welcome to "new day." tgif alert on this may 30th. we begin with a reported deal which would make history on two levels. biggest sell of an nba franchise and biggest ouster in sports. certainly for the nba. could it be the end fof donald sterling's career as an owner? cnn has learned former microsoft ceo steve ballmer agreed to buy the l.a. clippers for $2 billion. shelly sterling negotiated the sale which still would need league approval, but first the ball appears to be back in donald sterling's court. cnn's rosa flores is following developments. the drama, rosa, the drama. >> the drama unfolds every day. now, two things are very clear. donald sterling wants to see all the cards on the table before making his move, and shelly sterling, becoming public about how excited she is about the sale. it is one of the biggest deals in sports history, and the winning bidder, this man, steve

ballmer, former ceo of microsoft the price tag, $2 billion, handedly beating out bidders by at least $400 million. but the deal is no slam dunk. ballmer has signed an agreement with shelly sterling. but the next play belongs to donald sterling. >> there is no sale, and he is not yet agree to sign off, period. >> reporter: his lawyer telling wolf blitzer before news of the agreement that while donald gave her permission to negotiate selling the team, he did not give her permission to actually sell the team. >> not without reaching an accommodation with the nba which gives him some form of vindication. the money is not critical to him. >> reporter: the nba is pushing for a quick sale, trying to ward

off a contentious meeting scheduled for this tuesday where owners will officially vote to force sterling out. the reaction overnight was quick, with magic johnson tweeting, quote, clipper fans, you'll love steve ballmer as your owner. but either way, donald sterling will not leave empty handed. he originally bought the team for $12 million. >> shelly sterling has just released a statement announcing that she is, quote, delighted that we are selling the team to steve who will be a terrific owner. shelly sterling also said, we have worked for 33 years to build this clippers into a premier nba franchise. i am confident that steve will take the team to new levels of success. chris? >> rosa, who is we? who is we, rosa? that's the big question, if that's her and donald, he has to say yes. he's the only one recognized by the nba as a franchise owner.

so let's bring in mel robbins and attorney and host of "deadly sins on investigation" on discovery. i wonder if that applies in this case. can shelly sterling sell this team without donald? mel robbins? >> no. there you go, no, she cannot. >> can't do it. >> it's held by a trust. yes, done, fast this morning. she can't sell it without his authorization. >> so this is just pushing donald, is that what you see it as? >> well, donald certainly could be the spoiler of this. if i'm shelly i'm not popping champagne corks any time soon because the nba recognizes donald as the controlling owner. donald is the one that ultimately has the recognizing decision making power at this point. >> kavinoky, it comes down to,

for donald sterling, you can't kick me out of this league based on the fruit of the poisonous tree, nice phrase that lawyers love. this tape was illegally made. you can't use it. you support that statement for me. why? >> well, that's one of the arguments that he's raising and he's saying ultimately that this is all stemming from this illegal tape recording because in california it's a two-party consent state that meaning both parties need to consent to something being recorded and he didn't. and what he's going to do is he's going to marry this to the substantive due process argument saying that this is essentially fundamentally unfair. the problem i think he's going to run into is -- >> hold on, let mel robbins tell us what the problem is because the nba is saying this isn't a court of law. this is a basketball court. what does the difference make in this regard, mel? >> well, the difference is, is really important here, chris. it's everything, in fact. and basically he signed up to be

part of a private association and he agreed to their rules. and there's also an arbitration clause basically says, yeah, you can sue but you've also agreed to tell the judge to kick it back to us. >> so the rules of evidence about illegally obtained things, kavonoky, do they apply in the same way as a criminal trial, for instance? >> no, in a word, no, they don't. and there's even other arguments because everything in the constitution and by it is laws in the nba relates to the state laws of new york, which is only a one-party recording state. so there's a good argument to be made that even though this happened in california if we're applying new york law it's a totally different ball game. ultimately i think he's going to lose on that. >> so, mel, you were sleeping on kavinoky as just another pretty face and then whipped out the new york law. >> wow. wow! >> you were not ready for that, mel robbins. i saw you get knocked side ways.

>> no. good show. i'm stealing that. >> do you think that legally donald sterling can do anything other than maybe slow this down a little bit? >> you know, at the end, the team is going to get sold. this is what i think is going on, chris and darren. i actually think what donald sterling wants is he wants that lifetime ban removed. what his attorney spoke about yesterday at length was vindication. we all kind of rolled our eyes but i think at the bottom line of all of this, donald sterling feels hurt. i know nobody is sympathetic to him but i think what he really wants is i think he's going to use the sale, the fact that everybody is exhausted and wants this to go away, to be able to put pressure on the nba to say, look, i'll sign the deal, you can have your sale, just remove the lifetime ban, for crying out loud. let's all admit i'm an old man, jealous, baited, i didn't mean it, i'm sorry. please, after 33 years, i'll agree to the sale.

i think that's what he wants. that's what i believe in my gut. >> darren, if you're the nba, what's the downside to doing that? >> first of all, if you're the nba you want to keep the pressure on. one thing we know about the sterlings from a long, long history, chris, is that we can only rely on actions, not words. and there are some people that are deeply skeptical that all of this sale talk is just a set a benchmark for the market value of the clippers so that if they go to war and a sale is forced for some amount that is now less than the $2 billion, that the sterlings can sue and get treble damages three times whatever that shortfall is. so i think these guys may be perceived as more bonnie and clyde or thelma and louise on this. everybody is sort of holding their breath. this reminds me of one of those slasher films where you think that the bad guy has been killed and everyone is safe and then jumps out from behind the

curtain. this deal is not done for a long shot. the nba is going to keep the pressure on. >> mel robbins, kavinoky comes with a new york law exclusion and then thelma and louise reference, strong showing. i'll tell you one thing i didn't hear you guys raise, $2 billion for the clippers? you don't even own the stadium. there's not even -- >> crazy. >> what does that mean? why are they paying so much for this franchise? very interesting. i wonder if this whole debacle didn't raise the value in some perverse way. kate, over to you. >> i'll take it now, chris. i go by john berman, thank you very much. the news right now. new developments in the investigation of the santa barbara rampage. the sheriff's office now says deputies who checked on elliott rodger three weeks before the killing spree knew he posted disturbing videos but never viewed them. six ucsb students were killed last friday.

13 others were injured. thousands of russian troops have withdrawn from the ukraine border. a move u.s. has been demand for weeks. hagel called it promising but russia is not where it needs to be until all of the troops are gone. 40,000 russian forces had been along the border since violence in pro-russian separatists broke out. travelers at detroit's metro airport endured 2 1/2 hours of frustration after the tsa says a man forced his way back through a security checkpoint without being rescreened. the terminal was placed on lockdown while authorities searched for the man. he was found out, taken into custody. agents searched the terminal as a precaution. mary, kate? >> exactly, thank you, frank, sam, john, thank you very much. let's get over to someone you cannot butcher her name, how could you? indra petersons. >> what have you got? >> your name is so fun i can't even make one up. >> everyone butchers it every

day. it's no big deal. weather stories, it's the same one. monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, yes, it is friday and we're still talking about rain into the south. look at the storms that continue to really inundate the area. another two to four inches of rain still expected again. flooding concerns remaining high. same low sit there's. all this moisture pulls out of the gulf. watch it blow up on saturday. finally by sunday it dies down. finally a saving grace is out there. northeast, it's the weekend. we want a little bit of mild air. it's going to cool down. by sunday, it rebounds. spotty showers will be out there on saturday as front pushes on through. biggest dropout is towards boston. 70s are back. don't worry. just a little bit later. the other thing is there's the storm. there's the back door cold front. watch this one in the upper midwest and northern rockies. this does have a threat for severe weather. billings and cheyenne on saturday. sioux falls back down through amarillo. a small threat of tornadoes. big thunderstorms and straight line winds.

rainy on saturday. sunday, that's the good one. >> sunday will be the nice day. >> it's the good one. >> outdoor activity sunday. coming up next on "new day," va secretary eric shinseki is speak to veterans groups this morning. how will he address a scanned that is rocking the agency? will he have a job by the end of the day? $20 billion man. steve ballmer, he's poised to become the new owner of the l.a. clippers, maybe. we'll tell you who this guy is for sure. [ laughter ]

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welcome back to "new day." that thin ice that eric shinseki has been standing on may be cracking this morning. support for the va secretary is fading fast. his outrage is growing over deadly treatment delays at va hospitals that were first reported here by cnn. shinseki is scheduled to speak to a veterans group in washington. in less than three hours. you can be sure he's expected to acknowledge at the very least a breach of trust. but now members of congress are calling for a criminal investigation to determine whether those treatment delays were covered up.

so hospital officials could cash in on bigger bonuses. let's go to the white house, get the very latest from athena jones. >> good morning, kate. today is the day that secretary shinseki is supposed to give the president the preliminary results of his investigation into the va system. and this comes as a growing number of democratic senators are calling for shinseki to resign. >> speculate about personnel matters. >> reporter: the white house under mounting pressure to give embattled secretary eric shinseki the boot for mismanagement at the department of veterans affairs. just last week the president praised him. >> nobody cares more about our veterans. >> reporter: even as he demanded answers. >> i want to know the full scope of this problem. that's why i ordered secretary shinseki to investigate. >> reporter: but by thursday press secretary jay carney was refusing to say whether the president had confidence in the secretary. >> forward to the preliminary

review, that he asked the secretary to provide to him. >> reporter: today is deadline day for that review. shinseki has been under fire for big problems within the veterans medical care system. allegations that include long wait times for appointments and secret waits lists, delays that may have killed dozens. and while the speaker of the house is still reserving judgment about whether shinseki should resign -- >> the question i ask myself is him resigning going to get us to the bottom of the problem? is it going to help us find out what's really going on? and the answer i keep getting is no. >> reporter: more than a dozen republican senators and a growing number of democrats are calling for him to go. including democrats facing tough re-election fights in the fall, like mary land drew of louisiana who tweeted thursday afternoon, shinseki served our nation with distinction but recent unacceptable actions under his watch regrettably means new

leadership is needed. so we'll be waiting for that review from shinseki. in the meantime we expect the pressure on him and on the white house to keep growing. chris, kate? >> athena, thank you for the update. let's break it down more with maggie haberman, it's great to see you. you've got two things. you have the president. he's waiting to see this review, internal review from shinseki. could come today. then you have the growing really the flood gates have opened for people calming for shinseki to resign. can these two things happen separate of each other? can the mounting pressure have an impact on how the president reacts? >> short answer is no. this is not sustainable over a per yoiod of weeks. this has gone from a drip drip of democrats last week to a total deluge. fifth of the senate democrats saying he has to go. president obama does not like to fire people. this administration prides

itself on sticking on staff when there are calls for heads to roll. this one is hard to see this can go on for weeks more while there might be additional review. >> when you say it is known that the president does not like to fire people. that is an admirable quality to not be quick to it kg off people's heads but when it becomes maybe a little more apparent that this might not be the person that can bring about the change and reforms that are needed to fix this huge problem in this system, can it backfire on the president, this loyalty to employees? >> it certainly can. there's also the difficulty here is you're dealing with somebody who has a lengthy military career who is respected by both sides of the aisle politically, who is not indicating in his own comments and we'll see what he says in a couple of hours but so far he has not shown any indication he will hand in his resignation. he is hanging on as best as i can tell. i think it's going to take more information before the page turn on this. i do have a very hard time seeing the path for him staying

