Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with Rahel Solomon

State Media: New Round Of Nuclear U.S.-Iran Nuclear Talks Underway In Geneva; Calls For GOP Representative To Resign Amid Affair Allegations; Rubio: U.S. Will Investigate Deadly Incident In Cuban Waters; Police Activity Outside Home After $1M Reward Offered. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired February 26, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:27]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, and welcome to our viewers, joining us from the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon. It is Thursday, February 26th, 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN HOST: Americans and Iranian delegations begin indirect nuclear talks in Geneva.

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Iran possesses a very large number of ballistic missiles that threaten the United States.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Calls for Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales's resignation are intensifying.

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): Male harassing a female employee. I just can't stomach it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fifty-three West, 53rd in the heart of Manhattan's billionaires' row sweeps you in. And we're getting a look, too, at the state of New York real estate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The double height ceiling, the floor to ceiling windows, the views are exceptional.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

SOLOMON: Let's begin this hour in Geneva, where indirect nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iranian delegations are currently underway. That is according to Iranian state media.

The Iranian foreign minister has already discussed Tehran's position with his Omani counterpart, who is mediating the nuclear talks. The U.S. says that not discussing Iran's ballistic missiles is a big problem, and that the current talks will focus largely on Iran's nuclear program.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: After their nuclear program was obliterated, they were told not to try to restart it. And here they are. You can see them always trying to rebuild elements of it. They're not enriching right now, but they're trying to get to the point where they ultimately can.

The other thing I would point you to, however is that Iran possesses a very large number of ballistic missiles, particularly short range ballistic missiles that threaten the United States and our bases in the region and our partners in the region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: And the Trump administration has imposed new sanctions on more than 30 individuals, entities and shadow fleet vessels. It says that they enabled Tehran's illicit petroleum sales, ballistic missiles and weapons production, Iran suggests, meantime, that it is hopeful about the talks but the foreign minister says that a deal is, quote, "within reach, but only if diplomacy is given a priority."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBAS ARAGHCHI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We have learned lots of lessons from the last war, so we are even more prepared. And that means by the way, that the aim is to prevent a war. When you are prepared for a war, you can prevent it. Otherwise, you are inviting it to your home. So, we are fully prepared, not because we want war, because we want to prevent the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: All right. Let's get straight to CNN's Fred Pleitgen, who joins us live this morning from Geneva, Switzerland.

Fred, it appeared that both sides were trying to manage expectations heading into these talks take us inside these discussions.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, both sides have certainly acknowledged that these talks are going to be quite difficult. And both sides have also acknowledged that these talks are very high stakes. I'd say they've been going on for maybe a little bit over an hour in the area that you see behind me here in Geneva, which is the residence of the ambassador of Oman here in Geneva. And what we're seeing today, Rahel, which is moving forward from the last round of talks that happened here about an hour ago, is that the Iranians have now put forward and are now putting forward a written proposal of what they see as a draft text of what could be a deal between the United States and Iran.

And the last talks that they held, the U.S. asked the Iranians to put forward a written proposal. The Iranians have been working on that for about a week. And the big problem that the two sides have one another, the biggest issue by far is nuclear enrichment. We just heard about that from the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio a little bit earlier in our report here, where he said that the Iranians, he believes might continue to start enrichment again.

The Iranians are saying they believe that enrichment is an inherent right that they have, whereas the U.S. says they want to see zero enrichment. The big question is going to be how the two sides are going to bridge that gap, whether or not they're going to be able to find two one another. And no one really believes that a full deal is going to be reached here at these negotiations today, Rahel.

But at the same time, they hope that a breakthrough can be reached, to say that negotiations might continue in the future. Of course, all this happening as the U.S. continues to have its finger on the trigger of the Trump administration, of course, has put forward that massive force there in the Middle East. The Iranians are saying that if armed conflict starts they don't want it to start. But if it does start, their retaliation is going to be massive.

And, of course, we heard from Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, saying that, of course, U.S. bases in the region would also be considered legitimate targets.

[05:05:04]

At the same time both sides say they hope that diplomacy will prevail. They hope that they can find an agreement at the negotiating table. It was interesting because I spoke to an Iranian official earlier today who said he hopes, as he put it, that wisdom will prevail, Rahel.

