right now, why so many fire natives? fighting back. donald sterling's lawyers respond to the nba saying he did nothing wrong and he's not paying the multimillion dollar fine. battle lines being drawn as the clippers get knocked out of the playoffs overnight. under fire. the head of veterans affairs says he's not stepping down in the face of evidence that veterans died wait for help. congress grilled him over what went wrong. should he leave or is he the man to fix it? your "new day" starts right now. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo, kate balduan, and michaela pereira. >> good morning. welcome to "new day." it is friday, may 16th. just after 6:00 in the a.m. in the east at least. we're going to begin with the worst wildfires we've seen in a while. a battle that has turned deadly in southern california. police believe this was all done intentional

intentionally. two arson suspects are under arrest. in carlsbad, a badly burned body was found. here's where they stand in terms of devastation this morning. at least eight fires are burning. 10,000 acre vhachesers have bee scorched. dan simon is in escondido, california, with the very latest. >> raging on overnight. at least eight fires in san diego county consuming home after home. smoke even visible from space as the blazes ravage over 10,000 acres. evacuations now call for nearly 16,000 residences as the flames turn fatal. fire crews discovering a badly burned body in a carlsbad encampment. the unseasonably erratic winds with gusts up to 50 miles per hour, spreading the flames rapidly. >> i have never seen the santa ana winds, also called devil

winds, in the month of may. >> reporter: winds whipping in multiple directions causing terrifying fire tornadoes. >> another tornado right there on the other side. >> reporter: watch this flaming vortex atop a hill spin wildly, nearly engulfing the house in front. thousands of firefighters and military crews bombarding the blazes from all sides. still, no match for the swift moving flames fueled by acres of dry brush. >> it came down the hill. once you start seeing black smoke, it was upon here within 15 minutes. >> with so many wildfires erupting one right after the other, speculation of arson on the rise. two teens 30 miles north of san diego now in custody being questioned for two smaller brush fires in escondido. >> we have developed reasonable suspicion, probable cause to believe that they were involved in setting fires. >> reporter: unrelated to san diego's eight major brush fires, reducing almost 20 homes now to

ashes. >> it was absolutely gorgeous. and now it's all gone. all xwon. what can i say? >> reporter: fortunately not everything was destroyed. sophie's family safe salvaging a few family photos. and their dog rocky, his first from the flames found. >> the house is completely on the ground. we were just praying at least we could find our little dog here. >> and it has been a very busy night of firefighting in the san diego area. in fact, it still is. we are in the town of escondido. this is the latest area to get hit. you can see this home completely leveled. you really can't make out anything. the flames appears to be some kind of bedroom or perhaps a living room. chris, with so many fires breaking out basically at once, there has been real concern that we're looking at arson and, as we know, two people were taken into custody, a 19-year-old and a juvenile.

they're being questioned about whether or not they are responsible for some of these other wildfires. at this point they're saying they may have started a brush fire. >> just when you think it couldn't get any worse, if this was intentional, takes it to an entirely new level. the thunder beat the clipperses to end their season. that's not a huge shock. neither is the latest news in the donald sterling scandal. cnn hasn't confirmed it yet but there are reports this morning that sterling has lawyered up, hiring a prominent anti-trust lawyer, anti-trust is a key word there and we'll tell you why. the lawyer telling the nba, of course, that his client has done nothing wrong and won't be paying the $2.5 million fine for his racist comments. let's bring in malik rose, game analyst for comcast sportsnet philadelphia and mr. danny savalos. danny, i start with you for the legality here. he hired a anti-trust lawyer.

seems odd unless you understand how this situation works. why an antitrust lawyer, danny? >> well, donald sterling's basic argument is going to be that the nba and its owners k s cluded t effect the price that he would otherwise get at market value for his team. that's what antitrust is all about. you may have heard it discussed in the context of gasoline, oil cartels. getting together in a room and agreeing, hey, we're going to fix prices. if you raise your price i'll raise my price. that's the spirit of antitrust. what donald sterling is going to try to argue here is that even though he signed all of these agreements as part of the privilege of being in the nba, the other nba owners and commissioner silver, what they did is they got together and agreed in some sort of con spirs r conspiracy to edge him out and set a price for the clippers that would be substantially

below market value. >> malik, there's a more specific reason, also, that he picked antitrust. that's the only carve-outs as we understand it in the agreement he signed with the nba that allows you to take a matter to ordinary courts. he waived all other types of litigation. right? except antitrust, so it's the only way he can go. tell us what we know about these documents, malik. >> well, first of all, the league expected this. ever since adam silver went up on the podium and said that mr. sterling was banned for life he knew this was coming. his lawyers around him knew it was coming top get into the nba you have to sign a charter which has rules and regulations that all owners are governed by. and that's what donald sterling did. he's a lawyer so he knew what he was signing. and those -- i think we have it on the screen, we can put it up. two or three key things in those charters of the franchise agreements say specifically that the one, the nba commissioner is the final authority on all

matters involving behavior. series of legal documents that contain kov haven'ts directly related to unethical conduct and immoral positions and it expressly forbid owners from engaging in unethical conduct or taking positions that have an adverse effect on the nba. that's what the league is going to go after him on. he's in violation of those agreementses in that charter. >> so, danny, if the commissioner is the final authority on whether or not the provision is breached that you have done something or held a position that's unethical or hurtful to the league, is a lot of this more smoke than it is fire in terms of what donald sterling can achieve here? >> that's a pretty good legal assessment. basically because donald sterling agreed to all these terms, the nba can internally do whatever it wants essentially. i mean, this may sound like a violation of due process but you don't have any due process rights when there's no government actor. in nba is not an arm of the government.

is nba is a private club that donald sterling agreed to be part of. so most experts are saying that this antitrust attack or this prong is going to be a long shot, but according to the nba constitution, it may be one of his only shots. >> now, malik, it will be interesting. is it going to be perceived as he's just protecting his rights or do you believe this move realry wareal ly waters down the apology? >> well, the apology was, let's just say, a great tv event in and of itself. i don't really know if we can classify that as an apology. but this is definitely designed -- i imagine mr. cevallos is right, this muddies the waters for the nba. but commissioner silver is a very, very intelligent individual and he's smart enough to hire even smarter lawyers around him to fight stuff like this. and it's -- it's almost just like, you know, an exercise in

rhetoric. this is going to have to play through and it's going to take a long, long time, which is the scary part for the nba because listen to the players in the union, the people i have spoken to, the players are serious about this. if this takes too long and runs into next season, i don't want to think about what could happen. >> and, danny, let's just look down the road a little bit. first of all, he has the interview where he said i made mistakes, i hurt the league, i hurt the league. that's not going to help him in his case if he ever gets one. if he pays the money and they oust him, do you think the league comes after him for the money or do you think they just want him gone? >> that's a good question. i think the league at this point would just love for this to go away and i think that's donald sterling's biggest leverage at this point. irrespective of what a jury may actually do years down the road, the one thing donald sterling has with the threat of litigation is leverage. the nba would love for this to disappear if there is prolonged

litigation it will do anything but disappear. and that may be the crowbar that donald sterling is really bringing to bear against the league. even if they may not fully expect their chances are that good at trial, to win an antitrust or a due process claim, they can hang the threat of litigation and actual litigation costs over the nba for many years. and that alone may be the leverage that sterling needs to maybe get the nba to capitulate on some of his demands. >> if they capitulate or walk back -- go ahead, malik. >> it's really going to be a problem because then it's going to fall on the players to ratchet it up. it's one thing to be able to say all of these things of mr. sterling but there's another thing to prove it. i don't see how he's going to be able to prove that he didn't adversely affect the brand of the nba. >> well said. better than what i was going to say anyway. malik rose, thank you very much. danny cevallos, appreciate the

analysis. let's get to mick for the news. >> here's your headlines. new u.n. report warning of an alarming deterioration of human rights in eastern ukraine amid potential game changer on the ground. thousands of steelworkers retook the city from pro-russian separatists. this is a blow to the separatists who recently seized the region and held a much criticized referendum for independence. the world's largest election has come to and with an overwhelming win for the opposition. the ruling congress party has now conceded it has lost to a party headed by a hindu nationalist. corruption allegations plagued the congress party in recent years. millions voted in this election that lasted five weeks. and in turkey, at least 18 miners are still feared trapped after the worst coal mining disaster in that nation's history. nearly 300 people are now confirmed dead. many were laid to rest thursday in mass burials. now family members are railing

against what they call poor safety conditions and the government's indifferent response. we continue to watch that story in turkey. of course, here at home, weather is a concern for us always. we know that they certainly could use rain out west but let's look at what overall we can expect for the weekend, indra. >> what a contrast, the west it's so dry but out east the concern is the flooding. 34 million of us today do have the threat for flood advisories. you can see really in new york stretching through virginia. that's going to be the problem phase. we're still talking about the exact same cold front we've been talking about all week long. this is the same one that brought snow in colorado. the moisture is still hanging out on the east coast. this moisture is lining up with exactly where that cold front is. it's a slow moving cold front. that's the problem. you have rain over the same place for long period of times. you can see the radar right now and the rain is already out there and only more of it is expected to fall. and heavy amounts. the mid atlantic, that is the highest amounts of rain.

two to four inches and one to two in the northeast over the next two days. you can have a lot of rain in a short period of time. that's the biggest concern. finally by saturday it kicks out of here. lasting a little bit longer towards new england. scattered showers behind it. a mini short wave. . this is the major system. keep in mind the temperatures are going to back off. the weekend will get better. rainy for most people in the first half. second half looks good. saturday and sunday looks good. i don't think there's anyone complaining about that. >> keeping a close eye out west. thanks. >> it's going to rain, rain winds up the ocean. reports here among the crew bait is coming into the bays. fish are coming. >> reminder, we are now entering the season where we hear chris talk about fishing every day. >> fishing, america's most popular past time. >> or not. >> very wonderful time if you would ever take me. >> i'll take you. >> thank you. >> we'll go very far out into the ocean. >> fwosh, and we'll never come back. a three-hour tour, people. coming up next on n"new day"

the secretary of veterans affairs say he's mad as hell and faced a grilling from lawmakers but he's sticking with the job. should he be pushed out? most importantly, what is going to be done to fix the problems of the va. one of the nation's top veterans organizations joining us next. wildfires devouring southern california and drought is creating risk for more everywhere else in the state. how bad could it get, next. [ female announcer ] grow, it's what we do. but when we put something in the ground, feed it, and care for it, don't we grow something more? we grow big celebrations, and personal victories. we grow new beginnings, and better endings. grand gestures, and perfect quiet. we grow escape, bragging rights, happier happy hours. so let's gro something greater

