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Laura Coates Live

DOJ Trust Crisis Grows As Pool Case Collapses; Blue Wave Forms In Texas; Ransom Notes Revealed. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired July 31, 2026 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Lots of good questions there.

JEMELE HILL, PODCAST HOST, CONTRIBUTING WRITER FOR THE ATLANTIC: Yes, I mean, thinking about what that viewer said about what the President said about Minnesota, a lot of times I don't know that, again, you'd have to have self-awareness to actually think about this, but you're supposed to be the President of everybody, and the reality is that too often he comes off as somebody who only wants to be the President of people who like him.

PHILLIP: All right, we have to leave it there. Thank you very much for watching "NewsNight. "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST AND SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Tonight, the DOJ's reflecting pool case goes down the drain with a shock admission that might damage the department for good. Plus, is a blue wave really forming in Texas? New polling shows Democrats within striking distance in the red state. Democratic candidate for governor, Gina Hinojosa, is my guest. And we're finally seeing those shocking ransom notes related to Nancy Guthrie's abduction. Why police are choosing to release them now. Tonight on "Laura Coates Live."

My opening statement tonight, all right, get ready to scream, are you kidding me at your screens? Because the DOJ just admitted to indicting a man with a felony before it even had the full story. The administration, it was so adamant that vandals were sabotaging the green reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial, that they were behind the sheets of liner peeling off the bottom, knife slashes stretching hundreds of feet to hundreds of yards depending on the day.

Prosecutors even indicted a three-time Olympian over it, David Hearn. But today, they dropped the case. And why? Well, this is straight from DOJ's own court filing. "The damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by the Department of the Interior." Really, Captain Obvious? Even saying all of these?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Somebody went in with a knife and cut it. They cut it up good. I think 290, 300 foot slit right through it. Probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind. After a lifetime, you'll see it. You'll see it in court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: He damaged this pool. Well, when I file a charge, I'll be happy to show you a picture. All right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Deranged individuals. Many of them longtime donors to the Democrat Party, to Barack Obama, to ActBlue, that have been vandalizing and desecrating our federal monument.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DOUG BURGUM, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR: It didn't peel off. There was vandalism. There were box cutters.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And you're a hundred percent sure that what happened with the liner was vandalism? You can prove it?

BURGUM: Well, yes, absolutely can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Except they couldn't. That was Doug Burgum at the end, the head of the interior department. And that was the same department the DOJ is now throwing under the bus in their own filing. "DOI provided less than fulsome information at the outset of this case. Had DOI been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment."

But we all covered how it was peeling. And a box cutter is this size. And the depth of the pool -- OK. The interior's own engineer flagged the peeling eight days before Hearn was even arrested. Now, the DOJ says it was stonewalled by the interior department. That may be so. That doesn't change the fact that you went to a grand jury prematurely. Not like you had to act at warp speed because the limitations statute was getting ready to run out.

You know that saying, the prosecutor couldn't indict a ham sandwich? Well, right or wrong, that illustrated just how much credibility they had with the grand jury because if the government said they did something, I've got to believe they got the goods to back it up. And remember, with the grand jury stage, I've just got to prove probable cause. As in, I have enough evidence to show that this is the person who probably caused this to happen. They didn't even have that in a felony indictment.

Now, I keep saying this because, as a former prosecutor, maybe I take this personally. But when this kind of thing happens, it erodes faith in everything the DOJ says. And not just the famous cases, but the ones that fight for everyday people, whose names you will never hear, who need the government's word to mean something.

It's why two Republican senators had not been buying Todd Blanche's word that the anti-weaponization fund is actually dead and why they forced his attorney general confirmation vote off the calendar, although, we're learning tonight, the judiciary committee has scheduled a possible vote on Blanche for next Tuesday.

But today, the president didn't exactly shut the door on that fund.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Do you agree with the acting attorney general that the anti- weaponization fund is dead and why not just put that in writing?

[23:05:03]

TRUMP: It is dead. But, you know, I wish it weren't, to be honest with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: And if you needed another reason to wonder whether this fund is really dead, just look to a separate court filing today. This one from the president's own lawyers. They're appealing the judge's ruling that voided the settlement that created the fund and found Trump's IRS lawsuit was brought to manipulate the judicial process. And based on what happened today, they're not making it any easier to believe otherwise.

