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Person Detained for Questioning in Guthrie Case Released; FBI Releases Images and Video from Nancy Guthrie's Doorbell Camera; El Paso Flight Restrictions Come After Military Could Not Guarantee Safety of Civilian Flights; Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to Meet at White House. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired February 11, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The heist ended in a shootout with Italian police. One officer was hurt.

Brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now. Breaking this morning, a man detained in the search for Nancy Guthrie released just this morning. As the FBI now pushes for help identifying the person in chilling doorbell video.

And breaking news, a rare move, incredibly rare, almost unprecedented, that shocked officials in Texas and around the country. The FAA grounds all flights into and out of El Paso's airports. Officials, going as far to say, is they're going to shoot down anything that violates the airspace. The latest reporting on really the mystery of what is going on here.

And we are standing by. In the next few minutes, we get a crucial report on jobs. The White House has been working hard to downplay the numbers. What will they say after one of the worst stretches for jobs in years?

Sara is out today. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning, questioned and released. We're now hearing from a man who says he was detained for questioning in the search for Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie. But ultimately, that man was let go without charges.

Authorities had said that they detained someone during a traffic stop in Rio Rico, which is about 60 miles south of Tucson, and the Tucson area where Guthrie was last seen, where her home is. They also searched a vehicle and a home in that community. A man identifying himself to the New York Times, only as Carlos says he was shocked when he was detained and that he has nothing to do with Guthrie's disappearance.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CARLOS: I mean, I hope they get the suspect, because I'm not it. They better do their job and find the suspect that did it so they can clear my name and I'm done. Look at what I'm putting my family through.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're on national news now.

CARLOS: Not just them, even my parents in Tucson.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

CARLOS: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: All of this comes just after a breakthrough. The FBI released video and images showing a masked, armed person at Nancy Guthrie's door the night she disappeared. Google technicians were able to recover the video from Guthrie's Nest cam, as we know, several days into this investigation.

A law enforcement source making clear, though, that they still do not know, they say, where Guthrie is. Joining us right now is CNN senior law enforcement analyst, the former deputy director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, and former FBI special agent, Ken Gray. Thank you both.

Andy, the person released by law enforcement after being detained for questioning, he told local reporters that he didn't even know who the woman was, that he works as just a delivery guy, just as a delivery driver. Should people see this moment, him being released, no charges, as a dead end in the investigation, a back to square one? Kind of take us behind the scenes here.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, you know, I don't see it as a back to square one. Obviously, yesterday, the investigators made a lot of progress. We're well beyond square one.

We have a video and still images of the person who we confidently believe is the attacker. We just don't know who that person is yet.

While the investigators are working that primary angle, they're also getting information from other sources. They've requested that the public call in with things that they've noticed, things that seem, you know, not to add up, things that seem suspicious. So they still have to run down all of those items.

My guess here is that that individual was one of those investigative leads. You still have to take each one of those to its conclusion. I'm quite sure he told the investigators the same thing he said to the reporters, that he had no idea who Nancy Guthrie was and wasn't involved.

But they're not going to release him until they have some reason to believe that he's telling them the truth. I think that's what we saw happen last night. It is an unfortunate part of the investigative process. But these guys have a lot of information to cull through. Hopefully we'll see them continuing to interact with people and ruling some people out but ruling in the folks that we need to catch.

BOLDUAN: Ken, I want to play -- the FBI director was on TV last night. I want to play what he said, his wording.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: We were able to exploit information pursuant to our private sector partner engagements that showed us that there might be persons of interest in and around the area related to this event. I do believe we are looking at people who, as we say, are persons of interest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:05:00]

BOLDUAN: The persons of interest element of this is just -- I wanted to just get your take on what you hear in that.

KEN GRAY, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: So I would go further than that, in that I believe that the person we're seeing here on Nancy's doorstep on the night she was kidnapped, that this is our suspect. He's being careful about the way he's wording this, but nonetheless, this is our guy who is responsible for this. And there may be others involved, but at least we have these images now of the person that was on her doorstep trying to get into her residence and trying to disable the camera there at her front door.

BOLDUAN: When you're looking at, Andy, the video that we have, what do you think, and what they're saying is, look at all of it. If anything looks familiar, please call, right? I mean, that is clearly important.

I mean, you could be talking about the shape of the eyes, the look of the eyebrow, the shape of the hands. What do you think, just from your past experience, ends up being the most important element of surveillance video like this?

MCCABE: Yes, it's a great question. And I think there are a few things here that are a little bit distracting. We've got to constantly remind ourselves that this is an image from essentially a night vision camera, right?

