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More Clashes Between Ukrainian Troops and Pro-Russian Separatists; Bluefin Finished Its 18th Mission; The Other Woman in Clipper Scandal Speaks Out; White House Correspondents Dinner Happening Tonight

Aired May 03, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again for those of you just now joining us. Welcome again to the CNN Newsroom. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We are following several big stories this hour.

First up, the woman who describes herself as Donald Sterling's wingman is breaking her silence on his racist rant that she recorded. V. Stiviano speculates about Sterling's motives and describes her personal relationship with the L.A. Clipper's owner in an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters. The big headline out of that interview, Stiviano believes that Sterling is not a racist, but, she says, she is not fully supportive of his reaction to the controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALTERS: Do you think that Donald Sterling should apologize?

STIVIANO: Absolutely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: But, she says, she is not fully supportive of his reaction to t the controversy.

Do you think that Donald Sterling should apologize?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Did you success discuss this with him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Will he apologize?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Only God knows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Our Ted Rowlands joins us live now from Los Angeles. So Ted, what did Stiviano say about her relationship with Sterling?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, that's one of the big questions, of course, since this first started a week ago. Now, what's the deal between the 80-plus-year-old and the 30-year-old, what is going on there?

Well Barbara Walters, as you know she would, asked exactly that question, what is your relationship?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA WALTERS, BROADCAST JOURNALIST: Donald Sterling is in his '80s, you are in your 30s?

V. STIVIANO, DONALD TRUMP, CHAIRMAN, CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: STERLING EX-GIRLFRIEND: Yes. I'm 31.

WALTERS: And you are a beautiful young woman, so I'm not sure that I understand the relationship.

STIVIANO: Well, I'm Mr. Sterling's personal assistant. Like I said, I'm his right hand. I'm his wing man. What is there to understand?

WALTERS: Well, let me ask this. Do you and Donald Sterling have a financial arrangement? You say you are his assistant and does he pay you?

STIVIANO: Yes.

WALTERS: And pays you as an employee?

STIVIANO: He at first started paying me as an employee. Then he started paying me off the books.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Already, Ted, right now, are you outside of the Staples center game seven. Of course, people are there to watch the Clippers take on the Golden State Warriors. But I'm sure a lot of people are going to be talking about that interview as well. How do you expect this or if anyone has even mentioned how this controversy, this latest interview and maybe even to more recent interview of Mr. Sterling, himself, yesterday, how might that impact the players tonight?

ROWLANDS: Well, it's hard to say, Fredericka. But Doc Rivers, the head coach of the L.A. Clippers has gone to great length to say he is doing his best to keep the players focus on basketball. And would seem that (INAUDIBLE) -- they're professional.

The first game that they played after this first circulated, they didn't play very well. And there was some speculation that maybe the off court stuff had something to do with it. But when the NBA came out so hard and so decisive saying that Sterling was suspended for life, I think that really for the players in their mind, really let them focus on the game, itself, because they were happy with that response, that quick decisive response, we will see what happens tonight. Any game seven is absolutely thrilling in any playoff in the NBA. And tonight is going to have a lot of people watching it, not only here in Los Angeles but across the country. And a lot of people now, Fred, are cheering for the Clippers because of what these players has had to endure.

WHITFIELD: Yes. They're the underdogs especially because of the, you know, controversy even though they have been, you know, a fantastic team with a wonderful season. So now this week, NBA owners are expected to meet to talk more about the idea of forcing Sterling out. Any idea what day, I guess, this could all, you know, come down on?

ROWLANDS: We don't know that after the ten member committee met last Thursday, it was announced that they had voted unanimously to vote the following week. But we don't know what day. The NBA just said the following week. If 75 percent of the owners say yes, he needs to get rid of the team, and that's it, according to NBA constitution.

Now, there is a lot of speculation of what, if any, legal fight he could do to maybe put a hiccup or two here. But we haven't heard from him much. There was a small snippet from an online article he did. But he didn't get much from that in terms of is he going to put up a fight? That will be the key to see how long this does or does not drag out.

WHITFIELD: All right, Ted Rowlands, thanks so much. Right outside the staples center in Los Angeles.

All right. There is a lot of talk about what Sterling could do to hold onto the Clippers. We are going to discuss all of that straight ahead.

