Delays, delays blamed for 40 patient deaths at va facilities. The departments embattled secretary eric shen sier shen s. What is the latest . Good morning, chris. So far president obama standing by Eric Shinseki, himself a veteran of vietnam, saying he has confidence in him. But make no mistake shinseki is embattled. Now hes has ordered in his own department for the first time, a face to face audit of all the clinics looking into this question, were there secret wait lists where veterans made to wait for appointments that nobody recorded the delays s a veterans may have died over all of this. The house has subpoenaed shinseki to come before the Veterans Affairs committee. They want to see emails, they want to see all communications about this issue. Much of it first reported by our own drew griffin. The senate, they have not subpoenaed him but he will appear before the Senate Next Week to testify. If you wondered about the scope of this, there are 23 million veterans in this country. The u. S. Government has always made an unfettered vow to serve and protect them and provide for their health care. Kate . How are they going to continue that Going Forward . That is the key question, especially in the face of these allegations. Barbara, thank you very much. So this Morning House democrats, they are meeting on whether to join a new committee on benghazi. Lawmakers approved thursday the new investigation into the attack that left four americans dead. Many democrats are calling the committee itself and the investigation a political witch hunt. But does that mean they should boycott it all together . Thats the question. And what does this have to do now with the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton . Joining us to discuss, cnn political commentator Margaret Hoover and cnn political analyst and senior Political Writer at politico, Maggie Haberman joining us in d. C. Margaret, tell me first. Weve got republicans saying that despite all the investigations and all the hearings and everything thats been going on on the hill regarding benghazi they still have key questions. Democrats say this is all political show. Which is it . Look, whatever it is its become a partisan joke. Flash point. Its a flash point. Its a partisan joke. Its a rallying point. After 13 hearings so far it doesnt appear its anything more than a political look. It seems very much like a political witch hunt. There are a lot of things at which you can get the Obama Administration and hillarys tenure at the state department that you can point to as questionable, especially most recently this failure to designate boko haram as a terrorist investigation in light of her going after 300 nigerian girls back. Look, its a flash point. I dont see a lot of it there. Also, lets not be holier than thou. Political theater is just kind of chew for the course. It is what happens on capitol hill. Press conferences are held just in order to say we held a press conference and Committee Hearings are held just to say we sat here and we held a committee hearing. What are you saying about the democrats considering boycotting . One of the reasons behind this consideration is the fact they dont think theres enough equity on the panel. They think they need more seats on the panel. What do you make of it . Its not surprising that democrats are considering boycotting this, as margaret said, this is being looked at as a strict partisan maneuver. It was created along a very strict partisan line vote. If they boycott this committee they dont have a say at all. If things go very badly, then that could be a problem. If they do just one seat or two seats, then thats problematic. Is boycotting a good idea though, if youre not in the ring you cant win the fight. If youre not there at all you cant defend your own position, right . Thats what theyre looking at and thats what their consideration is. There are members of leadership who want to be in the ring fighting, not just the obvious talking about the Hillary Clinton piece of it. Thats just a piece of it. Reality the other party in congress and they feel like they ought to be there holding their own. They genuinely believe this is a as far as and they believe this is not, as margaret said, the latest in a series of hearings that is not going to drudge up anything new. Thats their view. The republicans are taking a t lot of heat right now of the nrcc, Congressional Campaign arm. Fundraising off of this committee, off of the whole situation in benghazi, what happened there. The guy in charge of the committee now says they should not be fundraising off of it but regardless, it has happened, it is happening. Is that a huge misstep, fly in the face of their argument this isnt political . Its a political cycle. The democrats are always going to fund raise off of something that happens, too. This is what happens in political realms. Unfortunately this is what happens. It generates media and a lot of small dollar donations that goes to the bases, especially where you have strong red states ard fervent republican base. Does it work though, maggie . Margarets right. Theres two conflicting impulses here. On one hand, the negative press here that when john boehner got asked about this the other day this is not what he wanted to talk about. But this does up the fundraising base. They are ultimately looking at winning this november. One quick question. Clearly one of the things here, maggie, theyre trying to make this connection to Hillary Clinton. She is finally spoken out about the committee. She spoke about it this week. What do you think about her response so far, do you think shes going to have to say more and do you think shes going to be called to the committee and shell go . Theres a chance. Ultimately shes going to have to say more