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First of All with Victor Blackwell

Tell Me How You Really Feel; How Do Black Voters Really Fell About Democratic Socialism; Friend Of Nolan Hire Attorneys, Return To MS Island. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired August 08, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:38]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, first of all, tell me how you really feel. The Senate race in Michigan is not the only result both parties should be paying attention to in order to get a read on a crucial group of voters ahead of the midterms. And we've talked here about the expectation that black voters would play a big role in the Democratic primary. Between Abdul El-Sayed and Congresswoman Haley Stevens.

What ultimately played out is really interesting. So we looked across the five largest majority-Black cities in Michigan by total population, Detroit, Flint, Southfield, East Point and Oak Park. Stevens won over El-Sayed, 62.5 percent to 34.1 percent. Huge margin.

El-Sayed says that he's not a Democratic socialist, but he is a part of the progressive wave of Democrats that -- that the party's reckoning with right now. So, the takeaway is that black voters want to moderate, want back moderate Democrats like Stevens is. They have historically in Michigan, right? That's what the assumption is.

Well, consider a lesser-talked-about race in Michigan this week. State Representative Donovan McKinney beat the incumbent Democrat in Detroit's 13th district. That's important to note. Since 2023, Detroit has had no black representative in Congress. After decades of black representation, one of the blackest cities in the country.

It also stands out that McKinney is a Democratic socialist. So consider this. If he goes on to win in November, as expected, along with Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, Detroit would be the first major city majority black that would now be entirely represented in Congress by DSA members. Next week, new test.

In Wisconsin's Democratic primary for governor, a DSA candidate, Francesca Hong, will face off with David Crowley. Crowley would be Wisconsin's first black governor, but is seen as the moderate in the race. But do not call him establishment, though.

He told our affiliate WMTV this week that, "When we talk about the establishment, I don't know who that is. I'm a kid who grew up in the 53206 zip code. My parents was drug addicts and suffered from mental health. I've worked extremely hard to be where I am today. So when people try to call me the establishment, I look at that as a Slur, particularly as an African-American candidate."

So how do black voters really feel about DSA versus Democrat, moderate versus Progressive, outsider versus establishment? Let's bring in Theodore Johnson for the conversation. He's a contributing columnist at the Washington Post.

Ted, good to have you back here. We've talked a lot about, you know, the differences in polling, minorities versus white voters. You can find out what a white woman without a college education who lives in the suburbs thinks about most issues, but everybody else is people of color.

And so, your column this week in the Post about the real opinions- what do we know about black voters' views on Democratic socialists?

THEODORE R. JOHNSON, CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes, it's a complicated story, and it's good to be with you this morning. So, look, first of all, we all know that black folks are not a monolith. We all know that there's tremendous political and ideological diversity within the black electorate. And we also know that once a general election shows up, probably 85 to 90 percent of black folks are voting for the Democratic candidate. And that's in a bad year. In the good years, it's even more than that.

So, what's behind this sort of rise of democratic socialism and black support for it? So, look, because black folks are not a monolith. There are black folks who are more progressive than the mean black voter, and there are folks who are Democratic socialists because they believe in a stronger government hand across a range of responsibilities that, that it has, that the country needs.

So, it's not surprising that we see some support. What is surprising is where we see it. The fact that, as you mentioned, Detroit might be the first city to be majority black and represented by Democratic socialists says as much about the candidates that are running and the geography where they're winning as it does about the platform on which they're running.

It's the reason it's Detroit and not Atlanta, the reason it's Detroit and not, you know, Charleston, South Carolina, the Midwest, the West, Northeast, though there's not a ton of black folks in these places outside of the metro areas. The ones in those areas tend to have politics that are similar to the region where they, where they grow up, where they live.

[08:05:07]

So, it's not too surprising that we see it. But it's also, there's a reason that establishment candidates, you know, to the extent that word means something to you, are still doing quite well and, and winning black voters over across the country.