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only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before. this morning, president obama continues to stand by veterans affairs secretary eric shinseki who has come under withering criticism. he was grilled on capitol hill over allegations that veterans died while waiting for care at va hospitals as those hospitals were holding secret waiting lists. shinseki vowed to stay on the job saying he is not abandoning the nation's veterans. listen. >> any allegation, any adverse incident like this makes me as -- makes me mad as hell. i could use stronger language here, mr. chairman, but in

difference not chairman, i won't. >> here to discuss, chief of staff for iraq and afghanistan veterans for america, derrick bennett and former army captain and special assistant to petraeus. secretary shinseki says he is mad as hell, are you, are your members? >> 200,000 members and supporters are outraged. i personally as a veteran am outrage and general shinseki says he's mad as hell in the most even tone i've heard. >> where is your organization right now? i have not heard if you -- if shinseki still has the support of your organization. does he? >> we're still debating what we're going to decide to do as a member-driven organization. we've been polling our memberses for last week talking to help on the ground. we're interested to see what secretary is going to say yesterday. we've been disappointed with the lack of plan that has come forward from either of the va or the white house. >> the two largest veterans

organizations in the country, they've come out. they both have different positions on if the secretary should keep his job or not. what more do you need to hear? >> we really hoping yesterday to hear an actual plan of action with some timelines, something more than just this is the status quo, we're going an ig investigation. we'll come back to you in august. veterans don't want to hear that and they don't want to continue to wait in line. >> why is that not enough, derek, for your members to know if they have to confidence in eric shinseki to do the job now which is most important, which is sfifixing the problem? >> there have been dozens scores of ig reports -- >> dating back years. >> dating back years, exactly. this is not a new issue. something else needs to happen beyond giving another report. >> what is that? >> i think the president needs to come forward and say this is the actual plan. it's not giving you another deputy chief of staff to watch secretary shinseki work. this is what we're going to do. we're going to come in weeks, not months, to solve this problem.

>> tin spehe inspector general, internal review is supposed to be finished up and reported out we expect by august. >> we open. >> is that an acceptable timeline? >> not at all. this is an issue that should be solved in weeks and days. there are steps that can be taken before the report comes out. we have set up with the project on government oversight a separate website, vaoversight.org that allows whistle-blowers to come forward to get all the facts on the table. >> derek, what is going on here? what is wrong with the system? what are you hearing from your members? if there are memos dating back years saying there are scheduling crisis under way, if we now have thesal gags against these clinics that are horrific, that they're trying to find out if there is a causal relationship between scheduling problems and the deaths of some of these veterans, that is to be determined. what needs to be done? what are you hearing from your members. >> why have people not been pounding their fists on the

white house doors? >> you know, the thing, you menged that it's been going on for years. it's been going on for decades. if you talk to vietnam vets they are not surprised by any of this. they've been given the runaround for 40 years. we have been, vietnam veterans have been pounding on the doorses of congress, on the white house, asking for change. folks haven't been paying attention. now this story needs to continue to be in the public awareness. we need to continue to pay attention. otherwise it's going to bub ble way again. >> it is a huge bureaucracy, the veterans affair system. likely not a silver bullet quick fix. is there one thing you know that could be done that would at least start you down the real path of actual change for our nation's veterans? >> the first and most important thing i would say va accountability management act which chairman miller has brought to the house which a lot increases the secretary's hiring and firing power. as you said it's a huge burs crass si. over 300,000 employees.

it's very difficult for him to impose his will on that system. >> to be quite honest, i know you're pooling your members, you're waiting to hear from your members. you are a veteran yourself. do you personally have confidence from what you've heard from eric shinseki yesterday, the track record that you've seen from the va. do you have confidence that he is the man to fix the problems going forward? >> i served under general shinseki when he was chief of staff in the army. i've seen what he can do. i'm aware of the challenges the bureaucracy has. i would give him one more shot but hes has to do some things quickly and illustrate bolder form, as is the president. >> you should be the one setting the timeline. what is the timeline from your organization? >> we we would like to hear in the coming weeks, certainly before memorial day when this country takes a pause and recognize the actions of the veterans what the plan of action is going to be, what bold steps are going to happen, not just more of the same. >> jeff miller, you mentioned, he has said there's no way that internal review should have any confidence. he has no confidence in an

internal review at the department. he says the only thing that would have his confidence is an independent bipartisan commission. do you support that? >> we would support that? >> derek bennett, thank you for your service. keep us updated. chris? >> you know you've got a problem when you're leaving it up to the politicians to look into what happened. that's for sure. it states the urgency of the matter. break right now. coming up on "new day," was it arson? the number and location of those wildfires making many wonder what exactly what happened here? we're going to examine it. plus, who has the flight 370 data? the malaysians say the satellite company inmarsat didn't give it to them. the company says, yes, we did. the australians say, well, we don't have it. meanwhile, the families once again forced to wait. we're going to get to the bottom of it coming up. so i tried depend last weekend. it made the difference between hearing about my daughter's gym meet, and being there. yeah! nailed it! i got back to doing what i love.

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one of the scariest things about wildfires, what you're looking at right now. that is a fire nato. one of the big problems in fighting the wildfires in california right now. the question becomes, what's going on with them? they kind of look like a twister of fire and that's because that's exactly what they are. i'll tell you i know personally to be standing when one perks up is frightening and they're tough to fight. how do they form? lucky for us, indra petersons is here to explain. >> one of the things that causes a firenato has to do with the fire brush. when you talk about the fire season you want to think about the drought conditions. this has been one of the worst drought conditions in recent

years in southern california. you have all of this available brush out there. right? let's talk about that. we're going show you an animation. fires have their invisibility circulation already on the ground. that's the concern. you have this little eddie out here. then that eddie picks up all of this dry brush. what is brush? it releases carbon, right? we know that's combustible. you typically don't see it because there's no, general inside this tunnel. once it gets to the top you have all of that available oxygen so you see the entire thing engulf in flames. that's what that long line is that we now know as a firenado. you cannot but these out in a firefight. you have to fight the fire around it because it's that invisibility combustion of gas. another problem. 1,000 meters high and jump the fire lines. with that you have that huge concern of seeing those fire lines spread further and they can have damaging winds of 120 miles an hour. that's the equivalent of an ef2 tornado. the good news, temperatures are going to be backing off.

marine layer is coming in and that humidity is going to go up and that's a big factor. >> we've been hearing from our people in california about how, just how hot it is. one thing that is contributing to the fires is the persistent drought. the entire state of california is in severe or worse drought conditions right now. governor jerry brown is citing climate change as a factor. here to talk more about this, about the environmental causes for this, we have columbia university scientist. he is hadley horton -- radley horton. good to have you back with us. come on in, talk about this. i want to show people this map. u.s. drought monitor for california, the entire state, radley, is in dire need of water. >> that's right. and if we look at the most extreme level of drought, that darkest red color, that's 25% of the state. it's also a lot of the prime agricultural land. >> i was going to say, what are the other africas? is central valley california, a lot of agriculture comes there. other affects that it will have

debe sides the threat of fire. >> absolutely. competition for water in an area that can be short on water in a good year. looking at agriculture. hydroelectric power, energy demands, cities, wildlife. all things that are going to rely on that water. it's going to be tougher and tougher as a rainy season is over. >> talking about rain because we know how dry it is in california. we just showed you that. we know there are other things contributing to the wildfire threat in california. they've t got this santa ana event going on. so you've got low humidity. you've got the wind. and then add to it, look at the lack of rainfall. >> that's right. our last rainy season had about half the normal amount of rainfall throughout california. it wasn't just what this is connected with this weather pattern we talked about a lot. we had a pattern over the last winter where a lot of storms were getting deflected further north than usual. we had that big ridge. we had the cold dip in the east. it wasn't just one year, right? we also had about three straight dry years for california. so you put it all together, major water shortage issues. >> for folks out east, we joke

about the fact that it never rains in los angeles, but when you're down 42%, san diego down 50%, that's significant. let's go on to this. i think is a really illustrative of why this is such a concern. from 2013, this is the snow cap. this is our water reserve, you call it, essentially, right? look at 2014. >> that's right. the snow cover is the reservoir. once the rainy season ends. for a lot of california as you get to may you really don't expect hutmuch rain until octob. there's about a fifth the amount of water that you normally expect in the snowpack. >> it's not just meaning there's no -- we understand financial impact for the mountains, et cetera, they're not going to get the snow conditions they want for skier but it goes beyond that. as you said, it's like a reservoir. you are part of this climate assessment that was released last week, the climate change report. you were part of the northwest chapter, i understand. talk to us about this. what is this you're looking for long term? i think a lot of people are

concerned. >> one of the key messages for the southwest is that water supply issues are going to get more severe, we think. more wildfires. but part of the story is just the affect of the higher temperatures as temperatures go up, that snowpack is going to tend to get smaller. also on that sort of dry summer days, more vap waevaporation. >> the new normal? >> new normal. also less rainfall. we're not quite as sure about that but that's a possibility for the southern parts of california. >> radley horton from columbia university, thank you so much, taking a look at this for us. >> thanks. coming up on "new day," fingers pointed everywhere over the flight 370 data. so who has it and why aren't they sharing it, especially with the families? this is not a mystery. we will get to the bottom of it coming up. and they say they're all sorry. beyonce, jay-z, solange break their silence on that fight in the elevator caught on camera. but is that the end of the

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again where is the data search teams are using to find the plane? demands continue for that raw satellite information to be released. that investigators say is their best shot of finding the lost plane. but who can release it to the public? as cnn's jim clancy tells us, it seems to depend on who you ask. >> reporter: what happened to flight 370 is the biggest mystery in the history of modern aviation. but the raw data gleaned from satellite handshakes as the plane flew thousand of miles off course is not a mystery. it may, instead, become a controversy. >> the raw data is with inmarsat, not with malaysia, not with australia, so if there is any request for this raw data to be made available to the public it must be made to inmarsat. >> australian officials heading the search in the southern indian ocean tell cnn they don't have the raw data either. but inmarsat, the company that owns the satellite insists that

data has already been released. >> we've shared the information that we have and it's for the investigation to decide what and when it puts out. >> reporter: the truth it seems somewhere in between. malaysia as a country in charge of the investigation is supposed to control the release of any information. but in this case, the conclusions were shared in a presentation on a lap to the computer. malaysia's transport minister insists he us didn't have the raw data itself. malaysian and everyone else have the conclusions, that's the sequence of maps that was produced by reading satellite data that showed the jetliner was somewhere along a huge arc. further calculations aided by boeing, malaysia airlines, and others, placed flight 370 in the southern indian ocean, nearly out of fuel, and far from land. is a reassessment of raw satellite data in order? cnn has asked the malaysian government if it would request

raw data from inmarsat in the hopes that it could then in some form perhaps be made public and openly examined. ang grus hughus houston, in cha the current analysis is correct. but even he doesn't rule out some kind of review. >> all right, jim, as you dwaul qualified, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. that's probably be generous. the truth is somebody is unreasonably withholding data in an investigation that has no criminal basis at this point. and in just a few minutes we're going to talk to somebody who wants to make that point stronger than we ever good. sarah bajc. you know about her partner philip wood. he was on flight 370. we'll get her take on why the families won't this data and who she thinks is keeping it from him. coming up on "new day," jay-z, beyonce, and her sister, they're breaking their silence about that epic fight in the elevator. the video that went viral. what the family is now saying publicly about their very private battle. just ahead. in pursuit of all things awesome, amazing,

