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Donald Sterling Interview; Nigerian Kidnapped Girls; Student Killed in Garage Prank

Aired May 12, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wonderful being back in the big chair here today. Great to be with you. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And we begin with this. You know his face. You certainly recognize his voice by now. I'm talking about L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling. He is talking again, only this time it is on the record and on camera with our own Anderson Cooper. And let me say that Sterling, he had a lot to say in this exclusive interview beginning with two words, "I'm sorry." The 80-year-old billionaire says he was wrong to say what he did about African-Americans. He says he insists that he is not a racist. In fact, he implies he's been taken advantage of.

Complicating matters here, you have Sterling's estranged wife Shelly and Shelly says she is going to file for divorce sooner rather than later, but she vows a legal fight to keep her share of the Clippers basketball team.

So let me play this for you. This is Donald Sterling's firsthand. By the way, must see TV tonight, 8:00 Eastern, the full interview airs on "AC 360." But here is just a piece.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD STERLING, L.A. CLIPPERS OWNER: I'm not a racist. I made a terrible, terrible mistake. And I'm here with you today to apologize and to ask for forgiveness for all the people that I've hurt. And I've hurt so many people, so many innocent people. And I've hurt myself. You know, I spoke to a girl that I was fond of. When I listened to that tape, I don't even know how I could say words like that and I'm so sorry and I'm so apologetic.

ANDERSON COOPER, ANCHOR, CNN'S "AC 360": What are you sorry about?

STERLING: Well, I'm sorry that so many people are hurt. But I never dreamt that this could happen. It's a terrible, terrible nightmare. My players, they didn't need this. They didn't need this cloud over their head. And they're good people. And I love them. And I respect them. And I would always be there for them.

COOPER: When you saw them take off their warm-up -

STERLING: For them to hear that I - that I am a possible racist is so painful to me because I'm not a racist and I've never been a racist. It's not me. COOPER: When you saw them take off their - wear their warm-up jerseys reverse of the name Clippers wasn't on in that first game, what did you think?

STERLING: I really didn't pay attention. They are Clippers in their mind and I'm theirs. That's how I feel. I would do anything for them. I made a mistake. I hope it's in their heart to forgive me for that mistake. I don't know why the girl had me say those things.

COOPER: You're saying (INAUDIBLE setup?

STERLING: Well, yes, I was bated. I mean, that's now the way I talk. I don't talk about people for one thing, ever. I talk about ideas and other things, but I don't talk about people.

COOPER: Do you know how the tape got released?

STERLING: No.

COOPER: Do you think she did it?

STERLING: It's - I don't know. I mean I -- an 80-year-old man is kind of foolish and I'm kind of foolish. I thought she liked me and really cared for me. I guess being 50 years, 51 years older than her, I was deluding myself.

COOPER: Do you trust her now?

STERLING: No, I don't trust her. And I just wish I could ask her why and if she was just setting me up. I think that people say she was taping me for two years. So maybe I was just fooling myself thinking for two years that she cared for me. She certainly acted like it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's talk about this, shall we. Let me bring in Rick Barry. He is a basketball hall of famer, a former NBA star, and his son played for the L.A. Clippers, and Marvet Britto, she is an entertainment PR and brand strategist.

So, to both of you, welcome.

MARVET BRITTO, ENTERTAINMENT, PR & BRAND STRATEGIST: Thank you.

RICK BARRY, NBA PLAYER, 1965-1980: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Rick Barry, out of the gate and going straight to you. You heard that snippet with Mr. Sterling. Do you buy his apology? Do you buy the I'm sorry?

BARRY: Well, first of all, I think it's great that he's apologizing. It took a little bit longer, I think, than most people would have liked. But he seemed that he was sincere in that regard and he's asking for forgiveness and certainly he can be forgiven, but not to the point where he's going to be allowed to remain the owner of the Clippers. I don't think the owners are going to allow that to happen. The best part about the whole thing for me was -- and you didn't play it and I - but I listened to it, is the fact that he said -

BALDWIN: Well, we have a lot more to play, let me assure you of that, sir. We have a lot more to play over the course of the next two hours, but continue.

BARRY: Yes. I know. Well, he said that he was really - that it wouldn't serve any purpose, even if he won if he went to court and he spent millions of dollars and the league spent millions of dollars.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BARRY: I was glad to hear that because the last thing they need is to go and have a long, drawn out legal battle over this. Unfortunately, his wife wants to go ahead and sue and try to keep ownership, although under the constitution of the NBA and the board of governors, they say that they can take away the team. And I'm hoping that there's not going to be a long, drawn out court battle because nobody wins.

