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Shinseki Vows Action; Climber Survives 70-Foot Fall; Mark Cuban: "We're All Prejudiced"

Aired May 23, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A vow to take action on the V.A. scandal, that's the message from Eric Shinseki in an open letter to veterans posted on the agency's website. And that letter comes as the embattled V.A. secretary faces renewed calls for his resignation. The latest from two high-profile Democratic candidates, Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky and Charlie Crist in Florida. For his part, Shinseki has said he will not step down.

White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski joins me now with more on this.

Good morning.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

And, you know, CNN broke this story, and for six months - six months has tried to get Shinseki to do an interview and address the issue. But Shinseki would not sit down with CNN, would not take questions. I mean he has now answered one reporter's question only to say that he has not offered his resignation. And he has now addressed veterans across America. But he did it in writing. The tough talk is coming from Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: These are men and women who served our country, and we've not just let them down, we've let them die. This is awful stuff and somebody ought to be held accountable for it.

KOSINSKI (voice-over): House Speaker John Boehner, in his strongest statement yet on this issue, speaks for the veterans affected by the scandal, 23 of whom the V.A. itself said died because they remained on waiting lists for medical care.

BOEHNER: I have not called for General Shinseki to resign, although I have to admit I'm getting a little closer. (INAUDIBLE) the point. This isn't about one person. This isn't about the secretary. It's about the entire system underneath him.

KOSINSKI: And while the president's deputy chief of staff arrived at the Phoenix V.A., where the scandal broke, to broaden the investigation, V.A. Secretary Shinseki was summoned to The Hill for a private meeting with the Senate's number two Democrat, Dick Durbin, then posted an online letter to veterans everywhere. But the strongest quotes in it were him quoting President Obama the other day and Shinseki saying he agrees. From himself Shinseki writes, he takes the allegations "seriously," that they're of "great personal concern." "You and your families deserve to have full faith in your V.A. and we intend to earn it every day."

The bulk of the letter lists a long string of accomplishments at the V.A. Its good customer service record that includes all kinds of statistics. Shinseki adding that, "if any allegations under review are substantiated, we will act."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI: Well, some in Congress want to act now. We were talking about this bill that has come up that has passed the House that would make it easier for the V.A. to fire managers. Well, yesterday, it was brought up in the Senate, but the chairman of the V.A. committee objected to it saying, let's not politicize this issue any further.

And for its part, the White House actually agrees with this bill and its need for accountability, says it wants to work with Congress on it. Although it does have some concerns about lawsuits that might come up if you take away the process involved in those firings.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Understand. Michelle Kosinski reporting live from the White House this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, an American climber plunges 70 feet on a Himalayan mountain and survives. Jason Carroll has his incredible story.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, you've got that right, an incredible story and amazing video and an incredible experience of how a man took one step that almost ended his life. His amazing story of survival coming up.

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COSTELLO: A climber survives a 70-foot fall down a mountain. Seriously injured, he struggles for hours to crawl back up to safety. It sounds like something out of a movie, but this climber took his own home movie I guess just to catalog how everything happened. This is just an incredible story. CNN's Jason Carroll is covering it for us.

And I can't believe this guy survived.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I - yes, I can't either. And, you know, every time I look at that video, I think how amazingly lucky this man is. You know, when I spoke to Professor All late last night, we talked about this. And he said the minute he started falling, Carol, he said, he thought he was going to be dead for sure. But he got lucky. He survived. And he started recording his harrowing experience of how he climbed to safety one inch at a time. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. JOHN ALL, FELL 70 FEET INTO CREVASSE: I fell through that hole. Thankfully I didn't keep falling that way.

CARROLL (voice-over): Trapped alone 70 feet below the ice, Professor John All was broken, bruised and fighting for his life.

JOHN ALL: My right arm is seizing up. I can't use it anymore.

CARROLL: While conducting climate research, All was hiking alone on a Himalayan mountain when he plunged into a hidden icy crevasse and probably landing on a ledge just three feet wide. His face, bloody. All suffered several broken ribs and a fractured arm from the terrifying fall.

But like the survival drama, "127 Hours," the professor made a lifesaving decision to climb out, his camera in tow.

JOHN ALL: That hurt bad, but I got to get out.

It's funny the amount of damage the body can take and still function pretty well. The pain was wonderful, let's put it that that way, because I was at least alive to feel the pain.

CARROLL: It took around five agonizing hours, all making his way to the top with an ice axe, eventually reaching his research team's camp where the professor was later rescued.