BLACKWELL: And it's important to point out, look, black voters are not a monolith. I will say it again, just as you have said it. But what explains the mixed result that we saw, yes, Donovan McKinney win in Detroit, but Cori Bush lose in St. Louis? Obviously, they are not the same candidate in different electorates. But you didn't have a continuous narrative through election night.

JOHNSON: Yes, it's so interesting because as you mentioned, El-Sayed lost Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne County's right around Detroit. And McKinney won in one of those districts, and the other one is Representative Tlaib. So, look, part of the reason I think that McKinney was successful where he was not because he was a Democratic Socialist alone, but because he was black. And this isn't to say that black folks only vote for black people.

Look next door, Representative Tlaib, you know, when there. But against Representative Thanedar, he is a former DSA member. And so, when you're basically given two candidates that are very close ideologically, it doesn't surprise me that the black candidate won. We saw the same thing in D.C. in the mayoral race.

Two black candidates, one establishment, one a Democratic socialist. The Democratic socialist won in a very close election, as in with McKinney. Cori Bush in St. Louis; she was a representative and lost a primary. And St. Louis decided we don't want, you know, we don't want to be represented not by a Democratic socialist again, but they just chose not to put her back in the seat. And I think that was a candidate choice more than it was a policy one.

So, these mixed results suggest that the kind of candidate you are and the kind of race you run and who you're running against matters a lot to determine whether or not you will be successful with black voters in these places. And the old sort of just say Jim Crow 2.0 do souls to the polls, and then you're going to get 80 percent of the black vote. Those days in certain parts of the country are just, they're over, certainly in the primaries.

BLACKWELL: And you know, there may be some people who are watching and wondering why are we talking so much about black voters and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, or Democratic socialists. Here's why.

Because the Democratic Party has just confirmed that South Carolina will be the first primary in the 2028 race. A large portion of the primary voters there in South Carolina are black voters.

So, the test of the direction of that campaign will be decided by black voters. Take us into that decision and how crucial that is in this conversation of what black voters think about the future of the Democratic Party.

JOHNSON: Yes, it's such a great point. Look, two thirds of the Democratic primary voters in South Carolina are black. So, if you want the primary nomination, you want to be the nominee, you better convince black folks in the south, and don't take my word for it.

Bill Clinton was losing. They call him the Comeback Kid. Why? Because Super Tuesday, lots of deep-South states where black folks are the majority of the Democratic primary, he won them on the way to the presidency.

Barack Obama, South Carolina was choosing Hillary Clinton over him until Obama won Iowa, proved his viability. Win South Carolina on the way to the presidency. Joe Biden, remember, first three primaries or so, lost third, fourth place goes to South Carolina, cleans up on his way to the primary.

So, if you want to be the Democratic nominee for the presidency, then you'd better win black folks in the South. And that means for a few reasons. One is because more than half the black people in the country live there, something like 57, 58 percent.

But the other is you cannot get to the White House without a high turnout among black voters. And as Trump proved in the last election, if you don't get 90 percent of the black voters in this new sort of realigned electorate that we're seeing, you're not going to. You're not going to win the White House. So, these voters are extremely important, and they're older, and they're more conservative than the black voters that we see in other parts of the country.

So, you got to win them over. One last thing, I'll say. In New York, Mamdani lost black voters in precincts where they were the majority and in the primary, but in the general, cleaned up because he was the better candidate and he proved that he was the Democratic nominee for all intents and purposes.

So just as we saw with these other races, with the presidents in the White House races, just because you lose black voters in the primary does not mean they're gone forever. If you win the nomination, you can -- you can bet that black folks will probably be there to support you in the general.

[08:10:00]

BLACKWELL: And so we're seeing the outreach from Abdul El-Sayed campaign in Michigan try to bring -- get those black voters in Michigan excited about his campaign for Senate. Ted Johnson, always good to have a conversation with you. I learned so much. Good to see you.

