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Rep. Johnny Olszewski (D-MD) is Interviewed about the Strait of Hormuz; Nashville Remembers Dolly Parton; John Ford Coley and Duane Allen Remember Dolly Parton; Flash Flooding Hits Nepal; National Black Farmers Association President John Boyd is Interviewed about Foreign Beef Imports. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 26, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:15]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could see the closure of what's become a critical path out of that waterway near Iran. Iran has been demanding that the U.N.-approved route off the coast of Oman be closed down completely as part of this new round of negotiations. That Omani route has, in recent weeks, seen more and more shipping traffic, as it's seen as a much safer route while the rest of the Strait remains virtually closed as the war between the U.S. and Iran sees no end.

Well, on the news that there could be some negotiations ongoing and some negotiations bearing fruit, look at the price of oil this morning, dropping on that.

Let's talk about this. Joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Johnny Olszewski of Maryland. He sits in the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, thanks for coming back in.

So, Iran and Oman outlined this proposal now to jointly establish a temporary shipping channel through the Strait of Hormuz. The Omani foreign minister, about this, has said -- said on Twitter, "future management of the Strait and a permanent solution will follow in due course." I'm wondering now, after reading that, are you willing to accept that Iran will be part of the future management of the Strait at this point?

REP. JOHNNY OLSZEWSKI (R-MD): Yes. Good morning, Kate.

It's hard to say. I mean this has been an administration that has not leveled with Congress or the American people. And so, this is one (AUDIO GAP) news where I'm left guessing as a member of Congress and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, just as Americans are left guessing how they're going to pay for their next gallon of gas, or how they're going to put food on the table.

So, I'm encouraged that we're seeing some dips in prices. Americans need relief from a war that has caused massive increases to gas and groceries. But to be honest with you, I can't say with great certainty how this will turn out. We saw an agreement to have an agreement before expire without a resolution. And so, it's hard to say what will happen here.

BOLDUAN: That is certainly the case.

Let me ask you about the new Iran sanctions that the administration is rolling out. When the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, unveiled what he called economic D-Day, he still left many questions of exactly what the sanctions effort was going to look like. He threatened new sanctions on countries that refused to stop doing business with Iran, but he did not name names.

For this to be successful, and to bring Iran -- to bring Iran to the table, to cripple Iran in a way that it has not already with sanctions, will the United States have to target China?

OLSZEWSKI: Yes. When you think about the amount of oil that's being funneled through the Chinese corporations and through China, it's hard to imagine a scenario where sanctions can be successful without including China.

[08:35:05]

Now, certainly that risks a larger escalation. But I think if we're going to take this approach, which is probably the right one, in addition to diplomacy, it's hard to not have China be part of that conversation, given their outsized role in terms of the import/export of oil still coming out of Iran.

BOLDUAN: What does that mean with -- what do you think that should mean with Xi Jinping scheduled to come to the United States and sit down with a much anticipated meeting with the president in now I think it's less than a month?

OLSZEWSKI: Yes, look, I mean, this -- again, this is an administration that has refused to level with Congress and the American people. I would love to ask these kinds of questions of the administration and have more intelligence to share with you today. But this has been an administration that doesn't come before Congress, either in open or in classified settings, to tell us what's going on. And so, I'd like to think that this is an opportunity for the president to address the challenges we're seeing with Iran in a way that doesn't let China off the hook, that he actually is the great negotiator that he claims to be, but has proven to not be the case.

But again, whether it's here or you think about things like the tariffs that the president's trying to impose in Canada, these are just increased costs that are being paid, paid by and passed along to the hard working Americans, while the president himself is profiting billions. And that's why people are so frustrated and angry these days.

BOLDUAN: Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, was on CNN yesterday and said that he hasn't ruled out impeaching, moving to impeach Donald Trump if Democrats win back the House majority. Would you support him in doing that?

OLSZEWSKI: Yes. Well, I look forward to making sure that we do what we have to do to finish the case for the American people in November, so that we have a Democratic majority to hold this administration accountable, that Hakeem Jeffries is our next speaker.