JOHN ALL: It happened so quickly and I was thinking, oh, God, thank God I stopped and that I was still alive because I didn't - I expected just to keep going until it was over and to hit the ledge and catch that little piece of ice that save my life.

CARROLL: All's family still can't believe he made it out alive.

JOSEPH ALL, CLIMBER'S BROTHER: He could have been a goner for sure. If you look at it from the video, he could have just kept on going down. And I don't see how you get out of that. If you look up, you see the sky. I don't know how you get up there if you don't got - if you don't have one of your arms functioning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: You know, Carol, I also asked All if he'd actually seen that movie, "127 hours." He said, nope. He said, I never even wanted to watch a movie like that. He said he had enough real life experience not to want to see something like that.

And I think he raised an interesting point about why he decided to start recording. And he said that was because he said the minute he turned that camera on, Carol, he said I knew that I needed to leave something for my family. I felt like I knew I would survive if I was recording my experience. It's absolutely incredible.

And then something else that a lot of folks don't know. All told that once he got to the top of the crevasse, he was so exhausted. Remember he's 20,000 feet up there. Had very little air left inside of him. Could barely breathe. He said he had to literally roll himself back down to his camp, which took more hours before he could even get rescued simply because he said he was too exhausted to walk. And then it took another 12 to 18 hours, he said, before folks could get to him and finally get him to a safe place. So, really an incredible story of survival for this man who is really feeling lucky to be alive.

COSTELLO: Every time you show the pictures of that crevasse, my hands start sweating -

CARROLL: Oh, yes.

COSTELLO: Because I'm a little claustrophobic and I'm afraid of heights. I just - I --

CARROLL: That's a bad combination.

COSTELLO: That's a bad combination. I guess I'll never be climbing the Himalayas, right?

CARROLL: Hopefully not.

COSTELLO: But - but if he had - if he had fallen again, he probably would have missed that tiny little ledge.

CARROLL: Well, and guess - and here's another thing, Carol. He's 6'5", 240 pounds.

COSTELLO: Oh.

CARROLL: And I asked him, you know, maybe because of your size, you acted like a stopper. Maybe that helped you -- if it had been someone like me, I'm much thinner, maybe I just would have gone all the way to the bottom. He says he really feels as though his size helped him because the bigger you are, he's found in his experience, all of his years in climbing, you have more body fat, more muscle mass and that way you can fight off hypothermia a lot easier than smaller people.

COSTELLO: Well, he's one amazing guy.

CARROLL: Yes.

COSTELLO: Jason Carroll, thank you so much for bringing us his story.

CARROLL: You bet.

COSTELLO: Wow.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the always outspoken Mark Cuban in the headlines and in the hot seat after admitting his own prejudice in a very public way. But could Cuban's words spark the important conversation we should be having? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: As the NBA gears up for a potential legal battle against Donald Sterling another team owner, Mark Cuban, finds himself in the middle of a controversy about race. Cuban's thoughts and words about bigotry making headlines this morning after this interview with "INC" magazine went viral.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CUBAN, OWNER, DALLAS MAVERICKS: You know in this day and age, this country has really come a long way putting any type of bigotry behind us regardless of who it's towards, whether it's the LGBT community, whether it's xenophobia, fear of people from other countries. We've come a long way and with that progress comes a price where we're a lot more vigilant in what we -- and we're a lot less tolerant of different views. And it's not necessarily easy for everybody to adopt or adapt or evolve.

I mean we're all prejudiced in one way or the other. If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street there's a guy that has tattoos all over his face, white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere, I'm walking back to the other side of the street, and the list goes on of stereotypes that we all live up to and are fearful of.

And so in my businesses, I try not to be hypocritical. I know that I'm not perfect. I know that I live in a glass house and it's not appropriate for me to throw stones. And so when I run into bigotry in organizations I control, I try to find solutions. I'll work with people, I'll send them to training. I'll send them to sensitivity training. I'll try to give them a chance to improve themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. The resulting backlash forced Cuban to issue an apology via Twitter. He writes in part, quote, "In hindsight I should have used different examples. I didn't consider the Trayvon Martin family and I apologize for that. Beyond apologizing to the Martin family I stand by the words and substance of the interview."

Joining me to talk about this Ruben Navarrette he's a CNN.com contributor and an offer of "A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano"; and Jeff Johnson chief strategy from Alum Communications. He's on the phone because we're having a little trouble with the Baltimore studio so we'll try to get -- get Jeff on video as soon as we can.

