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Next Round Of U.S. Nuclear Talks With Iran Set For Tuesday In Geneva; Glove Found Near Nancy Guthrie's Home Contains DNA; DHS Shuts Down As Dems Push To Rein In Immigration Crackdown; Hollywood Mogul To Sell Agency After Appearing In Epstein Docs; Pride Flag Re-Raised At Stonewall National Monument; FBI: Glove Found Near Nancy Guthrie's Home Contains DNA; How Video And Photos Helped Solve Other High- Profile Cases. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired February 15, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:01:31]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right. Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right. We begin this hour with a new round of high stakes nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran, set to take place in just 48 hours. This new meeting will play out in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday, and it comes as a second U.S. aircraft carrier group is headed to the Middle East as the administration ramps up military forces in the region to put pressure on the Islamic regime.

But today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Trump is focused on diplomacy with Iran. That change of tone coming just days after Trump warned Iran that if it wants to avoid a potential military attack, it should, quote, "give us a deal," adding that regime change in Iran could be the best thing that could happen.

CNN's Julia Benbrook is joining us right now from near president's Florida home where he is spending the weekend.

Julia, what more are we learning about the next round of talks with Iran?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the next round of talks between the United States and Iran are expected to take place in a matter of days. According to two sources familiar with the matter, these talks are going to take place on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland and in attendance will be U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

As you mentioned, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had some new comments on this today as he highlighted that he believes Trump has made it clear that he prefers diplomacy when it comes to dealing with Iran and that right now they are focused in on negotiations. He talked about how the goal here is to come to a successful deal. He confirmed that those two representatives would be having important meetings and said essentially we'll see what happens as he highlighted the complexity of the situation. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: We're dealing with radical Shia clerics, OK? We're dealing with people who make political -- geopolitical decisions on the basis of pure theology. And it's a complicated thing. I mean no one has ever been able to do a successful deal with Iran, but we're going to try.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: And now let's take a step back at the recent comments that Trump has made on these topics. As he left the White House on Friday, he was pressed by reporters about the ongoing negotiations and he said that he believed that the talks would be successful and that if they weren't, it would be a bad day for Iran. Just a few hours later, though, he struck a more pessimistic tone about the diplomatic efforts, saying that the Iranians do not have a good track record on this front.

Now, recently, the United States deployed a second aircraft carrier group to the Middle East, which Trump has said would be in place if a diplomatic solution is not reached and that the ships would depart if there is some sort of agreement. Trump has asserted that the U.S. strikes over the summer, quote, "obliterated Iran's nuclear capabilities." That was Operation Midnight Hammer. But he continues to warn that if they do not make a deal with the United States, that there could be more military action -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia Benbrook, thanks so much.

We're also following new developments in the search for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie as it enters its third week. The FBI says a glove found two miles from her home appears to match the gloves of the -- the ones the man seen in a doorbell footage outside of her house was wearing on the morning that she vanished.

[16:05:10]

Officials say that glove does have DNA on it, and they're awaiting final results before forensic testing. Investigators have not yet named a suspect, though they are sharing details about the person seen on that doorbell cam.

Here's what we know so far. They're looking for a male with an average build between 5'9" and 5'10" tall. He was wearing dark clothes, black gloves and a black Ozark trail hiker backpack.

CNN correspondent Ivan Rodriguez is joining me now from Tucson with the latest.

Ivan, what are you hearing?

IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, as you mentioned, the FBI says DNA from that recovered glove is currently being analyzed to help identify a possible suspect and that that process typically takes 24 hours. One of the first steps investigators could take here once they do obtain DNA evidence is to run it through their criminal databases and see if it matches any known criminal.

Another step investigators could then follow up with is to run that evidence that they obtain a DNA through third party DNA mapping services. Typically, a lot of people might use it to figure out more about their health or their ancestry. Now even though that suspect might not have used those services it's possible that a family member has. And that could help in terms of DNA family profiling.

Now, aside from DNA, another important aspect here to this investigation that could help with clues is the location of that glove. If it is to be determined that it's the same glove of that person that we see on Nancy Guthrie doorbell camera. The location of that glove could be important because it could help investigators paint the movement of this person in those hours after Nancy Guthrie's suspected abduction.

