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Sterling on Threat of NBA Player Boycott; 11,000+ Told to Evacuate Due to Brushfire; Death Toll from Mine Fire Rises to 274; Obama Talks Infrastructure & Economy; Hunter Biden Placed on Ukrainian Firm's Board

Aired May 14, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour, you're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

You know, Magic Johnson wants Donald Sterling to know that he cannot win. In an exclusive, another exclusive interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, the former L.A. Laker spoke out about Sterling's racist comments and scathing attacks against him. He encouraging Sterling to give up the fight to keep the Clippers because Magic Johnson says the NBA players have rallied and waiting on the much anticipated owner's vote.

Tonight Anderson Cooper continues his exclusive one-on-one with Donald Sterling and here is just a preview we've just turned around for you. This is what the 80-year old had to say when asked about possibly losing his team. Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: You believe you will be able to keep the team though?

DONALD STERLING, OWNER, L.A. CLIPPERS: Well --

COOPER: Because the advertisers certainly --

(CROSSTALK)

STERLING: The advertisers are all coming back. Let's not be crazy. The fans will all come if you have a good team. If you don't have a good team --

COOPER: Even if you're owner?

STERLING: What am I? A Frankenstein? What am I, some kind of a ogre? I'm a good person. I'm a warm person. I say hello to everybody who comes on the -- to the team.

COOPER: There are some players, though, who have talked about a boycott of the season.

STERLING: Well, that's talk. The media pushes that. Why would they do that? If they get their salaries, they're going to play. I mean, one day they all love you and the next day you make a mistake and say something and suddenly they hate you? Is that the way it is?

What if a player said I don't like working for that Jew? What would we do?

I wouldn't do anything. I would ask you why, why. I want to make you happy. If you want more money, what, you know, more attention, more love?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Mike Wise, let me bring you in, "Washington Post" sports columnist.

That, by the way was the first time that sound has hit air. And I just wanted to get your raw reaction to that.

MIKE WISE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": It just -- again, unconscionable, some of the things he has said. I've never watched Anderson that many times and cringed. It's tough to see; physically, he looks a little like the cowardly lion in "The Wizard of Oz." Verbally, he sounds like a lost, sad man.

BALDWIN: What do you think, what, it has been two, two and a half weeks since Adam Silver said he's banned for life. This absolutely would be an unprecedented move if these -- three-quarter majority of these owners of these 29-30 teams come together and say you're out.

When is this thing really get moving, you think?

WISE: I think that the NBA governor -- board of governors have a meeting in July, Brooke. I would be shocked if this were not part of that business. And if there were not -- if there weren't a -- if not -- if a vote didn't happen by then, that there weren't steps taken to actually remove him from his principle ownership.

And I cannot see his wife, Shelly Sterling, remaining in any capacity in the ownership role. The collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players is obviously just a piece of paper.

But there is also a morality clause and some of it's not even written. And it's if your players don't want a person who has said he doesn't want black people at his games in the building, if your players have said they want that person out of the league, irrespective of the fact that he pays their salaries, there is no way that Donald Sterling is going to be the owner of this team.

BALDWIN: So because of the myriad things Donald Sterling has said, you know, we've heard from a former teammate of LeBron James, saying if he is still sitting as the owner of this team come next season, LeBron James is absolutely not going to play.

How realistic, Mike Wise, do you think that is?

WISE: The idea of a player boycott is something that you don't want to throw out in leverage cases for just anything.

The fact that players are even talking about this means that they are thinking about it and I would be -- I would think that Adam Silver is going to call either Roger Mason Jr., the vice president of the Players Association, or LeBron and they will get on the phone and they're going to say let's do this together. Let's go my channels first.

If things get really tricky in the legal proceedings, then you can do that. But I would think that this is going to be a cooperative effort to get this guy out of the league. And I would be -- and I wouldn't be shocked if it came to that, I would expect some players to sit out.

BALDWIN: You would?

WISE: Yes

BALDWIN: That's interesting. We've been asking that question so many different people, it's just hard to wrap your head around that. You mentioned the meeting's in July. So we'll be seeing some activity, obviously, in the coming months.

Mike Wise, "The Washington Post," thank you so much, my friend.

WISE: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I appreciate you coming on.

And just a reminder to you, we just played new sound from Anderson's sit-down with Donald Sterling. You can watch the rest of it tonight. His exclusive sit-down, 8:00 Eastern only here on CNN.

