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Report Says, Police Ask Guthrie's Neighbors to Share Ring Camera Video; Bondi Clashes With Lawmakers Over DOJ's Handling of Epstein Files; CBO Says, Trump's Policies Will Add $1.4 Trillion to Deficit Over Next Decade. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 12, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, reports investigators want residents in Nancy Guthrie's neighborhood to check their security footage on a day almost three weeks before the abduction. Is there evidence the kidnapper was casing the area?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And the White House is now weighing in on the mess that was left and made at that hearing on Capitol Hill when Attorney General Pam Bondi went to testify. Much more on that.

And if you think shouting matches in Congress are bad, take a looky- loo at this, a parliamentary -- nope, I'm going to go this way, and we'll get to it. A parliamentary meltdown.

BERMAN: We'll take your word for it.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: It was bad.

BOLDUAN: Fighting, clawing, kicking, we'll even play it out for you. Kidding. What led to it? We've got it for you.

Sara Sidner is out today. I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: And the breaking news this morning, new clues, maybe, in the search for Nancy Guthrie. Authorities are searching for a potentially suspicious vehicle and activity on a date nearly three weeks before the kidnapping. Local stations there reporting investigators have requested that people who live near Guthrie's Arizona home check their doorbell camera footage on two specific dates and times. Yes, January 31st, between 9:30 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. That's the day the Guthrie was last seen and when this reportedly suspicious vehicle was spotted around 10:00. But in addition to that, they want residents to check January 11th, between 9:00 P.M. and midnight. That was nearly three weeks before she disappeared.

Also this morning, the New York Post reports investigators have found a new possible clue, a black glove less than two miles from Nancy Guthrie's home. Now, it's not clear whether this is the same glove worn by the person seen in the doorbell radio released by the FBI.

Investigators are also focused on the backpack the person was wearing. A CNN analysis found that it appears to be an Ozark trail hiker pack sold by Walmart, so perhaps fairly common.

Let's get right to CNN's Leigh Waldman live on the scene for us in Arizona with all these new details this morning. Good morning, Leigh.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning. We've been here for about an hour and we've already seen a Pima County sheriff's deputy making his rounds throughout Nancy Guthrie's home, shining a flashlight, looking for any possible clues. This comes as we have that new reporting this morning from our CNN affiliates that they're asking people who live in this area who have Ring doorbell cameras to go through and check their footage on two very specific dates, the first one being on January 11th, between the times of 9:00 P.M. and midnight, and also again on January 31st, that in the morning, 9:30 A.M. to 11:00 A.M., noting that there could be a suspicious vehicle in this area around 10:00 A.M.

It just shows you how desperate they are for any information as we're at two weeks into the search for 84-year-old grandmother Nancy Guthrie. We know after that initial doorbell camera video released from Nancy Guthrie's home showed that armed person outside of her door, there was 18,000 tips have been called in, 4,000 of those in the 24 hours after that doorbell camera came out.

Now, we also have new reporting from the New York Post, a black glove found less than two miles away from Nancy Guthrie's home. If we go back to that doorbell camera video, we can see that person there had gloves on.

Now, investigators aren't saying at this point if that glove is the same glove that was connected to that person who was seen in that doorbell camera video, but we know that they took that glove in for investigation. It's part of this investigation that's lasted for days now.

But meanwhile, even with these big developments in this case, what we see as big developments here, a person detained for questioning, releasing this doorbell camera video. It's officially been one week since we've had any kind of press conference or interview from the Pima County Sheriff's Office here. They said at this point there're still no plans for a press conference, giving any kind of update in this case.

They're continuing to ask the public to send in information, call in tips, saying nothing is too small.

[07:05:05]

We've seen FBI agents throughout this area, searching this rough terrain, trying to find anything that was left behind by the person or persons who took Nancy Guthrie from her home. John?

BERMAN: Yes. Maybe these clues, these physical clues in these new days will provide the breaks that they need.

Leigh Waldman out there in Arizona this morning, great reporting, thank you. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Now to the dust still settling and records still being sifted through after that hearing with the attorney general, Pam Bondi, yesterday shouting matches, talk of a burn book, clashes with lawmakers like you really haven't seen in a quite a long time, and it all went on for more than five hours.

She was facing questions about issues being handled by her department, fatal shootings in Minneapolis, immigration crackdowns, investigations into President Trump's perceived political foes. But it was questions about the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files that seemed to trigger the most fierce response from the attorney general.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): You can let her filibuster all day long, but not on our watch, not on our time, no way. And I told you about that, Attorney General, before you started.