Hear what one former police captain has to say about the process of DNA testing?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH SCHIRARD, FORMER POLICE CAPTAIN, GALVESTON, TEXAS: It's great that we have this DNA sample that's in the house but we have nothing to match it against at this point. Now, it could be the, you know quote-unquote, "smoking gun" down the road when we do identify someone we think is a suspect and can match that DNA, but if it's not in CODIS which is the law enforcement database, then they're going to have issues matching that to somebody now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RODRIGUEZ: The sheriff's department has asked people who live within a two-mile radius of Nancy Guthrie's home to submit any sort of surveillance footage that they may have between January 1st and February 1st if it captures people, trucks, cars, anybody walking by these roads.

But, Fred, a big, really roadblock into this investigation for the last two weeks now has been the fact that a lot of these homes are pushed far off the road. There's a lot of trees, bushes in front of these homes as well, which has made it challenging to find that, you know, perfect surveillance footage that could help with one more clue.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Ivan Rodriguez, thanks so much from Tucson.

All right. And we're now in day two of the partial U.S. government shutdown impacting the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats are demanding major reforms to immigration enforcement. But Republicans say the demands go too far and ignore agents' safety.

The shutdown comes just days after the White House border czar Tom Homan announced that controversial immigration surge in Minneapolis would end. That crackdown led to massive protests in the city and the shooting deaths of two American citizens by federal agents.

I'm joined now by Reverend Ingrid Rasmussen. She is the lead pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.

Reverend, great to see you again.

REV. INGRID RASMUSSEN, LEAD PASTOR, HOLY TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH: Nice to see you. Thanks, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So the border czar Tom Homan, you know, said the ICE operation in Minneapolis can conclude. He said it was, I'm quoting him, "a success," end quote following 4,000 arrests. And he added, quote, "But if we need to come back, we'll come back," end quote.

So what's your reaction to his announcement, assessment and possible forecast?

RASMUSSEN: Yes, I heard his press conference and I was in the car, had to pull over, and I heard him use the term success to describe Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis and the first thoughts that came to my mind were if success means terrorizing a community, if success means tear-gassing minors, if success means flash banging clergy, disrupting public education, crushing the spirits of small business, and separating families, then that's a -- that's an understanding of success that I'm unwilling to subscribe to.

As a faith leader, as a Christian leader in Minneapolis, my faith calls me to a different understanding of community, one that is not built on fear of the neighbor, but is deeply embedded in a sense of love and commitment to the neighbor.

[16:10:05]

And so I think the value system that's driving Tom Homan and this administration's efforts around ICE and my own faith commitments stand in stark contrast to one another right now.

WHITFIELD: Two Americans were killed by federal agents. Thousands protested in subfreezing temperatures for many days. Businesses were temporarily closed. I mean, describe what your community endured.

RASMUSSEN: Yes. These past days, I've been thinking about it. Sort of like the aftermath of a tornado. This was not a natural disaster. It was an unnatural one. A human made one. And the effects of it are so far-reaching, no one is left unscathed. I'm thinking about the kids that are afraid. I'm thinking about the small businesses that are really shaken or even shuttered permanently.

I'm thinking still about the people who are living in hiding without basic access yet to food or medicine or basic medical care. The community I serve is -- that I serve is really invested in making sure that January, February, and now upcoming March rents are paid for people who have been unable to work during this time.

And just like in a tornado that I have lived through in Minnesota, I think we are in a sense emerging as a community from our basements and realizing that there are so many of our neighbors who are gone, and that is a deeply sad reality for us. And so the grief is surfacing to the trauma is real and the trauma is so widespread that everybody is experiencing some of it in some way.

WHITFIELD: Your governor, Tim Walz, wants the federal government to pay for damages. It may be a battle. But what do you think it's going to take to rebuild lives, businesses, restore trust?

RASMUSSEN: Yes. Right now I feel like we're still in that crisis ministry. So it's hard to think about the long-term effects of what we're experiencing. I think right now we are tending to things like immediate legal aid, food access, rent relief, and other forms of community care that are really urgent. And I recognize in these last two weeks we've sort of moved from that crisis ministry to a chronic condition.

And so I think Minnesota's leaders are right in saying that the horizon for recovery here is decades long, and it's going to affect our population in different ways. So, yes, we're going to need help. I don't know how, other than the deep resolve of this community that has shown itself over the course of the last couple of months, I think we're going to need as much help as we can get to honor, honor the trauma that we've experienced and to move us toward like the beauty of Minneapolis that we know to be true. So, yes, we're going to need all the help that we can get.