Coming up next we will take you to California. We're getting some new information, new pictures. Look at this, the Carlsbad fire, it's a brush fire. This is north of San Diego, getting some new information as far as schools in the area are concerned. That is next on CNN.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BALDWIN: All right, let's get you up to speed on this breaking news out of Southern California, specifically out of the San Diego area. We can show you some of these pictures, look, you can see this line of the brush fire along the greenery here and the massive plumes of smoke.

So here's what we know, 11,000 people have been contacted to evacuate because of what they're calling the poinsettia fire. This is according to San Diego County, the -- two of the actual official Twitter account and I can tell you as far as schools go, parents ,if you live in this neck of the woods, specifically Aviara (ph) Oaks Elementary and Middle Schools are being evacuated to Brighton Gardens (ph). So that's what's happening here in the San Diego area.

We have our correspondent, Paul Vercammen, he is headed to the scene and as soon as we see him, we'll pop him in front of a camera and get you the latest there. Also just into CNN, we have learned that the death toll from the coal mine disaster in Turkey has risen again, so it's up now to 274 confirmed dead. But as the number of miners who escaped death rises, so does the number of miners who did not; the count, 88 miners rescued and 274 miners again declared dead.

Rescuers they are racing. Really, in situations like this, time is of the essence to trying to find and rescue as many miners as they can, 120 miners are still trapped after a transformer blew during Tuesday's shift change. CNN's senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson, is live in Soma, Turkey, for us.

So as night has fallen there, Ivan, tell me, set the scene. I imagine, just equally grim as the last time we spoke.

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's pretty unpleasant and pretty tragic to see the bodies of miners who were unfortunate enough to be deep in the bowels of the Earth on Tuesday when this fire broke out, being brought out one after another, by rescue workers who are clearly exhausted, their faces covered in soot, bringing out these bodies on stretchers and carrying them to waiting ambulances.

Dozens of ambulances that have been lined up for this grim procession. And of course it's the faces really of the people who are waiting that really hit you like a punch in the gut. Fellow miners as well as relatives who are performing this very grim vigil, waiting for news of their loved ones who have been missing now.

Again, you cited these figures. Raising the death toll to what some had feared would become the deadliest mine disaster in Turkish history. There was one that resulted in the deaths of I believe more than 250 people who died in (INAUDIBLE). There are coal mine disasters in Turkey year after year. Deaths, this is a dangerous job.

But the sheer scale of this has really left the communities around here staggering and has shocked the nation which has turned out for three days of mourning as a result of this terrible disaster -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Ivan Watson covering this horrible, horrible disaster there for us in Soma, Turkey. Ivan, we will stay in close contact with you as these numbers do continue to change. Thank you so much.

I do want to turn to the president because here he is. He is speaking near the Tappenzee Bridge in Tarrytown, New York. He is talking economy. We will take a listen. But just to let you know, obviously he wants to push more money into roads and bridges. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN LIVE COVERAGE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... projects all across America. We are announcing 11 more projects to accelerate to get moving faster, from Boston South Station to Pensacola Bay Bridge to new light rail projects, north and south of Seattle. We are cutting bureaucratic red tape that stalls good projects from breaking ground. We are launching a new national permitting center to implement these reforms. We are aiming to put every major infrastructure project on a public dashboard so everybody can go online, track our progress, hold us accountable, make sure things are coming in on time, on budget. Make sure your taxpayer money is being used well but also make sure that we're putting folks back to work rebuilding America. That's our goal.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: Now all these steps we can do without Congress. And all of these steps mean more good jobs, because nobody was hurt worse than construction workers by the financial crisis. The housing market plummeted and a lot of guys in hard hats and a lot of gals in hard hats suddenly they were off the job. And that's why the Recovery Act back in 2009, 2010, included the most important public works jobs program since the New Deal, jumpstarting more than 15,000 construction projects around the country.

BALDWIN: President Obama, there he is. We have heard him time and time again trying to improve the economy, talking about putting hard- working Americans back to work, specifically talking bridges and roads, infrastructure in this country, speaking in Tarrytown, New York.

Coming up next , the plea from a family of legendary American icon, Casey Kasem's siblings are searching for him. They don't know where he is. The daughters want him back. They're speaking out about the family drama. Hear what they're saying, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: One of Joe Biden's sons has scored a pretty sweet gig. Hunter Biden -- take a look at the picture and you can see; there's Hunter with his dad. Hunter Biden has just been added to the board of directors of a private gas provider in Ukraine. The White House says no conflict of interest.