Now we're staying on top of the investigation into the death of Nolan Wells. Two teens believed to have been on the same boat trip with him returned to the island yesterday. Why? Well, that answer is ahead.

Plus, a water crisis in Puerto Rico. People there, in major cities on the island, are ordered to go without water for 48 hours at a time. We'll speak to someone living through that right now. That's coming up.

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[08:15:22]

BLACKWELL: It's been a little more than a month since Nolan Wells was found dead along the shore of an island off the coast of Mississippi. In that time since we've covered the independent investigation launched by Ben Crump on behalf of the Wells family. As was the case when we last spoke, there are still no firm answers from that probe yet on what happened to Nolan.

Now, there is, of course, the official investigation happening in Mississippi. There's no word yet on where that stands, not even from the top public safety official in the state when we spoke here just last week. Well, now another investigation has apparently launched, this time by friends of Nolan Wells.

Two friends believed to have traveled with Nolan Wells back on July 4th. They've now hired attorneys, and yesterday two of them returned to the island with their attorneys. My colleague and friend, Ryan Young, has been following every development along with me for CNN.

Ryan, we've both covered, you know, cases of mysterious deaths. These boys have not been charged with anything. They're not accused of any wrongdoing. But this sounds like something a defense attorney does, right?

Why are they going back to this island?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is the big question at this point and something that stands out to all of us here. When is the last time we've had a case where for 30 days, there's almost been a vacuum of real facts?

So, the Internet has filled that in. And I think these young men have taken a lot of heat online. They've been accused of a lot of things, and I believe they're trying to use his attorney in a way so they can go out there and show, like, maybe this is the last place we were. Maybe this was the last time we talked to him to sort of fill in those gaps. But they're not sharing.

So, they told us they were going to the island, but they didn't give us a timeline for when they would be at the island. There was a loss of communication yesterday. We would love to talk to these young men because we would love to try to piece together some sort of timeline of our own to figure out exactly what happened to Nolan Wells. And we're not sure where Mississippi is with their investigation.

There was a rumor last week, and some publications went and said the autopsy was done. Well, the truth of the matter is the toxicology might not be back yet. So, there's still a big gap in terms of real information here, in terms of what happened.

And I don't think you can remember a case where for 30 days, where they had a body and they had all this evidence, and there's still just this vacuum of knowledge. The DA's office has pretty much shut everything down, and the sheriff's department is not talking at all either.

BLACKWELL: Yes, nothing. Nothing. And the news of this third investigation caught a lot of people off guard. What these -- these teenagers or young men would be hoping to find.

Ben Crump, the family's attorney. Are they reacting to this? YOUNG: Yes, we tried to reach out to Ben Crump yesterday. He wasn't reacting to this development so far. I think people were waiting to see what pictures would be released or what they said they found. You know, an investigator reached out to me yesterday and said he'd be interested to know if there is any additional evidence. Like, are there his shoes?

Did they have a wallet? Because if you remember, the family had to go to the friend's house to even recover the cell phone. So where are we with the collection of information?

I can understand why the family might want to wait a little bit, because they've also been taking a beating from online. So maybe they're just trying to wait to see what happens next.

BLACKWELL: You mentioned what's coming online. We saw this week the professional misconduct case that was open against Nolan Wells' mother, Christine Wansley, at least three arrests due to threats.

What stands out to you about kind of these peripheral situations that are happening around the investigation?

YOUNG: This is one of the scariest cases because it seems like people are just fanning the flames. You have a mother and a father who just want answers about what happened to their son. They're being attacked for asking for more information.

On the other side, the young men are being attacked because there are some people who will never believe that they didn't have something to do with the death. And so, with the absence of real information here or a timeline, it seems like people are just taking sides. And they have their own sort of GoFundMe account that's online. And you can see what people are saying.

They believe this has become about race in certain pockets of this. And it's kind of sad to see, as someone who went to Nolan's funeral, there was a big mix of community there, black, white, and Asian. And people seemed to really love this kid.