on. >> obama is getting hit with the no accountability stake though all over the place. politics, accountability usually means firing somebody as opposed to firing yourself. >> yes. >> do you think that what may wind up hurting the secretary in this is that many of these revelations are coming out in the last few years, because the protection would be for him the va has been in trouble for a long time but this is coming in under his watch, technically. >> i think that's right. this is since 2010. there are huge numbers of incidents that we're talking a and it systemic across the board. this is where it becomes very, very hard to argue this is not under one particular person. when you have the case of secretary sebelius with health care when obamacare rolled out you can understand why president obama did not want to throw her under the bus. >> why? >> because the health care law needed to roll out in the white house's minds. it needed to get done and having a sacrificial lamb was not necessarily going to change that. the problems were different. this is also a different type of issue. there is a sacred quality to

veterans. there is a sacred quality to the military. >> which is why i'm surprised and i want to get your take on it, why i'm not -- many republicans are calling for him to resign but some in the republican leadership, john boehner, eric cantor, not calling for him to resign, more talking about the accountability stick, more putting it on president obama. erin cantor telling politico which is this is a core competency question for the white house. is that a political strategy for republicans because it may have a longer-term impact on the president if they can hurt him and associate him with the problem rather than just calling for shinseki to resign? i'm just surprised they're not jumping on him because they often do quickly jump and say, sebelius, resign, holder, resign. >> it's a rare show of partisan ship. you saw boehner and pelosi they they didn't want to see this happen. i agree the goal here is to keep the pressure and focus on the president. if this can be dealt with with

the firing or dismissal of one person then that becomes easier to contain. >> the lunch between obama and hillary, do you think hillary gave him the advice, in the clinton days we would have gotten rid of this guy in five minutes why is this secret? i think there are a lot of lunches that are secret. >> this is revealed after an accidental tweet from a "people" magazine reporter. >> there are no accidents. >> accidental tweet. who is interviewing hillary clinton for her new book and then this is how we found out about this lunch. what was interesting about this lunch is that so much of what has happened within the last couple of weeks in terms of how hillary clinton has had to respond or her allies have responded in terms of the latest benghazi hearing. obama has been almost an after thought. this is an interesting reminder of, oh, here are these two. >> let's roll play how this happens. ask me anything. >> are you going to run for president in 2016? >> the other day i was at lunch with my friend barack, i didn't

mean that, the president, oh no, i didn't mean that, i didn't say it. >> who is maggie in this roll play? >> i'm taking the picture for twitter. >> maggie is everybody else. >> how does lunch with the president come out as an accident? did i let that slip? >> if hillary has to be offended about anything, it is your i'm person impersonation of her. >> maggie, arbiter of justice, bad. >> thanks, maggie. great to see you. >> i'm a little ashamed about it now. coming up on "new day," shelly sterling says microsoft's former ceo is going to be the new owner of the l.a. clippers. steve ballmer, there he is. >> that's what maggie does on the break. >> he's worth $20 billion because of what happened at microsoft that he was responsible for in part. and imagine standing on a glass floor 103 stories above the city of chicago. sounds exciting rg right? what if it starts cracking or

cracks start appearing beneath your feet. it happened at the top of the willis tower as they call it now. we'll talk to a tourest about the moment of terror. [announcer] a healthy dog is a playful dog. give him the calorie smart nutrition of beneful healthy weight. with wholesome rice,real chicken,soy, and accents of vitamin rich veggies. plus a taste he loves. beneful healthy weight from purina.

welcome back to "new day." let's look at your headlines. radical islamist fighter who carries out a suicide bombing in syria was a u.s. citizen who grew up in florida. two u.s. government officials confirmed this but would not disclose the bomber's given name. he was a group of the fbi and cia have been trying to track since they joined the fight months agonchts the nsa firing

back at edward snowden who claims in an nbc interview he reported his concerns about illegal surveillance to directly to the agency before leaking a treasure trove of classified documents. nsa officials released an e-mail exchange with snowden which they claim shows he did not address wrongdoing at the agency, asking only about legal training programs. snowden calls this release incomplete. so, two champion word smiths are celebrating this morning. the scripps national spelling bee ended in a tie thursday for the first time in 52 years. these two young men beat the egg dictionary. 13-year-old ansun sujoe spelled fueilleton correctly and 14-year-old sriram hathwar nailed the word stichomythia. in fact, as i said, the boys spelled so many words right, the judges just ran out. i didn't know there could be a tie in a spelling bee. they go to every language in the world. they have to find more words somewhere. the two winners will tell us

about their big wins in the next hour of "new day." n-e-w-d-a-y. >> two words, by the way. >> are they real words? >> you can make them up and they will spell them right. how can you run out? >> fueilleton is not a word, i tell you that right now. >> how do you end in a tie? they should sue. >> we had two people on the show that had a tie. >> that was in a regional, state competition. >> and they ran out of words as well. isn't that crazy? are we not creating enough words or are the kids just getting smart sn smarter? >> is it a big government problem? >> big government. >> what happened to the country when they can limit the amount of words you can spell. >> spelling bee reform. there's my platform when i run. >> send it to us. >> j.b. wins. speaking of another potential winner this morning, shelly sterling has confirmed

she has a binding contract, interesting choice of words for her, to sell the l.a. clippers to former microsoft ceo steve ballmer. the price tag would make history, $2 billion. in a statement shelly sterling says she's confident he'll take the clippers to, quote, new levels of success. the billionaire businessman used to be the man who was running microsoft and he's about to make the biggest deal, the nba has ever seen. so natural question of curiosity, who is he? chief business correspondent christine romans gives us the answer. >> also there was a quote from steve ballmer where he says he looks forward to working more with the nba and silver along through the process, indicating they've already been talking to the nba about this. shelly sterling wanted a 2 in pront of that number, $2 billion. steve ballmer has the money and he wants the team. >> get up! get up!

>> reporter: he always seemed ready for courtside. former microsoft ceo steve ballmer was famous for energizing his employees. >> i have four words for you. i love this company. yeah! >> reporter: ballmer started working at microsoft in its early days, in 1980 he became the company's 24th employee and is over-sized personality became known fast through videos like this promoting windows 1.0 in 1985. >> watch as windows integrates lotus 1-2-3. >> reporter: and bill gates in the "night at the roxbury" spoof. >> steve ballmer. >> reporter: in 1998 ballmer rose to president, then ceo in 2000 taking the company through hits like xbox and kinect and flops like window vista.

>> our job, our job is to make sure that not only is pc not dead but we're constantly unknow vating it. >> reporter: he stepped down as ceo of microsoft three months ago but remains on the shareholders. he's worth more than $20 billion according to forbes and sits at number 35 on the magazine's annual billionaire's list. ballmer grew up near detroit where his father was a manager at ford motor company. he went to harvard and briefly attended stanford school of business. he's no stranger to the business of sports. his name has been tied for a possible deal for the sacramento kings but that fell through. now his poised to make the biggest nba deal ever, going from high-tech billionaire to courtside baller. >> so he's got all the ingredients, right? very loyal. still drives a ford because his dad worked at ford. he's got fashion. you see how he is in the microsoft videos. clearly the kind of guy you can see courtside cheering for his

team. >> he's got $2 billion there. >> i don't know if this is a big group. he's tried to buy a team before with a group of investors. i don't know if this is just him or other investors. >> just him. just him. >> he's got the money. >> he's doing this bid as an individual, as opposed to the other teams bidding which are distinctively groups. >> he's got the edge. again, in the release from she'lly sterling it was clear they have been talking already to the nba. the vote is not here yet but they've been talking to the nba about the sale and bank of america revises the deal. >> great investment for the sterlings. is the basketball team still a good investment? there's only 30 of them. if you want one you have to find the chance and take it when you can. >> it's not about investment, it's the trophy of it? >> mark cuban told me the trophy days are over but that looks like what this is. he's a businessman though. he will run it like a business. you only have a few chances to get it. he didn't get his last chance. he wants it now.

>> i can't wait to see that on the court. right? >> what was that, i missed that. >> whew! identical, for the record. coming up next on "new day," heart-pounding moments at the top of willis tower. a glass floor 103 stories up cracking while tourists are standing on it. you're going to hear about that. that is terrifying. and also, don't tell taylor townsend she can't win the french open. she's one of two american women still standing in paris. the incredible adversity she has already overcome just to make it on to the clay. by the way, i believe in winners and losers and especially the freedom to fail. especially the freedom to fail. >> who, him? earlier this springn and now you're at it again. scott: (chuckles) indeed, a crucial late spring feeding helps defend the grass against the summer heat to come.

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♪ annie lenox "walking on broken glass." welcome to "new day." berman likes it. visitors to chicago's willis tower getting an all clear after a truly heart-pounding moment thursday. protective coating on one of the

glass floored observation decks cracked with people standing on it and, remember, that's 103 stories above the city when that happened. cnn's george howell caught up with him. take a look and a listen. . >> 103 stories above the ground. >> all i see is just glass that's breaking underneath me. >> reporter: four cousins pose together for a picture on a glass observation deck overlo overlooking chicago and the second they stood up. >> i can feel the glass just shattering completely around my hand. >> reporter: they look back to see the surface they had been sitting on shattered. >> i'm thinking i'm going down with it. >> cracking. >> reporter: they also got video of the glass, literally cracking in front of their eyes. they feared the ledge was about to fall to the ground. >> because you can see through it obviously you have the psychological effect that, you know, oh, my gosh, something broke. >> reporter: engineer says there's a thick panel of glass

that didn't break. designed to withstand 10,000 pounds or 5 tons of weight. we watched as crews replaced the thin layer above it that caused such a scare. so this is the new sheet of glass that will go on the sky deck. if you look here you can see exactly how thin that is. crews tell me that this is meant to be scratched and scraped up. in fact, it's replaced every six to nine months depending on wear and tear. from outside, at a helicopter's vantage point, you can see how the observation ledge extends just beyond the willis tower with the new glass panel finally in place, we put it to the test. so we are stepping on to that thin sheet of glass now. >> that's correct. the quarter inch top piece of glass is designed to protect the 1 1/2-inch thick structural glass. >> oh, my god, take the picture. >> reporter: the ledge on the sky deck now back in business. and even these guys admit after the scare of their lives -- >> for the record, it's an

awesome view, awesome building. >> reporter: it's the view from up top that made such an impression on them that they may just come back for more. george howell, cnn, chicago. >> that is is -- i don't even know. >> steve ballmer had his four words, i love this company. mine would be, negligent infliction of emotional distress. >> it was the safe kind of shattered glass 1300 feet in the air. not the dangerous kind. >> no one is ever any danger standing on broken glass. >> we put it there to scare you. that was a joke, actually. >> i can't sleep. i have anxiety. here it comes. >> exactly. now to the story of an american tennis property ji on the rise. two american women remain in the french open. one of them is taylor townsend and she hits the court within the hour just 18 years old and ranked 205th. she defeated the 21st best player of the world to make it into the third round. taylor is tough and has already had to overcome her share of

adversity. really unbelievable story. nischelle turner is looking at it. >> tennis leader saying remember this name, taylor townsend and that's a great sports name. very good sports name. that's what counts. right now though her game is good, too. she is gotten to the french open, the hard way. she earned a wild card in the playoff, in a playoff type tunement. she won four matches in the same day. >> taylor townsend is determined to make a point on and off the tennis courts. >> taylor townsend, star is on the rise in paris. >> reporter: at her very first grand slam tournament 18-year-old townsend defeated francis toppering player in a major upset becoming the youngest american to advance to the third round of the french open in over ten years. celebrating her victory, doing the ne-ne. but it was a victory that almost didn't happen. in 2012 at 16 taylor was the

number one ranked junior. then the u.s. tennis association came to her and said, they wouldn't pay her travel expenses, explaining they were concerned about her long-term health and development as a tennis player. >> everyone saw that as a usda telling taylor they wanted her to get into better shape and to lose weight. >> reporter: the usta later told the "wall street journal" it was a miscommunication. >> i was really upset. i cried. and i just didn't know what was happening, but i got myself together and i was like, i'm playing. that's all that i said. i was like, i need to find a way to get healthy. i need to go to the doctor as much as i can. i'm playing. >> reporter: she didn't just play, she put a different spin on the game by paying her own way and winning sponsors like prince and nike and more tournaments. all the while getting advice from others who didn't fit the stereo typical look of a tennis player. >> serena is not a small girl either. she has a beautiful figure.

