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CNN Poll: Public Split Over Clippers Sale; More Girls Kidnapped In Nigeria; Vow To Sell School Girls Fuels New Outrage; Landmark Climate Change Warning Issued

Aired May 06, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Controversy, what controversy? The L.A. Clippers rolled over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the opening game of their second-round series. But while some are now calling the Clippers America's team, Americans are split over whether the team should be forcibly taken from banned owner, Donald Sterling. A new CNN/ORC poll finds 47 percent in favor of NBA owners forcing Sterling to sell and 50 percent are against that sale.

So let's talk about that with LZ Granderson and Marc Lamont Hill along with CNN's Christine Romans. Welcome to all of you. I'm not really surprised by this. Here is a private business owner saying horrible things in the privacy of his own home and now all of a sudden, he has to sell his property.

LZ GRANDERSON, CNN COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. And this is part of the reason why at the very beginning of this story I was really emphasizing not the comments that were taped by a girlfriend, but rather the history and well documented legislative history or legal history he has in terms of housing discrimination. That to me is something that you can sink this story into. Hanging everything -- that's what Commissioner Silver did during the press conference. He hung everything on these comments he made to his girlfriend and that just doesn't feel right to the average American. So I'm not surprised by those numbers at all.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think the truth is he wasn't hanging everything on that conversation, but he had to say that publicly because there was no legal decision made in the DOJ case. Also, the workplace discrimination case, he didn't lose. In both cases it is would be hard to get rid of somebody for cases he was never found guilty of.

COSTELLO: You know the fans would have boycotted -- they would have boycotted the games. The players would have boycotted, right?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It would have sent the whole NBA into an uproar. In the playoff season and you weren't having playoff games, the solution for the NBA, I think, this was the best solution. We're not done yet. We don't know what Donald Sterling is going to do. We don't know if he's going to fight. If he's going to sell on his own or if it will be a long litigious process ahead. I think we're in the second inning of this story too.

COSTELLO: You were going to say, L.Z., I'm sorry I interrupted.

GRANDERSON: It's true that he definitely lost those cases and ended up paying tens of millions of dollars out of court. What is also true is we know way back in 1982, Donald Sterling was recorded making racist comments and a small contingency of owners were working to force him to sell and then they dropped the ball. They admittedly dropped the ball on that. He promised to sell in '82 and didn't allowing anger to subside and he kept the team for another 30 years.

This is part of the reason why Silver went that route. Not just because he lost with the Department of Justice suits, but because there's a long history of him being in the NBA under the watch of Commissioner Stern who was out in Silver's mentor and friend and hand- picked him to be this year's commissioner.

It's not just about what happened in the court system. It's about loyalty and not wanting to throw the previous commissioner under the bus for allowing this man to be in the league for 30 plus years.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Interesting take. I like that. Talking about sterling and whether he's going to fight this, I mean it's pretty obvious that he is. His wife -- they're still together although I don't know why. I can't wrap my head around that.

HILL: That's a reality show in the making.

COSTELLO: It really is. She seems to be inserting herself into things so he may turn the team over to her and Sterling reached out to lawyers including lawyers that represented numerous celebrities including Paula Deen.

ROMANS: Interesting, right? Here's the interesting thing about this. He bought this team in 1981 for $12 million. He stands to make great deal of money on this team and have a very big tax bill. You have to wonder if he's trying to figure out how he can limit his tax impact to sell the team. There are financial interests along the way. If it is $575 million like "Forbes" says it is valued at. He paid 12 million.

The value of the team is 575 million. That's a $563 million profit and almost $200 million tax bill but he could say under California law that this was a forced sale. He didn't want to sell. If he bought something similar like another team, he wouldn't have to pay taxes on it.

HILL: What league is going to let that happen?

COSTELLO: No way. I think the good thing in all of this is that people really are considering the Clippers America's team and America seems to have banded together and gotten behind this team. Ratings have gone up. It's fabulous.

HILL: Exactly. They're America's team for good reasons and bad reasons. We wrap our arms around them, but it represents America's position on race. It's complicated and messy. White people have a different take on the forced sale than black people do. It's a very interesting conversation. Some people focus on how the information was obtained, but others are interested on what was on the tape itself.

COSTELLO: NBA fans are majority white, right? If you're an NBA fan you're more likely to want the NBA to force sterling to sell the team or not. It's kind of complicated.

HILL: It's complicated and interesting.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about T-shirts because I like this part of the story. Do you know about this, L.Z.? They put out these T-shirts so people can buy it saying we are one.

ROMANS: The money is going to charity we're told.

GRANDERSON: To me, you know, it's capitalizing on racial discomfort. I'm a big fan of that. I know in the polls that a lot of Americans believe that race relations are good and I'm happy to be one of those Americans. I believe that interpersonal race relations are good. To me it's institutional race relations that need a lot of work and selling T-shirts like this is a nice feel-good and warm blanket around your shoulders but doesn't talk about the things that we really need to talk about. This we are one thing is kumbaya, but discrimination is going on with or without Donald Sterling leading the Clippers.

