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Erin Burnett Outfront
Hillary Clinton: I Was Asked About UFOs & Pizzagate In Epstein Deposition; Washington Post: Trump Urged To Declare Emergency & Seize Election Powers; Guthrie's Return To TV. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired February 26, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:24]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
The breaking news, Hillary Clinton fighting back tonight, taking on Republicans after she was questioned for more than six hours about Jeffrey Epstein. She's asking why they're not questioning President Trump.
Mary Trump, the president's niece, is our guest.
And breaking news this hour. Election interference on steroids. That's what our OUTFRONT legal analyst calls "The Washington Post" reporting tonight. That reporting is that Trump allies are urging him to declare a national emergency because of China ahead of the midterms, giving Trump personal extraordinary powers over the election.
And more breaking news. Savannah Guthrie plans to return to "The Today Show" as we are learning new details about the investigation into her mother.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with the breaking news. Hillary Clinton's defiance, six hours of closed-door depositions on Jeffrey Epstein today. She went through that with the House Oversight Committee.
And just afterward, she spoke to reporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein. I never went to his island. I never went to his homes. I never went to his offices.
So it's on the record numerous times. It then got at the end quite unusual because I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about pizzagate, one of the most vile, bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the Internet that was serving as the basis of a member's questions to me.
So, I can only say that the best exchange that I had came at the very end when contrary to every other deposition they have taken, no Republican member asked any questions about Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell to anyone else they have deposed. And in fact, the Republican members didn't even show up for the deposition of Les Wexner.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Which is absolutely incredible.
Now, Clinton during her testimony, accused Republicans of trying to distract from President Trump's links to Epstein. Now, according to her prepared remarks, she said, and I quote, you have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge, that would assist your investigation in order to distract attention from President Trump's actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers.
She even went further. Then she claimed that the House Oversight chairman himself is not serious about uncovering the truth when it comes to Epstein's alleged heinous crimes, saying if this committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein's trafficking crimes, it would not rely on press gaggles to get answers from our current president on his involvement. It would ask him tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files.
Now, let's just be clear. That is something Republicans have made it very obvious that they do not want to do. Just listen to what the oversight chair himself, James Comer, has said to Manu Raju.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): Well, I've noticed that every time you all do a gaggle like this with President Trump, somebody asked him about Epstein. So he's been answering questions about Epstein.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, of course, that doesn't take away his responsibility as oversight to do his job and that explanation is not flying with Democrats on the committee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): We should depose the person that is mentioned in the Epstein files, almost more than any other person next to Ghislaine Maxwell, and that's Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay. Well, you know if the standard is if you're in the Epstein files a lot that you should have to answer questions if that's the standard, it's fair. And he has a fair point because on top of what we do see in the released files relating to Trump, we also know dozens of FBI witness interviews, including three related to a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her decades ago appear to be missing from the millions of files released last month.
Now, Trump, of course, has consistently denied wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, as have the Clintons.
MJ Lee is OUTFRONT. She is live in Chappaqua, New York. That's where Clinton was deposed.
And, MJ, interesting that afterwards, after that six hours, we're talking about, Hillary Clinton did come out. She took a few questions. Not many, a few. One of them, though, was from you. And, you know, she reads on camera as being defiant.
[19:05:02]
How would you describe it standing there with her?
MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT: Well, her message post-deposition, Erin, certainly appeared to be, "I told you so". I already told you that I never knew Jeffrey Epstein. I already told you that a deposition like this was completely unnecessary.
But, of course, Erin, she knows better than anybody else that Bill Clinton, her husband, is going to be a different story because, as you said, Bill Clinton did have a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and he has been mentioned numerous times across the Epstein files released by the Justice Department, including being featured in photos with women on flight logs. And one of the questions that I asked Hillary Clinton was whether she feels 100 percent confident that Bill Clinton did not know about Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, and she said, "I am".
She said their relationship, the two men's relationship ended several years before anything about Epstein's criminal activities came to light, and she told me that the former president intends on testifying, that he had no idea the kinds of things that Epstein was up to when he did know him.
Clinton also said that the deposition today, which clocked in at just under seven hours, I think was very repetitive and at times unusual. She confirmed, at the podium there our earlier reporting that at times, Republican lawmakers were asking her questions about UFOs, asking her about the conspiracy theory pizzagate.
And something else that we reported earlier just one detail about the kinds of questions that Hillary Clinton was getting was Congresswoman Nancy Mace asking her about the activities of her husband. She at one point apparently asked her, how do you feel about the fact that young women were massaging your husband? And she handled that by saying, look, I'm not here to speculate on anything I don't know about, and I'm also not here to talk about my feelings, but certainly, that's an example of many reasons why Hillary Clinton was not keen on this kind of deposition.
