Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Search for Nancy Guthrie; Federal Control over Elections; Offices of Elon Musk's X Raided in Paris; Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) is Interviewed about the Shutdown and Body Cameras. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 03, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): It'll be a bumpy road for the House. It'll be a -- it'll be a clown circus for a few days. But I think it'll ultimately pass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: That's Senator John Kennedy predicting a tough road ahead as the House tries to vote on a funding package to reopen the government.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING. It's half past the hour, and here's what's happening right now.

So, the House is expected to vote in a few hours on a funding deal to reopen the government. President Trump personally urging conservatives to back the deal, which funds all agencies except homeland security through September. Congress will then take up DHS funding in a separate vote in a few weeks.

And later today, a D.C. judge will begin hearing Arizona Senator Mark Kelly's case against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Kelly sued Hegseth after the Pentagon tried to cut his rank and his pay. The senator claims it was in retaliation to his criticism of the Trump administration and his involvement in a video urging members of the military to refuse illegal orders.

And Fulton County plans to sue the FBI over its search and seizure of voter records last week. Agents searched the election office near Atlanta, seizing hundreds of boxes with election information. The search is part of President Trump's investigation into his unfounded claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

And the frantic search for Nancy Guthrie. The mother of "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie, continues this morning. Officials fear that she was taken.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA: We saw some things at the home that we're concerning to us. We believe now, after we processed that crime scene, that we do, in fact, have a crime scene, that we do, in fact have a crime. She did not leave on her own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Guthrie is 84 years old.

[06:35:00]

She was last seen Saturday. Arizona police believe she was taken from her home in the middle of the night. Savannah Guthrie posted on Instagram last night asking for prayers, saying her mom will be lifted by them. The Guthrie family and officials are asking for public help. They're offering a reward of up to $2,500.

CNN reporter Maribel Gonzalez joins us now from Tucson, Arizona.

Maribel, can you tell us more about maybe why the police believe that she was taken against her will?

MARIBEL GONZALEZ, CNN REPORTER: Good morning, Audie.

Well, they're keeping those details very close to the chest. They're not really sharing much of what they found at the scene, only saying that the evidence that they were able to recover from the home, from Nancy Guthrie's home, is very concerning.

Now, time is of the essence here, and that is because Nancy Guthrie, investigators say, has limited mobility. She also takes daily medication that is critical to her health. And as we know here today, days have now passed since investigators say she was taken from her home in the middle of the night and against her will.

I should say that she was last seen on Saturday night. She went to dinner with family members. They dropped her off at her at her house where she does live alone. And it wasn't until she failed to show up to church that they reported her missing that following day.

Now again, as far as why investigators or how investigators believe that she was abducted, they're not sharing very much. Here is what the Pima County sheriff had to say about the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA: It's not often that it -- never really that we see somebody in the middle of the night in their safe home environment, in bed, all of a sudden disappear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GONZALEZ: Now, when asked by CNN whether or not this could have been part of a kidnaping for ransom case, well, investigators say that is not the direction that they're taking, but they're not ruling anything out. They also don't believe this was a home invasion or a robbery. But again, they're not dismissing any of these -- any of these leads, or possibilities I should say.

They also say that although Ms. Nancy Guthrie had limited mobility, she did not suffer from dementia, or they don't believe that this was a dementia-related case. Local and federal resources have been deployed to assist with the search. And right now, investigators are urging community members here to look through their home footage, security footage, and report any suspicious activity. As you mentioned, they are now offering a $2,500 reward for any information that could lead to an arrest and that could help bring Ms. Nancy Guthrie home.

Audie.

CORNISH: Yes, Maribel, thanks so much. We're going to put that phone number up one more time, just so you can see, if you have information, where you can call. Let's see if we have it for a second on what is happening with Nancy Guthrie. That's the police tip line there.

OK, turning to something else now. President Trump continuing his push to have more control over how elections across the country are run. On Monday, he appeared on former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino's podcast, saying Republicans should take over voting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Republicans should say, we want to take over. We should take over the voting -- the voting and at least many, 15 places, the Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked and they're counting votes. We have states that I won that show I didn't win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: All right, so here we are, six years later, the president's still repeating his baseless claims of widespread election fraud from 2020. And as we mentioned, Fulton County, Georgia, is again at the center of that crusade.