BALDWIN: Their - right, there are all kinds of litigious issues here. And you point out something, we're going to play the sound bite a little later and I'm totally paraphrasing when he's saying - basically he's saying, hey, I'm this 80-year-old guy. You know, they would be spending millions, I would be spending millions to do that and maybe it's not worth the fight. That to me definitely is one of the headlines with the Anderson interview, maybe he wouldn't fight it.

Let me though, Rick, ask you this, because just - I wrote down some of the words he used. He referred to "my players, they're mine." Is that -- I'm not in the NBA, never have been. This is - you know, you've been around for decades here, is that the way owners talk about players? I'm just curious.

BARRY: No, but he also said that he's theirs as well.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BARRY: So we don't want (ph) to, I think, make a big deal out of that. I think that's stretching it. There's other things that weren't said. I don't know why he said something, which you'll hear later on, about Magic Johnson not doing enough for the -

BALDWIN: Yes.

BARRY: You know, doing everything he can for -

BALDWIN: For L.A.

BARRY: For - yes, minorities. Yes. So I don't know why he wanted to - you know, he opened his mouth and he stuck his foot in it when he said that, but I'm just hoping that they don't get to the point where they have long court battles over this because everybody loses.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BARRY: I mean there's no winner here. And that's the unfortunate thing. We need to move on. We need to get rid of him. We need to have him sell the team. They're going to come out of it doing really well. But the attorney for Mrs. Sterling said that there's the - a country of laws. The constitution and the California laws and they feel that they are going to supersede over the laws of the NBA -

BALDWIN: The NBA, exactly right.

BARRY: And what they have in their constitution.

BALDWIN: Exactly right.

And so, Marvet to you, you know, you hear Rick talking about, you know, the sincerity of the apology and I'm just wondering from you, from a public relations standpoint, was there anything he could have said to totally change people's minds, this public perception of this man?

BRITTO: Well, that's what we're really fighting is the court of public perception. And I think Don Sterling made a big mistake, several mistakes in the interview, and that is, yes, he did offend a community, but he further offended a community by insulting someone that the African-American community widely adores and respects.

BALDWIN: Magic Johnson.

BRITTO: Magic Johnson. Yes. He - Magic Johnson has nothing to do with this issue, apart from the fact that he took a picture with the young lady that Don Sterling has a relationship with. Magic Johnson is not the topic and therefore the apology should not have focused on Magic Johnson. It should have focused on him being humble and really more apologetic than he was. I think he's more apologetic for having gotten caught than he is for the act. So, for me, I think that the lateness, it's almost two weeks later that he came forward to apologize, speaks deeply to Don Sterling's sincerity. I think he has -

BALDWIN: He says he's been emotionally distraught because Anderson followed up and said, hey, it's taking you -- why is it taking you so long to apologize and that was his - that was his defense.

Rick, to you, because you - as I mentioned, you've been around the NBA for decades. Your sons played balls. Brent (ph) played for Don Sterling. You know, he - Don Sterling told Anderson he is not racist. I'm just curious, based upon your interactions, do you earnestly believe him?

BARRY: Not really because of the other incidents that have taken place in his life and some of the things that he's done outside of the NBA. But when he opened up the door and finally did something that had a negative impact on the NBA, Adam Silver came down hard on him. And I'm so proud of what he has done in that regard. There's no place for a man with these types of feelings. And the one that's such a ludicrous thing is him saying that he was baited into saying this, that he never says those kinds of things. I mean, come on, we've all been in situations where people have tried to bait us.

BALDWIN: You're not buying that?

BARRY: You don't say things that you don't really want to say. Come on, that's a joke.

BALDWIN: You played basketball, Rick, in the, what, mid, late 60s? When you think about race relations --

BARRY: I played in three decades.

BALDWIN: Three decades.

BARRY: Yes.

BALDWIN: But especially during that time when you think of race relations and incredibly turbulent, you have seen the evolution of race and basketball sort of intertwine. Where does it stand today?

BARRY: Oh, it's so much more improved. I mean back when - there was a lot of hate toward the white players and some of the players that I played with really didn't like the white guys. But I respected them because they put that aside and we went out on the court and we played together and we were successful and they let their personal feelings not impact their professional performance. And that was really, I think, outstanding on their part.

One other thing to bring up about Sterling's situation with his wife.

BALDWIN: Sure.

BARRY: LeBron James has said that the players do not want any member of the Sterling family to have ownership in that team.

BALDWIN: That's exactly right.

BARRY: That should be enough for her to realize that it's foolish of her to move on and to try to have a lawsuit. I hope she listens to that.

BALDWIN: We will hear from LeBron James himself in an interview with Rachel Nichols a little later on in the hour to your precise point. Rick Barry, thank you so much, and Marvet Britto, to you as well. I really appreciate both of you coming on.