Let's talk about it with my expert panel tonight. I've got Harry Litman, former deputy assistant A.G. and host of the "Talking Feds" podcast, Democratic strategist Joel Payne, and Republican strategist Melik Abdul. Good to have all of you here with me tonight.

I'll begin with you, Harry. I mean, the DOJ, they blame the damage on flawed installation, not vandalism. But all it took was some extra paperwork to prove it, even perhaps some prudent patience to see if they actually had probable cause. Why rush this case in the first place?

HARRY LITMAN, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: How low can you go? Why rush it? We know why rush it, because it was all in the service of a talking point by the president who wanted to say this was vandals. And a human being, they just sort of collared he was made to order to support this talking point.

And, as you point out, Laura, Jeanine Pirro is saying, well, if we'd gotten more information from the Department of Interior, she came forward and said, I can prove he's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. She called him all kinds of names and the like. That was just never true. And besides that, it was talking out of school.

So, you can first ask, why didn't you talk to the Department of Interior before bringing these charges? But then that doesn't change that you took this completely innocent bystander, basically, and served him up to further Donald Trump's talking point about vandals, you know, in the pool. It's really about as low as you can imagine the department going. There's not even an enemy of the state here. It's just a stranger who they exploited to bring these charges. Felony charges, by the way.

COATES: Felony charges. And, obviously, one of the hardest things about being a prosecutor, you know this, you're expected to be perfect. You have limited resources and time to be able to accomplish that very task. But at the bare minimum, you take advantage of all the time you have. And it is appropriate. When all of the press was talking about the damage to the pool and seeing connections unrelated to any particular person, it would have been prudent to pause a beat, even for the credibility of the DOJ.

Melik, I want to ask you because this is what Trump said about the vandalism before they dropped the charges.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The reflecting pool was so beautiful. They tried to destroy it. They cut it up with a box knife and tried to destroy it. And it's in great shape now. They're terrible. They're vandals. They've caught six of them, I guess, maybe more.

UNKNOWN: How would these vandals have gotten so close to do something like that? Do you have any proof of this?

TRUMP: We didn't have a lot of them then. Who would think that somebody would go into a pool and take a knife and start cutting it?

UNKNOWN: Do you have proof of that?

TRUMP: Yes. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: I'm envisioning Scuba Gear to have a box cutter on the reflecting pool, but I digress. What is your reaction to the idea that the president, I mean, he got ahead of his skis in a way that many criticize may have put the thumb on the scale of the intention of the DOJ to pursue?

MELIK ABDUL, GOP STRATEGIST: I swear to God. So, look, this is something that the president -- I wrote it last year. And it's so funny that in your script, you guys talked about the ham sandwich. I don't know if you guys remember the Subway sandwich from last year where somebody threw a Subway sandwich at an agent, federal agent and the agent in the testimony said that it exploded with mustard and onions.

This kind of reminds me of that. It's like Lucy with the football. We take these Ls. This is such an unnecessary L. Nobody, no reasonable person believed that someone got in the reflection pool and put a 300- foot gash, which is twice as wide as the reflecting pool itself.

You know, this is what Donald Trump does. You know, it's so unfortunate, though, that so many people doubled down on something like this. But I love the restoration project, and I know that Donald Trump was pushing back sometimes against that, that people are complaining about what he's doing. But people need to understand that Donald Trump, everything that he's doing with the reflecting pools, whether it's the fountains, the parks, that is the federal government's responsibility.

[23:10:02]

Donald Trump is just the first president to actually take care of it.

COATES: And yet you can like the reforms or restoration in Washington, D.C., but if what you're trying to do is highlight the beauty of a city and yet you're downgrading the credibility of the institutions within it, it is so counterproductive.

And he also is doubling down on this idea of the anti-weaponization fund, Joel. I mean, he wishes it were still alive in spite of the extensive criticism, including by his own party and two senators saying or three saying, it is contingent on it being in writing that I even support your attorney general. Why double down on this?

