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Erin Burnett Outfront

49 Million People In Path Of Severe Storms; Mississippi Braces For More Tornadoes; Search For Flight 370 Expands Significantly; Obama Announces New Sanctions Against Russian Billionaires; Interview with Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi; Interview with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson

Aired April 28, 2014 - 19:00   ET

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

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Next breaking news, deadly tornadoes ripping through the south right now. Officials calling them violent, extremely dangerous. We are live at the scene.

Plus, President Obama punishing Russia with new sanctions, but is he hitting Putin anywhere near where it hurts?

And a billionaire accused of a racist rant caught on tape. We're going to play you the secret audio recording. Let's go OUTFRONT.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, breaking news, millions of Americans on alert, warned to take shelter right now as violent tornados ripped through the Midwest and south eastern United States. At this moment, we are watching four deadly storms that have already touched down, our reporters are in the center of the zone.

So far, 16 people have lost their lives after the deadly storms hit Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Iowa. You're looking right now of footage of a tornado that tore through Tupelo, Mississippi, just a short time ago. We just got this video in from KDR Media. Forecasters there and the governor has declared a state of emergency.

The violent storms at this moment now threatening Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee. Tupelo's Mayor Jason Shelton joins me now on the phone. Mayor Shelton, thank you very much. We're just starting to get pictures in from where you are. How severe is the damage?

MAYOR JASON SHELTON, TUPELO, MISSISSIPPI (via telephone): Thank you for having me. The damage, as far as residential and commercial property is very devastating. It's -- there's a widespread total loss in various parts of the city. Thankful right now there have been no reports of causalities. There have been, of course, nonlife threatening injuries fairly widespread, but no causalities as of right now.

BURNETT: Which is a miracle, because I believe that when you've been looking at some of the residential areas in Tupelo, you said that thank God this happened during the work day, right?

SHELTON: Yes, ma'am. If people were in some of those houses, it's difficult to see how they would have survived. They are total losses, so police, fire department, public works, even our park and recreation and every other available resource we have are literally going door to door right now to check house by house.

BURNETT: And, obviously, we're hoping that it does end up there are no causalities, given what you just said, but also, you mentioned hotels, restaurants, places people might have been congregating also have been hard hit, at least initially from what you could tell?

SHELTON: Yes, the roofs are off several of the hotels, a couple of the businesses, one business was a total loss. The only thing left standing was the restroom, which happened to be where the employees took shelter, so just thankful for their safety. There will be widespread displacement. The American Red Cross has set up a disaster relief shelter at our arena and we're doing the best we can to get people there for safety and shelter. Unfortunately, there's still the risk of more deadly storms tonight.

BURNETT: And you talk about that risk, but I mean, the miracle you said about there being a restaurant and the entire restaurant is flattened and one room left standing, the bathroom, where employees were. That is a miracle. What are you telling people to do in town, given there could be more tornados and you already have such widespread devastation?

SHELTON: Just encouraging everyone to stay home. That's really, particularly, as it gets closer to evening and when the sun -- when it's no longer daylight, the situation's going to become more and more dangerous. There's utility lines down, you have the danger of that. We've had some gas leaks. There's a lot of dangerous, you know, things out there, so just encouraging everyone to stay home, just signed an executive order enacting a 9:00 p.m. curfew. Governor Brian has called me personally twice today sending in state officials and National Guard members to assist with the curfew.

BURNETT: Mayor Shelton, thank you very much for your time. Martin Savidge is also in Tupelo. Martin, you just heard the mayor say a restaurant flattened, one room standing. It was the restroom, that's where the employees were, a miracle. Talking about the residential areas where he's saying, look, they are at this point going door to door and hoping no one was home because he doesn't think that if anyone was home there'd be any survivors.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the damage where we're standing, which is in the area of the mall, that's the Barnes Crossing Mall, we haven't been able to get there, primarily because of the fact that it's a combination of damage and there's a gas leak. There's a definite smell of gas in the air and the concern is they want to keep everyone back until they can get that under control, because you don't want another catastrophe on top of what you've already had.

In the area where we are at, if you think of any mall in the America and the buildings that surrounds it, the local hotels, the chains that everybody knows, they're all lined up here and they've all been extensively damaged, not obliterated, but heavily damaged on top of that gas stations and local restaurants.