And just very quickly, lastly, there was that moment at the deposition where things were paused for a little bit because Congresswoman Lauren Boebert appears to have taken photos and shared them from inside the room. And it got posted on X when she came out of the deposition at one point, we asked her about those photos, and when I asked her, you know, would you take the -- did you take them? Asked her to explain. She said, why not take those photos?
She said she wasn't reprimanded. And when I asked her about her just takeaways from the deposition, she said that she admired Hillary Clinton's blue suit -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. MJ, thank you very much.
And I want to go OUTFRONT now to Mary Trump, President Trump's niece. She has been speaking out about her uncles handling of the Epstein case.
So, Mary, I appreciate your being here. And obviously, you know, we're all for transparency of anyone who's in those files in any way knowing something, participating in anything should be -- should be testifying. That includes Republicans should show up and talk to Les Wexner. That includes a whole lot of other people. Bill Clinton, and it includes your uncle, President Trump.
So, do you think when President Clinton testifies tomorrow, does that change anything for Trump himself?
MARY TRUMP, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S NIECE: It should, but it probably won't, because the people running this are the people who seem deeply invested in making sure that Donald never has to answer any serious questions. The idea of equating, answering to the extent that he even has questions from reporters to being asked to testify in front of Congress is laughable.
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah.
M. TRUMP: So, I've been asking this question, are we only going -- are they only going to be deposing people who aren't mentioned in the Epstein files, or have who have been shown to be mentioned in the most innocuous way as possible?
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah. I mean, well, and obviously as you point out to equate someone in the press yelling a question which the president never answers seriously or just dresses down with actual serious, questioning by the oversight committee is absurd.
So, I guess -- as you go through this and, you know, I understand Ro Khanna, you know, he was on earlier this week and he said that of the files that we have, these ones that were all still going through, that's only half of it.
M. TRUMP: Right.
BURNETT: And he said, and what we have is the good half.
M. TRUMP: Right.
BURNETT: Okay? That's how he put it. So, you know, but from what you see in there and from what, you know, how strong do you believe your uncle's relationship with Epstein was? M. TRUMP: We have evidence from Epstein and from things Donald has
said in the past that they were close friends for a very long period of time.
BURNETT: Yeah.
M. TRUMP: So, there's no reason to doubt that. There's no reason to believe that his current assessment that contradicts his past assessment is accurate, or that should erase what we know, he said, in the past. And the fact of the matter is that Donald, since -- since the Epstein files have become an issue since he got back into the White House, he has been acting like a guilty man.
And I think much more troubling is the extent to which the DOJ, which currently is acting as if it's his personal defense firm, is covering for him.
[19:10:08]
Because the truth of the matter is, if he had no involvement in anything suspect, he more than anybody else would want full transparency. And to Congressman Khanna's point, we only have half of these documents. And given the way Donald and the DOJ, his DOJ have behaved since last year, there's no reason to believe they aren't withholding the most information not about Donald necessarily. I have no personal information about that, but about other people they want to cover for.
BURNETT: Right. It appears -- it appears that way. And obviously Trump has said all the way along, you know, he's denied wrongdoing. He hasn't been charged by law enforcement with anything but there are allegations in there. And then there's those missing files which raise questions to people. Right? If you've got nothing to hide just come out and say it, right?
So we have seen, you know, we talk about oversight committee. Republicans don't even show up for the Les Wexner. I mean, that is shocking, okay. And it just doesn't make any sense.
And yet in other countries, we see we see a lot of accountability. In fact, they are almost like, you know, shooting before they even read the full thing in some cases, right? But in the U.K., former Prince Andrew, think about what's happened to him.
M. TRUMP: Yeah.
BURNETT: Right. I mean, they have just -- boom, rug is out from under the guy. Do you think there'll be anything like that here ever?
M. TRUMP: Not under this current administration. Not the way things are currently constituted in the American government. And I think the fact that the Republicans are behaving the way they are is actually completely consistent with their agenda, which is to kick the can down the road, to obfuscate and to change the subject away from Donald's involvement, potential involvement.
BURNETT: So, when Andrew was arrested, okay. And then there was that image of him in the car, sort of, you can't forget that one.
M. TRUMP: Yeah.
BURNETT: Your uncle talked about it. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, you know, I'm the expert in a way because I've been totally exonerated. It's very nice. I can actually speak about it very nicely. I think it's a shame. I think it's very sad. I think it's so bad for the royal family. It's a very, very sad to me. It's a very sad thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I mean, how do you even respond to that?