JOEL PAYNE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes. Well, Melik took us back to the case of the Sub sandwich bandit. I'm going to take us back to Covfefe. Remember that? Remember the first time where Donald Trump, I think, mistakenly put something on one of his social media platforms? And it was probably just like autocorrect or like someone messed it up. And instead of just being like, oh, human error, someone messed it up, you've got to live the lie.

And to me, that's an instructive way to think about this administration, the people around it, the people who uphold it, and the political movement that undergirds it. You've got to believe the lie. So, you've got to believe the lie on the sandwich, you've got to believe the lie on Covfefe, you've got to believe the January 6th lie, you've got to believe the 2020 election lie.

Donald Trump lives on this fantasy universe that he creates and that he regulates all the norms around. And that's the only way his political movement can operate. And that's a dangerous place for a country to have a president who does that and to have millions and millions of people who rely upon that as the rock that they believe in every day.

COATES: I mean, Harry, first, I will give credit where credit is due on two things. Grand juries before have refused to indict cases when they have inherent skepticism about the nature of the facts presented to them. We've seen that recently. We've referenced at least one in terms of the Subway case. But we also have seen, and the DOJ could very well have pursued and continued through this, you know, exercise and just doubled down so they couldn't be wrong in public. So, there is maybe some credit to be given that they stood up and actually said that they were wrong.

But, Harry, Trump not only says that fund is dead, but he also says that Blanche had nothing now to do with that fund. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Todd Blanche is a very, very good man. And he shouldn't be in the middle of this. He should get approved because you will never get anybody like him. You're never going to get anybody. And to make him a part of this whole thing, this is being done by a senator. I don't know who to blame, to be honest with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Well, I mean, 1,200 former DOJ employees hope they never get anyone like him. But is Blanche a pawn or a willing participant here?

LITMAN: I think it's pretty clear he's a pawn. That's what the last couple of days really revealed. He's a pawn that Trump is ready to sacrifice because he wants this fund so much. It's a very easy move on his part to give Cornyn and give Tillis what they want. But, obviously, he holds it dear.

He came out today with such a kind of sob story about these poor January 6 offenders. These are the people we all saw. It's almost like a T.V. commercial ready to be made. But I think it has really revealed what he cares most about. And Blanche, we're hearing from both Tillis and Cornyn that --

COATES: Right.

LITMAN: -- he wants to play ball. So, he seems very diminished to me, very much subordinate to Trump's personal interests.

COATES: Melik, why not just get rid of the weaponization fund? I mean, surely, the president has proven to people that he will flex his power and buck the system and norms, but why die on this hill?

ABDUL: Only thing that I can think of, and I think it was Tillis who at least hinted at it, that whoever this person is around Trump, ultimately, Donald Trump is the person who decides it. He makes the ultimate decision. But it seems as if this is one of those many instances where there are people around Donald Trump speaking very loudly in his ear to the benefit not of the American people, but their own individual interests.

COATES: Maybe perhaps his tax interests are a part of it as well. Harry, Joel, Melik, thank you all so much.

Democrats, they hope all the turbulence at Trump's DOJ will help fuel a possible wave in November. The Democrats now have an eight-point advantage over Republicans on the generic ballot. And this favorable environment has Democrats looking at an elusive target yet again, Texas. Now, much of the focus there has been on the high-stakes Senate race, but the race for governor appears to be just as close. In a new poll from Fox News, Republican Governor Greg Abbott leads Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa by just one point.

[23:15:04]

And joining me now is Gina Hinojosa. She's also a representative in the Texas State House. Representative, thank you for being here. I'm curious as to what your message from the Democrats this year will be and what is it about the Democrats that seem to be resonating with Texas voters.

REP. GINA HINOJOSA (D-TX), TEXAS GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'll tell you what I'm running on. I'm a mom. I'm running for governor because they tried to shut down my son's school and now schools all across the state are shutting down despite the fact that we pay a lot and more in property taxes under Greg Abbott. The reason we pay more and we get less is because we are all paying the Greg Abbott corruption tax. Greg Abbott has given a billion dollars in no-bid contracts to his donors. And so, I'm campaigning on my plan to secure the American dream by saving Texas schools and putting money in your pocket. That is it.