The group chat is back.

The reason why people are talking about this is, he's speaking very plainly.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Sure.

CORNISH: Ashley, can I start with you? And what -- what was your interpretation of what the president was saying?

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL: Well, first of all, Georgia reminds me of the Russia collusion with elections. I mean, like, both sides have been on this topic for so -- both this topic for so long. I'm like, oh, let's move on.

But I find that -- I think that there's a zero, maybe negative zero percent chance that that will ever happen, that we'll nationalize any sort of elections because we're -- let's remember and be reasonable, that this is like what he does, he throws stuff out there, just like he's going to run for a third term, and you have to change the Constitution to nationalize an election. You have to change the Constitution, which we're not going to do.

CORNISH: But then why send Tulsi Gabbard to Georgia?

DAVIS: Well, I think that's a whole other issue. I think -- I mean, I'm actually surprised, when I was looking at this, that you don't love this as Democrats because when we went through the Russia collusion years and millions of dollars, we're having the same thing --

ROCHA: Look, Tulsi was a Democrat. We gave her to y'all. Y'all can have her.

Look, let's go back to this election thing. The thing about the election that he's mad about is that the states run the elections. I remember when Republicans love local control of government. I ran the local elections back in -- shout out to Precinct 44 in Smith County, Texas.

[06:40:03]

I was the elections judge there. That's right, Audie, I had the same power as a district judge on that day to run my local elections.

And there's a reason why he's mad about how certain states run their elections, because certain states, that Democrats control, they make it easier for you to vote. You can vote by mail. Maybe after you drop your kids off. You can vote in person. You can mail in your vote. He don't like folks having that access. So, he wants to control that. And that's what he's saying here.

CORNISH: Well, it's not just him. There are Republicans pushing I think it's the SAVE Act, which Chuck Schumer says is not going anywhere. But also the administration has sued 23 states and the District of Columbia for refusing to turn over unredacted voter registration information. They have been trying to get the voter rolls from these states as I guess you -- we could make that a red and blue map so you can see which states these are. But people are starting to draw together these elements to talk about what they think the president is laying the groundwork for ahead of the midterm elections. Do you hear that? I know you report a lot on progressive circles in particular.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Yes, I mean, look, there are a lot of progressives that we've talked to who say that they are, you know, concerned about this. But really this is -- you know, this is sort of a two track situation, which is, one, you have the president -- the more the president of the United States talks about the elections in America being unfair and the election -- people who -- you know, who validate elections being crooked, that tears at the very fabric of the entire system that we actually have, right? That is a very serious thing. But on the other hand you have a situation where there are a lot of

Republicans who are like, we need to talk about prices. We need to talk about the economy. We need to run an election and run and win an election in this midterm. And this is another one of these things. This is -- this is a very personal topic for this president. He wants to go out there and he wants to use his power and go ahead and do this. And I can tell you, I have not talked to any Republicans who are excited about this guy bringing this up and doing this right now and they'd like to be talking about prices instead.

CORNISH: Yes. OK. You guys, I want to turn to this because we've got a little bit of breaking news out of Paris this hour.

Prosecutors are raiding the French offices of Elon Musk's social media company X, formerly known as Twitter. And we've got CNN's Melissa Bell in Paris to tell us more.

So, Melissa, can you -- start by talking about who is the agency carrying out this, what was the target in these offices?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor, but working also with Europol, we understand, Audie.

And what they've been doing is carrying out this raid in the context of a probe that was launched about a year ago to look into things like allegations of algorithmic manipulation and illicit data extraction. That probe was then expanded last summer to look into these allegations of sexualized images that have been at the center of such scrutiny of X over the course of the last few months. Allegations that sexualized images, deepfakes, were being circulated, Holocaust denial, as a result of the use of the Grok chat bot on the platform.

Now, at the time of the expansion of that probe, we'd heard from X saying that this was an expansion that was politically motivated and denying any of these allegations.

This is also, by the way, Audie, the subject of a number of other probes from the European Commission, the OFCOM (ph) regulator in the United Kingdom.

As for the French one, we've been hearing from the Paris prosecutors that the raids were as a result of this investigation. They're also calling on Elon Musk to appear voluntarily before their inquiry later this spring. And for the time being, Paris prosecutors say they will be communicating with us via LinkedIn and Instagram. No longer through X.

