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The Amanpour Hour

Interview With CNN Political Commentator Karen Finney; Interview With Trump 2020 Director Of Strategic Communications Marc Lotter; One-On-One with Pop Icon Cyndi Lauper; Ukrainian Athletes Undeterred By War And Grief; Archive: Interview With Astronaut Michael Collins; Trump Assassination Attempt And The Echoes Of 1968; Interview With Former President Lyndon B. Johnson's Daughter Lucy Baines Johnson. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired July 20, 2024 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:38]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to THE AMANPOUR HOUR.

Here's where we're headed this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: As Republicans fall in behind the former president, will Trump's VP choice alienate swing voters? And can the divided Democrats bounce back?

Also this hour, Lyndon B. Johnson's daughter on the political violence surrounding her father's term and why he chose not to run for reelection.

Then a week out from the Olympics, the Ukrainian athletes training despite violence and tragedy back home.

From my archive, 55 years since the moon landing, spaceman Michael Collins on having the right stuff.

And still having fun at 71.

(MUSIC)

AMANPOUR: Pop icon Cyndi Lauper on a life well-lived as she embarks on her farewell tour.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone.

And we begin with the story of how strength and weakness are perceived and projected as they shape the U.S. presidential race this weekend, while the whole world watches along. On one side, the Republicans at their convention more unified than ever with allies and ex-rivals alike publicly bending the knee for Donald Trump after the attempt on his life, his election interference and convictions forgotten.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are more divided than ever over Joe Biden's ability to best Trump in November especially after he was benched by COVID again. The measurable successes of his presidency, all but forgotten as well.

By the end of the week, a crescendo of bigwig Democrats and grassroots poll numbers publicly demanding he pass the torch. Can the Democrats recaptured the political initiative or has the attempted assassination of their candidate regenerated the Republican Party?

As the convention was wrapping up, I spoke to Marc Lotter, Donald Trump's former strategic communications director, and to Karen Finney, a CNN political contributor and the spokesperson for the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Marc Lotter and Karen Finney, welcome to the program from Milwaukee.

Look, this week ends with the walls really closing in on President Biden. Not only does he have COVID on top of everything else, but it's becoming more and more public, more and more senior, the internal Democratic officials coupled with, you know, polls from grassroots Democrats, that Biden won't make it in terms of winning in November.

And for you, Marc Lotter, and for Team GOP, this must be music to all of your ears. On the one hand, you've got this implosion at the top of the Democratic ticket. You've got a sense of chaos and drift.

And on the other hand, you've got a sense of cementing the GOP as Trump's party, the deliverance of Trump from the assassin's bullet, et cetera.

Give me the mood amongst your party at the end of this week.

MARC LOTTER, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, TRUMP 2020: Well, obviously there's a lot of momentum, but I think there -- there's a lot of recognition that we still have four months to go until election day. A lot of things can and will change.

The map, the polls all look very good right now for Donald Trump and Senator J. D. Vance, but we've got to, you know, run through the tape as they like to say.

And so, whether it's Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, we're also focused on the policy side of it. None of those candidates are going to change the direction of our country. They're going to stick with the same policies, whether it's on immigration, whether it's on taxation, energy prices. So really, the campaign is the same from our standpoint, we just have

to change the name of the person, or maybe changing the name of the person who we're running against.

AMANPOUR: So Karen --

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: If I may, Christiane.

AMANPOUR: Yes, please tell me about the policy as well, because obviously, Marc talks a good game, but we hear from the Republicans that they really want it to be against Biden. And on the policy issues, on immigration, on the economy, et cetera. What would your pitch be at this point?

[11:04:52]

FINNEY: Well, I think it's important to remember that regardless of what's been happening in this conversation about Joe Biden, the grassroots work has continued.

So in terms of the issue landscape, things have really not changed as much in terms of the policies that we're talking about. So, for example, if you live in a state where you're afraid of losing your right to access IVF or contraception or abortion, that has not changed.

And that is a fundamental difference between what Democrats are fighting for and what Republicans are fighting for.

So I think the issue is here, whether it's climate change, whether it is, you know, we don't believe in trickledown economics, whether it is, you know, helping college kids pay for their student loans, there's a whole range of issues where we have just very different ideas.

