Frightening scene on video. Hello and good morning. Im michaela pereira. Im john berman. Those stories and more right now this hour. And we do begin with the v. A. Secretary on thin ice with president obama. Those words coming directly from the white house. This is a stunning new report. It reveals a ballooning list of deficiency. A review of the inspector again found in phoenix alone, at least 1,700 veterans were never scheduled for an appointment or even put on a waiting list. It also indicates the investigation has expanded to include 42 v. A. Medical centers. Now the Justice Department is reviewing the report as the American Legion calls for a criminal investigation. Now, as this scandal widens, pressure is mounting on v. A. Secretary Eric Shinseki and his deputies. This is just a tiny shred of the criticism lodged last night by members of congress. How you can stand in a mirror and look at yourself in the mirror and shave in the morning and not throw up. Unforgivable. Theres a question about destruction of documents and you dont even know who did it or their motive. This is nearly a decade of excuses. The house is on fire, and nobodys going to survive. All of you, i think, got to find Something Else to do. I want to bring in our Senior Investigative correspondent drew griffin who first broke this story right here on cnn. Saw a lot of outrage there. What is the key finding at this point in the preliminary report, drew . Reporter michaela, i think the key finding is not only is it as bad as we thought it was, it is even worse. And the report actually, this precursor of a real report, leads to the fact that theres going to be plenty, plenty more bad stuff yet to come. This is a huge and growing scandal. The fact that they have announced in this office of Inspector General report that now 42 different facilities are facing scrutiny really says to me exactly what the oig said. This is a systemic failure throughout the v. A. Drew, you know the system now, i think, better than any reporter in america. It seems almost inevitable at this point that the calls for Eric Shinseki to resign will force him out of office eventually. My question to you and this was posed by my friend rick klein at abc what does that fix in the v. A. System if and when Eric Shinseki steps down . Reporter well, i dont know what its going to fix in the v. A. System, to be quite blunt, john. But what its going to fix for the president is an end to a political crisis thats just getting worse and worse and worse. I was at that fourhour hearing last night. It started at 7 30, went till 11 30. Both sides of that hearing room, democrats and republicans, it was packed. And overflowing with extra congressmen not even on that committee who wanted to come in there and rail against the v. A. This is a political bomb for the president. And both sides dont think hes handling it very well. The other thing is, do you need to get beyond this political crisis for the v. A. To really begin to heal itself and move in the direction it needs to move . Ill leave that up to the politici politicians, for the pundits to decide. But you know, if you dont get rid of shinseki and these reports continue to come out, every time one comes out, there is going to be another political headache for the president and his administration. That is to be sure. Were going to explore that right now. But of course the question also goes to what happens to those veterans needing care . What is being done for them . But adding to the fray, House Speaker john brainer just sa bo this morning that president obama should be held accountable of the problems at the v. A. , stopping short of calling for shinsekis resignation. The chorus is growing in congress. Democrats, republicans. This is what senator john mccain, combat veteran, told wolf blitzer. Phoenix v. A. Is not an island. Its not immune to other influences every other v. Ranchv. A. Is probably going to have these same influences on them because they were trying to comply with guidelines that were laid down from the headquarters of the v. A. Which they couldnt meet. Thats what this whole phantom waiting list and stuff is all about. I havent said this before, but i think its time for general shinseki to move on. All right. Lets bring in our political panel. Political commentator republican consultant margaret hoover, political analyst and editor of the daily beast, mr. John avlon. Has general shinseki become an albatross around the president s neck . Is it time for him to go . This is a political pileon moment. The key question is this, does a political scalp solve the problem . Shinseki is a man with a very respected record. Hes clearly lost the confidence of congress. Could it switch into high gear to really start dealing with the systemic problem or is this such a political pileon that its time that the president doesnt hold leaders accountable, fire him and put a fixer in to get the job done fast. The problem, too, is shinseki may lack the political clout to actually get change done within the v. Archgta. Thats the point that drew griffin made. Maybe fixes cant happen while hes there. Margaret, you have worked in a white house before. Ive never heard a cabinet secretary be told hes on thin ice before. Thats shocking to me. That was leaked overnight by white house officials to the media. On thin ice. You know, what does that mean . Either you fire the guy or push him out or you dont. But what do you gain by saying hes on thin ice . Because youre demonstrating to the American People that youre on top of this and youre willing to make cuts where you need to. Youre willing to let somebody go. And i think thats what president obama needs to do because frankly, he was late to this political scandal. Because he didnt get on this early and fast and with enough, i