Reaction to Shinseki's Resignation; Sale of L.A. Clippers; Obama's Challenges; President Obama Accepts Shinseki Resignation
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Anderson Cooper. This is</s>CNN. WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, reaction to Eric Shinseki's resignation is pouring in. In just a few minutes, I'll speak to the chairman of the Veteran's Affairs Committee in the Senate. We'll get his assessment on what should happen next. Senator Sanders standing by. Also, Hillary Clinton's book doesn't release until June 10th. So, why was the chapter about the Benghazi attack released before the book itself? And right now, a deal to sell the L.A. Clippers for $2 billion seems to be in place but it also seems like one signature may be missing, the signature of Donald Sterling. Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington. The secretary of Veterans Affairs resigns over the scandal at the V.A. hospitals across the country. Secretary Eric Shinseki met with President Obama at the White House earlier this morning. The president later explained Shinseki's decision to step down, praised him for the work he has done.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am grateful for his service, as are many veterans across the country. He has worked hard to investigate and identify the problems with access to care, but, as he told me, the V.A. needs new leadership to address it. He does not want to be a distraction because his priority is to fix the problem and make sure our vets are getting the care that they need. That was Rick's judgment on behalf of his fellow veterans. And I agree. We don't have time for distractions. We need to fix the problem.</s>BLITZER: In a speech before his meeting with the president, Shinseki apologized for the problems at the V.A. and he took responsibility.</s>GEN. ERIC SHINSEKI, SECRETARY, VETERANS AFFAIRS: 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. And so, I will not defend it because it is indefensible. But I can take responsibility for it and I do.</s>BLITZER: Our Senior Investigative Correspondent Drew Griffin is joining us now. Drew helped break this story wide open. You were working for months and months and months on it. Today, we see result, at least as far as this part of the story is concerned. When he says he was too trusting, what does he mean by that?</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: He means that he was believing what his own staff and these V.A. administrators at various hospitals were telling him in regards to making these appointment wait lists. Even though that myself, the House Veterans Affairs Committee, the OIG, and the Government Accountability Office, were telling a completely different story.</s>BLITZER: He said in his speech this morning before the formal resignation was announced, he promised several steps. He said he promised to remove senior leaders from the Phoenix hospital, the V.A. hospital there, eliminate wait times for employee preference review so no one benefits financially by manipulating the system. He also promised to accelerate veterans' access to care both inside and outside the V.A. Here's the question, does this begin to get at the problem?</s>GRIFFIN: This begins to get at -- the crisis over with. The veterans waiting for care, we just learned another 700, overnight, in Pittsburgh V.A., they are racing to get these people in to see doctors. But the bigger problem is, who manipulated the data? Who reported that? And who lied to Secretary Shinseki about it? Those people, in my mind, need to be fired, removed and have more honest people put in place who can give honest assessments of not only what the wait times are but how to fix them by actually seeing the veterans.</s>BLITZER: What do we know about the new acting secretary, Sloan Gibson? He was the -- still is the Deputy Secretary.</s>GRIFFIN: We know he's a career banker. He has a long history with the military from both himself, his father and grandfather. So, he has a very strong love of the military.</s>BLITZER: He's a West Point grad.</s>GRIFFIN: He's a West Point grad, 1975. And he ran the USO. Well respected. Is he up to speed on all these issues? He's only been at the V.A. since February.</s>BLITZER: Yes, the president, himself, says he's got to get up to speed.</s>GRIFFIN: Yes.</s>BLITZER: But the president seemed to indicate he would not become the candidate to become the secretary. He was looking for someone else. At least that was the impression I got from the president's remarks. Drew, excellent reporting. Thanks very much. Let's get some more perspective now on Secretary Shinseki's resignation from the lawmaker who's very much involved in veterans' issues. Senator Bernie Sanders is the chairman of the Veteran Affairs Committee in the Senate. He's joining us from Burlington, Vermont. I know, Senator, correct me if I'm wrong, you were reluctant to formerly call on Secretary Shinseki to resign. What's your reaction to what has happened today?