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$2 Billion Deal Reached for Clippers; Obama and Shinseki Meet on VA Scandal; Hillary Tackles Benghazi Critics in Book

Aired May 30, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: And we do know that Secretary Shinseki has arrived, is meeting with the President presumably as we speak. We know what you want to see happen. What do you think is going to happen in this meeting?

REP. JACKIE WALORSKI (R), INDIANA: Well I'm hopeful that we see right done for the sake of right. And I'm hopeful that there's a resignation today. And I'm hopeful the President brings somebody in that can literally with a sense of urgency get right to the heart of this issue and drill down and be honest with the American people and restore the faith and confidence to the VA that they deserve to have. There's all kinds of great workers and employees in the VA.

But you know what we're in a situation right now where there needs to be an urgency like you would for a five-alarm fire where everybody rushes to the scene to save people and make sure this doesn't happen again.

And simply on Wednesday night when we had a hearing that went until midnight, there was no urgency even from the folks that were in there testifying on that night. And that's one of my biggest concerns. You know we all understand we're working together on this. And politics is not in this issue. We're standing as Republicans and Democrats asking for the President to do right for the sake of our veterans.

CABRERA: All right, Representative Walorski. We really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

WALORSKI: Thank you so much.

CABRERA: And we're going to continue to wait to hear what comes of that meeting between Eric Shinseki and the President as they talk right now.

We're going to take a break. When we come back, we'll monitor that situation but we also have other news to talk about so stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: 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.

But Donald Sterling may not going out quietly. Now his attorney says his client must still sign off on this and Brian Todd is joining us now. Good morning to you. And first, what is Shelly Sterling saying about this new deal?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana she's ecstatic about the deal and who wouldn't be? She just sold the Clippers for more than 120 times what her family paid for the team 33 years ago. Overnight after the sale was completed and the agreement was signed, Shelly Sterling through her representatives issued a statement saying in part, "I am delighted that we are selling the team to Steve who will be a terrific owner. We have worked for 33 years to build the Clippers into a premiere NBA franchise. I am confident that Steve will take the team to new levels of success."

A source familiar with the situation Ana told us that they really wanted this deal to get done before Tuesday's scheduled meeting of the NBA board of governors where the league's owners would have voted whether to kick Donald Sterling out of the league. That vote probably would have happened in favor of kicking him out.

They wanted to get this deal done before then so that maybe that vote wouldn't be necessary. It's unclear whether the NBA is going to go ahead with that meeting. Now this sale is going to have to be approved by the NBA owners. Most analysts believe that probably will happen -- Ana.

CABRERA: And that being said, we're only talking about Shelly Sterling selling the team.

TODD: That's right.

CABRERA: What about Donald Sterling. How many hurdles does this deal really face?

TODD: Well Donald Sterling may well have to approve this agreement. And his attorney is indicating that they're not going to down so easily. The attorney Maxwell Blecher confirmed to us yesterday that they are considering a lawsuit in an effort to fight all of this that no decision has been made yet as to whether to file the lawsuit but they are very combative right now over the idea of Donald Sterling selling this team. And here is what Maxwell Blecher told Wolf Blitzer yesterday on "THE SITUATION ROOM."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAXWELL BLECHER, DONALD STERLING'S ATTORNEY: Very troubled by the invasion of privacy, very troubled by the racist charges that have been made against him after 33 years of history evidencing very close relationship and close support of the black -- African-American community. And he wants to be -- he wants to be vindicated. He doesn't want his tombstone to say "Here lies Donald Sterling -- racist." And the NBA has the power to make that right.

(END VIDEO CLIP) TODD: Now this came just a few days after Donald Sterling through another attorney had mailed the NBA office a letter saying that he had basically forfeited his ownership in the Clippers and he authorized his estranged wife, Shelly to handle the sale. And we asked Mr. Blecher about that and he said well basically he changed his mind since then.

At the time the charges came out he was disturbed, he was shocked but they but that he's emerged from that state of mind. But now he has told his lawyers go after them with everything you have. Fight until the bloody end. So we're going to see if this actually goes that far -- Ana.

CABRERA: Just a strange story getting even more bizarre.

TODD: Absolutely.

CABRERA: Brian Todd, thank you so much.

And joining me now is attorney Brian Claypool along with CNN commentator and legal analyst Mel Robbins. Good morning to both of you.

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning Ana.

BRIAN CLAYPOOL, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Good morning Ana.

CABRERA: All right so let's start with you, Brian. What are the chances this deal actually gets approved?