COATES: And, on that point, I mean, we have seen a similar story before in Texas, a Democrat who appears to have a shot at winning only to then find themselves losing on Election Day. It happened in 2022 and it happened in 2018 with Beto O'Rourke, even in 2014 with Wendy Davis. Why do you think this time is different?

HINOJOSA: Well, again, we are already winning in Texas. So, I know we've had our hearts broken before, but we cannot be blind to the evidence before us. I think the difference is that we have Democrats running up and down the ballot for every Texas House, Texas Senate, and congressional race.

So, we are ready this year. The result is we had more Democrats vote in the primary than Republicans, which never happens in Texas. I got twice as many votes in my primary as Beto got in his primary in 2018 when we came the closest to flipping. That despite the fact that I had eight opponents in my primary. That's because we're motivated for change, we're working it all over this state, we are ready this year.

I want to make sure that every American understands the stakes of this race for governor because Republicans in the Texas legislature have said they're coming back next year to redraw maps. This is after the getting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court just a few months ago. When that happens, we will lose five Democrats in Congress from Texas.

COATES: What about, representative, a Democratic socialist? Because we've seen a surge of Democratic socialist candidates running for office, winning primaries across the country. The editorial board of "The Dallas Morning News" warns -- quote -- "A Democratic Party that not only opens a door to but welcomes in the sort of extremism that the DSA represents is not a party Texas will accept." Do you think Texas Democrats need to consider, let alone disavow, the DSA in order to win in November, given the stakes that you have said?

HINOJOSA: We don't see that in Texas. What we see is a crony capitalism that has taken hold in Texas. And so, people just want clean government. The capitalism that my grandfather built a small business with, just bootstraps, made it happen. That's the capitalism that we need to return to, not this stuff where Greg Abbott is giving a billion dollars in no-bid contracts to his donors. And every American should care again.

COATES: Representative, the president is trying to capitalize on the border tensions between Morocco and Spain this week where thousands of migrants from Morocco crossed into Spain. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people. And that same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans don't get elected, except worse, much bigger. If we're not in office, our country will be invaded at levels that made Spain look small-time. And when I watched it, I said, boy -- I said, I'm going to say it because I knew you were going to be at Camp David. And I said, that's going to be a talking point for the midterms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Spain says nearly 50,000 of the migrants crossed back into Morocco but, of course, optics are everything. I'm wondering how will Democrats respond if the president continues to use this to attack the party on, say, border security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Well, I don't really know what this is, but this is not happening in Texas. I am born and raised in a border town, and what we see is there are very few crossings along the border right now. People are mad instead at immigration raids, attacks on our families and our communities that resulted in a man being killed in Houston just a few weeks ago. When law enforcement in unmarked cars shoots first and asks questions later, nobody is safe.

[23:20:00]

People are mad. People want change.

COATES: Gina Hinojosa, thank you for joining us.

HINOJOSA: It's my pleasure. Thank you.

COATES: Up next, a new twist in President Trump's campaign to pressure states into changing their election rules with less than a hundred days until the vote. Governor Wes Moore joining me to respond to that and much more, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: Tonight, a CNN exclusive reveals the Trump administration is ready to squeeze states ahead of the midterm elections. The leverage? Homeland security grants. The goal? Force states to rewrite their election rules right before November. But this is not your typical partisan fight because even some Republicans are pushing back. Republican Governor Kevin Stitt telling the AP, "I don't think that we should federalize the elections at all."

[23:25:01]

"I believe that it is a state issue. The states should control their own elections."

With me now, someone who is also fighting to protect his state's election process, Democratic governor of Maryland and vice chair of the National Governors Association, Governor Wes Moore. Governor, thank you so much for being with me this evening.

I mean, we know that you have already felt the heat from the DOJ over your state's voter rolls, but what do you think of this new tactic to actually use DHS funding as a political hammer?

GOV. WES MOORE (D-MD), VICE CHAIRMAN OF NATIONAL GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION: Well, I know that I have the Constitution on my side, as do all the nation's governors. You know, we are watching how the president of the United States continues to try to rig the rules because he's attempting to make this pain permanent, whether it is talking about nationalizing elections, whether it's talking about canceling mail-in balloting, whether it is talking about putting federal agents around voting sites, whether it's asking the states to give up their voter rolls, whether it's telling Republican states they should be mid-decade redistricting and Democratic states not to, whether it's going after the Voting Rights Act. But the president is having a full-out assault on our democracy right now.