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. another sign of just how frustrating the investigation for the flight of 370 can be. this morning many are asking

where is the data, the raw satellite data used to track 370? we know that inmarsat this company collected the information from the satellites and says it turned it over to the malaysian investigators. malaysia is now saying we don't have it. the family of those on board have been asking for this data for months because they want to know just how inmarsat made its assumptions and get the information to other experts and see if someone can help find a point that hasn't been found yet, especially in this vast indian ocean that is so largely unmapped. to brick us that perspective joining us from beijing is sarah bajc, the partner of the only american adult on flight 370, philip wood. sarah, thank you for joining us once again under this circumstances of this kind of frustration. i want to play something for you because i've been saying all morning this is not a mystery. where the plane is is a mystery but this part is not a mystery. i had the guy from inmarsat on the show and i asked him specifically about this. here is the question, here's what he said. take a listen. >> so to be clear, you're saying

that inmarsat has no data that it hasn't made public for people to help with this search? >> that's absolutely correct. we shared the da that that we have with the malaysian authorities. it's for the malaysian authorities to decide what they do with their data. >> now, i don't know why this guy would have a reason to lie about this, sarah bajc. i don't know how it helps him to control the data. i don't get why he would have lied about this. the malaysians now say, well, he only showed us on a laptop. we don't have the data. what do you make of all this? >> well, i think, we can't determine if somebody is lying if we don't understand the definitions of what they're talking about. so somewhere earlier in that interview the gentleman from inmarsat had said that they had turned over the seven pings. seven pings is clearly not all of the data, right? there would have been data from the time the engines were turned

on on that plane. he's never mentioning data beyond seven pings. so he could just be misleading in the way he's supporting his case and when the malaysians are saying they don't have any of the fat chul data they could just be saying that they only have the analysis. i don't know. we don't know what happened what to make of this, crazy. >> they are say we want to provide our service for everyone for free. it seems like they're trying to get their abilities out there. if anything, you would think they would err on the side of over-promoting himself, over-exposing themselves. it is the malaysian authorities where you seem to have had the most frustration in the past about them sharing information. do you believe them when they say we don't have it? >> not really. the malaysian government has a very long history of not always being truthful or at least not always giving all of the

information. not only in relation to this case, there's a long history behind that, as well. so it's hard to tell. you know, i think the comedy just continues to get more extreme. i think when it's time to make a movie on this situation, we need to recruit quentin tarantino to do it along the lines of what he did with the other black comedies that he's done. >> you know, sometimes in law they have a loose definition of the truth or of a lie. a lie sometimes is defined as withholding the truth from someone who has the right to know it. now, do you believe the fam is have a right to have the data and put it to experts and conduct their own look at the situation? >> tinge world has the right to have that data released to third par parties. from what i know about the

oshlgal analysis done on that data it was all done by companies and organizations that actually hold liability in this case or have potential liability in this case. being, right, they have potential liability, rolls royce has liability, malaysian airlines and the malaysian government. so what we really feel is the smartest thing for everyone who is innocent in this situation is to push for the full set of raw data from that airplane going back even a week so that we have comparison points to look at and let a third party set of experts who do not have any kind of vested interest in this, look at it from scratch. they may just find something that other people overlooked. >> obviously the more of this that goes on of being pushed back by the authorities, the less confidence you can have that there's going to be an outcome here that will be satisfactory to you. that's obviously what matters most. that's why we're pressing the situation. sarah bajc, thank you. hopefully we'll get some answers on this.

let us know how we can help going forward. >> keep up the coverage. thank you. mick? we turn to a very different type of story now. we may never know what caused that elevator brawl between jay-z and salonge knowles. they both apologized to each other. we have moved forward as a united family. we know, of course, that beyonce and jay-z are known for keeping their private life private, so the question is will this statement be enough to please public curiosity? let's discuss it with our entertainment correspondent nischelle turner and, of course, host of "reliable sources" mr. brian stutler. first off, i know you looked at this with a fine tooth comb. >> 25 times. >> 25 times. >> who is counting. >> what did you read into this statement? >> do we have time to tell you what i read into this statement? there was a lot.

you didn't have to read too much into it because it was there for you to see. first of all, i do blame chris cuomo for all of this today because he said to me yesterday, where have you been talking about salonge and beyonce. they were trying to say, lock, we're just like you guys. things happen. nothing to see here. let's just move it along. however, you said is this enough to squelch the public curiosity? no. we're talking about it this morning. that video is so incendiary just a statement of stuff what happens, i don't know if it does justice. >> fires of all, this is such a notoriously private couple. we don't really know much about them beyond the managed public image that we see put out there for us to assess. >> this statement reminds me of a strategy you will see in politics all the time. if you want to move past something you put out a carefully worded statement that doesn't really see anything. in the future when you're asked

about what happened, the elevator fight, you can say, oh, we addressed that. we put of a statement. we have nothing more to say. i bet that's the strategy here. >> brian, how silly do you think the question of whether or not this is newsworthy is? >> i think it's newsworthy because the couple is newswor y newsworthy. >> right. >> that's only shock to me. elevator fight, i'm not shocked. who knows what was going on. every family fights. the idea of whether or not this was something we cover in today's america, look, it would be nice if we did. it would be nice if we let people have their private lives but i didn't get that part of the story at all. >> because i think that it's public and they're public figures and they're probably arguably the most famous couple in -- >> i know. >> role model as well. >> the name of the baby. >> you know about her. >> i know about jay-z, what he's wearing. >> sister's name. >> i know, solange, all these things. >> it does speak to this notion of celebrity and the fact that we have greater expectations of views into them and because we

haven't, that made it worse. >> of course. >> the standard hotel moved so fast finding out who did this, firing that person. but then it also came out, first, release of this video made $250,000. isn't that part of the problem? >> well, tmz's editors came out and said that number was hilariously inaccurate. made me wonder if it was way too low or way too high. you know, tmz will never tell us how much they really paid for this content. so we won't know. the fact that this video was wot anything at all speaks to what we're talking about, about celebrity and the fact that the standard hotel said they fired that employee who leaked it, who they say leaked it, also speaks volumes. there are limos lined up outside the standard. they can't afford to have a reputation as somewhere where people are going to be leaking secret videos from the elevator. >> to that point you made about the fact that they put out the statement and brian said you put out the statement and they can always rely on that and say, look, we addressed with the statement. you can't ask me anymore.

let's say next week you sit down with jay for a conversation -- >> that would be nice. could that happen? just saying, it could happen. >> you're going to bring up the question. >> of course you bring up the question. you can't not bring up the question. >> you have to ask the question. >> absolutely you have to ask the question. >> would you bring it up with solange? >> absolutely. >> she got this. >> easy. >> don't mess with me. >> you should -- you all have seen her heels. >> i don't want no part of solange. >> i think she's going to get a reality show where she will refs elevator fights. >> what? you did not -- >> she should go on "saturday night live" this saturday and make money herself. she should do that. that would put a lot of things to rest. >> final question, can they put the jengener the genie back in the battle? >> no. >> can they, or no? >> do they have an unrealistic

expectation of privacy as such st stars? i'm not one to say they should not have privacy. >> elevator. >> they should have that expectation of privacy innen elevator. even though we do know there are security cameras. >> there's a line. >> brian? >> they profit so much off tharl personal lives and i bet we will hear hints about this in future songs. >> oh. maybe brian. >> "people" magazine, how the family got back together. you come at me that voong in an elevator and we make up that soon? it would be months in my family. >> don't forget to watch brian's show sunday at 11:00 a.m. eastern. >> we're all one big happy family here. >> brian, are you going to be talking about this on sunday? >> i have no idea. >> how i can say no. there are other big stories. two arrests for arson as wildfires continue to rip

through california. the va's secretary, eric shinseki, he says he's mad as hell about the scandal at the va but he says he's not going to resign over it. who is that making mad as hell? and she was a high school sophomore. the problem was she was 34 years old and it's not about being left back. we're going to tell you about an imposter drama that has everyone scratching their heads. let's get at it. oh, my god. >> two individuals. they appear to be involved in setting small fires. >> everything burnt all of the way around us. >> we locked up. we just all started bawling. it looked like a bomb hit. >> public outrage mounts. the general secretary now at the center of the va fire storm. >> do you believe that you're ultimately responsible for all of this? >> i am. >> the double life, posing as an high school sophomore. she's actually 34. >> i don't know why she did it. >> it's mind boggling. breaking news for sure.

unprecedented wildfire battle unfolding in southern california. now police are making arrests for arson. twos suspects believed to be responsible for starting at least two fires in the south escondido area. in carlsbad, firefighters made a crimin grim discovery did a hot spot check of badly burned body. here's the city of san diego. this is where the fires are burning right now. there are seven of them. 10,000 acres have been incinerated. dozens of structures are destroyed or heavily damaged. we have people on the scene, of course, dan simon is in escondido, california. he has the latest. dan, what are you seeing? >> well, hey, chris, it was a very busy night of firefighters. it still is. as you said, we're the town of escondido. this is the latest area to get hit. you can see this home behind me leveled. just charred debris. really can't make out anything. you know, in terms of what we've been seeing with all of these fires, we talked about arson. authorities took in two teenagerses into custody.