think, emotion, it got out from under him, and it became a political scandal. This didnt need to be political. I think if they had handled this seriously and effectively at the beginning, and this is a trend, i think, with president obamas administration. There are a couple of things that have gotten bigger than they needed to be before he got there. Remember the bp oil spill . It took him a long time to get down there and sort of acknowledge that people were looking at the administration. The irs scandal, the obamacare website. There have been several things hes been late to the game on and i think this has made it unnecessarily political. I do think the secretary is probably not going to decide this. Is there danger beyond this Administration Just for both parties . Has this become such a game of political football, we know our veterans are very important to us, very dear to the american public. We all believe they should be taken care of. If this becomes too much of a political football between the two parties, is that going to upset too many of the voters that say, look, youre not getting to the business at hand . Look, it should because the focus should be on solving this problem. The problem is, of course, that weve had had decades of reports showing systemic problems in the v. A. We had a whistleblower say to the daily beast the other day that the organization resembles a Crime Syndicate to some extent with regard to the endemic corruption and avoidance of confronting these issues. The rush is all political. Its not about necessarily solving that problem. Thats where the American People need to set a clear message. The fact that now red state dems are calling for his resignation, thats politics. They need to create distance. No one wants to be on the wrong side of that equation. And mom and apple pie. But the truth is, maybe it takes a political crisis to get it done, but its a bipartisan political kries. Democrats and republicans are equally rushing to the door. I dont think theres squabbling between the two. Theres a uniform call for change to happen. And maybe, maybe, it just takes a political crisis to force real reform on the v. A. Everyones within their rights to be plenty angry. Theyre in their rights to point fingers if they want to make a political fight of this, they can, as long as they follow up when the fight is over. Rearrange the deck chairs. And that followup almost never happens because political theater takes a back seat to solving problems. You know when you have fights with somebody, you forget what the arguments about because youre just so busy fighting . Thats the concern, right . John, margaret, great to have you here. Really appreciate it. Ahead for us this hour, so the news was just shocking to so many people and heartbreaking for the families of those on board flight 370. Those pings that held out so much promise, it sounds like they could be false leads. Now theres talk of using another kind of technology to solve this mystery. Also, a tv icon, dickey s t smothers will join us to talk about the sixties, the decade that changed the world. Cause me discomfort. Exactly, because its milk without the lactose. And it tastes . Its real milk come on, would i lie about this . [ female announcer ] lactaid. 100 real milk. No discomfort. Come on, would i lie about this . So i use lactaid® members are cottage cheese. Ry. Its 100 real dairy without the lactose. So i can make these creamy dishes my family enjoys without discomfort. Discover more delicious lactose free recipes at lactaid. Com i dont always have timeh to eat like i should. Thats why i like glucerna shakes. They have slowly digestible carbs to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [male announcer] glucerna. Welcome back, everyone. Those pings in the indian ocean were supposed to be such important leads. Officials had placed so much hope on the idea they were coming from flight 370s black boxes. Well, now weve learned really the shocking news. A u. S. Navy official says the pings probably were not from the missing malaysian airliner at all. Plus, Officials Say the plane is not in the area where the bluefin21 has been searching. Our aviation correspondent Richard Quest joins us now. Well, how much of a setback is this, after all were nearly at three months, three months, and now were looking in the wrong place, and these are not the pings . It is obviously a major setback. Its devastating in one respect that it is not where they thought it should be. But, of course, the announcement that its not that its not the pings is an expost facto announcement because theyve searched the grounds and it wasnt there. Its almost like its a logical conclusion that the search has taken place. They havent found anything, ergo, they werent the pings. But there is no question it is a serious setback because it was the best hope they had, and it did give them the most and they talked about it at the time back at the middle of april with such encouragement as it being not natural, as it having the right consistency and components of a locator. Richard, you bring up an important point. You say it is expost facto that theyre deciding this after they searched this area that they werent the pings so the pings werent really what they thought they were. Is that really the case, or should they have doubted the quality or the veracity of these pings to a much greater extent much earlier . All right. So heres the problem. If youre right and of course they did we musnt treat these people as idiots. Youre talking about researchers, so they know what theyre doing. And they came up with some extremely strong reasons. Now, throughout those people that said yes, but the frequency wasnt right, yes, but it was a long way apart, yes, but there were four of them in different areas. But heres