But what I will say is that President Trump has certainly committed any number of impeachable offenses. And so, we need to make sure that we are making that case to the American people but really focusing on lowering costs and addressing corruption. I mean there was a recent report, Kate, that $15 million of trades were made, speaking of the war, in oil and gas. You know, insider trading is taking advantage of information you have to make money. President Trump is creating that information and taking advantage of it. So, whether it's that or any other of the many kinds of activities this president has taken, I look forward to investigating and, where appropriate, pursuing impeachment.

BOLDUAN: Yes, because that's what -- that was what my question was getting at, which is a question of priorities. Do you think it should be a priority, with what you lay out, of investigating the president and possibly impeaching him if you take the House majority?

OLSZEWSKI: Absolutely. I think holding this administration accountable and fighting corruption in all forms should be a priority of a Democratic majority. And that means not just this Trump administration and the cryptocurrency schemes and the Qatari jets and all the ways in which he's personally benefited from his actions, but also taking actions to hold ourselves accountable, like meaningfully and truly ending stock trading by members of Congress and finding other ways to fight corruption because corruption does have a cost to the American people. And so, if that investigation and that accountability leads to impeachment, that's something I'm certainly willing to pursue and support.

BOLDUAN: Congressman Johnny Olszewski, thanks for coming in.

Let's get back to Sara, who's in Nashville.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: I am. I'm here outside the former Grand Ole Opry in Nashville as the tributes, they just keep coming for Miss Dolly Parton, the music icon. She died at 80 years old after a brief battle with cancer.

Now, Dolly came to this town with tenacity, talent, true grit the day after she graduated from high school at just 18 years old. She was clear, though, that she intended to become a star. And boy did she. She had 21 number one country singles, wrote more than 3,000 songs, starred in movies, crossed over into other music genres. She did it all. She created her own successful theme park, Dollywood, and she always gave back, especially to help the country's children.

With severe endometriosis, she didn't have children of her own, so she just treated all children as her own, giving them books with her Imagination Library. Shimon Prokupecz is in Nashville, alongside me. He is down the street with many, many more tributes.

What are you learning, Shimon?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: So, we're actually in an area here in Nashville called 12 South. And this is -- we're outside what used to be or was her studio for quite some time. For 30 plus years, this was her studio. And then she owns some homes. But everywhere you go here in Nashville, you're going to see signs of Dolly. You're going to get to really appreciate the woman that she was. And many people have been coming here overnight. We watched some people this morning come here to place flowers. And just really wanting to celebrate her, the joy that she brought to so many people all across the world, and especially here in Nashville.

[08:40:04]

A lot of flowers here. A lot of notes of love and how much people really just loved her. There's even one sign here (INAUDIBLE) where it says "Dolly for president." She was just so beloved.

And when you go into stores here in Nashville, we just went to a local coffee shop, they're playing her music. People are stopping here. They're dropping off flowers.

And no doubt her impact on Nashville and the impact that Nashville had on her life will never be forgotten. I mean, she -- this city did so much for her. It really elevated her and made her into the queen of country music, of course. And for now people are just coming out and celebrating.

And we spoke to someone, some people last night who talked about her, who talked about her legacy and what she meant to them and their family.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are so blessed to be in her hometown tonight. We feel so blessed to be part of it. Feels a little closer to Dolly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We used to dance a lot in my mom and dad's kitchen, and we danced to Dolly. She was an icon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My mom is 91. She sent a family text out. She goes, I don't know of any person on the planet that has given more than Dolly Parton. Not just to east Tennessee, but to the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: And that's the thing that everyone talks about, is how much she gave back. She came from nothing. She made a lot of money. And the greatest gift that she probably gave was to give so much of it back to help so many people. And that's really going to be her legacy. SIDNER: Shimon Prokupecz, thank you so much. I do appreciate it.

All right, so we are lucky to be joined now by a special gentleman, John Ford Coley. He is a singer songwriter. He knew Dolly Parton. He played with Dolly Parton. And he is here now with us outside the former Grand Ole Opry here at the Ryman.

I want to start with this. You recorded a song with Miss Dolly Parton, but you were also --

JOHN FORD COLEY, SINGER AND SONGWRITER: No, I didn't record with --

SIDNER: Never?

COLEY: No, I never recorded.

