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Shelly Sterling Will Fight to Keep Clippers; Manziel Fell to 22nd Pick in NFL Draft; Interview with Dan Caldwell; Putin Leads Show of Russian Nationalism

Aired May 09, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Brooke Baldwin.

He did it for sex? New graphic and revealing audio recordings reportedly of Donald Sterling supposedly explaining why he made racist comments that could cost him ownership of the LA Clippers. Now the 80-year-old admittedly -- allegedly admitting, I should say, that he wanted to sleep with his gal pal V. Stiviano and the tape was released by RadarOnline.

CNN believes the man's voice is Sterling's but we have been unable to confirm with Sterling's representatives that it is him. We also do not know who the other person is that he ends up revealing much, much more to. Now perhaps too much, including his jealousy of NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson?

We have the recording for you in its entirety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD STERLING, LA CLIPPERS OWNER: But I'm talking to a girl. I'm trying to have sex with her. I'm trying to play with her. What can -- you know, if you have sex with a girl and you're talking to her privately, you don't think anybody's there. You may say anything in the world. What difference does it make?

Then if the girl tapes it and releases it, then my God, it's awful. Who thinks anybody's going to tape something? What the hell? I'm talking to a girl. The girl's black. I like her. I'm jealous that she's with other black guys. I want her. So what the hell -- can you in private, tell her, you know, I don't want you to be with anybody. I mean, do I have -- am I a person? Do I have personal freedom of speech?

I wish Magic Johnson was talking to a girl. And you're trying to play with her. And you might say anything. I would have said I could fly over a high-rise building if I had to. And you're talking to her. And then you go away. And the next thing, three months later, what you said when you were hot trying to get her, is released.

I have a girl here who has black kids, and is partly black, I think, myself. I love the girl. And so she's telling me, "You're wrong." I know I'm wrong. What I said was wrong. But I never thought the private conversation would go anywhere. Out to the public. I didn't want her to bring anybody to my games because I was jealous. I mean, I'm being honest. And -- doesn't matter. No one's going to hear it but you and me so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So is Donald Sterling playing the victim card?

Our Stephanie Elam joins us from LA.

I mean, what do we do here, Stephanie? Do we sympathize or should we think this is just a PR stunt?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, I think it was an attempt to get some sympathy there. And maybe he will get some for that.

KEILAR: It's very late maybe. But it's still -- it's very late. We haven't heard from him at all until this recording is out. He has never put out anything on the record. It's always been through recordings, oddly enough. And also when you take a look at what he said, he said yes, I did say it but it was all in an effort to have sex, which makes zero sense to say this when half of who you are doesn't do it for me but still can I have sex with you?

I don't understand the logic there at all. So maybe this was his attempt? Because he does say at the end that he didn't think anyone was going to hear this. It does bring about the question whether or not that's true, and it also shows that he has a massive jealousy issue with Magic Johnson. Twice now in recording he has mentioned that man's name.

KEILAR: I mean -- well, I mean, Magic Johnson is a pretty accomplished guy. I can kind of see how that would happen. But certainly no reason to invoke the things that he did in his conversation with V. Stiviano. You know, and I also sort of wonder, maybe you know this, Stephanie. when you're looking at recordings like this, is this something that could impact the legal battle that he's facing?

ELAM: Maybe that was his attempt but the NBA has been really clear that they're not changing the position. Also he did admit that he said what he said. That doesn't change things. But what's interesting here is the one part that people have been discounting from the beginning is Shelly Sterling, his estranged wife, and the part that she plays in this. I interviewed her lawyer yesterday and this is how he characterized the situation as it stands right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOC RIVERS, LA CLIPPERS COACH: I think it'd be a very hard situation if you want me -- I'll say that much. I think it would be very difficult. I guarantee you every person wouldn't be on board with that.

ELAM: Everyone has a price. Has Mrs. Sterling identified hers?