venus isn't small. she's taller, but, i mean, i'm short and i'm, you know, not skinny. so i mean, i think so but i'm just trying to do the best that i can for me. everyone is different. and that's really what i've learned out of this whole thing. >> reporter: and today she's hoping to advance in the grand slam tournament and get another chance to do her now famous victory dance. >> here we go. >> now she's shy. she just didn't the ne-ne at the last win and now she's shy to do it on cnn. next up for taylor she faces number 15 in the world carlos suarez, i think in about 15 minutes. if she wins she would be the youngest american to get to the fourth round at roland garros since serena and venous and she

idol who she loves is roger federer. >> i wonder if she has met him. >> i don't know but she just says she loves everything she does, everything about his game. >> like wins almost every time for ten years? >> great thing. >> never loses. >> she's also got very fine and precise strokes which is very federeresque. >> we talked about it before, her game fits the clay surface. >> very well. >> she's doing well here. you can see why. >> good luck to her. we'll all be checking in with that. >> that's right. >> go taylor, go taylor. it's time to party like it's 19 1994. the new york rangers are heading to the stanley cup final. joe carter has more in this morning's breacher report. they're going ray crazy around here, joe. >> nobody onset happier for the rangers than john berman. ecstatic for the rangers to make it to the stanley cup. the ranger's goalie lundqvist was sensational last night after one of the worst. he bounced back in game six with a performance that put the

rangers in position and put them in a stanley cup final. he stopped all 18 shots on goal last night including one of the best saves in the playoffs. only seemed fitting that the game-winning goal came from dominick moore. first season back after taking a year off mourning the death of his wife who passed away from a rare form of liver cancer. that was a special moment for him last night. for this team it's been a stunning turn around even their coach said after the game that he couldn't have imagined this moment at the beginning of the season back in october. later tonight the miami heat can advance to the nba finals with a win against the pacers. lebron james is hoping for a better game than, well, the last game he had. earlier this week he sat down with rachel nichols and the two talked about how he's matured since his first playoff game in 2006. >> i'm just smarter, more seasoned basketball player, more veteran. i mean, i've been in it so many times that, you know, i kind of know what to expect. and for me, at a younger age, i

was never even keel. you know, playoff game when i was younger i was excited, out of my mind, you would lose and i was the worst person in the world. >> of course you can catch rachel's show tonight at 10:30 eastern on cnn. in addition to interviewing lebron, she also sits down with kurt busch, and the two of them talk about his historic attempt at the double, of course, this past sunday he raised in the indianapolis 500 in the afternoon and then the coca-cola 600 later that same day. >> quite a feat. thank you, joe. let's take a break. coming up next on "new day," disturbing new details about a treatment about a u.s. marine jailed for months in mexico. we're talking to his mother who is pleading for him to be released. plus, big news, shelly sterling says the mega deal is done, that former microsoft ceo steve ballmer has agreed to pay $2 billion for the clippers. but will donald sterling sign off on this sale or is this

whole thing just a ploy to run up the price? we'll break it down. 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!

a u.s. marine remains in a mexican prison this morning two months after he was arrested for crossing the mexican border. he says by accident with three guns in his possession. marine sergeant andrew taf mo s

tahmooressi is telling the world how he was chained up and beaten by prison guards. here to discuss the latest in his case is his mother, jill tahmooressi. jill, it's gad to have you with us. thank you for being here. first, when is the last time you got to check in on your son and what do you know about his condition? >> he called me last night. he's in much better conditions, though still imprisoned. he considers his current position to be safer than what he experienced at the state penitentiary called la mesa. >> that's a little bit of better news. for those just coming to this story, let's remind everyone how we reached here. your son was driving, and he says he got lost basically. tell us, what is his version of this? >> yes, he was parked in a parking lot, literally 50 feet away from an onramp. he turned left out of the parking lot within 50 feet, made

his next left thinking he was headed north to san diego and instead there was a blind curve that swooped him south straight into a corralled barricaded mexican customs lane. the only place to stop was at the mexican customs agent checkpoint. >> jill, obviously the concerning detail in all of this are the weapons. what do you understand about why he was carrying the weapons? >> he's a marine. he's a marine reservist until 2016, just diagnosed with ptsd at the san diego va. that's why he left florida in january and headed at the invite of a purple heart veteran marine who was seeking treatment at that va in san diego. so he had arrived, march 12th he was diagnosed positive for ptsd. one of his symptoms was hyper vigilance to self-defense. that's why he carried a concealed weapons permit. >> you don't belief he was on some kind of mission.

this was just about him keeping the weapons on his person? >> yes. he had all of his possessions in his truck. he had not yet found permanent housing in san diego. all of his possessions stacked pile in the backseat and when he entered mexico by accident, the first thing he said to the first person that stopped him was, i got here accidentally. please let me turn around. i have three guns in my truck. so he disclosed immediately and that's also evidence in a 911 tape that is recorded and online. >> can we hear some of the tape? we have it here, jill, so people can understand what his tone was and what he was saying. let's take a listen. >> i'm at the border of mexico right now. my problem is, i thought the border by accident and i have three guns in my truck. and they're trying to possess -- they're trying to take my guns from me. >> so you're in mexico? >> yeah, i -- >> there's nothing i can help you with then, sir.

i do apologize. you are not on american soil anymore. i can't really help you. >> to be clear, you believe there was no chance that your son intended to go to mexico? >> absolutely no chance. he was headed back to san diego to get a hotel like he often did. that day he had walked into mexico. he had parked at that parking lot to purposefully walk into tijuana at a popular place where marines from camp pendleton go. so he had no intention of then driving into mexico. he had just walked out of mexico headed back to san diego and intuitively you turn left to head north to san diego and it swept south on a blind curve and corals you. it's a point of no return if you make that one wrong left turn and that's literally what he did. >> also relevant the detail you offer that he had all of this possessions with him, not just the guns. our friend over at fox news has,

greta, had an opportunity to speak to your son on the phone. here's some of what he had to say. let's play it. >> they stripped me of my clothes and then they handcuffed me, my hands to a bed post and my feet to a bed post. so i was kind of stuck there standing overnight. i think it was for discipline, for punishment. i was hit multiple times. i was punched in the stomach a few times to the point where i couldn't breathe. >> now, jill, i know you're operating as counsel basically for your son right now and arguing his case but to hear your son's voice and to know what's been happening to him, in his opinion, how is that to hear as his mom? >> oh, my gosh, i'm mortified. that was at the hands of the guards that were to be protecting him. he's an inmate in a prison.

you would expect the guards to protect their inmates. but instead he had nearly been executed by the gang members that were in the cell and then he was subjected to severe beating by the guards. i mean, i'm appalled. this is mexico, our friendly neighbors to the south. and in is a man who said i accidentally entered here. please let me go back to america. and instead he was confiscated, held captive, nearly killed by the gang members and the guards in that prison. i'm furious. >> also as tough as he is and being a marine you know that he's not his best self right now because he's struggling with with the pts diagnosis and this has got to be even more difficult for him. yes? >> absolutely. much more difficult. and he has not heard from his commander in chief. he's a current marine reservist. there's a white house.gov pretician. i need 20,000 more signatures today. that will force a response from president obama because that is his platform. we the people petition and he

will acknowledge andrew's fight for freedom but i need 20,000 signatures by the end of today. >> happy to get that word out for you, jill. secretary of state john kerry was on "new day." we discussed this. he said he is in communications with authorities there to make sure they have the proof they need to hold an american citizen. have you heard anything from the state department to validate their efforts? >> no, i have not. i know that mr. whitaker from the local u.s. service has at least, i've reached out to him and yesterday when i found out and he sent an affidavit of mistreatment for andrew to fill out because this was new news to me and i immediately let mr. whitaker know that andrew was abused at the hands of the guards. >> all right. jill, thank you very much. we'll follow up with the state department. please keep in touch with us. let us know what's going on. we appreciate you giving us the latest on "new day." good luck to you and your son. >> thank you. it is official. former microsoft ceo steve

ballmer has won the bidding war for los angeles clippers. ballmer struck a deal with shelly sterling to buy the clippers for a record $2 billion. it's been submitted for league approval. so far donald sterling though hasn't signed off on the deal. but does he need to? a lot of questions here. not a lot of answers but a lot of development. let's get over to cnn's rosa flores with the latest. >> kate, good morning. two things are very clear this morning. shelly sterling wants this to be over. she wants the sale to be done. she said this morning making this announcement just moments ago and i'm going to quote here, i am delighted that we are selling the team to steve who will be a terrific owner, she says. we have worked for 33 years to build the clippers into a premier nba franchise. i am confident that steve will take the team to new levels of

success. now, here is the other side of this story. donald sterling, he is saying, i don't care about the money. i have plenty of money. he wants vindication. he doesn't want his name associated with the word racism. here is what we know. former microsoft ceo steve ballmer has made a binding agreement to buy the nba, the nba team l.a. clippers. that sounds like a done deal, right? wrong. because according to donald sterling's attorney he was telling cnn that donald sterling only gave his estranged wife shelly sterling and the nba the right to negotiate and to negotiate only, not to sell. here's the other thing his attorney had to say. take a listen. >> we don't think the team can be sold without mr. sterling's consent. mr. sterling is not going to consent unless the nba does something about the illegal

charges they filed against him and so far we've heard nothing to indicate that will occur. >> so other things have to happen. donald sterling has to agree to the sale. 75% of the nba board of governors have to agree as well. and, chris, let not forget about the $2.5 million fine. that is also still pending. >> yes, rosa, thank you for pointing out all the particulars. let's figure this out because it gets more and more complicated. we have david cornwell, sports attorney, and sean gregory, senior writer for "time" magazine. we have law and policy here. mr. cornwell, counselor, starting with you. complicated. can shelly sell without donald? no, because he is the signatory to the franchise agreement, not her. but does she need him, maybe no because the nba at the end of the day owns the franchise. not donald sterling. help us understand this. >> well, there are multiple ways to get to the same place but primarily donald sterling

recently sent a letter to the nba commissioner adam silver saying that his wife had the authority to negotiate and sell the team. max bleacher is ignoring that. secondly, the nba is about to vote on tuesday to terminate the franchise where the nba will take over it and they'll have the right to sell it. so it really -- and, shelly sterling claims that she has the right to sell it because of her status in the family trust. so any road you take ends up with steve ballmer owning the clippers. >> one of thisser big legal point. the representative for mr. sterling says, none of this means anything because their evidence is illegally obtained and therefore none of this can move forward. does that hold water in this particular setting? >> it does not. and in this case some of max's best arguments can be used against him. at least 15 nba teams reside in states that are single party, one-party consent states.

california is a two-party consent state. so by max's arguments that means teams such as the utah jazz, if their owner were to have done what donald sterling has done, then they actually could lose their team. this is self governance. one of the most important part of self governance is uniformity. if they can do it to a team in utah, owner in utah, then they can do it to donald sterling. but in any event, all the greens that he has signed, adopting the nba's constitution and bylaws, operate as a waiver of the rights under california's constitution or that's the right of pries vy privacy. >> interesting point, sean gregory, that darren kavinoky made. the agreement between the nba and owners is new york law, one-party consent state. and the rule of evidence don't apply here so the fact that it's admissible or not, do you think it's a charade?