The stories you talk of miraculous survival, let me show you one restaurant here, we'll make it slow to try to let you see it here. It's in the background, that building, it's an institution known in Tupelo since 1975, been at this location since 1991. On the outside here, maybe the damage doesn't look so severe, but it was devastated on the inside and the people who were there went to one of three coolers, and that's where they sought shelter.

In fact, people in the area realizing they couldn't get to regular community shelters, came to this restaurant and went inside those coolers. That's probably what saved their lives. Nobody was injured inside the restaurant, one injury outside of the restaurant, a person in a car. This is that kind of stunned quiet, period, where people are really assessing, first of all, they are all right, they are still here, and what damage has been done.

We have been hearing of fires that have been starting up including a local school. We're checking on that. Many streets are closed because they are impassable due to downed power lines and downed tree limbs. So the damage here is extensive and quite frankly, we're not seeing the worst of it yet, because we just can't get to it, but we'll continue to push on -- Erin.

BURNETT: Martin Savidge, thank you very much, also in Tupelo, Mississippi. These tornados have left a path of death and destruction for miles across the south as the storms are moving at this moment. Ed Lavandera is in Mayflower, Arkansas, where he was with a storm chaser who came dangerously close to it all.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My ears are popping. Yes, we're in it right now. We're in the tornado.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Drove right into the tornado in Mayflower, Arkansas. He still can't believe he's alive to talk about it today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is as bad a tornado as I've ever seen.

LAVANDERA: Within seconds, it was too late. He was trapped, as everything around him went dark.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crap, we're in it.

COTTON ROHRSCHEIB, STORM CHASER: The storm was coming from that direction, and I just put it in reverse and stepped on it, and we're coming back, the storm picked us up and turned us sideways and, of course, we were ducked down in the vehicle all just holding on praying.

LAVANDERA (on camera): I was struck by what you said earlier about the lack of visibility, you lost sense of where you were.

ROHRSCHEIBB: It went black, completely black. If you look at the end of the video, it just went completely black. There was just nothing we could do.

LAVANDERA: At that point, not like you even see the tornado. You're inside of it at that point.

ROHRSCHEIBB: Correct. It was on us before we realized it.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): At least 16 people were killed in three states, but Faulkner County, Arkansas, was the hardest hit. Ten people here lost their lives including two children. The twister unleashed winds between 130 and 150 miles per hour. The National Weather Service says the tornado was at least a half mile wide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The minute it dropped and the array of debris that was in the air and it's wide, you know, I knew it was going to be really bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could hear people screaming.

LAVANDERA: Cotton Rohrhscheibb has chased tornados for three years, but what he witnessed and survived last night was too much.

ROHRHSCHEIBB: Kids crying, someone getting out of the car saying my kid's hurt.

LAVANDERA: Is it the voices you heard that make you not want to do it anymore?

ROHRHSCHEIBB: Yes. Yes. Yes.

LAVANDERA: Rohrhscheibb is done chasing storms, and he says this little boy is the reason why.

ROHRHSCHEIBB: Nothing really can prepare you for what we saw last night, you know.

LAVANDERA: And why are you retiring, for lack of a better word, from storm chasing?

ROHRHSCHEIBB: I've got a 2-year-old son and a wife. They mean the world to me. I guess God showed us last night he's got a purpose for us on this earth, and storm chasing's not it, you know?

LAVANDERA: Way too close?

ROHRHSCHEIBB: Yes, it hit too close to home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And Erin, it was a staggering tornado. The National Weather Service is saying late this afternoon that they believe this tornado was at least an EF-3 rated storm and was on the ground for about a 40-mile stretch along this part of Arkansas -- Erin.

BURNETT: Pretty incredible story. Incredible what he said about his purpose in life and you have those moments. Thanks very much to Ed Lavandera as we said there in Mayflower, Arkansas. OUTFRONT next, the mystery of Flight 370, a major change on tap in the search. We'll talk to the man leading America's effort to find the plane.

Plus, racist comments caught on tape. Could this end Donald Sterling's career as owner of the L.A. Clippers?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People call you and tell you I have black people on my Instagram and it bothers you?

DONALD STERLING: Yes, it bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast you're associating with black people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast you're associating with black people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Tonight, officials giving up hope. It's been 50 days since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: I regret to say that thus far none of our efforts in the air, on the surface, or under sea have found any wreckage. This is probably the most difficult search in human history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: The most difficult search in human history. Abbott's announcing a new phase in the operation, saying they are going to expand the underwater search and use private contractors. The new search area, 23,000 square miles. That's 150 times the area that they had been searching with the Bluefin-21. That Bluefin will continue to operate, but it's now going to be joined by sonar devices towed by ships, so they'll have more assets.