SIDNER: Never?

COLEY: There was a lot of things we didn't get to do. I mean, you know, she never had me at the house for roast beef or anything like that. So --

SIDNER: You were friends. Listen, you wanted me to introduce you a certain kind of ways, and I didn't get to do it. So, I'm going to do it. The handsome --

COLEY: Brutally handsome.

SIDNER: Brutally handsome and extraordinarily talented John Ford Coley.

COLEY: And humble.

SIDNER: Oh, and humble. Humble as well.

Give us a sense of what it was like hanging out with her, talking to her, working with her.

COLEY: Dolly was -- she was just unique. I mean, first of all, I was just reading over here, she came to Nashville when she was 18 years old. I mean, I'm still eating dirt and playing with mud pies at 18 years old. So -- but she came in here by herself. I mean, the drive you've got to have. And she had drive.

And the thing that I always appreciated about her was the fact that she continually reinvented herself all the time. So, she'd be in this and then she'd be in that, crossing musical genres. She's playing one time with her (INAUDIBLE) Porter Wagoner, then she's singing with Kenny Rogers, and then she's all the way over singing with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. I mean, the woman had a lot of range in her.

And probably most people didn't see that. But when she got into the film, that was what really got me. When she said, yes, I learned -- she knew that first script, "9 to 5." Everybody just read their lines. She could quote everybody else's lines in that film. And then when she said, you know, with Burt Reynolds, in "The Little

Whorehouse in Texas," "The Best Little Whorehouse," and she said, no, there's got to be a scene where there's a lot of kissing and hugging and stuff like that. I thought, I love this girl. I mean she's hilarious.

SIDNER: You know, she was at a time when some of the things she said, said by someone else would not have been OK. Can you give us a sense of what you took away from that, how she got away with some of the little things that she would say that wasn't for prime time TV.

COLEY: It wasn't because she was so authentic. She wasn't contrived with that accent. I mean that's the way the girl spoke.

SIDNER: Yes. Yes.

COLEY: So, you didn't -- I mean, we make fun of people that are always faking the southern accent when they sing. I just tell people, nah, we don't talk like that and we don't sing like that either. And so, she was absolutely genuine about the whole thing. I mean, and she stayed very true to those Appalachian roots. That was -- that was a great thing. She knew where she came from. She knew what she was after. And she went and got it.

SIDNER: Can you give me a sense -- there's always been a question about who she wrote, and we've got another guest coming on in here, thank you so much for being here, Duane Allen of The Oak Ridge Boys just walked in.

COLEY: Yes.

SIDNER: He just made it here. I know you were working late doing things. You're just busy. Let me ask you --

[08:45:00]

COLEY: He was -- he was bowling.

SIDNER: He was -- he was bowling?

DUANE ALLEN, THE OAK RIDGE BOYS; SINGER AND SONGWRITER: I felt like I was bowling, fighting traffic getting in.

SIDNER: Traffic is always fun, isn't it?

ALLEN: Yes, it is.

SIDNER: Can you give me a sense, you played with Dolly here at the Grand Ole Opry. Give me a sense of what playing with her was like.

ALLEN: I remember one particular occasion where we were all down here, and my granddaughter had just sang on the show. Her name is Texas.

SIDNER: Apropos.

ALLEN: And when she got through, she came off stage and there was Dolly. And I was talking with Dolly. And Texas said, are you really Dolly Parton? And she said, yes. Are you really Texas, the girl that just got through singing? I love your voice. Well, I have another granddaughter that was there too, and she wanted a little attention from Dolly. So, she said, do you have a dog? And Dolly said, well, no. She said, well, do you have a little baby? She said, no, but maybe you can be my baby. How's that?

SIDNER: Awe.

ALLEN: And so, Dolly was so welcoming to young people. They all loved her. My grandchildren loved her. I loved her. We worked her variety show. We opened up her theater in Pigeon Forge with -- they still have the headline there, Oak Ridge Boys, Bob Hope, Dolly Parton.