And I'm thankful that, you know, my peers, the other governors, have asked me to serve as vice chair. Tomorrow, I'll be selected as the new chair of the National Governors Association. And we stand in unison with both Democratic and Republican governors who say the Constitution authorizes elections to be state-run functions.

And in the state of Maryland, we have free and fair and safe elections and transparent elections. And the president is not in charge of them. I'm not in charge of them. The person who is in charge of them is actually an independent commission in the state of Maryland.

And so, in this moment, we are telling our governors, our attorneys general, our secretaries of state, do not give up that authority that the Constitution gives you to make sure that you can have fair elections in your state.

COATES: You know, many people are looking at the midterm elections as the next key moment to demonstrate that frustration you articulate, to figure out who they want. And there has been quite a backlash against incumbents because of a growing frustration that there has not been enough done to stop the very things you have articulated.

There's a new CNN poll, governor, and it found that about a third of Democrats now identify as Democratic socialists. Now, you have distanced yourself from them and their platform. But is the DSA's rise, is it problematic for the Democratic Party or do you see them fitting in the tent?

MOORE: I think that voters are not thinking about political parties nor wings of political parties. I think voters just want somebody who is going to be able to fight for them. I think voters are not thinking about this like it is political science 101. Voters are thinking about it like it is economics 101.

And the thing that we have focused on in the state of Maryland and why we have been successful and the slate of candidates we have endorsed have been wildly successful in the state of Maryland is that we are focusing on candidates that are prepared to disrupt the status quo, that are prepared to move fast, and are prepared to bring common sense solutions to be able to address the issues that people actually care about.

I don't think that people are concerned about political parties or wings of political parties. They want people who are going to ensure that their lives can be better and their issues can be seen. And I think that that's how you're going to not just win an election. I think by focusing on those issues is how you're actually going to win the hearts and minds of the people that you're trying to support and that you're trying to represent.

COATES: Let's talk about the future leaders of our country because many of them are college hopefuls. In fact, many of them were incoming college freshman hopefuls at Howard University. I mean, hundreds of incoming students are in limbo. They're suddenly finding themselves unenrolled. We interviewed a student just last week who described what that was like for them. He's now scrambling. It's a few weeks before classes are set to begin.

I understand that Maryland is now offering a lifeline, which would be expedited admissions help and an $800 credit if they were to attend a university in the state system this coming fall. Why have you decided to ensure that? Is it vital for these students who were so hopeful about the next steps that they're not falling through the cracks of higher education entirely?

MOORE: Yes. I mean, my heart broke when I heard about these students. I mean, they worked hard, and they earned admission, and they were then preparing to start college, and then found out through no fault of their own that that door was now shut.

And listen, I'm a very big believer in Howard University. You know, it is a vital institution in our country. We've got four remarkable HBCUs in the state of Maryland. I consider Howard to basically be our fifth with the amounts of leaders that we have in Maryland that are Howard grads.

[23:29:56]

But I also wanted to let them know that for these students that found themselves in a situation where they were watching their future being dimmed before their eyes, that, in Maryland, we believe in leaving no one behind. And so, I ordered for us to open up our system to them for the expedited admissions and, to your point, also to make sure that they are going to receive $800 so they don't have to double pay for, you know, things like housing deposits and so on and so forth because we need these students to win, and we need these students to succeed because when they achieve their God-honored destiny, that means our society will be better because of it.

And so, I'm eager to welcome them to our Maryland institutions with open arms and say that we need them to be able to be the future leaders that we're all hoping for.

COATES: How life-changing for them. Governor Wes Moore, thank you so much.

MOORE: Thank you so much.

COATES: Still ahead, we are finally seeing the Nancy Guthrie ransom notes as the sheriff makes a new push to find the suspect, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: Six months since Nancy Guthrie was taken from her home. And tonight, for the first time, we are seeing exactly what those ransom notes said. The Pima County sheriff releasing them in the hopes that someone, anyone, recognizes any writing pattern that could help crack the case. The first note demanded Bitcoin and said in part, "If payments is not received by the last deadline on Monday the 9th at 5 p.m., she will be killed. Your mother is aware of this and her life is in your hands." Then the second note struck a much different tone. "We did not fully grasp the seriousness of her physical condition. We never intended to hurt her, that was not our intention. She perished shortly after she was taken. We believe it was heart related. She is buried in nature now. Nothing you could have done could have changed the outcome. We want your family to know this and hope you all can find peace. We are truly sorry."