It's expected to cost up to $56 million and could take another eight months. Joining me now on the phone, Navy Commander William Marks of the U.S. 7th Fleet. He is on board the USS Blue Ridge, which is leading the U.S. search effort for Flight 370.

Commander Marks, good morning to you. As of now, American planes still flying over the search area. How much longer is the United States going to be involved here?

COMMANDER WILLIAM MARKS, ABOARD THE USS BLUE RIDGE (via telephone): That's right. We still are flying over the search area, and, of course, we still have the Bluefin under water still searching. It is an important juncture right now. We're in the transition period, and I'll call that the transition from the tactical precision search to a more long-term search, and I say tactical precision search, and that's around that circle with the radius of about ten nautical miles. That was really focused on the area where the TPL had that really long period of detection about two hours of detection a few weeks ago.

So I call that a precision search, because we had our one asset, our best asset, in the water, the Bluefin-21 side scan sonar. Made the decision to search this area based on the TPL detection of the pings.

BURNETT: Right.

MARKS: And you know, we didn't find anything but that's OK. Now we're at this juncture, this transition period, where we need to move to this long-term search where, and I do echo the prime minister's remarks, we'll expand the search area. And from here determine what are the best assets to use, whether that's military, government, or commercial, and where we go from here.

BURNETT: And I want to ask you about that, but first, two weeks ago on this show you said, look, you were confident that the pings that you had heard in the Indian Ocean, the pings around which they were just doing, as you said, that precision search, that those pings came from the black boxes of the plane. Obviously, as you said, the search underneath the ocean has not found the plane. Are you still confident, though, that those pings came from that plane?

MARKS: You know, the signals we detected, they were consistent with the pinger that would come from a black box, and it's the best lead we had, and it still is the best lead we have to this date. So we can't really guarantee with 100 percent certainty that those signals came from the black boxes, but really the probability is that they were, and so that was our best lead. We went for it in that kind of precision search there, but still, you know, we really don't have any reason to say the pings weren't from the black box, and being consistent with what we would expect, that's still our best lead.

BURNETT: Thank you very much for joining us tonight.

MARKS: You're very welcome.

BURNETT: OK, now Richard Quest joins me.

So, we were looking at an area, as he said, 154 square miles to the Bluefin-21 that was looking in the area of the promising pings. Here we are now, 23,000 square miles.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It was a very honest, frank press conference by Prime Minister Abbott. He basically said the plane cannot disappear. It is merely a question of having to find it. And now as we've talked many times, they are in it for the long, hard trench and slog.

BURNETT: So how long is that, Air France, right, it took them a couple of years to find the actual plane, and they knew where the plane was, because there was debris, this was a very different situation, but still took them two years. Granted there was a mountain range under the water and they didn't have black boxes. QUEST: That was only six and a half miles, by the way from where they knew it to be.

BURNETT: OK, so in this situation, obviously, you're looking at maybe they missed it, right, you could look it from a different resolution, but are they going to look continuously or at some point kind of give up?

QUEST: No. If you look very closely what they said last night, they are not only going to bring in more assets, towed assets, they are also going to go back to the group and ask them to revisit all their calculations. It's exactly what we've been saying they would do. They go --

BURNETT: And when you say revisit all their calculations, we're talking about Inmarsat data, the whole premise upon which this plane flew south, everything.

QUEST: Everything's up for grabs. But while they are doing that, they are going to search around the pings, around the four pings, and that's the larger area, if you like. So we have the narrowed focus area around ping number two, now we're getting a bit bigger and a bit bigger. We are not yet at the stage of working our way up the arc. That still hasn't happened yet.

BURNETT: Right. And that's the Inmarsat arc that said it could be anywhere from Kazakhstan there.

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: Arc was a very, very long arc.

QUEST: Yes. But just doing that wider area around ping number one, ping number three, ping number four, that's going to take months.

BURNETT: In the initial report when you were in Malaysia last week, you reported there is going to be an initial report this week. Are we going to find anything about what they've looked at, if this was not mechanical, on motive, who they talk to, who they are looking at or are they going to keep that close to the vest?

QUEST: They are going to keep that close. I'm not expecting anything revolutionary out of this report when it's published. It's the mere fact of publication that's significant.

BURNETT: So well, this is how that they can be more transparent.

