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CNN This Morning

Texas Senate Passes New Republican-Drawn Congressional Map; Five Dead In Bus Crash After Niagara Falls Tour; Lyle Menendez Joins Brother Erik, Denied Parole In Parents' L.A. Killing; Evacuations Underway In Napa County; Ghislaine Maxwell Says There Is No Jeffrey Epstein Client List. FBI Raid Home of Former National Security Adviser John Bolton; Powell Sends Stocks Surging After Jackson Hole Speech. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired August 23, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

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[06:00:34]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: You made it to the weekend. Welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Saturday, August 23rd. I'm Victor Blackwell. Here's what's new this morning.

The Texas Senate passed its new congressional maps overnight, advancing its efforts to help Republicans gain up to five additional House seats next year. Where the measure now goes from here.

Also, we're learning new details about how a tour bus crashed in upstate New York. The bus was heading back to New York City when it rolled over. Several people were killed, dozens more hospitalized. We have live updates on that just ahead.

Also new this morning, a California parole board has denied parole for Lyle Menendez. The reason the parole commissioner denied the quest request even after calling him a model inmate.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

GHISLAINE MAXWELL, BRITISH FORMER SOCIALITE AND A CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER: I'm not saying that Mr. Epstein did not do those things. I'm not as casting those. I'm not going to say -- I don't feel comfortable saying that today given what I now know to be true.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Ghislaine Maxwell in her own words there. The key takeaways from her interview with the Justice Department, including what she said when asked about President Trump's relationship with Epstein.

We're beginning this morning with the breaking news out of Texas. The state Senate passed its Republican drawn congressional map early this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There being 18 eyes, 11 days, House Bill 4 is finally passed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now that approved map was drawn to help Republicans win as many as five more House seats in next year's midterm elections. The vote was the final hurdle in the redistricting plan brought on by President Trump and Governor Greg Abbott, which has ignited a nationwide redistricting arms race. Now the new maps will head to Governor Abbott's desk to be signed into law.

This devastating tour bus crash in western New York, let's talk about it. Claimed five lives, left dozens injured. The crash occurred near Pembroke. It's about 40 miles east of Niagara Falls. The tour bus was returning to New York City.

Authorities say the bus driver got distract control at full speed, veered off the median, overcorrected and then rolled the bus into a ditch. Some of the 52 passengers on board were ejected while others were trapped inside. More than 30 people were taken to nearby hospitals with a range of critical to minor injuries.

CNN's Leigh Waldman is live in Buffalo. It's outside one of the hospitals where the injured are being treated. Leigh, good morning to you. What have you learned?

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, good morning to you. So we're outside of the Erie County Medical Center, 24 patients taken here following that bus crash yesterday. Six others were either transported by air or ground ambulance to a hospital in Rochester.

We're hearing from those medical professionals and they have a range of injuries like you mentioned, stemming from head injuries, internal injuries, broken bones. Others have been declared medically stable. This all comes after that tragic tour bus crash. Groups of families heading from Niagara Falls going back to New York City after taking in the scenes there.

And we know at this point the age ranges for those passengers, 52 passengers on board that bus range from 1 years old up to 74 years old. There was a bus driver and also another member of the tour company on board that bus as well.

We know at this point, like you mentioned, five people dead, dozens other hurt. We're hearing from first responders. They said it was a volatile scene there. They said that at this point they have overruled any driver impairment causing this crash and also any maintenance concerns with the bus itself.

We know at this point people were ejected out of that bus, others trapped inside as first responders were work to try and free them. Some people not wearing their seatbelts, not having to wear them on a tour bus like this. Take a listen to what first responders had to say about this ongoing investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJOR ADRE J. RAY, TROOP COMMANDER, NEW YORK STATE POLICE: Tragically there in the many years of the thruway, there's been several horrific accidents with this being one of them. It's believed the operator became distracted, lost control, over corrected, ended up on the right shoulder there.

[06:05:00]

The investigation is still underway, so it's too early to state whether or not charges will take place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALDMAN: And at this point, they're trying to determine what caused that driver to be distracted. Further complicating things on an already chaotic scene there, Victor. On the side of the thruway, there is many of these passengers did not have English signs speaking as their first language. We have people who are from China, also from the Philippines that were there, and so they're working to try and pair them with their families. Get that information out there.