All right, it's been a violent and deadly day in the Ukraine as the hunt plunges deeper into crisis. We are hearing more reports of more clashes between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists. People who are in on eastern Ukraine town were warned to stay inside their homes. But there was one glimmer of hope. Western military observers have dusted by pro-Russian separatists were actually released today. After they were freed, they appeared with the acting Ukrainian prime minister. And we'll have a live report coming up from around the world.

Nick Paton Walsh is live near Sloviansk, Ukraine and Matthew Chance in live for us in Moscow.

So Nick, let's begin with you. You are right in the middle of the region where all this violence has been happening. What is going on or what did go on today?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, like you said, we had a glimmer of good news, the release of the 12 strong delegation from the OSCE. Seventy four military observers and the Ukrainian has got held for eight days. But today of the intervention of the Russian envoy from the Kremlin, released the German foreign ministry thanking quote "from the bottom of their heart the Russian envoy," because four of that team were Germans an recent rare positive good news here and good spin potentially for the pro Russian protest and militants here. But it comes on a day of swirling violence really where in one more town, (INAUDIBLE) today, we went to and saw how armored personnel carry a column (ph), had tried to moved towards barricades, shuts it out, moved into fields and move further into town, caused a lot of destruction it seems or certainly cause pro- Russian militants steadfast a number of buses and trams blocking streets in the sense of the town. But then it seems the army vanished.

The interior minister made a lot of statements about the building they have reclaimed and how they are in control about. We saw a very little evidence of that and still some pro-Russian militants in some key buildings, too.

So, it seems there are full of violence, three dead, and potentially as many as a dozen injured in the past 24 hours. We are not seeing things changing much on the ground in terms of Kiev reasserting its control.

WHITFIELD: And Matthew, in Moscow, what, if anything, is being sent from the Russian government?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A great deal of condemnation by the Kremlin about the violence that is sparling in eastern and to southern Ukraine. President Putin, the Russian president, has extended his condolences to the families of the victims of those who burned to death in in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa. And also the Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov has been saying that Moscow received thousands of messages and requests from southern and eastern Ukraine, from people requesting Russian assistance. That is significant because of the past several months. Of course, Russia has said it reserves the right to protect ethnic Russians and Russian language speakers all across Ukraine if it feels that their interests are threatened. Of course, Russia has this is a risk of the Ukrainian military operation in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has tens of thousands of troops positioned in key areas on the other side of the border in western Russia. At any moment, really, should the Russian decide to give them the order to invade, they could do that. Obviously, leading to a major escalation in this crisis.

At the moment no such order has been given. The Russians are saying, the Kremlin is saying they don't know what to do in the situation like this. They're still trying to assess what their next move will be. There has been a conversation between U.S. secretary John Kerry and his counterparts here in Russia, Sergey Lavrov. Mr. Lavrov is calling on secretary of state Kerry to do everything he can to get the Kiev administration to stop that military activity in eastern Ukraine -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Matthew Chance, Nick Paton Walsh, thanks so much.

All right, back in this country, Hollywood has the Oscars. Well, tonight, the spotlight will be on Washington D.C. for the White House correspondence dinner, a live report coming up. Plus, the hunt for flight 370 will soon look a lot different. We will tell you what that will likely involve and the strategy behind this new phase next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A U.S. military official tells CNN the Bluefin-21 drone that has been looking for flight 370 will be used until the end of May. Meantime, the search is moving into a new stage.

Here is CNN's Richard Quest.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Fred, after all the urgency of getting to hear the pings within that 30-day limit, and then having the Bluefin underground to see what it could see in this limited area, the search is now moving into what the Australian prime minister called last week the few phase. It's going to be a lot longer between eight months and a year according to officials in Malaysia. It's going to require different types of assets. Not maybe just one autonomous underwater vehicle. But maybe some remote, the operated ones, too, because they are widening the scope from a narrow ten kilometer radius around one of the pings that are going to start looking at several other areas as well.

And to make all this happen, the Australians, the Chinese and the Malaysians are all to meet in the Australian capital in Canberra early next week. They will be putting in place the various rules and contrast, the cost sharing. They will be coming to understandings about how this search will move forward.

And as if to prove it is moving into another phase, the families of the passengers on board flight MH 1370, they have been told that the airline is closing the various assistance than just around the world and the hotels. And they are being told to go home to the comfort of their home where information will be given and where advanced payments are now being made by way of compensation.

A few phase, indeed, is beginning in the hunt for the answers to the mystery of MH 370. This new phase will be neither quick nor easy -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Richard Quest.

