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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Donald Sterling Shopping For Lawyers?; Plane Search Reboot; Everything Is Awesome For Lego
Aired May 05, 2014 - 16:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Joining me now, "Washington Post" sports columnist Mike Wise.
Mike, good to see you. There are reports that Donald Sterling is shopping for the lawyers. What do you think is next in this saga?
MIKE WISE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": My gut is that this is a person with a very litigious past, Jake, and reports are that he's already to a firm, a small L.A. firm Glaser Weill as some people remember, we believe Patty Glaser represented Paula Deen in her suit after the fact that she said the "N" word in a deposition. So, that one wouldn't shock me.
He's also spoken with Quinn Emanuel, a very prestigious law firm. I don't see the big law firms taking this one just because of the backlash. I could see a smaller firm. I do believe he will try to take whatever legal ramifications he can to prolong his ownership, and I don't think it's going to work.
TAPPER: Let's assume that he is forced to sell the team. There have been a lot of big names bandied about when talking about the future owners. There's Oprah, there's Magic Johnson, Larry Ellison. You are very plugged into basketball circles. Who is serious here, and who's just doing this for publicity?
WISE: Everybody seems to be banding about different names. I could see -- you hear about this partnership between Oprah and Larry Ellison over at Oracle, and of course David Geffen. Magic Johnson, even though he said earlier in a tweet that he's not interested in buying the club, people are saying that he might be reconsidering right now.
He would make more sense than, say, the triumvirate of celebrities only because this is a guy who got together with the Guggenheim partners. They fronted the money. He became that face of the franchise, and he cleaned up a nasty mess in Los Angeles when Frank McCourt basically incinerated the Dodgers during his stewardship. So I could see a person like Magic coming in there.
I think it's up for grabs. At this point, I'm surprised that Wolf Blitzer has not put a team together. I know he's a big basketball fan.
TAPPER: We should float that. The Blitzer-Wise-Tapper team. We can float that.
WISE: I'll put in $20.
TAPPER: Yeah. I'm good for another $15.
This story did take another weird turn over the weekend. "Sports Illustrated" published an anecdote that its editors apparently spiked 14 years ago from a profile of Sterling. Frank (INAUDIBLE) wrote back in 2000 about Sterling, "Shortly after the Clippers made Danny Manning the top pick of the 1988 NBA draft, team owner Donald Sterling invited the player and his agent, Ron Grenger (ph) to talk contract in Beverly Hills. It was recounted to me how Sterling lounged around in his mansion in a bathrobe open to his navel wearing nothing underneath it." For lack of a better word, this is just plain weird. The story goes on to talk about him allegedly whipping his son with a belt.
How much did NBA insiders know about bizarre behavior like this? How much did sports journalists potentially not report about Sterling?
WISE: When I was covering the NBA for "The New York Times" years ago, Donald Sterling called me out of the blue during the collective bargaining negotiations in 1999, which almost cost the league a season. And I never got any of the racist stuff, but got that he was not only a hard-line owner but just a bizarre guy. I didn't know it went to these kinds of levels.
When I saw that anecdote that "Sports Illustrated" spiked it, it really gave me pause because I do think that in these cases everybody says, well, David Stern knew this guy was in his league, and crazy racist uncle Donald has been around a long time and how could the owners tolerate this?.
Well, guess what? We in the media have to also be complicit in this as well. There was a public record 10 years ago in which people talked about often that said essentially of the things he said about African- Americans that rented from him and the fact that he didn't want them around. This was a guy practicing housing discrimination, which is the biggest modern form of segregation anybody could practice. And we didn't go after it until it affected the NBA. The moment that everybody said imagine Magic Johnson, take her off the Instagram, that's when we went crazy.
TAPPER: There is a lesson for the media in all this. Mike Wise, as always, very wise. Thank you so much, sir.