they're questioning whether they might be responsible for the big fires. they're accused of trying to start a brush fire. because at one point, chris, you had nine fires burning at once. investigators immediately thought it might be arson. in terms of where we are today, we're seeing lower temperatures, higher humidity. authorities are optimistic that they might be able to get the upper hand on this thing but you still have, you know, more than 2,000 firefighters out here, more than 2 dozen military aircraft continuing to drop water during the day. so hopefully that will make a difference. but still a lot of active fire out there and there is still some concern that things could get even worse. chris, kate, send it back to you. >> thank you for the update. thanks so much. that scene we behind you gets worse and worse. let's get more on the fires. captain mike muller from california fire san diego county fire authority part of the state fire froekz agency working to contain these agent blazes. thank you so much for taking the time the this morning. >> sure, thank you for having

us. right off the top, what is the latest. how bad is it this morning? >> well, last night we had some success with the higher humidities, we didn't have the wind. we still have open fire lines so with today's weather it's going to play a big portion on what we see happen today. >> how -- do you think -- is it too optimistic to say you could turn a corner today if the conditions help you and you could be in a good containment, in a place of good containment? >> yeah. no, i want to say cautiously optimistic because, again, we have open fire line. as we're standing here right now we're starting to get a shift in the wind. we have additional resources, but again, we're concerned mother nature is going to play a big part in this firefight today. >> unfortunately mother nature always does play a big part in this. the video that we have been seeing coming in from viewers, coming in from homeowners. some of the images of those firenados ares astonishing. can you help describe what

firefighters are up against right now? >> well, those firenados or fire tornados that you're looking at is an example of the critical fire weather and the explosive fire growth we're seeing out here. our fuel conditions are at a critical level. we're in may. these are levels that we normally wouldn't see until august/september. so i can tell you yesterday was a very difficult firefight. firefighters were very aggressive. but again,es those fire tornadoes are just an example of what we're experiencing out here. >> captain, if this is what you're seeing in may and the peak comes august/september, what does this mean for august/september? is the outlook better or worse? >> well, we never predict fire season but obviously with the drought, the fuel conditions, we're getting offshore, santa ana winds in may, this is setting up to be a very, very busy season. all agencies including cal fire have increased staffing, increased equipment in anticipation of a very busy season unfortunately.

>> unfortunately this is not something new to your teams. this is something you deal with fire season every year. but have heard some estimates of folks saying this is worse and earlier than they've seen in 20 years. is that -- would you agree? >> absolutely. and not only here in southern california. statewide. in fact, northern california areas that only have usually what we consider a four-month peak fire season we're having 3-400-acre fires. we haven't seen conditions like this in decades. >> at one point there were nine fires burning all at once. this morning we're hearing eight fires burning. correspondent on the ground, dan simon, telling that two suspects taken into custody, attempting to start two fires. do you suspect arson? >> well, we don't -- we're not going to spec t late on that. we do know the city of escondido

police department took twos suspects into custody yesterday. san diego county sheriff is investigating every fire. until we can pinpoint exactly what it is, we go with under investigation until we know what caused the fires. >> one way it was described yesterday is it sure seemed lilike -- oh it couldn't be a coincidence having that many fires burn at once, do you agree? >> i have to turn it back to our investigators. they're going to look at the proximity of the fires. we had an offshore flow, triple digit temperatures. the embers can carry. we have to make sure that wasn't an ember throw. they can go up to a mile and start another fire. again, i can tell you that the sheriff is looking into every fire aggressive lie rig ivively >> it's more important to be cautious here and more important to get control of the fires first and then you can deal with that investigation afterward. captain mike muller, thank you for your time. i know it's early out there and you've got a lot on your plate.

good luck. >> thank you very much. >> of course. chris? >> kate, eric shinseki said he's mad as hell about reports dozens of veterans died after being put on secret waiting lists at va hochts but the va's secretary says he will not step down over the allegations. and the president is not asking him to. so what is the fix? jim acosta is live at the white house this morning with more. jim? >> good morning, chris. senior white house official says president obama is angry and wants answers after learning of those allegations facing the department of veterans affairs but the general in charge of that department says he does not want to leave his post until his mission of fixing the va is accomplished. as public outrage mounts over reports that dozens of veterans died, secretary of veterans affairs, eric shinseki insisted he is just as furious. >> any allegation, any adverse incident like this makes me

as -- makes me mad as hell. >> reporter: but that wasn't enough for lawmakers of who demanded to know whether the department knew about all investigations that some va officials used secret waiting lists to hide long delays for care. >> isn't there evidence here of criminal wrong doing, that is falsifying records, false statements to the federal government? that's a crime. >> should be, yes. >> reporter: unlike other investigations on capitol hill these days, this grilling was bipartisan. >> do you believe that you're ultimately responsible for all this? >> i am. >> rick is going to get to the bottom of this. >> reporter: while the white house is standing by shinseki the president's chief of staff told cnn's jake tapper, mr. obama lashed out when he first learned of the story. >> nobody is more mad than the president and i have the scars to show it. >> reporter: what's more outrageous is advocates of veterans maintain accusations of long wait times and poor care within the va system are nothing new, saying there's plenty of blame to go around.

>> the administration and congress both bear the responsibility of these problems. >> reporter: for now, the general term secretary says he wants to stay to right the wrongs of the system he leads. >> i intend to continue this mission until i have satisfied either that goal or until the commander in chief thinks my time has been served. >> reporter: and now shinseki also testified that the problems at issue at the va that are under investigation right now that he has found are so far isolated in his estimation. but the inspector general who is looking at this case, he also cautioned that he has not yet found a direct correlation between the long wait times and veterans deaths but he also added, michaela, that federal prosecutors are on the case. michaela? >> cnn will stay on top of this story. jim acosta, thank you so much.

let's look at your headlines. human rights conditions are deteriorating in eastern ukraine. so says a new u.n. report on the violent deadly clashes and crisis there. now comes word thousands of steelworkers have joined the fight and may have retaken a key city that had been under control of pro-russian separatists. a major change of power coming to the world's largest democracy. india has voted to throw out the ruling congress party which has been in charge for years now and replace it instead with an opposition group headed by hindu nationalist. more than half a billion people voted in the election. it's being called the largest democratic vote in history. the questions about nigeria's ability to rescue 200 schoolgirls abducted by militants last month. the obama administration is questioning whether the nigerian military is even up to the task even with international help. the surveillance aircraft and 30 state department specialists, the white house says there are no plans to take part in any sort of military rescue mission.

those are your headlines, guys. >> so, donald sterling, he says he wants the owners to forgive him. he made a terrible mistake and he knows he hurt so many people. but now he's saying that he will not pay their huge fine. so i don't know what kind of forgiveness he's asking for. now his team, that's off the court. on the court his team was in a desperate struggle of its own to stay alive in the playoffs. let's bring in brian mcfayden. they did not farewell, mr. mcfayden. >> back to donald sterling, he -- it's way past due. $2.5 million he owes the nba. he has -- he's going to have to pony up somehow. last night at staples center buzzing. you had rihanna, the hoff, all the a-listers but you never expect to see jack nicklaus sitting courtside unless it's opposite day, would you? kevin durant took over in the fourth quarter like the mvp is supposed to do. 39 points and 16 rebounds.

late in the game, calls were not going the clippers way either. blake griffin charged -- called for a charge. doc rivers is upset about it. thunder advance to play the spurs in the western conference finals. afterwards, chris paul is tired of talking about donald sterling. >> to tell you the truth we don't think about that. you know what i mean? that's the least of our worries right now, is him. we just lost the series. i'm sorry. but we don't care about that. >> we've gone through a lot of stuff over the last three or four weeks. and i don't think that was why we didn't win. i don't think we should use that as an excuse. we're a team in process. i believe we're good enough to win it this year. you know, oklahoma city told us we were not. >> yeah, pacers and wizards game six. check out paul george and wizards fan exchanges words in the third quarter. david west stayed focused p.

he scored 29d points in the 93-80 win. heat and pacers sunday. thunder/spurs, monday. awesome. can't wait for basketball playoffs this weekend. >> awesome, but a little bit of deja vu there, pacers talking to a fan. could be a little pacers replay? >> i know it's wrong but i like on some level when a mouthy fan all of a sudden gets like this player just like launches in there and just roughs him up a little. >> what? no. >> one part of me is like stop running your mouth. don't run your mouth. >> stay on the court. there's no win on that one. >> did i misplace the condolence cards for the clippers loss? i didn't see them in my mailbox from you two. >> i know doc rivers said he thought they could win this year. i thought they were way over matched by the thunder. i was surprise they'd took it as far as they would. >> really? >> kevin durant. >> am i staying here or going? >> brian, you can go. brian, you can go. he's like, they don't even know

what they're talking about. >> okay. >> here's my better. we're going to take a break now. coming up next -- >> nice. >> -- on "new day," could it be the key to wiping out cancer, unconventional treatment that uses the measles vaccine saved a woman's life and made medical history. is this a breakthrough? we're also going to go inside politics. you have never seen a primary debate like the one they had in idaho this week. wait until you hear what these men said to each other and they want to be governor, by the way.

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welcome back to "new day." could be big medical news here. this morning there could be a powerful new weapon in the fight against cancer. a patient was given a dose of engineered measles virus. so large that it could vaccinate ten million people. and guess what, her cancer cells were destroyed after it. now viruses have been used to

fight cancer before but this is the first time cancer so wide spread just simply went away. so let's bring in dr. clifford a.hoodus, at memorial sloan center and president of american society of clinical oncology. doctor, thank you very much. explain to us, the uninitiated here, what was the type of cancer, why was measles right for this? why did it all come together here? >> first of all, this is a success of investment, research, time, effort, creativity, insight. measles virus attaches to a receiptor on surface of some kinds of cell which has a very specific name cd-46. mile loma is a cancer in adults that actually makes a lot of copies of that receptor, cd-46. the match is made a priority. right? >> it's not all cancers. it was this specific cancer developed or mutate cells in a

way that plays to what the measles vaccine goes gaiagainst? >> exactly. this kind of cancer is really ready to be infected by measles more than most kinds of cells. >> one way -- one way someone probably over simplified it but said the measles virus makes the cancer cells kind of join together and just explodes them. >> well, it infects them and the big dose that you described overwhelms them and kills them. it infects them and kills them like they would kill any other cells but efficiently infects them because of this excess of cd-46. >> you won't -- you shouldn't go as far as saying this is a cure all but is this a breakthrough? >> this is definitely a break through. these viruses have been tested for years, real hope this will work. it looks like it may be specific for viruses and cancers in individual cases, individual kinds of cancer. i don't know yet how generalizable this will be for so many other kinds of cancer. the other thing to point out and these investigators rushed us to print because it was so

exciting. they're describing two patients. one of whom who had a great response, one of whom less so. the durability of this response, the ideal dose of the virus, all of that is to be deshld. >> you talk about the durability. the one patient with several months cancer free and a tumor came back that they were easily able to treat. we need to look at this long term, years, and see how long this lasts. right? or would it be a question of retreatment? >> well, they speculate that giving even greater doses may be repeated times may be necessary for some patients. i do think we have to put a little bit of a fence around this. this is about myeloma, one kind of cancer. >> given how many people have meyloma, this could be significa significant. >> it could be great. the next question is going to be how this compares to some of the other existing effective treatments as well. >> the dream extension of this experience would be that you can matchup viruses with cancers, you know, and then the pairing

would wind up offsetting each other and wind up curing. we are so desperate for a search for cancer. are we falsely optimistic about being able to figure out a way to stop all of this? is that an unreasonable expectation? >> well, one can't be an oncologist without being an optimist. >> true. >> false optimism, i wouldn't say that. what is needed is real investment, patients, time, creativity. all the things that you need a in arts and other domain are needed here. >> what kind of time? >> i think it's going to take a long time because each different kind of cancer may have a different responsiveness. and i don't think this match is going to be right for many kinds of cancer. but for myeloma, the second most common blood form of cancer, it could be a big deal. >> one of the big frustrations, so many family members affected by cancer now. when you start learning at chemotherapy, the best we're usually able to do is just kill big parts of your body and hope that it regenerates and the cancer doesn't.

