Clippers Owner Accused of Racist Comments; U.S., President is on 4-Nation Swing Through Asia
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Don Lemon here. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you so much for joining us. We have a big story that we want to begin with tonight that reaches way beyond its origin in the sports world. That's where it started. It goes much, much more difficult. It gets much more difficult than that, because we are talking about the important issues of race and equality here. The NBA tonight is investigating recorded remarks allegedly made by L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling. The comments obtained by the Web site TMZ includes a voice disparaging African-Americans, also telling a woman, apparently his girlfriend, to stop bringing African-Americans to Clippers games. CNN's Paul Vercammen joins us tonight from Los Angeles. Paul, you have a new excerpt to share with us from that recording. We want to hear it.</s>PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, let's just get right to it. This is Donald Sterling's alleged girlfriend talking to him over the phone. And again, we are trying to confirm that this is, indeed, Sterling's voice. Let's give a listen.</s>GIRLFRIEND: People call you and tell you that I have black people on my Instagram. And it bothers you.</s>DONALD STERLING: Yes, it bothers me a lot that you want to promo -- broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to?</s>GIRLFRIEND: You associate with black people.</s>STERLING: I'm not you, and you're not me. You're supposed to be a delicate white or a delicate Latina girl.</s>GIRLFRIEND: I'm a mixed girl.</s>STERLING: OK. Well --</s>GIRLFRIEND: And you're in love with me. And I'm black and Mexican. Whether you like it or not.</s>VERCAMMEN: And here is what the president of the Clippers has to say about these recordings. "We have heard the tape on TMZ. We do not know if it is legitimate or it has been altered. We do know that the woman who is on the tape who we believe released it to TMZ is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by the Sterling family alleging that she embezzled more than $1.8 million." And, by the way, Don, the net worth of Donald Sterling is almost $2 billion.</s>LEMON: And you know what? He goes on in that release from the president of the L.A. Clippers and goes on to say he is upset with the remarks that were attributed to him about blacks and also especially about Magic Johnson because he said Magic Johnson was a friend. But nowhere in that statement does he say, "That is not my voice and I did not make those remarks", correct?</s>VERCAMMEN: That is absolutely true. Nowhere in that statement do they say this is definitely not the voice of Donald Sterling. They also don't mention that, according to records here, Donald Sterling received an NAACP Award from the Los Angeles chapter for lifetime achievement back in the day, so Donald Sterling does have his defenders. But, of course, as we pointed out many times today, he has been sued several times, including four racial discrimination. He is one of the largest landowners or landlords or renters in the Los Angeles areas, with thousands of apartments. And in that suit, they said that Donald Sterling deliberately excluded blacks, and in many times, he favored Koreans, much of this in the downtown Los Angeles area -- Don.</s>LEMON: Also, I think, Paul, I think with the NAACP thing, I think what we are checking on is that he was set to receive a lifetime achievement award from the NAACP. I just want to get our reporting correct on that. But also from -- Charles Barkley was just on and we talked a lot about Doc Rivers. I think Doc Rivers is speaking out now. Can we listen to that and then we can talk about it, Paul?</s>REPORTER: I'm sure you were made aware of the comments by Donald Sterling.</s>DOC RIVERS, HEAD COACH, LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS: Yes.</s>REPORTER: Just wondering your thoughts and if you're surprised.</s>RIVERS: I don't know if I'm surprised or not. I didn't like the comments obviously. To tell you now, I'm speaking on behalf of the team so the players are not going to deal with this issue. We had a great team meeting this morning about it. A lot of guys voiced their opinions. None of them were happy about it. This is a situation where we're trying to go after something very important for us. Something that we have all dreamed about all of our childhoods and, you know, Donald or anyone else had nothing to do with that dream and we are not going to let anything get in the way of those dreams. As far as the comments, you know, we are not happy with any of them. But we are going to let the due process, everything get handled and that situation will be dealt with later. Right now, our goals haven't changed. Our focus is on Golden State and it's going to state on Golden State.</s>LEMON: Doc Rivers, the coach of the L.A. Clippers, Paul. Clearly is really, you know, put an interesting position here being the coach. He is African-American. And then these alleged remarks by the owner.</s>VERCAMMEN: Yes. And, Don, you were talking to Charles Barkley. Of course, he said this is a black league and I just wanted to run down some of the statistics for you. Richard Lapchick from the University of Central Florida is known as an expert in this area. So, 76.3 percent of the NBA and 81 percent are people of color. The NBA has been lauded as opposed to other professional sports leagues with the hiring of African-Americans, 43 percent of the head coaches, including Doc Rivers, are African- American and some 45 percent of the assistant coaches. So, this is going to reverberate for a long time, if, indeed, these remarks are true and, of course, Charles Barkley, among other things, are saying that there should be an immediate suspension and a fine against Donald Sterling if these comments are, indeed, his.