Audie.

CORNISH: OK, that's Melissa Bell with the update from Paris. Thanks so much.

And next on CNN THIS MORNING, the Department of Homeland Security says that officers in Minneapolis will now be issued body cameras, and that will soon go nationwide. Next I'll be speaking with Congressman Shri Thanedar, who sits on the Homeland Security Committee, about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:48:08]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It wasn't my decision. I would have -- you know, I leave it to her. They generally tend to be good for law enforcement because people can't lie about what's happening.

If she wants to do the camera thing, that's OK with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, there's President Trump giving his approval to the new announcement from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, body cameras for all immigration officers in Minneapolis. So, in a statement, Noem is also planning to go further, adding, quote, "as funding is available, the body program will be expanded nationwide.

So, this announcement follows two, of course fatal shootings involving DHS officers in Minneapolis in just the past few weeks, leading to a partial government shutdown as Democrats began to call for more guardrails on immigration enforcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): The American people are correctly demanding accountability. The American people want to see the masks come off. The American people want to see body cameras turned on and mandated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining us now in the group chat, Congressman Shri Thanedar, a Democrat of Michigan.

Thanks so much for being here.

REP. SHRI THANEDAR (D-MI): Thank you.

CORNISH: So, we know that it sounds like this is going to pass today. Does that mean there are Democrats that are satisfied with the decision to talk about DHS funding separately?

THANEDAR: Yes. That's what it looks like. You know, several Democrats are going to go vote yes on this bill. And it looks like Mike Johnson would have sufficient votes. But I personally am a hard no on this bill. I think ICE need to be reformed. We cannot have ICE in its current form creating terror on our streets.

CORNISH: So, right now, Noem says there's going to be body cameras available. Does that make a difference to you? THANEDAR: It's too little, too late, you know. And I don't know if the

cameras will be on all the time. Often what we've seen is that just before the heinous acts, the camera has been turned off.

[06:50:01]

CORNISH: You mean in incidents with police, domestic police?

THANEDAR: So, I'm not so sure that would be enough.

CORNISH: So, some of the things that I know Democrats have called for, mandatory body cameras, but also removing masks, ending roving patrols.

THANEDAR: Yes.

CORNISH: This question about judicial versus administrative warrants and independent investigations. Do you think that kind of thing is actually going to make it into this next conversation? Like, do you all feel like you have the leverage to force that conversation in the next DHS funding vote?

THANEDAR: Absolutely. Look, on February 13th, this period would end. And for the funding to continue, we got to have some kind of an agreement. And I think Democrats need to stay firm because we don't want these men, rogue men, running around with masks on, unidentified, no body cameras. We just have to -- this can't be -- go on.

CORNISH: So, are you in the abolish ICE camp or reform ICE camp?

THANEDAR: Well, I brought a bill in Congress to abolish ICE. So, ICE, as it stands, cannot continue. We got to reform this. Their hiring practices are horrible. They're giving $50,000 signing bonus. You see a lot of hate against immigrants. So, they have acquired some 10,000 ICE agents. They hurriedly hired them. They haven't been trained properly. And it looks like their hiring practices encourage people with racist attitude to join ICE. And this whole rogue agency need to be ended as we know it.

CORNISH: Yes. I'm going to bring in the group in a moment, but I want to play for you something that I heard from Congressman Walkinshaw. He's a Democrat from Virginia. I asked him about these calls to abolish ICE. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES WALKINSHAW (D-VA): I think the problem with that phrase is, it puts all of the focus on ICE. And we know now, and we talk about Alex Pretti, it wasn't an ICE officer, it was CBP. We got thousands of CBP officers who have committed some of the most egregious abuses.

So, I think all of it, the entire mass deportation, mass destruction apparatus the Trump administration has put together has to be rebuilt from the ground up.

(END VIDEO CLIP) THANEDAR: Well, I agree with the congressman. But we got to start somewhere. And starting with ICE would be the right thing to do. What is happening -- you know people have seen these video cameras. People have seen these videos. And Trump and Noem can't just tell us that's not the case.

CORNISH: I want to move to another topic, but do you guys have any questions around this issue?

