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Eric Shinseki Stepping Down; Donald Sterling Declared Mentally Incapacitated

Aired May 30, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And here we go on this Friday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for joining me here.

In hour two, we begin with this. In battle, as a soldier, Eric Shinseki proved he's a survivor, but embattled as the veterans affairs chief, Shinseki ended up in defeat, because several hours ago, President Obama announced that Shinseki is stepping down, and this today after weeks of revelations that CNN first broke about abuses at VA facilities across the country, including these secret waiting lists, veterans who died while waiting for care and hundreds of veterans simply ignored by the system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And a few minutes ago, Secretary Shinseki offered me his own resignation. And with considerable regret, I accepted.

But as he told me this morning, the VA needs new leadership to address them. He does not want to be a distraction because his priority is to fix the problem and make sure our vets are getting the care that they need. That was Ric's judgment on behalf of his fellow veterans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The president took the podium just a couple of hours after Shinseki himself was standing behind a podium. Here he was this morning speaking to the National Coalition of Homeless Veterans. He got emotional after announcing a string of reforms. They include removing leaders at the Phoenix VA, the facility really at the heart of this whole scandal, eliminating patient wait times as a measure of bonuses, and speeding up veterans' medical care.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. ERIC SHINSEKI, SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: So, given the facts I now know, I apologize as the senior leader of the Department of Veteran Affairs. I extend an 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. It's the call of a lifetime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, Montel Williams, a military veteran. Also here, our investigative correspondent Drew Griffin, broke this story wide open.

So, Drew, let me just begin with you.

We were talking about now that we know Shinseki will be out, you have made this point that there should be many others who are still working who should be gone as well.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I think to fix the VA, those are the people you have to go after and root out.

It's this entrenched bureaucracy that got Eric Shinseki in trouble. He said in that speech this morning that basically he didn't say he was lied to. I will say he was lied to. He was misinformed by the staff around him and staff across the country.

Those people are still at work at the VA. Who are they? Why did they do it? Get rid of them and put in competent people who have one goal, deliver health care to our veterans.

BALDWIN: Montel Williams, you served in the Marine Corps. You later served in the Navy. You are absolutely livid with Washington. What took America so long, including the president of the United States, including Congress, to listen and then act?

MONTEL WILLIAMS, TALK SHOW HOST: Here's the unfortunate thing.

Even though they have listened, this action really isn't enough. It's not enough. Brooke, I have been saying this for the last four days, five days now. If you follow me on Twitter at Montel_Williams and go ahead and come up on #VAsurge, if you follow me that way and you go ahead and tweet that, you will find out that a lot of people agree that it's time for us to stop talking and just get it done.

Today, the president could say, listen to me, I'm going to stop this today. I'm going to surge immediately. I need the top minds. Each one of the surgeon generals from each branch of the service could come together and they could allow veterans to go on active-duty basis around the country and let's see if we can clean out this backlog.

If we get the backlog shut down, then we at least know what we have to pay. We don't even know the extent of how many soldiers. You're talking about one base, one VA facility, 1,700? We are going to find out over the couple -- next couple months it's everywhere. It's systemic.

So, I agree we need a top-down change and there are things that can be done immediately. I'm telling you. I don't want to just keep going, but, look...

BALDWIN: No, well, we will talk solutions, but I can't help but just break in, because I can't stop thinking about these parents I talked to last hour, Jean and Howard Somers.

Their son Daniel in the National Guard served in Iraq, deployed twice, took his own life last June. And he happened to have been treated at this Phoenix VA. And in his suicide note, he talks about frustrations of not getting proper treatment.

When you look at the numbers, I know you know this one, 22 veterans commit suicide a day in this country. And I'm not sure -- I'm not sure we're talking about this enough. I know you have met other parents. Does that story sound familiar to you?

WILLIAMS: This is a disaster. But, you see, Brooke, again, this is part of the problem. We keep talking, they keep dying.

Right now today, while we take another two months to figure out if Congress or the Senate is going to approve the next person, we could fix this right now. I'll give you an example.

BALDWIN: OK.

WILLIAMS: The president is going to go searching for people.

Right now, Admiral Straw, Vice Admiral Shaw, retired, he was a logistician. He's the guy who is actually the grandfather of the DLA. All he does is logistics. This is a logistics problem.

