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Final DNA Results Expected Any Time On Glove Found Near Guthrie Home; Civil Rights Leader Rev. Jesse Jackson Dead At Age 84; Now: High-Stakes Talks Between U.S. And Iran. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired February 17, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: They're putting it through the CODIS system, which is a system to see if there's any matches on that with anything in criminal history or criminal databases around the country.

So if they do get a match then, John, what happens?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT (via Webex by Cisco): Well, good morning, John. Great to see you again.

And, you know, the utilization of DNA in any type of investigation is a really powerful tool. And in this case where we have a glove and we know that the glove does match, at least in -- in the context of -- you know, from a visual inspection matches the glove that the suspect wore in the video. But that's not enough to make this evidence. What you need to do is you need to tie this glove back to the crime scene and you have to tie this glove hopefully to, you know, a potential person of interest or a suspect.

So in this case that DNA return -- you know, those genetic markers that are really are bar codes -- are individual bar codes can be one of two things. It either can lead to a direct identification of that suspect, or it can be that corroboration. And that's what I think investigators are looking for right now is does this glove -- the DNA return -- does this tie back to that crime scene?

If it does this can be very important for the investigation in the context of now the glove, where it was found, is a proximity marker. Is a proximity marker to what? Most likely a pathway of travel for this suspect and maybe Nancy Guthrie at the time. Again, opens up a whole new slew of investigative pathways for investigate -- for investigators to look at.

BERMAN: Yeah. Again, we don't know specifically where this glove was found but we do know -- we're told it's within some kind of two-mile radius of Nancy Guthrie's home. Imagine it was found here. Then authorities can look directionally, maybe -- something like that. That's the type of thing they would have almost immediately if it is a match.

Gregg, I do want to ask you about another bit of news yesterday. President Trump was asked about the Guthrie case and suggested here in the New York Post that the kidnapper would get the death penalty if Nancy Guthrie is not returned alive.

Now, assuming this is a negotiation, even if -- even if the kidnapper or abductor isn't communicating, what message does this send and how does this -- how does this change the dynamic?

GREGG MCCRARY, FORMER FBI PROFILER (via Webex by Cisco): Uh, it's not a good message, actually, for that very reason. The idea of this sort of severe punishment makes it far less likely that anyone who might have been tempted to come forward and give themselves up, which is the right thing to do -- cut their loss at this point. They're going to be caught. The noose is tightening.

The best thing they could do is come forward and end this thing now. But if they think they're going to face the death penalty -- well, that is a pretty big disincentive for someone to come forward.

BERMAN: And Jonathan Wackrow, it sort of is this opposite message that the family is sending where Savannah Guthrie in the video that we just saw from over the weekend keeps on saying it's never too late.

WACKROW: No, and we heard that. You know, Savannah's message was, you know, emotionally based and she's reaching out not just to the person that abducted Nancy Guthrie but also to those who may have assisted or helped, or have some level of knowledge of this. You know, really, you know, trying to anchor this around a moral context. Do the right thing. You can change the course of the outcome now if you do that right thing.

The contrast in messaging here between the president and the Guthrie family was -- it was shocking.

BERMAN: Gregg McCrary, Jonathan Wackrow, thank you both so much -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And back to the breaking news. Civil rights leader and icon Jesse Jackson has passed away. For more than five decades he was known for his fight and push for racial justice and equality. A long time activist, two-time presidential candidate. Jesse Jackson marks -- marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr., of course, and helped shape the modern day civil rights movement and also helped reshape the modern Democratic Party. He was 84 years old when he passed.

Joining me right now is Jaime Harrison, the former DNC chair. And also joining us is Rahm Emanuel, former White House chief of staff to President Obama and former mayor of Chicago.

Let me first get to you, Jaime. What are you thinking about this morning?

JAIME HARRISON, FORMER DNC CHAIR (via Webex by Cisco): My heart is breaking. Rev. Jackson was not only the son of the Democratic Party but a son of South Carolina. You know, my first real political memory was watching Rev. Jackson

speak at the 1988 Democratic Convention. Now I didn't want to -- you know, at that time I was, what, 12 years old. I didn't want to watch the Democratic Convention. My grandfather made me watch it.

[07:35:00]

But listening to Rev. Jackson and seeing this man stand on that stage, it planted a seed in me that, you know, a Black man could be on the grandest stage in America (audio gap).

