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Savannah Guthrie Posts New Plea to Find Her Missing Mother; Pentagon Quietly Changes Accounting of U.S. Casualty Count; Sen. McConnell's Office Release New Photo, Update on Health. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 27, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Just into CNN NEWS CENTRAL, Savannah Guthrie has just posted a new message about her mother Nancy whom police believe was abducted six months ago. The NBC anchor began her post by saying she quote, had a very specific message. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC ANCHOR: Our family is in agony. We are in a nightmare that will not end. Nothing about our situation has changed.

We have done our part, and we will never stop looking for her. We will always ache for her and feel that hole in our hearts. The world can be a cruel and unforgiving place, and I know that you have tried to do things the right way.

So I'm asking you, begging you to do the right thing now. Make the right choice. Help us find her.

Tell us where to look for her. I truly believe it is never too late to do the right thing. Help us bring this situation to an end.

For all of us, no matter where we've been and what we've done, I believe there is always a way home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller is here. John, what does this message say to you about the state of the investigation?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, this is clearly Savannah Guthrie on behalf of the family, reaching out to someone. Boris, I think we could presume it's the kidnapper or kidnappers, because she does start off, as you pointed out, with, this is a very specific message. She's trying to tell somebody, this is for you.

Yes, we want it to be for everybody, for the public, for anybody who has information, for anybody who has a tip. But she's trying to say this message is going out to somebody. She says, we have done our part. If they've been in communication with somebody, I think what they're trying to say is, we have kept up with our ends of the bargain, the conversation, whatever that is. But she does go deeper. She says, the world can be a cruel and unforgiving place.

And I know that you have tried to do things the right way. Boris, when you hear that, I know that you have tried to do things the right way. She's talking to somebody that it appears they have been in communications with.

Does that mean the original ransom note where they demanded the $4 or the $6 million? Does it mean the second note where the kidnapper said, she has died? It wasn't our intention, but it happened in the course of her being held.

Or is it in response to some other communication? That we don't know. But she's clearly sending a strong message out to somebody saying, tell us where to look.

Contact us with a location. She said, you know, try to do the right thing. This is a message that is clearly based on some contact that they have had in the past or that they're having now.

SANCHEZ: I wonder for messages like this, how much guidance the FBI gives to the families of missing loved ones?

MILLER: Well, I'm sure it's something they could run by the FBI. It's a very active investigation with the FBI. The family's obviously in close touch with the FBI.

But I also think, Boris, that this message coming from Savannah herself, being direct to someone, is very personal in a lot of ways. She said, for all of us, no matter where we've been or what we have done, there's always a way home.

[14:35:00]

I think the message is trying to say to that person, even though you committed this kidnapping, even though you may have something to do with the death of our mother or information about that, there's always a way home.

Basically, it's a message that mixes a plea with empathy and some kind of direct contact saying, we need to know the answer.

SANCHEZ: Hopefully it gets the Guthrie family closer to answers. John Miller, thanks so much for the expertise.

Still to come, questions over why the Pentagon has changed its accounting of U.S. casualties in the Iran war. Details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: The Pentagon is once again updating its list of U.S. casualties from the Iran war after abruptly removing some names which sparked intense backlash. [14:40:00]

It says 18 service members have lost their lives in the conflict. We're now learning that many more have been wounded than previously reported.

We're joined now by Davis Winkie. Davis, the Pentagon, have they given a reason for these changes?

DAVIS WINKIE, CNN REPORTER: They haven't, Boris. And that frankly is emblematic of this Pentagon's approach to transparency. They haven't responded to our questions about the changes in their reporting on the Defense Casualty Analysis System, which is an online database that has been pointed to as the source for casualty information for the public and the press.

Last week, when we saw fluctuations in the casualty numbers on that DCAS database to include the removal of four killed in action, the Pentagon attributed it to a technology glitch. And CNN, we were monitoring this minute by minute, and there were some technical issues with the site that we observed. However, as for the actual update that they rolled out over the weekend, they created a new reporting category called Overseas Operations.

