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Donald Sterling Attacks Magic Johnson; Families: Not All Captives From School Raid; Where Is Radio Host Casey Kasem?

Aired May 13, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD STERLING, OWNER, L.A. CLIPPER: Big Magic Johnson. What has he done?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Well, he's a business person.

STERLING: He's got AIDS.

COSTELLO: Whatever happened to just saying you're sorry? Donald Sterling slams Magic Johnson, saying he's not a good example for kids.

Then Casey Kasem is missing. Even his kids don't know where he is. Hear why a judge is ordering an investigation to find the radio legend.

And U.S. forces join the hunt to find those missing school girls. Can manned surveillance planes help bring them home safely? NEWSROOM starts now.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you for joining me. First came the apology and then the attack. Disgraced L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling says he made a terrible mistake and insists he's no racist. But in the same exclusive interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Sterling goes off on Magic Johnson calling him a womanizer and suggesting that he's no role model for kids. Here's sterling in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STERLING: I'm hurt that he called me up and he said: "Don't do anything. Wait until you hear from me." Then somebody called me later and said, he doesn't want to be involved. And then he released the tape that I sent to him, that I talked to him in confidence. I -- I don't -- I didn't give any interviews. You are my interview. I'm deciding if I like you.

No, but I -- here is a man who is -- I don't know if I say this. He acts so holy. I mean, he made love to every girl in every city in America and he had AIDS. And when he had those AIDS, I went to my synagogue and I prayed for him. I hoped he could live and be well.

I didn't criticize him. I could have. Is he an example for children? You know, because he has money, he's able to treat himself. But Magic Johnson is irrelevant in this thing. He didn't do anything harmful to anybody. And I respect him. And I admire everything that he does.

You know, I would like to help even more if he would offer me an opportunity to help. I like to help minorities.

COOPER: Magic Johnson had said that he would never attend a game while you were owner. Apparently, he showed up to a game today.

STERLING: He would never what?

COOPER: Attend a Clippers game as long as you were owner, and he came today to see the game.

STERLING: He's there at the game?

COOPER: Yes.

STERLING: I don't think it's worthy of me even discussing. Such a stupid remark. But he lulled me into waiting a week. Do you know what I mean? He says, "Don't do anything."

COOPER: He told you -- you're saying he told you not to say anything?

STERLING: Yes: "Don't do anything. I know the girl. Don't do anything. I will help you." I'm waiting and I'm waiting and I'm waiting.

COOPER: What you're saying is, Magic Johnson called you up, or you called him up?

STERLING: I don't know his phone number.

COOPER: He called you up when the tape broke?

STERLING: Yes. I don't call anybody.

COOPER: He called you up?

STERLING: I'm loyal to you.

COOPER: He called you up when the tape came out and he told you not to say anything?

STERLING: Yes.

COOPER: Why did he say, don't say anything?

STERLING: He just said: "Wait. Be patient. I will help you. We will -- we will work it out."

COOPER: Why do you think he said that?

STERLING: I think he wanted me just to do nothing, so he could buy the team. He thought maybe the whole thing would be resolved in two weeks. What has he done? Can you tell me? Big Magic Johnson, what has he done?

COOPER: Well, he has -- he's a businessperson. He --

STERLING: He's got AIDS. Did he do any business? I would like -- did he help anybody in South L.A.?

COOPER: Well, I think he has HIV. He doesn't actually have full- blown AIDS, but...

STERLING: Well, what kind of a guy goes to every city, he has sex with every girl, then he catches HIV and -- is that someone we want to respect and tell our kids about? I think he should be ashamed of himself. I think he should go into the background.

But what does he do for the black people? Doesn't do anything. You call up and say -- well --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: He's opened a lot of businesses in inner-city neighborhoods.

STERLING: The Jewish people -- the Jewish people have a company, and it's for people who want to borrow money and no interest. They want to give them a fish pole -- a fishing pole. We want to help people. If they don't have money, we will loan to it you. You don't have interest. One day, you will pay us back.