PIERCE O'DONNELL, ROCHELLE STERLING'S ATTORNEY: No. Mrs. Sterling wants to retain her ownership interest in the team. She has enough money in her life and for her children and grandchildren. She's passionate about her ownership of this team. She loves the team. Players love her. Doc Rivers has been very supportive of her. And she's supportive of them. Mrs. Sterling wants to retain her 50 percent ownership interest in her lifetime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And it's also interesting to note that he does say in her lifetime. She wants to maintain her 50 percent ownership, the other 50 percent being owned by Donald. And also you heard from the coach of the Clippers Doc Rivers there. In the beginning he seemed to be very supportive of her but now he seems to be a little bit more hesitant, Brianna, and that shows that perhaps there's the changing tone as more has been revealed about both of the Sterlings.

KEILAR: Yes, and also maybe just wanting all of this to go away. It's certainly nothing you want. Lumps in there with your team.

Stephanie, Elam, thank you so much for that.

And happening now, one of the most controversial football players in the country is holding a news conference during his college career at Texas A&M, Johnny Manziel won the Heisman. The sports' obviously most prestigious award. And he also mesmerized fans with his improvisation and scrambling ability earning himself the nickname Johnny Football. Well, some that he would be the number one pick in the draft. But last night Cleveland picked him in the 22 spot.

More on why he fell in just a minute but let's listen as he holds that news conference on the draft.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNNY MANZIEL, HEISMAN TROPHY AWARDEE: And going here, there's a gap that I have to close of learning the offense and getting caught up to speed. The guys who advantage of plane. I'm obviously a rookie and I need to put some time in to be good. And I firmly that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you talk a little about, you know, we see the persona, you know, the pictures with Drake, and, you know, you're friends with Kylie and Lebron. And you know -- are you -- you know, is that, you know, kind of who you are? And are you bringing some of that sort of star power and sort of celebrity, big life theme here to Cleveland here with you?

MANZIEL: I don't think about that a whole lot. Just -- those guys are -- have been awesome to me. And people -- I reach out to them, they've reached out to me and we've kind of have friendships, and developed friendships over the past year and a half. And guys treat me really well and I don't look at it as celebrity or star or anything like that. I look at it as just have guys that really care about me or friends that happen to be in a bigger spotlight. I love being involved in sports. So guys like (INAUDIBLE), Lebron, great athletes and I love watching basketball. I mean, I think any guy in our position loves listening to music and Drake is the guy that makes very good music, so these guys reached out to me, I reached out to them, and we've just become friends. And I think it's extremely cool and I'm very glad to have them in my corner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Extremely cool, he said to that. To have people like Drake in his corner. Well, that was the new Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel. And as I mentioned, he had a prolific college career but he fell to the 22nd pick in the draft.

So why? Why were so many team scared off?

Brian McFayden with CNN Sports joining me now.

What happened, Brian?

MCFAYDEN: I want to be friends with Drake.

KEILAR: I know right? That's cool. I mean, I would think that would be extremely cool. OK. I just have them on my iPod.

MCFAYDEN: Well, yes. Hi, Brianna. I think it's -- you've got to understand that, you know, Johnny Manziel is probably one of the most polarizing athletes in the history of college football and definitely the history of the pre-draft. And you've got to think that half of the experts for believing that he was going to go number one with Houston and the others were saying he's undraftable because of his character flaws that he's had. You know, his suspension from the team because he was getting paid for autographs for half a game.

And he got himself in a little bit of a fisty cup with a buddy's -- with a friend's fight. He just been controversial like throughout his college football career but he's just a kid if you think about it. He's only 21 years old. And I don't think he really slipped. He went 22. That's not bad. It's actually really good.

KEILAR: Yes, it's not bad but it's not -- I mean, if you can say you went first in the draft, I mean that's great.

MCFAYDEN: That would be kind of cool to have in your resume. That's extremely cool to quote Johnny Manziel. I mean, but what about all of this controversy, though? I mean, the fisty cups, et cetera. How are Cleveland fans reacting to this?

MCFAYDEN: I think Cleveland is going to embrace him with open arms. They haven't had this much excitement in Cleveland since the days of Bernie Cozar. They need someone like this. They haven't had this much excitement since Lebron left.

KEILAR: Yes. And he's going to --

(CROSSTALK) MCFAYDEN: The Browns are back.

KEILAR: Didn't they sell a ton of season tickets overnight, right?