Shocking revelations in our preliminary report on the plane's disappearance, why did it take four hours for the official rescue operation to beg begin? My panel weighs in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, back now to that new phase in the hunt for flight 370. Malaysia's transportation ministry released its most comprehensive look yet at the disappearance of the flight. It revealed stunning details about what happened in the minutes and hours after the plane vanished.

I want to bring in my panel of CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo and CNN analyst David Gallo.

So David, you know, you first, we learned there was a miscommunication rather for nearly four hours. It seems like an eternity, what does this say to you about the airline's confidence?

DAVID GALLO, CNN ANALYST: What I can say that it was about the same with air France 4472, that here is one -- you have cases like that, there is some reluctance in cases of like this is some reluctance to actually claim that the plane is missing.

So you know after Air France 447, there were a number of things I hoped we wouldn't have to ever see again. But here we are in that same situation, almost literally in the same boat.

WHITFIELD: And so, Mary, you know, do these missteps -- do you feel like they are particularly pronounced because of, you know, the scale of this kind of investigation?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I think that's true. Plus, they are significantly pronounced because of the disconnect. I think there is one thing that just stands out amazingly, glaringly, in their report and that is that that they went back. It was already four hours plus had past. And the report say then the military went back and review the radar tapes and then expanded the search from the south China Sea to the (INAUDIBLE) straits. So even the four-hour mark, they really weren't, they didn't have a clue as to where the plane was as well. That certainly significantly expanded the search and lost any chance of knowing where the plane with us. It still doesn't explain why the plane went missing in the first place.

WHITFIELD: And then David, you know, beyond the report, now you have a reported sighting of possible debris in the bay of Bengal. And so, now a Malaysian official is saying, yes, they are likely to go look even though they don't feel that confident that it is anything. Do you feel like at this point they have to investigate?

GALLO: Yes, you have to look at it. I mean, at this point where there is hardly any real tangible evidence at all. There are no debris or there are no witnesses. So I think anything like this, you have to have a look. But I feel, this is mostly skepticism around that claim.

And you know, I just feel for the people that work on and under the sea like my own institution, these things are critical to focus on where that plane actually impacted the water. So all these things are a huge distraction. New places require new kind of technology, new patterns of operation. So. But, you got to have a look at it.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And so, Mary, you know, the Bangladesh Navy already has devoted to resources to further investigate. But does it concern you that perhaps these resources have been, you know, thinned out too much and that this might be a fruitless expedition?

SCHIAVO: Yes, it does. And that's why the meeting on Monday is so important because those, the nations and the people participating in the search and the investigation have to get a clear plan going forward because this is not the only, I know, it would be nice to find some clues, but this is not the only theory out there.

And the search team cannot respond to every theory. There are theories putting this plane literally all over the hemisphere. So they have to look at the humanitarian thing to do. And that it was great for Bangladesh to jump in and do that. But going forward, they have to have a plan and stick to it. They have to stay the course because these diversions are going to take away time and money.

WHITFIELD: And David, the Bluefin finished its 18th mission scouring the ocean floor. What should be deployed next?

GALLO: Well, it's hard to say again, Fredricka, though, it depends on where the plan is. So, if the plan is to stay where the Bluefin has been working. And by the way, you know, my sources tell me Bluefins -- the Ocean Shield on its way into port. So if it's still out there, my sources are wrong. But if it's the same place, then you need to work deeper. If it's a different place, there may be a role for Bluefin and others tools like that stuff towed sonar Orion and maybe the Remus 6000 from Woods Hole Oceanographic and (INAUDIBLE) in Germany.

WHITFIELD: And then Mary, family members are outraged. They were hurt that these support centers are closing in Beijing. But at some point, an airline has to say, you know, we don't have any more information, right, we have to do this or is this timing particularly bad?

SCHIAVO: Well, the timing is particularly bad because there is still for the answers where their loved ones are. But in most air crash accidents, certainly all the ones I have worked on, the airline usually closes down its support system and they have a care team assigned member assigned to each family. They cut that off at about day 45 and that's pretty standard. And the reason is, that is in most cases, the case is moving on to a different stage, here because they don't have a plane or their loved ones, it's particularly bad timing. But it's not unusual to close it down about this point.

WHITFIELD: Boy. All right, Mary Schiavo, David Gallo, thanks so much to both of you. Appreciate it.