And just a reminder, you know, Rick mentioned there's a heck of a lot left of this interview, so we want you to watch the whole thing tonight, "AC 360," 8:00 Eastern. And we will play much more for you, including the bit that's getting a lot of press as far as what else he has said about Magic Johnson. So stick around for that.

Just ahead here, though, for the very first time, terrorists who kidnapped hundreds of girls are releasing video allegedly showing many of them together. Hear what the terror group is demanding.

And just in to CNN, word that negotiations are now on the table. That could be huge.

Plus, it is called garage hopping. Have you heard of this? This is when teenagers break in to steel beer and whatever else they can find. But for this one young man, this so-called game took a deadly turn. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Moments ago, Nigeria revealed that ever single option is on the table towards securing the freedom of more than 200 kidnapped girls, including negotiations. And that word comes just hours after this. I want you to look at this video because this is a chilling image because it purportedly shows some of the nearly 300 girls taken from a school a month ago tomorrow by these Islamist rebels. The girls are wearing, as you can see, the Islamic style robes. They're said by the rebels leader to have converted. Now, the leader of the militants also appears here and he repeats his demand to Nigeria to release some of his followers currently held in prisons.

As to that first piece of video we just showed you, we are working to establish whether the girls we are seeing in that picture truly are the ones here abducted back on April 14th. That is when armed men entered their boarding school, snatched them up in the middle of the night. CNN's Nima Elbagir found a girl who says she escaped the group's clutches. She is clearly traumatized. Take a look and a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What were they wearing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

ELBAGIR: Did they look like soldiers?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we (INAUDIBLE).

ELBAGIR: You feel afraid?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

ELBAGIR: You don't want to talk about what they look like?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

ELBAGIR: It's OK. I understand. I understand. I'm sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Mike Baker joins me now live from Boise, Idaho. He is a former CIA operative.

And, Mike, nice to have you on.

MIKE BAKER, FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: Yes. Thanks.

BALDWIN: And I'd like to just roll the video again because this is where I want to begin with you. And I want you to tell me, with your trained eye, you know, and if you've been in the region, does it look to you here like northeastern Nigeria, which sort of blends into the Sahara, is this what it really could be?

BAKER: Well, yes, I mean I think the -- just like we saw recently with the - the footage that came out from al Qaeda, AQAP (ph) in Yemen, in southern Yemen, there's a great deal that sometimes you can glean from video like this or any still images. And that's what's going on right now. They're just trying to get some sense because this is not as simple, a logistical exercise now as thinking that Boka Haram has somehow kept all these girls in one location while they try to decide what's the, you know, the best business aspect of this for them. Is it negotiations for prisoner release? Is it selling them?

BALDWIN: What about that? Let me -

BAKER: You know, the brutal likelihood is - oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

BALDWIN: Let me stop you there because that's news that we just learned moments ago, they're saying anything's on the table and that would include negotiations. What do you make of that? That's huge.

BAKER: Well, I don't know that I would put a lot of weight in it. I mean Boka Haram is like any other terrorist organization nowadays. They don't live in a bubble. So they've seen all this social media interest. They've seen the sort of reaction that this is getting and they're going to do whatever they think is in their best interest and maximizes, you know, whatever return, as it were unfortunately, that they will get from this tragic event.

But, again, the idea that a lot of these girls haven't already been moved either across border or handed over to top fighters or trusted lieutenants, you know, as a reward for fighting on behalf of Boka Haram, you know, this is - this is a very complicated situation, so I think we need to, you know - and we also need to take everything that this psychotic leader of Boka Haram says, you know, with a grain of salt.

BALDWIN: Yes. You mention the word maximize and the fact that this group obviously isn't in a bubble. I'm just curious if you think - I mean this has become this international push, this massive #bringbackourgirls. Do you think it's possible, though, that that could, in turn, hurt the girls' potential to be released because does that not just -- the leverage that this, you know, psychopath, this psychotic leader, to quote you, may now have because the whole world is watching?

BAKER: Well, yes. And whether they - you know, whether they're sincere or genuine in talking about potentially some of the girls, I suspect a lot of them are out of their immediate control already at this point. Look, this is a very pours part of the world. You know, this northeastern Nigeria area, there's a lot of movement. There's established trafficking networks. Again, I don't want to sound cynical and brutal in this whole thing, but we have to be pragmatic in how we approach this.

Now, from a U.S. perspective, what could we do? Well, we're already trying. We're providing intel support. We're providing resources and hardware and assistance. We're not providing boots on the ground, but we can work in concert with others who can, in particular the French. The French have a great deal of experience and capability in this part of the world and I suspect that, you know, if anybody is boots on the ground, taking an active effort, it's going to be the French.

BALDWIN: OK. Mike Baker, as always, thank you so much for coming on. Always appreciate your perspective.