BLACKWELL: Leigh Waldman for us in Buffalo. Leigh, thank you.

The California Parole Board has ruled that Lyle Menendez should stay in prison for his part in the killing of his parents more than 35 years ago. His fate and that of his brother now rest with the California governor, Gavin Newsom. A parole board denied Lyle's request yesterday, just a day after his brother Erik was also denied.

Commissioners acknowledged Lyle's years of service, work behind bars, but said that he still struggles with honesty and obeying rules. They point to his unauthorized cell phone use as a red flag. For now, the brothers are in prison, but Newsom can ultimately support or reverse that decision.

For more on what this means, I'm joined now by attorney Misty Marris. Misty, good morning to you. Are these denials a surprise?

MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They aren't a surprise for a couple of reasons. First, we have to remember the brutality of the crime. This was a double homicide, and so this is the first time that the brothers were before the parole board. It is very unlikely, especially with a violent crime, that the first try at seeking parole will be successful.

Also, going into these parole hearings, we knew that a risk assessment was done on each brother individually that includes a psychological evaluation. The results of that were moderate risk, Victor, could have been low risk. Low risk would have increased the odds exponentially. But because it was moderate, that was a caution flag to the parole board.

So the moderate risk categorization, coupled with the violent crime and the dub, the fact that this is the basis of double homicide, I'm not surprised to see the parole was denied this time around. BLACKWELL: The new evidence about the abuse that Lyle and Erik

Menendez suffered at the hand of their father, Jose Menendez, that they say they endured, was a large part of the hearing on Friday. In the end, how important was it or how influential was it on the parole board?

MARRIS: It matters a lot because it relates to one of the factors the parole board looks at, and that's remorse. The parole board was very focused in both Erik and Lyle's hearings on OK, we understand that there is this evidence of abuse that was not before of the court in trial. They've reviewed not only all of the trial records, the appellate records, now this new evidence, in addition to all the records during the time they were incarcerated.

But there was one question, Victor, that was central to both brothers, and it was why Kitty Menendez, too? Why your mother also? And this really relates back to the district attorney's argument that this was not something that was relating to abuse.

You know, the district attorney has said that there is a question mark about that, regardless, because it has not gone through or gone before a jury. But it was a crime for financial gain because if they killed Jose and they didn't kill Kitty, they wouldn't be able to inherit the estate. So, it all really relates back to those central arguments and that idea of remorse for the crime.

BLACKWELL: So let's look ahead to Governor Gavin Newsom. He obviously can intervene here. He can reverse the decision of the parole board. Are we -- do we -- what do we know about the process in the governor's office and the rarity of a governor to reverse the decision of the parole board?

MARRIS: So Gavin Newsom has a lot of power in California when it comes to granting parole. So right now, what's going to happen with this decision is, of course, they're both going to ask for an administrative review of the decision. It was not successful. So they're going to want it to be reviewed by the full parole commission. So that's step one.

After that, whatever happens with that review, then Gavin Newsom has 30 days. That takes 120 days. He has 30 days to either reverse, approve or modify the parole board's decision. But, Victor, if he wants to step in, he doesn't necessarily have to wait. They also have a clemency petition.

[06:10:02]

That's a process where the governor could step in at any time. He has yet to do so. But I will say that Governor Gavin Newsom, more so than governors in the past, has been very active. He's looked at these cases on a case to case basis. And so he may, now that this process is over, conduct his own review and make a decision. But he doesn't have to wait for the parole process. He could also jump in at any time as the governor and great clemency.

BLACKWELL: A lot of people watching this case. Misty Marris, thank you for helping us understand it. Enjoy the Saturday.

MARRIS: Thank you, Victor. Have a great day.

BLACKWELL: All right. Right now, evacuations are underway in the Northern California wine country. Wildfires are spreading. Fire officials said the Pickett wildfire is only 7 percent contained, has burned close to 4,000 acres in Napa County. The Picket fire broke out Thursday.