We need to make sure we get the services to where they need to be, the supplies to where they need to be. He could bring him in today. You could bring in Ken Fisher, who is the head of the Intrepid Foundation, also the head of the Fisher Foundation that's built a Fisher House at 68 different Fisher Houses -- or VA hospitals around the country.

You could bring them in. These are guys who could tell you right now how you could immediately end the backlog. That's what we have to do, because as we talk about what we need to do over the next couple years, we don't even know how much money we have to set aside.

BALDWIN: Do you think that's going to happen? You offer up, get it done, get it done.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: No, it's not going to, not unless we get people screaming at the top of their lungs.

BALDWIN: Let's scream. Let's scream.

WILLIAMS: That's why. I want to. We will scream.

I'll tell you what. Then do it this way. Follow me at Montel_Williams and use hashtag -- hashtag -- sorry -- #VAsurge. Just do that. If you go up there right now -- if you notice, today in the president's speech, the president actually said if we don't have enough doctors, we will surge.

So he is hearing those people who have already been tweeting this for the last four days. Let's get it done. Stop the talk. Get it done.

BALDWIN: I saw a tweet from a veteran who basically said that he hopes the nation doesn't stop caring about the story once Shinseki resigns. This is before the resignation, this tweet coming this week. He says veterans deserve more. His words were a sacrificial lam.

WILLIAMS: Well, you know what? That's exactly what's going to unfortunately happen right now, because over the next couple of days, this story is going to wind down and you are going to get back to the bickering between the Senate and the Congress and the right and the left, and we're going to forget about the fact that there are still soldiers on the battlefield.

But this battlefield is USA, folks. And we still have guys dying in Afghanistan. And we still have people trying to enter the service and say, send me to die now. Remember, the president spoke at West Point's graduation. We have people right now trying to think about putting soldiers on the ground in Africa, putting them on the ground in the Ukraine, putting us on the ground anywhere they can.

BALDWIN: That's right.

WILLIAMS: And we can't even fulfill the promise to the ones who have already served.

Am I mad, Brooke? I am. I'm really mad. But I'm angered more by the rest of us, because there is not enough people out there just screaming. And I also want to say one other thing.

BALDWIN: Sure.

WILLIAMS: Look, for our vets out there -- and a lot of these guys know this. This is not about me. But we understand. All of us understand this thought about never leaving a soldier behind.

I have spoken to now seven of the guys who served with me over the last -- I served 22 years ago. I have just called them. How you doing? Maybe some of us could start prompting the government.

BALDWIN: Check in.

WILLIAMS: Let's check in with our friends, check in with our brothers. Don't leave a brother behind.

BALDWIN: Great point. That's a great point. We keep screaming. We will keep screaming.

Montel Williams, thank you. Thank you so much.

WILLIAMS: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Who is up next in this job in the interim, you ask? Shinseki's interim replacement has been at the VA for fewer than four months. He is Sloan Gibson, a 1975 graduate of West Point who served as an infantry officer.

After leaving the military, he worked in baking for 20 years. In 2004, he joined the United Services Organizations. It's a charity helping veterans -- as president and CEO. His official biography notes that he has also worked with various nonprofits. Gibson's family also has a long history of military service. In fact, his father served on a B-17 bomber during World War II, while his grandfather was a World War I infantryman.

And another prominent face of the Obama administration announced he is stepping down today. President Obama made the surprise announcement in the Briefing Room not too long ago to announce that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney is leaving his post.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Of course, that meant I had to make a decision, which is who succeeds Jay. And we have got enormous talent around here.

But I have decided that we're going to put in this -- in this slot somebody who is also a friend and adviser. So, today, the flak jacket is officially passed to a new generation, Mr. Josh Earnest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Josh Earnest, here he is. This is Carney's deputy press secretary. He's been with the Obama team since the 2008 president campaign.

And Earnest has filled in for Carney at the podium several times. So, that's a face we will now be seeing much more often.

Coming up here, mixing booze and bullets, does that sound like a good idea to you? Well, a gun range was just approved for a liquor license. And that means a full bar feet away from the firing range. But the owner says he has a system in place to keep folks safe. What is that? And will that work? We will talk about that.