But at the same time, no one's leading with love in this situation at all, because you think there'd be some sort of like, let's take a step back and let's -- let's play out. That's not what's happening.

BLACKWELL: I asked Christine Wonsley about the element of race, and she's -- her response was, I think any parent would just want to know what happened to their child. They sent him out on a boat. The friends came back; he didn't. And he's found dead days later.

[08:20:07]

On the question of leading with love, there is an honor at his high school. Tell me about that.

YOUNG: So, we learned from the high school football coach they plan to honor Nolan Wells at the first football game. When I talked to that football coach, it was one of the moments that I got a chance to smile a little bit at the funeral. He talked about a moment where they were down, and Nolan scored a touchdown. And it was something that he'll never forget.

He has two young brothers who helped to carry that casket that day. They still play football. One of them may wear his number.

I also want to say on August 19th, it's going to be his birthday. There's a huge sort of celebration for him that's being planned where people plan to show love toward him. But still, I hope by August 19th we have some sort of information to figure out where we are with this case.

BLACKWELL: Especially for that family. Ryan Young, I always appreciate the reporting. All right, thank you.

The trial of the man accused of playing a leading role in the killing of Tupac Shakur that starts next week. So far, he is the only person facing charges connected to the murder.

And think of this. Almost 30 years ago, Tupac's stepbrother joins me to share how his family is bracing for this next.

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[08:25:43]

BLACKWELL: The trial of the man accused of orchestrating the murder of Tupac Shakur starts on Monday. It's a major moment, comes nearly 30 years after Tupac's death. "Keffe D.", Duane Davis is his real name. Faces a single count of murder.

Tupac was shot several times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996. Now prosecutors note that Davis was in the car that the gunfire came from. Explicitly wrote about killing and has talked about it in interviews. D

avis has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors argue Davis was the shot caller and provided the gun. But the trial likely will not reveal who actually pulled the trigger.

In the decades since, Shakur's family has been waiting for some kind of justice. And this is the first, maybe only chance at that. Mopreme Shakur is Tupac's stepbrother and the author of the book "This Thug's An Unapologetically Black Story."

He says sitting through the trial will be re-traumatizing, but he wants those answers.

Joining us now, Mopreme Shakur, Tupac Shakur's brother. Thank you for making the time.

What has revisiting that night back in 1996 or that period in 1996 been like for you?

MOPREME SHAKUR, BROTHER OF TUPAC SHAKUR: It has been rough as it would be for anyone revisiting a situation like this. You know, over the years we have found ways to cope with the trauma, with the drama, and try to still continue on and have a full life, you dig?

These are strange days we're living in. So, you know, I'm just, we just being cautiously optimistic, let the, you know, the process take its course and see where we land.

BLACKWELL: Yes, that cautious optimism. Talk to me more about that because I read that back in 2023 when there was an arrest, you said you were numb. How do you feel today?

SHAKUR: Got a little tingles. Got some tingles. But we going to see. We've been disappointed in so many ways for so long. I feel like we're in God's hands.

I honestly feel like we're in God's hands. The timing of everything, the timing of my book coming out, the timing of this, the timing, you know, so we're just going to follow suit.

BLACKWELL: You know, I just mentioned that it's been 30 years next month in September of 1996. I remember where I was. I was a teenager. It was a Sunday morning by the time it hit 92Q in Baltimore on the radio and I heard that Tupac had been shot.

And he was -- I was a fan of his. But as a brother, talk to me about, and you write about this in your book. The 30 Years since and how what we have lost, what we have missed by not having Tupac with us.

SHAKUR: Yes, it's quite difficult as you can imagine. I worked with my brother through basically his whole career. I've been on every album except the last one, Machiavelli.

And so not only did I lose a brother, I lost a colleague, partner, business partner. You know, we lost a lot, especially from an individual like the late, great Machiavelli, The Don, Tupac, Amar Shakur, the legend.

So, well, we're going to continue to raise him up. We see the impact, his impact around the world. We see how much his fans still love him around the world. I know Pac loved his fans.

