Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

New Leads in Guthrie Case; Subpoenas for Officials involved in Russian Interference Investigation; Rev. Jamal Bryant Speaks of Jesse Jackson and the Target Boycott; Fight for Equity Being Reversed. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 18, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:32]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF: As long as we have the ability to chase a lead, it's not cold. And we have thousands of leads we're looking at. We're going to find Nancy, and we're going to find who did this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, a snag in the case and new leads to follow. Plus, a delicate process to discover -- to recover more video footage. We're going to have the latest developments in the search for Nancy Guthrie.

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.

Today, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify. It's the first time he's going to address claims that his platforms, Facebook, Instagram, intentionally harmed users' mental health. And the outcome of this trial could set a precedent for similar cases against tech companies.

And members of the House Oversight Committee are in Ohio today to depose 88-year-old billionaire Les Wexner. He's the former CEO of Victoria's Secret. A CNN review of the Epstein files revealed federal authorities have closely investigated Wexner's ties to the late sex trafficker. Epstein was once Wexner's financial advisor.

And Oklahoma officials say a wildfire in the town of Woodward, around 140 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, has actually forced the evacuation of nearly 4,000 people in the area. Now, the majority of these evacuations were lifted late yesterday, but state officials are also tracking other blazes that are burning in nearby towns, and that could last for a few days. The fires, they've been fueled by dry weather and powerful winds across the plains. And Stephen Colbert now hitting back at CBS over his interview with Democratic Texas State Senate Candidate James Talarico. He claims CBS ordered him to not air the interview. In a statement, CBS said that it isn't true, saying in part, "The Late Show was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico. The show was provided legal guidance." And that prompted Colbert to say this last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": Very specifically, and this is -- in fact, between the monologue I did last night and before I did the second act talking about this issue, I had to go backstage. I got called backstage to get more notes from these lawyers. Something that had never, ever happened before. And they told us the language they wanted me to use to describe that equal time exception. And I used that language. So, I don't know what this is about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:35:07]

CORNISH: Colbert also claimed on his show, the FCC's rule -- equal time rule has never been used against a late night talk show dating back to the 1960s.

And investigators are still chasing down several new leads in the desperate search for Nancy Guthrie. DNA results from the gloves found two miles from her home came up without any matches in the national database. Doesn't match the DNA taken from her property either. Now, the Pima County sheriff is looking at another clue. Is the suspect wearing a ring in this photo? And, if so, can they identify it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF: I look at the same photo you look at, and I get -- I see it. I see -- people have circled it and said --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

NANOS: I -- my speculation is, I'm going to give that to my team. They'll look at that. They'll analyze it and we'll see.

We know he had a gun. We know he had a holster that had some pretty unique characteristics. We can't quite identify it yet, but that's being worked on. So, naturally, we go to our gun shops everywhere and say, have you seen this guy?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: FBI former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is joining us now with his analysis.

Good morning, Andy.

I want to talk to you about the various kinds of sort of like evidence or leads that we've been hearing about and help the public make sense of them. One is that the sheriff says that DNA taken from a glove found a couple miles away didn't match that profile to a database. So, help us understand the timeline. Does -- is that a piece of evidence that just goes away altogether, or what's the conversation now?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes. Sure. So, it doesn't go away altogether, but it's going to be a little bit harder to get to the point where it's helpful to the investigation. So, let's remember there are actually two samples of unknown male DNA that have been recovered, one from inside the house, and then, of course, one from that glove you mentioned. At this point, neither one has been able to be matched to an identity in the CODIS database. That's the FBI's massive data set of samples of DNA taken largely from people who have been convicted of felonies all around the country.

So, the next step for both of those samples is now to be subjected to what we call genetic DNA analysis. They essentially take the samples, they reformat them a bit, and they go to commercially available sources of DNA matches. So, from genealogy websites and things like that.

CORNISH: Is that like Ancestry and things like that?

MCCABE: Exactly. Now, I don't think -- I think actually ancestry.com does not participate in that program.

CORNISH: Yes.

MCCABE: But there are others who do. And so, by find -- by analyzing the DNA samples against those data sets, you're essentially looking for people who could be family members or related to your subject. Once that kind of a connection is found, it's really up to the researchers to then scope out the entire breadth of that family and to try to make cross analysis to uncover the identity of the person that you're looking for from the sample that you have.

CORNISH: I want to play something for you. There was an Arizona gun shop owner who says that the FBI visited him. And let's just hear what he had to say to start.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP MARTIN, ARIZONA GUNSHOP OWNER: He said he was an FBI agent and he was looking for some help getting some information on some names of a list that he had. I went through all three papers, typed in the last names, and nothing showed up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: I want to talk about this because a lot has been said about what showed up in the video in terms of a gun and its holster. What do you think that investigators are looking for when they're actually visiting these shops?

