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Obama & Shinseki Meet at 10:15AM ET; New Arrest in Boston Marathon Bombing

Aired May 30, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Friday, everyone. A busy news day ahead. John and I are going to call out now and hand it over to NEWSROOM and Don Lemon -- Don.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You guys did a great job and it is a big news day. Thank you, have a great weekend.

CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

Good morning, everybody. Don Lemon in for Carol. Thank you so much for joining me this morning.

We're going to begin with the breaking news now, Eric Shinseki. We just learned that next hour, the Veterans Affairs secretary will meet behind closed doors with the president of the United States. Few expect him to emerge with his job still intact. We don't know, we'll have to see what happens after that meeting.

But just minutes ago -- just moments ago right here on CNN, you saw the embattled chief. He appeared before a homeless vets coalition, a group most powerless to the medical abuses and delays that have disgraced this agency and cost lives. He said just moments ago that he was going to remove the senior leaders of the Phoenix VA medical center.

And again, you're looking at live pictures. You're looking at pictures from that event as he spoke just moments ago.

We are covering all angles of this story. CNN's Erin McPike is at the conference of homeless vets and she has been listening to our reports. Athena Jones standing by at the White House for us. In Washington our very own Drew Griffin who has -- his reporting really broke this story and ignited this national firestorm.

I want to get to all of these guys, but first I want to get to Erin McPike, because Erin, she was there.

Erin, you know, Shinseki said, you know, what he was going to do, how he planned to fix this problem. Much of it seemed to go over well, some of it didn't. What's your assessment from being there?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, he got long ovations, both at the beginning and the end. And much of the speech was about addressing the strides that they have made to address homelessness with these veterans. And also some of the strides they've made in health care in reducing those costs. That was the bulk of the speech and then he ended by saying if we can fix those things, we can fix this.

He talked about the challenges over the last few weeks as the elephant in the room, but he talked about it as a systemic problem, which I would point out is the point that House Speaker John Boehner has been making, that this problem is systemic and simply removing Shinseki might not fix the problem.

Of course, John Boehner said this week that he's getting closer to this idea that Shinseki should step down, but he's not there yet. So that's the point that I would make, that of course we expect that Eric Shinseki when he meets with the president in the next hour is going to make these very same points, that they have tried to address certain problems and they can move forward by addressing this one.

LEMON: Erin, Athena, Drew, stand by. I want you to listen to this and then we'll get reaction. Here is Eric Shinseki just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. ERIC SHINSEKI, VETERANS AFFAIRS SECRETARY: Let me address the elephant in the room today. You all have been very generous and polite.

After Wednesday's release of an interim Inspector General report, we now know that VA has a systemic, totally unacceptable lack of integrity within some of our veterans health facilities. That breach of trust involved the tracking of patient wait times for appointments. Our initial findings of our ongoing internal review of other large VA health care facilities also show that to be true.

That breach of integrity is irresponsible. It is indefensible and unacceptable to me. I said when this situation began weeks to months ago that I thought the problem was limited and isolated because I believed that.

I no longer believe that. It is systemic. I was too trusting of some and I accepted as accurate reports that I now know to have been misleading with regard to patient wait times.

I can't explain the lack of integrity among some of the leaders of our health care facilities. This is something I rarely encountered during 38 years in uniform. And so I will not defend it because it is indefensible, but I can take responsibility for it, and I do.

So given the facts I now know, I apologize as the senior leader of the Department of Veterans Affairs. I extend that apology to the people whom I care most deeply about, and that's the veterans of this great country, to their families and loved ones who I have been honored to serve for over five years now, the call of a lifetime.

I also offer that apology to members of Congress who have supported me, to veteran service organizations who have been my partners for five years and to the American people, all of them, all of them deserve better from their VA.

But I also know this, that leadership and integrity problems can and must be fixed, and now.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's go to CNN's Drew Griffin now who really broke the story.

So, Drew, you know, he said what he said. Is it too little, too late? Is it enough to save his job?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: You know, I -- honestly, I think -- I think it is. What he's basically saying is that he was lied to. But what I can't get over is that we've been reporting on this since last November. If he just watched CNN, he could have known back in November of 2013 that people were dying on wait lists. That wait list data numbers were being fudged. That the government's own reports showed for years that the VA's reporting data was flawed.

So while I feel sorry in a way for this general that for the first time in 38 years, he is being lied to by his underlings, I think the information was there, readily available in the public for him to have seen this crisis coming and done something much more proactively than waiting until this crisis developed in Phoenix which now could lead to his job.

