and former governor of New Jersey.

Good morning to you both.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. So we're going to hear from the administration on this today. And we'll get to sort of why they're doing this now in a moment. But let me just outline for everyone, what this administration's own EPA said in a report that came out in April.

Here are the things that are happening because of the climate crisis and emergency. Hurricane storm intensity, frequency and duration will increase. More intense droughts, warmer temperatures causing wildfires and longer fire seasons. And they warned -- this is the president's own EPA -- to anticipate a combination of impacts, floods and fires, which may be intensified because of the changing climate.

TEXT: Impacts of Climate Change: Climate change may intensity flooding across the U.S.; Hurricane storm intensity, frequency and duration to increase as climate warms; More intense droughts and warmer temperatures cause larger wildfires and longer fire seasons; Anticipate a combination of impacts (e.g., floods and fires), which may be intensified because of climate change

HARLOW: From what you've seen -- the evidence, not the rhetoric -- is the Trump administration taking this seriously enough at all?

CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN, FORMER ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: No, not at all. And they're rolling back regulations in a whole lot of other areas, that are making people's lives less healthy.

[10:50:04] They're a threat to us in so many different ways, but the climate crisis is just one of them. And that's, of course, the huge 800-pound gorilla. Pretending it doesn't exist doesn't stop it, doesn't make it go away.

HARLOW: Even -- no matter what you say in a speech -- (CROSSTALK)

WHITMAN: No matter what you say, it's still (ph) going to happen.

HARLOW: -- which we'll hear in a few hours, some of what's been rolled back, Bill, include, obviously, pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, that's a huge deal. Lowering the car emissions standards that had been increased, right? To stop so much pollution. Weakening the Clean Power Plan from the Obama administration, eliminating the EPA panel on air pollution, and opening up ANWR, which you've done a lot of reporting on, in the Arctic.

TEXT: Trump Admin. Environmental Rollbacks: Pulled out of Paris climate agreement; Proposed lower car emissions standards; Proposed weakened Clean Power Plan; Eliminated EPA panel on air pollution; Proposed relaxed rules on methane leak inspections; Approved oil drilling in the Arctic

WEIR: Well, yes. You know, the president is old enough to remember when you could taste the air in Los Angeles. And when the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was on fire, it was so polluted. And today, you can swim the Cuyahoga. it's beautiful. And you can go to L.A. and see the San Gabriel Mountains. And that didn't happen on accident --

HARLOW: Right.

WEIR: -- by accident. Didn't happen on its own. It happened when Nixon signed the Clean Air and Water Acts. And then 40 years of deliberate lawmaking to grind this thing out, to get us where you can stand and say, "Hey, isn't the air really clear?" New Zealand blows us away, Sweden has more beautiful cities.

But what's lost in this clean air, clean water today messaging, is that he should be saying -- step to the microphone and say, "When Baron is my age, America is going to be a completely -- life as we know it will be completely different.

HARLOW: Because it is about our children.

WEIR: It is.

HARLOW: It's about the future. And he has a young child, as you bring up.

So, listen to, obviously, the president has touted this and talked about America's air and water as being at a record clean, his words. And then the vice president, Mike Pence, on with Jake Tapper just a few weeks ago, made this argument. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America has the cleanest air and water in the world. We'll continue to use --

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, STATE OF THE UNION: It's not true.

PENCE: -- market forces to advance --

TAPPER: We don't have the cleanest air and water in the world.

PENCE: I think --

TAPPER: We don't according -- I mean, I've --

(CROSSTALK)

PENCE: -- OK.

TAPPER: You get back to me with some statistics and show it.

PENCE: But we're making progress on reducing carbon emissions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: I mean, Jake laughed because it is laughable.

WHITMAN: Right.

HARLOW: Because it's just not true.

WHITMAN: No.

HARLOW: So are you -- what are your concerns ahead of this speech, when the administration is putting out just blatant untruths about the environment?