You're looking at time lapse video here showing the spread. Look at this showing the spread of this fire. Good news is no buildings have been damaged. The cause is still under investigation. These wildfires are being fueled by extreme heat in the West. It's raising concerns for more wildfires to grow.

Meteorologist Chris Warren is here with more on the wildfire danger out West. Good morning to you. What do you see?

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Victor. Well, we're seeing the potential for a very serious fire situation in Southern California. If a fire were to develop, Victor, like we're seeing there, the smoke just kind of goes.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

WARREN: This could be one of the situations where the plume goes way up. And explain why that's bad news.

BLACKWELL: OK.

WARRNE: Here just a second, explain why that's happening, too. First, the areas where there is that fire risk, fire weather alerts in effect here, Los Angeles County, Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, San Luis Obispo County, and the heat, of course, it is there. It is hot and it's intense heat through a big part of the atmosphere.

Now on top of that moisture is coming in, you might say, hey, that's a good thing, right? Some rain for the wildfire threat. Unfortunately, thunderstorms could come with this and that could create wildfires.

Unstable atmosphere means there's going to be a lot of rising air and that rising air with a lot of air going up, air comes in to fill that air that's going up and that creates an erratic wind situation. So, fires can spread more easily because you can get much higher into the atmosphere, embers going up, that can spread out.

Also, the winds can shift and change very quickly. So unfortunately, if a fire does develop it could be a very bad situation.

Meanwhile, this heat for so many here along the west coast, some of the hottest weather so far this season, and that includes the Pacific Northwest, where there will be at least the chance for some record heat. We're looking at some areas in the Pacific Northwest where temperatures are going to be into the upper 80s and lower 90s.

I grew up in the Seattle area. I can tell you get into the 80s, it's hot, and you get up to 90 degrees. Possibly triple digits for some areas in western Washington, western Oregon, where so many people don't have air conditioning because typically you just don't need it because the Cascade Mountains keep the hottest of the air east and the Pacific Ocean is your natural air conditioner.

But in this case, with the heat locked in, not getting the winds coming from the Pacific, it is going to be unbearable. And Victor, some very hot nights for millions of people.

BLACKWELL: 104 in Medford today, potentially.

WARREN: Rogue Valley sizzling.

BLACKWELL: Yes, that is hot. All right, Chris, thank you. Next on CNN This Morning, transcripts released. We have the big takeaways from the DOJ's interview with Ghislaine Maxwell. Plus, the Fed chief gives a glimpse of what will likely happen with interest rates. And that sent the market into record territory.

And how one professional golfer is making a difference on and off the course, helping struggling families in florid.

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[06:18:39]

BLACKWELL: New major developments in the Epstein file saga. All 377 pages of the transcript and audio of Ghislaine Maxwell's interview with Deputy AG Todd Blanche, they're now out. Jeffrey Epstein's convicted conspirator weighed in on several outstanding questions, including the long rumored claim client list.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: During the time that you were with Mr. Epstein and even in the 2000s when you were around less frequently, you never observed or you never saw any sort of list or black book or a list of individuals who linked to certain masseuses or anything like that?

MAXWELL: Absolutely. Absolutely no. There is no list.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Maxwell's interview was released as the Trump administration is trying to tamp down any conspiracy theories about the financier and his death. The Justice Department issued a memo last just in July saying that Epstein died by suicide. That's done little to quiet conspiracy theorists and many in President Trump's base that believe that Epstein was murdered, including Ghislaine Maxwell.

(BEING AUDIO CLIP)

BLANCHE: Do you -- so you think he was -- he was -- he did not die by suicide. Given all the things we just talked about?

[06:20:00]

MAXWELL: I do not believe he died by suicide, no.

BLANCHE: And do you believe that -- do you have any speculation or view of who killed him?

MAXWELL: No, I don't.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: While Maxwell did not believe the ruling of suicide. She suggested that he may have died from an unrelated attack.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MAXWELL: In prison, where I am, they will kill you or they will pay -- somebody can pay a prisoner to kill you for $25 worth of commissary is about the going rate for a hit with a lock today.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, critics of Maxwell's responses and what some are calling a sweetheart treatment by the DOJ are quick to point out that these are the words of a convicted sex trafficker, a woman who appears to be seeking a pardon for President Trump, a woman who was charged with perjury.