LEMON: You know, Drew, the president has been saying, I need to see more information, I need to get to the bottom of this investigation to learn more to find out exactly what happened. But the evidence has been mounting. And clearly today it looks like Eric Shinseki is confirming that. So while he said, I'm going to make changes, this is a systemic problem, I think the quote was I thought the problem was limited and isolated.

Now I know that it is systemic. And you're saying all he had to do was watch CNN. What other evidence does a president need or anyone involved to know that this is indeed a crisis and something needs to be done now and many, again, are calling for Eric Shinseki to lose his job?

GRIFFIN: Yes, Don, the answer is I don't know. If these guys are in charge of the VA health system, why they weren't reading the government's own investigative reports on the agency itself is beyond me.

We're just learning about this morning in Pittsburgh, at the Pittsburgh VA, there's a 700-veteran wait list, waiting since 2012 to get an appointment. So this is just getting worse and worse. And

when he's saying he's being lied to, he's replacing the Phoenix administration. Now is he going to replace the Pittsburgh administration? The San Antonio administration? Dallas -- all these other places where we're hearing about problems?

I mean, there is a large problem at the VA that has to be dealt with. And is Eric Shinseki the person who would do that? He's apologizing. He's saying he didn't realize what was going on. Now he does. It's up to the president to decide, well, do I put my trust again in you to run this department? I'm not so sure.

LEMON: Right. And again, as we're seeing on the bottom of the screen there, Drew, 10:15 Eastern Time, the president is going to meet with Eric Shinseki.

I want to get to Barbara Starr. Stand by Drew, stand by, everyone.

Barbara Starr, our Pentagon correspondent, I understand that you talked to people who know Shinseki. What are they saying?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Don. I talked over the last couple of days to a number of Shinseki's oldest and closest colleagues and professional friends. I've talked to one at length this morning just before Shinseki spoke. What this person is telling me, and he's been in touch with Shinseki this week, don't expect to see Eric Shinseki go into the White House and start off by offering his resignation.

This is not in Shinseki's character, that he is now essentially girded for battle, girded to try and fix this once and for all. And you saw him in detail essentially lay out his battle plan on how he wants to move ahead.

Shinseki will go to the White House. He will be armed with facts that he will lay out for the president in detail what he wants to do. If the White House wants his resignation, what this person tells me, they are going to have to ask him for it. Essentially they would have to fire him.

Will it come to that at this point today now that Shinseki has made these public statements of apology and how he wants to move ahead? You know, we're all going to have to wait and see. But in having covered Shinseki for years here at the Pentagon and at the VA, I can tell you it would not be in his character to go in there and say, OK, I'm giving you my resignation, that's it.

He is going to want to try and fix it. He's going to want to try and fix it as best he can. And I think one of the subtle points here that may start rippling across Washington, as Drew was saying, there's all these public reports. The problems at the VA have been known for years. And many of these reports are public and many in Congress perhaps also might have read some of these.

You know, why are they just speaking out about it now? Where have they been over the last several years about it? Shinseki isn't going to say that. But a lot of people around town who are very close to him, who are going to defend him and defend his efforts, are beginning to quietly make some of those points -- Don.

LEMON: Yes. And you said he's going to want to fix it but the question is, is he going to be allowed to fix it? Democrats and Republicans both calling for him to either resign or be fired.

So I'm going to go to Athena Jones at the White House now.

Athena, take us forward to just over an hour from now, about an hour and five minutes, Shinseki should be meeting with the president. And the question is the president going to keep him? Did he buy any time or help himself with what he just said to those homeless vets?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's the big question. We'll be waiting to see what comes out of that closed-door meeting at 10:15. Of course no cameras allowed in the room. Wouldn't we like to be there? But the president did give some indication of what to expect in that meeting. He spoke in an interview with ABC.

And he said he's going to have a serious conversation with Shinseki to see whether he thinks he is prepared and has the capacity to take on the jobs of fixing the problems at the VA. He said I don't want any veteran to not be getting the kind of service they deserve. And certainly we saw in Secretary Shinseki's remarks that he believes he has the capacity to fix these problems. These problems are big, but can and must be fixed and immediately.

You know, a lot of people are saying Secretary Shinseki taking responsibility means that he should resign, he should fall on his sword. But clearly Secretary Shinseki believes that taking responsibility means sticking around to try to fix this problem. And so that's why you saw him lay out a series of steps.