</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, CHAIRMAN, VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: I'm saddened. In Eric Shinseki, you have a true American hero. And that's not just the purple hearts that he won in battle or his role as Army chief of staff. This is a guy back in 2003 that did something unprecedented in modern history. He told Don Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense at that time, in his rush to war, that occupying Iraq was not be all that easy. You would need more troops. So, this is a guy that has an enormous amounts of guts. He's a well-respected military leader. So, I am saddened by his loss. I think -- also, I think he also does not get the credit he deserves. Wolf, when he came into office in 2009, do you know how the V.A. was processing claims? They were processing them by paper. If you can believe it. He had to transform that whole system into an electronic one. And right now, they have cut waiting lists in half and they're on their way to almost end waiting lists in the next year. That is no insignificant accomplishment nor is dealing with the horrendous nightmare of veterans' homelessness which has been reduced by 24 percent since he has been in office. So, he's done some good things. I think, in many ways, he was betrayed by people, as he indicated, who were not honest to him. Clearly, right now, short term, we've got to make sure that every veteran on a waiting list gets health care as quickly as possible. We've got legislation that's coming up this week that I think can facilitate that, getting people into private care, into community health centers, DOD facilities, Indian health service. Longer term, not only do we have to bring accountability into the V.A. and end this reprehensible behavior that we have seen, we have got to make sure that in every part of this country, we have the doctors and the nurses that we, in fact, need so that you don't need long waiting periods for our veterans.</s>BLITZER: Did the president do the right thing in accepting his resignation?</s>SANDERS: I would have preferred otherwise, to be honest with you. I think this guy is a very gutsy guy who, I think, wanted the opportunity to clean house and make the changes that he now understood was necessary. But I can understand -- you know, one of the things that's going on, and I hope we can end this, there is a lot of politicization going on right now. The Koch Brothers and Republicans are running ads all over this country on this issue. I think that that's unfortunate. I would hope that everybody can focus on how do we make sure that every veteran in this country gets the quality health care that he or she needs and does it in a timely manner? The other point I make, and this doesn't come out enough, if you talk to veterans in Vermont and around the country, what most of them will tell you is that once they are in the system, Wolf, the quality of health care is good. The problem is accessing the system in a timely manner.</s>BLITZER: But you know, it wasn't just the Koch Brothers, Republicans, at least a dozen of your Senate Democratic colleagues, in the past 48 hours, said it's time for him to go.</s>SANDERS: Yes, I am more than aware of that. I disagree. But, you know, some of them are responding to ads that are on television. And some of them feel that way and I understand that. I just don't agree. But be that as it may, my job now, as chairman of the committee, is to work with the committee and the Senate to make sure that we introduce legislation, that we work with the new V.A. leadership to provide the best quality health care to all our veterans in a timely manner.</s>BLITZER: I know the Department of Veterans Affairs does wonderful things out there. But you have really studied this. You've been on top of this. You're the chairman of the committee. How shocking, how surprised -- surprising has it been to you, Senator, to see these inspector general reports, these internal audits, suggesting that there is really some bad things going on, and maybe, maybe even criminal activity? And here is the question, should the Justice Department, the FBI, launch a formal criminal investigation?</s>SANDERS: The answer, absolutely. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, and I don't think I am, the Justice Department is already involved in this. If people have committed criminal acts, they should be punished. No ifs, buts and maybes. But I want to reiterate one point here. At the end of the day, we are serving in the V.A. 6.5 million veterans. This is a life and death issue to them. Our moral obligation is to make sure that we have the staffing and the accountability all over this country. Because after the media walks away, you're still going to have 230,000 veterans walking into V.A. facilities every single day. They deserve the best quality care that we can provide for them.</s>BLITZER: Senator Sanders, thanks for coming in.</s>SANDERS: Thank you, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Coming up, Hillary Clinton addresses the Benghazi attack in her new book. Ahead, the choice words she has for her critics. Also coming up, has the bureaucracy let President Obama down? Gloria Borger makes the case for why that's exactly what has happened.