Coming up, new CNN polls just released showing voters are planning to send a message to the president come November. Is it a show of support or opposition? That and more in our Politics Lead, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sometimes I do feel disrespected by you reporters, but that's okay. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman is here tonight, and he gave me some great tips on how to handle it. Jake Tapper, don't you ever talk about me like that! I'm the best president in the game.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD, the Politics Lead. Well played, Mr. President. That was, of course, the leader of the free world taking a shot at yours truly Saturday night at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. Thanks for letting me relive that moment, control room.
But all kidding and Richard Sherman impersonations aside, New CNN/ ORC poll numbers released just this hour show Americans remain unhappy with President Obama's performance. Not at the correspondents' dinner, but as president. Only 43 percent of Americans approve of the job President Obama is doing as president, according to this latest survey. The president's been stuck in the low 40s since the new year. Can he do anything to get his numbers above water before the midterms?
I want to bring in CNN chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash and USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page. Dana, if you are Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the DNC, Democrat up for reelection, how worried are you right now?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very worried. These poll numbers are not good. But I also don't think they are telling these -- these poll numbers are telling Democrats anything they don't know. There's a reason why you are seeing them very, very specific in how they are trying to structure their midterm message. Try to get the Democrats that are still excited about the Democratic policies, are still worried, from their perspective, a Republican takeover of Congress, get them angry and get them fired up. That's why this is a base election on both sides, but even and especially among Democrats.
TAPPER: The most worried right now are these Democrats, the Democratic senators in purple states or red states. One of them, Al Franken, a senator from Minnesota was on ABC's This Week. Listen to what he had to say about running in the current climate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How difficult is it right now to run as a Democrat in the sixth year of President Obama's term?
SEN. AL FRANKEN (D), MINNESOTA: I'm very comfortable doing that. I think that the rollout was pretty disastrous. There was a little bit of a Catch 22 there. If you think it's a bad issue in your state, so you're not going to go defend the state because you think you'd rather talk about something else.
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TAPPER: So that's Al Franken. It's tough for a Democrat, even one who is running in basically what is a blue state. Minnesota is fairly blue, even though Franken had a tough time, just barely won re- election. SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, USA TODAY: Not only that, but if you look at CNN poll and the USA Today/Pew poll, also out today, the disappointing news for Democrats is that even though the unemployment rate has dropped to 6.3 percent and even though a lot of the problems with the health care website have been addressed and they've got good numbers there on enrollment, it hasn't budged. Attitudes towards the Affordable Care Act or toward the president. The president is in a weaker situation now than he was four years ago, and that was not a good midterm election for Democrats.
TAPPER: And there's a slew of new polling numbers asking Republicans who they would vote for in the fall, a Republican or Democrat. The bottom line, without getting into all the tabs and crosstabs, this looks very similar to 2010 when the Republicans recaptured the House. Does this mean, do you think, Dana, that Democrats are due for a shellacking, and that Democrats are going to lose the Senate?
BASH: Republicans are pretty confident that they are actually going to gain seats in the House. Never mind, you know, Democrats even coming close to gaining. And Democrats don't even any that that is true.
But when it comes to the Senate, look, it's entirely possible, just as it was in the last election and the election before that, that we could be where we are, and it looks like there is no question that Republicans are going to lose -- take back the Senate, and then something happens. People put a foot in their mouth and there is sort of a domino effect. That could happen. At this point, it doesn't look like that's the case.
TAPPER: USA Today also has a poll out. What are your numbers saying in terms of trying to predict what happens in November?
PAGE: Well, we should remember it's six months out, right? So, things happen. But what we show is that Americans aren't inclined to vote for the Republican congressional candidate by four percentage points, w which may not sound like a lot, but it's bigger than we've seen in the last several decades.
So, this sets up as a landscape that right now is really tilted toward Republicans. Democrats need something big to shake that up. A big Republican misstep, a big achievement by the White House to make these numbers different.