Plus, this: This man running and raving across the stage could be the next owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. And this afternoon, the NBA responding to that news, and just into CNN, we have learned two doctors have examined Donald Sterling, and they say he is mentally incapacitated.

More on that. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We are following our breaking news regarding the mental state of Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

As we first broke last hour, CNN has now learned that not just one, but these two independent doctors declared the 80-year-old man mentally incapacitated.

So, this news means his wife, Shelly, is now the sole trustee of the team. Therefore, she can sell it. When the news broke, Donald Sterling's attorney, Max Blecher, blasted the declaration, calling it -- and I'm quoting here -- "a vast overstatement" and that Sterling had a diagnosis of a modest mental impairment, a slowing down. He said that Sterling is far from being incapacitated.

But with this news here today, what becomes of this massive deal his wife, Shelly, apparently signed with ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer? The billionaire executive bid this record $2 billion for this L.A. team.

Here now is "Forbes" magazine contributor Patrick Rishe.

Patrick, nice to see you.

PATRICK RISHE, "FORBES": Nice to see you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: How does this mentally incapacitated, mentally unfit medical analysis change things?

RISHE: It certainly is going to speed up the process. I think a lot of people were concerned, given Sterling's litigious past, that this could be -- carry out for several months.

But this is going to clear the path that, as long as the NBA owners approve of Mr. Ballmer, that we're going to see a change in hands of this franchise very soon.

BALDWIN: Why is it though that you think -- we had this attorney on with Wolf just yesterday, Sterling's attorney, basically saying that his client, Donald Sterling, would continue to fight, and that was just before the breaking news of this reported deal with Steve Ballmer for the $2 billion. Why do that?

RISHE: Hot air. Much ado about nothing.

At this point, Brooke, it's about moving forward. And, again, this deal that Shelly Sterling has struck with Steve Ballmer, this has so many positive notes for so many different people, including the Sterlings themselves, by the way, because they make out like bandits, making almost -- grossing $2 billion, after taxes, about $1.3 billion. So, you know, the NBA owners are dancing across the league, because their franchise values have now gone up because of this.

BALDWIN: That's interesting, because I'm curious. So, if we're talking $2 billion, first of all, was that overinflated? And to your point, this would have an impact not just on L.A., but the NBA across the board, no?

RISHE: It is going to have an impact on every franchise.

And, yes, absolutely, there is no question in my mind that Steve Ballmer overpaid for this franchise. But, at the same time, you have to recognize, this was a very competitive bidding process. There's only 30 NBA owners. It's a tough group to get into and Steve Ballmer has the money.

Now, let's keep this in mind, Brooke. The Clippers, based on "Forbes"' estimations, had been profiting roughly about $15 million a year annually from operating income. And when they get their new TV deal in about two years, that's going to grow. So, it's not like he's going to be losing money on an annual basis.

BALDWIN: OK.

RISHE: But, yes, if he holds the franchise for 20, 25 years, I suspect he will see an increase in value.

BALDWIN: OK.

Let's talk about Steve Ballmer the man. And we have the video of him on this stage. Talk about like this full of energy, invigorated, ideas kind of guy. He led Microsoft. Clearly, he has done well, quite successful. He had flirted with the notion of, what was it, that he wanted the Kings. So, he's sort of already been vetted. What kind of owner would he be?

RISHE: I think he's going to be very dynamic and energetic. But he better -- he better make sure that he's physically fit, because I don't want him to keel over after six months of ownership, doing a dance at the opening game here in November for the Clippers.

Ultimately, this is a guy, as you mentioned, he went after the Sacramento Kings last year. And so that also makes this whole process easier, because the NBA owners have already vetted him once before. But, again, you talk about tech people and his former boss, Paul Allen, has owned two successful franchises, the defending champion Seattle Seahawks in the NFL. So, I think Ballmer obviously knows how to run a business. He will be great injection of energy for the Clippers.

BALDWIN: There is a lot to possibly happen over the weekend here before this Tuesday deadline. We will be watching.

Patrick Rishe from "Forbes," thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it here on this Friday.