All right, Richard Quest, thank you. Back from Malaysia, of course, with the exclusive interview with the prime minister.

OUTFRONT next, President Obama announces new sanctions against Russian billionaires, but is this another red line that's, frankly, kind of pink? Vladimir Putin's name isn't on the list.

Plus, an NBA owner under fire for racist comments, and it's not the first time. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: President Obama said he's upping the ante against Russian president Vladimir Putin. Obama is adding 17 Russian companies and seven Russian government officials to the sanctions list. That brings the total to 54 individuals. But if the goal is to influence Russia by pressuring its wealthiest, the list falls short. Putin isn't on it, neither are most of Russia's richest, I'm talking about billionaires, which just still happens to spend big dollars right here in the United States. And it could be very well hanging fruit for President Obama.

Ted Rowlands heads this OUTFRONT investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a three-bedroom, three-bathroom property.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some call Miami the new Russian Riviera.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the views of the Miami Beach.

ROWLANDS: One by one, high end properties are being bought by Russian million and billionaires, and while many of them are drawn to the lavish homes and lifestyles of south beach, they also like to keep a low profile.

SELDA KIRKAN, MIAMI REAL ESTATE AGENT: Most of the Russians, they do not want to give information about their business.

ROWLANDS: As the Obama administration goes after powerful Russians with ties to Putin, some, including local Ukrainian-American critics, want the president to go after Russian billionaires in America, like the Russian fertilizer magnet who dropped $88 million on the penthouse of this building on central park west in New York City or Andre Valvov (ph), a former Russian finance minister, who paid $37 million for this 78th floor penthouse of the Time Warner center.

VICTORIA SHTENER, DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE: They feel that once the money hits the U.S., it's a great place for them to keep the money.

ROWLANDS: It's also a great place for them to live part time. Billionaire (INAUDIBLE), a close confident of Vladimir Putin, docked his 550-foot yacht in New York for two months while his girlfriend gave birth to their daughter.

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov runs the Brooklyn Nets while he ran against Putin in the 2012 presidential election. He's also viewed as a Putin associate. Now he's talking about putting the team under the control of one of his Russian companies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If all of these rich people are sanctioned and they see the facts, there's going to be a chain reaction. ROWLANDS: At Chocolate cafe in Chicago's Ukrainian village, Ukrainian-Americans we talked to believe increasing the sanctions to include Russians buying U.S. real estate will help get Putin to back off Ukraine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If his friends starts you know, complaining that they are not able to travel, they are not able to transfer huge amounts of money.

KIRKAN: You're located on downtown Miami.

ROWLANDS: But for now, despite what's happening in the Ukraine, Russia's mega wealthy are free to invest and spend time in America as they please.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: And the big question, why aren't any of those individuals on the list?

Still to come, 49 million people in the path of deadly tornados. Tonight, we're going to go live there next.

And a billionaire's racist rant caught on tape. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news in the Midwest and Southeast tonight. Millions of Americans seeking shelter, a series of violent and deadly tornados right now striking the Midwest and Southeast. So far, 16 people have been killed in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Iowa, and right now, we're tracking about four separate storms.

Mississippi getting hit the hardest right now. Officials confirming a tornado has touched down in Warren County. We want to show you as employees in one local news station were sent running for cover in the middle of a broadcast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LAUBHAN, WTMA METEOROLOGIST: This is a tornado ripping through the city of tupelo as we speak, and this could be deadly. Let's go tower cam. Basement. Now. Go! Now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant has declared a state of emergency and he joins me on the phone now from Jackson.

Governor, where are the storms right now? I understand there's a storm approaching Jackson at this moment.

GOV. PHIL BRYANT (R), MISSISSIPPI (via telephone): It is. Unfortunately, as we sit here in the headquarters of Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, there is one very close. Now, this is a hardened target. So we should be able to withstand an EF-5 here. So we may lose the line, but we feel comfortable that we are in a protected area.

The storms are all over. They are in Winston County, Yazoo County, Montgomery County. I know that doesn't mean a lot to people outside of Mississippi, but if you can think about the northern two-thirds of the state, and even now into the Jackson area, where we're at now.

So, about two-thirds of the state has been affected. Tupelo has been hit hard. Devastating tornado there, hundreds of homes damaged, a number of injuries. Another area, Louisville, Mississippi, in Winston County hit hard.