TAPPER: The problem is they don't have -- there is no Mitt Romney who can be caught backstage saying 47 percent of Americans want to live off the government. There isn't a leader like that. So there are these issues that both sides are bring out to try to create divisions. One of them, Dana, the Keystone Pipeline. President Obama punted that again until after the midterms. There's going to be a vote tomorrow in the Senate on the Keystone Pipeline. What can we expect?
BASH: Well, we've learned something interesting in our reporting, and that is when Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, announced last week that they were going to go forward and have a vote that effectively has Congress going around the administration and approving the Keystone Pipeline, it was sort of surprising because he personally is opposed to that.
But in doing our reporting, we realized that the reason is because it seems that he's set up a vote or a series of votes that are likely to fail, but politically -- or at least in the Senate, fail -- but politically be a big success for those endangered Democrats in the Senate that we were just talking about.
TAPPER: So vulnerable Democrats in red states will get to vote for the pipeline?
BASH: They will be able to get - be on the record and vote for it and go home to their states and be able to push back against Republicans who are saying you are not doing anything to help us up in Washington,particularly with this issue like Keystone, which is such a big jobs issue. And the reason why we know this is, I should say, is our Ted Baird has done some reporting and figured out there are three Democrats who are not in politically sensitive situation that have effectively changed their votes. And they are going to vote against it.
TAPPER: And Susan, Republicans introduced the select committee on Benghazi. Democrats thinking about not cooperating, not giving any members. Why?
PAGE: Well, I don't think Americans are transfixed by the Benghazi situation, the tragedy two years ago --
TAPPER: Republican base voters are.
PAGE: -- but Republican base voters are. So that makes both sides very predictable, right? The Republicans will have a special committee and try to keep the story alive, and the Democrats will feel free to say, hey, that's yesterday's story. Let's talk about things like jobs and the economy.
BASH: Although I should say that the Democratic leadership in the House, they haven't fully said that they are not going to participate in the select committee because they are not entirely sure about the politics. It certainly looks like --
TAPPER: Dana Bash, Susan Page, thank you so much.
Coming up on THE LEAD, the Flight 370 search coordinator says he's still certain they are looking in the right place. So why is the data that sent teams to the South Indian Ocean, why is it being questioned?
Plus, it's the most profitable toy company in the world, but that's not enough for Lego. How the toy company is thinking beyond the little plastic blocks and setting its sights on world domination of another kind.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. In other world news, a reboot for the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 search without any new clues. Australia's deputy prime minister held a news conference today with officials from Malaysia and China to announce that they are moving forward with a new larger expanded search area.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN TRUSS, AUSTRALIAN DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: The operation must now enter a new phase and we'll be focused on intensifying the ocean floor search over a much larger area.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: CNN aviation correspondent, Rene Marsh is here. Rene, officials from Malaysia, Australia and China will meet later this week to work out the details in this next phase of the search. What else do we know?
RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know one major development from today. That data that they've been relying on for nearly two months has led crews to that current search zone. What we now know it will be reviewed again today to see if there are any flaws in their calculations.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARSH (voice-over): Reset.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The operation must now enter a new phase.
MARSH: Recalculate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of the data that has been gathered and make sure that there's no flaws in it.
MARSH: And reorganize.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Other meetings will look at the same time as to what assets might be required.
MARSH: More than 300 search flights, over 3,000 flying hours, and at least 1.7 million square miles of ocean off the coast of Australia searched for floating debris. That's like scanning the entire state of Alaska three times. The underwater search of 154 square miles also found nothing. A giant operation back to the drawing board.
TRUSS: One of the key elements of the next stage will be to undertake more detailed oceanographic mapping of the search area. Much of this area has never been mapped.
MARSH: A major meeting today between Australia, China, and Malaysia. The game plan is a broader underwater search using the Bluefin-21 and more specialized sonar equipment likely from private companies that can dive deeper and withstand the intense underwater pressure. These Styrofoam coffee cups were in the Bluefin-21. The enormous pressure shrunk them during its three-mile dive.