These are also events from nearly 30 years ago. And at several points she admitted that she did not remember details of their conversations. Joining me now is CNN's Camila DeChalus. So what else did we learn?

CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN REPORTER: Well, Victor, this transcript and these interviews really provide a small glimpse in her account and her view of her relationship with Epstein, President Trump and other high profile figures. And when it comes to the president himself, she made it very clear that she did not see him in any inappropriate setting. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MAXWELL: I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting. I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody in the times that I was with him. He was a gentleman in all respects.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

DECHALUS: Now, she also said that when it comes to visiting Mar-a- Lago, she only went once or twice for an event alone. But she said that Epstein visited on his own accord, separately, without her. And it's pretty notable just given these transcripts. And she also took some time to compliment the president as well, saying that it was an extraordinary achievement of him becoming president.

But Victor, I want to focus a little bit on the timing of this all. We are told that it took weeks for his team, the president's team, to really debate whether to release the audio transcripts or not. And we're told that some thought in his administration that it was not a good idea, that it would only cause more ammunition to kind of fuel the Epstein story and have it resurface.

While others thought it would really help the Trump administration control more of the narrative around this story because, as you know, a lot of his critics on the Trump side and also his support base really wanted to see more transparency from this administration when it came to the Epstein Dean's story and whether More transcripts about Maxwell and what she knew.

BLACKWELL: Camila DeChalus, thank you for the report. You set us up beautifully for a conversation with Errol Louis, host of the Big Deal with Errol Lewis on Spectrum News and CNN legal analyst. He's got his glasses now. Now he's working. And CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson as well.

Gentlemen, good to have both of you.

Let me start with you, Joey, before we get to the political elements of this, and there are plenty, what's the legal value of what we've learned from the transcript and from the recording? Any?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. So good morning to you, Victor. Good morning, Errol. I certainly don't see it, if anything, I think that the release of the actual files has become more significant now. You know, what is really interesting to me is we always as attorneys go before jurors and say, use your common sense, good judges. There's 12 jurors. Well, those sitting at home are the 13 jurors.

So you're going to release as the Department of Justice these tapes and transcripts between the Department of Justice and Ghislaine Maxwell, your top guy who's your defense attorney, but you will not release the files. That doesn't make any sense to me.

And if you want to really talk about what happened, everything would be in the files. You want to talk about whether she was truthful or not, there would be corroboration in the files. There'd be emails, there'd be text messages, there'd be transcripts, there'd be receipts. There'd be all of this information, witness statements, which would make the determination as to whether it was true or not. Instead, what we got is President Trump. I like him. His achievements have been significant. My father really liked him. I always liked him. He was never around anyone.

And so I don't see any legal significance at all. And therefore, I think it's more of a political issue to which I turn it over to Errol to really resolve and debate that issue. But from a legal standpoint, I think if anything, it really shows why people are clamoring for the files, because that's where we're going to find the information we need.

BLACKWELL: All right, let's do that. Let's talk politics now, because the White House, the president specifically, they got what they came for.

[06:25:05]

Not only did she exonerate for as much as a convicted sex trafficker who's been charged with perjury can exonerate someone, say that the president wasn't involved. He was always a gentleman. There is no list. But what does that do to satisfy those people who do not believe that Epstein died by suicide? They do not believe that this is the full story.

ERROL LOUIS, HOST, "THE BIG DEAL WITH ERROL LOUIS" ON SPECTRUM NEWS: Well, look, they have, if anything, they've sort of started another firestorm because here you have Ghislaine Maxwell saying she doesn't think that he died by suicide. She thinks that he was murdered and that it could have been done for as little as $25 or something like that.

And so now everyone will go back to all of the swirling controversy around what happened to the missing videotape and who was in charge the night in question and what happened to the guards, and on and on and on. The problem, of course, here is that she was asked and she was clearly assigned one thing and one thing only, which was to exonerate President Trump.

And all of the circumstances around it lead right to that, from the leading questions by Todd Blanche to the mere fact of the situation that she was moved into a lower security confinement and that President Trump, of course, has the power to pardon her.