BOLDUAN: All right. I think we're having -- unfortunately, I think we're having a technical difficulty, as you can see, with Jaime Harrison there. We're going to try to reconnect.

In the meantime, as Jaime was saying, a son of South Carolina, Jesse Jackson spent most of his life in Chicago. Let's go to the former Chicago mayor now, Rahm Emanuel. Rahm, can you hear me?

RAHM EMANUEL, FORMER MAYOR OF CHICAGO, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF (via telephone): Yes, I can. Good morning.

BOLDUAN: Tell me your reaction this morning. The life, the legacy, the impact of Jesse Jackson.

EMANUEL: Oh, you know, I dealt with him both as a citizen, as a mayor, as a chief of staff and in many different roles, and he challenged all of us and he made us better.

We had a -- to be honest and frank, we had a complicated relationship. We met quite frequently as the mayor -- a minimum, I believe, three times a year. And on many things, we agreed and on many things we disagreed. We probably agreed more on the outcomes but the different approaches. But he made you better by making you dig deeper inside yourself as you were dealing with some very complicated issues.

And so he was a -- more than just a power -- obviously a very powerful voice, rhetorically important, but he had a moral standing that challenged you when you're doing day-to-day politics. And we've lost, all of us, not just Chicago -- he made it his home -- but all of us lost somebody that wherever he went he touched you in significant ways.

But it was very -- but it -- I don't want to -- you know, he would want you to be honest. He, you know, had a complicated relationship with people in power, which is he had a direct relationship, but he challenged you at all times. And so that tells you something about what was unique about him. And --

BOLDUAN: I was going to --

EMANUEL: -- sorry. No, go ahead.

BOLDUAN: No, I was going to say -- and I was going to ask you about -- and you called it complicated. But in the relationship that you and the Reverend specifically in your various roles -- EMANUEL: Right, right.

BOLDUAN: -- that you've played throughout -- played in government --

EMANUEL: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- throughout your career, I was going to ask you about that. And what do you think when you -- when you -- when you note that? What do you think the lesson is --

EMANUEL: Yes.

BOLDUAN: -- in it?

EMANUEL: Well look, you know, (INAUDIBLE). I'm reminded of this great quote once said, which is, you know, there are two books in life, the guest book and the history book, and how you live your life determines which book -- which book your name goes in. And there's no doubt Jesse Jackson was not a guest here on Earth, but his name will be in the history book and he made an imprint.

And when I dealt with complicated issues in the city, whether they were budget, whether they were on school, et cetera, he was always present, and so he challenged you. You're in a position of power. You've got a lot of different equities you have to weigh.

But he made you kind of reach deeper than you thought you could, work harder than you thought you could, and then find common ground in places that you couldn't. But if you succeeded, he was there to compliment you and he was also there to challenge you to not kind of spike the ball on the 20 yard line.

So -- and I saw that from the White House. I saw it, you know, also as a citizen -- I said this earlier -- not just as a mayor of chief of staff.

You know, in 1983, Harold Washington shook the world and won the mayorship. A complicated relationship. The same with President Obama who I worked and had the honor not only congressman and senator but eventually, obviously, as his chief of staff.

And that tells you -- and I say that complicated not as a criticism, as an observation of the power of the man, both as a moral voice, a political voice, and an influential voice. And he had no boundaries in that sense.

And I also think if you go down -- and I'm always reminded -- I think the exact quote was "You may have been born in the ghetto, but the ghetto wasn't born in you." To make people realize that you could -- that your circumstance -- and when you think of his circumstance -- doesn't determine who you are and what you are and what you can do. And I think that kind of message needs to be actually echoed repeatedly.

BOLDUAN: Quite honestly, that's been a message I've been hearing quite a bit from you recently in some of the policy proposals you've been rolling out.

What do you think in his ability to inspire generations of people -- what do you think his single biggest achievement is in your mind?

EMANUEL: Well, I think that in my sense it's two things.

One is he -- you know, when he -- I'm in Michigan today you're calling. In Michigan, in 1988, Jesse Jackson won the Democratic primary, and I think the mid-50s. Now remember, go back 20 years earlier. George Wallace won the Democratic primary, OK?

[07:40:00]

So he built coalitions that were not defined nor limited by either identity. But he found something that was more common and he always called for a common ground that had a moral foundation. And I think that's very informative to politics and to society.