CLAYPOOL: Well Ana this is like Bonnie & Clyde. Donald Sterling has been acting as Clyde. Over the last two or three weeks he's been sending mixed messages to the NBA and he's been doing that on purpose. And also this interview he gave Anderson Cooper where he was pretty much delirious.

He's been setting the table for Shelly Sterling to now claim that he is mentally incapacitated. She's been acting as Bonnie over here by negotiating this deal when she, Ana, is not even authorized to make this deal. She's making her own rules now and saying well the trust says that I can sell the team if Donald is mentally incapacitated.

Well the trust is not the governing document it's the NBA constitution so those two documents are at odds. If I'm the NBA commissioner and if I'm the NBA board of governors, I am not authorizing this deal until Donald Sterling is fully on board or else it's going to be a mess. It's going to be undone later on.

CABRERA: It definitely makes you wonder what is happening behind the scenes. And now I'm going to get to you but I want to read this from Shelly Sterling's lawyers' press release just this morning. It says that she has signed a binding contract for the sale of the Clippers and was acting under her authority as the sole trustee of the Sterling family trust which owns the Clippers.

Now is that a lie that she's now the sole trustee? MEL ROBBINS, CNN COMMENTATOR & LEGAL ANALYST: You know, who knows? At this point we don't -- we don't have the trust documents. I mean you're talking about a couple that has been litigious for the 57 years that they've been together not to mention the fact that one of the charges Ana from the NBA is that they put out a press release that contained a lie and misled the public when they said that we got to confirm that that's Donald Sterling's voice there knowing full well that it is.

See I kind of have a different perspective. I realize that we've got a Bonnie & Clyde situation. And let's not be naive -- they are 100 percent estranged as a couple but they are fully intimate as business partners and they know exactly what they're doing.

What does Donald Sterling want? If you listen closely to what his attorney said, Brian and Ana what you heard is you heard him talking a lot about vindication. And what I believe is going to happen is that they're going to careen into this meeting on Tuesday, they're going to key up the $2 billion deal everybody at the NBA and Shelly Sterling included wants the deal done and Donald Sterling is going to stand there and say, look, I'll agree to the deal but you've got to lift the lifetime ban. That's not fair. Look at what you did to Kobe Bryant. Look at what you did to this one. You've branded me a racist.

Now do I buy that? Of course not. If anyone etched racist on his tombstone, it was Donald Sterling himself. But we're at the point where we're talking about getting a deal done and so all parties come together. And what Donald Sterling wants is he wants the NBA to let him come back and watch basketball and he wants that ban removed. I guarantee you.

CABRERA: Interesting. Well we'll find out what happens here in the next few days. It's a $2 billion deal and not to mention the questions about would -- would this new owner move the team to Seattle perhaps? There's been talk about that with other deals he's tried to make.

So Brian Claypool and Mel Robbins we'll talk to you more on another day about where this deal is going next. Thank you so much for joining me.

ROBBINS: Thank you.

CLAYPOOL: Thank you.

CABRERA: All right. We are watching the White House as we continue to monitor the President's meeting with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. And we'll be heading back there when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GEN. ERIC SHINSEKI, SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: I was too trusting of some and I accepted as accurate reports that I now know to be misleading with regard to patient wait times.

I can't explain the lack of integrity among some of the leaders of our healthcare 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Now that was VA Secretary Eric Shinseki speaking earlier this morning to a homeless veterans coalition and there on the right of the screen here you see a live picture from the White House where he is now meeting with President Obama behind closed doors.

Let's bring in CNN's Chris Frates. Chris -- you were actually there in the room last hour when Shinseki spoke at that conference and asked a question of him, I know. First what was that reaction or the feeling and the mood in that room as he was speaking?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you Ana, it was a very supportive crowd. The homeless veterans Shinseki has done a lot of work with. He got two standing ovations. He was really able to set the table ahead of this meeting with Obama this morning and he made two big points.

He said, one, I'm taking pay bonuses away from executives. So they're not going to get any more bonuses. And he also said he's no longer going to use wait times as a performance metric. So he's really trying to buy himself some breathing room with the President and show that he's taking charge of the situation.

He's taking steps forward and that played very well in the room with veterans who he has worked with and he also made the point here that he believes that they can fix big problems. He took some credit for reducing the number of homeless veterans and to read between the lines there, of course, is that he can fix the VA problems with the health system as well.

CABRERA: Well, interesting. I know you tried to ask a few questions yourself to Shinseki. Tell me a little bit about that exchange.

