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Police Activity Underway Two Miles from Guthrie's Home; U.S. Secretary of State Addresses Munich Security Conference; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Says Only U.S. Can Pressure Russia into Peace. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired February 14, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. Let's get straight to CNN's breaking news.

We are following breaking news out of Tucson, Arizona, where there's been police activity near the home of Nancy Guthrie.

However, the Sheriff's Department posted on social media just a short while ago, quote, "because this is a joint investigation at the request of the FBI, no additional information is currently available."

The sheriff said earlier they are actively working a lead near Guthrie's home. Forensics trucks left the scene a short time ago. The focus of intense police activity appears to be a residence about two miles from Guthrie's home.

You're seeing a map there. More than a dozen law enforcement vehicles have been seen at the location. CNN's Ed Lavandera has been very near to that activity near Guthrie's home. And this is what he reported about an hour ago.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we witnessed in this neighborhood, just two miles away from where Nancy Guthrie lives, is some of the most significant law enforcement activity we've seen in this two-week-long investigation and search for the 84-year-old mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie.

This neighborhood is part of Nancy Guthrie's neighborhood. You can access it without reaching any of the major roads. We saw a long stream of law enforcement vehicles, forensic vehicles, SWAT vehicles descending down this street.

And on Friday night, it is not clear what has happened in terms of who, if anyone, has been taken into custody. Authorities here are simply not saying at this point. Local law enforcement officials said that the information was being held at the request of the FBI. Presumably this means that they're working to get more clarity, as

this is -- still remains a very fluid situation but it has been a very intense scene as I mentioned. This is not like anything we have seen in this two-week-long investigation since Nancy Guthrie disappeared on February 1st in the early morning hours of that Sunday morning.

And this part of the neighborhood is on the northern part, just north of Nancy Guthrie's neighborhood. It sits on a bluff overlooking the city. As we know, we reported over the last few weeks, this part of the neighborhood where Nancy Guthrie lives sits in the foothills of Tucson, overlooking the city.

And so we await and see what kind of news this brings. This search has lasted several hours; presumably will continue lasting (ph) caretakers or landscapers and that they do not know whose DNA that is. So that is a huge piece of evidence at this moment, as we await to see where that might lead them.

And we also know that the sheriff said that they have received tens of thousands of tips, especially after the video of the suspect on the front porch of Nancy Guthrie's home emerged several days ago.

But it is not clear whether or not a tip from that video release is what led investigators to carry out this operation here tonight in Tucson -- Ed Lavandera, CNN, Tucson, Arizona.

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HUNTE: Let's keep talking about it. I'm joined now from Los Angeles by Stephen Busch, a former FBI agent and SWAT team leader.

Thank you so much for being with me sir. Let's talk about what's going on right now.

What do you think is currently happening behind the scenes?

STEPHEN BUSCH, FORMER FBI AGENT AND SWAT TEAM LEADER: Well, I mean, it's clear that the FBI, the Sheriff's Department, they're there for a reason, right?

They're there with legal process. Right?

That legal process likely came in the form of a warrant, either a search warrant or an arrest warrant. And anyone in law enforcement knows that takes -- that takes some time to develop probable cause for them to be there. So they're probably serving one of those types of warrants at the -- at the location

HUNTE: We were expecting a press conference and then we were expecting a lengthy statement as well. But none of that actually happened.

Why do you think that was?

BUSCH: You know, I think the -- I mean, the public's need for information should not outweigh the integrity of the case. I mean I would guess that they probably found something that they realized, you know, this is important information, information that we don't want to release to the public right now.

It might be information that would jeopardize the case, potentially. And so they made the decision not to release it.

HUNTE: We saw that the FBI doubled the reward to $100,000.

From your experience, how would that have shifted the investigation and public cooperation compared to the lower reward offered earlier?

[03:05:00]

BUSCH: Yes, I mean, typically, obviously, the rewards are -- they're given to incentivize people to come forward, you know to bring information out. And so, in the past, I've seen that when rewards are increased, it's typically because they're trying to incentivize someone to come forward.

They think that there's information that someone from the public may have access to and they want -- they want that person to bring that information to law enforcement, to call one of the tip lines and make the police aware of what they know.

And so they're trying to entice that type of behavior by raising the reward amount.

HUNTE: And apparently it has worked because we've heard about the thousands of tip calls that have come in.