One of the things that concerns us most there is the Winston Medical Center, that's had damage. We have one of our triage teams from the Jackson University Medical Center on site and a great deal of damage there at that hospital, which has an adjoining extended care home, as well.

BURNETT: Were they able to evacuate that, or at this time are you on sure?

BRYANT: We are unsure as to the process. Normally, what happens in that, they will try to bring them to the lower portion of the hospital and secure that rather than trying to evacuate patients.

But as you said, we've got television stations that have been evacuated, one in Jackson just issued a warning that they would have to go off the air momentarily and evacuate the television station, as they are reporting. So this is a historic -- I've been here all of my life. I've seen Katrina, tornados, but nothing of the magnitude that we've seen here, some 25, 26 tornado warnings.

Seven confirmed, seven confirmed tornados on the ground today, and unfortunately, more bad weather to follow tomorrow.

BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you very much, Governor. I appreciate your taking the time. Obviously, stay safe there.

As you heard him say, he's in a shelter that's zoned for an EF-5, the strongest category of tornado.

Let's go to Jennifer Gray in our severe weather center.

Jennifer, you just heard the governor of Mississippi say he's been through Katrina and that this is worse.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the type of tornados that we're seeing today are very different than the type of tornados you see associated with hurricanes. These are extremely large. They are long-track tornados, and they can be deadly.

This is exactly where he is, Jackson, Mississippi, here is that tornado warning affecting Jackson and Pearl, 250,000 people in the path of this one particular storm, and we've been tracking many of these throughout the day. This is in effect until 7:15 p.m. I want to show you a wider view, though, so you can get a handle on what we're dealing with when we're talking about these tornado warnings.

Look at them. You can see just all these hot pink boxes. Anywhere from western Alabama all the way through Jackson and through the south, this line of storms. Also seeing a tornado warning in southern Tennessee and I do also want to mention one more thing. We are seeing a tornado warning just on the southwest side of Atlanta heading towards the Peach Tree City area, so this is also a very dangerous storm.

If you're in the path of this, we're not only tracking them in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, but now Georgia is in the mix. And this is something we're going to be watching, Erin, as we go through all in the line of this one particular tornado warning, as well.

BURNETT: All right. Jennifer, thank you very much. Of course, as those storms move, more and more, as we said, up to 50 million Americans potentially impacted by these storms tonight.

And now to the racist comments caught on tape. Now, these are believed to have been said by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. In a secret audio recording, a man believed to be Sterling can be heard talking to his mistress about associating with and posting pictures of herself with African-Americans, including that picture right there. She's with Magic Johnson.

The follow-up from those remarks is building by the hour. Mercedes- Benz, Red Bull, JetBlue, among 11 companies that have already in the past day said they are not going to sponsor the team.

Jason Carroll begins our coverage OUTFRONT with more on Sterling's comments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

V. STIVIANO: Because I don't see your views. I wasn't raised the way you were raised.

DONALD STERLING: Well, then, if you don't feel it, don't come to my games. Don't bring black people. Don't come.

STIVIANO: Do you know you have a whole team that's black that plays for you?

STERLING: Do I know? I support them and give them food and clothes and cars and houses. Who gives it to them?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's allegedly Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling telling his then- mistress V. Stiviano to remove black people from her Instagram account, including Magic Johnson.

STERLING: I'm just saying that it's too bad you can't admire him privately, and during your entire (EXPLETIVE DELETED) life, your whole life admire him, bring him here, feed him, (EXPLETIVE DELETED) him, I don't care. You can do anything. But don't put it on an Instagram for the world has to see so they have to call me. And don't bring him to my games, OK?

CARROLL: Sterling's wife told TMZ her husband is not a racist, saying it's not true. Also saying the tape recordings were, "old."

GREG ANTHONY, RETIRED NBA PLAYER: He's long been thought to be somewhat of a bigot, but the issue now is the fact that everybody around the country knows.

CARROLL: Sterling, the son of Jewish immigrants, started his career in the early '60s as an attorney before transitioning to real estate, developing a track record of legal problems involving discrimination. In 2009, Clippers' former general manager Elgin Naylor filed a wrongful termination suit against Sterling for what he called Sterling's pervasive and ongoing racist attitude, alleging Sterling wanted the Clippers to be poor black boys from the South and a whitehead coach.

Sterling denied the allegations and Baylor dropped the racial discrimination suit. Also in 2009, Sterling paid what was at the time the largest housing discrimination settlement in U.S. history. The Justice Department sued Sterling for allegedly refusing to rent apartments to African-Americans and Latinos.