MCFAYDEN: Yes. The season tickets. That's -- can you imagine being the person that is taking the calls for season tickets for the Cleveland Browns? The phone was ringing off the hook. I -- from what I've been told that the Cleveland Brown ticket office sold 1500 tickets within the first 12 hours.

KEILAR: Wow. Yes. That's a lot. That's some pretty good --

MCFAYDEN: Huge impact.

KEILAR: -- cha-ching for the team, I would say, and for this city as well.

Brian McFayden, thank you so much.

MCFAYDEN: You're welcome.

KEILAR: Now coming up, CNN's exclusive investigation of potentially deadly wait times for U.S. veterans seeking medical care. We have explosive new allegations of a cover-up to falsify or to erase wait times for veterans.

And a shocking report out of Nigeria. Amnesty International says the government there had advanced warning on the Boko Haram kidnapping of schoolgirls before the attack by hours. So why didn't they do anything to stop it? We have a lot going on in the NEWSROOM. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: I want to turn now to CNN's exclusive investigation of potentially deadly wait times for U.S. veterans seeking medical care. We have explosive new allegations of a cover-up to falsify or even erase wait times for veterans forced to wait weeks or months for appointments.

Right now investigators from VA's Office of the Inspector General are on the ground at a San Antonio VA hospital. Hospital managers there are accused of ordering employees to create fake records showing little or no wait times for appointments. Investigators want to know whether any veterans possibly died as a result.

These allegations come from a hospital scheduling clerk who spoke publicly for the first time to our Drew Griffin. The clerk explained how wait times were allegedly manipulated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: So it could be three months and it looks like 14 days?

BRIAN TURNER, SCHEDULING CLERK, VETERANS AFFAIRS: It could be three months and look like no days. It looked like they had scheduled the appointment and got exactly what they want.

GRIFFIN: So fudging the books is my --

TURNER: That's your --

GRIFFIN: I would call it that. You can call it that. The VA doesn't call it that. They call it zeroing out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Zeroing Out. Well, the VA's official policy, all patients should be able to see a medical professional within 14 days. The VA Department said it looked into the clerk's allegations and quote, "We found the claims by this employee were not substantiated." Well, now the inspector general's office is doing its own investigation. This comes after allegations of secret wait lists and deadly delays at a Phoenix VA hospital.

In about an hour Senator John McCain, a war hero, as you probably know, will hold a forum in Phoenix to discuss veterans care.

And joining me from Phoenix, former U.S. Marine Dan Caldwell. He's the Issue and Legislative campaign manager for Concerned Veterans for America.

Dan, thanks so much for being with us. And I want to ask you about this. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, he ordered this face-to-face audit for all clinics. That's the response coming from the department. You're calling on him to resign now. What needs to happen to fix the VA's problems?

DAN CALDWELL, CONCERNED VETERANS FOR AMERICA: Well, first of all we think that Secretary Shinseki needs to go. Since 2009 he has failed to lead the VA in an effective and efficient way. Many programs going back to the GI Bill, electronic health records, the backlog. He has failed to properly manage and implement new programs and serve veterans in an efficient and timely manner.

So we think that's an important first step. The next thing the VA needs is more accountability for its personnel particularly at the senior leadership level. And that's why we think it's important that Congress and the president sign into law the VA Management Accountability Act which would make it easier to fire and remove some of these poorly performing managers.

KEILAR: So let me ask you this. I mean, as you call for Shinseki, Senator McCain, for instance, has not called for that. What do you want to hear from the senator today?

CALDWELL: Well, I understand the senator's position that the investigation needs to be completed at the Phoenix VA, but I also would say that our group and the American Legion are not calling for Secretary Shinseki to resign just because of Phoenix. Our group feels there's been a long pattern of mismanagement and failure at the senior level of the Department of Veterans Affairs and this isn't just based on one incident or one city. It goes to the backlog. It goes to confirmed deaths, not just alleged, confirmed deaths from delayed care at the VA in places like Pittsburgh and other cities across the country. Again, I mentioned the failure to implement a new program with the Electronic Health Records, the failed rollout of the post-911 GI Bill. It's not just one incident.