All right. The other woman in this Clipper owners scandal is talking. What she told Barbara Walters about her relationship with Donald Sterling and whether she thinks she a racist straight ahead.

But first, Ned Morton made a career of training Olympic athletes and professional body builders. But when a young man with the spinal cord injury came into his gym, he found his true calling. Meet this week's CNN's hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NED MORTON, CNN HERO: Within I'm running, I feel limitless. Being in motion makes me feel free. Are you pushing yourself. That's when you really feel alive. But there are millions of people around the world better facing severe physical limitations. They can't be independent. They can't live their lives. I spent years training Olympic athletes, football players, body builders. One day a young guy, newly spinal cord injury came to the gym, asking for help. At first, I didn't though what to do. But just work together, he made tremendous progress.

Take a breath. Reach out. Reach out. Bring it back.

Before you know it, my phone rang off the hook, people asking for help. So I opened a gym designed to fit their needs.

Are you ready to go to work?

For the past 25 years, I've provided strength and conditioning training for people with disabilities.

Flex up, nice job.

People come to me when they're at their lowest.

Hold it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Awesome.

MORTON: You come to this gym and all of a sudden you have a natural support network.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In 1971, I broke my back and I have been in a wheelchair ever since.

MORTON: That's it, Tom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks to Ned, I keep my upper body strength at a maximum. I have been able to live a full life.

MORTON: I never worry about what they can't do. I worry about what they can do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can do it, Ned.

MORTON: Yes, you can.

Good job.

I'm building them up, building them stronger so they can go out and live life like they're supposed to.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: That's incredible. Each week, we honor a new CNN hero. And if you know someone who deserves this recognition, tell us all about them at heroes.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Are you a racist, Mr. Sterling?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. Of course not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are you holding this shield?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are you holding a microphone?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am bank Mr. Sterling for life from any association with the Clipper's organization or the NBA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Just in case you missed any of that this week, we wanted you to see that this week t. Sights and Sunday of a tumultuous week after the whole world heard the racist comment by L.A. Clippers' owner Donald Sterling, all the controversy. It has to be pretty distracting for the team.

Well, tonight, they are up against the Golden State Warriors in game seven of the NBA playoffs. And now, we are also learning more from the woman who recorded Sterling, making those racist comments.

V. Stiviano is speaking out in an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters saying she doesn't believe Sterling is a racist at heart. She also says she is not Sterling's girlfriends, rather his quote "right-hand man, his wing man, who got paid off the books sometimes."

Stiviano tells Walters if she is still in touch with Sterling.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALTERS: You just left Donald Sterling. What is his state of mind right now?

STIVIANO: Confused. I think he feels very alone, not truly supported by those around him, tormented, emotionally traumatized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: "Dujour" magazine says Sterling is also talking about V. Stiviano. It quotes the Clipper's owner quote saying quote "I wish I had paid her off," end quote. Sterling has been banned because of the racist remarks that were caught on tape and NBA owners are meeting next week about trying to force him to sell the team. Some players are now talking about a boycott until Sterling is out.

So Donald Sterling, clearly, has a lot to deal with right now and a whole lot of people are watching to see exactly wraps. Many think his next step will be to file a lawsuit if the NBA does, indeed for him to try to force him to sell the team.

Let's bring in Ellen Zavian. She is a sports attorney and professor of sports law at George Washington University.

Ellen, good to see you.

Good to see you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. So we know that many consider Donald Sterling to be one of the most litigious owners in the NBA. And there are some who expect that he might countersue. He might sue the league if indeed they go to force him to sell the team. Do you see that sequence of event potentially.

ELLEN ZAVIAN, SPORTS ATTORNEY: Well, I think it's important to state there are constitution bylaws, agreements, resolutions that in par taking as an NBA owner you agree to. So if he goes the anti-trust route, he would have to prove that those agreements were a restraint of trade or some action that was taking place by the NBA was a restrain of trade. The other route.

WHITFIELD: OK. Sorry, go ahead.

ZAVIAN: The other route he could go as far as delaying is to tie this up in family court. Because this involves his soon to be ex-wife, it could move into California family court and the assets could then get looked at by the family court as well.

WHITFIELD: OK. So if there is a divorce proceeding, then that precludes him from being able to sell a team if he were to elect to, Bahamas it's common property, so to speak, right?

ZAVIAN: Correct. And it would delay the process.