What processes are being used to break down those tips and actually validate all of the information without wasting resources?

BUSCH: It's so hard. It's so hard. I mean, those tips come in and you have to treat them all the same. You have to treat them all as if they're credible. Unfortunately, many of them are not. You know leads come in all the time that are not credible.

And those teams, I can tell you they're working tirelessly around the clock, the men and women of the Sheriff's Department and the FBI, to try to run every one of those down because you just don't know. You know, when they come in, you don't know which lead is going to be the one, you know, that's going to spring the case wide open.

HUNTE: I do want to talk about social media and the internet, because we have been seeing a huge amount of posts about this case, with theories and so-called insider accounts and just a wild amount of fake news.

How damaging can that be to an active investigation like this?

BUSCH: It can be incredibly damaging. I mean, you have to remember that, at the end of this investigation, at some point, somebody is going to go to trial, right?

Somebody is going to get arrested. Somebody is going to be charged by the government with the conduct of, you know, taking Nancy Guthrie from her home. And that's going to go to trial. It's going to go before a jury. And all of this stuff is going to come out.

And we've seen that in trials before. It makes -- it makes it difficult when there's misinformation that's put out there. It makes it difficult to field a jury pool when it's tainted with misinformation from the internet.

So I think that's part of the reason why law enforcement likes to keep information close hold so that they -- you know, when they -- when they find somebody that has, information that's related to the crime, they can now test that person.

They can ask them questions that they could not know the answers to unless they were affiliated with the crime or they had actually seen the evidence. It's not information that they took from social media. So I mean to answer your question, it can be very damaging.

HUNTE: Yes.

How surprised are you at this point in this investigation we are where we are?

BUSCH: Well, I mean, it's been -- it's been, what, 12 days, 13 days since Nancy was taken. And that's -- I mean every minute, every hour that that passes matters. It doesn't surprise me that they're out serving warrants, you know at night time, trying to make things happen.

Because they've obviously got information, information that they think is credible. And it's my understanding that they took three people into custody at this house tonight, two men and one woman.

I think it's important for the viewers to remember that doesn't mean those folks were arrested. Like it doesn't mean those folks are suspects in this case. It could just be that they're people that that the FBI or the Sheriff's Department wants to get information from.

Or it could be a search warrant that they're serving there. And just because those folks were in handcuffs and maybe questioned on the outside of that house doesn't mean they were arrested.

I would be very curious to know if any of them were transported away from the scene. I don't think that's information that's been pushed out yet because, if that were to be the case, then it would be more likely that they're actually suspects and that they were arrested and not just questioned at the scene of the warrant

HUNTE: What should our viewers be cautious about as they follow developments tonight?

And there may be some more developments coming over the next few hours.

BUSCH: I mean, you got to stick to the facts. I mean, that's -- and it's so hard because it's difficult to determine what is fact and what's fiction with all the stuff that's out there on the internet.

So you know, try to fall back on the evidence as best that they can. And you know, not just accept something. If you see something, you know, pop across your Instagram feed, it doesn't mean that that's true. Right?

It may be true. It may not be true. But try to fall back on the facts as much as they can before jumping to any conclusions.

HUNTE: That's real. There's so much fake news out there. For now, appreciate it. Stephen Busch, thank you so much.

BUSCH: Yes, sir. Thank you

HUNTE: Of course, our breaking news coverage on the search for Nancy Guthrie continues after this break as law enforcement launches a large operation just two miles from where she was abducted from her home.

Plus there's some other news, too. The U.S. government is now partially shut down amid disagreements over immigration enforcement. We'll be telling you why this won't be like other shutdowns, though. Stay with us

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HUNTE: Welcome back. We are following breaking news out of Tucson, Arizona, where there's been police activity near the home of Nancy Guthrie.

However, the Sheriff's Department posted on social media just a short while ago, quote, "because this is a joint investigation at the request of the FBI, no additional information is currently available."

The sheriff said earlier they are actively working a lead near Guthrie's home. Forensics trucks left the scene a short time ago. The focus of intense police activity appears to be a residence about two miles from Guthrie's home.

More than a dozen law enforcement vehicles have been seen at the location and we will, of course, stay on top of this story and bring you more in just a moment.

But there is other news, too. U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio is delivering a major speech to world leaders gathered at the Munich Security Conference. Right now. Let's have a listen.