When you think about our politics today, which is so much coming like and looking like, you know, great -- we all put on our "Braveheart" paint and it's, you know, the "Hunger Games." He actually tried to do a politics that didn't define and limit itself by race or ethnicity but something that was more moral foundation.

And he would be the first to say he wasn't perfect at it. Nobody is. But you don't stop working towards it.

And again, we used to say -- I mean, my -- because of my personal relationships, we used to sit in my office on the fifth floor of City Hall in Chicago and we would meet just him and I. And we'd go through what I was dealing with, what the challenges were, what he was dealing with. And there are places we would work together, whether it was on housing, on schools, on transportation, investment dollars -- where they go and how they go. Appointments that were important. All types of things.

And then he'd go right out and challenge me. So he had a -- I say this because he could both work the inside and the outside and that makes -- and I think his moral standing gave him that capability.

But I do --

BOLDUAN: Mayor --

EMANUEL: -- think and I want to remember not just kind of identity politics built only one race or some other person, but your context was not defining the limitations of where you could go. It defined what he challenged us, and it also defined how he saw himself.

BOLDUAN: Mayor, it's good -- thanks for jumping on. I really appreciate it this morning.

EMANUEL: Thank you -- absolutely.

BOLDUAN: I really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Now I think we've been able to reconnect with former DNC chair Jaime

Harrison. Jaime, I'm so sorry. You got cut off mid-sentence and I was really interested in what you were saying. Please, just give me more of your thoughts, kind of, of this moment. The lessons. What you take from the life of Jesse Jackson. What you hope endures.

HARRISON: Yeah. You know, again, such a giant. A giant in American politics but personally, he meant so much to so many of us, particularly in the Black community, because Jesse Jackson really knocked down walls. There were a wave of Black elected officials that were elected across the country because of his race for the presidency in both '84 and '88.

And then we saw such structural changes in terms of determining how the Democratic Party chooses its presidential nominee. We went from a winner-take-all approach to a proportional representation rules, and that has such an impact.

You know, I said in my statement this morning that, you know, there would have been no Ron Brown or Donna Brazil or Jaime Harrison as DNC chairs but for Jesse Jackson. There would not have been a Barack Obama or a Kamala Harris but for Jesse Jackson. He had that type of impact in terms of knocking down the barriers and the walls to allow others to come up.

And so he's going to be missed. I -- you know, I miss him already. From the calls when I was DNC chair -- he would call me often. And, you know, it started getting more difficult to hear him, but I would sit on that phone for -- with him for 30 minutes and he would tell me that we need to do voter registration in this area. We need to do something in that area.

To the very end he was always teaching and always thinking about politics. Always thinking about how to lift people up and give folks hope.

BOLDUAN: Truly fighting all the way to the end.

Thank you so much for sticking with us and --

HARRISON: All the way to the end.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much, Jaime. I really appreciate it. It's good to see you this morning.

All right, we're going to keep an eye there. Obviously, so many more tributes and a lot more coming in about the life and legacy of Jesse Jackson.

Let's turn to some of other big headlines that we're watching this morning.

Also happening right now in Geneva are high-stakes -- another round of talks between the United States and Iran. There are -- these are rare negotiations, of course, of high-level Iranian -- with high-level Iranian officials. The big question though is can the U.S. and Iran strike a nuclear deal? Can they reach a deal on anything?

Overnight we heard new comments from Iran's supreme leader. Him saying that even the strongest army in the world, in his view, can be "slapped." The ayatollah was responding to President Trump's recent threats against Iran and the U.S. military buildup that he is seeing happen in the Middle East.

I want to play for you also what President Trump just said about these talks overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll be involved in those talks indirectly and they'll be very important and we'll see what can happen. It's been typically -- Iran is a very tough negotiator. They're good negotiators or bad negotiators. I would say they're bad negotiators because we could have had a deal instead of sending the B2s in to knock out their nuclear potential.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:45:10]

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now CNN political and global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh for more on this. Sabrina, thanks for coming in.

So we have another round of these indirect talks. What's new this time is now President Trump has ordered a further buildup of U.S. forces in the region now including two aircraft carriers. And President Trump has also said that regime change in Iran may be the best thing that can happen.

I'm curious what you hear in the messaging going in and what you think the U.S. position is going in.