Joining me now, retired FBI special agent and CNN contributor Steve Moore and Briana Whitney, reporter for "Crime Junkie" podcast who has been one of the top voices covering this very story. Good to have both of you here. Steve, what do you think of the decision to release these, and will it be helpful?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Well, obviously, the hope is that it will be helpful. This is not something the FBI likes to do. And I know it came from Pima, but this wasn't done without the FBI's involvement. The FBI has had success with this. This is how they identified the Unabomber, by releasing his manifesto, and his brother immediately recognized the writing. That's the hope that they have here, that somebody will recognize the figures of speech, the mannerisms, things like this. But it is not something you do immediately. This is a Hail Mary. You don't do Hail Mary on first down. So, we'll see how this works. I hope it works.

COATES: And this -- assuming that A.I. or anyone had no part in it, this is actually someone's direct thought as opposed to any sort of intervention. But Briana, I mean, you were one of the people who had access to these notes long before they became public. Does law enforcement think that these notes were legit and that the motive was indeed money?

BRIANA WHITNEY, REPORTER, CRIME JUNKIE: I think so. I mean, for the longest time, we were waiting to find out. Do they believe that these are credible notes? And they really didn't come out and say that for sure today.

COATES: Right.

WHITNEY: But I think the notion that they're putting them out now, and they are giving credence to it and saying, hey, look at this language, look at the writing, look at how this person is voicing this kind of demand, makes me believe that they are taking these very seriously.

We knew from that first press conference that they were looking at them as being possibly involved. They were part of the investigation. But I think them releasing them, the pictures of them, the actual notes that we can see, is pretty important to the case. Yes.

COATES: You know, I am struck by the different tone that each took, Steve. The second one seemed almost to be apologetic, and then ironically, cruelly, saying that they hope that they're at peace when they took her mother, and she, they say, has perished.

I mean, there was testing on the hair sample inside the home, Steve. It turned up nothing. Do you think that this person, although it does say we, we, we, and what we will do, that these people were amateurs or does the lack of traceable DNA, even now, make you think they knew what they were doing?

MOORE: Yes, I think it's possible that they knew what they were doing. I think it's more easily explained by the fact that they just lucked into the situation they had. If they had been professionals, they wouldn't have left without her medication, they would have known how serious her illness was. This does not show to me a lot of pre- kidnapping intelligence research, that type of thing.

COATES: And yet they've alluded capture. I mean, there has been, Brianna, so much bad blood between the sheriff and the FBI. Kash Patel said that he was iced out, actually. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASH PATEL, DIRECTOR, FBI: The first 48 hours of anyone's disappearance are the most critical. And here's how these cases work. It is a state matter. It's a state and local law enforcement matter. What we, the FBI, do is say, hey, we're here to help. What do you need? What can we do? And for four days, we were kept out of the investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Briana, do your sources think that this hurt the investigation?

[23:40:02]

WHITNEY: Oh, 100 percent. I mean, I know it hurt the investigation. And even the sheriff, Chris Nanos, kind of alluded to the fact that they should not have cleared the scene and let people come up to the scene. That was something that I know really bothered the FBI. I mean, they needed to basically start over this investigation days later.

And so, there has always been kind of this tension, it's felt, between the agencies. And the FBI has kind of had their hands tied a little bit because they've always been in an assist capacity. PCSD is the lead agency on this. So, there's only so much that everybody can do. And I do think that that has caused some issues with where the investigation stands now.

COATES: I mean, it's six months now. Steve, you've worked cold cases in the past. What can you tell people who think this might never be solved?

MOORE: I would say that, from my experience, this is not one that's going to remain cold. This is going to come out. There's going to be a resolution to this.