BAKER: Sure. Thank you.

BALDWIN: And girls around the globe, they're facing challenges just to get an education. There is a global campaign, of course, to empower girls. And if you'd like more information, just go to cnn.com/impact.

And now this is called garage hopping. You have these teenagers, they're breaking in and they're stealing beer or whatever they can find in someone's garage. But for this young man, this so called game took a deadly turn.

Also ahead, for more than a month searchers have been frantically tracking those possible black box pings heard during the hunt for Flight 370, but now have you heard about this new report saying that Australia is not so sure they were pings at all. Those details next here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It was reckless and foolish but loved ones say the prank of one teenager should not have cost him his life. And now there is another controversy involving the shooter claiming self-defense. But, this time the outcry goes beyond American borders. You see Germany here is closing watching this case which centers on the death of this German exchange student by the name of Diren Dede. And our Montana TV affiliates report that the surveillance footage shows the 17-year-old breaking into a garage in Missoula. Dede reportedly was garage hopping. It's this type of dare to steal. Now, an affidavit reads that the garage owner, Markus Kaarma heard noises and then shot four times into the dark garage killing this teenager.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE WALKER, EXCHANGE STUDENT'S HOST FAMILY: Very angry. I don't -- it just never should have happened and -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you mean angry?

WALKER: Angry that someone could get shot down in someone's garage. That shouldn't happen.

RANDY SMITH, EXCHANGE STUDENT'S HOST FAMILY: He's just such a great kid. We just - so we requested that we be allowed to - he just be allowed to stay with us the whole year, which was not our original intent. But he was just such a fun, wonderful kid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Kaarma, who is the father of a 10-month-old, has a hearing today. He's expected to be arraigned this week. But there's so much more to this story. So let's bring in CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin, on the case with me today.

And, Sunny Hostin, a couple of things first. We know that the affidavit shows that the garage owners, they have had issues with break-ins apparently before, left the garage open on purpose, even put a purse there as potential bait. Investigators say it is possible Kaarma may have been high when he pulled the trigger. How does that affect his claims that he was protecting himself and his property?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, you know, I think that's going to be very difficult because the bottom line is, in Montana and in many states, I think all of them really, we have this castle doctrine, which means, when you're in your home, that should be your safe place, your safe haven, right? No one should be able to come in and attack you, your property, your family without you being able to defend yourself. And that's been a tenant of our legal system since the very beginning.

This is a bit different. Minnesota's is a bit more extensive because it places the burden on the prosecution to prove that it wasn't self- defense. But also you really can't lay in wait for someone. You can't lay a trap inside your home and then claim self-defense. You can't claim that you're defending yourself and your property. And I think that's what's going to be difficult here because, as you mentioned, there have - there is an affidavit that indicates that he told someone that he's tired of - rather he told someone that he was waiting to shoot a f-ing kid in his garage. That there have been three weeks of break-ins. That his wife had placed a purse with her personal belongings in the garage, had left the garage door open and even placed a baby monitor in the garage.

BALDWIN: Wow.

HOSTIN: And that sounds very much to me like a trap, right?

BALDWIN: So he was -- sounds like maybe looking for someone. But then, you know, again you have this teenager who was garage hopping, shouldn't have been where he was, looking to steal something potentially. And I know you talk about the castle doctrine but just really simply, what kind of rights would a homeowner have in that situation?

HOSTIN: Yes. I mean, and that's the thing. I think if this ever goes to trial, a jury trial, there - it's going to be very difficult because homeowners do have the right to be safe in their persons in their property to be safe when they're in their home. And so I think a jury may feel like, well, this kid was in the garage, on their property, don't they have a right to be fearful? But again, there's that twist here because - there's tension because you really can't lay in wait. You can't trap somebody and then shoot them. So I think it's going to be a close call actually when you look at the facts of this case for a jury to find him guilty. And let's face it, I mean, Montana has the country's highest - one of the country's highest areas of gun ownership and so there's that as well.

BALDWIN: Yes. Garage hopping. You ever heard of that?

HOSTIN: I had never heard of it, but -

BALDWIN: Right, me neither. Me neither.

HOSTIN: My kids aren't going garage hopping any time soon.

BALDWIN: No, no, no.

HOSTIN: I'll teach them about this.

BALDWIN: Good mom. Sunny Hostin, thank you so much.

HOSTIN: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up here, Donald Sterling talking exclusively to CNN about his racist rant. We are also now hearing from his estranged wife as well. That's a whole other layer to this story. She says the divorce petition is signed. She blames his bizarre behavior on dementia. So you will hear from her coming up.

Plus this. A boulder stops inches from a church. Was it luck? Was it divine intervention? We will hear from the pastor just ahead here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)