SABRINA SINGH, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR, FORMER PENTAGON DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I think what this administration is trying to do is project power, and that's what you're seeing with that deployment of another aircraft carrier to the region.

This is not the first time that we've had two aircraft carriers operate within the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. In fact, the aircraft carrier that's on its way right now, the USS Ford, was, in fact, deployed on October 8, 2023, by Secretary Austin just after the October 7 attacks.

And what these two aircraft carriers do, it gives -- it gives the U.S. military and the president optionality and basically flexibility for if they want to conduct another strike on Iran, they now have the assets and capabilities in the region. And should Iran respond and retaliate against U.S. bases or Israel, they have the defense capabilities there as well.

So it's really more options for the president but it is also, and it cannot be understated, an incredible projection of power. That is exactly what those aircraft carriers are doing. It's essentially moving a city outside a country and parking right there, giving the president different options to deploy whatever he wants, you know, in these next few days if he makes that decision.

BOLDUAN: We've just been told by the control room in my ear, Sabrina, those talks have now -- the talks have concluded, at least for now. We'll see what comes from it.

It's great to see you. Thank you so much -- John.

SINGH: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. This morning a new warning about price hikes. Several major companies warn they are raising prices this year in large part because of the president's tariffs. And the hikes will hit several areas from your wardrobe to your spice rack.

CNN's Matt Egan is with me now. What about my skinny jeans, Matt?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, some of them are going up as well. Levi Strauss says because of tariffs they are lifting some of their men's jean prices by $5.00 a pair. Women's jeans, prices by $10.00.

Look, companies are doing this for a variety of reasons. They're citing higher wages for workers, higher health care costs, and of course the president's tariffs.

We also have seen big price hikes from McCormick, the spice company. They say that $50 million tariff costs -- because of those higher costs from the president's tariffs, they've had to take what they're describing as "surgical" price increases. And Columbia sportswear also raising some of their prices as well.

Not just major corporations though, John. Some small business owners say that they're lifting their prices as well.

BERMAN: Oh!

EGAN: The vast majority in this recent survey -- 54 percent say that they plan to raise prices over the next few months. That's that blue chunk of this pie chart. Forty-two percent -- that's the yellow chunk -- say they're going to keep it the same. Only three percent -- that little green slice -- say they plan to lower prices.

Now some of this kind of seems like normal start of the year stuff --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

EGAN: -- when companies often look at their prices. Some of it seems a bit more aggressive.

The Wall Street Journal talked to a construction company based in Cincinnati where they said because of health care costs and because of steel tariffs, they need to raise their prices by 10 to 15 percent. BERMAN: Wow.

EGAN: They told the Journal "It's just not sustainable for us to handle and tolerate that kind of increase in prices without some sort of concessions for our customers."

Now all of this comes as some new research comes out about who is paying for the tariffs, right? The president insists it's those foreign exporters. But the New York Fed found that just 10 percent of the tariffs last year were absorbed by foreign exporters slashing their prices -- the vast majority -- 90 percent -- from U.S. importers and all of us consumers.

And some of those importers -- they're having some trouble passing along the costs because higher prices -- it's denting demand. It's turning off consumers.

And so I think, John, all of this explains why economists are divided about what happens next with inflation despite that better-than- expected January inflation report. A lot of companies are still trying to sort this out and figure out how they can handle the president's tariffs and how much they can pass along to all of us as consumers.

BERMAN: Yeah, we're looking at McCormick spices, and the prices may go up there. All I know is that I have some McCormick spices in my shelf, probably from the 1960s. So it may be -- it may be you don't need to worry about buying new ones because they last forever.

Matt Egan, thank you --

EGAN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: -- very much for that.

All right, an incredible action-packed fight scene between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. One problem -- it's all AI.

[07:50:00]

And a world first as a pilot lands on, then takes off from a moving train. Honestly, who decides something like this even needs to happen?

(COMMERCIAL)

BERMAN: New video this morning of a Virginia neighborhood rocked by an explosion. Investigators say natural gas seeping up from an underground transmission line is the cause of this. A man inside the home was hurt but did manage to escape. A neighbor was also injured. Thirty-one other houses damaged here. Crews are drilling into the ground to find the source of this leak. They better get a handle on that.

So a reminder this morning that the GPS sometimes has other plans. An Amazon delivery van got stuck in the water after driving down a 600- year-old road not intended for vehicles. Coast Guard officials said GPS led the driver into the mudflats. The driver was able to get out safely. A local farmer -- this is in the U.K. -- was able to get the van out of the water. I'd love to know how -- Kate.