The second message, talking about we didn't understand, we didn't comprehend how ill she was in essence, shows an immense amount of guilt and feelings of regret about what happened. There is no other reason to send that message, none, except for a guilty conscience. I think that that indicates that there's going to be somebody in this person's world who's going to recognize this and possibly get the person, either turn them in, or possibly get the person or give the FBI a call.

COATES: Well, it would make Savannah Guthrie's most recent message make all the more sense that she's appealing to that guilt and that conscience of somebody. Steve, Briana, thank you so much.

WHITNEY: Thank you.

MOORE: Thank you.

COATES: And a reminder to everyone with information, with anything, you're urge to call 1-800-CALL-FBI. Up next, a new Friday series for us on "Laura Coates Live," "Meet the Creators."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE OGLETON, SOCIAL MEDIA CREATOR, AUTHOR: Here's a list of 57 activities in the middle of your day that you need to attend. It's a good thing we don't work or anything, right? Also, don't forget to log into Zabel Suit to sign up for the end-of-year parties and field trip chaperoning. Not it. Not it.

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COATES: The man they call "Fit Dad CEO" with two million followers and counting is our debut guest, and he's live with me, next.

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[23:45:00]

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COATES: You know, we all know the dad joke. It's cringe. It's cheesy. And if you have kids, it's practically law. But my next guest didn't just tell these jokes, he has turned them into a huge following, and this mom is one of them. Known to his fans as the "Fit Dad CEO," Dave Ogleton is a father of six who went from running his own insurance business to writing a book, launching merch, and racking up billions of views with jokes like these.

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OGLETON: Come along with me on a day in the life of a teenager on summer break. I start my morning around 11:47 a.m. after a grueling night of staying up until 3 a.m. watching videos I've already seen. The first thing I do is walk downstairs and immediately become annoyed that people are already awake. My mom says, good morning. I say, what? Not because she said anything wrong. I'm just trying to establish the mood for the day.

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(LAUGHTER)

COATES: Joining me now for our new segment, "Meet the Creators," where we finally get to meet the friends in our feed we're all talking about, is the king of dad jokes himself, Dave Ogleton. He's also the author of "So Dad It's Good: The Ultimate Dad-a-Base of Cringeworthy Dad Jokes." See what he did there?

So good to have you on, Dave. I follow you. I crack up every time because it's so relatable. And you make this all look incredibly easy. You've turned cheesy puns and realities into this multi-platform business empire. Describe your creative process. Are you inspired at, like, 3 a.m. while you're dealing with teens?

OGLETON: I mean, the list of my notes that I have of content that I can make is pretty much endless.

(LAUGHTER)

With six kids, it's constant, you know, inspiration throughout the day. So, yes, I mean, sometimes, I am waking up, honestly, in the middle of the night. If something comes to me, I'll write it down. But a lot of it comes with just, you know, things that happen throughout the day or things that friends are complaining about or, you know. So, that's where a lot of that comes from.

COATES: Six kids. I mean, you've got an 18, a 15, an 11, a nine, a seven, a five. All I see is all the exit ramps you passed on this journey. You just kept going. But you know what? You started dabbling on social media back in 2019, and then 2020 hit. We all know what happens, the lockdown. And you pivoted straight to parent humor, and it took off. I mean, did you actually ever have this on your bucket list or did you just have this leap of faith and kept going?

OGLETON: Yes. I mean, it was -- it took off pretty quickly, and I saw something that was there. I think it was more just, like, authenticity than anything else, and I think people resonated with that. And during the time, we were parents that were all stuck inside, and we all were dealing with the same things. And so, I think that was where that relatability came into play and kind of just took off from there.

COATES: Do your kids ever give you feedback?

[23:50:00]

Do they even realize you just posted, and do they see themselves as the person you're actually making fun of?

OGLETON: Usually, I'll wait until my 18-year-old comes down the steps. If I hear her mocking my video that I just posted --

(LAUGHTER)

-- it means that it hit her feed at least, so I did my job.

COATES: That might be the only communication with that person that day. So, there you go. You've had a father-daughter moment.

OGLETON: Exactly.

COATES: There you go. Look, you took this massive gamble on yourself, though. I respect all those who take leaps of faith and pivot. It totally has paid off for you. So, for anyone watching right now who has this great idea, is too scared to take the leap, give them some advice. How do they get off the fence?

