Recently, Jake Tapper spoke to Republican presidential candidate Mike Pence on his
show State of the Union, and he touched on the issue of the striking auto workers.
Shockingly, Jake Tapper did not take the side of the employer in this case,
he was defending the workers.
And he asked Mike Pence, well, pretty important question about what the CEOs
are making versus what workers are getting paid.
He specifically called out GM CEO Mary Barr's, absurd compensation.
Let's take a look at how Mike Pence handled the question.
>> Speaker 2: You've blamed the strike on President Biden's policies.
Most Americans, 75% according to Gallup, support the strikers.
As a general principle, do you think it's fair that the CEO of
General Motors makes 362 times what a typical GM employee makes?
>> Speaker 3: Well, let me say what I don't think is fair is that Joe Biden has
put forward an economic agenda from the very outset that launched the worst
inflation in 40 years.
And literally, the cost of living has gone up almost 17% since we left office.
>> Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, robot we're not asking about Bidenomics,
we're not asking about Joe Biden, We're asking about a very specific issue.
Mary Barr's absurd over $20 million compensation in one
year versus what the workers are getting paid.
And you know what, credit to Jake Tapper because he did not
allow Mike Pence to deflect, he followed up.
Let's watch.
>> Speaker 2: There's also this issue of general fairness in 1965,
during this era of the great middle class expansion in the United States,
CEOs made about 20 times what their typical workers made.
But as I noted to you, the CEO of GM makes 362 times what her typical employees make.
I just want to make sure I get an answer from you.
Is that okay, do you think that's fair?
>> Speaker 3: Well, I think that ought to be left to the shareholders of that
company.
I'm somebody that believes in free enterprise.
I think those are decisions that can be made by shareholders and
creating pressure.
And I'll fully support how these publicly traded companies operate.
>> Speaker 1: All right, Jake, so what do you think?
First of all, I'm very curious what you think about Jake Tapper's handling of that
interview, because I think he's, I don't wanna say he's on a bit of
a redemption arc, but he has been handling interviews a little better lately.
But also, what do you think about Mike Pence's answer?
>> Speaker 4: Yeah, I think Jake Tapper's on a little bit of a journalism.
So no, nice job again by Jake Tapper.
So, look, guys, it's not personal for us.
So you've seen me get mad at Jake Tapper.
You've seen me compliment Jake Tapper.
Doesn't it depend all the time?
Unfortunately, for a lot of other folks, they catch feelings and
then they make it personal.
So here Jake Tapper does a great job of doing a follow up question,
asking the right question, good framing on it.
And he explains, look, 75% of the American people are on the worker side which makes
sense because they're workers, right.
And maybe they've started to catch on at CNN.
Your audience might also be the average American and not the super powerful and
elite but either way I'll take it great questions great follow up.
So on Mike Pence man all that evangelical stuff is just cover for
him being a corporate robot.
Did you notice what he said at the end?
He said I fully support these public corporations.
Yeah we know brother.
Yeah, and by the way he doesn't mean I support the corporations as in I support
all of the stakeholders in the corporation, the workers,
the executives etc.
No he means I support the people in charge of the corporation.
>> Speaker 1: And the shareholders.
>> Speaker 4: Right, and the shareholders but not the workers,
cuz you had an opportunity every opportunity to say
damn right I support the average American worker.
Well we'll get to a negotiated conference.
There's easy ways you could have even deflected the question.
He didn't even deflect it.
In fact he said the first part of the answer was Jake I believe in
free enterprise.
In other words, no I do not support the workers.
And as I wrote about injustices coming the Powell memo back in 1971 explained,
do not say you're in favor of the Chamber of Commerce and corporations,
say you're in favor of freedom.
And here it is all these decades later and that's exactly what Mike Pence is doing.
>> Speaker 1: Weird how his antiabortion pro corporation messaging hasn't really
worked out so well for him in the Republican primary, strange.