COOPER: So...

STERLING: I'm just telling you, he does nothing. It's all talk.

COOPER: So, you're saying that African-Americans don't contribute to their -- to African-American communities as much as Jewish people do?

STERLING: There's no African-American -- never mind. I'm sorry. You know, I -- they all want to play golf with me. They -- everybody wants to be with me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right, an FYI, Mr. Sterling, there are 150 students on college scholarships thanks to Magic Johnson's Foundation. He's opened dozens of movie theaters in underserved areas and Magic Johnson has also invested billions, with B, billions in urban redevelopment. Sterling's Magic bashing so bad, the NBA felt the need to apologize to Magic Johnson.

Commissioner Adam Silver released this statement, quote, "I just read a transcript of Donald Sterling's interview with Anderson Cooper and while Magic Johnson doesn't need me to, I feel compelled on behalf of the NBA family to apologize to him that he continues to be dragged into this situation and be degraded by such a malicious and personal attack. The NBA Board of Governors is continuing with its process to remove Mr. Sterling as expeditiously as possible.

Magic Johnson himself tweeted last night, quote, "I'd rather are talk about these great NBA playoffs than Donald Sterling's interview" except for tonight. You can hear Magic Johnson in a CNN exclusive interview with Anderson Cooper. Johnson will sit down with Anderson tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

With me now to talk, basketball hall-of-famer and member of the NBA Retired Player's Association Board of Directors, Rick Berry and member of the Retired NBA Players Association Las Vegas and philanthropist, Jerome Williams. Welcome to both of you.

So Jerome, do you want to play golf with Mr. Sterling?

JEROME WILLIAMS, NBA RETIRED PLAYERS ASSOCIATION, LAS VEGAS: No, not at this time. I think I'm going to have to pass him up on that. Everybody wants to play golf with him.

COSTELLO: What do you make of what he said and why does he keep talking?

WILLIAMS: Well, you know, I just look at it as this is a guy who is 80 years old and obviously he has had a long life and he's been around and had this franchise for many years and I think that he is now basically stepped off the deep end in terms of what he's saying about certain players, about his franchise.

He's definitely a little delusional in terms of his connection with reality and I think that it has to do with the fact that when you have a lot of money, sometimes you're put in this bubble where you don't really come into contact with a lot of people. With the people at large and I think that that is really clouding his judgment.

COSTELLO: I think that's very kind of you to say, Jerome. If NBA owners were watching Sterling last night, what do you suppose they were thinking?

RICK BARRY, NBA HALL OF FAME: My God, what is he doing now? This man is continually opening his mouth and inserting his foot and making a sad situation even worse. I just don't understand what he's thinking about when he's saying these things. I heard portions of the interview before yesterday and I hadn't heard all of the other stuff that he said.

I thought what he said before was bad when he said that Magic hasn't done much for minorities in Los Angeles, but the things that he brought up here were reprehensible. Adam Silver, just to show you the classy young man that he is and what a great commissioner he's going to be, I think it's great what he did to come out to apologize and there should be an apology to Magic Johnson.

What this man is doing right now is just making the situation worse that would hopefully go away. One of the attorneys was on saying this man has been contacting law firms about suing and yet he goes on the show and talks about the fact that he thinks suing wouldn't be very good. He is a liar. I can affirm that. I had dealings with him years ago and the man flat out lied to me. I don't believe anything this man says.

COSTELLO: I think he's a hypocrite. He brings up Magic Johnson bringing up sleeping with all these women. He's a married man. He was trying to get V. Stiviano to have sex with him and he was buying her expensive presents to do that. There is some weird disconnect there with him.

WILLIAMS: Absolutely. When you start talking about people's sexual relations and different things, I think that really just steps beyond the line even when Anderson Cooper asked him about his relationship, he said, you know, he was the type of guy that doesn't talk about it. His relationships.