Again, Sterling denied the allegations, settling by paying nearly $3 million.

(on camera): In 2009, the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP actually awarded Sterling with a lifetime achievement award. They were about to do the same thing this year, but rescinded it once those recordings surfaced.

(voice-over): The NAACP did not say how much money they received from Sterling, only that it will be returned. The decision to honor him made at the local level.

LORRAINE MILLER, NAACP INTERIM PRESIDENT: We have to urge our branches to make much more considered decisions.

CARROLL: No word from sterling, who may not be able to stay quiet for much longer.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is OUTFRONT, leading the NBA players response to these alleged remarks, an all-star player himself.

Mayor Johnson, we just got a statement from Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, literally just coming in these moments, so pardon me for reading it off my BlackBerry. He said he's disappointed in the comments, but added, "I'm still going to do my best and do what I think is best for my team. I hope the Staples Center is packed and people are cheering for the players. The players are now in the middle of this and they have to deal with it."

Obviously, you're representing the players. Are they right to play on for this owner?

KEVIN JOHNSON, MAYOR OF SACRAMENTO: I think they are. I think it's very clear that this is the defining moment, and it's unfortunate that we're dealing with this. The NBA is having some of the best basketball playoff series we've ever seen, and then you see something where racism is rearing its ugly head and we're dealing with that.

I think the players have a job to do. They've asked me to represent them and be their voice as we navigate through this very troubling situation.

BURNETT: So, Mayor, of course, as you heard in the report we aired, Sterling has a history of alleged discrimination and it's not hard to find. You look at his Wikipedia page and it's all there.

How is it that this is such a surprise to so many? I mean, did you know about this?

JOHNSON: No, I didn't know about it to this degree, and I think what's clear from a player's standpoint, you know, Chris Paul asked me to weigh in on this, and from a players' standpoint, they didn't know ability the troubling history and track record of this owner.

Had they known, they would have made different decisions on whether to play there. I think that's what the issue is at hand going forward, because a lot of players on the team, they don't want to play for an owner that's a racist. Players that are free agents are certainly not going to want to go to L.A. You see sponsors and businesses backing away today.

This is a real issue that needs to be dealt with in a swift and decisive manner.

BURNETT: Do you think, though, for a long time, people just sort of look the other way? I mean, thanks to social media and this recording, now everyone's talking about it, but it does seem to sort of fit with what he'd done before and just for some reason for so many years, you know, it didn't capture the national attention.

JOHNSON: Erin, it's troubling to all of us that it didn't grab more attention, but now that it's here, we have to make sure it doesn't continue forward.

BURNETT: The Clippers obviously played last night and their protest before the game, as you know, because you were talking about it, was to wear their jerseys inside out, and a sports columnist of "The New York Daily News" wrote about it this morning, Mayor. And I thought what he wrote was kind of interesting, he said, "Any picture of the Clippers engaging in a more serious would have lasted a lifetime and provided the players with some payback to the league and all its business partners, that has kept Sterling in the club long after his warped views on race oozed out of the closet." What's your reaction to that? I mean, that there's people who are criticizing them saying, look, they should have staged a bigger protest.

JOHNSON: I disagree. You know, when you think about what the players wanted, they wanted an immediate investigation. Everyone deserves due process.

They wanted swift and decisive action. They wanted to make sure they got a chance to weigh in and sit at the table. They didn't want to be passive participants, and they wanted the commissioner, Commissioner Silver, that whatever powers he has, they want the most severe sanctions allowable under the NBA guidelines to be applied, and he's ruling tomorrow.

And everybody's anticipating, and it's clear, and I want people to know that Commissioner Silver has been a partner in this game.

We look at this as one family. This isn't about owners against players. This is about our family, our league, our NBA standing for the values and the beliefs that we believe that are worthy of this NBA.

BURNETT: Are you frustrated, then, the owners have been, frankly, silent?

JOHNSON: I am not frustrated, because not all owners have been silent. The Sacramento Kings owner said zero tolerance.

BURNETT: Right, from your town.

JOHNSON: Absolutely.

And we've heard the Miami owner speak out. So, owners are speaking out. They have a responsibility to also make sure that due process takes place. So, tomorrow when you think about it, that's only three days after this incident has happened. It's hard to move much quicker than that.

Let's make sure that was his voice and once we know that's his voice, let's rush to judgment. There has to be a decision made.