SOLOMON: And, Fred, Geneva, the site of a lot of high stakes discussions today. Talk to us about the bilateral talks happening between the U.S. and Ukraine. Zelensky has said that a prosperity package is on the agenda.

What more do we know? And how does this set up those upcoming trilateral talks?

PLEITGEN: Yeah, that also a further version of the talks that happened here about a week ago between the Ukrainians, the Russians and the U.S. side. And now a lot of it is centering, as we've heard from the circles of the talks around the prosperity package that the Ukrainians hope and want to be a part of any sort of deal that they might reach to end the war in Ukraine.

Of course, this is essentially the offer that the United States is making to the Ukrainians that if they put forward what would be of course, significant and painful things that they would give to the Russians, territorial concessions to the Russians, that in return they would get not just security guarantees from the United States, but also what's known as a prosperity package, which would, of course, involve major investment by the U.S., by other countries, by companies into the Ukrainian economy.

And what that's going to look like is certainly part of the negotiations today. It's quite interesting because the Ukrainian team is essentially comprised of the chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, and the economy minister of Ukraine. They are going to meet with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the negotiators for the United States later on today.

But of course, right now, these high stakes talks going on between the U.S. delegation and the Iranian delegation, we're going to have to wait and see how long those talks are going to take before the Ukraine talks start -- Rahel.

SOLOMON: Okay. Well, keep us posted. Fred Pleitgen for us there in Geneva -- Fred, thank you.

All right. Now let's get to the Epstein files. The Department of Justice says that its reviewing whether documents mentioning Donald Trump were improperly withheld from public release. Among them, three witness interviews related to a woman who told agents that Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly abused her, starting when she was approximately 13 years old. She also accused Trump of sexually assaulting her.

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee wants to know why the documents were omitted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): The documents related to her testimony with the FBI are not there. It's our question to the to the FBI, and the DOJ is why aren't the documents there? Why have they been removed? And Congress under the Transparency Act and subpoena, have a right to see them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: President Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime in connection with Jeffrey Epstein.

The White House calls the allegations false and sensationalist.

"Miami Herald" investigative reporter Julie K. Brown has been covering the Jeffrey Epstein case for years, and she spoke with CNN about why these missing FBI files are so significant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIE K. BROWN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, MIAMI HERALD: They represent a complaint that was filed, you know, to the FBI tip line in 2019, right after Epstein was arrested. The Southern District -- the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York reached out to the public and asked the public for information to help them with their case. And this was one of the tips that was phoned in originally.

And then subsequently it was followed up on. It appears they had interviewed this woman who was allegedly had been assaulted by Trump. At least that was what the tip was. And they did interview her, and she became quite distressed when they started pressing her on. The other men wealthy, powerful men that she had been trafficked by Epstein. And she sort of broke down and they said, okay, that's enough for today well interview you again. And it appears that they did interview her three other times, but we

do not know what the result of that was. I think the public deserves to know whether this account was determined to be -- whether it was corroborated or whether it was verified or whether they found her credible. You know, all these tips I think are important. Whenever you have a case as serious as this, which involves the sex trafficking of children, this woman was allegedly 13 years old when this happened. So I think it's important that we just get to the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will give a deposition today before the House Oversight Committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein. That will be followed Friday by a deposition from her husband, former President Bill Clinton. They are appearing remotely from their home in Chappaqua, New York.

Committee Chair James Comer says that no one is accusing the Clintons of any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, "The Wall Street Journal" reports that Bill Gates has apologized to his foundation staff during a town hall over his own ties to Epstein. Gates reportedly admitted that he had two extramarital affairs that Epstein later discovered but that they did not involve any of Epstein's victims.

[05:10:04]

A Texas congressman is facing pressure to resign from both sides of the aisle, including his fellow Republicans, amid a growing scandal. Tony Gonzales is accused of having an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide. But he says he's not going anywhere.

More now from CNN's Sunlen Serfaty. And a warning that some of the details here are disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): Tony Gonzales needs to resign, a disgusting pig.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Calls for Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales' resignation are intensifying, including from members of his own party.

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): I think he needs to go. I just, that's the line harassing an employee -- a male harassing a female employee, I just can't stomach it, dude.

SERFATY (voice over): Amid new lewd details emerging of his alleged affair with a congressional staffer who later died by suicide in September.

REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA (R-FL): I think that this is a gross reflection of everything wrong with Washington. SERFATY (voice over): Text messages from 2024, obtained by CNN, show racy messages between Gonzales and his then Regional Director, Regina Santos-Aviles.

Gonzales, asking her explicit sexual questions and pressuring her for a photo, "Then send me a sexy pic," he writes. She responds, "This is going too far, boss. So how long have you thought I was this hot?" "Since you worked at the chamber?" he writes back.

Santos-Aviles' husband discovered the alleged affair and exposed it to her co-workers via text in June of 2024 saying, "I just wanted to inform all of you that we will be getting a divorce after my discovery of text messages and pictures that she's been having an affair on me with your boss, Tony Gonzales, for some time now".

He spoke to CNN's "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT".

ADRIAN AVILES, LATE WIFE HAD ALLEGED AFFAIR WITH REP. TONY GONZALES: She had been acting a little strange, and that's when I felt like I needed to go through her phone. And that's when I found out about everything that was going on.

SERFATY (voice over): Over a year later Santos-Aviles died after setting herself on fire outside her home.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Do you think that the alleged affair with Congressman Gonzales was behind her tragic death?

A. AVILES: He predatorized my wife. You know, and he pushed her to the sense of having an affair. I mean, I made that evident in the messages that I released.

SERFATY (voice over): The congressman has denied the alleged affair.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Are those text messages correct? Are they accurate?

REP. TONY GONZALES (R-TX): I am not going to resign.

SERFATY (voice over): And remains defiant.

GONZALES: And I serve the people of Texas every single day. I served them yesterday; I served them today. I'll serve them tomorrow. I'll serve them the next day; I'll serve them a day after that.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The allegations are alarming and detestable.

SERFATY (voice over): House Speaker Mike Johnson, stopping short of calling for his resignation, but did summon Gonzales into his office Wednesday.

JOHNSON: I said to him publicly and privately, he's got to address that directly and head on with his constituents.

SERFATY (voice over): Johnson is balancing a razor close margin on Capitol Hill. A margin that would become even slimmer if Gonzales were to go, which would make it tougher for Johnson to advance the GOP agenda.

REP. TROY NEHLS, (R-TX): I'm not the speaker of the House, don't get me wrong, but we've got some very thin numbers.

SERFATY (voice-over): Complicating things further, Gonzales is in the midst of a tough GOP primary fight against Brandon Herrera, a YouTube personality who ran against him in 2024. Gonzales beat him in a runoff then by just 354 votes.

JOHNSON: There's a primary there in less than a week. These things will play out. So we're allowing that to happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY (on camera): And certainly, many Republicans up here on Capitol Hill are looking ahead to Tuesday's primary in Texas as a way that this potentially could get solved and letting the voters decide this problem for them.

If Congressman Gonzales does end up winning, it is very clear this problem will not go away. Congresswoman Nancy Mace herself also a sexual assault survivor, she says she intends to likely bring a censure resolution, which essentially is a formal reprimand of a sitting member.

Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, on Capitol Hill.

SOLOMON: Cuba says that its border guard troops shot and killed four people on a speedboat in Cuban waters who were trying to infiltrate the island nation. The Cuban interior ministry says that the boat was registered in Florida and was carrying Cubans who live in the U.S., one of whom allegedly opened fire on those Cuban forces. Six others on the speedboat were apparently wounded and are now detained. Havana accuses the group of trying to infiltrate the island for, quote, terrorist purposes, and says that another person from the U.S. was arrested and confessed to the scheme. The incident happened Wednesday off Cuba's northern coast, and it comes amid weeks of simmering tensions between Cuba and the U.S.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has confirmed that no U.S. government personnel were involved but says that the U.S. will do its own investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: But we're going to find out exactly what happened here, and then we'll respond accordingly. Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that. It's not something that happens every day. It's something frankly, that hasn't happened with Cuba in a very long time.

[05:15:04]

And -- but we're going to find out. We're not going to base our conclusions on what they've told us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: More now from CNN's David Culver.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Cuban authorities say four people aboard a Florida registered speedboat were killed after they claim someone on that vessel opened fire on Cuban border guards. Six others were injured.

Now, the Cuban interior ministry says the group intended to carry out what it calls a terrorist infiltration.

