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American Morning

George W. Bush Celebrates 55th Birthday on the Golf Course; Jenna Bush Faces Consequences for Underage Drinking

Aired July 06, 2001 - 11:34   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Daryn, he President is going away. He's leaving Washington to go to Walkers Point, which is the family estate in Kennebunkport, Maine. The morning highlight as he celebrates his 55th birthday with Mr. Bush wearing a cap. It says "43" on it. His host for the round has a "41" on his cap. These are not their scores for the first nine holes. And to fill us in on what they mean here's CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace joining us from a beautiful scenic location. Kelly?

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Stephen, they certainly wish those numbers resembled their scores, but right now the score is a tightly held secret. You know it is not every day that you have two presidents on the same golf course. And by the looks of things, it appeared that 43 seemed to be more satisfied with his game than 41.

Now, President Bush, along with his father, the former president and his brother-in-law, hit the links around 7:00 a.m. this morning as you mentioned. The younger Bush wearing a cap with the number 43 on it. This a gift from his father. Mr. Bush, of course, the 43rd president of the United States.

The President telling reporters that he had a pretty action- packed agenda planned for his birthday, but that also would be doing a little bit of work, and that would include a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm going to throw some horseshoes, probably regain the family championship.

GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No way.

GEORGE W. BUSH: fishing. And I might go for a jog too, complete the day. So you see a rather old guy kind of moving along slowly, that will be me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: The President making a joke although we do know he runs about a 7 1/2 minute mile which is quite good certainly for a man his age, now 55. We do know that that conversation with Vladimir Putin has taken place, it lasted about 10 minutes. And besides Mr. Putin perhaps offering birthday wishes for President Bush, the two men were expected to discuss issues such as Iraq and the fighting in Macedonia. Again though, most of this weekend, Stephen, devoted to rest and relaxation. This is the President's first visit back here since he arrived in the White House.

As we know Bush senior loved to vacation here while he was President, so much so that Kennebunkport became known as the summer White House. The younger Bush though prefers to go to ranch in Texas. Although on this trip clearly he has left the cowboy boots behind to spend time at a place that aides say holds special memories for the President. Stephen?

FRAZIER: Kelly Wallace in Kennebunkport, thank you very much.

Last time we checked the president had not heard from twin teenaged daughters. There hadn't been a phone call yet to wish him a happy birthday. He didn't expect that until much later in the day because in fact, they're just young children, but there has been a development for one of his daughters in the news and that is that Jenna Bush has been fined $600 for violating underage drinking laws. She will also lose her driver's license for 30 days, we hear.

An Austin City judge ordered her to perform 36 hours of community service and attend alcohol awareness classes because of a previous underage drinking charge. Some of this seems rather heavy for a first offense. It's because they've rolled in the penalties for a second offense. The license suspension relates to her previous offense, all this stemming, the second offense, from a trip to a Mexican restaurant in Austin where Jenna was accused of using a false ID to attempt to buy alcohol.

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