But Ruben I want to start with you. Because I think everybody is focusing on the black hoodie comment. And it think that's a bad thing because if you listen to -- if you really try to understand the entirety of what Mark Cuban was trying to say, I thought it was refreshingly honest.

RUBEN NAVARRETTE, CNN COMMENTATOR: Carol, I agree completely. As journalist you know we are used to talking to people, particularly politicians who talk a lot and don't say anything. They don't answer your questions, they dodge. It is refreshing to get somebody who is actually honest who is straightforward who doesn't dodge the question. That's the first thing.

The second thing I took from this interview is that race remains a very delicate and sometimes dangerous subject and that is something Mark Cuban missed. When you go into those waters, you ought be careful and he wasn't careful enough and that's why he later apologized by missing the reference to Trayvon Martin.

And lastly it's clear from as you say looking at the entire interview that there is nuance here and that Mark Cuban perhaps has not made up his mind about how he would cast his vote as to the fate of Donald Sterling. He clearly feels uncomfortable with this idea of simply you know taking people who have backward views and sending them off to another neighborhood. He clearly thinks that there's some work to be done here. And I'm not sure I think he's still a question mark as to what he thinks should happen in this case.

COSTELLO: Yes and Jeff, I wanted to bring this up. Because what Mark Cuban said reminded me a little of what then Senator Obama said in 2008 you know when he was forced to give that speech on race in the midst of his campaign for president. Here is what he recalled about his white grandmother's views.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother. A woman who helped raised me; a woman who sacrificed again and again for me. A woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her by on the street and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So Jeff, is it fair to compare the two?

JEFF JOHNSON, CHIEF STRATEGY, ALUM COMMUNICATIONS (via telephone): I don't know if I would compare the two. I think that what's interesting is so often we have people of color and marginalized people that are oversensitive to these kind of remarks and often white folks who are not sensitive enough.

And the reason that happens is because we stopped talking about the fact that we live in a country that so often has been under the pressure of white supremacy and we don't want to talk about it. And so I'm refreshed and I think that what this comment makes me more mindful of is Eric Holder's comments very early in the administration that said we as a country are a country of cowards when it comes to talking about race.

I think what's dangerous is that Mark Cuban really talked about, one, even though he has these prejudices, here is how I deal with this in my company. I make sure that people have training. I make sure that we deal with sensitivity training. And then he said we all live in glass houses and we all have prejudices. I would really hope that we stop making it difficult for reasonable people to be honest about their prejudice and then open the door to unreasonable people like Sterling to control the narrative.

COSTELLO: And I agree with you wholeheartedly Jeff because Ruben there is a difference between Donald Sterling and Mark Cuban. Donald Sterling doesn't even realize what he says is racist. And in his life he's practiced racist practices, you know, with his apartments and not letting minorities rent apartments from him. Mark Cuban realizes that he might have problems with prejudice, but he deals with it. He recognizes it. He wants to fix it and become a better man.

NAVARRETTE: There's also another story here and that's Mark Cuban is a very smart guy. He understands the precedence that is set when a group of owners can get together or the NBA commissioner to decree that somebody needs to sell his basketball team.

And that's Mark Cuban's concern. He's the owner of a basketball team. He's outspoken. Guess what the owners don't like him. They don't like him because he is outspoken because they think he is a publicity hound. If they got together and decided under some false pretense or some other pretense maybe a true pretense to get rid of him. I think he's concerned about that. I think he's very thoughtful he's looking for the long-term.

He's not an 80-year-old owner who doesn't think about the future. He's a young owner who thinks about the future. So I think that his views on this issue are very complicated and he's very concerned about where they're headed.

COSTELLO: That's kind a cynical way of looking at it, isn't it, Jeff?

NAVARRETTE: Yes.

JOHNSON: Yes, I don't know if I agree with that. I mean I think that he's smart and I'm sure that right now his advisors -- if he had my firm, I would be telling him how to navigate this thing and so I think he is concerned about that.

But I don't think he compares himself to Sterling. I don't think he's worried about an investigation. And frankly, I don't think that he's worried about or wavering on his decision about Sterling. I think he knows. I think he just wants to keep it under his vest until it's time for the vote so we don't give yet the media another thing to these -- to tear him apart about.

COSTELLO: Interesting conversation. I can talk about this all day. But I can't. Ruben Navarrette and Jeff Johnson -- many thanks to both of you for your insight.

NAVARRETTE: Thank you.

COSTELLO: I sure appreciate it.

We're back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking some "Top Stories" for you at 58 minutes past.

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The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.