WHITFIELD: OK. So, you know, just to backtrack, when you were talking about agreement, would there be a morality clause, you know, when an owner agrees to certain standards by in this case the NBA league, would he have signed an agreement of morality that holds him to, you know, a certain code of conduct?

ZAVIAN: From what we can see of these agreements so far and the NBA has a released the constitution, which is for the first time everyone is seeing it, it seems to me there is a catch-all phrase. So there are specific activities or conduct, just like you and I as an employee have that we can violate, specifics is gambling or financial non- payment. There is a catch-all phrase. And the catch-all praise basically gives Adam Silver the commissioner the opportunity to protect the integrity of the game, the best interests of the game.

And it is that vague standard that Sterling could perhaps sue under so he doesn't lose his right to sue. Now I will say in the agreement, he has given up the right to review whatever decision the two-thirds vote was to the NBA owners.

WHITFIELD: All right. And then the flip side of this, V. Stiviano's attorney says she was an activist and because of the nature of that job, it would be normal, that she would take their conversation and if that is, indeed, accurate out the window comes that whole this is a private conversation thing.

ZAVIAN: I think that's one of the issues that are getting buried. So I have seen that people have talked about entrapment. And unfortunately, entrapment is not come into play here because entrapment is really for law enforcement and not for civilians. The other area is blackmail. And blackmail is a crime particularly in California. But it would have to be proven that she threatened him either physically, if you do this or you don't do that. We don't see any evidence of that.

WHITFIELD: And tell you something isn't that interesting that "Dujour" magazine conversation as, you know, the owner saying I should have paid her off implies that she either asked or demanded and you know, he said no, and now, he is second guessing himself unless that is a kind of to confuse everybody? (INAUDIBLE).

ZAVIAN: So as a typical lawyer, I would come back to you and say his statement clearly states he would have felt that money might have kept her quiet as opposed to there was a present activity that often money kept her quiet. So I think there is two sides to that story.

WHITFIELD: All Ellen Zavian, I hope we have you back. And we know this story is really just beginning. At the legal road is going to be a very long one.

Thanks so much, Ellen.

ZAVIAN: Thanks so much for having me, Fredricka.

In just a few hours the president of the United States welcoming Washington's a-lists for the annual White House correspondence dinner. Find out who will roast the crowds, straight ahead.

But first. As we get ready for Cinco De Mayo on Monday, Antony Bourdain looks at his two sides of the view of Mexico in his Sunday's "PARTS UNKNOWN." Beyond the violence and crime, the amazing people the music, of course, the food.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST, PARTS UNKNOWN: Mexico, you know, you see on TV, murder, corruption. Mexico is a deeply troubled maybe even cursed land. It is also just deeply enchanted. This amazing, amazing country, the incredible food, unbelievable music, old school colonial streets, mountain, beaches, did I mention the food? You should pay more attention to this place, man. It's our brother, it's right down there, next to us. And it's really one of the greatest places on earth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: We can't wait to take a bite out of "old Mexico" this Sunday with Anthony Bourdain "PARTS UNKNOWN," 9:00 p.m. eastern time. And then at 10:00 eastern, we want to know who is watching you or how raise it is for someone to get your personal information? Morgan Spurlock takes on big brother and your privacy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, New York may have the Tony's, L.A the Oscars, the Emmys, in Washington, well, it has the White House correspondence dinner. And tonight, the powerful will rub shoulders with the men and women who actually cover them in the news.

CNN has a contingent of correspondents attending. Let's bring in our Erin McPike at the White House and "Washington Post" contributor Sally Quinn who is in our Washington bureau.

Let's begin with you, Erin. What's the expected highlight besides the president being funny?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN GENERAL ASSIGNMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, first Fred, we do know that Joel McHale of "the soup," will be the one roasting the president. And he has told us that he is more likely going to be talking about the Kardashians and reality TV.

But this event is covered extensively throughout the Washington media and really the national media. And as you know, CNN will be carrying the event live starting at 8:00 p.m. But with all of the media in one room and so many Washington politics, you obviously, want to be careful about what you say, because it is very likely to wind up in the papers tomorrow.