BURNETT: It's a fair point, due process is needed. Though, you know, people are talking about, look, where is Michael Jordan in all this?

But let me ask you, Mayor, about the sanctions. Obviously, Sterling could be suspended, he could be fined. The biggest fine in NBA history is $500,000 against Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, for commenting on the referees. The Heats' owner also got a fine for commenting on the lockout.

You just said right here that he should be hit with the most severe sanctions. What should those be, because this guy is worth $1.9 billion. Even a few million isn't going to matter to him.

JOHNSON: That's not enough. And when you think about when anything -- when a hint of cancer is shown, you have to cut it out immediately, and I feel that's where the players are today. They don't think he's worthy to be an owner. So whether there's a sanction that includes a suspension, whether there's a sanction that includes a hefty fine, at the end of the day, the players feel very strongly that he's not fit to be an owner and a part of this NBA family.

BURNETT: So, if he remains as an owner, you think that they will walk out?

JOHNSON: I think we're going to have to make that decision after Commissioner Silver has his press conference tomorrow. We are all very hopeful. We know that he understands how much -- you know, the NBA, when you think about sports, sports should actually close the racial divide, not widen it.

BURNETT: Yes.

JOHNSON: The sports that we believe in, the NBA, it brings people together. It unites people. This is an example of doing the opposite.

I don't think Commissioner Silver is going to allow this to happen, and we as players are thankful that he had conversations with me and us on a regular basis, because we got a chance to weigh in. If you're going to hold us as players to a high standard of conduct, we want that. But there has to be two-way accountability.

You cannot have owners that also aren't held to that same high standard of conduct.

BURNETT: All right. Mayor Johnson, thank you very much. We appreciate your time tonight.

And OUTFRONT next, a dozen major sponsors have pulled out their support of the L.A. Clippers. Will it force Donald Sterling to sell the team?

And where did this baby bear cub come from? Well, Jeanne Moos found out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: So, L.A. Clippers team owner Donald Sterling still hasn't admitted he's the one speaking making those horrific comments on an audiotape that surfaced this weekend, but some team sponsors are already taking action. This is the era of social media. Twelve sponsors already dropping or suspending their support. That includes CarMax, State Farm, Kia Motors, Virgin America, and Red Bull.

But will the public pressure affect Sterling? Again, let me just emphasize what I told you a moment ago, the man's worth $1.9 billion. He's 80 years old.

Joining me now, Don Lemon and R&B singer Durrell "Tank" Babbs. He was scheduled to sing the national anthem at the Clippers game tomorrow night but has pulled out due to Sterling's comments. So, Tank, let me start with you. You pulled out, just like that list of sponsors, but in pulling out, you're giving up, especially given what's happening, perhaps one of the largest audiences ever. So you decided to do because you want to take a stand.

Are you frustrated at all that the players haven't taken more of a stand or the fans or others?

DURRELL "TANK" BABBS, MUSICIAN: I mean, I don't want to say frustrated when it comes to the players, just because you just don't know what their mindset is, and, honestly, how they feel like they are going about it. They've made decisions within themselves as a collective, you know what I mean, they are their own fraternity and they have each other's back.

So I support the players in whatever they decide to do, but for me, first and foremost, I can't support this guy. You know what I mean?

And just like I said, it may be true. He's worth $1.9 billion. This little bit of money or whatever I was going to be given may not affect him, me singing or not, but this stand for me is going to make a difference to me and my children and the community that I stand for.

BURNETT: And, Don, Sterling still has not admitted he's the one caught on tape. And as Kevin Johnson just said, former all-star player representing the players right now, he said look, due process. We want to confirm that.

But the coach of the Clippers, Doc Rivers, just released a statement and he said, we want to make the right decisions here. We're doing our very best to try and do that. We're all trying to figure out everything as it goes and just do our best. We hope it's the right answer. This is a very emotional subject. This is personal.

Let's talk about the players. This is their livelihood. This is how they make their living. You know, they are going for the playoffs. Should the NBA be doing more?

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Absolutely. And, by the way, I commend you, Tank, for doing that. Thank you, for someone to come out and have some morals and some values. I commend you. Yes, I think the NBA should be doing more. I think that the commissioner should have done more.

I personally think the commissioner should have said you're suspended pending an investigation. Everyone is saying he has not admitted, it hasn't been confirmed. To me, he has admitted because if someone accuses you, Erin Burnett, of doing something wrong --

BURNETT: You'd say I didn't do it.