[07:55:10]

BOLDUAN: Here is a question to consider this morning. Is China on the verge of surpassing the United States in the AI race? China has seen a massive AI boom since DeepSeek -- what was a little known startup that shocked the world last year with a powerful AI model built at what it said was a fraction of the cost of leading U.S. models. In the coming days, DeepSeek is reportedly set to unveil a new version.

And just yesterday another AI upgrade rolled out from China from Alibaba and it's now grabbing headlines for claiming to outperform current U.S. models and is 60 percent cheaper.

What does this all mean? Joining me now is Malo Bourgon, CEO of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. Malo, thank you for being here.

This release from Alibaba has a lot of people talking. One economist telling CNBC that America's perceived monopoly on tech and AI has been broken by China.

I guess the question is if Chinese models genuinely outperform U.S. counterparts at lower costs, what does this mean for this narrative of American AI dominance?

MALO BOURGON, CEO, MACHINE INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah, thanks for having me.

So I do think that, you know, China is rapidly, you know, following on the U.S.' heels. I think that some of the reporting that the new Chinese models are ahead are a little too overconfident there as far as my read from the latest kind of performance benchmarks. They're kind of close behind and may be performing just with the past generation, so maybe three to six months behind.

I do think it's evidence that, like, yeah, the race is heating up, and progress is going faster than ever, and to the extent to which the U.S. was hoping that they would have some sort of dominant lead and that is definitely not the case. But I don't think this is a story about kind of any one particular model but more about how this race is intensifying and, like, what we do to manage that race.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. I mean, and you say with this race -- which it really is from their business perspective, for sure -- you say there comes great risk. What do you see?

BOURGON: Yeah. So, I mean, I think it's worth noting that the explicit goal of all the U.S. companies is to build what they call artificial superintelligence. That's an AI system that would be, you know, smarter than any individual human and perhaps smarter than all of humanity combined.

The CEO of Alibaba and DeepSeek also talking about building AGI and the CEO of Alibaba talking about building superintelligence. And so the risk here is that the plan is that everyone is racing to build AI systems that are much smarter than any of us and we don't know how these AI systems work. I think it makes more sense to think of them as being grown as opposed to crafted.

And controlling a thing that is much, much smarter than you that you don't understand could be extremely dangerous. And even the people -- some of the people building this technology and, you know, some of the people who kind of invented the fundamental underpinnings of it are worried that it could cause human extinction, literally, which I am also worried about.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. I mean, which raises the question on multiple fronts -- where is government regulation on any and all of this? Government regulation on putting up guardrails or even government regulation -- like, how might U.S. policies like chip export restrictions affect this AI race? And also -- then also on not just the side of the United States; on regulation coming out of China as well?

BOURGON: Yeah. So, I mean, I think that's the crux of the matter. We've seen increasingly from the leaders of these companies that they're talking about how they wish that they could proceed more slowly. That they wish that they could pause or stop and, you know, spend much more time on safety to solve some of these fundamental challenges but that they feel like they can't because their adversaries or their competitors won't. And so this is exactly the type of situation where I think governments need to step in.

I think on the U.S. side, there's often a narrative that, you know, China won't cooperate. That we can't trust them. And I think a lot of skepticism is warranted there. But I also do think it is worth noting that lots of prominent Chinese, you know, political figures, including Xi Jinping who recently talked about the need for, you know, a world AI cooperation organization at APEC last November.

There is like kind of I think an appetite here for more and more people are seeing it seems kind of like a reckless race and that we need to kind of step in and do something to coordinate about it because the companies on their own don't have the ability to do that.

BOLDUAN: One kind of real example-ish if you will that we were just talking about yesterday is new reporting from Axios that the Pentagon is now threatening -- according to Axios, they're threatening Anthropic, a major U.S. company, over guardrails the AI company wants to put on what the military can use its models for.

The reporting is that Anthropic said the no-go areas were using their models for mass surveillance of Americans or for using their models for fully autonomous weaponry. One can understand why one might want guardrails around that.

The Pentagon seems to not be happy with this coming from Anthropic.

I mean, what do you see in this?

BOURGON: Yeah. I mean, I think unfortunately a lot of these people are in positions that I don't envy.