it seems like, wow, what an unsophisticated way to fight something. we're so desperate to do better. that's why we report on something like this. >> well, right now we're very excited. when we come into the 50th annual meeting this month you're going to see a large number of stories about new targeted therapies, new kinds of immunotherapy. this responsible for curing many patients of many kinds of can circumstance the real excitement right now, the real enthusiasm is for all the new targeted therapies that really do make things even better. >> hopefully it's progress. thank you. >> excitement. that's right. >> very interesting. >> doctor, it's great to meet you. thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> of course. coming up next on "new day," raging fires burning out of control still this morning near san diego. they've turned deadly and fosted thousands. look at those flames. thousands from their homes. we're going to speak with one woman who had to grab her three children, her husband, her dog, and run as the flames only got closer. and we're going to go inside

politics. just when you thought it couldn't get any lower, this debate happened. take a look, analysts. >> and you have your choice, folks. a cowboy, a curmudgeon, a biker, or a normal guy, take your pick. >> tune in this sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern for "parts unknown," that's not referring to that debate. it's this week. joining anthony bourdain for a tour of the deep south like you have never seen before. take a look at this. >> in the in other words, of donald rumsfeld, we don't know what we don't know. and what do i know about mississippi? except for maybe some history and not much of that is good. one of the things i didn't know is how much deeply interesting, uniquely wonderful, uniquely american stuff is going on around here.

it is kind of a wonderland. the challenge for me is struggling to say something even remotely intelligent about a place i know very little about. came out with all sorts of preconceptions. and i'm finding myself liking it a whole hell of a lot. woman: this is not exactly what i expected. captain obvious: this is a creepy room. man: oh hey, captain obvious. captain obvious: you should have used hotels.com. their genuine guest reviews are written by guests who have genuinely stayed there. instead of people who lie on the internet. captain: here's a review, it's worse in person. how much money do you think you'll need when you retire?

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welcome back to "new day." here's a look at your headlines. two arson suspects are now under arrest as firefighters face an unprecedented wildfire fight in southern california. the fires have turned deadly. crews discovered a bad by burned body during a hot spot check. eight fires are burning right now. 10,000 acres have been scorched. dozens of structures have either been destroyed or heavily damaged. thousands of people have been forced to evacuate. i want to bring in dan simon who is live in escondido. we've been talking about this. it's so early in the season to be having this conversation about wildfires raging in southern california. >> yeah, no question about it, michaela. the flames are enormous but for the folks here on the ground, this thank that makes impact on you are the smoke. it's tough to breathe in this stuff for hours at a time. the latest area to get hit is where we are in escondido, california. several homes in this neighborhood obviously leveled. you can see this one right here just a smoldering mess.

you can see the flames over there that it was some kind of bedroom or perhaps a living room. now, the temperatures are cooler. the humidity is rising. so hopefully that will allow authorities to get the upper hand today. but because you still have so many fires burning at once there is concern that you might have more devastation. michaela, back to you. >> let's hope those conditions continue to improve over the weekend. thanks for bringing us the latest from southern california, dan. in other news, stay in california, he says he would rather fight than sell. reports the banned l.a. clipper owner donald sterling is refusing now to pay a $2.5 million fine levied by the nba and he rejects his lifetime ban. sterling's attorney claims the fine violates sterling's due process rights and in the letter threatens a lawsuit. as for the clippers, their season ended last night with a 104-98 playoff loss to the thunder. oklahoma city taking that series in six games. breaking overnight, a russian rocket carrying a high of tech satellite into orbit broke apart just moments after

liftoff from kazakhstan. the proton rocket was destroyed along with the payload which would have been their most advanced communications satelli satellite. all other launches have been suspended until they determine exactly what caused that crash. ready for this one? >> yeah. >> it's time to go inside politics on "new day" with john king. you have a headliner of a story today, john. it's interesting this guy in this debate in idaho describes the panel the same way we are often described. you've got the biker, the weirdo, and the normal guy. >> i'm the biker. >> what are the chanceses? >> i'll take it. >> that's "new day" every day, right? >> tread carefully. >> yeah. that's all i have to say. tgif, inside politics. back to you guys in a minute. we'll get to the debate in a moment, but let's start with quite serious. margaret of bloomberg news, the veterans affairs is in a lot of heat right now. two dozen deaths at least

attributed to va hospitals, secret waiting lists. jake tapper interviewed the white house chief of staff yesterday essentially saying the veteran have died. why isn't somebody held accountable? >> how on earth can the president still have full confidence in him? people died? >> like the fact of these deaths is on outrage to the president. he's made that clear. you heard what general shinseki had to say today. he's mad as hell about this. nobody is more mad than the president. >> big deal anyway, margaret. this is playing out in the middle of an election year. how does the white house, you're there every day, how does the white house justifying saying it's not the secretary's fault. >> it's a matter of timing and a matter of respect for general shinseki, retired four-star general, former army chief of staff, vietnam veteran. he went back to this department because he carries about these issues. his heart is in the right place. what happened is clearly unacceptable and devastating for the white house. for the president himself

politically. right now they are standing by him. >> devastating for the president. devastating political. and mitch mcconnell was on the senate floor yesterday. scott brown, former massachusetts senator, raised the question yesterday in a press release, pretty devastating in the campaign. he said, how many veterans have to die for someone to lose their job? mitch mcconnell said yesterday, well, when we had the health care website problems the president voiced his outrage. why isn't the president talking now? listen. >> the president needs to understand that our veterans deserve at least as much attention as the web site. >> huge policy question that's become a big political headache. >> huge headache. it's going to get worse for democrats unless they look like they're actually doing something. shinseki will survive so long as democrats don't start banging the drums. if they start calling for his head, then you may see more press from the white house for him to step aside. this reminds you of the way the white house dealt with the whole health care rollout.

kathleen sebelius. what do they do? we'll try to get to the bottom of this, fix this. a few months later when things were sort of smoothed over, she quietly stepped aside. maybe we'll see the same thing here. when this dies down, maybe he will step aside then. >> this will come up in every debate. >> benghazi is one thing but this has traction with people. people's war we'riness is affecting the president's calculations on foreign policy and how heavily to i vest in some of the issues like russia and ukraine and crimea. and this is the legacy of what happens at home after all of these years of war. it's in a trenched bureaucracy. expensive and difficult to help people who come home. however old they are. whether they're recently returned or veterans of previous wars. this is a real problem. >> how does the white house handle this as you have more republican candidates turning to the democrats in debate saying, do you stand by secretary shinseki, do you stand by the

president? do they just try to play this out? you can't produce -- the bureaucracy at the va and a lot of this predates the president. let's be clear about this. but you can't change it overnight. how do they deal with the political issue. >> they have to look like they're moving quickly to get to the bottom of it, launching an investigation which is -- you started to hear some of that yesterday on capitol hill. but, remember, mid-term environment is a reflection of the mood of the president. if the president is seen as highly i'm popular this episode certainly will make him less popular, that's going to be a huge problem come november. that's how the white house, you know, may actually lead to -- them actually doing something about shinseki if things certainly get worse here. >> competence question. let's move on to sort of a 2016 question. condoleezza rice doing an interview. she's talking about 2016. she's talking about one of her favorites, she served under george w. bush. she said jeb bush would be a fabulous candidate for the republican party. she's asked him, would you consider being the vice

presidential candidate? listen here. >> that's still running for office. and i think it's just not in my dna. we're going to have a lot of great people who will run for office. i think jeb would be fantastic. i think there are several others who are considering it who would be outstanding. >> it's just not in my dna. do we believe her? >> i actually do. i really do. i think like everybody says, well, i haven't -- i'm not thinking about that at this time. i really think she's not anying about it but i do think what we're hearing her say about jeb is another indication of sort of establishment republicans beginning to rally really around him. if he's wobbling, if he's seriously considering it, to tell him, you know, we want you to do this. >> if he's wobbly. interesting way to put it. so the -- she served under george h.w. bush, ronald reagan, and secretary of state under george w. bush. what if jeb said i'll run if you run with me. >> interesting question. i think you will see the right

wing of the party really recoil at that given her squishiness on social issues, abortion. that would cause an outrage from the right of the party. it would be hard to see how she would get through a convention. >> cop complicate his candidacy, too. >> she comes up so often in conversations about the republican party's demographic issue, whether it's the gender gap, whether it's non-white voters, latinos. why does condoleezza rice factor in to these conversations because she's california, let's do it? >> et cetera all of the above. very interesting, accomplished woman who is an interesting combination of different pieces. but she also owns a lot of the legacy of george w. bush's presidency. >> she also speaks to the demographic problem with the republican party. she could potentially fill that gap. >> it's just not in my dna. i'll take her at that. i'm going to hold this up. it might be hard to see. normally we have a big g

gubernatorial debate. it says theater of the absurd. why does the gubernatorial debate end up way down here, almost embarrassed to put it on the front page? well, of course, they had the incumbent, the leading challenger. idaho public television invited two other guys. less watch. >> i went to jail for home-schooling. and my kids turned out pretty good. i had four sons that made pro-rodeo cowboys and one daughter. >> i don't like political correctness. can i say this? it sucks. it's bondage. you have your choice, folkses. a cowboy, a curmudgeon, a biker, or a normal guy. take your pick. >> i want to take those guys on the road. you know, i've done a few debates in my day. some have gone well, some not so well. i want to take those guys on the road. >> it's like the worst indictment. what is fat jack seller. i want to go to fat jack cellular. i think that's a story.