LEMON: I would say that is not my voice. I did not say that.

He's not saying that. What he's saying is that I'm upset or I regret the statements that were attributed to me. He didn't say it's not me on the tape and it's not my voice.

BURNETT: He's not even trying to do that.

LEMON: The NBA should be trying to do a lot more right now. But tomorrow in the press conference, we'll see.

BURNETT: All right. Tank there are people out there making excuses for Sterling. I want to play these two. I don't want to paraphrase. I want you to hear it yourself.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He got set up by a very bad girlfriend let's face it. That whole thing is, she's called the girlfriend from hell. But, you know, what he said was terrible, despicable.

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO HOST: This is not news to anyone who has known of this guy. This guy is a big Democrat. The only reason he's in trouble right now is he did not give enough money to Obama.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BURNETT: Tank?

BABBS: Wow. Well, incredible.

BURNETT: Render speechless.

LEMON: If we didn't know then that Rush Limbaugh is a stunt king, then we know now. There's no excuse for this behavior. There's no excuse for anyone to try to make an excuse for someone like Donald Sterling. Clearly, he's trying to get the attention.

BABBS: Listen, speaking on doing more. I mean, he's very much re- enacting a space in time where there was no due process for black people. When we were accused of something, there was immediate action taken against us. And for me, there should be immediate action taken against him right now.

I'm going to do my part, hopefully the NBA will swiftly take care of business, please.

BURNETT: What do you think, Don, could happen. Think about Paula Deen. She used the N-word.

LEMON: I think it's happening.

BURNETT: She fell -- she came right back.

LEMON: Yes, but this is different. Even Howard Bragman, Reputation.com, a person who can restore your reputation if you get in trouble, said I am -- he said on CNN's air, listen, I'm a very creative guy, but I can't figure out a way to get out of this. You said it when you introduced us for the story -- tens of millions of dollars and they did it very quickly. That's not going to happen. We're not talking about somebody who makes food. These just aren't Bob's wing shack down on the corner. These are major donors, tens of millions of dollars.

BURNETT: It's a fair point, and as we leave this, Tank and Don, I just want to share with you the picture right now, as the playoff game begins the Miami Heat are wearing their jerseys inside out in solidarity with the clippers which is what they did the other night to show their anger and frustration. Still what amazes, this seems to be a pattern of behavior for two decades and just why now suddenly is it something people are noticing?

Thanks to both of you.

And OUTFRONT next, for almost two weeks, officials have been trying to figure out where this abandoned baby came from. This is the baby. Yes. Don't, Don. It's cute now. Not cute for long.

Jeanne Moos found the answer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Bear cub shows up on a door step, we told you about her. But now we know where she came from.

Jeanne Moos is here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What do you do when you got competing animal stories running neck and neck.

Do we do the baby giraffe seen her minutes after her birth Monday at the Cincinnati Zoo, or should we focus on the monkey that poked a host on a morning show, "Great Day Houston"?

Great day for the monkey. Baby giraffe or monkey poke, it's a nail- biter, which brings us to our real story an animal mystery seemingly solved. The mystery of where this baby bear came from. Last week, we told you about the cub left without explanation in a dog kennel outside the BEAR League on Lake Tahoe.

Though she sounds content now, she has a traumatic start. An anonymous caller to BEAR League's director finally fill in the details.

ANN BRYANT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BEAR LEAGUE: He was walking in the woods and he heard like a baby cry.

MOOS: He spotted the cub clinging to the body of her mother. Couldn't tell what killed her.

BRYANT: The cub was in total distress.

MOOS (on camera): The caller says he called authorities on his cell phone but told him to leave the baby bear there, to let nature take its course.

(voice-over): Instead, he said he picked up the cub and carried it a mile to his car. The next morning, he drove more than 350 miles from humble Redwood State Park to Lake Tahoe's BEAR League, and Bryant wear sunglasses because of eye problems is completely convinced the caller is the real rescuer because she grilled him about details and the person who dropped off the cub would know.

Details like a nearby chicken statue. The caller was worried he'd be arrested for picking up the cub now known as Tahoe.

At Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care they embedded her bottle in a big stuffed animal.

BRYANT: So she doesn't have to be nursed by a human.

MOOS: To avoid bonding with people so from a year if now she can be released back in the area where she was found. Though by then she may think her mother is a giant yellow duck.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: That one was very touching.

Anderson starts now.