So we, you know, besides of consoling ourselves, we tried to console, you know, the fans too, because their -- their love for him, for us. Our ride is real, and it's still there.

[08:30:00]

BLACKWELL: Yes. I mean, I consider some of the things we cover on this show and how in that era to have Tupac's voice not only as a musician, but as in some ways, a cultural analyst. I often think about what he would say in this moment about many of the things we're facing politically and socially.

SHAKUR: I could tell you what he was going to say, what he said 30 years ago, got money for war, can't feed the poor. That's still relevant. That's still active, relevant current statement today, you know, and he has a lot of wisdom in his music and he was very wise and intelligent for his age. No one's perfect. We all make mistakes. But his genius and his artistry and his political activism is pretty much unmatched.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right, my thanks to Mopreme Shakur for speaking with us. CNN will have coverage of the trial starting on Monday.

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[08:35:47]

BLACKWELL: Puerto Rico is grappling with a water crisis that's forcing families and businesses to make some major cutbacks. Starting last night, water is being rationed. More than 180,000 people in major Puerto Rican cities have been ordered to go without water for 48 hours at a time. It's on an alternating schedule.

Now extreme heat and drought that now covers more than two-thirds of the U.S. territory are being blamed for this situation. And it's not expected to get better anytime soon. But could or should really local officials have seen this coming. Here's what the governor of Puerto Rico is saying about it. Pay close attention here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JENNIFER GONZALEZ, (R) PUERTO RICO: A situation that we never expected to happen. But as the US Monitor for drought said before us, this is happening because of the weather pattern of El Nino. It's not just happening in Puerto Rico. It's happening at the rocky areas in the Pacific Northwest and many other areas in the United States.

This is not the first time this happened on the island. It happened the last time in 2014 and 2015 then in 2020 and 2022. One of the worst situations is that the forecast that is from the National Weather Service that it's been with us in a weekly meeting since June of this year is that we are not expecting precipitation and rain on the island in the near future. Actually, the next expected rain is going to be at the end of the month.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: There was no way for this to know this was happening. And also it happened before and we were told it was going to happen again. Let's get perspective now from the island. Puerto Rican writer and historian Israel Melendez Ayala is joining us now.

Israel, good morning to you. I want to get to the political portion in a moment, but are you in one of the zones that's part of this rationing, 48 hours without water?

ISRAEL MELENDEZ AYALA, PUERTO RICAN WRITER AND HISTORIAN: Yes, I am. Good morning, Victor. Thank you for the opportunity. So, yes, I mean, it's true, the facts of the climate change, but the climate change doesn't tell us or explain why so many towns in Puerto Rico months before the drought, having experienced water shortages.

I mean, some areas like Santuse, they don't have water since May. A friend of us, they've been buying gallons or being awake in the middle of the midnight because when they get water. So as I said, the climate change is a fact. And yes, the rationing plant counts because one of the water supplies, which is the Carraizo Lake, is very dry. I mean, the levels of waters are very low.

But this was announced way before. In 2019, there was a committee create a committee to address the climate change and make some plans. So in 2024, that committee submit the plan. And among those plans, there were 52 actions they addressed to the Puerto Rico authority of aqueducts and sewers.

And one of them is about to fix the infrastructure. The infrastructure of water in Puerto Rico is very fragile.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

AYALA: There are many pipes broken, obsolete meters. Some water tanks also are cracks. So there was a report in 2025 from the Fiscal Board that says the authority waste about 60 to 40 percent of the water they're produced. So imagine you do 10 gallons of water. So before it reached to the customers, you already lost between 4 or 6 gallons of those 10 gallons of water.

BLACKWELL: Yes, 65 percent of the water produced because of leaking pipes and overflows. I read that same report this morning and there were billions of dollars that were given to Puerto Rico. This is after Hurricane Maria, throughout the first Trump administration to try to make some of these improvements. How much of this do you blame on, yes, you're on an island and there is a drought, so that will present water problems.