I would say to Senator McCain to take a look at the history of the VA under Secretary Shinseki. But again, I understand what he's trying to say that we need this investigation to be completed. We just respectfully disagree that we think it is actually time for him to go now.

KEILAR: And you heard, Dan, that allegation of zeroing out the wait times here. You would think that if that is happening, there might be -- there's a reason that precipitates that. Do you think that VA hospitals have enough doctors and staff to meet that 14-day period which is their official policy for when treatment should be received? Is that realistic?

CALDWELL: Well, I don't know if they have enough hospitals or doctors and staff at their hospital but I will say they've been given an incredible amount of resources to hire staff at their hospitals. And in fact, the VA since 2001 started the war on terror, has added over 100,000 new employees and have their budget more than triple. They've been given the resources to hire these doctors, nurses and other staff members. And if they're not doing it, then it's an allocation issue and it's an issue of how they're managing their congressionally appropriated funds.

KEILAR: All right. Dan Caldwell, thanks for being with us. We really appreciate it.

CALDWELL: No problem.

KEILAR: And coming up, a new report from Amnesty International. It says that Nigerian security forces had more than four hours' warning ahead of the attack where that terror group, Boko Haram, kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls. Why didn't they do anything to prevent that attack?

And Russian president Vladimir Putin making a surprise appearance in Crimea today. He was there to take part in Victory Day celebration. What meaning could that visit hold? We're live from Crimea next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Russia's Vladimir Putin made a splash today in Crimea. The initial spoils of the squeeze that he's putting on his Afghan neighbor Ukraine. Here's Putin greeting his Navy as he arrived as a conquering hero.

Crimeans lined the harbor for Putin's first visit as president since he grabbed Crimea from Ukraine. Earlier in Moscow the enigmatic leader presided over a show of resurgent military might as ceremonies marking victory in World War II.

It's late evening now in Crimea. Phil Black is there for us.

Phil, there's a lot of symbolism in this today. This display of Russian power on several different fronts.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed, Brianna. That's right. And really you get the feeling here in Sevastopol that this hasn't so much been about remembering the Russian or the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. This is a celebration of more recent history. The very recent annexation. Russia taking back Crimea. That is why there are still thousands of people lining the shores here tonight.

We've just seen a big fireworks display through the day. A military parade, a military fly-by, and of course that guest of honor Vladimir Putin who congratulated the people here for what he called a great victory. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA (Through Translator): 2014 will enter to the chronicles, into the chronicle of all our country, as the year when all the people who live here firmly decided to be together as Russia, therefore confirming their faithfulness to the historic truth and the memory of our ancestors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: The international community doesn't like this. The United States, Ukraine, said this will only escalate the broader Ukrainian process. But clearly the statement from Vladimir Putin today is not -- not worrying too much about what the international community thinks, his visit here very much a statement to Russia where his move to -- to take back Crimea has been incredibly popular and it's been very popular with the crowds here, too, today -- Brianna.

KEILAR: So Phil, he's speaking to a Russian audience, obviously, and to some there in Crimea. Is there also a message to the West, though?

BLACK: Well, it is certainly defiance to the West, no doubt about that. He has received enormous criticism and condemnation. We know that Russian key figures remain under economic sanctions as do some of their institutions as well. The language from the West has been very damning of Russia's actions particularly here in Crimea and now still in eastern and southern Ukraine as well.

And as Russia continues to be criticized for what the West believes is inflaming that crisis in the east of Ukraine, he has come here today in what I think the West will consider to be very much a triumphant kind of act. But to the West, to the international community, he is clearly standing defiant and really showing them or at least wanting to present to them that he's not too concerned about what the rest of the world is thinking and saying right now -- Brianna.

KEILAR: No. It certainly comes across. Phil Black in Sevastopol, thank you so much.

Coming up, it's been two months since Flight 370 went missing. Could the reason it has not been found is that investigators are looking in the wrong ocean?

And a new report from Amnesty International says that Nigerian Security Forces had more than four hours' warning before the terror group Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls. Why didn't they do anything to prevent that attack? We will be discussing that. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)