And in doing so, they restored the four killed in action that had been removed during the week. And they disclosed about 140 plus new wounded in action troops relative to the peak that had been reported under the old Operation Epic Fury category, which is for the first phase of the war. That Overseas Operations category picks up on July 7th, Boris.

SANCHEZ: What is the significance of that July 7th date for this new category?

WINKIE: Yes, Boris, you see the Trump administration on July 10th sent a notification to Congress that it had restarted hostilities against Iran on July 7th. You see that has to do with the War Powers Act. Under the War Powers Act, the president has 60 days to conduct military action.

And if they don't have authorization from Congress to continue it, they need to cease once they get past that 60-day threshold. The administration claimed that the April ceasefire ended the initial 60- day conflict for Operation Epic Fury. And they're claiming that this new phase is a new conflict for the purposes of War Powers Act tracking.

So we can think of this as a way to make sure that the casualty data aligns with the broader narrative that the administration is selling about the war here.

SANCHEZ: David Winkie, thank you so much for walking us through that -- Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, so let's talk more about the war with Iran. We're joined now by CNN military analyst, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, to talk a little bit more about this. I just wonder how you're seeing this number, 200 service members wounded in the war since July 7th.

And is this number sort of, it comes to us in big waves, the way it's updated. But what does that tell you about Iran's capacity? And what is the way the number is being reported?

How does that sort of inform us or affect how we're seeing this?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, those are all great questions, Brianna. So that number is a surprisingly huge number of wounded, you know, over 200 within just the month of July. We're not even done with July yet.

So what it tells me is that the Iranians have a very high level capacity to attack our military installations throughout the Middle East. And you saw that, you know, in the attack in Jordan, you saw that, you know, with previous attacks in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait. And that really does speak volumes.

And one of the key things that is kind of masked in the data, and it's really a linguistic thing, it's not the Pentagon's fault, it just is the way things are. When you say wounded, you don't really have a way of determining whether the people are seriously wounded or moderately wounded, or they're minor wounds that, you know, we have them return to duty in a very quick time frame. So what we have to assume is that many of these people are wounded in a way that could affect them for some time, you know, in terms of future disability payments, veterans disability, things like that.

It also tells me that, you know, their potential for traumatic brain injuries is extremely high in a situation like this. Because when you're talking explosives of the type that Iran is using, with the missiles and drones that they're lobbing against these U.S. installations, the concussive effects of these armaments is pretty high. And it can really, depending on, you know, where people are when there is impact of these particular weapons, it can really mean that there are some significant brain injuries here.

KEILAR: And let's talk about that. Obviously, we're not doctors, but TBIs were such a real effect of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because of IEDs and because of so many troops who suffered the concussive effects of those. We saw that, right?

We have heard from a spokesperson talking about minor concussions, which, by the way, that's not a thing. There is no such thing as a minor concussion.

[14:45:00]

We have talked so many times to people with TBIs who will tell you that they did actually return to service pretty quickly, but only later to have brain surgery, even sometime later in some sort of emergency fashion. That's not unusual. What questions and concerns does it raise for you about whether we're not seeing how bad this is?

LEIGHTON: Yes, you know, and it's one of those things where the press is kind of kept away from a lot of this. We don't get a full picture anyways. And then within the military system, when people come in with wounds from these kinds of events, you wonder about the diagnosis.

And I know that the military doctors and nurses are doing as much as they can, and they're doing a fantastic job. The problem is it's very easy to misdiagnose a lot of this or to also be in a situation where the hidden effects of a TBI, of a traumatic brain injury, are not immediately known. And that can be something as the symptoms don't manifest themselves the way they might in a more serious case or a more overt case.

And so that problem really becomes one where a injury or something like that, that really shows that they're a good way to diagnose these things as they happen. But we really need to work on that because that is one of those things where you have a real problem set when a soldier comes in and requires some type of help and some kind of triage in this sense. And that is going to be, I think, something that the whole system needs to work on at this point.