And we have so many wonderful memories with Dolly. She was -- I saw an interview with her and she refused to take the title queen. She told -- first, she decided to -- she wouldn't take the title of first lady. She was just Dolly. Dolly was -- she was one of the wonders of our world. The whole world loves Dolly. And I love her. I will always love her. I love the way she treated me and my family. And she felt that way toward everybody that came to know Dolly Parton. She was exactly what you think she would be and better.

SIDNER: That is such a beautiful way to end this.

Gentleman, thank you for the fun.

COLEY: Thank you.

SIDNER: And for the beauty and for the music that y'all has also given the world. It's important for us to remember all of the things that you've done. And I was just singing "Elvira" to poor John Ford Coley. I apologize. But, giddy up, giddy up, giddy up.

ALLEN: OK. Well, thank you very much.

SIDNER: Do appreciate you.

ALLEN: And thank you for being here to cover our lady, Dolly.

SIDNER: We will always love her. And that is just the best thing that we can say. The best song she ever wrote. And it's the best thing that we can give back to her.

COLEY: Every time you heard her, you left uplifted. You felt inspired.

ALLEN: So true.

COLEY: And that's -- that was the good thing.

SIDNER: Gentlemen, thank you so much. I do appreciate you.

ALLEN: Thank you. I'm sorry I'm a little late.

SIDNER: It's all right. Traffic is traffic. Dolly forgives us all, doesn't she. ALLEN: That's right.

SIDNER: All right, back to you, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you so much, Sara.

We do have breaking news. This devastating flash flood has swept through villages in Nepal. Now, police say that there have been dozens of people killed. There are fears the death toll will rise much higher. Hundreds of people are missing at this moment, many of them travelers there, tourists. So video, which I think we're going to show you, shows a huge wall of mud and water crashing onto a town.

CNN international correspondent Gage Goulding is following this.

Gage, tell us what you've learned here.

GAGE GOULDING, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I want to get right to that video that you're talking about because, you know, I think a lot of us have seen flash flooding and flooding before, but I don't know if we've ever seen something like this. You see people running here, running for their lives. And this video is incredibly disturbing because you see the water, not just coming through, but over that building. Over. I mean you see it wiping clean off the camera there. It is just absolutely, I don't -- I don't know if there's words for this. This is here along the Nepal-China border.

And the people that you saw in that video, I don't know how this kind of inundation of water would be survivable. Just plain and simple. This -- the fact that this camera ran for as long as it did is beyond incredible. Again, another video just illustrating, you know, a parking garage here that's going to be swept away with all of these tour busses on it. This is a very heavily touristed area. We're told around 400 or so tourists from a number of different countries, including the United States, U.K., South Africa, India, Malaysia all had people there in and around the region. Whenever -- what we're being told at this point is an earthquake that led to a landslide, partially blocked a river and sent what can only be described as a wall of water flying down here with little to no warning.

[08:50:03]

As I was watching this video, I was kind of shocked because you're looking at it and you're like, wow, flooding, there would be rain or storms. But no, indeed, this is actually a beautiful day in some of the videos. You see the sun shining. And then you just see this wall of water. There was no indication that this was going to happen.

At this point, we know that there are 31 people that have been killed. And the fear and what we're being told by China's state media is that there could be, quote, and I quote, "major casualties." This video here is evidence of just that. And you just have to wonder what those people were thinking in the moments as they heard and saw, again, what can only be described as a massive wall of water coming their way.

BERMAN: Yes, this new video that we're seeing here of those busses, we have not seen that yet this morning, Gage. And you can see the busses as the water comes down, they're just being pushed like toys by the force of that water there.

Again, you know, I've seen the number 31 in terms of the confirmed number killed, but you have to believe that number is going to rise. The impact of these floods, just devastating. Obviously, we want to learn much more from the region. We're getting other pictures in and new information all morning long.

Gage Goulding, we appreciate this update. Back to you in just a moment.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: It is really hard, John. I mean, just take a moment. I know you're feeling the same. It is really hard to wrap your mind around that video and how much water we're talking about there. We're going to get back to that very soon.

Also ahead for us, the president's plan to import beef facing unusually strong backlash from his own party. Why?

And the love fern could be making a comeback. A sequel to "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days" is in the works. What Kate Hudson is saying about it.