WHITFIELD: All right, Reverend Ingrid Rasmussen, thank you so much. And all the best on that journey forward.

RASMUSSEN: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, still to come, the release of the Epstein files has not led to new criminal cases, but there has been some economic fallout for some prominent names. The details straight ahead. And later, former President Barack Obama responds to the racist post shared by President Trump earlier this month.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:18:46]

WHITFIELD: All right. Today, new fallout from the Epstein files release. Casey Wasserman, a prominent sports and entertainment agent in Hollywood and the head of the committee overseeing the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, is selling his talent company. That's after newly released e-mails reveal a deeper and more intimate relationship with Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell than was previously known.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is in Los Angeles with more on this story that has rocked Hollywood.

Julia, what more are you learning?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically, as soon as those e-mails were released, Fred, pressure started to mount from the talent pool at Wasserman. The first one, one of the first people to speak publicly about it, was Chappell Roan, the pop singer, saying in her Instagram that no artist, agent or employee should ever be expected to defend or overlook actions that conflict so deeply with our moral values.

And after that the band Dropkick Murphys, the country musician Orville Peck, and then U.S. soccer star Abby Wambach all announced that they were dropping the firm as their representation. Sources close to the business then telling CNN that investors were deeply concerned.

[16:20:03]

And then we have a memo from Wasserman saying to his agency that he admits having become a distraction and emphasizing that his interactions with Maxwell were limited to a humanitarian trip as well as what he called a handful of e-mails that he deeply regretted sending.

Now, in recent days, we're also hearing calls for him to step down as Olympic chief of Los Angeles 2028. He that had tried so hard and worked tirelessly to bring the Olympics back to Los Angeles. Now the LA28 Board has already released a statement backing him and saying that after reviewing his contact with Epstein and Maxwell with an outside counsel firm, that they decided that he should continue to lead LA28.

We also heard from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who said that despite the decision of who should lead the LA28 not being up to her, that the city should focus on having -- hosting exceptional games and minimizing the disruption that these e-mails have caused. Now we should say that Wasserman has not been accused of any kind of wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, and CNN has reached out to the firm that's representing him -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Julia Vargas Jones, in Los Angeles, thanks so much.

All right. Still to come, New York politicians and activists defiantly raise the rainbow flag at the Stonewall National Monument, rebuking the Trump administration for its removal. We get reaction from one of the owners of the Stonewall Inn next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:26:09]

WHITFIELD: All right. Former President Barack Obama is speaking out publicly for the first time since President Trump's social media account posted a racist video of Obama. It depicted the former president and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle. The video was eventually taken down but not before a bipartisan outrage over the post.

Here's the exchange Obama had on Brian Tyler Cohen's "No Lie" podcast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN TYLER COHEN, HOST, "NO LIE" PODCAST: Just days ago, Donald Trump put a picture of you, your face on an ape's body. And so again, this is, you know, this is kind of, we've seen the evolution of the discourse. How do we come back from a place that we have fallen into?

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I think it's important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling. You know, it is true that it gets attention. It's true that it's a distraction. But, you know, as I'm traveling around the country, as you're traveling around the country, you meet people, they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness.

And there's this sort of clown show that's happening in social media and on television. And what is true is that there doesn't seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety, and respect for the office. Right? So that's been lost.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: President Trump says a staffer posted the video and Trump refuses to apologize for it.

All right. Politicians in New York defiantly reinstalling the pride flag at the national monument outside the Stonewall Inn. A cheering and boisterous crowd chanted as it was raised on the same pole as the American flag. Managed by the National Park Service, the site is widely regarded as the place where the gay rights movement started in the late '60s.

The rainbow flag was removed after a directive from the Trump administration restricted which flags the park service is allowed to fly. The Interior Department dismissed the flag raising as a political stunt, while activists considered its removal a deliberate insult.

Joining me right now with more perspective, Stacy Lentz, the co-owner of the Stonewall Inn and CEO of the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative.

Stacy, great to see you. So your immediate reaction when this pride flag was removed and was there a notice about it?

STACY LENTZ, CO-OWNER, THE STONEWALL INN: Yes. No. No notice whatsoever. And I just want to make it clear that not only is the Stonewall Inn the birthplace of the modern day LGBTQ rights movement, it's also the birthplace of pride. So to take the pride flag down from its actual birthplace was more than alarming to our community, and also people have to remember that what it represents is American history, not just LGBTQ history.