MCCABE: So, I think the gun holster is a really -- potentially a very good lead. As we -- as we spoke about when the video came out, the holster is odd. It's not the kind of holster that you see all the time. It's actually not even designed for the gun that it was carrying. And, of course, the place that he carried it, right in front, kind of under his belt buckle, is not something that most people would do. So, that's the sort of thing that if he purchased that holster at a gun shop, the guy he bought it from might actually remember him, might be able to pull up records of the transaction. That's fundamentally what they're looking for.

What you're also hearing in that clip is, while they're in those gun shops, they have other photographs or names of people who might potentially be persons of interest. And so, while they're there, they're running those -- that information past these gun shop owners as well.

I would suspect that those names and photographs are not particularly well developed leads. They're not sure what they have there. But it's kind of a -- you know, it's a, you know, a hail Mary pass, as it were, just to see if the gun shop owners know or recognize those people.

CORNISH: OK, that's Andrew McCabe.

Andrew, thank you so much for helping us parse some of this. We'll be checking in with you later today.

All right, we want to turn to something else.

[06:40:00]

According to "The Associated Press," the Trump administration Justice Department has issued a new round of subpoenas to former intelligence and law enforcement officials who were involved in the Russian election interference case. Lawyers for the former CIA director, John Brennan, confirm he's being targeted. Brennan is a longtime Trump critic. And here's what he told Congress, for example, last fall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I've studied Russian intelligence activities over the years and have seen it again manifest in many different of our counterintelligence cases and how they have been able to get people, including inside of CIA, to become treasonous. And frequently individuals who go along that treasonous path do not even realize they're along that path until it gets to be a bit too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, in 2018, President Trump actually revoked Brennan's security clearance for, quote, "erratic behavior."

Group chat is back.

And I wanted you to stay because Russia came up. This is something we had talked about in the past. And I want to play something from last year, this time last year, which is, in the Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy. And here is how Trump sort of characterized looking back on this period of investigations with Russia. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia. Russia, Russia, Russia.

What they did to this country in 2016, starting in 2016, but going up all the way, going up to 2020 and the election, they tried to rig the election and they got caught. And there should be very severe consequences for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: How do you think his preoccupation with this echoes in the other work, diplomatic or otherwise?

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: You know, I'm just thinking that whoever was the architect of this original campaign, this influence campaign to help Trump the first time, according to former intelligence officers I've spoken to, is just cackling because it continues to play on and on.

President Trump sees himself as a victim, together with Vladimir Putin, of some sort of smear campaign when apolitical intelligence officers I've spoken to over the years found evidence that Russia was trying to throw that election. They staked their careers on it, though I don't think they realized that they were doing it at the time.

CORNISH: I was about to say, are they still employed based on what's happening in this Trump administration?

DOZIER: They -- most of them have been run out or retired because they could see the writing on the wall.

TERRY SCHILLING, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN PRINCIPLES PROJECT: Can we --

CORNISH: Yes, please.

SCHILLING: Sorry. This entire subpoena is based off of the findings of the Durham investigation. And the Durham investigation concluded that Brennan lied to Congress, that the FBI misled the courts to obtain FISA warrants. This whole thing was rushed through.

I don't really think it's fair to, like, frame this as a president -- or as if there was an actual Russia collusion operation. The Mueller report found that there was no collusion, no coordination.

CORNISH: I don't think that's what it found. But, yes.

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, let's --

SCHILLING: It absolutely found that. That's why there was no indictments and no one --

DOZIER: No, no -- there was a Russia campaign, though. But -- SCHILLING: They spent like $140,000 --

DOZIER: But, look, you're conflating the Russia campaign with the allegation that there was collusion with Trump officials.

SCHILLING: OK, but the facts are -- but the --

CORNISH: Let me ask you something, because this is what the courts are going to --

SCHILLING: Yes.

CORNISH: The courts are going to have this conversation, not us. Is this about the election ahead or the past? When you see this focus on these legal targets, is this really a conversation that is laying the groundwork for their concerns heading into the midterms?

SCHILLING: So, I think we should all be able to agree on this. I think that we should be pursuing justice and accountability, especially for the people in our country that have the most power, and especially when they've abused it. There is clear evidence of abuse, or at least it was found --

CORNISH: So, is that a yes to forward or back? Is it a forward conversation --

SCHILLING: Think it's looking forward.

CORNISH: OK.

SCHILLING: I think it's looking forward to the future of our country.

CORNISH: Antjuan, jump in.

SEAWRIGHT: Well, this next leg of this retribution tour by the Trump DOJ is certainly not anything new. Senator Marco Rubio was acting chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2016, who said, in a bipartisan way, Russia absolutely tried to disrupt U.S. democracy in the last election. That was bipartisan. That was agreed upon by Trump's now secretary of state.