I would expect that Secretary Shinseki is going to have a more wholesome report to give to the president when he delivers -- supposed to deliver today preliminary results of an internal review into the VA system to the president. So certainly President Obama is going to get a lot more details than we got from Secretary Shinseki in that speech. And so we'll have to wait and see if that's enough for President Obama.

I can tell you that he has been inclined to give General Shinseki a lot of support.

LEMON: Yes.

JONES: Last weekend speaking to reporters, the president said that no one cares more for veterans than Eric Shinseki. And so we'll have to see what comes out of this meeting. We'll be watching very, very closely.

LEMON: Yes, and Athena, that was last week. And we got word from the White House just two nights ago that he was, quote, "on thin ice." That's again according to our sources at the White House.

And, Drew Griffin, the question really is, is he -- you know, it's kind of between a rock and a hard place. He probably knows more than anyone in Washington about the problems now, but everyone -- many people want him to resign or either be fired. Is he the best qualified person to fix this problem even though he is embattled right now? GRIFFIN: Don, that is the big question. And I'd like to get Barbara's take on this. General Shinseki was a great general. He was a great army man, he is an incredible story. Right? Twice injured in combat in Vietnam. He's been terrific for this country. And I think that's given him a lot of leeway. But oftentimes, and I think Barbara will agree, when you are no longer a general, you're just the head of a bureaucracy, you may be able to lead an army, but you may not be able to lead what is a health delivery system.

Maybe you need more of a CEO instead of a military man. I'm sure General Shinseki in 38 years was never lied to because everybody under him was scared to death to lie to him.

LEMON: Right.

GRIFFIN: Now he gets into a situation where he's running this VA and maybe they've been lying for years to anybody who sat in that chair and just gotten away with it. He's not used to that. So now is he the best person to, quote-unquote, "turn around the VA after five years in office?"

You know, the president has got a tough decision to make.

LEMON: Right.

GRIFFIN: War hero, wonderful guy, but maybe not the right guy.

LEMON: You took the words right out of my mouth.

Barbara, you want to respond to what Drew said? I mean, that's the president's decision, really, to -- the next decision to come I would imagine.

STARR: It's really interesting. You know, the veterans -- the Department of Veterans Affairs is one of the country's largest, if not perhaps the largest health care organizations, health care delivery systems as Drew said. There is no question about it. By tradition, it is headed by a veteran because it is veterans who get that service and there is such a tight bond there.

Is Shinseki the right guy? What many people will tell you is that the Veterans Affairs Department needs essentially leadership at the top. Senior level management leadership. Shinseki, any VA secretary, is supposed to have the people under him that can then, you know, accurately, fully, professionally administer the system. He -- the secretary provides the leadership. So that is perhaps the key question there, whether there is confidence in his ability to lead the organization and to affect the management changes that are needed, no different perhaps than in the U.S. military.

One of the things in the military is, if you lie to your boss, you know, you're gone immediately. There's no civil service regulations. You get the boot. You are fired. Shinseki has the civil service issues that he has to deal with because this is a civilian part of the government. I've talked to some people about what about finding a new nominee. One of the issues is there's only a couple years left in this administration. They would need to find someone perhaps who is a veteran, who has extensive health care management experience, and someone who wants to come into government, perhaps take a salary cut and do this for just a couple of years.

LEMON: But is that, Barbara -- but is there someone as experienced as Shinseki waiting in line who can handle it?

STARR: Well, no. The fact is right now today, as we all stand here, Eric Shinseki knows the most, presumably more than anybody about the precise detailed problems across the V.A. system because he's been looking at it. Someone who comes in is going to first have to go through a nomination process, get confirmed, get up to speed, perhaps put in their own team.

That's the argument many in Congress are making who want to keep him, that he's already ahead of the game, if he has the president's confidence.

LEMON: Getting up to speed, Drew Griffin, is not going to be that easy when you consider really the depth of this problem.

GRIFFIN: Yes, there is a guy there now, a number two, his name is Sloan Gibson. He's well thought of. He ran the USO, he's a retired banker. He came on, I believe, in February into the V.A.

So, there is somebody you could rely on day to die if Shinseki were to leave this afternoon. Getting to the bigger point that Barbara was making, there's only two years left. This is a political appointment, right.

You know, I'm just a reporter, I can't remake Washington. But I don't know. This is a huge health care system that needs a boss that's going to make huge changes in a bureaucracy that's been there for years and years and years. Maybe it's time to pick somebody who could go from one administration to the next and actually do the job of turning this around.