A camera that works off of detecting light in a different way than a normal camera. So colors appear very different. What looks to us in these images as like shades of gray and black might be very, very different colors.

So it's hard to get a perfect description of what he was wearing. But nevertheless, the combination of those clothes, be they the pants, the jacket, maybe the oddly shaped and sort of misused holster that he uses to carry the gun, those are all things that could provoke someone who sees the images to say like, hey, I think my friend has that, or wears that jacket, or I've seen him with that holster before. But it is the movement of that person as he turns around and walks away from the door.

He's looking for, you know, vegetation to inexplicably try to use to block the camera. I think it's those movements that will seal the deal for someone who thinks they recognize him. They'll say -- they'll see the way he walks, the way he bends over.

He's got a kind of laconic, not very intense way of carrying himself, not what you would expect for someone who's about to commit a kidnapping. He's very kind of nonchalant about the way he moves. All those things are undeniable.

The camera lens doesn't change those. So I think those are the things that will convince someone like, hey, I need to make a phone call. I think I know who this is.

BOLDUAN: That's a really interesting way of putting it. Ken, oh, what a period of 24 hours makes. It was just yesterday morning you and I were talking, and we were talking about how this had hit something of a wall.

They were repeating investigative steps that the FBI, you know, has to be open to the possibility of it could be -- it could have been started as a random burglary. Maybe there was no intent to -- there was just back hitting a wall in terms of the investigation as we were discussing. And now we're to this place.

And it makes me wonder with your experience. Have you been or are you surprised how things have progressed at all over the last 11 days now?

GRAY: So often with an investigation, you are busy running down all possible leads, waiting for that lucky break. And this may be that lucky break. This may be the thing that turns this case around, because as we were talking about yesterday, it looked like law enforcement was getting up against the wall, running down all the leads and repeating stuff they had already done before just to make sure that they had not missed anything.

But this has opened the case up entirely. Someone out there will recognize this guy putting together the entire package, as Andy was saying, with the way he moved, the way he looked, what stuff he was carrying. Someone will recognize him.

One of these tips that are coming into the command post will turn up the guy. It's just a matter of time now.

BOLDUAN: And they're right there on your screen of the tip lines once again, as they continue to ask if you see anything, recognize anything to please call. Andrew McCabe, Ken Gray. Thank you both -- John.

BERMAN: Breaking news this morning. The FAA closes down airspace around El Paso, Texas for the next 10 days. This is a big airport and a big deal.

They're citing special security reasons. So what does that mean?

And just minutes from now, a critical jobs report after notable weakness in 2025 after new concerns about how hard it is to get a job. What will these new numbers show?

And a boat capsizes throwing a family of six straight into the ocean.

[08:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BERMAN: We've got important breaking news and important developments coming out of El Paso, Texas, where the FAA has closed airspace over that city, effectively shutting down that airport for 10 days. They cited special security reasons. But over the last few hours, and this really has been developing before our eyes, no one knew exactly what that meant. Now, just into CNN, we're getting new reporting as to what's going on here.

So let's get right to the reporter breaking this news. CNN Aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean. CNN, we're getting new reporting as to what's going on here. Pete, boy, am I happy to see you, because this is a big deal and quite a mystery.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It's a huge deal, John. You know, it was a mystery, now a little bit less so. And the new reporting from me, a source familiar, briefed by the Federal Aviation Administration on this really unprecedented 10-day airspace shutdown over El Paso, Texas, right on the border there with Mexico, says this is all linked to military activity at nearby Fort Bliss, specifically Biggs Army Airfield.

You can see it on the map there, just north of the El Paso International Airport. That is significant, because it seems that the Defense Department was carrying out some sort of operation there, still sort of unspecified, which caused the FAA to think that they could not assure the safety of flights going in and out of El Paso International Airport. Therefore, that led to this blanket, sweeping airspace shutdown without modern precedent.

A lot of people online have been pointing to 9-11 as a similar incident, causing something like this. That was a nationwide emergency airspace shutdown. The situation was fluid, but it was pretty obvious why that shutdown went into place.

This really broke overnight, and it wasn't very clear why this went into place. There is never, ever in the history of the Federal Aviation Administration, and I can say that with some authority as a pilot and a flight instructor, been a large-scale shutdown of airspace over a large metropolitan area. We're talking about a city of about a million people, about 1,000 flights operating in that 10-day period in and out of El Paso, Texas.