So then he goes onto talk about Magic Johnson in a way that's very harmful and I agree with Rick Barry in terms of Adam Silver's comments in terms of apologizing on behalf of the NBA, the owners and the board of governors. This is ludicrous in terms of how he's attacking another one of our alumni and he could attack any of us for that matter if he so chose so I really stand behind what they're saying right now.

COSTELLO: So, Rick, is it even more important than ever that the NBA divest itself of Sterling quickly as in just right after the playoffs are over?

BARRY: As soon as possible. It couldn't be done quick enough as far as I'm concerned. The sad part about it is that he also now you have his wife and her attorney talking about the fact that they want to try to fight this so they can have ownership as far as she is concerned and possibly other members of her family. I appeal to her.

Listen to what LeBron James said. He and the rest of the NBA players do not want any member of the Sterling member involved with this team. Why would you fight for something that will never be a positive thing? It can't possibly happen. They need to just go away. Donald Sterling will get a fortune when he sells this basketball team. Go get an island somewhere and isolate yourself and get away from everybody and do us all a favor.

COSTELLO: And Jerome, if Shelly Sterling really does get the team, the players are going to walk off and boycott, aren't they?

WILLIAMS: Absolutely.

BARRY: Also you're going to --

WILLIAMS: Number one, you cannot have a situation where any sterling member, family, wife, kids, children, anybody with the Sterling name attached to L.A. Clippers. This is something that the players will not tolerate. I think that the executive interim director has definitely made his point to the NBA and Adam Silver has done an excellent job talking to the board of governors. They had right to terminate any ownership group in the NBA.

That's a right they'll expose and they're going to take advantage of because this is a billion dollar industry. The NBA represents one of the global games that is transcending culture, ethnicity, race, and when you have a problem with an ownership group, that's what they're going to eliminate and not jeopardize the entire fabric of the makeup of this organization and this billion dollar industry. That's something that has to be taken care of swiftly as Rick said in terms of the board of governors meeting about it and putting an end to the whole fiasco.

COSTELLO: Jerome Williams, Rick Barry, thanks for your insight.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the woman at the center of the Donald Sterling controversy. Now the friends of V. Stiviano are speaking out.

They really are speaking out. Trust me. More on why they think this was part of Stiviano's plan to become famous.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Just last hour we heard from relatives of the girls being held captive by those Nigerian terrorists. Some were not snatched in last month's school raid, but could have been abducted two years ago. In the meantime, the United States is stepping up its role in the help to search for them. According to sources in the Obama administration, the U.S. is now sharing aerial surveillance of Nigerian territory through commercial satellites and manned planes from the Defense Department. It could be an essential step in locating and ultimately rescuing these girls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GENERAL JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The real issue is with intelligence. You have to have multiple forms of intelligence. You have to have it layered so one form of intelligence would be a single source. You want to confirm that with some other source of intelligence. So you can use UAVs, you can use satellites. You can use fixed wing air breathers to refine it. Most importantly, you have to have sources on the ground.

You have to develop those sources which is why the army has a special forces a team, which has intelligence guys, medical guys, it has the ability to do strong logistics work. These are senior guys that will further develop relationships to further refine this picture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In the meantime, nearly a month after the armed abductions, parents talk about the horror that returns every day at sunset. They guard against a return by the heavily armed Boko Haram terrorists. Villagers are haunted by that night when militants attack the boarding school in an explosion of gunfire. Nima Elbagir traveled to that area and talked to those parents. Good morning.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You were speaking about the involvement of the U.S. and the U.K. Has also pledged and other European countries but when we arrived, what we found were the families who feel they waited too long for help to arrive and have decided they are going to fend for themselves. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELBAGIR: Fight fell and with it the fear returns bringing back memories of when nearly 300 girls were abducted here. It's at night that people here say they feel most vulnerable, most abandoned by the outside world, which is why they have started going on nightly patrols like this ever since that horrifying night of April 14th, the men here have come together each bringing what they could, machetes, homemade bows and arrows hoping they will be able to protect their families. Daniel and his family witnessed the terror firsthand.