because this is ongoing. Whats going to happen in terms of her book . She addresses benghazi in her book. The book is coming out in a couple of weeks. The events will overlap. She was pretty briefed the other day. She addressed it at theford foundation. Clearly wanted to discuss this Robin Roberts was interviewing her, brought it up right away. Her response was a couple of sentences. Shes clearly going to have to say more, especially if something does come out of this committee. If she doesnt, she will say as little as she can for as long as she can. Shes going to be in very safe, very comfortable places where she can say exactly what she wants to and no more and nobody is going to push her to say more until she gets closer and closer to making a Exploratory Committee or running. The rubber is not going to hit the road for Hillary Clinton until she decides to make that step. You have two conflicting things going on here. You have the hearing happen and then the reality are what are the American People going to be getting out of it. I dont think those two things actually coincide yet. I havent seen a compelling reason. If this is really a political cycle and political theater, what are they going to get out of it . Republicans think they will find answers, we will see. First, we have to see if democrats will show up to the committee. Chris . Lets turn now to the search for hundreds of missing girls in nigeria where american help has arrived. Good news. Experts are set to land today to support a team of advisers on the ground for a search that may now have to stretch to they borg cameron. Here hearing from girls who are believed to have escaped the massive kidnapping. Here with us is Vladimir Duthiers, what do we know . The fact their daughters may not be in nigeria any longer. Were learning more about what life is like in che ba reporter boko harams campaign of terror, shocking the world into action. Global outrage over the kidnapping of 200 schoolgirls and the kncountrys president vowing the abduction will be the groups undoing. I believe that the kidnap of this girls will be the beginning of end of terror in nigeria. Reporter pledges of help in the fight against boko haram from the United States and other governments are gaining traction. We should be clear, this is not just a nigerian issue, it is a global issue. There are extreme islamists around our world who are against education, against progress, against equality, and we must fight them and take them on wherever they are. Reporter a team of seven United States military personnel consisting of Law Enforcement experts and military advisers expected to arrive today joining a team already on the ground. France is sending a small Specialized Team to help, as is britain. The task of rescueing the girls growing more complex with news u. S. Intelligence believe they may have been split up, moved out of ney gigeria and into neighboring countries. Before they are dispursed across africa. Reporter many fear the worse, still missing three weeks after being abducted by the terrorist group. Its leader threatening to sell them into sex slavery. These two girls know all too well the brutality of boko haram, recalling how they escaped the fate of their classmates. They described the frightening moments when boko haram stormed their school. The militants threatened to kill them if they didnt tell them where the food was, and then burned the school to the ground. This girl says they forced her and the classmates into the bush, threatening their lives. She started running, she says. Finally reaching help. And, kate, cnn cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video but compelling glimpses of life in chibok. Lets go to russia where National Pride and military might are on full display as a major world war ii victory. President Vladimir Putin is celebrating victory day with a elaborate parade in moscow and heading to crimea to continue the festivities. Yes, crimea, which has ukraine on high alert over concerns the celebrations could spark more violence than theyre seeing in the region already. Phil black is in crimea with much more. What are they expecting, phil . Well, as you mentioned, president putin started victory day with the annual quite intimidating display of russian might in the square. And he is now making his way here to z here to sevastopol. We are seeing here they cheered for a big military parade through the streets here, chancing, waving russian flags. And from here the party, the celebration is only supposed to get even bigger. Behind me were going to see a display by warships from the Russian Naval black sea fleet. President putin is expected to be here to see it. Its not confirmed because the kremlins hasnt said he is coming but if he does it will be an act of defiance from the International Community who has condemned him for annexing crimea. But it is likely to be welcomed, very warmly by the crowds here in crimea and to a significant extent across russia as well by people who have always believed that crimea is an unquestionable part of the russian federation. Michaela, back to you. Phil black in crimea, thank you. Lets look at your headlines. The Syrian Government is retaking the city of holmes. Most rebel forces and families have been evacuated marking the end of three years of resistance in syrias Third Largest city. Homs fell to the opposition in 2011 but a campaign by Government Troops has the city back in the control of the assad regime. A plan to end the nsas bulk collection of americans phone data will head to the house floor in a few weeks. The freedom act was passed unanimously following a vote by the judiciary committee. It would bar the bulk collection of phone and other personal records and require the nsa to get a judges permission to