OGLETON: Just hit record. Honestly, like, the biggest thing that took me to the next level is to kind of, like, detach yourself from that result. If you want to make content, hit the record button and just be intentional about it. And if it doesn't work, figure out what does work and what doesn't work.

COATES: I have to know as a mother of just two. You've got six kids. I'm trying to understand the sanity that happens or the insanity in your house. Is this part of your coping mechanism? Is this kind of an escapism for you? How does this feel, knowing that this is all happening? OGLETON: Well, I mean, it's a lot of the comments that I get when I post these kinds of videos. Do we all have the same kid? And so, it makes me feel a little bit better knowing that I'm not alone in this. Like, me and my wife pretty much share the sanity, the little bit that we have left in our house. But it just feels good to know that we aren't the only parents that are going through it. And I think that's honestly what works with this content. Other parents are going through the same stuff that we are at every level. So, yes, it's fun.

COATES: My husband and I crack up every time when we're, like, noa, which is how all kids apparently respond. The word no is noa. It's our household, too. But for one parent to another, how do you draw the line? I mean, do you set healthy social media boundaries for your kids, even though you're a professional dadfluencer?

OGLETON: Yes. I mean, as far as me, you know, we're learning to put our phones down as parents. But we were the generation that we found these phones. They were given to us. So, we kind of grew up with them. These kids were born into it. And so, we have set boundaries, especially the younger ones. The older ones are pretty much -- they're screwed.

(LAUGHTER)

But the younger ones, we definitely said, you know, there needs to be a certain amount of time that you have every day. My wife is, like, really awesome about that, especially recently. But one of the things that we do is we still sit down and have dinner, you know, almost every single night, and we just put our phones and our iPads away. That's always a rule that, like, I make sure I enforce as well.

COATES: I love it. I can't imagine if we had phones on us when we were younger. Oh, my God. I probably wouldn't have this job. I just wouldn't.

OGLETON: Absolutely not.

COATES: Dave Ogleton, thank you so much. Nice to meet you.

OGLETON: You, too. Thanks for having me.

COATES: Up next, my Friday night bingo card for the week. We'll fill it out right after this.

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[23:55:00]

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COATES: Well, another crazy week has come and gone in D.C. And I've got to admit, there were some things even I didn't have on my bingo card. You know what? Let me show you mine. Yes, it's exactly what you think it is. What I didn't see coming and what I did. Hit me on social and tell me if yours looks anything like mine, OK? Trump's war with no end in sight, that was definitely on it. At this point, even the updates feel like a waiting game. Also, predictable, Senator Mitch McConnell still being M.I.A. You know, it's funny how the party that accuses Democrats of phoning it in can never find a way to Zoom with him.

Also, on my card, party infighting. This time, it's the Democrats sparring with Democratic socialist wing of their party. So much for that circular firing squad warning 95 days before an election. You know what? Let's just make that the free space, OK? And I knew we would still not be eating salads. I'm waiting for Taco Bell to issue the all-clear before I risk a Caesar because, wow.

Now, to what I did not have on my bingo card, RFK Jr. has a cooking show? What in the Bobby Flay is this?

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ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Amazing.

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COATES: I also did not have Dr. Anthony Fauci writing a diary like he's Bridget Jones during the pandemic, let alone writing that he had been asked to join "Dancing with the Stars," and I didn't. I mean, not bitter or anything. And a thousand-page diary, apparently, on the work computer? I mean, even Dr. Deborah Birx told me that she was surprised.

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DR. DEBORAH BIRX, FORMER CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: Difficult to understand taking the time to write those things when there was so little time for anything that first year. I mean, I know how little sleep I got. And I just -- I don't understand it, to be frank.

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COATES: Moving on to the hardwood. LeBron to Philly? I didn't have that, and you didn't either until Shams said it, OK? Because if you had, you'd already have the now-sold-out jersey instead of having to wait six weeks for it, Jake Tapper.

[00:00:00]

And lastly, oh my God, I never expected Usher to get snubbed by a fan on stage during a concert. Now, if you don't know what I'm talking about, just Google it or search it up, whatever the kids say these days.

Well, that is it for us tonight. I want you to have a great weekend. "The Story is with Elex Michaelson," that's next.