ROCHA: I have one question about this issue. It's -- the reason that the administration is softening its position is it sees the political ramifications of what's going on. You sit in Congress every day. Folks now see that the immigration system is really broken. Do you see any softening in the House Republicans where we could ever see immigration reform on the House floor?

THANEDAR: I think the president is showing some softening. He's backtracking, putting Homan in Minnesota, keeping Noem a little bit on a back seat. All of that is happening. I haven't seen that in the House yet.

ROCHA: The House floor, yes.

THANEDAR: But it will follow. It has to follow.

CORNISH: I wanted to talk to you, because you also introduced articles of impeachment against Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Epstein files. Can you talk about this because you have done a couple of impeachment pushes and your colleagues have not signed on?

THANEDAR: Well, look, Pam Bondi said she had the Epstein files on her desk almost a year ago. She -- all she needed to do was she had 30 days by law to submit these and it's over 60 days now and she hasn't completed any.

CORNISH: Had anyone co-sponsored this or gotten involved?

THANEDAR: I'm talking with a number of people to do that. The Pam Bondi impeachment is just -- we are working on it right now. We just announced it yesterday. And I'm starting to see some support for that.

CORNISH: Do you want the Clintons to testify?

THANEDAR: Absolutely. Yes. So do President Trump. You know, if these people are implicated in this, they are -- these are serious, heinous crimes if this is true and they should testify on oath, whether it's the Clintons or Donald Trump.

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, AUTHOR, NOTUS MORNING NEWSLETTER": You do use impeachment a lot. You're sort of the impeachment guy. But we don't see a lot of Democrats sign on to it all the time.

Why do you think this is such an important tool for you that you use it so much?

THANEDAR: Well, that -- MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Sort of without a lot of support from your fellow Democrats?

THANEDAR: Well, look, I'm sending a message here that the president is not above law, that his cabinet members are not above the law. And if -- when they broke the law, when they do unconstitutional activities, there is no checks and balances other than Congress has the authority, the power to impeach and remove them. And even though we may not have the votes today, I wanted to start this process because I want to send a message to this administration, to this president, that what he's doing is unconstitutional and he's not beyond -- about the law.

CORNISH: (INAUDIBLE).

[06:55:09]

DAVIS: So, do you believe in impeachment going through that theme for both sides of the aisle, not just Trump, right? Like you would do the same for -- did you do the same under Biden?

THANEDAR: I was not there.

DAVIS: OK.

THANEDAR: But, yes, we should. We should. This is the only --

DAVIS: I mean you're saying that about the Clintons.

THANEDAR: Yes.

DAVIS: So, it's kind of bipartisan that you would do it.

THANEDAR: This is the only tool we have. Congress has the -- this is the only tool we have.

DAVIS: Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

CORNISH: Do you think there will -- we know the midterms are coming up. You're facing primary challengers. Multiple challengers. And there are plenty on the left who are backing primary challengers. Why do you think you are drawing this kind of attention from your left flank?

THANEDAR: I don't know. You'd have to ask them. But, you know, the people of my district support me. I got elected with 55 percent of the votes in the last primary. And I expect to be victorious again.

CORNISH: Because there's a lot of people having a conversation about these primaries on the left for Democrats. That you've got the justice Democrats. You actually renounced being part of the Democratic socialists over their stance on -- their comments about Hamas after October 7th. It feels like your race is going to be a proxy for the conversation about Israel and Gaza this August.

THANEDAR: Look, right now we need to focus on getting majority for the Democrats in the U.S. house. This fighting between Democrats is not productive. And our focus need to be in flipping the House so that we can continue and accomplish some of our agenda, Democratic agenda. Protecting democracy is our number one goal. And fighting among the Democrats does not accomplish that.

CORNISH: OK, Congressman, since you're new to the table, we're going to start with you and find out what you are gossiping about in your group chat. What are you talking about?

THANEDAR: Well, I'm hearing about Nancy Mace and --

CORNISH: Republican lawmaker. Fellow lawmaker. Don't get me sued. What are you going to say?

THANEDAR: Well, she's asking her staff to go great (ph) booze (ph) for -- late night cleaning up her Airbnb apartment, all kinds of things that --

CORNISH: Oh, this is reporting in "New York Magazine." OK.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: So, what do you ask your staff to do? What do they have to bring you at night?