COMMANDER JAMES LYBRAND, OCEAN SHIELD MISSION COMMANDER: "Ocean Shield will stay here for a number of days once the software and hardware (inaudible). MARSH: The search effort paused. "Ocean Shield" is docked to refuel and Bluefin sitting on deck. Both will return to search where pings thought to be from the black boxes were detected.
ANGUS HOUSTON, JOINT AGENCY COORDINATION CHIEF: I still believe the expert team in Kuala Lumpur has done, that is the best information we have.
MARSH: The next phase of the search could last a year and cost about $60 million.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARSH: Well, last week 11 people were arrested on suspicion they were involved in a militant group that is responsible for planning terror attacks within and outside of Malaysia. Of course, the first question was, did they have anything to do with the disappearance of Flight 370. Malaysia police say that at this point no indication that there is any connection -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Rene Marsh, thank you so much.
Coming up on THE LEAD, a toy of a childhood's past is back in a huge way. Should Mickey Mouse be watching his back? The "Money Lead" is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. Chaching, it's time for the "Money Lead." Did you catch the Simpsons, all Lego episode last night? You know, Lego's toys and the theme parks, and maybe you've even seen the movie. It's grossed $500 million. It's been quite a journey for the plastic bricks that almost vanished a decade ago when the company brushed up against bankruptcy. Lego is already the world's most profitable toy manufacturer and may be poised for something even bigger.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER (voice-over): Lego is seemingly everywhere. Last night "The Simpsons" had a 3D generated Lego Springfield. Lady Gaga topped the Lego artist to turn her torso into yellow bricks for her latest video. There's even a Lego documentary that premiered a few days ago with the Tribeca Film Festival. It all comes on the heels of a massive year for the Danish toy maker. Lego reported $1.1 billion in profits for 2013 making it is the most profitable toy company in the world. Not bad for a company with an expired patent that nearly went belly up a decade ago.
DAVID ROBERTSON, AUTHOR "BRICK BY BRICK": They got themselves into businesses they didn't understand. Some of them might have been good for another company, but they weren't good for Lego.
TAPPER: David Robertson is a professor at the Warton School of Business and author of "Brick by Brick" tracking the company's battle back from the brink. He says for years the success of Lego was directly tied to toys based on two film franchises, "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter."
ROBERTSON: In 2003, there is no movie from either franchise and they are left with 94 percent of their product line, which is unprofitable, unpopular, and in some cases just not very Lego-ee, and so they were really close to bankruptcy.
TAPPER: Legojetison, the un-Lego like products and changed their focus.
ROBERTSON: Lego pays $3 per kilogram and sells it $75 per kilogram. So they are making lots of money on the boxes of bricks, but the kids are buying the story, really.
TAPPER: The company has expanded to create Lego video games and has reached out to girls with more gender neutral ads and princess and Disney products. This year, Lego bet big on telling their own story teaming up with Warner Brothers, the sister company of CNN within Time Warner to make the Lego Movie.
MICHAEL MCNALLY, SENIOR DIRECTOR, LEGO BRAND RELATIONS: We certainly hoped that what we were creating would be very appealing to families with children and what we found, I think, is that it has far surpassed and really engaged and entertained audiences that we probably did not even imagine.
TAPPER: The film has been a monster hit bringing in more than $450 million worldwide and Robertson thinks Lego may have something even bigger in mind.
ROBERTSON: It's not an accident that the week the movie came out there was more than a dozen different kits in the stores that kids could buy and play out within the movie. I really see Lego as moving away from competing with Mattel and moving toward competing with Disney.
TAPPER: Competing with Disney? Lego executive, Michael McNally doesn't go that far, but he says that the company sees potential.
MCNALLY: The idea that we could have motion pictures that are engaging in the way that we found this film has been is truly exciting for us.
TAPPER: In other words, Lego will keep turning those plastic bricks into cold, hard cash.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: So what's next? Well, the "Lego Movie 2" is already in the works. That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I now turn you over to Wolf Blitzer right next door in "THE SITUATION ROOM."