We're getting a statement just shortly now from Southwest Airlines in which they will say they're trying to work with the FAA on this. This is going to have a pretty big ripple effect, because this is not a small airport, really, billed as the gateway to Mexico, this airport. So, this is going to have a big trickle down here. I want to also point out the things in this notice to airmen or temporary flight restriction that make this so different than other temporary restrictions on flights that we see for things like VIP movements or presidential movements. This includes all flights up to 18,000 feet. The emphasis there on all flights.

That's commercial flights, also police helicopters and medevac helicopters. Usually, those things are exempted from a large ban on airspace of about 10 miles here. So, this is really significant, John, and the new details are just coming in.

We now have a better idea of why this was put in place. A bit of an impasse between the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration.

BERMAN: Pete, I got to keep you overtime here, and I'm going to get in trouble for it, but this is such a big deal, and there still is a mystery here. Biggs Army Air Base has been there forever, right? And so, this has got to be because of something new that's going on there.

Any details about what might be happening that's causing the FAA to say they can't fly right now?

MUNTEAN: Still a little murky. You know, Biggs Army Airfield is a major helicopter base. A lot of training there done for the Army.

Also, a drone base, so some questions about drone operations there. Of course, some big questions here about whether this is something that the federal government and the Department of Defense has not disclosed, and maybe that is why we're not getting some clarity about why this is being put in place with such a sweeping hand by the Federal Aviation Administration.

BERMAN: Got it.

MUNTEAN: It's really interesting that the Defense Department is actually referring people, calling them, to the FAA. And so, now we're kind of stuck in this zone where nobody's really able to get a lot of new information. We'll keep pushing and trying to get that for you.

BERMAN: The important things to remember, unprecedented, some answers having to do with the military, which raise even more new questions. We'll let you get back to reporting. Pete, thank you so much for that crucial update.

All right, we are standing by for what could be heated testimony for Attorney General Pam Bondi after word that her Justice Department tried and failed to indict six Democratic members of Congress.

And the new details just coming in about a deadly school shooting in Canada.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BOLDUAN: So, in just a few hours, a major meeting is happening in the Oval Office. President Trump hosting the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The key item on the agenda, according to Netanyahu, is Iran.

Israeli sources tell CNN the two leaders are expected to discuss possible military action against Iran. Yesterday, President Trump, speaking to Axios, said he is considering sending a second aircraft carrier strike group now to the Middle East should new nuclear talks with Iran now fail to make progress. CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House, back with us now for more on this.

Kevin, what are you hearing about this coming White House meeting from your sources?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, and you know, this meeting was originally scheduled for next week, but Netanyahu asked to move it up to today, which I think gives you a sense of the urgency he is feeling to get in front of President Trump to talk about these nuclear discussions with Iran. You know, our sources in Israel have said that the government there really does view these diplomatic efforts somewhat skeptically. And I think it will be Netanyahu's imperative to try and convince President Trump to at least expand these discussions beyond just Iran's nuclear program.

[08:25:00]

To include things like Tehran's missiles, its support for proxies in the region, all of these elements that Israel thinks need to be included in any kind of diplomatic window with Iran.

We do understand that he's coming with new intelligence to present to President Trump about Iran's military capabilities, perhaps hoping that that could convince President Trump to at least reconsider these diplomatic efforts in some way. It's an open question of how much influence that's going to have on President Trump.

You know, he really does seem intent on pursuing this diplomatic route, even as he builds up the U.S. military assets in the region. The USS Abraham Lincoln airstrike carrier group is there now, considering sending another one as well. But at the same time, still very hopeful that these talks will yield some progress.

Listen to what he said on that front this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As you know, we have a massive flotilla right now going over to Iran. We'll see what happens. I think they want to make a deal.

I think they'd be foolish if they didn't. We took out their nuclear power last time, and we'll have to see if we take out more this time.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LIPTAK: Now, this will be Netanyahu's sixth visit to the United States since President Trump retook office. Almost all of those have been open to the press. Today's is listed as private.

In my experience, that usually means they expect some disagreements in the meeting. But, of course, we'll see how this meeting unfolds today.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Kevin, so glad you're there. Thank you so much for your reporting, as always.

Coming up for us, the breaking news this morning. A person detained for questioning in connection with the Nancy Guthrie disappearance has now been released, this person, just hours after a major break in the case. The new surveillance video that's also been put out and the request now from the FBI. We've got the latest on what we're learning as you're waking up this morning.

And investors standing by for a critical jobs report to be released that's dropping this hour. Why the White House is working hard to temper expectations?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00]