WHITMAN: Well, my concern is that people seem to take what he says and say, "OK, he may be lying. He may not be telling the whole truth, but we don't really care." We've got to care. This is the moment when we really need to care about this, and it is about our children and our grandchildren. It's about the future. And about making our lives healthier, making our economy greater, which we can do, and we've done it over time.

As you pointed out, when we started the EPA -- with the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water, safe drinking water. We saw the population grow exponentially. We saw the real GDP more than double. We saw our energy use climb. And yet we were able to grow our economy at extraordinary rates.

So it's not an either-or thing. And we have got to get over this idea that it is, and somehow doing away with regulation's going to make everything happy.

HARLOW: I think that's a good point.

And, Bill, you've done so much reporting on this. I mean, it doesn't have to be the case that protecting the environment hurts business. It means you transform business.

WEIR: Absolutely. No. As the governor points out, we didn't go into a 40-year recession when we started worrying about --

HARLOW: Right.

WEIR: -- breathable air, these sort of things. But the other thing that -- that, you know, the big-picture story that I -- that -- we're just not wired as human beings to worry about. We don't think in long, earth-long time frames. We think of if that noise behind that rock is going to eat me, right? So you don't think that.

But if you take a step back and realize that every 2.7 seconds, a piece of the Arctic ice about the size of a football field turns to water. And it's been that way for 40 years. So, again, Baron Trump will not get a 30-year mortgage in Miami because it will change the way we --

HARLOW: Sure. The entire topography --

WEIR: -- the entire physical topography --

HARLOW: -- and landscape.

WEIR: -- of our land.

HARLOW: The administration, we hear, Bill, talk a lot about natural gas and the push for natural gas, and replacing coal, parts of coal with that, and how that, you know, essentially solves things. It helps, right? But it doesn't at all address the big issue, does it?

WEIR: Well, everything's cleaner than coal, you know?

WHITMAN: Anything is.

WEIR: We could burn whales again and it'd be cleaner -- it would be an improvement over coal. But it's still not -- it's still exacerbating the problem.

And the governor can back me up on just the numbers. As solar and wind has actually increased and gotten cheaper --

HARLOW: Yes.

WEIR: -- it hasn't replaced fossil fuels.

WHITMAN: Right.

WEIR: We just have -- we just have a more voracious appetite, so we're burning everything.

HARLOW: Right.

WEIR: Solar, wind and we --

WHITMAN: Nuclear.

WEIR: Nuclear might be the -- you know, should be part of this conversation.

WHITMAN: I think as a transition, that nuclear is what we've got to look at because we've got these nuclear reactors that produce no regulated pollutants or greenhouse gases while they're producing power. And we seem to be closing them down, which is what I think is a problem.

We're not going to build any more new big ones. But small modular reactors? The rest of the world's going this way. We could create an enormous number of jobs. It'd be really good for the economy. That's the new wave, along with the renewables.

And until the renewables, as Bill said, get to be base power, not just --

[10:55:11] HARLOW: Right.

WHITMAN: -- peak shavings, so they're on 24-7.

HARLOW: Right.

WHITMAN: Then, great. Then we can go with that.

HARLOW: Governor Whitman, thank you.

WHITMAN: My pleasure (ph).

HARLOW: Bill Weir, thank you so much.

WEIR: My pleasure.

HARLOW: We'll be watching. Again, the president's going to give this address in just a few hours. You should watch it or read the entire thing.

All right. This just in, American tennis phenom Coco Gauff's magical run at Wimbledon has ended. She just lost in straight sets to former number one-ranked player Simona Halep. The 15-year-old was the youngest player to make it to the round of 16 in 28 years. Congrats to her for making it so far. I think we're going to be watching her for many, many years to come.

All right. Minutes from now, the FBI and U.S. attorney will be giving a press conference. They are announcing really serious sex trafficking charges against billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. He's accused of running a sex trafficking ring, sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.

Of course, you'll see that press conference live here in just a few minutes. This is critically important. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]