[08:40:04]

As you said, climate change is a real thing. But how much of this current crisis do you blame on the government there?

AYALA: A big, bigly. I mean, I blame the government so much on this. This is results of years and years of lack of maintenance, total negligence of the infrastructure. This isn't, I mean, some of the broken pipes or obsolete -- Maria didn't break them up. I mean, Maria, what it did was to aggravate the ready situation, which is the same thing the droughts is doing. The droughts what he's doing is aggravating the actual situation of years and years of lack of maintenance of the infrastructure.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

AYALA: Carraizo itself, the lake in the same year 2019, the report says that it lost 56 percent of its capacity because of the sediments they didn't have -- they stopped cleaning the lakes and the water channels. So they desired to clean it up but they didn't finish that work. So of course it didn't reserve the amount of water we needed. So could be more resilience ahead of this type of phenomenon like climate change and the droughts.

BLACKWELL: Israel Melendez Ayala, thank you for talking with us about what's happening there. Again, there is no end in sight to this on and off dry out that we're seeing across Puerto Rico.

Coming up, where is Sayveon Anderson? The U.S. army specialist is missing, has been for more than a month. His worried mother, his wife who has a baby on the way. They're with us live. Next.

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[08:46:20]

BLACKWELL: A U.S. soldier is still missing after disappearing more than a month ago. U.S. Army Specialist Sayveon Anderson was last seen June 29 at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We checked with the Army Criminal Division -- Investigation Division, which is leading the search forum, and they told us they're still treating this as a missing person's case. They also said that Army CID has pursued and follow up on several leads.

These leads have assisted us in conducting new interviews, searching known residences and locations of interest, reviewing CCTV footage and examining his transit and travel records. Still, what happened to Specialist Anderson is a mystery.

Joining us now, Jasmyne Mowry. She is Specialist Anderson's wife, along with his mother, Pamela Anderson. Welcome to you both.

Jasmyne, first to you. You are obviously pregnant. When are you due?

JASMYNE MOWRY, SAYVEON ANDERSON'S WIFE: Tomorrow.

BLACKWELL: Tomorrow?

MOWRY: Yes, August 9th.

BLACKWELL: Due tomorrow. When is the last time you saw your husband? Tell me about that day.

MOWRY: I saw him last June 23, before he was brought to base. It was just a -- just a kind of like a high, intense situation, but it was nothing that I thought would lead to this.

BLACKWELL: You say it was an intense situation. Tell me more about that.

MOWRY: He had been dealing with things and there was people who were trying to help him deal with those things, and they had came to bring him back to base.

BLACKWELL: OK. Pamela, you told one of my producers that just days before he disappeared, he told you that Jasmyne had said she wanted a divorce. Do you believe that he could have harmed himself because of that, in that conversation?

PAMELA ANDERSON, MOTHER OF SAYVEON ANDERSON: I don't think so. No, I don't. I don't think so. I know when he called me and he said that she was actually beeping in, and he was like, this is her right here. Mom, I'm going to call you back. And I said, OK. And that was the last time we talk.

I don't think she meant it like that. I just think she was just upset, you know, how things were going, you know, with him, you know, being pregnant, you frustrated. I get it. I understand. But I don't think, like no, I don't think that would make him, you know, or anything.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And Jasmyne, this isn't to, like, get into a marital situation or whatever is happening in your marriage. It's just -- what's so remarkable -- remarkable about this case is that this is from Fort Bragg, where there are cameras, there are security checks. There are obviously people there whose job it is to make sure that it stays safe and the people there safe.

What have you heard from the army about this search, about the last moments he was seen there?

MOWRY: I agree. I feel like the limit, the amount of stuff they have told me doesn't really make sense because he was supposed to be under watch. I've only been told that he's been caught on footage once, and it was going down the stairs, and he looked completely fine that morning.