>> total charade. mr. bleacher's argument was amazing when he said if the nba would not have -- would have rejected the evidence based on the technicalities of one-party state, two-party state. sponsors would not have gone away. that's not true. sponsors started leaving before adam silver came down with his ban. so companies don't care about the technicalities of these laws. and they know their customers don't care. their customers aren't going to disassociate or associate with what mr. sterling said based on some legal technicalities. >> this all matters, this discussion, because what the league is leaning on is that you hurt the brand and that is -- that is evidence, let's say, proven by sponsors leaving, players saying they won't play for you and you're hurting the cache, the value of the league by how you can and that's good enough for them. >> that all happened before adam silver came down with this lifetime ban. >> there is this speculation out there. there's lot of speculation, right, mr. cornwell, this is just to raise the value of the team. i say we dismiss all of that.

if this one piece of speculation is true, what does it mean? what sterling wants is vindication. that's whats his lawyers said. in this case that would mean removing the ban. would the league do that? would it matter? what's your thought? >> absolutely not. the players would not stand for that at all. so far adam silver has been supported by the players in the players association because of what he's done. what they need to do is to tell donald sterling, go away. and if you don't, we're going to fine you again. we're going to hold you accountable for our legal fees. the nba controls the distribution of tv money to all of its team and can withhold that money or use it to fine donald sterling to make him go away. this is unbecoming to the nba. he has demonstrated that he's just a crazy unreliable, sick, and vial individual. he needs to go away and i think the nba is not going to be lenient.

i think they're going to be tougher on him going forward. >> can you see another side on that? he says he doesn't want to pay the fine either but it's that lifetime ban. is there any upside for the league? >> yeah, i mean, just thinking about it kind of going back and forth. i think they can waive the fine. i don't think anybody cares much about that. it's chump change. the life. time ban, you let him come to games. so if you had the lifetime ban to go away, he goes away. sterling goes away quietly, sells the team but he's allowed to come to games and hang out. he's not going to be able to buy a team again. i can envision the possibility. but i agree with david, no one really wants him near any games. >> did you though that sean gregory rolls like that, that $2.5 million is chump change. lunch is on you. the cries are growing louder for var secretary shinseki to step down as he is going to turn over a report to president obama

explaining the deadly treatment delays at the va medical centers as first revealed by cnn. the secretary is expected to apologize today for a breach of trust when he speaks to a veterans group in just over two hours. and now we are learning the wait list scandal has gone even wider. gone nationwide. drew griffin of cnn's special investigations unit has been out in front on this from the beginning. drew, he's joining me from washington. you have new information. a lot of the focus and the administration's focus has been in phoenix, and now you say there's problems you've ufr covered even in pittsburgh. >> yeah, overnight we got a letter from two congressmen in pennsylvania, congressman mike doyle and tim murphy. they are telling us that they have been contacted by the va in pittsburgh about a wait list of 700 veterans, veterans waiting for a poippointments there. some appointments since 2012 and yet unfulfilled. this pittsburgh va has been in

troul trouble before. we reported on it in 2012 when they actually had a outbreak there, five veterans died. legionela bacteria was in the water supply and the management at the hospital didn't bother to tell anybody, didn't bother to tell the patients or the staff, and five patients contacted it and died. now we understand that there is another wait list issue in pittsburgh that the congressmen are trying to get to the bottom of. so, yes, this scandals growing. and i expect, kate, that as these audits are done across the country, we're going to see wait lists pop up just about everywhere. >> it takes me back to a conversation that i had with the chairman of the house veterans affairs committee, jeff miller, when he said from his view he wouldn't provide details is just the tip of the iceberg in talking about phoenix and it sounds like you're uncovering it almost every turn which is

probably why it's not surprise that more and more people are calling for eric shinseki to step down. what do you think of the growing pressure, do you think it will lead to his resignation? what are you hearing from your sources? >> i think it's almost inevitable now. you spoke about jeff miller. he's the ranking republican on the house veterans affairs committee. last night the ranking democrat, mike mashad, released a statement basically saying it is time for shinseki to go. when the ranking democrat says that, that's pretty much a sign that it is time to move on. let me read you from his letter. this is mike mashad. democrat now, with a heavy heart that i call on secretary shinseki to step down. democrats and republicans alike, all want to get to the bottom of what exactly is broken with the va system. instead, one man has become the focal koint. it's time to move forward. that one man, kate, is speaking this morning here in washington, d.c.

he's got a speech or he's going to make some comments about fighting the homeless vet problem. that's at 8:30 this morning. really i think a lot of the media are going to show up just to see what happens and when, not if, general shinseki resigns. >> that is a good question. what's going to happen to him is a good question. but i know the question you are also asking and we need to continue asking, then what? if he steps down, how then is the system, this huge bureaucracy going to be fixed? what's going to happen then? that's then, of course, the next question. drew, in front of it all, thank you so much. >> thanks. let's stick with the va for a second. turns out they have a bonus system for their employees. that's not unusual but it would be interesting to see who gets a bonus given the current discoveries. those bonuses may have a role to play in the scandal at the va. here's why. lawmakers are calling for a criminal investigation to determine whether long waiting times for patients were covered up because the government offered thousands of dollars in

incentives to staffers to move patients through the system faster. erin mcpike is live outside the hyatt hotel in washington where the va secretary shinseki will be speaking to veterans in 90 minutes. how does this all fit together, erin? >> chris, the the bonus system is part of a year's long effort by conservatives to make the government function more like a business. but krit tinges say for that to actually happen and to make the government function more like the private sector, there has to be accountability for those bonuses and consequences when performance suffers. >> there's a possibility that there is motivation within the va that encourages people to shorten waiting lists so that they get bonuses. >> reporter: one of the most head scratching details in the standle. employees got bonuses while veterans suffered, even died. cnn report showed t a least 40 veterans died waiting for care at the phoenix va as its

director sharon hellmann was rewarded with $9,000 an top of her six-figure salary. last week va secretary eric shinseki rescinded that cash. >> i think the president as a general manager believes that there ought to be action taken on specific -- with regard to specific individuals. >> reporter: awarding bonuses is commonplace in the federal government. analysts say it's a strategy many republicans in congress push to keep agencies accountable and competitive with the private sector. but there are big differences. >> in the private sector, there are not only rewards for doing well, there are penalties for doing poorly. >> reporter: in all the va inspector general sis invest gating 26 facilities for, quote, doctored waiting times. it's unclear the extent of the impact. but according to accountability site openthebooks.com phoenix va employees got $483,000 bonuses from 2011 to 2013 when the

controversy developed. seven facilities facing allegations of cooking the books awarded more than $8.7 million in bonuses to more than 12,000 employees. raising this issue. >> we've had problems time and time again where it appears that it's much easier to get a bonus at va than it is to get disciplined or be fired. >> reporter: one government watchdog group argues that scandal brings to light an over arching problem for the federal government. >> literally has to be committing a crime in order to get fired in the federal government. >> now, tom also made the point to me that this comes down to bad management and that sharon hellmann should have figured out about all of these backlogs simply by walking around to the phoenix va but he said this system of bad management is part of the culture re-enforced by the federal government. kate and chris? >> we'll see what happens today. thank you so much. let's take a break. coming up next on "new day," michelle obama taking on house

republicans over school lunch standards and she lost. what will she do to fight congress now? the head of the first ladies let's move campaign is joining us. plus, what do you think of this? are the nation's most famous colleges teaching intolerance? michael bloomberg thinks so. we're going to breakdown the former mayor of new york's stunning speech accusing some pretty famous schools of mccarthyism. [ laughter ] smoke? nah, i'm good. [ male announcer ] celebrate every win with nicoderm cq, the unique patch with time release smartcontrol technology that helps prevent the urge to smoke all day long. help prevent your cravings with nicoderm cq. that helps prevent the urge to smoke all day long.

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when you try easy meal like salmon cakes, that's the results you're going to get. >> wow, richard, where did you learn to do all this? >> well, mrs. obama, i know how

important it is for everybody to eat right. whether you're a pro athlete or just a kid at school wanting a healthy meal, you've got to put right fuel in your body in order to perform at your best. >> i feel like i have to respond, that's right, richard sherman, he was teaming up with michelle obama with healthy foods campaign, something the first lady shall be struggling with congress over over the battle over children's schools have escalated. a house committee advanced a bill that would allow some schools to delay implementing new white house nutritional guidelines. it gets a whole lot merckier after that. republicans opposed to the standards they say those standards are actually hurting the schools that they are trying to help. let's figure out what's going to happen from here and what it all means. sam cass, executive director of michelle obama's let's move campaign and senior adviser for nutrition policy is joining us now. sam, thanks for taking the time. as you saw right there, michelle obama putting a lot of her

attention and time to putting really her name on getting healthier lunches in schools. what was her reaction when this bill -- this bill failed essentially in committee trying to change this bill? >> well, we expected that vote yesterday in the republican house, but, you know, what she's really concerned about is seeing politicians and industry influence really stepping on the wisdom of our, you know, scientists and nutritionalists who are setting a standard for what our kids should or shouldn't be eating in our schools. we know we have to let science lead us to those kind of decisions and not our politicians. >> that kind of murky relationship though is nothing new in washington and nothing new to this white house. they understand how the politics games work. why can't you work behind the scenes to fix this? what are you going to do now because the effort to drop this waiver, if you will, that failed and the bill is moving forward. >> well, you're right.