So it's clear what game she is playing. But now we still don't have the answers that the conspiracy theorists always said that they wanted to have answered. And it's going to continue. President Trump is getting what he wants, which is to have his name a little bit disconnected from it, but the controversy will continue.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And Joey, let me ask you this, because looking over the portions of the transcript that I have and listening to the segments, the bites that we've cut, it doesn't really sound like a probing effort that this is to get to the specific details of when and where and how.

Some of these questions about the people, did they ever do anything wrong? No. And they move on to the next answer. What's your assessment of how this was approached by Blanche?

JACKSON: So I think there's significant process issues. I think you can look in starting with the process of who the person was that was conducted this particular interview, such close ties to the president, as opposed to a neutral and detached career prosecutor who is very skilled. Not that Mr. Blanche is not in doing these proceedings, not for purposes of satisfying the president and giving you what the president wanted, which is certainly he wasn't involved. He's a distinguished person. He's a person we like and we love him and I always have.

I think you get to the heart of the matter and to Errol's point, you don't lead. Leading questions are President did nothing wrong, did he? There is no file list, was there? You know, obviously I'm restating it, that's not exactly what happened. But you want to ask questions, you ask them questions.

What did you see, what did you observe, who else was there, what was the time, what was the season, you know, what were they engaged in, what kind of activities? And that's how you elicit information, not by lobbying these really directing her in a certain way.

I just think the entirety of the process smells bad. And again, it calls for the release of the entirety of the file so that the American people can judge for themselves with regard to who, if any, was involved with what they were doing, when they were doing it and how everything transpired.

BLACKWELL: It was a big news Friday and they're still kind of -- we're learning more about the other major story. This is the search at the home of President Trump's former National Security Advisor, John Bolton. We know that this was part of a national security investigation looking for potentially classified information.

Let's get a reminder about how President Trump classified and characterized, I should say what he wanted to happen as a result of the release of Bolton's book in 2020.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: He released massive amounts of classified and confidential, but classified information, that's illegal and you go to jail for that. And he should have known that you go to jail for that. I think some of it was classified by him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The book was cleared through the White House process. DOJ dropped the lawsuit in 2021. But to you, Errol, the President says, I didn't know anything about this before it happened. You think that's plausible?

LOUIS: No, that's not plausible. It's not credible at all. We know that the President and the White House, the team around him, the political team, and certainly his handpicked leaders of the Justice Department and the FBI were going after his political enemies. I

mean, this is as clear cut as you can possibly be. I mean, Kash Patel made a list of people. The head of the FBI, before he was appointed. Published a book in which he made a list of people who were the enemies that he was going to go after if he ever got power. Well, he was handpicked by the President.

[06:30:00]

He was given power. He's going after one of those enemies. It's as open and shut as you can imagine. And I would remind everyone that, look, in a prior generation, this was the heart of the second article of impeachment against President Nixon, the abuse of power using federal agencies to go after political opponents. Completely improper. It was intended as a spectacle, which it

certainly was yesterday, but it's also a chilling spectacle. It's one that sort of shows you what can happen when President Trump, in this case, chooses to make good on his threats.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, ANCHOR, CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND: But Joey, vengeance is not enough to get a search warrant, right? A judge somewhere had to see something that would justify what we saw yesterday, right?

JOEY JACKSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, yes, that's true, but perhaps not. And here's why I say that, Victor, we're in different and troubling times. We're in a time where the President appears to do whatever he wants. Errol alluded to abuse of power. Wow. If ever you want to talk about abuse of power, this is it.

But you have a congress that enables him and does nothing and allows him to do what he has to do, but to the core of your question, you know, you can tell a judge by oath or affirmation what you want to tell a judge in order to get to the standard of probable cause, to give you a warrant. Getting a search warrant doesn't mean you did anything wrong.

It means there's reason to believe, right, that there's factually sufficient evidence that a crime could have been committed or may have been committed, not that there was one. So, what I'm concerned about is the information supplied to the judge, who supplied the information? Is that information credible?