DANIEL MUVIA, CHIBOK RESIDENT: We have to run into the bushes for our lives so it was a horrifying night. Fear is everywhere.

ELBAGIR: Daybreak brings respite but the school serves as a reminder of the sheer scale of the devastation. Nearly a month since the night when the radical Islamist group Boko Haram stormed this town, more than 200 girls are still missing. Tired of waiting for help to arrive, fear is making way for resilience.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELBAGIR: It's almost unimaginable having such a trauma strike at the heart of a community like that. I have to tell you, Carol, it was extraordinary to see people picking themselves up, people going out on patrols. Many mothers had gone out into the deep bush on the trail of Boko Haram. It was incredible. They have decided that they are not going to be hopeless. They are going to do what they can to get their daughters back -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Amazing courage. Nima Elbagir, thank you so much. If you would like to help girls worldwide trying to overcome barriers to education, go to our web site. The address cnn.com/impact.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, for years you heard your signature line. Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars well today Casey Kasem is missing. Up next, why a judge has ordered an investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: He's a radio legend and for decades deejay Casey Kasem made his marks by telling fans to keep their feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASEY KASEM: Thank you and hello again. Welcome to America's top ten. Let's turn right to the action on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart and countdown the ten most popular songs in the land this week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That was Kasem back in 1984 on American Top 40, countdown of the top music in the country. Today Casey Kasem is missing. According to his daughter, a judge has now ordered an investigation into his disappearance. Kasem's family says his wife, Jean, illegally pulled Kasem out of a treatment facility where he was receiving care for advanced Parkinson's. So let's bring in CNN digital reporter, Alan Duke to talk more about this. Does Jean know where he is? Is she just not saying? Is that how it goes?

ALAN DUKE, CNN DIGITAL REPORTER: Yes, she apparently isn't telling her lawyer where he is. Her lawyer appeared in court yesterday in Los Angeles and a probate judge and told him he doesn't know where she is with her husband and doesn't know where Casey is. But is believed to be out of the country. And therefore this court doesn't have jurisdiction.

The judge did not buy that and instead issued an order appointing one of his daughters as his temporary conservator, which means she has control over him. Right now the judge has ordered an adult protection agency lawyer to check and find out where is Casey Kasem. This is a beloved icon of American culture who is on the radio today because they are still replaying his old shows from the '70s and '80s on oldies stations.

A lot of people are concerned about Casey Kasem, his advanced Parkinson's disease. His mind is still good but he can't walk. He's in a wheelchair and they are concerned about his health.

COSTELLO: What a sad story. There's been a battle between Casey Kasem's wife and his children. Some of his children talked to CNN back in December. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRI KASEM, DAUGHTER OF CASEY KASEM: There's been a resistance for so long ever since my father married her so it's been a very long time. We saw this coming. We weren't blind-sided by this. Take the person you love most on earth, know that they're sick and want to see you. You get 20 minutes with them before being ripped away by an armed guard and having them say please stay. You can't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So Kasem's other daughter says their father signed papers in 2007 giving the children power of attorney over Casey Kasem's health care in the event he was unable to make his own decisions. Who is within their rights here? Is it the wife or the kids?

DUKE: Well, the daughter and son-in-law who were named in that document in 2007 tried to enforce it in October of last year. In fact, they were so frustrated they staged a protest outside of the Los Angeles home where their stepmom was inside apparently with the father. But the judge in October said, no, we're not going to enforce this right at this time. They came to an agreement where some of the kids could visit him and supposedly allegedly that agreement was eventually breached. So they're frustrated. They want to see their father. Now they're told he's out of the country and there's a lot of concern about it.

COSTELLO: It's really a sad, sad story. Alan Duke, thanks so much. Be sure to tune into CNN tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. CNN Bill Weir will sit down with Casey Kasem's kids.

Donald Sterling owns up to his mistake with V. Stiviano.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STERLING: I thought she cared for me. I was stupid. How could a girl care for a man 51 years older?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We'll have more from CNN's exclusive interview with the banned Clippers owner next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)