And I always like to remind people, you know, those folks who are knocking on doors and having conversations with voters, those have not stopped. And so the issue conversation continues and will continue.

And as we sort out sort of the top of -- what's happening at the top of the ticket, you know, we're also really talking about very fundamental differences for the direction of our democracy.

AMANPOUR: So Marc, let me ask you, because one of the main issues for many in America -- women, and the rollback of Roe versus Wade, and it hasn't been a winning issue for Republicans in previous midterm and other elections.

And Senator Vance is absolutely against abortion, he calls it murder, argued against the need for rape and incest exceptions, promoted the ban at 15 weeks, and questioned the prevalence of divorce. Suggested women should stay in violent marriages even.

I'm going to play this and talk to you about the issue of winning women. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JD VANCE (R-OH), U.S. REPUBLICAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is this idea that like, well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally -- you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy.

And so, getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that's going to make people happier in the long-term.

And maybe it worked out for the moms and dads, though I'm skeptical, but it really didn't work out for the kids of those marriages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So Marc, talk to us about that. That was obviously before he was picked as vice presidential candidate. But Trump also realizes now that the abortion ban and the Roe v. Wade reversal that he campaigned for and nominated judges to reverse is coming back to haunt him politically.

What do you think this ticket is going to do to attract women?

LOTTER: Well, the president has been very clear he would not sign a national abortion ban. In fact, there's also no way that a national abortion ban is ever going to get passed by Congress.

The President has also been very clear he supports IVF and the exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

But I think, you know, while the Democrats all want to focus only on just this one issue, I think what you're going to see the president, Senator Vance, and Republicans also talk about is a lot of mothers, a lot of families out there struggling to pay for groceries, struggling to pay for gas. They're worried that their young daughters or themselves might be the victims of crime based on all of the 12 million illegal immigrants that have been let into this country under Joe Biden.

So there are a lot of issues I think that are at play. Yes, there are single issue voters on the issue of abortion, both on the right and the left.

But I think most people are probably it's one of their issues, may not be their only issue. And right now, they're worried about putting food on the table.

AMANPOUR: Karen, what do you think? Because Kamala Harris, vice president, has been the administration's -- crusader is the wrong word, but you know what I mean. She's gone out and fought the good fight for women.

FINNEY: Yes, yes. AMANPOUR: And remembering that Trump himself was found guilty in a civil case for sexual abuse and the rest of it. Do you think the Republicans can get over that as well as Roe versus Wade? Do you think it's still an issue?

FINNEY: It absolutely is still an issue. And I'll tell you why, because for women in this country and for particularly young voters, we see this. It's not just about access to a procedure. It is fundamentally about bodily autonomy.

You know, I like to say, Christiane, we are fundamentally not a democracy if women don't have the same rights as men. And if we don't have the right to make those critical decisions about our bodies and our health care, then we're not equal.

And unfortunately, what we've seen -- you know, I'm a little -- I cringe a little bit at the state's rights sort of argument because it has such an ugly history in our country, but think about what's been happening in the states for women.

We're seeing women and doctors criminalized. We're seeing women lose their lives because of cruel and extreme practices.

[11:09:40]

FINNEY: And one of the things about Project 2025 that I think people are so anxious about is that so many of the things that are in that policy handbook, if you will, are already being attempted to be implemented in the states, like cutting off access to various forms of contraception.

So again, there's a real concern that some of these policies, again it's not just about the procedure itself, it's about what it says about value to women.

I'll give you another example, equal pay for women. You know, the criticism that we're hearing from some conservative circles about the women Secret Service members who were part of the president -- former president's detail, some are saying, well you know, that's DEI and they shouldn't have women. they're not strong enough, you know.

So again, it's also how you talk about women, how you respect women.

And I just want to point out something on immigration. We've had 12 million people here illegally for decades, and what we're talking about is, again, two very different approaches to securing the border, which President Biden has, and those crossings have gone way down. But also, how do we have a humane policy in terms of how do we have people return to their countries where that's appropriate?