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: You don't tell me.

RASKIN: Yes. Oh, I did tell you because we saw what you did in the Senate.

BONDI: You're not even a lawyer.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): The meeting will be in order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: All of this played out as Epstein's survivors literally sat in the hearing room directly behind the attorney general.

Kevin Liptak joining us now watching all this for us. Kevin, what's happening over there at the White House now? What are they saying about what played out yesterday and what it means for today?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And I think this almost Trumpian approach to this hearing probably will have gone over fairly well in the West Wing. But, listen, there's been no secret that the White House and President Trump has been less than thrilled, and that's putting it charitably, about how Pam Bond has handled the Jeffrey Epstein matter. You know, Susie Wiles, who is ostensibly one of Pam Bond's good friends, said she had whiffed the entire thing. And I think that is sort of the view taken by most people inside the West Wing.

And so seeing her come out in this hearing very forceful, very bitter, I don't think was a surprise to anyone. She essentially came, you know, armed with personalized attacks for any lawmaker who asked her about things she didn't want to talk about, which was basically anything having to do with Jeffrey Epstein. She offered no specific answers under persistent lines of questioning, including why the Justice Department hadn't prosecuted any of Epstein's co-conspirators. She blamed that on the Biden administration. And also why so many names and photos of his survivors were left unredacted, left open for the public to see in what was released.

And there were some, you know, remarkable moments, including when the Washington State Democrat, Pramila Jayapal, asked her to turn around and address the victims and apologize to them. She essentially refused to do that, offering just a glance in their direction and saying that Jayapal was trying to drag her into the gutter.

She also appeared at moments eager to ingratiate herself to the White House. Listen to this particular exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONDI: He is the most transparent president in the nation's history, and none of them, none of them asked Merrick Garland over the last four years one word about Jeffrey Epstein. How ironic is that?

You know why? Because Donald Trump, the Dow, the Dow right now is over -- the Dow is over $50,000 -- I don't know why you're laughing. You're a great stock trader as I hear, Raskin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So, you hear her there almost imitating President Trump himself, who has spent the last several months trying to move on from the Jeffrey Epstein matter, trying to turn focus to what he views as his accomplishments.

You know, I think this whole hearing just underscored how much this Epstein matter has come to define Pam Bondi's tenure as attorney general. Even amid all of these other controversies in her department, this was the topic that this hearing consistently returns back to.

You know, in a lot of ways, it's a matter of her own making, dating all the way back to that time some months ago when she sort of fatefully declared that she had the Epstein files sitting on her desk. Now, so many months later, it's clear that she's still having to answer for that very thing.

BOLDUAN: Yes. It doesn't sound like it's going to end there no matter where the Dow stands this morning.

It's good to see you, Kevin. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

$1.4 trillion, that is how much the federal deficit could surge to over the next ten years. How the big, beautiful bill is a big maybe not so beautiful park of that.

And controversy at the Olympics, Ukrainian athlete disqualified over his helmet. Why and what he's saying about it now this morning?

And pickleball brawl, I almost couldn't say it. A Florida couple is facing charges after a huge fight broke out, well, where else, of course, on the pickleball courts. [07:10:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Country Club pickleball courts, come quick please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay. How many people are fighting?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's about 20 people. Somebody hit somebody with a pickleball paddle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, a new forecast from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shows the federal deficit surging over the next decade.

[07:15:01]

The major reason, the president's huge tax and spending legislation that he calls big and beautiful.

Let's get right to CNN Reporter Matt Egan for all of this. It gets pretty bad in a few years.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes. Look, it's a mess when you look at the federal budget, and the CBO says that the big, beautiful bill from the president is going to make matters even worse.

So, the CBO downgraded its forecast, warning that deficits over the next decade will be $1.4 trillion higher than previously estimated. Why? Well, the big, beautiful bill, that alone is expected to add $4.7 trillion to the deficit over ten years, almost $5 trillion from that legislation alone. Another half a trillion for immigration related policies.

Now, the CBO does give credit for tariffs, $3 trillion of revenue coming in from tariffs, and yet that's not nearly enough to pay for the other policies, especially the tax bill. And also, let's remember, this is assuming tariff policy stays in place for a decade. Lately, it feels like tariffs don't stay in place for a month, but even still, it's going to not be enough to cover all these other costs.

