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Obama To Talk About VA Scandal; GOP's Establishment Crushes Tea Party; GM Announces More Recalls; Pat Sajak Climate Tweet Sparks Firestorm

Aired May 21, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The "USS Cole" is here. A closer look at that later on as well -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we will get back to you. Miguel Marquez, thanks so much. The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

Happening now in the NEWSROOM --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: A tough race is behind us. It's time to unite. To my opponent supporters, I hope you'll join me in the month ahead and know that your fight is my fight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Tea Party? What Tea Party? A big night of wins for the GOP establishment, but now the focus shifts to November.

A call to the oval office, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki meeting with Obama right now over the book cooking scandal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC SHINSEKI, VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY: Any adverse incident like this makes me mad as hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Is being mad as hell enough to save Eric Shinseki's job?

A big ground beef recall goes nationwide. Burgers contaminated with E. Coli. Where is the meat now?

NFL players on powerful painkillers. A new lawsuit says the league was drugging its players to keep them in the game.

Arrested for being happy. Why police say these dancing, singing people broke the law. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We're following two big stories for you right now in the NEWSROOM, one on the campaign trail and the other at the White House. On the trail, Tea Party challengers falling short in the primaries, but will establishment Republicans like Mitch McConnell fare as well in November. The battle to midterms has already started. We'll talk about that.

But I want to start with President Obama calling Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to the oval office. That meeting happening as we speak. The president expected to speak right after that meeting about this book cooking scandal at VA hospitals across the country. That should happen in just about 45 minutes. Of course, you can see the president live right here on CNN.

Mr. Obama's statement comes as the White House is under increasing pressure over the scandal. Twenty six VA facilities now under investigation amid allegations of dangerously long care delays and secret waiting lists for patients.

CNN's Michelle Kosinski following the story from the White House. Just last hour, Michelle, I said why doesn't the president come out and talk about this and he is.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That is true. He's faced questions about that for many days now. And there's so many eyes on this to see what comes out of this meeting. It will be pretty brief, less than 45 minutes long, and there have been plenty of calls for Shinseki to resign.

Some might say finally the president is meeting with him directly since the scandal broke and furthermore, finally we'll hear from the president directly on this issue. It has become clear that these problems at the VA and even in this forum that have come to light recently have existed for years Long before president Obama took office.

But the White House has faced tough questions. Why were they allowed to persist for so long and why has the extent of this only come out through the press?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI (voice-over): The VA's inspector general this morning is investigating practices at 26 VA facilities around the country. Last week, it was 10. A top White House adviser is heading today to Phoenix where the scandal broke reported by CNN's Drew Griffin. Under the microscope now, why there were waiting lists at some VA hospitals kept on paper and not entered into computer systems.

How widespread and long-standing this alleged cooking of the books might have been, how it started and how did it affected the American soldiers under the VA's care? Like a 71-year-old Thomas Breen, who went to the E.R. on September 28. He was told he needed to see a doctor urgently within a week.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They call me December 6th. He's dead already. I said you're late. KOSINSKI: He had stage 4 bladder cancer undiagnosed. We know that the VA itself knew of some problems with delays in waiting lists for at least six years now. Data keeping issues going back nearly a decade. In 2010, a VA memo called for immediate action to identify and eliminate inappropriate scheduling practices sometimes referred to gaming strategies.

This is not patient centered care. The memo bans using paper logs for appointments. Again, this was four years ago. Now being held by some partly accountable, the White House which staunchly stands by its actions to increase resources for veterans in the face of problems that started long before President Obama took office.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is not a new issue for the president that is why he has been focused on it since he's been president.

KOSINSKI: But critics in the House this week are bringing up a bill that would give the head of the VA more power to fire managers calling this scandal a mess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time for our president to come forward and take responsibility for this and do the right thing by these veterans and begin to show that he actually cares about getting it straight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI: It took a long time for Shinseki to speak publicly and take questions on this. CNN's Drew Griffin who broke this story tried for an entire month to get an interview with him. When he finally spoke, he said he serves at the pleasure of the president. He sees this not as a job but a mission. He wanted to continue that mission. The White House has repeatedly backed him, listed his successes. But as the scandal has grown by the day, it remains to be seen whether that support continues -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Michelle Kosinski reporting live from the White House this morning. A reminder for you. President Obama is set to speak at 10:45 Eastern after wrapping up his meeting with VA Secretary Shinseki. Of course, we'll bring that to you live.