</s>LEMON: Paul Vercammen, appreciate your reporting. Thank you very much. And, again, he mentioned that the L.A. Clippers issued a statement and he read it in part. But, again, he is saying he is not saying the -- the head of the Clippers, whoever released the statement, not saying that it's not his voice. They are just saying that they are unhappy that it was attributed to him. Earlier, I talked about the Sterling conversation with TNT analyst and basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley.</s>CHARLES BARKLEY, BASKETBALL HALL OF FAMER (via telephone): It is not the first time. He's, obviously, settled some lawsuits where he was discriminating in his real estate business against blacks and Hispanics. So this is typical -- he has done it before. So he has to be suspended by the NBA. This is the first major test from Adam Silver, our new commissioner, but you can't have an owner of an NBA team disparaging black people because the majority of its players are black. And also, any time you're in a position of power you can hire and fire people, you can't be racist. So, the NBA has to address this. In my opinion, he has to be suspended, plain and simple.</s>LEMON: Yes. And you notice on the statement that I read, he said he is sorry for that it was attributed to him, but he doesn't say it's not me. He never said these statements.</s>BARKLEY: Don, not just that. He has -- this is guy who has settled lawsuits about discrimination in the past. So, it's par for the course, to be honest with you. You know, the NBA let him off the hook in his real estate business when he was discriminating against blacks and Hispanics and they should have done something to him back then. So, this is habitual. This is not the first time. This is like the third or fourth time and this is the first time he has said something about black players but he was discriminating in his real estate business. So, the NBA and Adam Silver has to address this. And I feel bad for the players too because they are caught in no man's land. They're working for a guy who is an idiot and now, they are going to -- they are in the middle of a tough series against the Golden State warriors and before one of their big games, you have to be answering to this stuff.</s>LEMON: Charles Barkley talking about the situation with Clippers owner Donald Sterling. We'll continue to follow the story here on CNN. Meantime, we want to look overseas now for some more news. We're talking about President Obama. He's in Malaysia. It is third country he has visited on his swing through Southeast Asia. Since landing in Kuala Lumpur, his trip has been mostly ceremonial with the exception of the king and state dinner. But Sunday, you know, it is all work. CNN's Jim Acosta is traveling with the president. So, Jim, what pressing issues do the United States and Malaysia have to work on?</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are going to be talking about this big Pacific trade deal the president would like to see reached. He is not coming home with one, so they're going to continue to try to make progress on it and come together with a deal that all parties of that Pacific partnership would like to see. Not only here in Malaysia but also in Japan. And back in the United States, which is going to be a tough sell to the president's own party. But, Don, you mentioned the ceremonial aspect of this trip and I think that is really the case here in Malaysia. He is going to be visiting a national mosque later today, holding a bilateral meeting with the prime minister here before sitting down for a news conference with reporters. But, you know, there is an overall strategy here for this White House, for this president, for this administration, and that is countering China's rise not only economically but militarily. At the tail end of this trip, Don, he is going to be visiting the Philippines where he's going to try to execute a basing agreement that will allow more military assets to be placed in that country. And so, there is a strategy here that goes beyond the ceremony of visiting a country. This is the first president to visit Malaysia since 1966. And don't forget -- every step of the way, the president is dealing with the crisis in Ukraine and Russia. That has become a full-time job for this president.</s>LEMON: And the timing is very interesting, because, you know, Flight 370. How much of Flight 370, this mystery, is hanging over this visit? I mean, what has the president said about it?</s>ACOSTA: Absolutely. Well, he gave an interview to a major Malaysian newspaper in which he said that the U.S. is going to continue to contribute assets as part of the search for that plane and he also said -- it was interesting to hear this, Don, because we haven't really heard the president talk about this -- he said going forward, perhaps it's time to start looking at the lessons learned. A bit of an acknowledgment of the intense criticism that has been leveled against this government, not only here in Malaysia but internationally. So, it was interesting to hear the president say that. But the criticism, if there even was any in that comment, was very, very soft and it did not dissuade the king of this country, King Halim, from honoring the president and the United States and what they have contributed to this effort to find this missing plane at a state dinner last night. Here is what the king had to say.</s>KING ABDUL HALIM, MALAYSIA: We wish to express our utmost gratitude for the U.S. unwavering support and cooperation.</s>ACOSTA: And so, Don, we are seeing this president play a role of consoler-in-chief that we are accustomed so seeing back in the United States, we might see and here more of that from the president as he makes more public comments to this country, but it's very much a similar case to what we saw in South Korea when the president honored the victims and the families of that ferry disaster outside of Seoul. So, the president continuing with that role of consoler-in-chief here in Malaysia, Don.</s>LEMON: Jim Acosta in Kuala Lumpur, thank you very much, Jim. You know, his government has been called liars and even murderers by the families of those aboard Flight 370 and things may be about to get a whole worse from Malaysia's prime minister. The details are next. 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