the real point, john and michaela. They had nothing else. They had towed, they heard, they analyzed, and they searched. Now, you can arguably say they should have been more skeptical, but then you and i and everybody else would have been saying why arent you following the pings . Why arent you following the pings . So youre damned if you do and damned if you dont. And they were doing it all in a very short period of time before what they knew and believed was the 30day limit. Okay. So fine, lets put all of that aside. But where do they go from here . What is their next course of action . Right. Thats really interesting because today we also had this announcement from the australians down in canberra. Now, what theyre going to do is they are refining it. They are going back to the original inmarsat data. Theyre going to look, and theyre going to define an area wait for it a search area of up to 60,000 square kilometers. Still vast. Theyre going to conduct the survey, learn what the underwater what the topography is like, and then theyre going to put out a tender to get a single operator, a single contractor, to do the search. Where are they going to search . Theyre going to go back to the inmarsat handshakes. Theyre going to start looking again at that seventh handshake, the partial handshake, because thats where they believe the plane entered the water. Im going to anticipate your question, if i may be so bold. Sure. Your next question is how do they know the inmarsat data is correct . Read our minds. Well, the answer is its been checked. Its been checked many times. Its been checked by many organizations. If the inmarsat data is wrong, please turn off the lights on the way out. Richard quest, great to have you with us, both answering and asking questions for us. A fullservice operation. Cut out the middle man. Great to have you here. Ahead for us this hour, there is another possible lead in this search. Could underwater microphones have heard flight 370 crash . Well discuss that just ahead. [ man ] look how beautiful it is. Honey, we need to talk. We do . I took the trash out. I know. And thank you so much for that. I think we should get a Medicare Supplement insurance plan. Right now . [ male announcer ] whether youre new to medicare or not, you may know it only covers about 80 of your part b medical expenses. Its up to you to pay the difference. So think about an aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare Insurance Company. 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Remember, all Medicare Supplement plans help cover some of what medicare doesnt pay and could really save you in outofpocket medical costs. Youll be able to choose your own doctor or hospital as long as they accept medicare patients. And with these plans, there could be low or no copays. You do your pushups today . Prepare to be amazed. [ male announcer ] dont wait. Call today to request your free decision guide and find the aarp Medicare Supplement plan to go the distance with you. Go long. As a family member, im still hoping. This is a really sad commentary on the state of our circumstance, but i am desperately hoping that phillip is being held hostage by a hijacker. And, you know, only in this situation could i possibly say that. You know, the ping frequencies were wrong from the beginning. Im a serious scuba diver. I know that frequencies dont change under water, and they dont change from a deadening battery. They might not go as far, but they dont change frequency. Im astounded that they put as much credence on those as they did. That was sara bajc whose partner, phillip wood, was aboard flight 370. We had a chance to talk to her earlier about this news that apparently those pings were false leads and that the bluefin search was in hindsight a bit of a wild goose chase. Yeah, so the big question now is are they back to square one in this search . We want to bring in our analyst, mary schiavo and david soucie. David, let me ask you first off. Seven weeks now scouring this area where they heard those pings. Had the have these been seven wasted weeks . You know, in some aspects they have. Its hard to go back, as michaela said, hindsights always better. But at the same time, theres going to be some Big Questions to ask and some answers that im not sure they have as to why they continued the search as long as they did. And these questions will come out when its time to pay the bill. And those are going to be hard questions. You know, as far as whether they were wasted, i dont think so. Mary, when both john and i spoke to sara bajc earlier, she talked about the fact that they had spoken. The family members had spoken with many aviation experts and that they didnt have much credence in those pings. Are you one of those aviation experts that feels that way, that there wasnt a lot to be said for these pings, the wrong frequency, et cetera . Why was so much put on them if those were not the right that wasnt the right intelligence . Well, and i was one of those people to say why dont we test them . It was amazing to me that we didnt have data that would show what would happen to the pingers when theyre under water and under the pressure of water for more than 30 days . There was a study out of portugal that said there could be as much as a one kilohertz variance. So youve had one either way off of the 37. 5. But there wasnt any study that showed it was 33 that it could go to 33. 3, so it was astonishing to me that in this whole time, now almost three months, that no one checked to see if that would happen to a pinger. But, you know, in an investigation, and again, they didnt have much to go on, i dont think it was a waste. And i think it was reasonable to do it because im practical about it. They didnt have anything else to go on. They simply couldnt tell th