And coming up next, we are learning more of the timeline of events that led up to that deadly rampage in Southern California. Investigators now say they knew of the videos that the killer posted online, but did not watch them before visiting his house for that welfare check. Was a big warning sign mixed?

Plus, a controversy brewing over a gun range because it is going to serve alcohol. What? What is the gun range doing to keep people safe while they're boozing. We will explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A troubling detail now from the investigation of last week's tragic killings near Santa Barbara.

Sheriff's deputies knew about those disturbing videos posted by this man, Elliot Rodger, but never actually watched them before deciding he wasn't a threat to anyone, before that welfare check, when they went out to his house.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office released a timeline released of how they handled this case. And this contradicts an earlier statement that the sheriff's office only became aware of those videos after the shootings.

The Isla Vista community is still healing. Students did return to class on Wednesday at UCSB. And one of Rodger's victims who survived by getting his car spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper and says he just wants to look ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK PASICHUKE, UCSB RAMPAGE SURVIVOR: You know, I just kind of want to come out here and, you know, not -- you know, not like shed light on the situation but really just like show kind of a positive side to it, you know?

It's a time where a lot of people are feeling sad and a lot of people may be feeling down. But I just -- I just don't want people to be so distracted by that whole side of it that they forget like that people are still alive. People survived this thing.

And like although we still should mourn those people it should be something that we kind of look towards to better ourselves in a way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Anderson also talked to a family friend of the shooter. He said that they are crippled with grief, but hope to meet with the family of shooting victim Christopher Martinez.

Well, locked and loaded, it's taking on a new meaning at this gun range in Oklahoma. Apparently, after you take some shots, you can take some shots. Beer, liquor will be available at the Wilshire gun range after the business was given approval for a liquor license this week.

This is a first for the state. And the owners say they are making sure drinking only happens after the shooting.

Aaron Smith, writer for CNNMoney.com, with me now.

And, Aaron, how exactly will they do that? How will they keep people sober while shooting?

AARON SMITH, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Well, what they're going to do -- and it is a very clear rule and it's written into the law that you're only allowed to shoot the guns before you drink. They are going to have a restaurant on the premises.

And I guess it's worth mentioning that the range is actually still under construction. They are plan -- they're hoping to open in July. And what they are going to do is, when you leave the range, you're going to -- they will scan your driver's license. And once you start drinking, you're not permitted back into the range, not as a shooter and not as a spectator.

And that's how they plan to control this. As you were pointing out, they are -- Wilshire Gun is the only range that serves alcohol in the state of Oklahoma.

I spoke to Larry McAllister (ph), the spokesman. He said he believes there is one similar business in Georgia and two or three in Texas. They're referred to as guntry clubs.

BALDWIN: OK. There you go, guntry clubs. I was wondering if this was anywhere else in the U.S.

SMITH: Yes.

BALDWIN: So, just so I'm clear, by scanning the driver's license, so if someone tries eating and maybe having a few beers and then going to the shooting range, what happens? Do bells go off? They can't -- what happens?

SMITH: Oh, if you're talking about someone drinking off premises and then going to the range, that really didn't come up in our conversation if there's going to be any...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: No, on premises of -- at the restaurant.

SMITH: Oh, on premises.

Yes, if you're on premises, your driver's license gets scanned and you're not permitted back into the range to shoot.

BALDWIN: Got it. OK.

SMITH: And that is actually written into the law that was passed recently.

BALDWIN: OK.

SMITH: And it's actually very rare to see these kind of businesses where alcohol and guns are present in the same place. There is a liquor store gun shop in Oregon. I remember driving by there a couple years ago. They have a big chain saw bear up on the roof, and I had to go in.

And it's Crescent, Oregon. I just called those guys up a little while ago. And they were saying that, in the past year, the guy working the counter said that he has only seen one person come in and buy liquor and a gun at the same time, so whatever that is worth.

BALDWIN: Let's hope that's it. Let's hope that's it. That's worth a lot. Aaron Smith, thank you so much.

SMITH: Thank you.

BALDWIN: By the way, the all new CNNMoney.com debuts this Sunday.

Thank you.

SMITH: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Coming up, this. Ooh. A teenager in this patrol car just there for a ride-along ended up catching this dramatic video. We will tell you the backstory, tell you what happened. Stay with me. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)