Not as we saw during the Republican Convention this week with signs to just throw people out. You know, this rounding people up and mass deportations. I don't think people really think about what that would really look like in terms of having deportation centers, separating children and families, not to mention the economic impact that that would have on the American economy if all those workers who are working for substandard wages, by the way, would be all of a sudden gone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: The second part of our conversation is coming up in a moment when we'll be talking about the Russians endorsing the Trump-Vance ticket.

Also ahead, pop icon Cyndi Lauper is 71 and going out with a bang.

And from my archive, 55 years since man first stepped onto the moon, astronaut Michael Collins on how he never felt lonely even in the infinite void of space.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL COLLINS, ASTRONAUT: I felt very much a part of what was going on with Neil and Buzz. I was their ticket home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:12:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

Picking up where we left off before the break with my political panel Karen Finney and Marc Lotter on the unprecedented state of presidential politics this season.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: So I want to also talk a little bit about foreign policy and democracy at home. Do you think -- I mean, you know, Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire, who didn't want Trump to be the candidate, worked very hard for Nikki Haley, now is backing Trump, basically told us in an interview that January 6th should not be a disqualifier for this kind of a high office.

Marc and Karen, can you comment on that because -- I mean, seriously.

FINNEY: Well, I think what we saw on January 6th was terrifying and it's still -- those images are seared into the minds of Americans and a majority of Americans do not find those people who attacked our Capitol -- we don't call them heroes. We do think they should be held accountable for their actions, just as everyone should.

That being said, you know, I've traveled around the country -- around the world, actually, in the last several months. I was just in Israel about three weeks ago, and there is a lot of fear. We heard some of this coming out of the NATO conference.

World leaders are very anxious about the idea of Donald Trump returning to the presidency. They're anxious about what it means in terms of America's role in the world, the nature of the relationships, the fact that he has praised dictators like Putin and what that means in terms of a realignment of forces.

And so, I think they're very real questions about what a Trump presidency would mean for American foreign policy.

We have the record of Donald Trump from his four years in office, and we know how he treated NATO, and we know how he treated our allies, and we know why they have real concerns.

AMANPOUR: Marc, let me put that to you then because the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, has decided to praise the choice of J. D. Vance. And here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): He's in favor of peace, in favor of ending the assistance that's been provided. And we can only welcome that, because that's what we need, to stop pumping Ukraine full of weapons and then the war will end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: what do you think a Trump administration, if it gets in, will do for the defense of Ukraine and the defense of democracy, knowing that the majority of Congress believes in defending and supplying Ukraine, as do a working majority of the American people still?

LOTTER: Well, and -- I obviously I don't speak for the former president, nor do I speak for his campaign, but he's been very clear that he thinks that both sides need to come together and start talking.

Every war in history has ended at a negotiation table, even those that ended with unconditional surrender. So you've got to get the two sides talking. We've got to figure out a way to get the killing to stop, which is what the president has been very clear about.

And the fact that he -- you know, he holds so much leverage, the president of the United States holds so much leverage in terms of forcing, whether it's Ukraine and/or Russia to come to the table and let's figure out a way to stop the violence, stop the death.

[11:19:54]

LOTTER: On this issue, it's something that I think the world should be cheering. We should be cheering for peace. And I think that's what you would see from Donald Trump. And I'll leave the details of how he would do that, obviously, up to the former president.

AMANPOUR: I can't leave you without questioning "unconditional surrender". Do you think that's appropriate as a choice for Ukraine, both of you?

LOTTER: I'm not suggesting that as an option in the future. I'm saying that even past wars that were decided under unconditional surrender, there was also negotiation in history at that time. FINNEY: And I would just offer that what we hear from Russia in terms of negotiation is really code for having Ukraine give up land and give up, you know, part of its sovereignty.

And we absolutely can't let that happen because there is no way that Putin will stop at Ukraine. He will continue his march through to Europe.

AMANPOUR: Marc Lotter, Karen Finney -- thank you both so much for joining us from Milwaukee.

LOTTER: Thank you.

FINNEY: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Our conversation as the RNC was wrapping up.

And up next on the program, Cyndi Lauper still having fun at 71. My conversation with the pop icon on the new documentary about her life and preparing for her farewell tour.

[11:21:09]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

And now for an iconic American singer, songwriter and actress, known for her flamboyant style and a string of hit songs that made her a pop culture icon.