Is it reliable in the way that it needs to be? I'm only as good as what I see before me. I have every reason to believe an FBI agent. And when you're firing agents and firing attorneys who don't want you to do what you want them to do, to me, it's troubling. So, I want to know the genesis of the information, that should be the focus.

Not so much the judges. And even with the judges, who are they? Right. Who gave this in terms of the residence and in terms of the apartment.

BLACKWELL: Joey Jackson, Errol Louis, good to have you both. Thank you.

JACKSON: Thanks, Victor --

LOUIS: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: All right, Fed Chair Jerome Powell sent markets soaring during a closely-watched speech on the economy. What he said that sparked optimism on Wall Street at the White House, and for buyers across the country.

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[06:35:00]

BLACKWELL: Stocks soared Friday after a closely-watched speech from Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Now, Powell suggested yesterday that interest rate cuts could be coming soon. Wall Street loved that. All of the major indices closed up on Friday. Powell has been under pressure from President Trump to lower interest rates for months now.

And the President has been openly critical of the Federal Reserve as a whole. But Powell says that's not what the reason -- that's not the reason that a cut could come. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has more for us. Vanessa, good morning to you.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor. That possible rate cut sent the Dow into a new record. Fed Chair Jerome Powell, for the first time floated the possibility of a rate- cut at the Annual Central Banking Forum in Jackson Hole.

A rate cut would mean lower borrowing costs for everyday Americans, and just the possibility of a rate-cut helped the Dow reach a new record high, closing up 846 points. Here's Jerome Powell and what he said in Jackson Hole.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, CHAIR, FEDERAL RESERVE, UNITED STATES: With policy and restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance. Monetary policy is not on a pre-set course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: And the reasoning behind that is a softening in the labor market, which Powell called curious and unusual. Where there's both a lack of demand and supply for workers. He also said that tariffs have raised prices, but that inflation was still stable, yet above the Fed's target rate of 2 percent.

President Trump was asked about Powell's indication of a possible rate cut, and here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we call him too late for a reason. He should have cut them a year ago. He's too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: Investors are pricing in that rate-cut as soon as September, but it's not set in stone. The Fed still has some economic data to parse through. They have the jobs report and consumer and producer inflation before their next meeting in September. A hotter jobs market and hotter inflation could actually pour cold water on that rate cut. Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Vanessa, thank you. Next on CNN THIS MORNING, the tragedy that stunned the nation in our CNN original series, the final episode that details the last days of John F. Kennedy Jr's life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

BLACKWELL: The CNN original series "AMERICAN PRINCE: JFK JR" explores the story and the legacy of John F. Kennedy Jr. Now, the final episode, media and paparazzi coverage surrounding JFK Jr., his new wife Carolyn Bessette. It's increasing. They're in internal conflicts at "George Magazine", and everything culminates in the tragedy that stunned the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She had left Calvin Klein, so she was at an inflection point in her own life and trying to decide what she was going to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it was hard for her to work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the business that she was in, you're dealing with people who your job is to kind of put them at the front and center of every single conversation, and to have an employee working for you who overshadows you no matter who you are, is antithetical to the job.

CAROLE RADZIWILL, FAMILY MEMBER OF JOHN KENNEDY JR & CAROLYN: After the first year, I was down at their place and she must have given me ten Prada suits and coats and everything. She was like, I'm never going to wear this. And I was like, I'll wear all of this.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She had left everything she knew up until that point in fashion, and she was just married and just not used to that level of scrutiny.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Carolyn was young and smart and ambitious and had a big brain, and I think really wanted to do things, and to kind of have a big life.

[06:45:00]

And it's tough when you go from that to suddenly being overwhelmingly known for one thing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just felt sometimes unbearable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: With me now, CNN political analyst and historian Leah Wright Rigueur. Good morning to you, Leah. Let's start here with that media element, because JFK Jr. was a celebrity before he was born, right? Do you think that he was more comfortable than Carolyn with this position in the spotlight?

LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST & HISTORIAN: So, John Jr. was absolutely more comfortable than Carolyn in the spotlight. And you know, we all know the very famous image, but the world knew the very famous image of John at three years old saluting his father's casket at the funeral of John F. Kennedy.