we have seen this before just a couple years ago. congress stepped in and declared that pizza should be considered a vegetable in the school lunch program or exactly the sauce in the pizza. so we've seen this before. but we've got a long way to go. the senate is holding pretty firm here. you know, we're confident that our friends on the hill are going to do the right thing and let science lead and make sure that our kids are getting nutritious foods in schools. we know what's at stake. one in three of those young people are on track to have die beats in their lifetime if we don't dramatically change course and it's having a tremendous affect on our economy. health care system right now we spend $190 billion a year treating obesity related conditions. you can only imagine what that cost will be when one in three of americans are diabetidiabeti. we know what the answer is here and we're confident we're going to get this to a good place. >> where does your confidence come from? you're in washington. you've been watching the

relationship between the white house and -- the white house and the house of representatives throughout the president's administration. it's not a good one. these things -- house republicans, they have a strong majority. they can vote and push things through however they want. i mean, especially when the congressman who pushed this waiver, he said the following. everyone supports healthy meals for children. but bottom line, he says, schools are finding it too much too quick. why is it unreasonable for them to get a one-year delay, a waiver, if you will, to implement these standards? waivers are also not new to this white house. >> yeah. well, listen, right now we've seen 90% of schools successfully implement the standards. we're seeing food and vegetable consumption go up because of these standards. whole grain is up because of these standards. we know this rule is working. usda provided flexibility where appropriate. last week whole grain pasta, for example, was an issue. and they allowed an extension on

the time needed to implement the whole grain requirements for pasta. but that doesn't mean we should roll this whole thing back and allow schools to opt out of nutritional standards which is what has been proposed in the house. on the senate side, what's in their bill is much more reasonable. i think there's a way we can get this to a good place. i'm fully confident that we're not going to roll this back. >> where does your confidence come from? the senate saying they're going to stand firm or you getting signals when the bill passes in the house, the bill passes in the senate, they come together in conference to figure this out you've got reassurance from house republicans that they're ready to play ball in this? >> i think it's too early to tell. this is like way early in the p process. i just know we're going to do what's right for the kids. i know senate has hold firm. and in the end, this is what parents want. parents want our kids to get nourishing food in schools. taxpayers want to make sure that the $10 billion spent every year

feeding our children in school are those dollars go to nutritious foods. so i think in the end, reason will win out here. >> what do you think the chances are, sam, that in the end you're going to have to just take the fact that 90% of the schools have successfully implemented these standards and you're just going to have to take that point% and take that as a win? >> well, it is a win. and, look, i think either way we're going to do everything we can to the work with the remaining 10% of the schools and help them implement and provide technical assistance and resources to help get this over the end because all kids really deserve to have nutritious foods in their cafeterias to make sure our vending machines are not selling junk food to our kids. this is the work that must happen. so we're going to get there one way or the other. >> i and i know you've got to giggle when you say it because it is true. even the congressman who is pushing this waiver says everyone supports healthy meals for children, especially in schools, which is why i think it is so frustrating that this gets

caught up in politics. why this can't be worked out before it makes the head inloose and before we have to be talking about the opposing sides on this debate, sam. you're working on it. keep us updated. thanks so much. >> thank you so much. >> all right, chris? coming up on "new day," michael bloomberg shows up at harvard to give the commencement address and accuses the famous school basically creating a generation of haters. we have his shocking speech from the belly of the beast itself, harvard. plus, a spike in measles cases. nearly 300 already this year. why? we're going to tell you what you need to know, ahead. [ female announcer ] you never know what might be out there.

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welcome back to "new day." this morning details from a highly anticipated new chapter on benghazi from hillary clinton's new book "hard choices." it's been released by politico. she addresses to on going political battle surrounding the 2012 terror attack on american mission that left four americans dead saying, quote, i will not be part of a political slug fest on the backs of dead americans. it's just plain wrong and it's unworthy of our great country. those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me. for more, let's bring cnn political commentator and republican consultant margaret hoover and cnn political analyst and editor in chief of "the daily beast" john avlon into the mix. the obvious question is, does she control whether or not she is pulled into the benghazi analysis? >> of course she doesn't. it's convenient if you're run

for president if you guys are going to be political have fun with that but i'm not going to be political, i'm going to be above politics. frankly, the substance is unbelievable. the substance of it doesn't sound all that different from the tone and tenor of her congressional tell, testimony. defiant. laying out the law the way she sow it and recounting the facts the way she saw it. >> should that be a surprise that this is how she's going to lay this out from her book from her perspective. do you expect her to offer more, john? >> no. margaret is right. the irony of someone running for president and saying she's not going to be political, fine. but to say this political food fight is ugly, hijacked bipartisans and that tenor and that approach is not only the right one politically, it may be the right one practically. >> why. >> i think right now the benghazi distraction has become so associated with hyper partisan agendas that there's a chance and hillary clinton wants

to sort of will the ball fair on this one, that it will be seen as not a credible line of investigation. even if with this coming out. >> i think she's betting on the fact she thinks there are no minds left to change on benghazi at this point. they can yell about it, both sides, however much they want but you're not going to change the middle by 2016, swing voters. >> the best way to reach the middle is to say i'm going to be above politics. >> i'm with j.b. except for this. we're in the age of accountability in the political dialogue right now. with shin kseki has got to go, holder has got to go. if that becomes part of the political narrative this quote may be relevant. she reiterates a point she made during congressional testimony. she says, i never saw the cables requesting additional security. it was a procedural quirk given her position, didn't land on her desk. it's not how it works.

it shouldn't and it didn't. will that be good enough in the age of accountability? is that a legitimate angle of attack? >> in the age of accountability she also said i take full responsibility of what happened in benghazi. but she didn't see the cables. where is the responsibility? there is the sort of responsibility falling on deaf ears. you can take responsibility for it but who has been fired? i mean, there are four americans who died. the president's ambassador and representative in that country was killed. >> for republicans aren't you speaking to an echo chamber? >> yes, and it's an echo chamber of people deeply invested in this but as a result it alienates the moderate majority of americans seeing washington trying to politicize a tragedy and that is something people -- >> i regret that you're actually true and i don't think that -- different approach. i think it's become so much a part of the echo chamber. i think hillary clinton hopes this will suffice because it's become such a political -- >> so look, what's the headline coming out of of this? she's basically holding strong

with where she was and hoping this gets dismissed as politics. we'll have to see which way it goes. >> easier said than done. >> always is. something that's percolating right now, bloomberg shows up a at harvard. as if you need another reason not to like har ward university. >> there's a man who clily went to yale. >> he lays into them about the lefty establishment that they are. take a listen. >> we cannot deny others the rights and privileges that we demand for ourselves and that is true in cities and it is no less true at universities where the forces of repression appear to be stronger now, i think, than they have been at any time since the 1950s. >> the forces of repression at harvard university. why is the former mayor saying this and is he right, john? >> this is manna from heaven for conservatives. >> this is -- it's trard their. he points out something that

conservatives have known to be true since the 1950s when buckley wrote "god and man and yale." what's interesting is a leading liberal in the country is calling it out. and that's actually refreshing. when he says 96% of college -- >> you're saying bloomberg is a liberal? >> yes. >> self identifies with more with the center left than conservative movement. 96% of university professors donate to democrats, i say this as a obama democrat, how are you going to get a diversity of thinking and fresh thoughts on a college campus. it's fair to point out the liberal tendencies at liberal arts colleges. >> look, we all know this is about a larger trend. there is a pc liberalism that tries to shout down descending voices on college campuses. fine. problem is hypocrisy of people on the right and ignore what bloomberg points out which is the example to block the ground zero mosque. you can put principle ahead of

partisan ship and ideology. he calls out both sides. he's right on this one. >> this sound bite i found interesting. i want to get your guys' take on it. this one on mccarthyism. >> who? >> there is an idea floating around college campuses including here at harvard, i think, that scholars should be funded only if their work conforms to a particular view of justice. there's a word for that idea. censorship. it is just a modern form of mccarthyism. >> ooh. >> does he have a point? >> well, look, he's speaking very directly to -- what was interesting is the woman who is disinvited from having honorary degree from brandeis university is a professor at harvard and her husband is one of the only tenured professors at harvard who is conservative.

yes. this is true. to call it mccarthyism. it's a -- it is something very different from ideologically shutting people out and silencing people who don't agree with you. >> do you think he saw this speech before he gave it? >> heck no. no way. >> speaking on behalf of someone who did not attend the graduation speech at my graduation i can tell you i think harvard likes these homes that get publicity which creates this discussion. this is. aing in the wake of all the graduations speakers backing out or being pushed out by student bodies who decide they don't want to hear different points of views. >> harvard is making the opposite point of bloomberg by letting him speak in the first place and inviting the criticism. >> always a step smarter at harvard. >> let me ask you this. this could go on for days and weeks to come obviously. >> we're connecting to mainstream america on that one. >> i read a great piece in politico and why do we have

commencement addresses anymore? wisdom on a departing student body that may or may not have learned anything now. >> the platitudes that are going to be offered up because they generally hit on the same things every day. >> this is actually one that hits the issue of the times. this cycle we did see a lot of folks either be forced out or pulled back because of threatened protests. it's an important statement about the true nature of liberalism which is supposed to be art tolerating descending voices and we're not seeing that on college campuses enough. >> you're going to silence the speaker or silence the student body. >> there is a middle ground. that's what bloomberg was trying to get to. the problem is there is this intolerance. when people approach arguments from an idea logical perspective they want to shout down evident that doesn't back them up. it's polluting our campuses. >> well said. you should give a commencement address. >> boom, boom. >> i think that the impulses in congress are different than liberalized colleges.

the political partisanship is a very different thing. i just -- impulses are different. >> agree to disagree. >> there we go. thanks, guys. great. coming up next on "new day," measles hitting a 20-year high with more than half of the cases among adults. now federal officials are warning it may be due to a resistance to vaccines. are you at risk? and how do you spell history? a tie at the spelling bee. both are winners. everybody is a winner, the new generation. millennials never lose. huh, 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know that game show hosts should only host game shows? samantha, do you take kevin as your lawfully wedded husband...

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this morning the cdc is warning of a dangerous surge in a disease once essentially eliminated from the united states. measles on the rise again with 288 cases reported this year. the highest number since the year 2000. more than half of those cases are among adults. and almost all are linked to travel overseas. let's discuss what this means, what you really should be concerned about with dr. william shatner, chairman of medicine at vanderbilt medical center. great to see you again.

>> hello, kate. >> over the past 20 years, with public education campaigns, really done a good job, there's been such a concerted effort to essentially eliminate and eradicate measles and now this surge. why? >> well, the reason is very simple. lots of children are not vaccinat vaccinated. and then when they go abroad they're exposed to measles, bring it home and then it spreads along like-minded people after that return to the united states. as you say, the whole age spectrum can be effected. all the way from infants to some adults. so this is a new problem. and the answer is we've got to vaccinate our children. and if you go abroad, check with your doctor first to make sure that your measles protection is up to date. >> doctor, the decision to vaccinate or not has been one of quite a bit of debate over the years for parent of young children. and parents fall on both sides of this issue very squarely. but from your perspective, when

you look at kind of the public risk, not just for one child, but the public risk of measles, is there any valid medical reason to not be vaccinated? >> there is no reason not to vaccinate your child. it's important for that child safety. it's important for the whole community. the vaccines are safe. they are effective. talk to your family doctor. talk to your pediatrician. and get your child vaccinated so that measles will not be reintroduced into the united states and spread. it's a serious disease. 15% of these people who have had measles have been hospitalized. >> i'm also seeing, talking about this statistics, of this year's measles cases, more than 50% of the cases are adults that are 0 years -- 20 years old or older which to me on the surface is a little bit surprising because we're not talking about those high-risk groups that we. often do we went talk about the flu and other diseases, the

young and the old. why adults 20 years and older, why are they getting hit so hard? >> well, some of them simply have an uncertain measles vaccination history and that's why if you're traveling abroad and you can't document what happened in the past, you'll get a measles vaccine before you travel abroad. be protected and then you won't also bring measles back into the united states. >> doctor, really kind of bottom line. how big of a problem do you think this is? is this going to be one year when you believe there's going to be an uptick or do you think that this is going to be an ungoing major problem and the public education campaigns are going to have to start all over again in 20 years of efforts to eradicate this disease are going to be all for naut? >> it will be continuing for a while because there are millions of cases of measles that still aoccur around the world. we are a small, small globe. travel is between the develop b

world and us all the time. and so there will be continuing threats to bring measles back into not only the united states but the entire western hemisphere which is essentially measles free except for importations. we will have to remain alert. all the more important, keep vaccinating children. make sure that all of us are protected. >> especially when it is so contagious. vaccination really is the only way to go. dr. william schnaffer, great to see you. >> important message. coming up on "new day," a spelling bee double take, not one winner but two this year. we're going to speak with the co-champions of t s the scripp national spelling bee. and this sunday on 9:00 p.m. eastern on cnn mr. tony bourdain gets a taste of thailand in this week's "parts unknown."

you have to see what he decides to sink his teeth into. take a look. >> this show is about food, f d food, delicious food, food like th this. here's the thing. you're eating food here, sort of unrecognizable. >> frogs with garlic. >> that's one of the many stomachs of a cow, pig's brain. unrecognizable, scorchingly hot, or both. whoa, that's hot. whew. and often the ugliest dishes are the ones most hauntingly delicious. >> blood soup. >> i'm eating out of an open wound. that's utterly delicious. >> this is a ferociously

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♪ we are the champions >> indeed, they are the champions. how do you spem co-champions. for the first time in more than 50 years the scripps national spelling bee crowned 13-year-old ansun sujoe and 14-year-old sriram hathwar got a tie after

nearly exhausting the 25-word championship list. they beat english. take a look at their winning moments. >> s-t-i-c-h-o-m-y-t-h-i-a, stichomythia. >> whatever. >> however you say it, just spell it. >> f-e-u-i-l-l-e-t-o-n? >> correct. >> i do not believe these words actually exist. this is only the first time in the spelling bee's 89-year history that two people have won. ansun and sriram join us. congratulations to you. what a feeling it must be. i have to say, i'm sure, even though you were splitting the prize it is not half as awesome, it is still completely awesome.