HILL: I can't get a job.

ROMANS: America loves to buy a T-shirt.

GRANDERSON: We were one, but my unemployment rate is twice the average American.

COSTELLO: Just to be clear because at first I thought, my gosh, the NBA is profiting off this controversy and it's not because all of the proceeds will go to charity.

ROMANS: Anti-discrimination groups.

COSTELLO: That's a good thing. It will not go in any way to Donald Sterling. OK.

ROMANS: But I have been looking at his numbers, there's a lot of money there.

COSTELLO: There is a lot of money there. Marc Lamont Hill, LZ Granderson, Christine Romans, thanks to all of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, shock fades and anger grows as Nigeria rallies for release of more than 200 school girls held by terrorists.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Terrible news to pass along to you right now. We're learning that eight more girls have been kidnapped in Nigeria. They were kidnapped at gunpoint. CNN told us those armed men were in vehicles and stormed a village and took the girls from their own homes. Those girls remain missing right now.

As you know, there's a big controversy going around with those 200 plus Nigerian school girls who have been kidnapped by terrorists. They are being held and terrorists are threatening to sell those girls. Let's talk about this latest incident. CNN's Isha Sesay is in Nigeria with more. Good morning. Tell us more.

ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Details are coming into us here at CNN that Boko Haram militants stormed another village overnight in the north eastern part of the country taking a number of girls. Girls between the ages of 12 and 15 making off with livestock and money and basically causing havoc, which is what Boko Haram has been known to do for the last several years in this very area.

This group founded itself back in 2002 and since that time had killed thousands of people in this part of the country. So much so that just last November, President Goodluck Jonathan, of Nigeria claimed a state of emergency in three states in Northern Nigeria. Yet it is in this context with a state of emergency in place that some three weeks ago Boko Haram militants struck a school in this region and took 200 plus girls.

It shows you the level of capability these people have. It just goes to show how emboldened they have become over the past years and once again we're getting this news coming into CNN that overnight Boko Haram has struck again and made off with eight girls ages between 12 and 15. A worrying time for parents in that region -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Isha Sesay, reporting live from Nigeria this morning. Thank you so much. These kidnappings have created a groundswell of anger here in the United States and around much of the world. These are rallies stretching from Washington State to Europe, Africa and Australia. All demanding the release of those 200 school girls and now eight girls who are missing today. Americans are also embracing the cause. Demonstrations are scheduled here from coast to coast and seem to grow by the day.

Let's head to Washington and Athena Jones where a really is underway at the Nigerian Embassy. Good morning, Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This rally is just getting under way and as you mentioned, that social media campaign, this rally was organized entirely via social media starting with a tweet last week on Thursday by one of the organizers and then 5 more people signed on to help bring out people for this event through Facebook, through Twitter. You can see some of the people who have shown up here so far. They are wearing bring back our girls T- shirts.

On the back it says hashtag 276. That's the original number of young teenage girls that were kidnapped three weeks ago in mid-April and now we hear about these eight more. This is a very, very frightening story. It has upset a lot of people here. I have spoken to some of the organizers and spoken to the participants and they want to see the Nigerian government do more. They say they are holding this event outside the Nigerian Embassy because they want to call on the top Nigeria official here in America to put more pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan to do more to find these girls and with this latest kidnapping, it's incredibly frightening. This group would be emboldened and may not be able to be stopped. They want to see the government do more -- Carol.

COSTELLO: What about our own government? Has there been a U.S. response to this?

JONES: We know that President Obama has been briefed several times on this. We know that the State Department, the national security team are closely monitoring this situation. We also know that the U.S. is providing aid to the Nigerian government. They talked about intelligence sharing. What they haven't done is outlined the different ways they're trying to help the government. They are working on this privately to do what they can.

And also Nigerian government officials said we haven't done a good job of communicating what's going on to the public. One official said it's difficult to know how much to reveal of the investigation because we don't know much about this group and what they're going to do to these girls. There are a lot of people with a lot of questions here and want to hear more from the Nigerian government and hear them doing more to find these girls -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Athena Jones reporting live from Washington. In the meantime, Nigeria's finance minister is calling on the international community for help and admits they didn't communicate properly to the public at the start of the crisis, but insist an international effort is now needed to bring those school girls home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA, NIGERIAN FINANCE MINISTER: Every single one of those girls is my daughter. I wake up depressed. The president wakes up depressed because he came from a poor family and without education he never would be where he is today. This is our problem. It has not to do with them. It has to do with us. We will do everything possible. The president pledged everything possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Keep in mind these terrorists kidnapped all of these girls because they dare get an education. Let's bring in Robert Rutberg. He is the founding director at the Harvard Kennedy School Program of Interstate Conflict. Welcome.

We'll test your signal I hope it was better than it just was. Do you think the United States should provide military aid?