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(JOINED IN PROGRESS) MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It took American leadership and partnership with many of the countries here today just to bring the two sides to the table in search of a still-elusive peace.

It was powerless to constrain the nuclear program of radical Shia clerics in Tehran. That required 14 bombs dropped with precision from American B-2 bombers. And it was unable to address the threat to our security from a narcoterrorist dictator in Venezuela. Instead, it took American Special Forces to bring this fugitive to justice.

In a perfect world, all of these problems and more would be solved by diplomats and strongly worded resolutions.

But we do not live in a perfect world and we cannot continue to allow those who blatantly and openly threaten our citizens and endanger our global stability to shield themselves behind abstractions of international law which they themselves routinely violate.

This is the path that President Trump and the United States has embarked upon. It is the path we ask you here in Europe to join us on. It is a path we have walked together before and hope to walk together again.

For five centuries, before the end of the Second World War, the West had been expanding - its missionaries, its pilgrims, its soldiers, its explorers pouring out from its shores to cross oceans, settle new continents, build vast empires extending out across the globe.

But in 1945, for the first time since the age of Columbus, it was contracting. Europe was in ruins. Half of it lived behind an Iron Curtain and the rest looked like it would soon follow.

The great Western empires had entered into terminal decline, accelerated by godless communist revolutions and by anti-colonial uprisings that would transform the world and drape the red hammer and sickle across vast swaths of the map in the years to come.

Against that backdrop, then, as now, many came to believe that the West's age of dominance had come to an end and that our future was destined to be a faint and feeble echo of our past.

But together, our predecessors recognized that decline was a choice and it was a choice they refused to make. This is what we did together once before and this is what President Trump and the United States want to do again now, together with you.

And this is why we do not want our allies to be weak, because that makes us weaker. We want allies who can defend themselves so that no adversary will ever be tempted to test our collective strength.

This is why we do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame. We want allies who are proud of their culture and of their heritage, who understand that we are heirs to the same great and noble civilization and who, together with us, are willing and able to defend it. And this is why we do not want allies to rationalize the broken status quo rather than reckon with what is necessary to fix it, for we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West's managed decline.

We do not seek to separate but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history. What we want is a reinvigorated alliance that recognizes that what has ailed our societies is not just a set of bad policies but a malaise of hopelessness and complacency.

An alliance - the alliance that we want is one that is not paralyzed into inaction by fear - fear of climate change, fear of war, fear of technology. Instead, we want an alliance that boldly races into the future. And the only fear we have is the fear of the shame of not leaving our nations prouder, stronger and wealthier for our children.

An alliance ready to defend our people, to safeguard our interests and to preserve the freedom of action that allows us to shape our own destiny - not one that exists to operate a global welfare state and atone for the purported sins of past generations.

An alliance that does not allow its power to be outsourced, constrained or subordinated to systems beyond its control; one that does not depend on others for the critical necessities of its national life; and one that does not maintain the polite pretense that our way of life is just one among many and that asks for permission before it acts.

And above all, an alliance based on the recognition that we, the West, have inherited together - what we have inherited together is something that is unique and distinctive and irreplaceable.

[03:20:00]

Because this, after all, is the very foundation of the transatlantic bond.

Acting together in this way, we will not just help recover a sane foreign policy. It will restore to us a clearer sense of ourselves. It will restore a place in the world and in so doing, it will rebuke and deter the forces of civilizational erasure that today menace both America and Europe alike.

So in a time of headlines heralding the end of the transatlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish - because for us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere but we will always be a child of Europe.

Our story began with an Italian explorer whose adventure into the great unknown to discover a new world brought Christianity to the America's - and became the legend that defined the imagination of a our pioneer nation.

Our first colonies were built by English settlers, to whom we owe not just the language we speak but the whole of our political and legal system. Our frontiers were shaped by Scots-Irish - that proud, hearty clan from the hills of Ulster that gave us Davy Crockett and Mark Twain and Teddy Roosevelt and Neil Armstrong.

Our great midwestern heartland was built by German farmers and craftsmen who transformed empty plains into a global agricultural powerhouse - and by the way, dramatically upgraded the quality of American beer.

Our expansion into the interior followed the footsteps of French fur traders and explorers whose names, by the way, still adorn the street signs and towns' names all across the Mississippi Valley.

Our horses, our ranches, our rodeos - the entire romance of the cowboy archetype that became synonymous with the American West - these were born in Spain. And our largest and most iconic city was named New Amsterdam before it was named New York.