>> they're already sharing the spotlight here. getting the hang of it. ansun, how does it feel to be a co-winner? >> it feels pretty good. not only do i get the victory, but i get to share it with something else, so it means a lot to me. >> sriram, you said something interesting after the competition last night. you said you weren't competing against anybody. you were competing against the dictionary. >> yes. >> it seemed to me by watching the dictionary played dirty, frankly. >> the english language is pretty brutal. it borrows so many words from different languages, that's pretty much why the spelling bee is there, so we can be more aware of all the different cultures and languages that have been incorporated into the english language. it was really just a competition against the dictionary, not

against ansun or any of the other competitors. >> you are much nicer than the three of us on this couch, i'll tell you that much. ansun, i can probably already answer my question. ansun, would you have liked to have gone off the books, gone to some other list, not on the competition's list to try to finally fight it out and have one champ? >> i'm not really sure about that. i would have probably lost in that effort. >> why? >> i'm not really sure. >> so what are you going to do? between the two of you, you're going to have to figure out a way to decide who is better. is there any kind of other competition you're thinking about where you kind of meet in an alley or some predetermined pizzeria and have it out just for your own sake, mano-a-mano at some point. >> we're both pretty satisfied

with our performances yesterday. i don't think it's quite necessary to meet there or any other place. i think we're cally had an opportunity to get the trophy and we're both happy with that. >> sriram, you're much nicer than chris cuomo. i've always been curious. after the spelling bee, after you win, are you going to bother not to spell anything the rest of your life? i've done all the spelling i'm going to do ever, and the rest i just don't care about? >> i wouldn't say that's completely true. the vocabulary and everything will take me far. that's pretty much the purpose of doing spelling, because getting exposed to so many words like in medicine and law can help me in any career i pursue. i guess the spelling part might go down a little bit, but the vocabulary definitely, languages, culture, meeting new people, that's still a huge part of my life. >> how much, ansun, would you say -- how many of these words do you actually know the meaning

of? you can always ask for a definition, but i know you're a genius speller, but are you guys both actual all-around geniuses, you know all these words like stichomythia? >> quite so, especially the spelling part. sometimes the vocabulary don't really know the definitions. for spelling i knew most of them. >> all right. so it makes me feel a little bit better. i'll take that. >> we're so happy for both of you. congratulations. i think it's the most brutal competition in the world. i'm always astounded that you make it out alive. >> rocky and apollo creed needed to know who won the fight. at some point -- >> no. it's wonderful to be satisfied to share the wing. congratulations. >> you can see it in their eyes, there's a tension it will build. we will be there. >> they're now wondering who's rocky. the sterling era may soon be over for the l.a. clippers.

we'll tell you who just signed a $2 billion deal to take over the team. also va secretary eric shinseki is expected to address veterans in just about a half hour from now. will he be speaking to the scandal that is embroiling his department. [announcer] play close-good and close.

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-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com my mom works at ge. good morning. welcome to "new day." john berman is with us. chris cuomo had to cut out early today. let's continue. >> let's do it. it's a done deal and the nba could finally be turning the page on the donnell sterling controversy. former microsoft ceo steve ball ballmer ponied up $2 billion. it needs to be approved by the league and we are following all the developments. quite a few, rosa. >> lots of moving parts. one thing is very clear this morning. donald sterling wants to see all the cards on the table before deciding to sell or sue. >> it is one of the biggest deals in sports history, and the

winning bidder, this man, steve ballmer, former ceo of microsoft. the price tag? $2 billion, handily beating out competing bidders like oprah winfrey and david geoff fen by at least $400 million. the deal is no slam dunk. ballmer signed an agreement with shelly sterling. the next play belongs to donald sterling. >> there is no sale, and he has not yet agreed to sign off, period. >> his lawyer telling wolf blitzer before news of the agreement that while donald gave her permission to negotiate selling the team, he did not give her permission to actually sell the team. >> not without reaching an accommodation with the nba which gives him some form of vindication. the money is not critical to him. >> the nba is pushing for a quick sale, trying to ward off a

contentious meeting scheduled for this tuesday where owners will officially vote to force sterling out. the reaction overnight was quick, with magic johnson tweeting, quote, clipper fans. you'll love steve ballmer as your owner. either way donald sterling will not leave empty-handed. he originally bought the team for $12 million. if the sale goes through, he stands to make over $1.9 billion in profit. >> that is some mega cash. shelly sterling released a statement overnight announcing she is, quote, delighted that we are selling the team to steve who will be a terrific owner. we have worked for 33 years to build the clippers into a premier nba franchise. i am confident that steve will take the team to new levels of success. john, we cannot forget about those $2.5 million in fines that

donald sterling still has to pay. >> $2 billion might make that easier to pay. we'll bring in senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin. he, along with wolf blitzer, interviewed donald sterling's lawyer yesterday. i have to say, you, of course, are a very prominent legal expert, but this is about business to me. it's about dollars and cents, a business deal. you have been saying the sterlings are playing good cop, bad cop here. explain how they're playing this game? >> shelly sterling has been the good caught. she has been the one who says i want to sell the team, let's get this over with, let's move on. donald sterling has been the bad cop. he's been saying, oh, no, i want to sue, i don't want to sell the team. i think the two either intentionally or not very much worked in concert to jack up the price because don sterling created a situation where shelly

could say to prospective buyers, oh, don doesn't want to sell, you have to make it worth it for him to sell. it paid off in a big way. $2 billion is a lot for any franchise e specially for the clippers. >> it's a lot for anything, let alone a basketball franchise that hasn't really won too much of anything. besides the $2 billion reason that i have to pay, what else can his legal team get by being as obstinate as they are at least publicly? >> i don't think they can get much of anything which is why i think this deal will go through. his lawyer, mr. bleacher did a very good job of saying this was outrageous, this was a private conversation, illegally taped. it's not a justification to take away the franchise. but the fact is the nba constitution gives the owners the power to take away the

contract. everybody knows that, and everybody knows that on june 3rd, that's precisely what the nba is going to do. so donald sterling's leverage is really very minimal. i assume there will be more drama in the next couple of days and people will be making statements, but the fact is this tragic comedy is coming to an end, and the franchise is going to be sold. >> we keep talking about the legal ins and outs here. the legal issues seem very much settled here. there's the business side we've been talking about, $2 billion worth of business. there's also a pr angle here, jeffrey. he could be negotiating to come out of this somehow better off than he is right now which would mean no lifetime ban, lessen the fine. let him go a little bit gracefully. the nba you could make a case would benefit a little by putting this nasty fight behind them? >> i think that's right. although, john, if you could think of anyone who may be beyond public relations help, it

may be donald sterling. he could get some sort of offering from the nba to make this a little less embarrassing for him. for example, one idea i put out yesterday which mr. bleacher didn't reject entirely was that instead of paying the $2.5 million in a fine, he could pay $2.5 million to some charity that everybody agrees on. the nba could thank donald sterling for his long service to the league. the proceedings could end with a nice statement from the nba and the sale of the team. i think that's the kind of resolution we're heading towards, but the key point is donald sterling and his whole nutty family is going to be out and steve ballmer is going to be in. >> the other key point is $2 billion by you just can't get past. that brings me to the other interested party here, the other

owners in the nba. if this goes forward to a vote on june 3rd whether or not to keep donald sterling in the league, now they have to look at this $2 billion number for a team, as we have been saying, which hasn't really won much of anything. the value of nba franchises has just gone through the roof. >> june 3rd is going to be a celebration, not a meeting of the nba owners. it was just a couple months ago that the milwaukee bucks, admittedly a small market team, sold for $550 million which everybody thought was an outrageously high price. now these owners are sitting on franchises probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars more than they thought. the good times are rolling for nba owners, and i think that's why this is all going to end in a great big wheelbarrow of money that everybody is sloshing around in and having a great time. >> that's right. as much distaste as they might

have for donald sterling, they can thank him as they kick him out the door which makes this is a forgone conclusion. jeffrey toobin, good to talk with you. >> kate? >> va secretary eric shinseki is set to talk in a speech we'll bring you live. president obama says he'll have a serious conversation with shinseki about whether he's the right person to address the scandal surrounding long treatment for veterans. now a growing number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling for shinseki to step aside. athena jones is live from the white house with much more. what are you hearing from the white house this morning, athena? >> reporter: good morning, kate. we know today is the day eric shinseki is supposed to give president obama the preliminary results of his investigation into the va system. we're going to be watching for that report, for that review all day today. we're now hearing a little bit

more from the president about his plans for secretary shinseki. they aired this on "good morning america" this morning, an interview with abc. let's play what the president said. >> i'll have a serious conversation with him about whether he thinks that he is prepared and has the capacity to take on the job of fixing it. i don't want any veteran to not be getting the kind of services that they deserve. >> so what's interesting here is we heard the president echo some of what he said last week when he first talked to reporters about this. he seems to make it sound as though it's up to secretary shinseki to see if he's up to the task of fixing the problems at the va. last week the president said rick's attitude is, if he doesn't think he can do a good job on this, if he thinks he let our veterans down, i'm sure he's not going to be interested in continuing to serve. the president has also said the buck stops with him.

the president and shinseki are under a lot of pressure not just from republicans, but also democrats, many members of congress calling for a criminal investigation, calling for a justice department investigation. so we're going to be closely watching not only what secretary shinseki says about half an hour from now, how he addresses this scandal, but also, as i mentioned, waiting for the results of that -- preliminary results of that review that shinseki owes the president today. a lot to watch today. >> a lot to watch today. hearing from the president there, even increasing the stakes even more on what's going to come out in that report. it sounds like that's going to be the deciding factor. >> increasing the stakes, eric shinseki speaking in 20 minutes from now. we'll bring it to you live when it happens. very important. next up on "new day," hillary clinton's benghazi chapter. the former secretary of state takes aim at republicans and continues to look for answers. we have details from her upcoming book. this is her most detailed