FRATES: Well, you know, we tried to talk to the secretary as he left the stage -- lots of press, lots of cameras. He didn't take any questions but I was able to shout one at him. And we could take a look here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Mr. Secretary, are you planning to resign, sir?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: There you were asking him if he was going to resign. We saw, of course, no reaction from him. However, we know the voices are growing louder. He has to be hearing them from lawmakers, from American citizens and even from veterans themselves and in fact I was just looking at the most recent poll we could find, CBS News poll that was from May 20th to 21st.

So before this new interim IG report came out, Chris and interestingly enough in this poll -- one, 45 percent of Americans who were polled said Shinseki should resign compared to 31 percent who said he should remain. But when you look at the veterans who were polled specifically 42 percent of veterans in that poll said, yes, Shinseki should step down versus 38 percent who said he should stay.

That was before the most recent information came out. He didn't even have veterans support. So, you know, did what he say today make any difference?

FRATES: Well, I don't think it's resonating particularly on Capitol Hill, Ana. We had Representative Tammy Duckworth. She's a Democrat, she's a former VA official herself. She's a combat veteran. She lost both of her legs in Iraq. She today says to the "Washington Post" that she believes that Shinseki needs to resign. That's her old boss.

So there's a lot of support that's crumbling underneath Secretary Shinseki as he sits in the Oval Office. It's going to be tough for him to make the case with mounting support from Democrats and Republicans that he needs to go.

CABRERA: All right, Chris Frates. We appreciate your take. Thanks so much.

Still to come, in a midterm election year it's a topic most Democrats probably want to avoid but now in her new book, Hillary Clinton is opening up about the Benghazi consulate attacks. We'll talk about what those comments could mean for the party and her political rivals when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Hillary Clinton's upcoming memoir "Hard Choices" won't hit book shops for a couple more weeks but a newly released excerpt on the Benghazi consulate attacks has put a fresh spotlight on this issue that many feel could pose a significant challenge to Clinton if she decides to run for president.

Senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar is joining me from Washington. Brianna, Clinton's taking aim at the critics of the Obama administration's response to the Benghazi attacks but she's also taking responsibility in a way. So walk us through what she's saying.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I should also add, Ana, that this was an entire chapter obtained by Politico and this is probably the chapter that is of most interest in this long-awaited memoir. This is the chapter on Benghazi, it's 34 pages. Politico reports it's called "Benghazi under Attack".

And what Clinton does here is in a very long form put forth how she sees what happened and -- what happened. And she says in this that she at the time she stood by and still stands by intelligence that showed there were some people attacking the consulate in Benghazi, Libya who were motivated by an anti-Islamic video that had prompted protests in other places like in Cairo at the U.S. embassy there.

But one of the things she also says that I think is really is interesting and may reveal some of her strategy here is she's basically putting Republicans on notice. She attacks them for some of the things that they have said about Benghazi. She says "Those who exploit this tragedy over and over as a political tool minimize the sacrifice of those who have served our country." She also says "I will not be part of a political slug fest on the backs of dead Americans. It's just plain wrong and it's unworthy of our great country. Those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me."

So she's basically saying, you know in a way -- and we know that she's considering a 2016 run but it's sort of a preview that if she does decide to run and if this does become an issue, you know, one of her lines of defense is going to be accusing Republicans of very unsavory politics there.

CABRERA: Already kind laying out that argument a little bit.

KEILAR: Yes.

CABRERA: All right. Brianna Keilar, thank you so much. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Before we let you go, let's squeeze in a few of our other top stories today.

The NSA is now pushing back on what Edward Snowden told NBC News in his recent interview. In that interview Snowden claims he reached out to his supervisors about concerns that he had with the agency surveillance practices. Well, in response the NSA now says they could find only one e-mail exchange from Snowden and that the agency claims it did not deal with surveillance at all. It was in fact a request of more information about a training program.

Yet another huge vehicle recall to tell you about this morning. This time it's Ford recalling 1.4 million cars and SUVs to fix steering, rust and floor mat problems. The biggest recall here involves the Ford Escape and the Mercury Mariner, model years 2008 to 2011 for a steering issue. So far eight people have been injured in at least 20 accidents.

And how about this? This year's National Spelling Bee couldn't find one champ. No, it found two -- a 13-year-old from Texas and a 14- year-old from New York. Both were declared winners because the Spelling Bee organizers ran out of words on their official list.

I think we have the words that ultimately led to this tie. Let's put those up there on the bottom of the screen. You can see there -- words many of us would consider completely foreign so we won't even try to pronounce them. These guys knew the words. They spelled them correctly and so they share the trophy. It's the first time this has happened since 1962.

So we end with a positive and it's Friday. Thank you so much for joining me. It's been a pleasure being with you. I'm Ana Cabrera. Let's get to "@ THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA". It starts right now.