And do you know that in the year that my country was founded, Lorenzo and Catalina Geroldi lived in Casale Monferrato in the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. And Jose and Manuela Reina lived in Sevilla, Spain.

I don't know what, if anything, they knew about the 13 colonies which had gained their independence from the British empire but here's what I am certain of: they could have never imagined that, 250 years later, one of their direct descendants would be back here today on this continent as the chief diplomat of that infant nation.

And yet here I am, reminded by my own story that both our histories and our fates will always be linked.

Together we rebuilt a shattered continent in the wake of two devastating world wars. When we found ourselves divided once again by the Iron Curtain, the free West linked arms with the courageous dissidents struggling against tyranny in the East to defeat Soviet communism.

We have fought against each other, then reconciled, then fought, then reconciled again. And we have bled and died side by side on battlefields from Kapyong to Kandahar.

And I am here today to leave it clear that America is charting the path for a new century of prosperity and that once again we want to do it together with you, our cherished allies and our oldest friends.

We want to do it together with you, with a Europe that is proud of its heritage and of its history; with a Europe that has the spirit of creation of liberty that sent ships out into uncharted seas and birthed our civilization; with a Europe that has the means to defend itself and the will to survive.

We should be proud of what we achieved together in the last century but now we must confront and embrace the opportunities of a new one - because yesterday is over, the future is inevitable and our destiny together awaits. Thank you.

[03:25:00] HUNTE: OK. That was the U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, speaking at the Munich Security Conference. And we will have much more from Munich for you later in the hour.

But more news. A few hours ago, funding for the Homeland Security Department lapsed amid disputes over money for immigration enforcement and the U.S. has now entered a partial government shutdown.

But unlike previous shutdowns, only DHS is impacted; 90 percent of DHS workers will remain on the job, along with 93 percent of ICE and Customs and Border Protection workers. However, some will not be paid.

There could be longer lines at airports and most FEMA, Coast Guard and Secret Service employees will keep working. This situation will likely remain in place until February 23rd when Congress returns. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed the Speaker for allowing members to go home.

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REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: Mike Johnson has once again sent House Republicans home. This is the same approach, failed approach, that speaker Johnson and Republicans took during the 43-day Trump Republican shutdown in the fall.

It didn't work out then. It's not going to work out now. And we've drawn a hard line in the sand on behalf of the American people. And we're not going to allow the Congress to cross it.

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HUNTE: Democrats are in talks with the White House about their demands, which include body cameras for immigration agents and limits on the use of masks, requiring agents to follow standard warrant procedures and restricting roving patrols. Lauren Fox has more for us

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LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Despite the fact that the White House and Senate Democrats were trading back and forth various proposals over the course of the last two weeks, lawmakers were unable to clinch a deal.

Now members of Congress are away for a weeklong recess, with leaders warning that, if a deal becomes imminent, lawmakers will need to return to Washington. But right now, it doesn't feel as though any agreement is going to come together in short order.

Instead, this department is now shut down after lawmakers failed to fund it. Now there are a couple of key things to remember, one of which is that, because of the president's big beautiful bill that passed last summer, tens of billions of dollars are injected into immigration enforcement around the country.

So Republicans argue that process is still going to continue, even though this department is technically shut down. It's also important to remember that this agency covers more than just immigration enforcement.

It also covers the TSA, the Coast Guard and FEMA, all agencies that Republicans are arguing will now face the brunt of the consequences of this shutdown.

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HUNTE: All right, of course, we are still covering that breaking news from Tucson, Arizona, in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie. Just ahead, what local law enforcement has to say about DNA found at the scene -- in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back.

We are, of course, following breaking news out of Tucson, Arizona, where there's been police activity near the home of Nancy Guthrie. However, the Sheriff's Department posted on social media just a short while ago.

Quote, "because this is a joint investigation at the request of the FBI, no additional information is currently available."

The sheriff said earlier they are actively working a lead near Guthrie's home. Forensics trucks left the scene a short time ago. The focus of intense police activity appears to be a residence about two miles from Guthrie's home. More than a dozen law enforcement vehicles have been seen at that location.

Let's keep talking about it. We're going to bring in Moses Castillo, a private investigator and a retired detective supervisor with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Thank you so much for being with me, sir. Earlier this week, we saw someone being detained and then released.