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welcome back to "new day." minutes from now veterans affairs secretary eric shinseki will address the veterans. president obama will have a conversation about whether he's the right person surrounding these delays for veterans. more and more scheduling errors throughout the system. we'll listen to what shinseki has to say and what comes in that serious conversation with the president. let's discuss this and more. let's discuss this with cnn

analyst ana navarro and editor and chief of "the daily beast," john avlon. good morning, good morning. john, we're waiting to hear from eric shinseki. you do wonder what can he say to help his case, to make his case, to begin to regain the trust of -- let's be honest, most importantly, veterans? >> this is make or break testimony he's going to be giving. right now all the pressure is pulling against eric shinseki. we have democrats calling for his resignation now, red state democrats for re-election and swing state democrats, the pressure is ratcheting up. the white house hasn't been backing him up. this is one of the key times he has to address the concerns directly, lay out a path for correcting the problem and win back the confidence. otherwise he could be a bridge too far right now. >> ana, is there any way he survives this? the only compelling case for why he continues to fight this was

many politico who says this guy who doesn't quit, got half his foot blown up in vietnam, continued to serve in the military. nearly forced out, everyone wanted him out from the bush administration army chief of staff. he refused to go. at this point do you think that is the only thing driving him to stay? >> i think it's really important to remember, john, this is a man with a store read military career. this is a four-star general who has served his country honorably for decades. he's a wounded veteran himself. sometimes even the most decent and honorable of public servants aren't the right person for a particular job, the right fit for the job. i think the problem he has is he's been in charge there for almost six years. somebody has to be held account, has to be held responsible. he's become symbolic of the systematic problems that, yes, preceded him but have now been going on for six years under him. it's becoming an increasingly difficult political issue for the president. it just seems that president

obama is humanly, physically, emotionally incapable of pulling a band-aid. now, if he fires shinseki or forces him to resign, it will look as if it's under the duress and pressure from congress. >> go ahead, ana. >> ana is being very fair in addressing the criticisms of the president, he doesn't rip off the band-aid, and getting ahead of a story before a political crisis. the big question is whether a political scalp will help save the problem. this is an issue with bipartisan concern and outrage. ana raises a fair point. had these reports pile up, be the one to fix it. he has such credibility with the military it's worth give a shot to try. the white house is in a wait-and-see mode. this is a pivotal moment. if he wants to save his legacy. >> why, ana, when you lay all that out, why do you think we

have not heard from republican leaders like john boehner and eric schick sec ki to resign? they seem to be more focused on blaming the president. >> frankly, i think a lot of it has to do with the good will shinseki has had in congress because he has had such a heroic career and he has been in washington for so long. i think it's why you saw john mccain be very hess tachbt to not come out and call for his resignation until yesterday, even after many others had. and even though it's in arizona. because this is a man with whom they have worked for many decades in his military capacity and as army chief of staff. at the end of the day, this is obama's problem. this is the white house's problem because it's a recurring pattern where we see the president say over and over again, oh, i found out from the news, i'm madder than hell, nobody is more mad than i am.

i'm going to appoint a committee to investigate. there's that lack of sense of urgency that i think is very frustrated to veterans and to the american public that's watching this unfold and become worse and worse with every number that comes out. >> john, i want to bring up another issue that's got a lot of people talking right now. politico got a chapter of the hillary clinton book which is due out on june 10th, the chapter that deals with the issue of benghazi. let me read you one sentence from this. she says i will not be part of a political shrug fest on the backs of dead americans. she writes that while shees in the midst of a 34-page chapter on the subject of benghazi. out can't unilaterally withdraw from this shrug fest, can you? do you think she's serious that she will? >> she's definitely trying to frame it in a way that puts herself above politics. the whole issue of benghazi has become a echo chamber. she's got a credible chance of success. a lot of people have simply tuned this issue out, but the investigations go on. there are people deeply

committed and feel fundamental questions haven't been answered. it's a smart political tactic if you're trying to appeal to the political middle. the details of the chapter will be posed. you see the political tactics she's taking. it's a smart one. republicans have done themselves a disservice by taking what should be a quest for the truth and making it look like a political witch hunt, whether it is or not. >> ana, she seems to be making calculation that she does not think this is going to be a potent enough political issue if she needs to go any further into it than what she says in this chapter. >> i'm not sure about that, kate. last week it came out that it was hillary clinton world that pressured nancy pelosi to name democrats to the benghazi panel, something nancy pelosi had been very hesitant and reluctant to do. it's someone ironic she says she's not going to get into the political shrug fest on this when she is in the midst of the political shrug fest. i would argue to you that having

this most detailed of chapters in this book about benghazi is part of the political slug fast. it can be a bombastic issue. she says in part of the excerpts that there's been all of this speculation, misinformation and flat-out deceit. the problem is a lot of republicans and a lot of people watching today feel the same way, but they feel that that deceit, misinformation, speculation, came out of the administration she was working for that brought out the story that it was caused by a video. >> john, she brings up a good point. the democrats decided to be part of this benghazi panel. hillary clinton says she doesn't want to be part of it, but she's bringing on tommy veeter who worked for the national security council to help handle the press, help handle the benghazi issue. why she says she doesn't want to be part of the slug fest, she's clearly geared up to handle it. >> this is the beginning of a political campaign.

the benghazi issue as well, the issue ana raises with hillary clinton saying put democrats on that panel, indicates the desire to not politicize it further, but let's engage, as opposed to stonewall the problem. it indicates she understands this is a real issue, whether or not she thinks it's going to be a distraction early on that she takes the threat seriously. it will be a front in the upcoming political fight. no question about it. >> ignoring it doesn't make it go away when you're in a presidential election. >> you can blame the vast right wing conspiracy on this one, kate. >> i'm not blaming anybody. ana, john, thanks so much. another really important story. chained during childbirth, shackled while she breast feeds her newborn. a sudanese christian woman faces the death penalty for her faith. we have the exclusive with the woman's husband. >> reporter: five years ago

daniel whiney thought he had it all, a beautiful wife, a new future. this is his new reality. the first glimpse of his baby girl inside a jail cell. his wife's shackles just out of view. daniel told us his wife was accused last september of apostasy, abandoning her muslim faith. it's a crime punishable by death under sudan's harsh interpretation of law. >> when you met her, she told yous she was a christian. >> she was a christian. >> a practicing christian? >> yes. >> reporter: a court here ruled on may 15th that miriam was guilty and sentenced her to death. the ruling has sent shockwaves both in sudan and around the world. >> daniel now faces losing not just his wife, but life as he knows it. how did it feel for you to hear

that your marriage wasn't valid? >> reporter: and your children were baptized?

>> and your new daughter? >> reporter: daniel's case is closely watched throughout sudan. the christian community here says they are praying for him, praying that he'll be able to keep his family together. >> coming up next, embattled va secretary eric shinseki is getting set to speak to veterans all while the scandal inside his department continues to widen. will he directly speak to the controversy? what will he say, how will he handle the scandal in his first public remarks since the scandal came out? we'll carry his comments live.

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welcome back. live pictures of va secretary eric shinseki. he is set to speak any moment right now at a veterans event in washington, d.c. will he address the growing calls for his resignation? that is the big question. we will bring that to you when he starts -- actually, let me go to aaron mcpike who is standing outside this event. this is an event right now for homeless veterans, these are the types of people that eric shinseki has been working with for decades we should say. what is the expectation?

will he address the controversy swirling around him and his agency? >> reporter: john, he absolutely expects he will address the controversy. whether he'll address these calls for resignation, we don't know. obviously that's what we're waiting to hear today. i can tell you that the people who are gathered downstairs waiting for him to talk weren't really talking about the resignation. they are waiting to hear what he'll say about the controversy and what he intends to do it. >> everything he has said so far, i will continue to fight, we will continue to fight. no public sign in any way that he intends to step down. john avlon joins us here on the set. he also has a meeting with the president later today. when there is a white house which steadfastly refuses to support you, at least say we're behind it 100%, how hardest to keep on going? >> he's got to make a case for why he's the man that solves this problem.

it's occurred largely under his watch for the last seven years. the white house has said he's on thin ice, the president saying he's going to have a serious conversation. this is not a white house that seems to be propping up the secretary's position. he has to make a case that he can solve it. it pro live rated under his watch. >> which makes you wonder what will tip the balance one way or the other, in this report that's supposed to be delivered to the president by eric shinseki. let's go to the white house and bring up athena jones and get her take. we mow the president says he's going to have a serious conversation with eric shinseki. what more are you hearing from the white house? >> right now, kate, they're not telling us anything about when this meeting is supposed to take place or what time they expect this review to come in? it's something we'll keep asking them. i should mention secretary shinseki have given us a little hint of what we might be talking about when he wrote an opinion

piece when he talked about the report into the scandal reprehensible. we're not waiting to set things straight. he talked in that editorial about some of the steps he's already taken like putting the leadership at that clinic in phoenix, the va clinic there on leave. he's also asked for a nationwide audit of all the va health care facilities. he may talk a little bit about what he's already doing to fix the problem, because we heard from the president last week that he expects the fixes to start even before these reviews and these reports come in. there are several that are being worked on, not just the one that secretary shinseki owes him today. one thing we do know is the ig report talked about systemic problems. so as these audits get under way, we could see a lot more problems at a lot more facilities revealed. we heard drew griffin report earlier about wait list problem at a va clinic in pittsburgh.

it looks as though the pressure is going to continue to mount. we'll have to see how secretary shinseki handles it and what comes out of the white house later. >> athena, stick with us a little longer. it does make you wonder, john, if it is a forgone conclusion when you hear the hints coming from the white house -- let's take a pause. secretary of veterans affairs eric shinseki under fire taking the the microphone to speak right now. let's see how he addresses them. [ cheers and applause ] >> very kind, very generous, especially this early in the morning. pat, thanks for the kind introduction, thanks for your leadership of the board and more importantly thanks for your years of advocacy on behalf of veterans. let me also acknowledge john

driscoll, thanks for having me here today and thanks for your leadership of the national coalition homeless veterans. gavin gregory and fred whacker from the home depot foundation, from city community development, gentlemen, my thanks to all of you for your commitment to helping end veterans homelessness in this country. sheriff pete doherty -- [ cheers and applause ] [ laughter ] i want to see the badge. fair enough. a good friend to many here in this room and my former va colleague, he retired from va, but he's not retired from the fight against veterans homelessness. pete, glad to have you here today. laura, executive director of

usich and the person with whom i did pit counts for the last several years, we refer to each other as pit buddies. other va colleagues, especially our dedicated homeless team led by lisa pate and vince king. other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. the past few weeks have been challenging for everyone at va because we take caring for veterans so very seriously. we've done tremendous work together these past five years, and i want to acknowledge the hard work and real accomplishments on all of you here in this room. you give homeless veterans hope. you give them dignity. you give them homes and you give them real chances at a future. that is the never-ending story here. it needs to be told, retold and told well. since 2009,va has proven that it

can vicks problems, even big ones with the support and cooperation of our public and private partners. we learn to better focus our talents and our resources. five years ago i don't think we -- at least i didn't really know how many veterans were homeless. there are a number of estimates, or what really caused homelessness. since then we have settled on an annual point and time count conducted by hud to peg our estimates. today we better understand what factors contribute to homelessness, depression, insomnia, pain, substance use disorder, failed relationships and usually the last is a product of the first four. we can now begin to focus specific treatments to address each of those factors. they are treatable.