Cyndi Lauper exploded onto the music scene in the 1980s and now she's the focus of a documentary, "Let the Canaries Sing" with an intimate look at her life and career.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYNDI LAUPER, MUSICIAN: It really built up how stubborn I could be.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Queer people weren't allowed to be queer and out.

It was our allies having the conversation.

LAUPER: When you're that different you view other people as having problems.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: At 71, she's getting ready for her global farewell tour which kicks off in the United States this fall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Cyndi Lauper, welcome to the program. LAUPER: Hi.

AMANPOUR: You're getting ready for a farewell tour and you have this new documentary, "Let the Canaries Sing."

There seems to be a lot happening. You're 71 years old. How are you feeling now?

LAUPER: I feel good. And you know, I work out, I still do my vocal lessons. I'm doing them more in my life. But I think this tour is exciting because it's the biggest one I've ever done and I figured it's going to be farewell, it should be big.

AMANPOUR: Were you always the person who got to do what she wanted to do? Or was that a struggle?

LAUPER: I wanted to make music that was inclusive. I wanted to make collaborations with the people that I loved. And when I was in situations where it was a compromise, it also gave me an opportunity to learn about how I could make that my own too.

AMANPOUR: Famously, you made "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" yours, out of somebody else's. Because it was written by a guy called Robert Hazard. He wrote the original.

And I want you, once we play the clip, to explain what the original meant and how you changed it.

(MUSIC)

AMANPOUR: So Cyndi, tell me about that.

LAUPER: So, of course it's a guy's approach. And, you know. And I didn't understand exactly what the heck I was supposed to do at first. And so they said, well, you should make it -- change it, make it your own, which is what we wound up doing to a lot of the songs on that album to create a sound, a sound that was uniquely our own.

You know, the biggest thing I had to learn is how to talk to people. How to say things. So, that you don't freak them out, you get them inspired.

AMANPOUR: We found a picture of you on "Celebrity Apprentice" with Donald Trump and I just want to know whether you had any comment about that now.

[11:29:49]

AMANPOUR: What was he like? Did he seem to like you?

LAUPER: Well, doing that show was -- enabled us to do the "Give a Damn" campaign. We raised money to do a campaign where people could talk about giving a damn about equality for everyone, not just some. And that show enabled us to start, you know. I was disappointed when, you know, the big thing is learning

leadership and how to be a good boss. And working on "The Apprentice", there was a very large LGBTQ community working for him and then helping him be successful.

And then he came out with all this anti-LGBTQ stuff. and I was surprised because I didn't think that's what he was trying to show us. How to be a good boss. That isn't a good boss, in my opinion, my humble opinion.

AMANPOUR: How will this farewell tour be done? What is it you want to accomplish with that, if I might put it that way?

LAUPER: We're human beings. And I'm in the business of the humanities.

I'm hoping with this tour, I can bring people together. I can contribute and help and make things a little better, instead of the separation and the big divide.

AMANPOUR: Cyndi Lauper, always doing it your way. Thank you so much indeed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Up next, the mayor of Paris takes the plunge to prove the Seine is safe for Olympic swimmers.

And the Ukrainian athletes who wear their patriotism on their sleeves.

[11:31:48]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

We're less than a week away now from the world's greatest sporting spectacle. Paris is hosting the Olympics for the first time in a century and organizers are doing everything they can to prove that they're ready.

That includes Mayor Anne Hidalgo taking one for the team with a dip in the River Seine to show that it is clean enough for the swimmers.

But for the thousands of Olympians taking part preparation has been hardest for the athletes of Ukraine. They've endured heartbreaking loss, the destruction of their homes, and they've watched family members being sent to war with Russia.

Amanda Davies profiles one Ukrainian high jumper who remains undeterred by all the tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT CORRESPONDENT: A jump too far to bring to an end Kateryna Tabashnyk Olympic hopes for Paris. But the Ukrainian high jumper bowed out with a smile to a knowing, warm reception from those watching on.

Having struggled with injuries in recent weeks, she cleared 1.89 meters at the National Athletics Championships in Lviv not, enough to qualify for the games but a moment that would have been beyond the realms of most. Given what the 30-year-old has been through in the last few years.