And I want to tell you a little bit of the history behind this event. It started getting so big. In 1993, that's the year when Julia Whiston took it over as the executive director of the White House correspondence dinner. And I got a chance to talk to her earlier this week. And she was talking about that first dinner. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIA WHISTON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WHITE HOSE CORRESPONDENCE DINNER: I was pretty nervous. There were a lot of surprises. I mean, the Clinton administration was pretty loose when it first started as far as arrangements. I mean, they didn't know how to use a fax machine in the beginning. But there was no e-mail. It was just a very different feel for this dinner. And I remember the motorcade arriving and they had two people from Hollywood with them and they walked in and I said, you know, I hope they have seats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCPIKE: And she had some really funny stories about what people have done and the lengths they have gone-to-get tables to the dinner. In fact, she told us about one story about JFK, Jr. back in the '90s when he was running George magazine, he really wanted to table of the last minute and he had senator Ted Kennedy call her and try to get a table. And he actually had a florist send a huge bouquet of flowers to her house.

WHITFIELD: Did it who.

MCPIKE: People do to great lengths.

WHITFIELD: Did it work in that case?

MCPIKE: In that case, it did. She had to pull a special trick. But usually, she cannot pull any favors for anyone.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Something tells me John always gets his way.

All right, let's bring in Sally in.

Hey Sally, how are you? A have known you a long time as well as your husband Bern Bradley.

So you know, these dinners, it certainly gets reporters the chance to get all the gowns up, wear the tuxedos, get the gowns going and kind of have a lot more social interaction where people are there covering. But, you know, this really isn't just a big party, is it? I mean, there are little stories that kind of come out of it. There are relationships that are built. It actually is instrumental, isn't it?

SALLY QUINN, CONTRIBUTOR, WASHINGTON POST: Well, actually, it's a pretty horrible evening.

WHITFIELD: Come on!

QUINN: No. I think most report -- well, actually, there are a lot of reporters who don't get asked, even people who cover the White House. But it's gotten to be a pretty grotesque scene in the last few years, it really has.

WHITFIELD: You mean that because of the celebs. I mean, it's no longer really kind of the reporters and the politicos party? What do you mean?

WHITFIELD: You know, there are all these advertisers and sponsors.

And a lot of the reporters who like to be there don't get included and these celebrities, I remember two years ago, my husband and I went. We don't go, we haven't gone very often in a long time. It's kind of like child birth, you forget the pain of it. Then you go back.

WHITFIELD: You are killing me.

QUINN: We got crushed in between the Kardashians and Newt Gingrich.

And my husband turned to me and said what the hell are we doing here? And that's not the language he used right away.

WHITFIELD: So you know, there are people who -- I mean, Tom Brokaw is among them who said, you know, I am not going to this anymore because it has become something else. Kind of exactly what you were describing. Do you think it will ever return to what it once was when many reporters, you know, did find it to be very enjoyable and there was less of the ick factor that you described?

QUINN: I don't think it will ever go back to the way it was and it is too bad because it did serve to bring reporters an people they covered together in the old days. But now, I mean last year, I only went to the cocktail hour, which was just a zoo and I was leaving to go out to dinner and all the celebrities were coming the other way. And it was kind of like being caught in some European soccer match scene, and they all had this sort of desperate look. And they said, where are you going? And I would say, I'm going out to dinner. And they said, my God, take me with you. Because it's such a crush and you, by the I, what I was at the dinner when John Kennedy was there. And we were at the table next to his.

WHITFIELD: Did you know the story at the time?

QUINN: His table was in Siberia, all the way next to the door the exit. So you couldn't even see the podium. And he was saying, here I am in Siberia, but at least I'm here. But those were, you know, those were days when it was at least more fun. But now I think a lot of people go and come away feeling a bit of a sense of self loathing.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

QUINN: Because you kind of want to be there and want to be seen and want to be able to say that you were there. But on the other hand, it's awful painful to be there.

WHITFIELD: That's too bad it has become. Well, I'm glad I had a chance to go when it was considered the old days, too, when it was not a red carpet event and it really was kind of just the thing for correspondents to go to and attend with the politicos. And you know, you got to chance to break breath a little bit and have fun. And now it is quite spectacle.

But hey, we will be covering it.

Sally and Erin, thank you so much. In fact, we have live coverage this evening. Because CNN does, indeed, have the best seat in the house for the correspondence dinner from the red carpet to the main event. Our live coverage starts tonight at 8:00 eastern even though there is at little bit of the ick factor, by way of Sally's point of view, it is a fun thing to watch. So please tune in tonight.

All right, so from massive flooding to twisters. It has been a week of horrible weather, how storm victim are trying to move forward next.