At least one report says that the firm that hired Biden is run by a crony of Viktor Yanukovych; remember that name. He is the former president of Ukraine who was ousted by popular protest with being too tight with Moscow.

So no conflict of interest according to the White House.

As you know, Russia is threatening Ukraine with military action. And as the country's top supplier of natural gas, Moscow has been accused of manipulating prices to further pressure the capital of Kiev.

As the crisis hit the boiling point just last month, the vice president -- here he was visiting Ukraine -- spoke of the need to boost energy output.

Today the White House is saying, again, no conflict of interest that Biden's son is now running the legal department of Ukraine's number one private gas supplier.

Jake Tapper with us now from Washington, host of "THE LEAD."

We asked you to just help us do some reporting on this and you reached out and you have heard from the vice president's office.

What are they saying?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "THE LEAD": The vice president's office, they are -- first of all, the White House refers all callers to the vice president's office. The vice president's office has very little to say, just that Hunter Biden is a private citizen and a lawyer and the vice president does not endorse any company and has no involvement in this company.

So basically they are saying nothing to see here, folks.

I think what's very interesting -- and viewers might find most interesting -- is this happens a lot more than people think.

BALDWIN: Really?

TAPPER: The relatives, brothers, sons, daughters, sons, spouses of people who are making important policy decisions often have financial stakes in things that are going on.

For instance, Hunter Biden was brought in on this deal by the roommate of the stepson of Secretary of State John Kerry. It is a small and incestuous town here in Washington, D.C.

BALDWIN: Yes, it is.

TAPPER: The State Department says, yes, this individual, Devin Archer (ph) was roommates and is business partners with Chris Heinz (ph), Secretary Kerry's stepson. But that doesn't mean anything regarding Secretary Kerry. And of course we have no evidence that it does.

It's a small town. There's a lot more of this than you think, I think.

BALDWIN: I know it's a small town. But I just have to ask, since you're calling the White House, and they're referring you to the vice president's office. Is this the kind of thing where the vice president knowing that Hunter would be taking this job, would he have had to run it to the boss?

TAPPER: I would suspect. And I have not been able to get through to Hunter Biden. And the company he works for is not involved in this deal. So they didn't have anything to say. But I would suspect it's the kind of thing that Hunter Biden keeps separate from his father and doesn't tell his father one way or the other so that his father has plausible deniability. But that's just a hunch based on years of watching how these things are done in Washington, D.C. I don't know that for a fact.

BALDWIN: OK. The Jake Tapper hunch. Thank you by the way, making those phone calls. We appreciate your reporting and we will look for you at the top of the hour on "THE LEAD." Thank you so much.

TAPPER: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let's go straight to California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: Breaking news, Paul Vercammen is near the scene of this fire in the Carlsbad-San Diego region.

Paul, tell me what you're seeing. What you know?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you can see right in front of us, we were actually at one of the leading flanks of this blaze right now burning in a neighborhood here in Carlsbad. You can see this is all brush. But let me give you perspective, Brooke, on just how widespread this is.

It burned all the way through here. And you can see right down in this canyon, again, another flare-up. The blaze breaking out this morning. Very hot, windy, dry conditions. This is, of course, a wind- driven fire being whipped up right now.

Also we're going to give you more of a perspective. We know of one home so far that has been destroyed. You can see smoke off in that area, indicating that area we do have active flanks of flame on several fronts here in Carlsbad right now.

Firefighters using roads and everything else possible to make a stand here. They have been able to hit this with helicopters via the air. But it's difficult to get some of the engines and other crews into these canyons. They're making a choice right now. The reason you don't see any firefighters right here is they have moved further on up the road so they can go into full structure protection, Brooke, as this fire in Carlsbad rages on.

By the way, we think this is one of at least four fires burning now in a very dry, very hot San Diego County.

BALDWIN: Paul, just quickly, is it windy? You said dry and hot. Is it windy at all?

VERCAMMEN: Yes, about the best indicator is you can see these are thin eucalyptus trees, slightly blowing right in front of us. And then just beyond again in the canyon, the flames, the raking.

It's not so windy that they can't fly air support. So that's a good sign.

But, again, they have got to make choices between houses and canyons, such as this one. And so far, so good. We haven't seen mass destruction of homes.

Of course, this is one of those cases where you're on the ground. And it could be that somewhere off another half mile, that there are more houses destroyed. But we have only heard of one structure, one house being lost in this Carlsbad blaze so far.