That flag should not be seen as a symbol of division, but a visibility and resilience and fighting back for equality. And I honestly can't think of anything that's actually more American than that.

WHITFIELD: Pardon me. And I wonder, you know, do you feel like this was -- this action is a direct insult with intent to be an insult?

LENTZ: I think that we've seen this current administration attack our community at every level. So to say that we were surprised is probably not necessarily the case but to come in brazenly and do that almost in the middle of the night, to take down that flag, that -- and again, not just an American symbol, a global symbol, and what it represents. And again, it's not a partisan or political symbol in this case. It's a historical fact of what happened on that sacred ground in 1969.

[16:30:33]

And it represents a human rights struggle. And to use it and say that it was political theater, to put it back up is just a false narrative of what American history and what Stonewall means to the American history and American stories.

FREDICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Is there concern that after it has now been reinstalled, that again in the middle of the night, at some point it will be taken down, since the administration is saying that the Park Service, on any park service property, there will be no flags, you know, besides the American flag flown?

LENTZ: Yes, I mean, it's definitely a concern. As of a few hours ago, it was still flying right there alongside the American flag, which I think has our community ecstatic. But I just want to make it clear that we're not going to be erased.

You cannot erase historical facts and of human rights struggle from American history. And again, I understand what that flag represents to some people and what that American flag represents to some people, but to see them intertwined and hanging there together is just so powerful and moving, and it really shows that we're not going to be a race and our history matters.

WHITFIELD: And I wonder if you could just quickly help underscore, really, how hurtful it is for this to happen and in the middle of the night.

LENTZ: Yes. Yes. So to see this happen for. Particularly for LGBTQ, you know, young folks, right? That is representative of all the people that came before them that stood up and fought back so we would have the freedoms we have today. So to take that down and take it away and try to erase our historical kind of symbol from the birthplace of the modern-day gay rights movement is beyond hurtful, and it's slightly, I would even say petty. And it underscores why we just cannot have our history turned over for the government to tell our stories.

We need to make sure that we continue to tell our stories. And even if that flag comes down again, it does not change the fact of what happened there in 1969 and that it is a part of America's story as well as the LGBTQ rights struggle.

WHITFIELD: Stacey Lentz, thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

LENTZ: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And still to come it's been the biggest clue yet in the search for Nancy Guthrie recovered video of a masked man outside her home. We'll look at how video evidence like this has helped solve many other high-profile cases in recent years. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:37:55]

WHITFIELD: All right. As a search for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie enters its third week. The FBI says a glove found two miles from her home appears to match the gloves of the man seen in doorbell footage outside her home the morning she vanished. Investigators say that glove does have DNA that will be analyzed to determine the identity of a possible suspect.

Meanwhile, authorities, including the FBI, are looking for a male with an average build between 5 feet 9 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall. He was wearing dark clothes, black gloves, and a black Ozark Trail hiker backpack. The high-profile case has also drawn many true crime influencers to Arizona, prompting sharp criticism from state lawmakers who accused them of undermining the investigation for clout.

And authorities are also sifting through the more than 30,000 tips called in since Nancy Guthrie's disappearance, hoping to find a lead that brings them closer to identifying a suspect. CNN's Brian Todd looks at past investigations where images proved critical to the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): April 2013, in the harrowing days right after the Boston Marathon bombing, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who was working the case, says investigators were at a dead end and debated internally whether or not to release images they had of the suspects. They decided they had no choice but to release them to the public.

ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: You always want to work silently and quietly if you can, but the fact was were at an endpoint. There was no -- there were no other leads to pursue, and I think that's very telling for what you're seeing in this case.

TODD (voiceover): The release of those images led to a flood of tips from the public. Law enforcement was then able to track two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to a Boston suburb. Tamerlan died following a standoff with police. His younger brother was captured hours later.

September of last year, moments after the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on the campus of Utah Valley University, surveillance footage showed a man getting off a roof of a nearby building.

[16:40:03]

STEVE MOORE, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Then to have somebody getting down off that -- off that roof with a -- with something that could be a weapon, again, it's not just helping the case, it's breaking the case.

TODD (voiceover): Those images were seen by a Utah man whose instincts told him the person in the black T-shirt and sunglasses was his son. He confronted his son and convinced him to turn himself.