The Tea Party may not be over but this morning the lights are on and the music is off. The biggest contest of this year's midterm elections Republican voters rejected the hard right candidates and instead backed those endorsed by the GOP establishment. Not a single Tea Party candidate survived. No candidate embodies the GOP power elite more than Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader from Kentucky.

He cruised to easy victory over Tea Party favorite, Matt Bevin, and in the Republican stronghold of Georgia, the mainstream's two top Senate candidates emerged from a crowded field and will go to a runoff. The Tea Party candidates will go home. For McConnell, all roads of course lead to November and what may be his toughest election yet.

CNN's Dana Bash is in Louisville, Kentucky, the heart of O'Connell country. Good morning.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, you know, anybody here who thought that the primary day would slow things down even for a few hours was wrong. People here in Kentucky are turning on their television sets and they're already seeing the opening salvos of what is going to be a very bitter, very, very intense campaign.

The first is starting with the Democratic candidate who wants to unseat Mitch McConnell. Alison Lundergan Grimes, 35-year-old woman, she's secretary of state and she is trying to make clear that she is her own person and she's not in the pocket of President Obama. Listen to her new ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALISON LUNDERGAN GRIMES (D), KENTUCKY SENATE CANDIDATE: No matter who the president is, I won't answer to them. I'll only answer to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Why is that important? For lots of reasons. Primarily because President Obama is highly, highly unpopular here in Kentucky. And that is why the McConnell campaign is already very clear that they are trying to link Grimes to Obama, not only with regard to their policies. The fact that Obama backs her, but also the broader notion that if Grimes wins and unseats McConnell.

That will make it harder for Republicans to take control of the Senate and harder to use the Republican muscle to try to stop the Obama agenda for the last two years in office. On that note, on the Republican side, McConnell isn't up with an ad but one of the super PACs that will pour millions into the airwaves here is up with its own ad. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Liberals coast to coast are rolling out the red carpet for Alison Grimes. She's backed by Obama's biggest fund-raisers and Hollywood's most liberal political activists. Michelle Obama let the truth slip out at a New York City fund-raiser calling Grimes' election critical to President Obama's liberal agenda that's hurting Kentucky. Where's Alison Grimes on the issues? Just look at her friends. Kentuckians for Strong Leadership is responsible for the content of this advertising.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Nothing subtle about that, Carol. It's very clear what Republicans are trying to do there and that's why Alison Grimes came out this morning trying to define herself before Republicans can define her.

COSTELLO: Fascinating. Dana Bash reporting live from Louisville. So as Dana said the primaries are over and now the fun begins. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the November elections will be the women running like Alison Grimes, the Democrat from Kentucky, as we told you is running against Senator Mitch McConnell who is a ruthless campaigner. For her part, Grimes seems to be ready.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIMES: Mitch McConnell, he wants to tell you who I am and he has said he claims that Kentucky will be lost if we trade in his seat for a Kentucky woman who he believes will sit on the backbench. Well, I'm here to tell you tonight my fellow Kentuckians, I'm not an empty dress. I'm a rubber stamp and I am not a cheerleader. I'm a strong Kentucky woman who is an independent thinker, who when I'm Kentucky's next United States senator, the decisions I make will be what's best for the people of the commonwealth of Kentucky and not partisan interests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: There you have it. Let's talk more about this. Ross Douthat is a CNN political commentator and opinion columnist for "The New York Times" and Patricia Murphy is a contributor for "The Daily Beast" and founder of Citizen Jane Politics. Welcome to you both.

ROSS DOUTHAT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thanks for having us.

PATRICIA MURPHY, CONTRIBUTOR, "THE DAILY BEAST": Good morning.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Ross, I listened to Grimes victory speech and came out to Katy Perry's "Roar." She personified the war on women theme. Are establishment Republicans worried?

DOUTHAT: I think that the war on women frame the Democrats used in the last election where it was arguments about abortion and contraception and so on is less likely to be important in this campaign because Kentucky is a pretty socially conservative state and Grimes is more likely to be on the defensive on issues like abortion. I think the gender card more generally is clearly something McConnell is worried about.