And so, he had grown up in that spotlight. Everything that he did, whether it be going to school, going to law school, rollerblading in the West Village. Everything that he did was under scrutiny. And so, he'd kind of grown up in a life of celebrity, but also he was a media sensation, and he learned how to use that to his advantage.

When he started dating Carolyn, it introduced an idea that he had always been interested in, but had never had access to, which is the very idea of privacy. And so, that really changed everything.

BLACKWELL: And so, how do you think they influenced one another? Fame aside, their identities, their work.

RIGUEUR: Well, I think both of them were creatives, and had really kind of -- were very passionate about all the work that they were doing, and that the work that they were invested in and interested in. And creatives, not in the sense of wanting to be close to materialistic things, but actually seeing the value in creating new things.

For Carolyn, it was fashion, it was clothing, it was design. For John, it was media, journalism, politics and policy. But then the other thing that I think that they offered is a sensibility of how to really have this energetic and enthusiastic and very intimate relationship without the influx of attention that John was used to.

You know, Carolyn never asked to be famous. She didn't want to be famous. She wanted to be a private citizen who lived her life with her husband or her fiance or her boyfriend. And so, what she brought to the table and what I think John learned how to interact with, was this desire for privacy and for an intimate life that you could be public figures.

You could also shun the spotlight. You could use it to your advantage. But you could also have a private, intimate life that was full of friends and happiness and living.

BLACKWELL: And so, now, 25-26 years since their tragic deaths, what do you believe is the legacy of JFK Jr., specifically?

RIGUEUR: Well, I think JFK Jr. is the prince that was promised. That he was a person that was full of potential right at his -- right as his life was cut short. One of the things that he had made it clear is that he had established his own -- essentially his own self. Right, he had distinguished himself from his father, but also was stepping into his father's legacy.

And so, he had recently started talking about after launching "George Magazine", after seeing the success of "George Magazine", after having resounding success, speaking at the Democratic National Convention in years earlier, he had announced that he was starting to be interested in politics.

Privately, everyone knew that he was going to pursue politics, whether it would be governor of New York, whether it'd be senator, and ultimately, I think most people thought this was a road that would ultimately lead to president, like his father, but done in a very different way. And yet, that was cut short. And so, we got to see the promise of the ideas. We got to see the potential of the ideas, but we never actually got to see them materialized.

BLACKWELL: Wow, well said. Leah Wright Rigueur, thank you so much. "AMERICAN PRINCE: JFK JR" airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on CNN.

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[06:50:00]

BLACKWELL: PGA Tour Championship is playing out this weekend in Atlanta, and we're spotlighting former PGA Tour great Paul Azinger. He was recently named the recipient of the Payne Stewart Award, named after the late golfer known for his charity work.

Azinger told us how he and his wife have the honor of running their own organization that saves, or rather serves vulnerable families in Florida.

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PAUL AZINGER, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: Character is a big part of the reason this award is given out, and Payne's character stood out. But then it's his charitable donations and giving. He had a heart for that before he had the money to do it, and he always showed great sportsmanship.

And I think all the players want to do that. It's a charitable aspect of Payne's life also that made him different and made him really stand out. You have the Azinger Family Compassion Center partnering with one more child, and we're doing the best we can for our community.

We're trying to help children mostly. We've partnered with a foster campus as well, and now we've got this beautiful redistribution center on the foster campus giving out, I don't know, probably over $18 million worth of non-food items that have been donated through our building in just two-and-a half years.

[06:55:00]

And right at about $6 million worth of food. And for one, I didn't know there was that kind of overage. But I also didn't know there was that kind of need. Even the hurricanes, you know, we've had some hurricanes since our building opened two-and-a half years ago. FEMA's discovered our building, and we've been the first stop for a couple of the hurricanes in Florida, and where we could get out the goods to the people that were most in need.

My wife, she's the one that really inspired this whole thing. I look at all the individuals that work at our compassion center and their heart and their love for service to others, that it blows me away. How many people come in there and volunteer in that building who have the same heart? People, I think just inherently want to be in service to others. And

high school students can come in and earn credits, community service hours in our building. It's just a great place to be. Everyone in there is always in a good mood because we're doing something for someone else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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