M. TRUMP: You respond with contempt because for him to say that with a straight face, to say he's an expert on the subject because he's been fully exonerated when we know for a fact he's mentioned in the Epstein files, hundreds of thousands, potentially over a million times. That's from Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin.
We know for a fact that three million documents have not yet been released, being withheld by Donalds DOJ, which clearly, clearly has been covering for him. There is no reason to believe that his interpretation or his presentation of events is anything we can trust.
BURNETT: Well. I mean, there is the reality. It's only half the files as Ro Khanna said. Then who -- and I'm not saying he made the decision, but somebody in the -- somebody making the decision on what is putting out and what isn't.
M. TRUMP: Yeah.
BURNETT: Right. So, somebody is thinking about it. And that in and of itself should be deeply disturbing to people. You know, Mary, because you've known him for a long time and you've talked about this and you've known him your whole life.
M. TRUMP: Yeah.
BURNETT: Just definitionally. A number of polls are now showing that Americans are increasingly questioning his mental state, okay. as president, this goes well beyond this issue. Okay? But we're talking about a possible war about to happen, right? So, people are thinking about it. "Reuters"/Ipsos has a poll saying 61 percent of Americans agree that Trump has become erratic with age, 61 percent, 30 percent of Republicans agreed with that. ABC/"Washington Post"/Ipsos poll last week had 56 percent, saying Trump doesn't have the mental sharpness to serve effectively. That's up 13 points since May 2023.
I mean, that's an incredible jump. And 56 percent of Americans to agree on something politically. I just everyone understands is very significant.
Okay. Youve known him your whole life.
M. TRUMP: Yeah.
BURNETT: Do you actually see a decline?
M. TRUMP: I do, but I think it's important to remember that Donald has never been fit in any capacity. Obviously, what we're dealing with now are age-related cognitive declines. We're dealing with physical issues that the White House tries to cover over.
But this is somebody who for decades now has had serious, undiagnosed and untreated psychiatric disorders, which are only going to worsen, especially given the pressure he's under and given the cognitive and physical declines. So, it's great that the majority of the American people are starting to wake up to this. But I have to say, it's a long time coming.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Mary, I appreciate you, and it's good to see you again.
M. TRUMP: Thank you.
BURNETT: Mary Trump, as I said, President Trump is her uncle.
And OUTFRONT now is Andrew Kaczynski of KFILE. He has been poring through the Epstein files and has done incredibly impactful reporting on Epstein, that viewers of this program know well.
[19:15:02]
So, you know, Andrew, when we talk about it, right. And Ro Khanna saying, you know, it's half the files, you are -- you've been reading through.
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Yeah.
BURNETT: Right? And there's nothing wrong with people using A.I. tools to go through these things and count, right? You got to do it to be, but you're actually going through them with your own eyes. So, Hillary Clinton was asked whether she was confident that Bill Clinton had no knowledge of Epstein's crimes today. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I am, and I think the chronology of the connection that he had with Epstein -- Epstein ended years, several years before anything about Epstein's criminal activities came to light.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, Bill Clinton is going to be up tomorrow. And you've been reading through the files for everything that's in there about him. So what do you think?
KACZYNSKI: Well, first off, I think she is right on that, that bills last contact that we know of with Epstein was before Epstein was even really being investigated for any of this. I think he's going to be questioned on those trips that he took in the early 2000s on the planes. The -- they've said they were foundation-related. But as we've seen from some of the photos, like him in jacuzzi --
BURNETT: Jacuzzi pictures.
KACZYNSKI: Hot tub -- hot tub. We reported that Bill Clinton took Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein to the king of Morocco's wedding in 2002. And then they -- Bill Clinton hitched a ride back to New York on his jet. It's not clear what the foundation purpose of that was.
And also, they've had long running ties outside of Epstein. You know they often say, you know we didn't have any ties with Epstein after he was being investigated. But there are ties with Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now in prison for assisting Epstein went on all the way up until my reporting has shown, until 20 -- 2015.
She was -- she went obviously, we've all seen the photo of her at Chelsea Clinton's wedding. She also vacationed with Chelsea Clinton on her yacht. She was involved. She went to lots of Clinton global initiative conferences. We looked through the CNNs archive, and we found many of those.
And she was actually a partner with CGI in 2013. And that partnership continued until 2015, Bill Clinton had dinner with her in Los Angeles in 2014. The first allegations against Maxwell were reported with the Virginia Giuffre interview in "The Daily Mail" in 2011. So, I think there are going to be questions for him both on --
BURNETT: On that timeline.
KACZYNSKI: Both on his association with Epstein, but then why they continued to associate with Ghislaine all the way up until around 2015.
BURNETT: And as I've said, you know, I think everybody should be saying, well, that's fair. He should answer those questions and so should everybody else in the files. Who knows? And that does include the president.