In December 2024, following the murder of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson in midtown Manhattan, it wasn't just the video of suspect Luigi Mangione lowering his mask to flirt with a woman in a nearby hostel that got him caught. It was a series of videos seemingly tracing his every move.

MOORE: The thing that got me, the thing that really told me that the world had changed, is when they were able to trace him to and from the shooting scene. I mean, blocks and blocks simply by following him on cameras along the route.

TODD (voiceover): Five days after the shooting, the manager of a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, called to report a suspicious customer, saying other customers there recognized the man's eyes and eyebrows from the surveillance images. Mangione was then captured.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Retired FBI agent Steve Moore says with the release of those images in the Guthrie case, the person seen in those images could now be rattled. That, in and of itself, he says, could help investigators because as more tips now come in stemming from those images, the person could alter their behavior and make a mistake. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Brian Todd.

All right. Some top artificial intelligence experts say they are becoming increasingly concerned over the threat posed by the technology. They're warning everything from the global economy to how we organize society could fundamentally change.

Last week, the former head of C Safeguard Research at AI company Anthropic bluntly warned that the world is in peril. And in a new piece in Axios, senior reporter Madison Mills says warnings from industry insiders are becoming ever more dire. She's with us right now.

Good to see you. So you're saying the last few weeks have been a watershed moment for the AI industry. To what degree?

MADISON MILLS, SENIOR AI REPORTER, AXIOS: That's exactly right. We've seen a lot of developments happening with the AI technology itself very quickly. So that was kind of the start of the roller coaster here. We had the release of a new model from OpenAI, a new model from Anthropic, and also the release from Anthropic of Claude Code, which really shook up the software industry. All of these updates combining to paint a very clear picture for people inside of these AI labs that this technology is getting better much faster than even the top tech experts in the country had originally anticipated.

Then, at the same time, you have a lot of these experts coming out and people who are working on this technology resigning and then issuing op eds, posting on social media saying that they have concerns about whether or not this technology is in the best hands right now at the companies, will have resigned from.

WHITFIELD: Yes, like, too much too soon is kind of the inference, right? So last month, a Global survey showed 41 percent of companies said that they intend to downsize as AI takes over jobs and automates certain tasks. Are companies confident that they can incorporate AI without devastating the global economy? I mean, people need to work.

MILLS: People need to work. And this is a really divisive topic in Silicon Valley, too. There are some people like an Elon Musk, who paints this picture of a world where people aren't working, and then they get to be artists. Maybe there's a universal basic income that happens. And then you have other people, of course, who are everyday consumers who are just thinking, I need to protect my job, and I'm not going to on people in Silicon Valley creating this utopia for artists.

So a lot of this is playing out already right now in the software sector in particular, because of the coding capabilities of this technology. So a lot of my sources across Wall Street, economists who I talk to, their concern is that if we look at what's happening with software right now, that might be an indication of what could happen to other jobs. And we are seeing software engineers are being replaced by AI.

WHITFIELD: Wow. So what -- what jobs are most likely to be impacted by the use of AI, besides those engineers you mentioned?

MILLS: Well, and it kind of goes back to what we were talking about at the beginning, which is that the tech is getting so much better, so much faster, that we don't even know yet what it's going to be capable of a week, in a month. I mean, I have news in my inbox as we speak of an update that's coming to these AI labs that I'm going to be covering this week that could impact another sector. So, it's moved so quickly that the kind of advice that I've heard tech experts say is that it's best to make sure that you are the expert at your job so that no matter what, you know how to use it. And that can at least be something that we can try to control, even as it feels like this technology is something we have no control over right now.

[16:45:11]

WHITFIELD: Yes, I mean, you're very enthusiastic about the landscape and helping to share with us, you know, what it's all about. But then I wonder, do people need to be excited about all of this? Or do they need to be, you know, apprehensive or a little concerned?

MILLS: I mean, I mean, my purview would really just be kind of reflecting what I'm hearing from people who are working on the technology, you know, and then I talked to consumers who are, of course, very concerned about their jobs and whether or not the technology is worth it. I mean, this is another question that's come up that I've seen in my reporting. There's an increasing amount of consumer interest in these movements towards not using AI too. And one of the things I think is going to be very interesting even as we closer to 2028 is whether we see any type of political movement towards anti-AI stance that maybe people are worried that this is going to impact their incomes, could really rally behind. So I think it's going to be interesting to see whether that becomes

kind of a broader talking point is like, can we quit chat? I think that'll be an interesting thing to monitor.