How common is it for initial detention to not actually result in charges?

And tell me about what teams do, what happens next when that happens?

MOSES CASTILLO, RETIRED DETECTIVE SUPERVISOR, LAPD: Well, that happens quite often because we have to follow wherever the truth leads us. And if the truth leads us that this individual was not connected after receiving a tip, then we got to release him.

This investigation is accelerating, it's not slowing down. The FBI is expanding its search radius, reprocessing key evidence and bringing behavioral experts. That tells us that they're closing in on answers and hopefully to the suspect involved.

HUNTE: We have had the doorbell video footage and a pretty vague suspect description for quite a while now.

How do authorities balance sharing enough information to generate tips with protecting the integrity of the investigation?

CASTILLO: Well, you got to remember when they released the video footage, that prompted several tips and that was the purpose of releasing that video footage because they themselves, the FBI and the local officials, ran into a dead end, if you will.

But now we're getting more accelerated and we're getting more tips and that's helping us lead to what's happening tonight. The most police activity we've seen in a long time.

HUNTE: There is such a huge amount of pressure involved here.

How tough is it for investigators to maintain focus on actually working on the case while this amount of attention is directly on them and every single move that they're making?

[03:35:00]

CASTILLO: Well, they're very focused and they're focusing on following these leads and they're going to be very intentional in their actions and be very careful to make sure that they follow the law, they follow the facts and they get the right person.

And I urge, if the suspect is watching, law enforcement is closing in. Do the right thing. Let Ms. Guthrie go. Let her go to a hospital. Let's get her the medical attention she needs as soon as possible.

HUNTE: One take that I've seen online is the argument that Savannah Guthrie's celebrity status has kept attention firmly on this case.

Do you think that there are families of other missing people watching this unfold and feeling frustrated or overlooked?

And what does that say about how media attention gets allocated in cases like these?

CASTILLO: Well, absolutely. I've helped many families that are looking for their missing loved ones for years and they're not getting the media attention that they're -- they wish that their loved one would get.

And obviously it's frustrated. It's sometimes a lack of, you know, they're losing hope and they feel that the media coverage is unfair. They feel that it only -- if it's a high-profile, somebody rich, somebody famous, they get the attention and somebody that's not does not. So it does hurt these families.

HUNTE: If you were reviewing this case from the outside and looking for one investigative gap that could still unlock everything, maybe that's been overlooked, what would you be asking your team to reexamine right now?

CASTILLO: That's a very good question. And I really thought about this. So every home in this country has a wi-fi modem. And sometimes suspects, when they come to the home without even realizing they might tap into that wi-fi modem.

So if there was a phone number that tapped into this wi-fi modem that's not recognizable to anybody in the family, they need to focus on that phone number and see who it belongs to, because it's potentially this person did pre-planning. He's probably been there several times, gaining the trust of Ms. Guthrie. And here we are.

HUNTE: OK. Well thank you for that. We're going to stay covering this obviously. Moses Castillo, for now, though, appreciate it. Thank you.

CASTILLO: Thank you, sir.

HUNTE: One of the biggest breaks in the search for Nancy Guthrie has come from the doorbell camera outside her Tucson home. It took several days to work the forensic evidence to get a clear picture of an intruder outside the home. CNN's Nick Watt is in Tucson with the latest in the search for the missing 84-year old.

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NICK WATT, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): That haunting doorbell cam footage of the suspect gave investigators a physical description.

What about his vehicle?

Investigators have put out a call for video of anything suspicious within this two-mile radius around Nancy Guthrie's home. My colleague Ed Lavandera just interviewed the sheriff.

LAVANDERA: And do you believe that the suspect's car has been captured on some video that you have?

SHERIFF CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA: We hope so, but we don't know that. We are still piecing together all those leads.

WATT (on camera): A lot of these houses around here do have security cameras, but local zoning laws mean every house has got to be at least 30 feet back from the road. And there's a lot of vegetation.

So, it's unclear what those cameras might have picked up. Also, there are no street lights here and also multiple ways in and out of this neighborhood.

LAVANDERA: Have you been able to figure out what route the suspect drove through the neighborhood to get to Nancy Guthrie's house?

NANOS: No, all those things and possibilities are looked at, but, I couldn't tell you.

WATT (voice over): There are some traffic cameras operated by the county on the more major roads that surround Nancy Guthrie's neighborhood, but the county says they're not available at all intersections and not always archived.