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BOLDUAN: President Trump's new plan to bring in 300,000 metric tons of beef to the United States from outside is still being worked out. But I want to play for you what the secretary of agriculture told reporters just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: What specific countries have been in talks with the U.S. about stepping up those imports, aside from Mexico, which he has detailed?

[08:55:03]

BROOKE ROLLINS, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE: I am not privy to talk about that. I think the conversations are still going on. And that's Ambassador Greer, who's finalizing what exactly that looks like. And I think the president's involved in that as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: No matter the lack of detail so far, the overall plan quickly drew criticism from the cattle industry and something of a revolt of sorts from the president's own party in Congress. More than a dozen Republicans in Congress are publicly breaking from the president on this one. Senator Tim Sheehy of Montana said this, quote, "I've advised President Trump against this course of action for a year because American ranchers have been struggling against the packer monopoly for decades, and this will further harm them, most of whom are MAGA Republicans.

Senator Tom Cotton called it ill-advised and said it would hurt ranchers. And Nebraska's Republican Senator Deb Fischer, who is a cattle rancher herself, posted on X that "flooding the market with foreign beef hurts our livestock industry and undermines the long-term solution, which is growing the U.S. cattle herd to meet demand."

Joining us right now for some more perspective on this is John Boyd Jr., founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association.

It's good to see you again. Thanks for coming in.

JOHN BOYD, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BLACK FARMERS ASSOCIATION: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: You have called this plan a raw deal. What do you think easing beef tariffs now is actually going to do?

BOYD: Well, it's going to put America's cattlemen, like myself, out of business. We can't afford to take a 25 percent reduction in price because the president wants to do some side deal in Argentina. He was on -- you guys talked to him about his relationship deal there with Argentina. He said that they were losing farms and they were struggling and all of these things. But we're struggling right here at home too. You know, we have a nearly 400 farm -- pending farm foreclosures and no one has helped us. This is the lowest cattle count in the United States since 1951. That's a very, very long time. And we're not investing in America's farmers.

You know, we don't want this beef from Argentina. There was a recall of 30,000 metric tons in Florida and Texas. And even China doesn't want this beef from Argentina. So, why are we being forced to take this beef? We have an issue with screwworm, you know, from beef coming from the southern part of the country, and Mexico and other places. This is not what America's farmers need right now when we are struggling -- we're struggling with the president's tariffs. We're struggling with the high input costs on fuel and diesel and fertilizer from the war and Iran. So, it's a rippling effect.

And then to have the president say it's OK if you count them and take 25 percent reduction across the board is a national insult to America's producers and cattlemen, like myself.

BOLDUAN: What would you say to Brooke Rollins, the Ag secretary? What would you say to the president right now if they were listening and you could give them a message? Because clearly the president, at least in the short term, thinks this is the right solution for someone.

BOYD: Well, you know, it's the right solution for himself. It's what it sounds like. And it's -- and those of -- many of the deals that the president does, there's always something in it for himself and the administration. None of the cattlemen, like myself, was notified about this deal. There hasn't been any talks with cattlemen like myself. As a matter of fact, there hasn't been any meeting with this administration for that aspect. So, the first thing the president and the Ag secretary can do is reach

out to leaders like myself and tell them what their plan is. Who ever seen an Agriculture secretary that says that there's a beef deal, 300,000 metric tons, and they can't even tell you where the beef is coming from. You know it just doesn't, as my kids say, the math isn't mathing. And for many of the white farmers who voted for this president three times fold, you know, it's time to look at a different direction in this country for agriculture, because the president has just taken so many farmers out of business. We're losing 77 farmers today, many of them are cattlemen like myself, every day in this country. And this administration has not put a farm moratorium in place. And I've been on your show before talking about how that farm moratorium would help. So here we are, losing our farms at home, and the president is concerned about farmers and the beef deal in Argentina. So, I think this is very insulting to America's farmers here, right here at home.

BOLDUAN: They say it's about getting at the affordability crisis in America, right? That's what they -- that what's they say. That's what they're presenting it as.

[08:59:55]

So, when the USDA comes out and touts this plan as a demonstration of, as they put it, "the president's commitment to lowering the cost of everyday goods for the American people and saying that this will, in their words, help address the affordability