[08:50:07]

The two investigators that are working on it, it kind of seems like they're working alone because they said they've checked base, they've been on ATVs, stuff like that, his commander communicates me very well, but she doesn't know anything either. It's just for it to be such a facility.

BLACKWELL: We've got a bit of --

MOWRY: -- and so many people and to -- we don't even know who was last saw him.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

MOWRY: Because I mean he did go sit and people did say they seen him that morning, but it's never been any names or -- and I know some of that stuff needs to be like confidential and everything. This is very limited for the amount. I feel like they should have.

BLACKWELL: Pamela, do you believe that the --

MOWRY: And he doesn't have a vehicle, so he was on foot.

BLACKWELLL: Yes. Do you believe that the army is being -- do you believe the army is --

MOWRY: It's very limited and it doesn't really make any sense.

BLACKWELL: I don't know if Jasmyne hear me.

MOWRY: Because where I've been told is not a lot.

BLACKWELL: Do you believe, Pamela, that the army is being transparent with you?

ANDERSON: I believe they are.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

ANDERSON: Yes, I think. I think that they.

BLACKWELL: Jasmyne, last question to you. You are due to give birth tomorrow. How has this disappearance this last month plus impacted your pregnancy? I mean, of course you'd want your husband to be there with you.

All right. I don't think Jasmyne can hear me anymore. Jasmine Mowry, Pamela Anderson, thank you so much for being with me. And of course we're hoping that he is found and comes home soon.

The Army Criminal Investigation Division says that anyone with information on specialist Anderson I can reach out to their Carolinas field office. The number is 910-391-4911. Also submit an anonymous tip at cid.army.mil/tips.

All right, getting ready for back to school is a busy time and to the fathers and father figures trying to keep up. You are not alone. Next, a shout out to a group that's bring a diverse community of dads.

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[08:57:08]

BLACKWELL: There is a video that has stuck with me since it first came across my feast social media feed. It's a group called Brooklyn Stroll Club. It posted this. You see a group of diverse dads hard at work on mannequins learning to do hair together. Really endearing video. The idea that everybody is in there just trying to figure it out.

And I know there are a lot of dads right now that may be thinking about how they need to brush up on their skills as kids head back to school. I wanted to learn more about what brought this group of dads together. So I connected with Brooklyn Stroll Club's founder, Joe Gonzalez.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE GONZALEZ, FOUNDER, BROOKLYN STROLL CLUB: Brooklyn Stroll Club started about two years ago when I became a dad. My son was about four months old and I was like needing community bad. We live in New York, no family. And so for us we were like where do we find the people that we can do this with really there was just so many questions like how to take care of my wife, how to take care of this baby, how to take care of myself.

And we started hosting monthly meetups. We met in a park one time and it felt like this is what needed to happen. 20 dads from all over New York came and it was just beautiful to see people who had first time babies, two year olds, like they just wanted to be good dads. And we wanted to create that space for people to find that process of fatherhood and be able to experience it and grow together.

From there we started a Discord server. Now we have over 2,500 dads, which is beautiful. They're chatting in there about feeding schedules, nap times, how to process school, how to do all these different things. And we want to create the space for dads to be seen and supported.

I have a son who's slowly getting his hair, but we have so many dads who are trying to learn different things when it comes to their kid. And hair is important. And so we wanted to create a space where dads could learn that routine, how to properly take care water, like all the processes that come with that. We wanted to create that space where dads can feel like this is, I can ask questions, I can really be unsure in this setting.

And so our mannequins represented each dad's, you know, child's hair. We wanted to be specific because we wanted to be how it's going to be in the field for them. And so it was important for us to create that space. And then it was so fun to see the dads are having conversations, they're unsure, they're laughing, they're trying to figure it out.

Different dads who are like, who look different, who maybe look the same as you, who maybe have a similar experience in your background. It's like what we really want to create. It changed our lives completely. Becoming parents and becoming a dad.

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I want them to feel and know that there's people out there who are there for them and they don't have to just do it alone. And that's the biggest consent, that's the biggest point.