WATT (on camera): So, in addition to those cameras run by the county there are also cameras run by the state and the city of Tucson. It could have been an option, here's the issue.

About 10 years ago, the people of Tucson voted to outlaw the use of traffic cameras for red light infractions or speeding, so this camera here on a major road just a few miles from Nancy Guthrie's house, it only monitors traffic conditions. It doesn't record, so, nothing on tape from the night Nancy Guthrie was taken.

NANOS: If you have any information, whether it's from your Ring camera or it's just you've seen something that is of concern to you, please share it with us.

WATT: And in terms of video, remember, it took engineers quite a long time to extract that video from the Nest camera at the front door. The sheriff says that they are now working, those same engineers, on other cameras that were inside that house.

They don't know if they're going to be able to perform a miracle again and extract that video. But they are trying. And the sheriff is hoping that they succeed -- Nick Watt, CNN, Tucson, Arizona.

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[03:40:07]

HUNTE: Law enforcement and litigation expert Sunny Slaughter joins me now from Washington, D.C.

Thank you so much for staying up for me, I appreciate it. The public and media are intensely watching this case and social media is absolutely filled with speculation and rumors.

From your perspective, how is that affecting law enforcement's ability to manage facts versus fiction?

SUNNY SLAUGHTER, LAW ENFORCEMENT AND LITIGATION EXPERT: So I would hope and expect that law enforcement is not focused on what is happening on social media. They have to focus on the case at hand. They have to focus on finding Nancy.

They have to focus on investigative practices that are ethical with integrity and meet the measure of the Constitution so that we can get to a successful prosecution. Law enforcement should not be doing this.

Now when I say that, it doesn't mean that someone in law enforcement is not paying attention to what is happening on social media. That would be a separate team from the investigators.

There should be someone from the crisis communication team that is looking at social media, the coverage by the different media outlets, to glean information that may come through in a post or thread. But the investigative team should not be thinking about this at all.

As a crisis communication person, you want to still be looking at everything as it relates to social media.

Because we also know in law enforcement that the offenders, that the perpetrators and suspects and those that may have information are also watching in real time and someone may slip up put something out on social media that needs to catch the attention of those that are focused on this.

But the investigators (INAUDIBLE) finding Nancy Guthrie and do that quickly.

HUNTE: There will be so many families across the country with missing loved ones who aren't getting this level of coverage and this sort of investigation, too.

How does that difference affect trust in the system?

SLAUGHTER: It affects it really significantly. Just like your previous guest said, people are very sensitive to what happens and the level of media coverage. I get this question all the time. People don't know.

They said, well, I didn't get a call. Law enforcement wasn't informing me. I didn't know what to do.

And it is incumbent on people like myself who provide these services externally (INAUDIBLE) and work with families to ensure that the public understands how they can participate in searching for their loved ones, the ways in which they can communicate that through law enforcement.

And right now -- and social media -- right now, you don't necessarily need a direct camera to really put out information about your loved ones. The way that social media is stacked up and packed up today, individual families can do this and get it out to the public very uniquely.

Do they want this type of coverage?

Yes. But we all know in this day and age that there are those that can get the coverage and those that cannot. But it doesn't mean that we cannot work to get their missing member or family member's message out there. It's painful. I feel for them. I support them and we just have to do better and we have to do as much as we can.

HUNTE: OK. We really appreciate you being with us. So thank you so much for that. But obviously, we could keep on going. But there's so much to cover in this show. So Sunny Slaughter for now, thank you so much

SLAUGHTER: Thank you

HUNTE: And on that, the U.S. secretary of state has just finished his speech at the Munich Security Conference amid anxiety among European allies. We will go live to Munich to see what he said. See you in a moment

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[03:45:00]

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HUNTE: Welcome back. An update on our breaking news out of Tucson, Arizona, where there's been police activity near the home of Nancy Guthrie. Forensic trucks left the scene a short time ago.

The Sheriff's Department posted on social media just a short time ago, quote, "because this is a joint investigation, at the request of the FBI, no additional information is currently available."

The sheriff said earlier they are actively working a lead near Guthrie's home. The focus of intense police activity appears to be a residence about two miles from Guthrie's home. More than a dozen law enforcement vehicles have been seen at that location.