U.S. officials are not taking Havana's word for it. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. embassy in Havana is seeking access to anyone detained and working independently to verify who was on board and what happened. This comes at a really sensitive moment. There's no question.

I mean, this week marks 30 years since Cuban fighter jets shot down two planes flown by brothers to the rescue killing four men and igniting one of the most explosive chapters in modern U.S.-Cuba relations. Just last week, in fact, I was with several south Florida lawmakers who are again calling for the indictment of Raul Castro, arguing that he ultimately gave the order in 1996.

And they told me, had that happened today under President Trump and with Marco Rubio as secretary of state, they believe the United States would have responded with force.

Now, Rubio is being really careful here, saying that the U.S. will respond based on facts, not speculation. But the parallels are hard to ignore. You got a Florida registered vessel, deadly force at sea and rising tensions between Washington and Havana.

And until the U.S. confirms who exactly was on that boat and what led to that exchange of gunfire, this incident is likely to add another layer of strain to an already fragile relationship.

David Culver, CNN.

(END VIDEOAPE)

SOLOMON: And still to come, why some FBI employees who worked on the Trump classified documents case are now out of a job.

Plus, a hefty reward, a surge in tips, and now a big uptick in police activity. We'll have the latest on the Nancy Guthrie investigation when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:21:35]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

FBI Director Kash Patel has ordered the firings of at least 10 employees. People briefed on the matter told CNN that those employees were involved in the investigation of President Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The ousters are part of a wider internal investigation that Patel ordered into the probe that led to criminal charges against Trump and two of his employees. The firings are just the latest in a series of moves by Patel to push out agents and other employees who worked on the Trump documents case, as well as cases related to the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

One day after the family of Nancy Guthrie offered up to $1 million for information leading to her return, there has been heavy police activity outside of her home in Tucson. The FBI saying that the large reward led to a surge in credible new tips, although it's unclear if they've generated any new evidence. The 84-year-old mother of NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie has now been missing for nearly a month.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has our report now from Tucson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The law enforcement activity we saw at Nancy Guthrie's home on Wednesday was significant on a couple of fronts. It's the first time we've really seen this level of law enforcement activity back at the home in more than a week, and it was also significant, significant because they were here for several hours and it came about 24 hours after Savannah Guthrie and her family released the video announcing the $1 million reward.

We have been talking to FBI officials who say that that video, initially on its first day, surged and caused a surge of about 750 credible tips. Now FBI officials are not specifying any longer how many more credible tips are coming in because of that video. They do say that they've received about 23,000 tips to the FBI phone line since this investigation started.

But we saw the investigators here at the home. FBI officials would not comment on exactly what they were doing, but we saw them walking around the property along the side of the house and also into the back, into the backyard as well. We've seen this in the past. It's been a while, but we have seen this in the past.

And oftentimes we've been told by investigators that they are back here following up, just kind of going through routine procedures and follow up work that they are doing. So we haven't been told that this time, but that's what they've told us in the past.

But it does come, as I mentioned, in that frame just after the surge in tips because of the million dollar reward that has been offered by the Savannah Guthrie family. But still, the bottom line is here nearly well into the fourth week of this investigation, and there is still no sign of where Nancy Guthrie is and no update on whether or not investigators are any closer to identifying a suspect or a person of interest.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Tucson, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: The Trump administration is ramping up its so-called war on fraud. Coming up next, how it's expected to impact Minnesota's Medicaid program.

Plus, India's prime minister is wrapping up a trip to Israel to discuss defense and artificial intelligence. Just ahead, why this visit is happening at a critical time for the region.

We'll be right back

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:29:12]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

The Trump administration is withholding more than $250 million in Medicaid funds for Minnesota. It says that money is being fraudulently claimed on a large scale, blaming Governor Tim Walz for failing to police the program. Vice President J.D. Vance says that funding will be blocked until the state submits a plan to fix the problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are stopping the federal payments that will go to the State Government until the State Government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that's being perpetrated against the American taxpayer. Far too many people have gotten rich by taking what is the best of the American spirit and getting rich off of it instead of providing services to kids who need it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: The State of the Union Address Tuesday, President Trump vowed to take a hard line on fraud, claiming without giving specifics that it's a major issue in many states.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is wrapping a two-day.