So, the other day, Ro Khanna, when he when he came on and obviously, he and Thomas Massie have been instrumental in getting the files out such that we have them. But here's exactly what he said about this fact that we're only seeing half of them. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): I would say we haven't seen about half, and it's the worst half. And the fact that we've seen half and it's already stirred the conscience of this country that has shocked the conscience, shows how bad the stuff that we haven't seen is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I mean, when he says the half that we haven't seen is worse. What -- what do you say to that? KACZYNSKI: Well, I would be really interested in hearing what is --
what does he exactly mean by that? I mean, we have gone through the thing that also keep in mind is, as reporters, we have maybe gone through what like they're finding new things every single day. We did that story on your show yesterday or the day before --
BURNETT: Virgin Islands.
KACZYNSKI: The Virgin Islands governor, there's just things like that buried throughout the files. So, the fact that we have not seen half and he says it's the worst half again, I would like to hear what exactly he means by that. I just imagine that's going to take you know, just as much time. This was released, what, a month ago, most of the files and we're still nowhere near going through it.
BURNETT: It's incredible.
All right. Thank you very much, Andrew Kaczynski of KFILE.
And next, the breaking news and exclusive new report this hour from "The Washington Post". This is a big one. They claim that Trump and his allies may be weighing a plan to declare a national emergency, sort of blaming China to give the president executive power over elections.
Plus, the power of Mamdani. New York's mayor and a surprise meeting at the White House got what he wanted out of Trump today.
And breaking news, CNN learning new details tonight about Savannah Guthrie's plans to return to "The Today Show".
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:23:49]
BURNETT: Breaking news, an exclusive new report from "The Washington Post" about an alleged plot to give Trump, quote, extraordinary executive power over elections. So according to "The Post's" report, they write, pro-Trump activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that claims China interfered in the 2020 election as a basis to declare a national emergency that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.
One of the lawyers advocating for the draft executive order is Peter Ticktin, and he tells "The Washington Post" that that the proposed emergency declaration would give Trump the power to ban mail ballots and voting machines. Ticktin argues that we have a situation where the president is aware that there are foreign interests that are interfering in our election processes, that causes a national emergency, where the president has to be the one to deal with it.
OUTFRONT now, Ryan Goodman former special counsel at the Defense Department.
Ryan, just to be clear here I just am pointing something out that if it didn't stand out to anyone as I said it, because it was fast, they're not mentioning Russia interfering in the election because they're not going to do that. Obviously, they're putting it on China. Not saying that China would or wouldn't do it, but I just am making the point here that that bipartisan Congress acknowledged that Russia did interfere, and they're not mentioning that.
[19:25:05]
So, you call this so that the premise, right, is off to begin with, election interference on steroids. Can Trump do this?
RYAN GOODMAN, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL AT DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: He can't legally do it. So I don't think this survives first contact with the courts if he passes this kind of executive order, I imagine within hours, there will be people who have already developed their litigation strategy to counter it, because it's being broadcast by him and his team, or at least by this group with "The Washington Post" and they will make arguments like, this is not a place that there's presidential power. This is something that's run by the state and local election officials.
BURNETT: We're a federalist country, right? So, it should be run by the states.
GOODMAN: That's right. And we've tested this already once. So, he passed an executive order in the middle of last year. And in fact, that order was then contested in court and so far has lost. He is now appealing it, but it's losing on the same idea that there's no presidential control over state and local elections.
BURNETT: Right. And obviously, if just to state an obvious thing, right if states are doing it their own way, as long as you're auditing and checking as they do as Georgia did, for example, right? When they need to within a margin, having it not be nationalized makes it more difficult to hack or interfere.
GOODMAN: Yeah.
BURNETT: But this -- a couple of points here, though, he's saying proof of citizenship. Part of this would include everyone in this country having to reregister before the midterms. So, if you're registered to vote now, it doesn't count unless you go do it again. That's on this possibility?
GOODMAN: Yeah. I mean, it's madcap in a certain sense of how extraordinary the idea is. And that's why it's on steroids in a certain sense. And I think people that are involved in this machination might need to worry about their own criminal exposure just to put it out there. There is a criminal statute that says that people should not engage in a conspiracy to deprive people of their rights, that's 18 USC 241.
And it specifically says a conspiracy with respect to the right to exercise one's vote, that's what it's about. That's what -- was one of the charges that Jack Smith filed against the election interference in the last election. But this would be even more than that. BURNETT: Well, it's also extraordinary in the sense that just the
facts of the matter are that voting machines are more accurate than hand counts. But it isn't the case if you wanted a backup to say that there's voting machines that don't have backup, right? For example, in Georgia, they audited, they did a hand audit because guess what? They have machines and they have paper.