LEMON: Good point.

Athena Jones at the White House, if this audit is as scathing as expected, as Drew has been reporting, there may be more benefit for the president to fire Shinseki rather than merely accepting a resignation or allowing him to continue the problem even though there's only a few years left in this administration.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think if you look at what happened with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, that could be illustrated, could give us a hint as to how the administration could handle this. They left Secretary Sebelius in place even as that disaster rouse rollout of healthcare.gov was on going. There were many, many problems with that. They kept her in place so she could be there to fix the problems. Once the system looked like it was on track, once when they met and surpassed their goals for sign-ups, that's when she bowed out. So, that's certainly how they handled the last really big scandal when it comes to management, something similar to this situation.

Now, like I said, the president has been inclined to show support for Secretary Shinseki, saying he's put his whole heart and soul into this job. You heard the secretary himself talk -- it was to homeless veterans, but he really laid out the steps that they made to bring that down to 24 percent over the past three years. So, that gives indication of some problem that he was able to help fix.

So, certainly, Secretary Shinseki has a plan that he's begun to lay out for trying to turn this around. The question is going to be whether the president wants to stick with him during this time and replace it later or replace him right now.

LEMON: Whether the president will allow him to do it. And we may find out soon. As you see at the bottom of our screen there, 10:15 Eastern Time, just under an hour from now.

I want to thank Barbara Starr, Erin McPike, Athena Jones, and, of course, Drew Griffin. Please stand by.

And if you're just joining us, Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki smoking out moments ago, addressing the problems we're having with veterans affairs, long wait lines, times as hospitals and on and on and on. Drew Griffin is reporting on that.

So, stick with us. We'll have more on the breaking news coming up in just a moment, as well as other news. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome back, everyone.

We are awaiting the White House arrival of Eric Shinseki. There you see live pictures. He's to meet with the president at 10:15 Eastern Time.

The embattled veterans affairs secretary meeting moments ago and speaking to members of a homeless veterans coalition in Washington and accepting responsibility and taking about addressing problems that the veterans administration is facing with the hospital wait times and on and on. Again, the president is going to meet with Eric Shinseki at the White House in just a few minutes, just under an hour. We'll bring it to you live as soon as it happens.

And this just in to CNN, there has been a new arrest in connection with the 2013 Boston marathon bombing. Federal authorities now charging a 23-year-old man one year after the deadly terrorist attack.

I want to go to CNN's Susan Candiotti now. She joins us by now with details.

Susan, what are you learning? SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hi, Don. This 23-year-old man, who's named is Matanov, a citizen of Kyrgyzstan, that he currently lives in Quincy, Massachusetts, which is near Boston. He's charged with obstruction of justice and hiding information from investigators looking into the bombing and even destroying evidence.

Now, Authorities are saying he is not involved -- they're not charging him with being involved in planning the bombing nor participating in any way. However, there is this chilling detail. They're saying the night of the bombing, he invited the two suspects, the two Tsarnaev brothers to dinner and had dinner with them. However, there's no indication that during that time the brothers admitted any role in the bombing.

However, a few days later, authorities say he saw photographs of the Tsarnaev brothers on CNN and, in fact, knew authorities would be trying to talk to him to get information about what he knew about them and then took steps, it's charged, to get rid of things that he had that contained information about them, such as his cell phone and even a laptop. That's the main charge here.

So, chilling details and it goes to show you, don, that even with the trial coming up in November for the Tsarnaevs, for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, that authorities are still gathering information about what went on during -- before the bombing, during it and even afterwards.

If this young man is found guilty, he faces at least 20 years in prison.

LEMON: Susan Candiotti -- Susan, thank you very much.

Still to come here on CNN, a $2 billion blockbuster deal in the NBA as Shelly Sterling agrees to part with a team that she co-owns with her husband, Donald Sterling.

Rosa Flores following the developments for us -- Rosa.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Don, we are talking top dollar for a top team. But the question still remains, will Donald Sterling sell or sue? We'll discuss after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: After five weeks of the most bizarre series of events involving Donald Sterling, it looks like the embattled Los Angeles Clippers owner is out. Sterling's wife Shelly just reached an agreement to sell the basketball team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.

The potential deal is not without controversy. Before the deal was reached, though, the attorney for Donald Sterling says his client must still sign off on this potential deal.

Rosa Flores joins me with the very latest on that.

Good morning, Rosa.