If you listen to his speech, which he didn't come out to Katy Perry and he's not necessarily the most charismatic speech giver, but there was a lot of talk about women, about his wife, about his family and women in Kentucky hurt by Obamacare. I don't think there's any question from his perspective being not just an establishment figure, but an older white guy facing, you know, attractive dynamic younger female candidate. He's aware that gender could cut against him.

COSTELLO: Patricia, do you agree?

MURPHY: I think he's absolutely aware that gender could cut against him. And I think if you look at the path that Alison Lundergan Grimes has to follow, she needs a big gender gap to win that. Democrats have been winning in tight races or in purple states, anything they need to do to win women is what they're going to have to do. She only right now has about a four-point advantage among women.

She needs that to be at about 15 or 20 in order to get ahead of the entirely male support that Mitch McConnell is going to get and that will be for independent women and for women who are going to be open to her arguments on the issues particularly economic issues. She won't beat Mitch McConnell by filing her finger nails and smiling pretty. She's a strong Kentucky women. That will be attractive to women and men who want to see changes in Washington.

COSTELLO: Her other challenge is President Obama. She's already come out saying President Obama who? I don't know if she can escape that.

DOUTHAT: This is McConnell's goal. You mentioned earlier that McConnell has a reputation as a no holds bar ruthless campaigner and so on. Again, because of the optics of gender, I think he doesn't want to run a campaign where it seems like he's ruthlessly taking it to Grimes himself. He wants to run a campaign where she just becomes associated with President Obama. President Obama is very unpopular in Kentucky as he is all across the Appalachian states and you make that connection. She loses and he doesn't have to worry about facing her as her in a way.

COSTELLO: It's interesting, Patricia. The polls show they are running neck and neck if the election were held today, right? You have to wonder how President Obama, Obamacare thing is resonating in the state of Kentucky. Is it more that Mitch McConnell that they've had enough of him? He's establishment. He's been in for a long time, he's divisive. What is it?

MURPHY: Well, I think is that the attention in Kentucky has really been on the Republican ballot. It was getting all of the attention in television. Grimes hadn't run her own ads until a week ago. She hasn't had a lot of spotlight that we have seen on the Republicans. Barack Obama is way under water. He lost the election in 2012 by 22 points.

If you have a choice to go up against Alison Grimes, again dynamic and popular, she has nice good looking approval ratings when you look at her in Kentucky and then you can run against Barack Obama who just absolutely cratered from McConnell, you want to run against Obama.

And there's this other woman running for Senate and don't pay attention to her. We all know who she's really friends with. That's what they're trying to do. It's hard to knock down Alison Grimes. Knocking down Barack Obama, job is mostly done for him.

COSTELLO: All right, Patricia Murphy, Ross Douthat, thank you for your insight this morning. I really appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, another day and another recall for General Motors. This time two Chevrolets made overseas. Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange with more. Good morning.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The recall tally is growing for General Motors and growing quickly. One of the world's biggest automakers reporting another safety issue. What you need to know coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: More bad news -- let me tell you about President Obama. He's going to make a statement on the controversy swirling around VA hospitals around the country at 10:45 Eastern Time. He's been meeting with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. A lot of Republicans are calling for Shinseki's ouster because of these wait lists.

Secret wait lists at VA hospitals across the country. Supposedly patients waited so long for care that some of them died. The president will come out and make a statement on this controversy at 10:45 Eastern Time.

In other news this morning, more bad news for GM owners as we learn details of two more Chevrolets now being recalled. The 2004 through 2008 Chevrolet Avio. They have a headlamp module that could overheat and cause a fire, 218,000 cars are now being recalled. GM says no one has been hurt in the fires. Both cars were made in Korea and imported to the United States.

Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange and Peter Valdes-Dapena is the automotive correspondent for "CNN Money." Welcome to both of you. Alison, first of all, tell us about this latest recall. It's insane the number of cars recalled for GM so far just within the last couple of months.

KOSIK: Yes, two out of three days this week to be specific just for this week. Yesterday it was 2.4 million cars and trucks. Today another 218,000 for what you talked about. So the recall tally is growing and growing very quickly. GM recalled so far this year more than 15 million cars and trucks. That's just in five months.

So what we're seeing here is an uber cautious company that started with the recall in February for faulty ignition switches which 13 deaths are linked to. There was testimony about what GM knew and why it kept quiet about it for a decade. What you're seeing is GM going back and looking at every little problem. Recalling even if it's a seemingly small problem like windshield wipers not working because GM doesn't want a repeat.