>> political correctness is bondage? >> you don't really hear that saying many -- many candidates saying that. i'm not sure that's a winning message. >> you don't? >> debates were like that everybody would watch debates. >> the ratings would be through the roof. >> yeah. yeah. okay. margaret, manu, thanks for coming in. we'll take these guys on the road, too. let's go to our debates. a little bit of funny here. jimmy fallon, remember condi rice says jeb should run. listen to jimmy here. >> yesterday chris christie said that he thinks it would be fun to run against jeb bush for the republican presidential nomination. well, jeb bush said it would be fun just to watch chris christie run. >> oh, he needed a little humor on a friday morning. who is more funny, candidates in idaho, or jimmy fallon. >> jimmy fallon should have taken his whole script from that debate and made that his opening monologue. >> fallon can do better than fat jokes. it's so funny how real people confuse politics.

you know, you're used to everybody being so tanned. you see actual real people, people like this exists. >> a guy with a beard, what? >> yeah. >> beware who you invite to your debate or to your morning show. >> that's true. that's why we keep you in washington, john. >> happy friday. >> happy friday. >> what was that? >> that was his attempt to salute me and almost knock me in the head. >> it was good. i like it. coming up next on "new day," the latest on those wildfires raging this morning in southern california. thousands have been driven from their homes including one woman who had only minutes, she said, so get away from the approaching flames. plus, you have to take a look at this picture. this woman is in jail. she's accused of faking her identity. she's 34 years old and police say she posed as a high school sophomo sophomore. wait until you hear why she did it. you got hear this story. straight ahead.

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welcome back to "new day." something bad is happening right now. wildfires are raging through southern california. one person already dead. so many homes destroyed.

some 10,000 acres have just been scorched. this is going on near san diego. thousands have been forced to evacuate, including alisha exxon who had to quickly run from her home in san marcos along with her family. she's lived there for 14 years, says she has never seen anything like this before. is that right? thank you for joining us. thank god you're safe. this time is different. >> thank you. >> how? >> yeah. you know, on wednesday we had just been at swim lessons in carlsbad. we were watching the news, and just looking at their situation there. and, you know, by late afternoon here we are in san marcos, you know, a good five to ten miles away from the carlsbad fires and just being at home with our kids. everybody was just getting home from school and we started to see black smoke billowing up over the mountains. so we literally grabbed all of

our kids and our dog and hopped in the car and we evacuated very quickly. so we didn't have a lot of time to grab things. we just t got in the car. we ended up getting bottlenecked on craven. it was just complete gridlocked for a while. it was a long time getting out of san marcos and those flames were moving so quickly and there was a lot of smoke. it was really scary seeing that come up over our neighborhood. >> this was not a planned or staggered evacuation. you made a run for it. so did many people in the community so you got into a bottleneck situation to get away. what do you know about the status of your home? >> our home is fine. the initial fire which was on the west side of twin oaks valley road, which is the side of the road that we live on, was contained by -- i think it was by the middle of the night

wednesday. the fields behind our homes were contained. you know, the winds are shifting back and forth. and so it's kind of hard to predict. but at that point it seems like the winds started to move east and unfortunately for this side of twin oaks valley road they've lost some homes and this is where a lot of the damage has been. >> now, we're getting this idea of why this one is unusual, that it's such a combination of elements at play at once. the extreme heat. the extreme drought. the shifting winds. not having ordinary marine layer. but then you get in this other variable of whether or not it was intentional. do you people in the community believe that someone must have started these? >> this was a topic of conversation before that reached the media. i was actually really surprised to hear that that did reach the media as we were collectively sharing ideas about what might have gone on. we were definitely -- i mean, it's really hard to imagine that

these nine fires, it might be more, but the last -- the last time that i knew it was nine. i mean, that's -- that's -- yeah, it just -- it doesn't seem like those would be nine natural fires. but i don't know. i could be wrong. people are definitely talking about whether or not this could be arson, you know. it's just all word of mouth, but -- >> what's the chance that fires shift -- >> i don't know. i hope not. >> what's the chance that fires shift back to where you are? >> if the santa anas are coming down to a close, it's pretty rare, from what i understand, to have a westerly wind in san diego. we always have wind off of the coast blowing east. so, you know, that's going to be unfortunate for countys in the east. so the likelihood of getting another fire, i don't know. you know, honestly, i feel like there's not -- i feel like --

ifs thereif there's fires being started, and i hope that's not the case, there's no way to predict where you're safe. >> absolutely that makes sense. you don't know where they're going to light the fire. >> and if i could just kind of paint the picture. when you get evacuated from san marcos. usually your options are escondido, carlsbad. what was effectively happening was that fires are breaking out all over. so we evacuated the first night to my parentsee house. and then my parents were evacuated. we're kind of getting bumped around. we're really hoping that things are coming now to a close. but as it were, there's just this circle of fires throughout the county. so you kind of feel like your only safety would be to hop town completely. >> so you're back home but still on edge? >> not yet. our whole area has been evacuated. our neighborhood has lived through some pretty apock lip c

fires in the last ten years. we've seen some really bad fir s s. in fact a couple of areas that burned were completely burned ten years ago. so what ended up happening in our neighborhood is a lot of the neighbors ended upcoming back. we left so quickly that a lot of people wanted to come back once our side settled down a little bit. so once our area was contained, a lot of the neighbors kind of snuck back into the neighborhood because there were so many road closures. but if you live there you know a route to get back in. so a lot of us were coming back into the neighborhood so that we could sit in our own living rooms, watch the news. and we could see the flames and the smoke from our -- from our home, so we could go outside and keep check of everything. so a lot of people were going back and there was a lot of conversation there just amongst neighbors and lots of people on bicycles going around and,

anyway, yeah, that's kind of the picture. as of now, it's just really smokey. lots of ash. our eyes are watering. and it's kind of hard to breathe. we're hoping that that ocean wind comes in and hopefully they will be able to get control of these fires. >> indra petersons, our meteorologist, says the marine layer should be coming in and it should be helpful. we hope that happens today and into the overnight. be careful when you go back into the area. if the authorities think it's still evacuated, you know, they don't have the same contingency plans to get there and be there for you guy it is you get into harm's way. be careful about if you go back in. >> good point. you're right. >> thank you for joining us. let us know if anything else happens. okay? >> thanks so much. take care. >> kate? >> all right. coming up next on "new day," take a look at this. which one of these girls is a high school student? take a look. actually they're the same person. and that 34-year-old is now in jail.

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very strange story coming out of texas. a 34-year-old woman is behind bars accused of posing as a 15 year old and enrolling as a sophomore. students, faculty and the good samaritan who took her in are shocked asking why oh why. >> this is straight out of a

hollywood script. you have an adult who poses as someone else and gets away with it for a little while until the police get involved. charity johnson claims she was 15 years old posing as a high school sophomore in east texas. police say she is actually 34 and they have charged her with giving false or fictitious information. >> anything she was doing was planned. >> reporter: the facebook pictures, good grades and the supposed back story. >> being abused by her biological father and he passed away. >> reporter: the double life. she allegedly pretended to be a sweet teenager but now is behind bars. >> i sympathized with her and invited her to my home. >> reporter: psychologists say those who impuersont younger

people put people at risk. in 2012 she was arrested for posing as a 17-year-old boy online and sparking a relationship with a 15-year-old girl. high school basketball star or international imperson ator. this man was arrested after posing as a high school student from haiti. in this latest case of adult turned high school student school officials say charity has been enrolled since october. so how does a good samaritan fall victim to something like this? she says she met charity johnson at a fast food restaurant and asked her about her church and then about moving into her house and we know the rest of the

story. >> talk about taking advantage. >> it is sad when somebody does something out of the kindness of the heart. >> we don't really know the whole story. >> why would she do that? >> i covered the story about the young man in there. his story was interesting, also, was told through a church. the church took him in. the pastor made him part of his family and they later learn he was not just from haiti but had been here and just left home. he decided he wanted to restart his life. wanted to go back to high school because he hadn't achieved what he had wanted. he went back to do it again. >> interesting. >> shouldn't have to ask for a birth certificate to help somebody out. it is a desperate fight near san diego. eight fires at least scorching

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oh, my god. >> breaking news, wild fires are raging out of control across southern california. tens of thousands evacuated. we are going to show you the battled waged overnight. now two teens detained for trying to start more fires. did they start the ones burning now? donald sterling is no longer talking but his lawyers now are. they say he did nothing wrong and won't pay the multimillion dollar fine. so what happens next? what happened inside the elevator with jay-z and beyon beyonce's sister? the superstars finally addressing it. your "new day" continues right now.

>> this is "new day" with chris cuomo, kate baldwin. >> now police are making arrests for suspected arson. two suspects believed to be responsible for starting at least two fires in the soucarls here is where the active fires are. eight are burning as we speak. 10,000 acres have been scorched and dozens of structures are destroyed or badly damaged. let's get straight back to dan simon in escandido. >> we are definitely feeling it here. this is just the latest area to

get hit. several homes in this neighborhood have been levelled. you can see the flames here. with so many fires burning at once there is concern that we haven't seen the end of it. raging on overnight at least eight fires in san diego county consuming home after home. smoke even visible from space as the blazes ravage over 10,000 acres. evacuations now called for nearly 16,000 residences as the flames turned fatal. fire crews discovering a badly burned body in a carlsbad encampment. winds with gusts up to 50 miles per hour spreading flames rapidly. >> i have never seen the santa ana winds in the month of may. >> reporter: winds whipping in multiple directions causing terrifying fire tornadoes. watch this flaming vortex atop a

hill spin wildly nearly engulfing the house in front. thousands of firefighters and military crews bum ba s bombard all sides. still no match for the swift moving flames fuelled by acres of dry brush. >> once started seeing black smoke it was upon here within 15 minutes. >> reporter: with so many wild fires erupting one after the other speculation of arson on the rise. two teens 30 miles north of san diego in question for two smaller brush fires. unrelated san diego's eight major brush fires reducing almost 20 homes down to ashes. >> it was absolutely gorgeous. now it is all gone. >> reporter: fortunately not everything was destroyed.

sophie's family salvaging a few photos. and their dog found alive after being trapped in the house. >> after all of this devastation and the house is completely on the ground we are praying at least we find our little dog here. >> with so many fires thought immediately turned to arson. you have two teenagers taken into custody accused of trying to start small brush fires but they are questioning the teens to see if they had involvement in some of the bigger fires. in terms of where we are today we are seeing higher humidity and not much wind at the moment. still a lot of fire out there and concern that you might see more ruins like this. chris, we send it back to you. >> it is a very vast area, different elements and different aspects and different places. let's bring in bill horn, san

diego county supervisor. thank you for joining us. i know you are very busy. what is the latest? >> well, overnight we still have quite a few fires going here. last night we did not have to evacuate the hospital over by escondido. i was on country club lane. we basically called it to shelter in place. that was a blessing. the train stations did not get hit. we were ready to shut those down, too. i think hopefully today without the winds -- right now it is kind of windy a little bit so i hope this doesn't kick up more because those embers do burn. i have been doing this for 20 years. this is the worst i have seen. i have had two or three fires at a time.