KEILAR: We talk a lot about it because they're putting a lot on the line. They do that, they know that when they sign up and acknowledging, I think what they put on the line is hugely important as we discuss this.

Really quickly before I let you go here, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Caine, also reportedly has raised concerns about the U.S. munitions stockpile. We don't know a lot about that. We shouldn't expect to know all the ins and outs of that but help us understand what's at stake.

LEIGHTON: So what's at stake here is our ability to fight simultaneous conflicts in different parts of the world. So if we don't have enough munitions, let's say Patriot missile batteries aren't part of what they need in order to be an effective deterrence for attacks. With China, it's one thing.

And then, of course, you also have the war in Ukraine. So when you look at the expenditure of munitions, there have been over, according to some reports, about 1,430 missiles associated with Patriot batteries were expended in the Iran war. Only several hundred missiles have been expended in Ukraine.

So you have a disproportionate impact. The U.S. is using a lot of these missiles. And what it means is that the defense industrial base, as it currently exists, is not capable of replenishing those missiles in time for another military action.

So they might be able to stay the course in the Middle East. At least that's according to some of our officials. But they may not be able to move things around, say, to Asia or to Europe or wherever they might be needed.

KEILAR: Colonel Leighton, thank you so much for taking us through that. Appreciate it.

Still to come, CNN has received an update on Senator Mitch McConnell as questions remain over his health and when he'll return to the Hill. We'll have details next on CNN NEWS CENTRAL. [14:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We are getting a new photo and a health update on Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. The 84-year-old's office releasing a picture, this one here of the former majority leader and his wife at a rehab facility where McConnell is undergoing physical therapy.

This is the second photo that we have seen of the longtime Kentucky senator since he was injured in a fall last month. CNN's Manu Raju is with us now. So, Manu, tell us about this new health update and what it says about the senator's status.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it says that he's going to be out for the foreseeable future in an indefinite period of time. Unclear when he will return. He did note in his statement that McConnell would miss this weekend's annual Fancy Farm political picnic in Kentucky.

That is a picnic that is a staple of politicians in Kentucky. McConnell's been going to that for decades. He said that he was going to miss this picnic.

And an accompanying statement from the office of the attending physician here in the United States Capitol said that he is continuing rehab. He's been discharged from the hospital he's going through -- he's in a rehab facility right now.

And it goes on to say from the physician, "Since his discharge from hospital care, he has maintained a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation, including multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls. His bout with childhood polio continues to be a significant factor in his mobility. He is not medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to the office."

Of course, McConnell is indeed a childhood survivor of polio. And he has suffered multiple falls in recent years, including one back in 2023 that put him out of commission, did not return to the United States Senate for roughly 40 days. At that point, he was the Senate Republican leader.

That same year, he suffered a couple of freezing episodes during press conferences that led to a lot of questions and speculation about his health. His office had contended at the time that he was simply dehydrated. McConnell stepped aside as Republican leader.

He was the longest serving leader of any party in the history of the United States Senate, decided not to run for reelection this year. And a big date to look at is August 3rd.

[14:55:00]

If you were to resign his Senate seat before August 3rd, that would trigger a special election for this coming November, meaning that whoever would replace him would serve out the rest of his term up until January during that lame duck session of Congress, where key legislation is often considered. If McConnell stays through or decides to resign after August 3rd, then that would mean there would be no special election until the new senator takes his seat for the six-year term in January.

So that August 3rd date, something to look out for. But McConnell giving no indication that he plans to resign, indicating that he plans to continue to try to recover. The question will be, will he come back before the Senate leaves for its August recess, within two weeks? If he doesn't, we may not see him until September or even later.

KEILAR: All right, Manu, thank you so much for that. And we are keeping a close eye now on Michigan, which is where President Trump is set to tout his economic policies to voters in the key battleground state. We're going to have much more on his visit next hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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