KATERYNA TABASHNYK, UKRAINIAN HIGH JUMPER (through translator): The loss of my home, the loss of my dear mother, the loss of my friends and all this takes strength, takes energy. It's like a poison for the body.

DAVIES: Kateryna's mother, Tatyana was killed when a Russian air airstrike struck her apartment building two years ago. She had returned to Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city to help care for her young grandson, Kateryna's nephew, who was seriously injured in a previous attack.

Kateryna was told of the news by phone, confronted by her home in ruins, and serious questions about whether she wanted to continue her athletics career.

What has kept you going? How have you got through it?

TABASHNYK: I guess it's belief. You can't imagine how many times I wanted to give it all up. Give up on sports, on jumping. But every time, I pull myself together and say no. Now I have to fight like never before.

Remarkably channeling that fight saw Kateryna win her first medal at a major event, claiming an emotional bronze at the European championships last year, which she dedicated to her mother.

TABASHNYK: It hurts that I can't hear her, call her like I always did but she tells me in my dreams that I will succeed.

DAVIES: Any elite athlete will tell you how success depends on consistency, stability, and the ability to have a single-minded focus on the job in hand. All luxuries that most Ukrainian athletes aren't afforded in the face of Russia's full-scale invasion.

[11:39:51]

DAVIES: Theirs is a team enduring grief, destruction of their homes and sports facilities, family members sent to war, and life where sporting success is now being seen through a very different prism.

And over the next few weeks, those heading to Paris may be forced to come face-to-face with a number of the Russian and Belarusians sports people to have been allowed to compete at the Olympics as neutral athletes thanks to a ruling from the International Olympic Committee.

TABASHNYK: In the 21st century, this is an unacceptable attitude when people are dying, people in one country and another country want to live freely with impunity without responsibility. DAVIES: Words from the heart and first-hand experience from an athlete who's suffered tragedy that has only strengthened her drive to reach new heights in her fight for her country.

Amanda Davis, CNN -- Lviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: The Olympic committee, is accused of ignoring strict neutrality rules and the Russian athletes who support the invasion of Ukraine. Human rights organizations are calling on them to be banned.

Coming up next, 55 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing flashback to my archive conversation with astronaut Michael Collins on his voyage into the history books.

[11:41:21]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

It is 55 years today since the Apollo 11 moon landing, a monumental event that saw humankind take its first steps onto the lunar surface. It was also the climax of the great space race between the United States as in the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Half a century later, and America is in a new space race this time with China. And this week, scientists revealed the first evidence of caves under the lunar surface, which could be crucial for sheltering moon dwellers of the future.

Astronaut Michael Collins played a starring role in the Apollo 11 mission. He piloted the command module Columbia, while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their historic descent to the surface. Then he orbited alone for nearly a day until they returned.

From my archive. Here's our conversation from 2019 on the 50th anniversary of the moon-landing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Michael Collins, welcome to the program.

COLLINS: Thank you very much, Christiane. And I'm enjoying being here.

AMANPOUR: I just wanted to know whether you have a specific moment, a specific memory from blast off to splash down that stands out especially for you.

COLLINS: I think of all the things that happened on Apollo 11, there were so many of them. I always regard the flight to and from the moon is like a long and fragile daisy chain of events. But the one that I think that is the unanimous favorite of most space crews is when you see those three parachutes open, wow. Up until then, you thought you were coming home, but you couldn't be

100 percent sure of it, but you see those beautiful parachutes on top of the Apollo command module and you say, whoosh, here we go. It's ok.

AMANPOUR: Wow, wow, you know what, in a way I hadn't expected you to say that because it does bring up the whole concept of cosmic death and what might have happened.

Did you think about death? Did you think when you were up there that you might not come back or Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin might not make it back off the moon into the module and back home.

COLLINS: Oh, certainly the three of us were keenly aware of the dangers involved. But it was not something that we talked about. We never said oh gosh, maybe this is getting too dangerous, we shouldn't do it. That was way back in some obscured, dark corner of our mind and we had more important things to do, if not more important, more immediate things to take care of.

AMANPOUR: You certainly did and obviously, being on the moon, orbiting around as you are waiting for them and conducting your unique and special mission was unbelievable.

And I just want to ask you whether you still remember that first glimpse, that overwhelming glimpse of what you described as finally, a three-dimensional sphere that was the moon. You, you talk about it very in detail and poignantly in your book.