Another blaze burning near Fallbrook and another down from yesterday, Rancho San Bernardo. We saw a truck catch fire on the way to cover this blaze. That's (INAUDIBLE) brush fire near Camp Pendleton. So pins and needles here in San Diego County today, Brooke.

BALDWIN: That's frightening. I have family right in that area. I know who I'm calling when I finish with the show. Paul Vercammen, thank you so much for the hustle, you and the crew stay safe. Quick break. Back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: His voice spoke to a generation delivering these long- distance dedications. Counting down the hits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASEY KASEM, TV & RADIO PERSONALITY: Thank you and hello, again, everybody. Welcome to "America's Top 10." Let's turn right to the action on the Billboard pop singles chart and count down the 10 most popular songs in the land this week.

BALDWIN: The legendary deejay Casey Kasem is 82 years of age. He is not well. He has a form of dementia. And his daughter has just been put in charge of his affairs. But -- here's the but -- Casey Kasem is missing, allegedly taken away by his wife. His children say their stepmother may be trying to take him out of the country. His daughter plans to file a missing person's report with police today and she's asking for your help to find her dad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRI KASEM, CASEY KASEM'S DAUGHTER: We want as many people to know, be on the lookout for our dad. If you see him, if you know his whereabouts, if you hear anything about him, please call the police. We want to stop her from moving. We think she's moved him quite a few times. This is terrible for his health. And man in his condition should not be continually be moved. Especially with Lewy body disease, he's confused. He can -- you know, he's probably very afraid and he's not getting proper medical care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: How frightening for these daughters, Bill Weir. I watched your interview with those two. And I mean I think I was struck by the fact that they told you -- they were actually tipped off that their stepmother might be trying to take them -- take the father out of the country.

BILL WEIR, CNN HOST: Exactly. It was sort of a cousin by marriage who said I hear -- I was overhearing Jean Kasem on the phone and the plan is to take Casey to an Indian reservation with a single airstrip so he could then be spirited out of the country without scrutiny. It's an unbelievable story of family dysfunction that goes back 34 years. Casey married jean. You remember "Cheers." You remember Loretta Tortelli, Jean Kasem was this actress who played that sort of statuesque helium-voiced bubblehead. And they've been together a very long time.

But according to the daughters, as they told me last night, they've had three conversations with her in 34 years. She really had wanted nothing to do with them and had sort an ironclad restriction on how often they could see their father. There were times when they would go and there would be an armed guard watching them visit their father. And so this is a long, historic, sort of deep, bitter battle. But now they're trying to put out their own two-person Amber alert saying if you see Casey Kasem, if you see him with a tall blonde, call the cops.

BALDWIN: A manhunt for Casey Kasem, Bill Weir. Would you ever had thunk that we would be covering a story like this? And you bring up Jean Kasem. Let's just remind our viewers -- roll it, guys.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIE KASEM, CASEY KASEM'S DAUGHTER: But he knows who we are, he was able to respond appropriately to simple questions or simple things we said to him. And it was very clear he was able to smile. He was able to say I love you. When we told him we'll be back, Dad, we'll be back. He looked at us and said when? Which was heartbreaking.

Anyway, so, you know, it's -- there's so much more meaningful communication we can have with him. We want him back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK. So that was something else, Bill, but that when you asked them, you said when was the last time you saw your father. They said, last Tuesday. And clearly, by the daughters explaining, he said he loved them. He was wondering when he would see them again. It's heart-breaking.

WEIR: It is. And one of the daughters there, Julie, is a trained medical practitioner. And she had no idea of the extent of her father's disease. They thought he had Parkinson's. It turns out he had a different condition called Lewy body disease, which causes dementia as well. So if anybody loves their parents, especially aging folks can relate to just the heartbreak these women are going through now. And putting out that APB, I don't know if you have the video of what Jean Kasem looks like now but --

BALDWIN: We had it. We had it. If we have it, guys, roll it. But yes, I mean, we all --

WEIR: -- that may be the best way to identify.

BALDWIN: Here we go.

WEIR: -- if you do see him out there -- there they are.

BALDWIN: On the left side of the screen, if you see this woman, definitely call authorities. Bill Weir, thank you for joining me and for the interview last night. Let's just remind all our viewers, you anchor CNN tonight each and every weekday night, 9 o'clock Eastern here on CNN. And tonight I know you're taking a closer look at the wave of sexual assault on college campuses and what schools are now doing to report those crimes. Bill Weir, thank you so much.

And thanks to all of you for watching today. I'll see you back here tomorrow. I'm Brooke Baldwin. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.