i have had -- excuse our trucks moving in and out of here. we've had -- i've had the rich creek fire, paradise fire, cedar fire. the other day when i left rancho santa fe the fact i had six fires in the span of an hour in a circle starting at carlsbad and then by camp pendleton which we suspect is an arson and later down here. i just have my suspicions. six in a day, even though the conditions would allow for that, usually when a fire spreads it will spread by its own embers or

spread close to one another. that didn't happen here. these were individual. they are far away from each other. the carlsbad and the second fire was the ammo dump which is about 12 to 14 miles away from each other in a different direction. that would be north. those embers did not come from carlsbad. >> there is suspicious activity that you are dealing with. some of the fires seem uncoordinated in a way that you haven't seen before. so you have to figure out if someone started these but more urgently you have to figure out how to stop them. what do you know about the level of containment? >> fortunately for us in san marcos the israeli mountain area, the evacs are off. people can go back in there. we seem to have it under control right now.

we don't have any huge flare ups. we still have big by camp pendleton in the ocean side area. i just left my ranch i could see the glow of the flames to the north here. that is about eight or nine miles north of here. >> in terms of containment percentage, where do you think you are in terms of having all of these fires under control and getting them out? >> well, i don't know. i would give you a 5% or something, 10%. i have so much equipment here from all over. i want to thank all of the firefighters. i have had crews from modesto, santa barbara. yesterday i saw a battalion here from river side, from chino, all

over the place including all of the departments in san diego, los angeles. the military bringing in the helicopters yesterday was a god send. they gave us 22 helicopters, 12 of which went to this fire here in san marcos. up the road here about a half a mile yesterday and watching them stop a line of fire in its place. i don't know, we probably watched 40 or 50 air strikes on the flames, saved a lot of homes. i don't have a damage assessment yet. i'll check with cal fire in about an hour. at the same time, we have been blessed. it could have been far worse. i want to thank every firefighter who has been on the line for us. they did a tremendous job and i know they have been working for four days. we have been doing this for four days straight. we started in rancho santa fe

and wound up in here. hopefully this is the last day. i would like to see these all contained by the end of the day. >> that would be great. we know how the community has come together. four days is a long time to battle. hopefully the conditions cooperate. i want to thank you, mr. horn, i know you have a lot of work being san diego county supervisor. happy to get the word out. >> thanks for having us. >> one phenomenon firefighters have been encountering are these fire tornadoes or firenadoes. twisters stretches 100 feet in the air. how do they form? indra petersons is here. >> one of the things that fuels this weird phenomenon is a lot of dry brush. when you look at california's rainy season this year they had this huge deficit. a majority of the city is in an

extreme drought condition. there is so much dry brush out there. why does that matter? let's look at a graphic. fires have their own little eddies that spin up. then it encounters the brush. we know what vegetation has. it is carbon. you release the carbon. carbon is combustable. in the tunnel you are not seeing it go into flames because there is no oxygen. only to the top when it finds the oxygen do you see it combust. here is the problem. these things can be so tall they can soar up to about 1,000 feet high. imagine trying to fight a fire and you can't directly fight a firenado on the part. that is one of the concerns. the other thing is it is not actually a tornado. you are talking about winds that can be damaging as an ef 2

tornado. they can go 120 miles per hour. imagine that force. >> it is something to behold looking at that. thank you so much for explaining it to us. i want to take a look at more headlines. more than half a million people in india have spoken. they are voting for a change at the top. the party has been in charge for years but embroiled in corruption scandaled. party vice president ghandi says he holds himself responsible. in turkey nearly 300 people are confirmed dead after the worst coal mining accident in that nation's history. there are mass burials. grieving family members are blaming the government saying the response has been indifferent. same sex marriage set to resume again in arkansas.

ruling came a day after the state supreme court said the law was still in effect despite the judge's ruling throwing out approved gay marriage ban separately. those are your headlines. >> the trend continues. >> it does. coming up next on "new day," pressure is mounting, continuing to mount on the veterans affair secretary to resign after his testimony on capitol hill and after a cnn investigation showed months long waits at some v.a. hospitals. the president says he is standing by him. donald sterling wants to be forgiven and doesn't want to pay a fine. he has lawyered up. in pursuit of all things awesome, amazing, and that's epic, bro, we've forgotten just how good good is. good is setting a personal best before going for a world record.

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hengon. tell us why it is a good thing he may fight this and why he may win. >> i think it is fine that he has a lawyer. this is america. we have a right to lawyers. he is going to lose. there are aspects of the contract that do give the owners a lot of rights but in the real life you can't fight this. it's not a normal business. other owners have got to deal with you. the players have got to deal with you. the fans have got to not hate you. this guy is a drowning man flailing in the water. >> that is one of the worst defenses i have heard of donald sterling. >> you can't defend that part of it. >> i'm going to do it donald

sterling hired a defense lawyer because the one right reserved was to go to the courts outside of the league for antitrust violation. what you guys have done is you decided to force me to sell the team which is affecting the value of the asset. the reason for it is a private conversation which was taken the wrong way in a way i never meant it and in a process you decided in four days. i'm suing you. >> okay. that is one thing to say all of those things, mr. sterling. it is another thing to prove all of those allegations. the fact remains that mr. sterling signed into a specific charter for his nba franchise. those charters have rules and regulations. the league knew this was going to happen and prepared for it. it is going to be a long, drawn out battle and it will get ugly. that is the scary part for me and the nba and this could be

get ugly. if it forces players to demonstrate that is when things get upset. that is something when we are told in the nba in your rookie year is leave the nba in a better place than when you got here. it is important for players to do but i think owners should take heed to that, as well. >> the players are maturing in their relationship with the league. they want to be perceived as more partners and not just employees or entertainers that work with management. what could they do? they could complain. could they boycott. under the terms of the union i don't think they can make it a strike. >> i think there would be penalties they would suffer. it is real life. they can make complaints and the fans never know are they playing their hardest for this guy?

whatever the contracts say in real life there are a thousand ways to torture this guy and he will lose. >> the question is how long. you are saying time is the enemy. >> i agree with what you are saying. you say the players have rules that prohibit them from striking. i have never seen a strike in my time at the nba. i have seen a couple of lockouts which are different. i have never seen a strike or boycott and i hope i never see one going forward. mr. sterling has rules and regulations he has to follow, as well. clearly he is not following those. what if doc rivers said i'm not paying the $25,000 fine. come get it or whatever. that is essentially what mr. sterling is saying to the nba. we talked about unmitigated gall. how do you not pay a fine leveed by a guy you signed over full

authority and power to? >> it is very difficult to accept that you are apologetic and remorseful when you fundamentally reject any consequence for your action. ellis henican you did a lousy job defending donald sterling. coming up next on "new day" they got very close to the wildfire. some would say a little bit too close. two guys who drove through this huge inferno with their camera rolling will be joining us live to discuss. eric shinseki says he is mad as hell of allegations of deadly wait times at v.a. hospitals. he says he is not going anywhere. why is the president sticking by him?

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the embattled ruling congress party in favor of opposition held by a pro-business leader. the obama administration questioning the ability of nigeria to find the missing school girls abducted by islamist militants last month but white house says it is not considering sending in u.s. forces for a rescue mission. donald sterling fighting back. reports say he is refusing the pay the nba's fine and rejecting his lifetime ban, threatening to sue the league. and at number five a star studded sendoff for barbara walters ending that terrific career. the final episode of "the view" set to air this morning. you and i wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. always updating the five things to know so go to cnn.com for the latest. take a look at this

absolutely terrifying video showing the san diego wild fires. raging flames descending on nearby homes as two co workers are driving by. they captured the cell phone video and are joining us now from san marcos to discuss. good morning. >> good morning. >> we are looking at this video. let's show the video as we continue our conversation. it really is unbelievable. you were both at work. you see smoke. you go to see what it is and this is what you came upon. can you describe what it was like? >> it was a pretty chaotic scene. it was a fairly new scene i believe for ems and fire. things had not been brought under control yet. it was unreal. hard to describe. >> i would say if one word were to describe it it would be surreal. i couldn't explain how chaotic

and unreal it seemed all at once. >> describe what it felt like for you to be in the car so close to the flames. >> the first thing that comes to mind is intense heat. >> you could feel the heat? >> a lot of heat. you can definitely feel the heat. if you imagine standing next to a barbecue or camp fire and multiply times 100. fire makes a roar like a lion. it is not something that is really funny at the time. >> it is not funny at all. go ahead, jeb . >> for me it was a little bit different. you are looking through the video pointed out on the passenger side of the car. what was in front of us the clouds of smoke, the fire, going across the lanes of the road i couldn't see much of anything.

the feeling for me was different than it was for byron. >> from looking at the video you see other cars pulled over. you see the rv driving into the neighborhood. when you are in the car in that moment it looks like you are in real danger. were you scared? were you guys in danger? >> i wasn't scared. i don't think you have time to think about it. i can't really speak for jeb . i think it was kind of more of trying to take it all in at once. i sort of come from an ems background so that feeling of emergency is something i am familiar with. you don't have time to be afraid. maybe afterwards you might have a little bit of realization of what you just went through but in that time there wasn't fear. >> it is more of a reactive scenario than it is you thinking about it. you are not thinking about what

is happening as much as you are reacting to what is happening. >> i know you probably heard it from your wives or family members probably not smart to drive towards the flames and the smoke. you guys know that. will you be doing this again anytime soon? >> i don't think so. just to be clear so people understand, we weren't show boating or trying to get this. it was from the way all the cars were being evacuated out it was our only way out. we didn't have a choice but to go through the way we did. it is not something i would recommend to somebody if you are seeking a thrill or adventure. we find ourselves in situation. jeb was an excellent driver and got us out pretty quick. >> i know you called 911 to make sure they knew the situation, where things were and make sure they were aware of what it looked like. you did catch amazing video to

show how unpredictable it really is. thank you so much. i'm glad we are able to speak with you this morning. thanks for waking up early. >> thanks for having us. >> have a great day. >> if the beeps are any indication on that video they were pretty scared. coming up on "new day." the v.a. scandal all about getting better care for our vets, right? or is it becoming about something else? there is talk about the v.a. secretary stepping down but there are some that have the entire v.a. in their cross hairs. could that be true? jay-z and his sister in law making nice after the elevator fight. they say they are like any other family. are they? [ male announcer ] legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses.