What we see coming out of this retribution tour by the Department of Justice is simply trying to distract the American people from broader issues, but also to set up this fear and confusion angle as we press forward with elections. I mean look at the pattern and practice. It's less nationalized elections. Let's do all these things to think about, how do we disrupt elections going forward?

CORNISH: Well, just to be clear, elections --

SCHILLING: No, no, it --

CORNISH: Elections are run by states. I want to let Michelle jump in here as I show the audience the legal targets of the administration right now. I should note, quite a few of these have not survived even the indictment process. So, it means that there are some juries sitting down and listening to the arguments that you're making from attorneys and saying, actually, no, we don't think that's the case.

[06:45:02]

Does the administration feel like it has made gains here in creating what they deem accountability for the period of investigations that the president feels he was the subject of lawfare?

MICHELLE PRICE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "THE ASSOCIATED PRESS": I think they're trying to show the president that they're attempting to make progress. That the search warrants or subpoenas going out are a sign of trying to investigate. We're not actually seeing any clear fruits of that necessarily yet.

You saw the case with James Comey that was dismissed. But John Brennan's lawyers have said that, you know, he's a target here. They've -- you know, they've asked that this case not be assigned to the judge in Florida.

By the way, the fact that this case is happening in Florida is just really strange. There's no clear nexus to the Russia investigation and what was going on in Florida. It's not really clear how they're justifying this as any kind of Florida tie-in. But his attorneys have asked that this case not be assigned to the same judge that handled the Mar-a-Lago documents case in Florida that was -- that was dismissed for the president.

You know, one thing that we've seen is just that the president is still very focused both on 2016 and 2020. As we've been sitting here this morning, he has been posting a number of things about the 2020 election, alleging that ballots were switched. This is not something he has moved on from.

SEAWRIGHT: An election denial president and vice president and most of the cabinet officials about 2020 election.

CORNISH: OK, I -- we're -- lucky for you, we're going to keep talking about this because the president never stops talking about it.

SCHILLING: I appreciate that. I love it.

CORNISH: Kim, thanks for being with me.

If you missed any of that conversation, or if you feel like you want to get in a word edgewise, check us out. We're a podcast. Leave us a rating, comments. Scan this QR code now to do it all. CNN THIS MORNING is available anywhere you get your podcasts.

Now next we're going to talk about the art of the boycott. How the Reverend Jesse Jackson inspired today's social justice movement, and how it's still bringing about change.

Plus, we're going to talk about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you a white male who's experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The war on woke. Is the fight for equity being set back a few decades?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:33]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE JACKSON, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: We couldn't hope to end segregation in Montgomery. We had to boycott. We couldn't hope for public accommodations. We had to march and take the risk. We couldn't hope for the right to vote. We had to march and sacrifice. But once the walls came down, then we could then build the bridge. So, it's another stage of the same struggle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The Reverend Jesse Jackson there back in 2008 talking about the power of a boycott. Like, for example, the Montgomery bus boycott to enact change. It's something he believed in right up until the end of his life. Just last June, Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition were joined in the boycott movement against Target as the retailer announced it was getting rid of DEI initiatives after Trump returned to office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YUSEF JACKSON, JESSE JACKSON'S SON: He has carried this mantle for a long time. Boycotts are difficult to do, but we're not deterred. We will remain steadfast. Target, we will not break.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now to talk about this, the Reverend Jamal Bryant, pastor at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and the leader of the boycott movement against Target.

So, first of all, thank you for being here.

REV. JAMAL BRYANT, PASTOR, NEW BIRTH MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH: Thank you.

CORNISH: And we're going to talk about the Target boycott in a moment.

But when I think about Jackson's legacy, Operation Breadbasket and the various, I think Budweiser, there were a couple sort of corporate boycotts that he launched in his history. Is that, in a way, what you're drawing from when you took this approach to Target just a year ago?

BRYANT: Absolutely. You cannot forget in Dr. King's last speech in Memphis, he gave a directive for those who were there to make sure that they were investing in the black bank, as well as to divest away from companies that were not supporting their common goal or their dignity. And so, Reverend Jackson took that baton. And so when Target moved away from DEI, we knew it was our turn to step up.

CORNISH: And we should note that I think the valuation for Target has dropped by a few billion. Its CEO was talking about the effects of the boycott on its overall business.

You know, one of the things I'm curious about, that I've just been thinking about and watching all this, is that the last decade, especially within black activism, saw what I would call not sort of leaderless, but the idea was it's kind of a diffuse movement. No person is the one face of the movement. As a reporter, you'd go to events and people would say, listen, we're not talking to you right now. You know, this is a safe space.