ROBERT RUTBERG,HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL PROGRAM OF INTERSTATE CONFLICE: Yes, of course. I think the U.S. and U.K. are both poised to contribute intelligence methods and satellite coverage to the Nigerian government. What the Nigerian government has lacked so far is an understanding of where Boko Haram had taken the girls and exactly how to find them. Nigeria now needs to ask the U.S. and U.K. to help and then also ask Cameroon and Nigeria to close the borders.

COSTELLO: Well, I hope that Nigeria gets the help it needs. Your Skype signal isn't the greatest so we are going to have to let you until we work out the technical glitches, but thank you for being with us.

The outcry on social media to get the girls home keeps growing. Reports are pouring into CNN. Photos from all over the world of people showing their support and videos demanding action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You should be safe in your own house and own backyard. We mandate the government to bring back our children. Please.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The outrage on Twitter also ramping up with photos and tweets posting to hash tag bring back our girls. Hillary Clinton tweeted access to education is a basic right. We must stand up to terrorism. Texas congressman wrote no life should be stolen for $12 and educated women are the biggest threat to Islamist extremists.

At CNN, we're not giving up on these girls either. We'll bring you the latest developments as this story unfolds. If you would like to help girls worldwide trying to overcome barriers to education, go to our website, cnn.com/impact.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a dire warning on climate change. Now President Obama is set to launch a week-long push to help limit its effects. Jim Acosta is at the White House. Good morning.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The White House releases this report on climate change saying that the impacts can be felt now and will be felt for future generations. A live report coming up in just a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Climate change is real and it's killing the planet, period. The federal government has just released a devastating report outlining exactly what's happening to weather patterns because of climate change. A sample extreme weather events linked to climate change like heat waves, heavy downpours and droughts are more frequent. Oceans are becoming more acidic and human activity is mainly to blame.

This report is 1,300 pages long compiled by 300 scientists. You think our politicians would do something now. You're wrong. Senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta is here to talk about politics surrounding climate change. Good morning, Jim.

ACOSTA: That's right. Here's that report right here. The White House has issued this new report on climate change hoping it will sound the alarm on this issue that is critical to the White House. It not only fits into the president's call for a year of action. It also potentially revs up the Democratic base for the upcoming midterm elections.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): The White House warns decades of dangerous weather from monstrous storms to raging wildfires are on the way as a result of climate change. According to the Obama administration's new national climate assessments, sea levels will rise up to four feet. More intense heat waves will hit the southwest and Arctic Ocean could have ice free summers by mid-century.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scientists from across the U.S. and not just in public sector, but private sector as well have worked over the last four years to produce this report. This assessment is about presenting actionable science.

ACOSTA: President Obama has promised action, but critics within his own party complain he hasn't lived up to his campaign vow from 2008.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.

ACOSTA: With his climate agenda stalled in Congress, the president has taken steps on his own seeking new limits on power plant pollution and setting tougher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks. The GOP has fought the president on the issue. Some Republican lawmakers question whether humans are actually behind dramatic changes in the climate.

Others say Mr. Obama is mounting an all-out assault on energy sector jobs. Take this ad from Mitch McConnell's re-election campaign, but the White House boasts that the energy system is booming even though administration takes its time on a decision on the controversial Keystone pipeline. Some are calling for a vote to bypass the president to approve it.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We believe strongly that that's not an effective or helpful way to bring that process to a conclusion.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: We will hear from President Obama on the issue of climate change later today when he sits down for a round of interviews with meteorologists who are coming here from around the country to talk to the president in the Rose Garden, in the White House, but senior administration officials just had a conference call with reporters earlier this morning.

I had a chance to ask one of those officials, John Podesta, counselor to the president a big part of the push on climate change, I said, what are prospects for climate change and he said because of Republican opposition to the president's agenda, he called it a very real challenge and not a lot they can get done in Congress on this issue -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jim Acosta reporting live from the White House this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a decade under the control of a monster. On the anniversary of her escape, Michelle Knight, recalls the horror she endured during those years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE KNIGHT: He told me he would never let me go.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, CNN'S "AC360": He said that from the beginning?

KNIGHT: Yes. He said you don't have a family that cares about you. If I kill you right now, nobody would even care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Coming up, hear what Knight said she would think about every day to survive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking our top stories at 29 minutes after the hour. Bridge fires backing up traffic on Interstate 15 in California. Some lanes on connector between Los Angeles and Las Vegas could reopen in less than nine hours, but first crews have to put out the fire and demolish the damaged structure. The bridge caught fire Monday when sparks from blow torches accidentally ignited it.

A mother is in critical, but stable condition after surviving for nearly a week in her mangled car, found bleeding and dehydrated, she flipped off the road and landed in an embankment after her car crashed on Tuesday. She was stuck upside down in her car until another driver spotted her. Because of the severity of her injuries, doctors had to - had to amputate her feet.