One thing that's getting lost as we report all of these recalls is what's the accountability here for the government? Talking specifically about the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The actual group that is in charge of insuring the safety of the automobiles that are on our roads. They reportedly were looking into related problems of these recalls since way back in 2007. Why didn't the government say anything back then either -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So many disturbing questions. Now Peter, if I own a GM car, I'm worried at this point.

PETER VALDES-DAPENA, CNN AUTOMOTIVE CORRESPONDENT, CNN MONEY: I can understand you might be. As she said, we need to keep in mind what GM is doing now is since they are under the magnifying glass, they are going through every file they have and doing a recall for every single thing that potentially could be a recall. They are trying to clean house here. We don't really know what might happen if other manufacturers did the same thing. What if Toyota or Ford or Chrysler did this also? We don't know what the results would be there. Almost certainly we see a recall bubble. We could see a lot of recalls from that one company at one time. That's what's going on here. You kind of need to keep that in mind.

COSTELLO: It's disturbing there are so many kinds of cars that GM is recalling. It's not just one.

DAPENA: One thing you need to keep in mind is most recalls start with a parts supplier. They start with an automotive part. As in that ignition switch recall, it was one part from one supplier made in one factory that went into multiple different cars. When you're dealing with a company like GM that operates on the scale that GM does, you'll often have recalls like this of two different cars but the same part.

COSTELLO: All right, we'll continue to follow these recalls. I'm sure there will be more developments today sadly. Alison Kosik, Peter Valdes-Dapena, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, can I buy a vowel, Pat? The host of "Wheel of Fortune" parking an online firestorm after calling climate change activists, quote, "unpatriotic racist." We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Climate change is real, but some people keep debating this issue like game show host Pat Sajak. But Sajak was joking but he certainly sparked a fire storm with this tweet, quote, "I now believe global warming alarmists are unpatriotic racists misleading for their own ends. Good night," end quote.

That statement so ridiculous and easy to laugh off except we can't because powerful politicians like Florida Senator Marco Rubio say, quote, "I don't believe human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our environment the way scientists are portraying it and laws won't do anything about it except destroy our economy."

Religious leaders are battling climb change deniers or moral grounds. One group is asking Florida's governor to come up with a climate change plan for the state and also with me Father Edward Beck, a CNN religion commentator who thinks denying climate change is a sin. Welcome to you both.

Reverend, can't we say it like it is. Climate change deniers aren't listening to scientists. They are denying global warming for purely political reasons, right?

REVEREND MITCHELL HESCOX, PRESIDENT, EVANGELICAL ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK: They may be. That's one of the problems in America today and my job is to cross that bridge. We don't want to beat up anybody. We want to be that bridge builder that offers the love of Christ to realize the serious impact and nature of climate change. It will take all of America to come together to battle it. That's why comments of Mr. Sajak yesterday even in sarcasm were hurt hurtful. I want to pray and lift him up. We need to turn to following the God I know best in Christ in his love in leading us out of climate change.

COSTELLO: Tell me why you think scientists are right, Reverend.

HESCOX: I think just have to look at the world around you. I often tell the story of my 87-year-old dad who is a former coal miner in Pennsylvania sitting at his kitchen table a little while ago he said all you have to do is look outside. The world is changing. And we need to do something about it before it's too late. I think many Americans are seeing that right now. The world is changing. We have to act.

COSTELLO: All right, on the purely scientific route, Father Beck, there's a 97 percent consensus among scientific experts that humans are causing global warming. Pope Francis says we have a moral responsibility to take care of the planet. You say if we don't, we're sinners. Is that right?

REVEREND EDWARD BECK, CNN RELIGION COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't say it. The church has indicated this is a moral issue and just today talk about breaking news, just today Pope Francis at his general audience in Rome said this. If we destroy creation, creation will destroy us. Never forget this. The church for a long time now has been talking about climate change as a moral issue.

John Paul II way back in 1990 was talking about it. Benedict followed. We know that Benedict even said it's a sin against the commandments to be a polluter against the environment. And so we have to see the earth as we're stewards of creation. This is god's gift to us. If you abuse it, you're really maligning that gift.

COSTELLO: You know, it's easy to blow off comments like Pat Sajak's tweet but tweets like that resonate among some people. What would you like to say to Pat Sajak?