WHITFIELD: Wow. So much on the horizon. But the horizon is very close. It is not at a distance. Not at all.

MILLS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: All right, Madison Mills, thank you so much. All right. Still to come.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, boy.

FLAVOR FLAV, AMERICAN RAPPER AND REALITY TV STAR: Yes, coy. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Yes, boy. Always fun to say. CNN sitting down with sponsor and official hype man of USA's Bobsled and Skeleton teams. The coolest runnings rapper Flavo Flav.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:51:27]

WHITFIELD: All right, we're watching Team USA go up against Germany in men's hockey. This is their final round robin contest before the knockout rounds. And it's not just the world's top athletes lighting up the ice. Plenty of familiar faces are also being spotted wandering the streets of Cortina, Italy, during the Winter Olympic Games. CNN Sports Coy Wire caught up with Team USA's biggest fan, veteran rapper Flavor Flav. And they talked about a range of things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: As these athletes are out here chasing gold. We found the man who is TV gold. Flav. Good to see you, man.

FLAV: Yo, what's up, Coy?

WIRE: Pleasure to see you.

FLAV: How you doing, Coy?

WIRE: Sitting reminiscing about the very last time I was at the Olympics. Trying to bust the rhyme. I was at the house of WBD. I look up, who do I see? Yes, boy, it's Flavor Flav, you said yes, Coy. All right, I'm going to stop it there.

FLAV: That's my boy.

WIRE: There we go. Listen, you've done the Summer Olympics, now your first Winter Olympics. What do you make of it? 0:02:29

FLAV: Hey, yo, man, let me tell you something. I'm looking to watch my girl Kaysha love do her thing. You know what I'm saying.

WIRE: And Elena Meyers Taylor has an incredible story in bobsleigh, right?

FLAV: Yes.

WIRE: You know, for Team USA, it's just so inspiring as a mom of, you know, children that have disabilities, as you can only imagine, is so difficult. And here she is, one of the best ever at bobsleigh. I'm really looking forward to her.

FLAV: Yes, no doubt. Well, the reason why, too, I say case you love, is because, you know, I went up to Park City, you know, and I took a bobsled ride and the four-man bobsled. Coy, that ride was crazy, but I really enjoyed it.

WIRE: What it's like?

FLAV: And see, I'm an adrenaline junkie. Yes, you know, I'm a big kid. I never grew up. You know what I'm saying? I like exciting things. And then I saw that. I saw the skeleton. I said, oh, my God, I got to try that. Yo, Coy, he let your boy Flav get on the sled.

WIRE: Come on.

FLAV: I topped out at 66 miles per hour, bro. I enjoyed it so much, Coy. I joined the team.

WIRE: You've hyped up arenas all around the world. When you're here hyping up these athletes, you bring them life and joy. When you see them, what reminds you of your own grind when you were coming up in the hip hop game?

FLAV: Well, it reminds me of, you know, how I wanted to be accepted when people saw me perform. And, you know, when I go out there and I perform, I give it my all. And I just wanted people to really recognize that and embrace it. So that's what it reminds me of. When I see these athletes get on their sleds and stuff, and they slide.

All they want to do is be recognized, you know, for. For the hard work that they put in. You know, no matter how hard you try, you don't give up number one. You know what I'm saying? And as long as you keep trying, you're guaranteed to succeed, you know? And don't let failure be discouragement, you know what I'm saying? Because part of success is failure. It takes a lot to get out there and try.

You know, there's a lot of people that's scared to get out there to do that, but those -- the ones that's out there doing it are the ones that have the heart, you know what I'm saying? And those are the ones that's giving us our entertainment, too, because it is an entertaining sport.

WIRE: Absolutely.

FLAV: Yes. And entertain. And absolutely don't only make vodka, baby. WIRE: All right, Flavor Flav. Thank you so much for being here, man.

Can't wait to watch you continue to inspire these athletes out here. Inspire everyone you come into contact with. I really appreciate you, man.

[16:55:03]

FLAV: Hey, I just thank you guys for letting me be here. This is an honor and a pleasure and a perfect measure. And I'm going to keep this memory as a perfect treasure. Treasure. Yes, boy. Yes, Coy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Yes. Oh, okay. I am so inspired too. Thank you so much. Coy Wire and Flavor Flav.

All right, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The CNN newsroom continues with Paula Reid after a quick break.

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