So, they're almost putting something out there that getting rid of machines would make it less accurate. And the implication that we're only going to do you got to have hand counts implies that they're not -- that those ballots don't exist. They do exist. There is a paper trail.
GOODMAN: Yes. And Georgia was thoroughly audited multiple times as you're saying, including a full blown hand recount. So, to understand that means that there's no way that machines were failing. If the hand recount verified what the machines had done.
And even in this attempt to get at the voting machines in Fulton County, there's no allegation in that from the U.S. government that there was foreign election interference.
So, this is really coming out of thin air. President Trump's own top of cybersecurity after the election in 2020 had said that. Yeah, he said that this is the safest election ever. And he's referring to things like foreign government interference or attempts to interfere anything like it.
BURNETT: Which brings me full circle to the fact that the government that they're mentioning to give them the national emergency is China, because they just didn't want to mention Russia.
All right. Thank you very much, Ryan.
And next, OUTFRONT, voter turnout surging in the Texas Democratic primary. It's major enthusiasm and it's -- we're seeing it in a lot of places. But in this specific case, the individual in the race is a big part of why. Could he be the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate seat in nearly 40 years?
And breaking news this hour? We've got new details tonight about Savannah Guthrie as authorities are making a major decision about her mother's home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:33:24]
BURNETT: Tonight, Democratic early voting turnout surging. There are only five days left until the high stakes Senate primary in Texas. So those are the early numbers, 850,000 ballots have already been cast as Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett is facing off with State Representative James Talarico. Now that is almost 60 percent higher than at this point in 2020. Okay, so that in and of itself is a big deal.
Now, on the Republican side, Senator John Cornyn is facing a very bitter battle against two challengers and Republicans are getting worried that the very messy campaign on the Republican side could end up sending the first Democrat to the Senate from Texas in over three decades.
Jeff Zeleny is OUTFRONT tonight with this report from Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: James Talarico!
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're calling out his name all across Texas, a rising star making some Democrats dream big.
STATE REP. JAMES TALARICO (D), TEXAS U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Let's go win this thing.
ZELENY (voice-over): James Talarico is turning heads as Democrats look for signs of hope in the midterm elections and beyond.
ZELENY: You weren't born the last time that Texas elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate.
TALARICO: That's right.
ZELENY: Why is this year different, do you believe?
TALARICO: Well, there is a growing backlash in this state to the extremism and the corruption in our government. I can't tell you how many people come up to me at the end of these events and whisper, "I'm not a Democrat," like it's some kind of secret.
ZELENY (voice-over): That fact alone speaks to the challenge or opportunity in a deep red state where the last Democratic senator was Lloyd Bentsen reelected in 1988, a year before Talarico was born.
TALARICO: There is something happening in the state, and I think we're going to surprise a lot of people on election night in November
ZELENY (voice-over): But long before a potential November surprise, he faces a spirited primary Tuesday with Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett --
[19:35:02]
REP. JASMINE CROCKETT (D-TX), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: People can take a chance on somebody that says that they will fight for, or they can go with a proven fighter.
ZELENY (voice-over): -- that's emerged as a study in contrasts and a stark choice for Democrats whether to fire up the base or try to expand it.
TALARICO: Whether you're a Democrat or Republican, whether you're a progressive or a conservative, the real fight in this country is not left versus right. It's top versus bottom. ZELENY (voice-over): That message has put Talarico, a 36-year-old
state representative, on the political map after appearing with Joe Rogan last year.
JOE ROGAN, PODCAST HOST: You need to run for president because you -- we need someone who's actually a good person.
ZELENY (voice-over): Talarico has been everywhere, including a star turn on "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert, who said the FCC sought to block the broadcast in a segment that became political gold.
TALARICO: I think it's safe to say their plan backfired.
ZELENY (voice-over): The grandson of a pastor and a seminary student himself, he talks more about faith than most Democrats and tackling tough problems with love.
TALARICO: Love is not weak. Love sometimes requires that we stand between the bullies and the bullied.
ZELENY: As you well know, some Democrats aren't in the mood to love right now.
TALARICO: Well, I think it's because we treat love as some kind of soft, sentimental feeling, when in fact love is a ferocious force. You think about the love of a mama bear protecting her cub. That's the kind of love that we need in this moment.
ZELENY (voice-over): He's tapped into the frustration of seasoned voters like Elaine and Ed Barnes.
ELAINE BARNES, TEXAS VOTER: We used to vote Republican and 2016, it changed us.
ED BARNES, TEXAS VOTER: We're not left. We're not right. We just want to be reasonable. Somewhere in sensible center. And maybe this is going in that direction.