Now, here's the thing. It's getting increasingly expensive to finance America's mountain of debt. The CBO expects the U.S. government this fiscal year alone to spend a trillion dollars just on interest. John, that's about $3,000 per U.S. resident. And what's really striking is that's well ahead of the $885 billion that's being spent on defense, so more on interest than on defense.

And one way to measure how big of a fiscal mess this is to look at the national debt relative to the size of the economy.

BERMAN: And that's what matters. Honestly, that's what most economists say. You want to take the debt as a percentage at GDP.

EGAN: Because it's all relative, right? And look at this, it's clearly going in the wrong direction. That dotted line is where we are right now, the CBO is projecting that it's going to -- debt to GDP is going to surpass the prior record of 106 percent. That was set back in 1946 after World War II, and just keep going well above 120 percent by 2036.

Now, one of the things that gets lost in the conversation here is that running high deficits, right, borrowing aggressively, that's something that traditionally Washington would only do in really bad economic times, in some sort of a crisis, in a war, but it's happening now under Republicans and Democrats, even though we're not dealing with any of those emergencies.

And the CBO director, Phil Swagel, he put out a statement and he said that given how low unemployment is right now, these sustained large deficits are, quote, historically unusual. And he added that America's budget path is, quote, not sustainable.

BERMAN: Yes. You don't want these types of deficits in relative good times because then what happens in the bad ones.

EGAN: Exactly.

BERMAN: Matt Egan, thank you for this reporting.

EGAN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: That is a steep curve.

EGAN: It is.

BERMAN: All right. New body camera footage, an American citizen shot five times in an encounter with Border Patrol.

And this morning, a tragic loss but moving tributes, the cast of Dawson's Creek, remembering James Van Der Beek after the actor died at the age of 48.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: So, today, we are expecting the Trump administration's maybe biggest attack yet on climate rules. Since Trump began his second term, he has systematically gone after many federal regulations targeting climate change, made no secret about it, of course, and promised it when he was campaigning. Today, might bring the most sweeping step yet.

CNN's Rene Marsh is tracking this one for us and joins us now. Rene, what's he going after? Tell us more.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, I mean, scientists and advocates alike are really calling this, as you mentioned, a huge blow to the global fight against climate change and also to human health. This move targets the Obama era endangerment finding. It was issued in 2009. And what that finding says is that it determined that six greenhouse gases are harmful to human health. And that finding gave the EPA the legal authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from industry.

Now, the U.S., we should note, is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China. So, this finding became the foundation for the limits on pollution from cars, power plants, and the fossil fuel industry overall.

Now, the Trump administration is now moving to repeal it along with vehicle emissions rules, effectively erasing federal limits on the pollution that scientists say it's driving climate change. And this is all coming as the planet has experienced the ten hottest years on record within the past decade, and as many states are facing these astronomical costs for extreme weather.

Now, advocates, again, they are warning that communities will really bear the brunt of this through more pollution and greater health. And, Kate, we can also put our money on a bet that legal battles are almost certain here.

Just a reminder, the Supreme Court in 2007 and again in 2022 found that the EPA does have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases. So, if this repeal is upheld, future EPAs may not be able to regulate it at all, but you can bet that this will make its way all the way likely up to the highest court in the land.

And just one other note, Kate, just contrast where we are today and what we're talking about today with what happened back in 2022 when President Biden signed the most aggressive climate law in U.S. history, that the country was investing billions of dollars in wind and solar and clean energy. So, this announcement today is quite dramatic and it's in a dramatic about-face for where the United States stands on this issue. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes. And what the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, has stood for for decades at this point.

Rene, thank you so, much more to come on this, for sure. Thank you.

[07:25:00]

So, there's a new lead in the Nancy Guthrie case. Her neighbor is now being asked to check their home security cameras for days, weeks before Guthrie was abducted. What investigators are looking for now.

And an upset Milan Americans take silver in ice dancing, but it is the gold medal winners who are dealing with controversy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Breaking this morning, local stations in Arizona, reporting that police are asking neighbors who live near the home of Nancy Guthrie to check their doorbell camera footage on two specific dates and times, January 31st between 9:30 A.M. and 11:00 A.M., that is the day Guthrie was last seen, and when a reportedly suspicious vehicle was spotted around 10:00 A.M. And they also want people to check for footage on January 11th between 9:00 P.M. and midnight. That's nearly three weeks before Guthrie disappeared.

Also, the New York Post reporting that investigators found a black glove less than two miles from Nancy Guthrie's home.

[07:30:04]

With us now, retired FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko and former FBI Special Agent.