COLLINS: Well, I don't know how poignant that view was, but it was certainly an impressive view. You know, that tiny little silver sliver that lives in -- up above my backyard had been replaced by a gigantic three-dimensional, bulbous thing that was almost trying to push its way into our window.

The sun was coming from behind, so it was -- the sun's rays were cascading around the rim.

[11:49:44]

COLLINS: And it gave it a wonderful illumination accentuating the highs of the craters and the lows of the Marea (ph) upon which the craters were raised.

It was it was a great thing. However, it was nothing compared to seeing the earth from afar. That was the main chance, that was it.

AMANPOUR: Obviously everybody has spoken to you and asked you about what it was like not to walk on the moon. That you were the one still up there orbiting and you didn't get a chance.

But I find it so cool that the way you talk about it is that you celebrated this unique position that you are in to be able to kind of manage the whole thing and get them back safely and land them safely and all the rest of it.

Tell me a little bit about how you saw your mission, even though you didn't step foot on the moon?

COLLINS: Well, the question that is usually asked me is, were you not lonely, the loneliest person who had ever been on a lonely voyage around the moon and the lonely orbit. You were isolated and your lonely thoughts -- weren't you terribly lonely?

And I was just amazed by that as I know, I was in no way lonely. I felt very much a part of what was going on with Neil and Buzz. I was their ticket home, the whole apparatus, the procedures, the machinery. It had all been put together to be worked by three people.

And the third that I had -- I didn't, clearly I did not have the best seat on Apollo, but I was delighted to have the one that was really the culmination of John F. Kennedy's dream to put someone on the moon by the end of the decade.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Their ticket home, and Michael Collins passed away in April of 2021 at the age of 90. His legacy of course, lives on as NASA vies to send astronauts back to the moon for the first time since 1972.

But the race is on. China has just brought bought back the first ever samples from the far side of the moon. And NASA's Artemis moon-landing mission has been pushed back until 2026 at the earliest.

When we come back, the daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson makes a dramatic appeal after the attempt on Trump's life, having experienced the long shadow of political violence from the 60s.

[11:52:16]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: And finally, an attempted assassination, an aging president struggling in the polls and widening political polarization. The parallels between the America of 1968 and today, are uncanny.

For Lucy Baines Johnson, the daughter of the former President Lyndon B. Johnson, the assassination attempt last weekend was a chilling echo of the political violence overshadowing her own father's presidency.

I asked her why she and her sister and Gerald Ford's daughter were compelled to make a public call for solidarity in the wake of that attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCY BAINES JOHNSON, DAUGHTER OF FORMER PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON: Well, we all felt that it was an important thing to do. We are the children of presidents from both political parties. We endured the agony of President Kennedy's assassination, President Ford's attempted assassinations, and the assassination of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

Our parents are gone but our families stand together calling for peace and healing in these difficult days.

AMANPOUR: And I just want to know what you feel in the intervening week or so since that horror that happened last weekend. And whether you think given the experience that you also had in 1968 with the violence of the Democratic convention with then the assassinations of -- well, just before the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and also of Martin Luther King. How you put that in context with the risks to the nation today.

JOHNSON: I think the 1960s grabbed at the heartstrings of everybody of age, of memory and may date the events in their lives before and afterwards. I think in many ways we will do the same again.

But I think we've got to pull ourselves together as a country and say, how can we come together united as Americans, regardless of our political preferences, and treat each other with respect and with commitment to peace in our time.

So do you think that the country can actually use this moment to come together or is that wishful thinking.

JOHNSON: I think we must come together. One of the things that I'm so grateful for is my father used all of these chilling moments in American history during his time to serve the greater good.

[11:59:46]

JOHNSON: We've got to take the horrors that happen in our time and turn them towards the greater good for all time.

My hope for America is my hope for the tomorrow of all of the world that somehow we can come together to recognize the good that is in each of us. If we don't, the consequences are simply too grave.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: and you can see the rest of our conversation online at amanpour.com.

That's all we have time for this week. Don't forget, you can find all of our shows online as podcasts at CNN.com/podcast and on all other major platforms.

I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching and I'll see you next time.