access the data of us a spethed terrorists. Energy efficincy at a California Walmart today after a speak at a dnc reception in sans jose last night where he was repeatedly interrupted by an audience member. I want to hear from you. I love you back. Yeah, you kind of screwed up my ending, but thats okay. Thats okay. And we got free speech in this country, which is great, too. The heckler was yelling about his freedoms as a voter. No word on that persons identity. Draft days biggest drama ended when Johnny Football went to the Cleveland Browns with the 22nd pick of the first round. Brown traded up four spots to get johnny manziel. As most experts predicted, clowney was number one in the draft by the houston texans. More in this coming up in our Bleacher Report. Right now lets get to meteorologist Indra Petersons looking at the forecast for the weekend. A a situation there tornadoes again spotted. Severe weather this year. Still talking about Severe Weather. These are the sights we saw yesterday out towards minnesota. Yesterday, six tornado reports out there including this one in southern minnesota. Today that threat is not over with just yet. Lets talk about who is under the gun today. Talking about 27 million of you again today. Indianapolis, st. Louis, little rock, shreveport and san antonio. All of you are looking at that risk for Severe Weather. Not as heavy as yesterday but still we cannot rule out the threat of even a tornado today. So what is going on . We have the warm front and the cold front. The northeast seeing light showers and the warm front are going to be looking at more heavier thunderstorms watching the cold front today. Temperaturewise, theyre going to be going up in the midwest and east coast. New york city going from 60s to 80s by tomorrow. Its going to feel hot, humid, and muggy out there. Notice, by tomorrow the eastern half of the country getting into the showers. But t in midwest you get a break for one day. Now we go into mothers day. Yes, it clears out of the northeast. You stay warm but also the showers into the southeast and unfortunately back into the midwest again. The second line of storms is going to be moving in and this one unfortunately is going to be another round of Severe Weather so by sunday from chicago all of the way back down through san angelo were going to talk about another round of heavy thunderstorms on mothers day. Hopefully nobody has any travel problems to go home and see mom. Or get back from seeing mom. One or the other. Thats fine. You get stuck a little bit longer. Mom will like that. Thanks so much. Coming up next on new day, impassioned plea from the families of flight 370 passengers. What are they demanding this morning . The partner of one of the american passengers on board joins us to lay it out. And a new twist in the fight for control of the l. A. Clippers. Donald sterlings wife, she insists she owns 50 of the team and shes not selling. So what does the nba do now . The l. A. Clippers return to action tonight for game three of their nba playoff series with Oklahoma City thunder. But the real drama, of course, continues off the court. The leagues effort to force owner Donald Sterling to sell the clippers has gotten even more complicated with sterlings wife now saying shell fight to keep her stake in the team. At the very same time another secret recording reportedly of Donald Sterling has emerged. More on that from cnns stephanie elam. In a shocking new audio recording a man said to be clippers owner Donald Sterling stands his ground. Sterling says hes not a racist. In a secret recording posted by gossip website radar online. You think im a racist . You think i have anything of the world but love for everybody . You dont think that. You know im not a racist. Reporter cnn cannot independently confirm the voice is sterling. Radar says the call was between sterling and a longtime friend and that their source provided an affidavit that the proof was sterling. How can you think im a racist knowing me all these years . How can you be in this business and be a racist . Do you think i tell the coach to get white players or to get the best player he can get . Reporter sterlings outrage and apparent response to a fallout over another recording posted on line last month. And that audio sterling is making racist comments in a conversation with v. Stiviano. The harsh words apparently triggered by this Instagram Photo of her with nba star magic johnson. It breaks my heart that magic johnson, you know, a guy a guy that i respect so much, wouldnt stand up and say, well, lets get the facts, lets get him and talk to him. Nobody tried. Nobody. Reporter this as the nbas finance committee is deliberating on a for sale of the team. You cant force someone to sell property in america. Well, im a lawyer. Thats my opinion. Reporter Shelly Sterling, donalds estranged wife, wants to keep her half of the team. The truth of the matter is that mrs. Sterling has denounced in the strongest terms possible her husbands racist comments. And while they share business, you know, business properties, hes out of the team, has nothing to do with it, and shes the owner in charge. Reporter stephanie elam, cnn, los angeles. So will these tapes make a difference and how about this complication . Who exactly owns the clippers and what the league can do about it . Lets bring in lee rose and shawn xwreg gregory. Gentlemen, good to have you here. Whats your take on hearing sterling there . Lets assume its him. Not surprised. Hes defending himself. It was the kind of thing you would expect from him if you were interviewing him or i were interviewing him. Hes saying he has good in his heart. Hes grown up in an adverse environment. But again, on the other side we have what he said and hearing is believing. You ha