ZELENY (voice-over): And younger ones like Oliver Dixon.
OLIVER DIXON, TEXAS VOTER: It shouldn't be left versus right, and I think Talarico is spot on on that when he talks about that.
ZELENY (voice-over): Talarico's views are proudly progressive, strongly denouncing Trump's immigration crackdown and most administration policies. Yet his touch is softer.
ZELENY: Do you think voters are looking for a healer more than a fighter?
TALARICO: I don't know if those two things are mutually exclusive. I think the best way to fight is to unite, and I know how to do both of those things.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ZELENY: Electability has become a key issue in the final days of this campaign. At events like this one, Talarico argues he's the stronger general election candidate. Of course, that's a moot point if he doesn't win on Tuesday -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much.
And Jamal and S.E. are here with me.
So, Jamal, I mean, Jeff lays it out Democrat has not won a Senate seat in Texas in 38 years. Lloyd Bentsen, okay?
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. They said that seat to become treasury secretary. That's how long ago.
BURNETT: That's right. Treasury Secretary Bentsen, okay. So, I know this is a primary and you see a lot of enthusiasm at this point. But, you know, 38 years is a long time. Do Democrats really feel they can do it?
SIMMONS: I feel like 38 years is a long time. And my knees all the time. Listen can a Democrat do it? It's the white whale of Democratic politics. We're always thinking that we're going to be able to -- Democrats are -- going to be able to win that seat. And it's always just a little hairsbreadth away, if not more this could be the year.
But it's not really because of the Democrats. I think it's because the Republicans and MAGA may be so odorous to people that they're willing to vote for a Democrat this time.
BURNETT: Odorous, interesting. Odorous, odious, there's all sorts of words.
SIMMONS: I use odorous.
BURNETT: Okay, I know right? Okay. But John Cornyn, Senator John Cornyn is running for reelection. And when you talk about this is a messy race, very odorous. The state attorney general, Ken Paxton, you know, he's alleging that Paxton, who's also running, cheated on his wife and he's running ads about it. Okay?
I mean, who needs a Democratic challenger when you've got a primary like this? I mean, look at this ad.
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AD NARRATOR: Crooked Ken Paxton cheated on his wife. She's divorcing him on biblical grounds. So, now, Paxton's wrecking another home, sleeping around with a married mother of seven. Think of the Paxton dirty deeds we don't know about yet.
The wife cheater and fraud, or the Texas workhorse.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: I will say CNN has not independently verified any of the claims in this.
CUPP: Okay.
BURNETT: Okay, now, I've made that disclaimer. I mean, wow, they're running against themselves.
CUPP: They are. And at a time when it's like Republicans forgot it's an election year, they're -- they're running against each other. They're not the only ones.
Ted Cruz is -- has endorsed Dan Crenshaw's Republican primary opponent. There's a lot of right on right crime right now, and it could help Democrats. I'll say the thing that you're not allowed to say apparently, which is that I don't think a Democrat can win in Texas, in the Senate.
But the odds go up substantially if Ken Paxton is the is the GOP nominee I think because he is odorous and odious to a lot of Republicans in Texas even.
[19:40:05]
And Republicans in Texas are okay with John Cornyn. They're fine with John Cornyn. And I don't know that this was the time and the race for this kind of shakeup.
SIMMONS: Well, you know, it also could be the Cardi B versus Nicki Minaj primary because apparently Cardi B endorsed Jasmine Crockett and Ken Paxton says he's with Nicki Minaj. So we could have a rap battle happening
BURNETT: Okay. And Nicki Minaj is, you know, obviously visiting Trump and supporter of Trump.
SIMMONS: Yes.
BURNETT: Okay. Now you got all this mess going on and you got the Republicans obviously, there's disarray.
Okay. But then enter in Zohran Mamdani who's using this moment quietly, strategically, he must believe this makes sense clearly to get close to Trump. Okay. He went -- he had another meeting. He brought props to make his case on housing, according to sources.
Trump is smiling and he's holding up the front page of "The Daily News" in 1975 with Gerald Ford's face and the headline, "Ford to city: Drop dead". And Mamdani got a mock up, "Trump to city: Let's build".
CUPP: That he made, he made. It's important, Zohran Mamdani made that to bring it to Trump.
BURNETT: I mean, you mean he actually like, glued it?
CUPP: No, I mean -- I mean, Trump didn't make this. BURNETT: Oh, okay. Okay.
(CROSSTALK)
CUPP: For Trump, right? I think it's just important to let people know that, carry on.
BURNETT: Zohran Mamdani, right. So, Jamal, he wanted to -- he -- this is the language that Trump speaks. I mean, he should have done "The New York Post", not "The Daily News", but okay. But he's speaking the language.