Do you think that that was the right approach? And are you, in a -- in a way, kind of drawing further back in your approach to activism?

BRYANT: Yes. I think Reverend Jackson was helping to shift the narrative from singular leadership to roundtable. And so many times you'll see coalitions of different civil rights organizations who understand that it's not about the individual, but it is about the idea. That it was really about empowering and equipping the people and not a particular person.

CORNISH: Now I am looking at where the administration is focusing its attention, and it is very much trying to roll back, not just government DEI programs, but saying corporate America caused harm in the last couple of years, that there needs to be an accountability for that and focusing on pushing them away from this kind of, let's just say, diversity programing and things like that.

[06:55:10]

What does that mean for you? How do you look at it after you've had this success with Target?

BRYANT: Is realizing that the African American community has somewhat in the orbit of $1.2 trillion, making us the eleventh wealthiest nation in the world. And we understand that the next progressive step after civil rights is civil rights. So, if we're not talking about economic development, that we really cannot be serious about the future. And so there's got to be an economic plan attached to whatever it is that we're doing.

CORNISH: Do you --

BRYANT: And Reverend Jackson heralded that idea.

CORNISH: Do you think corporations are the key to that? I mean is that why you have both the right and the left fighting over corporate policies when these are -- these companies are not built for social engineering.

BRYANT: The reality is that they are. As soon as President Trump announced that he was waging war, in essence against diversity, equity and inclusion, within 24 hours after his inauguration, 35 Fortune 500 companies begin to scale back. And so, the lobbying that is taking place is not just to legislators, but also to the business area. And so I think that we've got a responsibility to address both of those. It's not either or, it's both and.

CORNISH: That's Reverend Jamal Bryant. He's behind that boycott against Target.

Thank you so much.

BRYANT: Thank you.

CORNISH: So, taking this to the group chat because, as you heard, this idea, he said, yes, it is social engineering. Corporations are involved in that. And that's why the fight over corporations are so strong.

So, we want to take a look, for example, at the Equal Opportunity Office and sort of what they're focused on right now. Here is an example.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government, and indeed the private sector and our military. And our country will be woke no longer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, we've seen another swap. Instead of DEI it's MEI. So, instead of diversity, equity, inclusion, we've got merit, excellence and innovation. How is that defined?

SHILLING: Look, it's about the outcomes. It's about what you're actually bringing to the table. It's about your qualifications. And I think that's exactly what America should be built on. I think that there's a serious distinction between civil rights, which is colorblind, and DEI. Civil rights was meant to tear down barriers. And what we see with DEI is it's tearing down individuals.

There was a recent expos in "The Wall Street Journal" that talked about -- exposed how there were 25 percent, I think, of young, straight, white men who were iced out of the entry level jobs in the success (ph) pipeline. I don't think that's what we really want to achieve as our nation. I'm about to have -- my wife and I are about to have our eighth child. It's our fifth boy. And I just don't think that my five sons should be punished for just simply being white. I think they should be judged by the content of their character.

CORNISH: Here's who -- here's who agrees with you. Andrea Lucas, chair of the Equal Opportunity Office. She's an attorney. And she has been pushing for this, going after corporations and saying, you went too far between '20 and '24. Here's what she has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREA LUCAS, CHAIR, EQUAL OPPORTUNITY OFFICE: Thinking about the big picture themes of our country, which is, every single human being is created equal, inherently imbued with dignity by God. And that's the only reason why you're going to have concepts of equal protection, concepts of equal opportunity, not this Marxist theory of identity politics, which is just driven by power struggles and who's a victim and who's an oppressor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Antjuan, can you talk about this, because what it means is the actual government now is involved in enforcing a different ideology so to speak.

SEAWRIGHT: Well, part of the reason why Reverend Jackson's fight from the segregated south as he grew up as a child to now continue is because there was this idea that black folks should always be on the menu and never at the table. And that's -- when we see policies and the agenda that come out of this White House, when we see corporations making adjustments to calcify or to cuddle and play footsie with these ideas, that's simply what this is about. You don't want your children punished for being young and white. I don't want to be punished for being black. I believe that we should have opportunities. And, yes, I believe we've been left out of the process in many ways. And that's what diversity, equity and inclusion has been all about. DEI was never a problem until Trump became president of the United States.

CORNISH: Yes. Well, in the meantime, we just want to say, the movement is going forward. Lots of anti-DEI legislation. At this point around 140 bills introduced in states around the country and upwards of 29 have become law.

[07:00:09]

So, we're going to keep talking about this, these shifts this month.

In the meantime, I want to thank you for joining the program. I know you have a lot of places you could choose to be this morning, and I'm really glad you decided to wake up with us.

I'm Audie Cornish. And stay with us because the headlines are next.