THANEDAR: Well, I took an Uber to come here. I didn't want --

CORNISH: That is not a comment on the budget of my show, but it kind of is. I thought you were going to say Kid Rock in -- being from Detroit, being in the TPUSA halftime show.

THANEDAR: Look, I am good. But this is entertainment show. It's a family show. I'm going to watch it with my kids and grandkids. I don't want to bring politics into Super Bowl.

CORNISH: OK. What else? Group chats.

ROCHA: Look, my -- and Sabrina Rodriguez, who was on yesterday, covered all the Bad Bunny stuff.

CORNISH: Yes.

ROCHA: So, I'm going to stay away from Bad Bunny and talk about the great state of Texas and the special election.

CORNISH: Oh, yes.

ROCHA: Congratulations to Taylor Rehmet in Fort Worth. Great cattle town of Fort Worth. He had a special election. And it didn't just move a little bit more Democratic. And in my circles, you don't have a race move 30 points. And with the Latino population, 50 points.

Now, this doesn't mean all elections will be that way, but it is another indication on many indications that things are moving back away from Donald Trump and his policies because in Fort Worth, Texas, there ain't a whole bunch of liberals there.

CORNISH: Yes, so you're saying your group chats when a Democrat like that wins in that district, like a consultant gets their wings, they're just like, this is our time. ROCHA: Absolutely.

CORNISH: OK.

Ashley.

DAVIS: So, on the smart side of things, I was going to talk about the India trade deal that was announced last night, which is kind of a big deal in the tariff --

CORNISH: It is a big deal after the fighting with Modi.

DAVIS: Yes. And so that hopefully will be going in the right direction.

But the fun part of me is going to talk about the Indy race that's happening right here in Washington, D.C.

ROCHA: May be happening. If they can get the snow off the street.

DAVIS: Well, it's not happening until July. Like, you never know.

ROCHA: Maybe.

CORNISH: Are they going to have plows? Like, how is this going to --

DAVIS: They're -- this is going to be in July.

CORNISH: Yes, oh, OK.

DAVIS: And it's going to like go around the streets. And the president's working with the mayor. And I think that's going to be fun. Like, bee, bee.

ROCHA: Like if they can put snow plows on front of the race cars, you can count me in because they need to come get the snow out of Ward Seven.

CORNISH: It'll -- it's -- OK.

Last word to Evan.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Look, I have a congressman here. I have a powerful media person here, media figure.

CORNISH: That's him.

ROCHA: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

DAVIS: Wait, what about us two?

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: They're -- they -- they're -- we learned today there are too many groundhogs, OK. Let's lock this down.

CORNISH: Listen -- MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Between the two of you we should be able to get down, back down to where we should be, one groundhog that tells us everything. We don't need 50 groundhogs.

CORNISH: OK.

ROCHA: You need too many groundhogs named Chuck.

CORNISH: I disagree. I disagree.

DAVIS: It's always Punxsutawney Phil.

CORNISH: And shout out to Cluxatawney Henrietta and the other people we learned about today.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Spaghetti (ph).

CORNISH: Thank you so much. Here it is. Here's the map.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Too many of them. This is the problem.

CORNISH: Check out your winter forecasting animals, OK.

DAVIS: There's only one.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: This is part of the polarization of America, the fracturing of America.

DAVIS: Woodstock Willie. Rhino -- what is that -- I don't know what that rhino is.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Rhino Kianga.

(CROSS TALK)

CORNISH: And I've been told that we need to issue a trigger warning for a conversation about Staten Island Chuck. If any of you want to Google that, there's sort of a medium to dark story there.

[07:00:03]

I am also a fan of General Beauregard Lee in Jackson, Georgia. I think that's a nice regional touch.

ROCHA: Any of them who are saying we're going to have any more snow and ice for any particular amount of time should go away.

CORNISH: You're done with those animals.

ROCHA: I'm not saying you have to hurt them. No, I'm not saying hurt any animals.

CORNISH: Yes.

ROCHA: Just go away.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Or needs to have a shared reality in this country and now you can go to Rhino Kianga.

CORNISH: That's not -- that's not how the science of weather forecasting animals works. OK, guys, let's give them some slack.

DAVIS: But we're talking about it. So, it works.

CORNISH: Thank you for being part of our group chat. Thank you for waking up with us. The headlines are next.