And there's other stuff going on, so other stories that we are following now. U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio has just wrapped up his speech at the Munich Security Conference. He spoke a year after U.S. vice president JD Vance lambasted Europeans at the same event, causing a major backlash.

And as European leaders are anxious about many of the international policies coming from the White House, CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is monitoring developments in Munich.

[03:50:00]

And he's joining us from there live.

Thank you so much for being with me. So the big speech happened.

And at a moment when many European officials feel that the traditional rules of the transatlantic alliance have been shaken or maybe even broken, how did it go down in the room?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, I think there was an element of relief here amongst a European audience that the tone Rubio tried to strike was conciliatory to some degree.

But at the heart of his message was still something very similar to that which we heard last year. Yes, we did not hear a repeat of JD Vance lambasting a democratic process and freedom of speech in Europe, which he falsely delivered last year.

But at the core of Marco Rubio's statement was that ultimately the order they currently have is broken, that supply chains are damaged, that borders are not controlled in Europe or elsewhere and that needs to be fixed. And he kept harking back to shared Christian values, making the point

that, ultimately, defense cooperation can't just be about the details of spending. You have to talk about what exactly is it that you're defending.

But I think there was two moments, clearly, where we saw the audience applaud. And that was when Rubio harked back to the shared history of the United States and Europe, saying our home may be in the Western Hemisphere but we will always be a child of Europe.

And, of course, any parent knows how problematic a child could potentially be, even if it leaves home. But ultimately, too, I think Rubio was trying to reassure. But at the heart of it all, an appeal still potentially to the more populist, far right elements of politics here in Europe as well at the core of his message. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: And in a pursuit of a world without borders, we opened our doors to an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture and the future of our people.

We made these mistakes together and now, together, we owe it to our people to face those facts and to move forward, to rebuild.

Under President Trump, the United States of America will once again take on the task of renewal and restoration, driven by a vision of a future as proud, as sovereign and as vital as our civilization's past.

And while we are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: There is an element really underlining that speech of "our way or the highway."

And it comes after German chancellor Friedrich Merz, essentially the host here in Germany, said that MAGA's culture wars weren't really something they wanted to see in Europe and that still was at the heart of the message here.

The constant reference to how Europe shouldn't have shame about its heritage, to Christian and spiritual values that were shared at one point, in reference to the civilizational erasure that potentially occurring here in the West.

And I think while many in the audience will have been very pleased to hear a tone that harked back to shared moments of history to the potential for future cooperation, really, Rubio was harking about how so much of that had been damaged and disappeared in recent years and needed a correction. That, of course, is playing to the narratives of populist, far-right

politicians here in Germany, France, the United Kingdom as well, where both places, elections may follow quite soon. So certainly a better tone than we heard last year, less of a sense of America pulling up the drawbridge, heading back.

And also an interesting point, too, as well, to hear a high-ranking U.S. official on the chances of peace in Ukraine. Rubio said that they did not know at this point whether or not Russia was serious about a peace deal and they were trying essentially to test that.

Now that's a stark statement from somebody at his particular level so deeply involved in the peace talks. Yes. Rubio has always been a skeptic, potentially. But we know that his boss, U.S. president Trump, keeps saying he believes Russia wants a deal.

It's interesting to hear at this moment of heightened diplomacy with talks in Switzerland up next week to hear the U.S. secretary of state saying, at this point, they still aren't entirely sure if Russia wants a kind of peace here.

That's underpinning so much of what we're hearing outside of the cameras here. Real concern continuing about Ukraine, the distraction away from that. President Zelenskyy will be on stage in the coming hours.

Last night, he was clear to say that it's Europe that's being defended by Ukraine. Europe is paying and giving money for Ukraine to do that. It's the United States that can stop Russia. And it's only Putin that wants to continue the war in Ukraine.

Ultimately, this sense of culture war almost, that Marco Rubio continues to hark back toward, regardless how positive in a bid to reembrace Europe if it goes Trump's way in that particular decision.

[03:55:05]

Still here, Europe facing its most key security crisis since World War II and ultimately that less in the spotlight than the broader divisions that have popped up over the Greenland debacle.

And how that's really shaken something which, for decades, has ultimately been a conference about Europe reassuring itself about the rules-based order.

HUNTE: OK. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much for that. Appreciate it.

Right. And that's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta and I will see you tomorrow. There's so much more. CNN breaking news coverage continues right after this. See you tomorrow.