they are medical conditions. we are a large health care system. and then in the process create a database for substantive and predictive research so we understand what causes homelessness and what we can do to fend it so we can end the rescue phase of getting people off streets by preventing them from ending up there. in 2010 we established a national registry for homeless veterans to capture facts and information on individual homeless veterans. >> you hear secretary of veterans affairs eric shinseki addressing the national coalition for homeless veterans. why you're hearing about the efforts made to help homeless veterans, only making i would say most scant of mention of what he is currently up against, the very beginning saying the past few weeks have been challenging for the va. we'll continue to monitor and wait to see how he, if he addresses the scandal facing the department any further.

let's bring in john avlon right now. i'm a little surprised he didn't take it on more off the top. he's there to talk about the work to help homeless veterans for sure, but how do you not get to it first? >> exactly right. the secretary is reading off prepared remarks. this is a fundamental misreading of the moment. you're speaking to a specific audience, but a national audience. the nation and veterans across the country are looking for a lot more. there is an urgent crisis that people are aware of, and it doesn't have a great deal to do with homeless veterans. >> he said since 2009 the va has proven it can fix problems, even big ones. i wonder if athena jones is with us at the white house. the president has a meeting with the secretary today to talk about the internal review that

the va has done which has exposed enormous problems in hospitals around the country. do you have a sense of what the white house wants to hear from the secretary at this point. officials telling us the secretary is on thin ice. have they given any sense of how he gets off the thin ice? >> that's the big question around here, john. i have to say that comment i thought was very interesting as well, indicating that he believes the veterans administration is able to solve big problems. maybe that's a hint that he thinks he can fix this big problem that is still really unfurling. we did hear from the president a short while ago in comments he made in an interview to abc, that he wants to have a serious conversation with secretary shinseki. shinseki believes he's up to fix this problem, then maybe that's up for discussion. of course, the bottom line is it's going to be up to the president to make the decision about whether to keep secretary shinseki. so it may not be a question of whether the secretary thinks he's able to fix this.

but i do think that that's part of what the president is going to want to hear today, some sense of what the plan will be and how to go forward if shinseki were to stay on. john? >> let's bring in erin mcpike who is outside the building where eric shinseki is giving the speech. erin, i've seen the speech described by his aides as a significant one. what more are you hearing? should folks anticipate to hear more from the secretary about this scandal? >> reporter: kate, what i want to point out to you now is, you may remember two weeks ago today robert hud sell, the undersecretary for health care of the va resigned. that was one day after he had that contentious hearing on the hill with shinseki about the audit that was on going and what they planned to do over the next weeks and months. then the next day he resigned. the white house terms that shinse shinseki's decision. the point there is, this is moving very rapidly.

we could get news today after that white house meeting. keep that in mind, though he may not go into full detail here this morning, we could hear a lot more later today. >> all right, erin, thank you very much. one quick button i want to get from you, john, as we continue to monitor the secretary's speech. one thing to point out. he's talking about homeless veterans. this is something the president has pointed out. he has seen, eric shinseki, a lot of success in helping homeless veterans and lowering the number of homeless veterans that are in the country. that is a success for sure. maybe he wants to point that out because he wants to keep his job? >> maybe it's a valedictory speech for his tenure as well. general shinseki has an enormously decorated career, a really respected public servant up to this crisis of confidence. the issue of him being on thin ice, teddy roosevelt, in crossing thin ice, our safety is

in its speed. that's a fundamental problem. >> hearing the similar criticism of when he was saying he was so upset. i don't remember his exact words, so upset in the hearing that he came across with a little lack of urgency as well when he was in that contentious hearing. >> mad as hell. >> that's right. we'll continue to monitor the speech and bring it to you if he does address the scandal. coming up on "new day," a bus driver in oregon is being called a hero after making a dramatic rescue. you'll hear why it's "the good stuff" coming up. ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon.

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might just be the coolest video i've seen in a long, long time. we first showed you this video yesterday which by all accounts is actually real. b.a.s.e. jumper dean potter took his dog whisper for a jump off eiger mountain in switzerland. the video has gone viral because it involving a flying dog. but it does have some people worried about whisper's safety. here to talk about their adventures are dean potter and whisper who is believed to be the first dog to go b.a.s.e. jumping. i would like to address all my questions to whisper, i'm not sure that will go well. dean, tell me about the video which is hard to take your eyes off of. what exactly were we looking at there? >> you're looking at me and whisper on the side of the eiger in switzerland.

it was one of many of whisper's winged suit flights with me last summer. >> it's wild enough, dean, to decide to go b.a.s.e. jumping yourself. where did this idea come from to take whisper along with you? >> well, i've been climbing and wing suit flying and tightrope walking for the last ten years. i always like to bring my dog and best friend with me. so the idea just came from not wanting to leave my dog in the house or car. i want to bring my best friend with me everywhere. >> whisper does seem like an awfully great friend to have. the question that you do here from some dog people around the world is how do you really know that whisper likes this? >> australian cattle dogs are one of the smartest breeds of dogs. if whisper doesn't like something, she runs away. she's faster than me. she doesn't like the vacuum

cleaner mostly, she runs off. i can't catch her. whisper has a lot of personality. she'll tremble and shake or drool or growl. so if she doesn't want to come, we don't make her. there are things that whisper doesn't like. she doesn't like helicopters with the doors off and she doesn't like airplanes. she sends very clear signals about things she doesn't like and clear signals about things she does like. >> whisper who will fly draw it is line at helicopters. >> and vacuum cleaners. dean, i'm sure for you it's exhilarating. can you gauge whisper's reaction when you got on the ground? was she growling at you? >> oh, absolutely not. whisper knew exactly what's going on. as you can tell, she looks around in flight, observes everything and then she is all excited and proud of herself and

prances around, super psyched. >> dean potter, great to meet you. thank you so much. whisper, enjoy the adventures closely. a quick turn back over to eric shinseki speaking right now. >> that breach of integrity is irresponsible, indefensible and unacceptable to me. i said when this situation began weeks to months ago, that i thought the problem was limited and isolated because i believe that. i no longer believe it. it is systemic. i was too trusting of some, and i accepted as accurate reports that i now know to have been misleading with regard to patient wait times. i can't explain the lack of integrity amongst some of the leaders of our health care facilities. this is something i rarely encountered during 38 years in uniform.

so i will not defend it because it it is indefensible. i can take responsibility for it. and i do. so given the facts i now know, i apologize as the senior leader of veterans affairs. i extend that apology to the people i care most deeply about and that's the veterans of this great country, to their families and loved ones who i have been honored to serve for over five years as the call of a lifetime. i also offer the apology po members of congress who have supported me, to veterans services organizations who have been my partners for five years and to the american people. all of them deserve better from their va. but i also know this, that leadership and integrity problems can and must be fixed and now.

[ applause ] so i'm just announcing that i'm taking the following actions. i've initiated the process for the removal of the senior leaders of the phoenix va medical center. [ applause ] we will use all authority at our disposal and force accountability among senior leaders who have instigated or tolerated intolerable or irresponsible scheduling practices at va health care facilities. i also directed that no vha senior executive will receive any type of performance award for 2014 this year. [ applause ]

i've directed patient wait times be deleted from vha employees' evaluation reports as a measure of their success. we are contacting each of the 1,700 veterans in phoenix waiting for appointments to bring them the care they need and deserve, and we will continue to accelerate access care to veterans nationwide who need it, utilizing care both in and outside va. [ applause ] we'll announce the results of our nationwide audit of all va health care facilities in the coming days. i now ask congress to support senator bernie sanders' proposed bill giving va secretary greater authority to remove senior leaders. [ applause ]

and i ask the support of congress to fill existing leadership positions that are still vacant. [ applause ] again, this situation can be fixed with va, vsos, congress and all of our stakeholders like many of you in this room working together with the best interest of veterans at heart. we can do this in the days ahead, just as we have done over the past five years on veterans homelessness. we can do this. we'll need all of your help. god bless our veterans, those especially in greatest need of our prayers and help and may god continue to bless this wonderful country of ours. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> there you hear it. the secretary of veterans affairs eric shinseki making his

strongest defense yet, you could say, of what happened at the va and defending his job going forward, laying out proposals of what he's doing right now to try to fix the situation and hold people to account. he said he apologizes, he apologizes to members of congress and says i will not defend what's happened because it is indefensible, saying, though, he can take responsibility but also showing -- bringing back in john avlon and john berman here with us as all, he's not stepping down. he's fighting. >> he does not sound like a man who intends to step down or go gracefully away. he'll have a meeting with the president later today. >> 10:15. >> that will be pivotal. he's not a man who wants to withdraw from this fight. he is committed. tacked on to the end of the speech were specific actions. not just removing the head of the phoenix va medical center, no bonuses, but calling on

congress to give him more power to fire more people and fill vacant positions. >> these are actions that people have wanted to see, no bonuses, firing the senior staff in phoenix outright. taking away wait times as a measurement for success here. you're starting to see the blueprint of how he wants to address this going forward. as of now, he thinks he's going to be the person to address it going forward, at least for the next 1:15. he meets with the president at 10:15. is this a message he can take into the oval office? >> this is clearly the message he's taking to the oval office. i'm on it. this is urgent. i cannot defend what occurred. he said in his remarks that he thought these were isolated incidents. he is shocked to realize that breach of integrity is systemic. he used those words. by putting forward the outlines of a plan, you can safely assume that's what he's bringing to the oval office. >> here is one outline of the plan that leaves a lot of questions still. he will accelerate the care to

slet rans both inside and outside the va. how do you do this now when he says we can fix this and do this in the days ahead when this is a systemic issue we're learning from the ig's only interim report. we don't even know how far this goes. >> he says the larger report will be released in days. that's where rhetoric meets reality. >> how do you regain the trust of veterans, if you say you're going to accelerate access when it was not the case to this point. >> folks in congress, the republican side of the aisle, maybe they should offer vouchers so people can go outside the system to eliminate wait times. in a crisis sometimes you get strange political bedfellows. the other thing that's striking for people to appreciate, the secretary doesn't have the kind of firing power you would normally assume someone in charge of the organization would have. that's impediment to reform. this sounds like a man fighting for his job and wants to see these reforms through. >> the problem is going to be

his own words. he says the problem is systemic. he realizes the problem is systemic. he is the man at the top of the system. >> he says i cannot defend it, but i can take responsibility for it. what that means will be up to the president and that important meeting, that serious conversation they will be having in just a couple of hours from now. john avlon, thank you so much. we'll have much more on shinseki's speech right after the break. stick with us. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com and we do it all for this very experience. this very second. this exact moment. [woman] that's good. i know right? cheers to that. gevalia. 150 years of rich, never bitter coffee.

we'll hand it over to "newsroom" and don lemon. >> a big news day. thank you, have a great weekend. cnn "newsroom" starts right now. good morning everybody. don lemon in for carol. thank you for joining me this morning. we'll begin with the breaking news now, eric shinseki. we just learned that next hour, the veterans affairs secretary will meet behind closed doors with the president of the united states. few expect him to emerge with his job still intact. we don't know, we'll have to see what happens after that meeting. just minutes ago -- moments ago right here on cnn, you saw the embattled chief. he appeared before homeless vets coalition, a group most powerful to the delays t