SIMMONS: Yeah. You know, you scratched the puppy's belly and then you show up and he figured out how to pick the lock in the Donald Trump White House, which is like you're nice to Trump. You ask for what you want. Trump likes star power.
Whatever it is that goes on between them, he's figured out how to do it and I think it being -- New York, being Trump's home city, there's something about that that maybe softens Trump up to Mamdani's approach.
BURNETT: Does Mamdani pay any price for that from his social Democrat, as he calls it, base?
CUPP: The price he might pay is just from New Yorkers who are looking out their windows at eight feet of snow that has still not been cleared from the sidewalk. I'm not saying these are unimportant things. He wants things to be built in New York City. He wanted that Columbia student freed. These are important things.
But I think if there's any price watching Zohran Mamdani march down to Washington with props to very easily pick Donald Trump's lock. Right? It's not a hard combination to figure out. He does it.
I just think there might be a little anxiety in New York about like well, can we just fix what's going on in my front yard, my backyard, my street, my sidewalk?
SIMMONS: You know, this might be a ramp up. I mean that Gateway project. People want that tunnel fixed. You know people really want real big projects done. The federal government is going to pay for.
BURNETT: Mamdani's got to find a lot of money.
SIMMONS: This might be -- this might be the ramp up to get the federal government to get back in the game on some of the items that, you know --
CUPP: But that first time he met with Trump in the White House, he knew the conversation opener that Zohran Mamdani wanted to have was building. Talk about building, because he knows that's the way to Trump's heart. That's not why Mamdani was there, but he knew that's exactly how to get him in. He did the same thing this time and look at the photos -- Trump's grinning from ear to ear, loving, cheesing, cheesing. BURNETT: All right. Thank you both very much. Yeah, I mean it worked.
It worked. You give him that.
And CNN will have special coverage of Tuesday's election night, that crucial primary. And it's not just Texas, North Carolina, Arkansas, across the country. Our coverage starts right here Tuesday on OUTFRONT at 7:00.
And breaking news next. We're learning Savannah Guthrie's plans with the today show as officials are revealing new details about Nancy Guthrie's home.
Plus is it or is it not safe to travel to Mexico? A whole lot of people want to know because spring break is coming, right? And Americans go there and mass. Well, a sitting U.S. senator just said, you got to be crazy to go there right now. Well, what is really going on? A special report on the ground, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:48:07]
BURNETT: Breaking news savannah Guthrie planning to return to "The Today Show". Sources are telling our Brian Stelter that she intends to return to the show at some point. The timing, though unclear. It's been 26 days since Nancy Guthrie was abducted from her home in Tucson, and NBC is now reporting that this is how they're phrasing it. Authorities are planning to turn Nancy Guthrie home, back over to the family, and no longer seal it off as a crime scene.
Ed Lavandera is OUTFRONT in Tucson.
Ed, obviously, very significant developments and I know you're learning something new from your sources as we speak. What are you learning?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just kind of follow up on what the activity that we saw about 24 hours ago at the Guthrie home and we do know that FBI investigators were back out at the home yesterday with federal prosecutors. They described this as being a situation where they are continuing to work and do everything they can to work the Nancy Guthrie case.
So, you know, that we kind of had an inkling that that was exactly what was going on but clearly, you know, a change here in the situation where you have prosecutors going out to the scene, they're clearly preparing for what could become the next phase in this investigation.
BURNETT: All right. When you talk about the next phase, right, we just had that reporting that the Guthrie house is no longer a crime -- a crime scene, and that the FBI, I understand that is moving the investigative command post away from Tucson, right, they're moving it to Phoenix, and Savannah is planning to return to New York for work. I mean, it's just -- it's just incredible when you think about the time, the wall to wall coverage, the worldwide law enforcement commitment here, does this point to a cold case?
LAVANDERA: You know, we've been asking that question, and it's a hard question to ask, given that, you know, we were nearly a month into this ordeal and nightmare for the Guthrie family, but it is a question that, you know many people are beginning to have and to entertain or have to think about.
[19:50:03]
But you're not going to get anybody, any of the investigators to suggest that that's what's happening here. There are still plenty of leads coming in. And what we hear repeatedly from all different levels of law enforcement agencies that are investigating, they will continue to exhaust every possible lead. But clearly, Erin, nearly a month into this investigation, they have not had the major breakthrough needed to not only just find Nancy Guthrie, but to find a suspect or a person of interest, but a vehicle or some sort of a picture of a more specific, like a face or something that could -- that could lead directly to back to somebody. We just haven't gotten to that point here which is one neighbor described to me today, earlier today, described it as just a hopeless and painful feeling.