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WHITFIELD: A week of severe weather look at past of destruction across much of the country. A slow moving storm brought tornadoes through the south and Midwest and record flooding from the gulf coast to the northeast. And of course, there were mud slides in there. Nearly 40 people were killed.

Here is CNN's Chad Myers.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Fred, it was an amazing five days. Five days I can't really describe. Look at the tornado damage in front of me. No, we are in Pensacola. This is flood damage, but it looks just like what I saw in little rock, except the house is still standing. But they're tearing every bit of this home out of the inside because the water was all the way up to about the gutters.

This house here, even a little bit lower in elevation, absolutely lost everything. Some of the other scary stories here. People were cut from their attics, they had to climb to their attic as the water closed on the ceiling. There was no more air left for them. They climbed into the attic to be safe there. House across the street had to hatchet their way out of the attic to get on the roof to be saved by a boat. So we started off in Little Rock, Arkansas. We saw mayflower and Vilonia.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were docked down into the vehicle. All were just told and praying.

MYERS: Then we moved to Tupelo with the damage there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a tornado, man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This could be deadly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything was flying. Boom. A tree fell on our house, the porch fell in.

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MYERS: We moved on from Tupelo to Tuscaloosa, expecting big tornadoes in Tuscaloosa on the third day. But that didn't happen. It didn't happen because down here on the gulf coast there was a front, and it didn't move. It wasn't a stationary front, a cold front, but it just didn't keep going. That front right where we are here caused rain to rain all night.

Almost six inches of rain in one hour at one reporting station. And this is what happened. The water came up. This is the confluence of two rivers that never flooded before, and I'm talking the water would be over my head here, I am even with the house. The water is here and not much above me before I am in the attic.

And neighbors helping neighbors. But the damage you incur from being wet or being knocked down by a tornado can be at times similar, except being picked up by a tornado, you can get all put back together by insurance. People here don't have flood insurance because this place never floods. I can't tell you the devastation I've seen. But also hard to describe the help.

I would tell you a thousand people in this neighborhood here, and very few of them know each other. They're not neighbors helping neighbors, they're strangers helping neighbors. There are people coming to this neighborhood to help because they know the people here are hurting. People that didn't get hurt or didn't get damaged, didn't get water damage or flooded are coming here to help in droves, in buses with churches, coming here to help people that they've never met -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: That is nice, thank you so much, Chad Myers.

All right, next, a school trip takes a terrifying turn when a fire breaks out on a bus filled with children.

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DOCTOR SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For as long as she can remember, Natalie Irish has been passionate about art. But when she was diagnosed with type one diabetes at age 18, even that became a struggle for her.

NATALIE IRISH, TYPE 1 DIABETES: I can't keep my eyes open. I can't focus on my art classes. I went to the doctor, they said check your blood sugar. Sent me immediately to the emergency room.

GUPTA: Turns out her blood sugar was seven times higher than normal. And doctors were surprised she hadn't lapsed into a diabetic coma.

IRISH: Everything changed. My priorities, the way I ate, the way I lived my life and just starting from scratch.

GUPTA: Not long after, something else changed, too. Her style of art.

IRISH: I was going to see a band, I was going to a show. And I put on my red lipstick and I blotted it on a piece of tissue and saw the lip print. And I am pretty sure there was an actual light bulb. And I was like I can paint with that.

GUPTA: That's right. She paints with her lips.

IRISH: All lipstick. I make a lot myself, everything from dollar store to like boutique brands. This is just a different paint brush.

GUPTA: Kissing the canvas with full on lip prints, using her lips to smear, smudge, and shade in portraits. Natalie creates masterpieces. She says some of them sell for thousands of dollars and she's using that attention to help raise awareness about type one diabetes.

IRISH: I have a bit of an audience and I have people that, you know, like my work and then it is like OK, let's talk about this, too, you know.

GUPTA: Her biggest message, fix the physical but don't forget the mental.

IRISH: There is a lot of self-blamed that can pop up in there and every day is going to be different. You have good days and bad days, but it is not, you know --

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

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WHITFIELD: Wow. What a talent. That is extraordinary.

All right, then there is this. this very frightening scene in Mississippi, flames ripping to a school bus just moments before this pictures were taken. The bus was filled with about two dozens of students and amazingly, everyone got out safely in large part because of two women in a nearby car who saw the fire breakout. They drove alongside the bus desperately trying to flag the driver and then eventually the women forced the driver to pull the bus over by coming to a stop right in front of it. Wow.