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this morning many are calling for the resignation of veterans affairs secretary eric shinseki. the white house is standing by the secretary. this comes after a cnn investigation uncovered some veterans died waiting months for hospital care. listen to what the secretary said yesterday. >> any allegation, any adverse incident like this makes me mad as hell. i could use stronger language here, mr. chairman but in deference to the committee i won't.

>> richard is senior adviser to former president bill clinton, now a writer for new yorker.com. and margaret a cnn political commentator. you listened to the secretary yesterday. what did you make of his testimony? >> you know, i thought -- first of all, this is a very serious problem and needs to be addressed seriously. and i think they are taking it seriously. i think president obama is taking it seriously. i think his testimony was candid and forth right. what emerges for me is this is not a leadership problem but resources problem. congress wants our veterans to have the best care available and they should but they refuse to allocate the money that is necessary. in the last decade we have prosecuted two wars and treated

all kinds of things we never treated. congress is not allocating more resources. rather than getting mad at people in charge they should allocate resources. >> the waiting lists if they are true don't go to having more money. >> if that is true that is a very serious specific issue of fraud. those people need to be dealt with and maybe criminally. there is no suggestion that people who work at veterans affairs lack the heart. they lack the resources is what they lack. >> my dear friend richard is mad as hell. your temperament doesn't match the severity of the problem. you have to show you are doing something about it. an investigation which is one of 20 or 30 investigations done is simply not enough. you have to have accountability.

somebody has to get fired. i'm not saying shinseki should be fired and the president should go visit the health care centers. they should sign a spot light on this and show specifically what they are going to do to fix it. is it a bipartisan commission of republicans and democrats to review the v.a. and look at reforms and pass legislation. >> what if these things were going on under republican administration? >> a pretty engaged secretary. this is a bipartisan problem. to your point we have a little twitter war going on. here is the thing. >> one-sided war. >> you started before this segment. you were saying republicans want to eliminate the v.a. >> i'm wondering because it was suggested to me that the v.a. is being seen as a metaphor for what is wrong with obamacare, big government health care. what are you suggesting? you don't want our vets to get

free health care. >> putting words in my mouth. that is crazy. do you think john mccain doesn't want veterans to get health care. it is a travesty that they are not getting swift and efficient health care. if you have bureaucracy so big, 150 medical centers. >> let me stop because i -- the "usa today" put it well saying more anger is not what is needed. more than anger is needed. us pounding our fist, the media being angry. people speaking out. action is needed. you both are a product of washington. what gives you any confidence that anything really is going to change? >> i'm hopeful that congress will appropriate the resources necessary to end these long waits. the truth is that --

>> purely throwing more money? >> i think the health care system in general in the u.s. has a lot of issues. one of them is sometimes it is hard to get to see a doctor. i think that we need to put more resources in health care generally but for me veterans should take preference. if you serve your country you should not have to worry about waiting 14 days. >> no one is going to disagree with you. why are we where we are? >> because the republicans in congress don't want to spend money on this. >> that's crazy. there are systemic problems in the bureaucracy that can be fixed easily through a couple of different things. there is legislation to strengthen the secretary of the v.a.'s hand so he can fire people and make it easier to remove directors. you could have a bipartisan commission to review where systemic flaws exist in the v.a. there is a lot of problems with it. it needs to be reviewed

systematically. and then legislation could be passed right now. by not asking it makes him out of touch just like on the bp oil spill and obamacare website problems. he risks falling into the same trap on an issue that he purportedly cares a lot about. >> do you think that when there is anger and there is rightful anger here everyone is too quick to jump to say the secretary should step down? >> as i said before, i don't think it is a question of leadership. i think it is a question of resources. >> does someone need to be fired? >> if those lists were fabricated and if there was intentional misleading and intentional skirting of the rules. >> it's a crime. if the allegations are true -- >> it is fraud. >> republicans too quick to jump

to say the secretary should step down? >> yes. i think you need to look at it first. i think the president has been too slow about assigning accountability. i am wary of too quickly saying somebody needs to be fired. the problem is in the systemic bureaucratic systems that are allowing. >> i think he has put one of his top -- >> this has been going on -- >> what is your definition of quick? >> a couple of weeks. the obama administration in all candor -- >> a vet says he thinks concrete action should be laid out by the president before memorial day. >> absolutely. >> advice to the president here on "new day." >> we'll take it to twitter. i want to turn to this week's cnn hero who happens to be a firefighter in san diego where the bad wildfires are. h

his -- her name is robin benikasa. >> i initially got hurt in 2005. i had 46 surgeries in attempts to salvage the leg. i finally decided on amputation. a lot of people view it as a loss but i got my life back. >> very often people are saying i survived but now what? we want to be that now what. >> good job. >> i was a world class adventure racer in the world championships i hit the deck. and the doctor said you're never going to run again. i have had four hip replacements. after my first i said i'm going to put something on my calendar so i'm still training for something. it just makes you realize it is

about the comeback. so i thought let's do that for other women. i started an organization that helps survivors of medical or traumatic setbacks live an adventurous dream as part of their recovery. being an athena you are not just a survivor, you are an adventurer. we give them a different label to put on themselves. and it's something they become on their way to the finish line. >> love it. love them all. if you know someone like robin who deserves recognition go to cnnheroes.com and let us know about them. >> a little bit of warming you up when you really need it. coming up next on "new day" we are family. beyonce, jay-z and solange say it is all good after a public brawl in an elevator. >> i'm scared. ♪

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they have now broken their silence about the family feud in an elevator. jay-z, beyonce and sister solange put out a statement both apologizing to each other and we have moved forward as a united family. despite the pleas for privacy does the public move on?

morg morgan spurlock joins us. you are the man to talk to because you got to look inside this world. what do you think was the thing that surprised you most about this world? >> i think what surprises me the most is how much news it became, how much people are talking about it. i think a part of it is because it is jay-z and beyonce. these are superstars. we don't expect superstars in a situation like this and when we see them we react. the fact it is a never ending conversation is part of the problem. >> everybody is interested. >> you have to talk about it. if everybody else is talking about it and you ignore it then why wouldn't you acknowledge that this happened. we have to talk about it. >> such a statement about the culture and the interest is be it true, a little bit off or completely off base. the person who leaked this got some $250,000. >> you would hope that guy also doesn't have a job anymore.

>> he has been fired. >> if this guy took the security video and sold it he should be gone. >> how much does the paparazzi make for photos? >> in a situation like this where you catch something so completely explosive it is hundreds of thousands of dollars potentially. most of the time it is very small. in situations like this it is a big money sell. i'm sure the guy in the elevator was like i'm going to be rich! >> you know he was saying that. that is absolutely right. >> to me it is a no brainer. who, having received this tape -- i'm not saying you should buy it. that has been a big problem in the business for a long time. we are moving away from that on the news side to be sure. who doesn't cover the story? you have decided celebrities matter more than anyone else. what is their value in society? high. how would you not cover them getting in a fist fight?

>> how long since miley cyrus's vma performance? every time it comes up we cover the story. >> when did it happen? i was thinking about it. it feels like it has been a slow slide towards this celebrity-obsessed culture. >> reality tv. >> the internet. cell phones. >> jfk jr. a couple of touch stones. he was someone you acknowledge of having more merit. he wasn't famous by putting out a sex tape or a reality show. >> in living in the world of paparazzi what do you make of the balance or lack thereof between paparazzi and any expectation of privacy. you pointed out that it is a bit

murky. >> once you become famous and you are in the public eye when you walk outside you are in public space. you have played that hand. you said i want to be a part of the game. my kid didn't sign up for this. jennifer garner's kids didn't sign up for this. >> they pimp out their kids sometimes. they put them in outfits. we favor the celebrities. >> or the celebrities like the kardashians who will call ahead and tell the paparazzi where they will be so paparazzi will show up and take pictures and they get a kickback. >> do you buy the we're okay now moving forward? >> from jay-z and beyonce? you have to say that. you have to put the best face forward. >> we would still be choosing sides. >> i would still be in the elevator. >> the last fight that andrew and chris had.

>> andrew fights a lot like solange. >> politicians are scratchers. >> i'm curious what sense you got of these guys. these guys are trying to make a living. they are trying to make a living. there are folks that are like something like ambulance chasing. >> there are some that actually have ethics in their job. >> are they rare? >> i think it is rare. there are ones who won't take kids or won't chase people down the street and then others are chasing the buck. >> i was curious. he had an inside look. >> there are plenty of people who have such high ethical values. they would have seen this tape. >> both of us. >> they would have seen the tape and said i'm going to let that

go. in a culture so fused with every detail of a life. it was a fist fight, not an argument. >> we live in a world like when is my opportunity. how am i going to get rich? >> what is coming up on sunday? >> this sunday is fantastic. ufos. >> that was a high c. >> this sunday we go on the hunt to find out is there life in the universe as we know it. >> answer? >> you'll find out sunday night. >> the answer, yes, on earth. >> sundays at 10:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. you got the spooky sound effects. >> we love morgan spurlock. let's go fight in an elevator. >> let's go. coming up, a sister's love, the joy of sacrifice and the power of sportsmanship all

rolled into this run image. it is the gooder stuff. it is coming up. honestly, the off-season isn't i've got a lot to do. that's why i got my surface. it's great for watching game film and drawing up plays. it's got onenote, so i can stay on top of my to-do list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. with skype, it's just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. alright, russell you are good to go! alright, fellas. alright, russ. back to work!

in today's edition

13-year-old twins running in a track meet, illinois. something goes wrong. >> i felt something pull and pop in my thigh. around the first curve of the second lap it hurt too bad. then i fell to the ground. her sister says i'm going to beat her. she hoists her on her back and carries her sister across the finish. >> the energy from the crowd made me stronger. love and sportsmanship. even if you help somebody when you are losing it is worth it. >> and they won. of course, they didn't. they came in dead last but won the hearts of the crowd, many of whom seen crying afterwards. >> that is so phenomenal. that will make us cry. sister love. >> people still getting the right message. >> and 13 years old. they have good parents behind

them. >> didn't think twice. >> would you have picked me up? >> i would have picked you up. i don't think i could carry you the entire lap right now. i'm just kidding. i would carry you anywhere. >> carol costello, a little baby talk. i was talking to the baby. >> i'm coming to new york, chris cuomo. you are in trouble. i'm standing up for my kate bolduan. "news room" starts now. good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. in california every inch of the state is in a period of drought and danger. in san diego county winds whipped up dozens of wild fires. at least one person has died. the "l.a. times" quotes one