BURNETT: It's just incredible to imagine that we are where we are, and nobody would have thought it.
All right. Thank you very much, in Tucson, outside Nancy Guthrie's home.
And next, a U.S. senator warning very bluntly to Americans, do not go to Mexico for spring break. I mean, is he overreacting? We have a special report.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:55:49]
BURNETT: Tonight, is Mexico safe? Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin urging spring breakers to stay home after the violent rampage erupted in Mexico over the weekend. Just listen to how he put it. He's blunt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): Anybody that's planning on going to Mexico for spring break, I mean my chiropractor called me yesterday and said he's still planning on going to Cancun. I said, are you crazy? No one should be going down there right now. It is very volatile.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: As I said, he did not mince words and what he's saying is the kind of thing that could potentially cripple Mexico's tourism industry, which is the heart and soul of Mexico.
David Culver is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is not what most of us would think of when we think of Puerto Vallarta, normally, a tourist hotspot. We're with the marines as they have recently arrived into the city so as to assure not only locals but also tourists that things are stable, calm, secure.
Those are the marines as well, patrolling from above. Clearly, they have a very visible presence on the ground, in the air, and even at sea.
CULVER (voice-over): These reinforcements did not arrive soon enough for tourists eager to get out immediately following the cartel violence, even if for some, it meant sleeping in the airport for days.
CULVER: And now, are you trying to get on a flight?
MARIA SANCHEZ, AMERICAN TOURIST: Yes.
OSCAR GONZALEZ, AMERICAN TOURIST: We fly out tonight.
CULVER: You fly out tonight, back to California?
SANCHEZ: Right.
CULVER (voice-over): And those with plans to travel in now reconsidering.
TATIANA GOMEZ, CANCELLED MEXICO TRAVEL PLANS: After everything that happened, I'm canceling my t rip to Mexico. I just don't think it's safe right now.
CULVER (voice-over): Perception is everything. Hence the efforts to scrub clean the aftermath.
CULVER: Have you ever seen this here?
LIZ MACIAS, RESIDENT OF PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO: Here in Puerto Vallarta? No.
CULVER: I'm looking around. And you have these burnt out trucks. But then you have the gas station open, the Costco's open. People, families --
MACIAS: We're Mexicans. We're resilient.
CULVER: How important is tourism?
MACIAS: Very much, very, very much important. This is Puerto Vallarta. We feel -- we make the tourists welcome like you are at home. You are at home.
CULVER: And even seeing this, does it change your impression of this place and being here right now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, not really. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It never seemed like they were after people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, it just always seemed like it was an inner battle of the cartel and that they weren't after Americans or citizens. But --
CULVER: You still feel that way?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do, definitely.
ANNIE GARCIA, RESIDENT OF PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO: From my rooftop, I could see that the fires were strategically making a circle around the city, that caused a lot of panic within myself because we were being boxed in.
CULVER (voice-over): Andy Garcia's drone helped her track the threats.
CULVER: When you get people asking you, should we travel in? We've got trips planned.
GARCIA: I'm not here to tell anyone if it's safe or not to come. My goal was just to show people what the current state is so they can make informed decisions on whether they want to come or not.
CULVER (voice-over): The reality is, for decades cartels have influenced many aspects of this region. Much of this state under the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which also has a significant presence within tourist favorites like Cancun and Tulum, Cabo San Lucas, another coastal getaway under the Sinaloa cartel, whose factions call the shots there, along with most of the U.S. southern border, including cities like Tijuana, even the capital Mexico City, infiltrated by a host of other criminal groups, but rarely are tourists impacted.
MICHELLE FRIDMAN, TOURISM SECRETARY OF JALISCO: I think right now, Jalisco is even safer than it was before Sunday. Of course, something happened, that's undeniable. But many things were took out of context.
CULVER: To your point. The amount of misinformation that spreads and how people cling to that.
FRIDMAN: I mean, I saw images of shootings in the airport that never happened. Images of planes burning in fire that never happened. So, of course, it's important to understand what really happened.
CULVER (voice-over): And what's really going to happen. Jalisco's governor stressing that dozens of Mexican media that any suggestion the upcoming World Cup may be moved out of Guadalajara --
(GOV. PABLO LEMUS NAVARRO SPEAKING SPANISH)
CULVER (voice-over): -- is also not true
GOV. PABLO LEMUS NAVARRO, JALISCO, MEXICO: It's safe to visit Jalisco now. CULVER: You feel --
NAVARRO: You can trust in that. Yeah, you can trust in that.
CULVER (voice-over): David Culver, CNN, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Well, we'll see what happens, of course, as these days and weeks before spring break continue.
Thanks so much for joining us here tonight.
"AC360" with Anderson begins now.
