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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

White House Blames "Staffer" For Racist Video Shared By Trump; "We Want To Hear From You": Family Pleads For Guthrie's Return; Just In: Bill Clinton Calls For His Epstein Testimony To Be Public. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired February 06, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: CNN original film, "Bad Bunny & the Halftime Show: Rhythms of Resistance".

[16:00:05]

It airs tomorrow at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on CNN and streaming the next day on the CNN app.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT starts right now. Enjoy the Super Bowl.

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It's good to have you with us on this Friday.

Although this is another remarkable day here in Washington because as anyone who watches regularly, you know that we often cover things out of the White House that are shocking. They might be offensive. It might be unprecedented, norm breaking. Today is really just beyond.

Overnight, the president's Truth Social feed shared a racist video. It shows former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.

We are going to show you a screenshot, see it to believe it. But we want to give you the warning it's racist, its offensive. It's vile. But also, let's not look away.

So here it is. This is a video. Or this was a video that included this image and it was shared on the social media feed of the sitting president of the United States. Now, the White House did take the video down. It took them about 12 hours.

Sources tell CNN Republican lawmakers were calling President Trump this morning as the video received universal bipartisan condemnation. Tim Scott, who is the only Black Republican senator, tweeted this, quote, "Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House. The president should remove it," end quote.

In explaining the removal, a senior administration official told CNN, quote, "a White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down," end quote. Okay, so they now say it was an error. If that's the case, why did the White House press secretary defend it just hours before? In a statement to CNN, before the video was removed, Karoline Leavitt said this, quote, "This is from an Internet meme video depicting President Trump as king of the jungle and Democrats as characters from the lion king. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public," end quote.

It's worth remembering that this doesn't come out of nowhere. It doesn't come out of context. One of Donald Trump's first obsessions in national politics was to question then-President Barack Obama's citizenship and use that to raise doubts about his patriotism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want him to show his birth certificate. There's something on that birth certificate that he doesn't like.

People have birth certificates. He doesn't have a birth certificate. Now, he may have one, but there's something on that -- maybe religion. Maybe it says he's a Muslim, I don't know.

And if he wasn't born in this country, which is a real possibility, I'm not saying it happened. I'm saying it's a real possibility.

A lot of people do not think it was an authentic certificate. Many people do not think it was authentic. His mother was not in the hospital. There were many other things that came out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Let's get off the sidelines, heading to THE ARENA.

My panel is here. CNN legal analyst, Elliot Williams; political reporter and author Molly Ball; former DNC communications director Mo Elleithee; and former RNC communications director, Doug Heye.

Welcome to all of you.

Elliot, you want to weigh in on this?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Oh, yeah. Look, I'm just so glad that that our -- that your opening here used the word racist and not, you know, a troubling video or an unfortunate video or you know, a video with racial overtones. It's racist on its face. And anyone who's asked about it should be able to look you in the eye and say the president shared something racist.

Thank God he took it down. Thank God Tim Scott had the good sense to not try to say, well, you know, maybe someone else did it. Maybe it was whatever. And I just think there's such an impulse to try to paper over some of these things.

And this is, on its face, just so extreme that just should never has no place in civil society. HUNT: And I think one of the things that underscores the point that

you're making is, I mean, the number of times certainly, I -- when I was Hill reporter would ask Republicans to weigh in on what the president was doing, and so often they hadn't seen the tweet.

Let's read through a list of some of the things that Republicans have been saying today about this. We showed Tim Scott, "Praying it was fake. It's the most racist thing I've ever seen about the White House. The president should remove it."

Roger Wicker, "This is totally unacceptable. The president should take it down and apologize."

Pete Ricketts, "Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this. The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake. Remove this and apologize."

Mike Lawler, "Wrong, incredibly offensive. Whether intentional or a mistake, it should be deleted immediately with an apology offered."

[16:05:06]

Doug Heye, this seems to be a remarkable new reality for Republicans, but it seems to underscore Elliot's point, which is like, I mean, anyone with two eyes can see this.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Look, the reality is they've always seen the tweets. They just don't want to admit to seeing them. This is so soul crushingly racist that you can't hide from it. And there may be caveats. You pray that it's fake.

The president can't take it down if it's fake, obviously. We know how bad this is, and it comes in a long time of context. As you played with the video from "The View" and other shows, I remember being in HC5 in the in the basement of the Capitol at House Republican Conference meeting, and Louie Gohmert, to be clear, one of the leading morons of our generation politically, started making Kenya jokes and it got eyerolls and groans. But that wasn't enough. And John Boehner told him to shut up and sit down. And even that's not enough because this stuff never goes away.

There's also a political problem with this. If you're a Republican, if you're Richard Hudson at the NRSC and you're trying to get your better and smarter candidates through the primary, and you're trying to coach them on how to talk about things that matter to Americans every day prices, jobs, the economy. Here comes Donald Trump yet effing again as a one-man wrecking ball, stopping Republicans from doing what they should do to win elections and save the House of Representatives, if you want to help Donald Trump not get impeached, and everything else that could happen in the last two years of his primary. It makes no sense at all.

HUNT: Thank you for that, Doug.

One other -- you know, sort of piece we have here is how this is breaking through with, I guess we should call this person a politically tuned in American, but still a voter, someone who called in to CSPAN this morning. I am a longtime fan and, patron of CSPAN. But they have a call in show in the morning, if you're not familiar. And it's a -- it's a really special piece of Americana, I have to say.

But this particular call stood out because this was from a Republican who called in saying they were -- they had voted for Trump. They're upset about the video. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CALLER: Voted for the president, supported him. But I really want to apologize. I mean, I'm looking at this awful picture of the Obamas. What an embarrassment to our country.

All this man does is tell lies. He is not worthy of the presidency. He takes bribes blatantly. And now he's being a racist blatantly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Mo Elleithee, that from, you know, someone who says they supported the president. Remarkable.

MO ELLEITHEE, FORMER DNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Yeah. I mean, we all remember 10 years ago or so when Donald Trump was running for president the first time, and he said I could walk down the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone in the face, and my people will still be with me. I don't know that we're going to see a wholesale abandonment of him here, but we are starting to see that some people's patience has just worn thin.

And you see that in the response from some of the Republicans on the Hill. You hear that from that voter? You see it in the poll numbers. Donald Trump doesn't walk on water, it appears, even with his most ardent supporters. I think the problem here, besides posting something completely racist. And, Elliot, you ended your comments by saying, I'm sorry, that's more than we've heard from this White House today, right?

WILLIAMS: Yeah.

ELLEITHEE: They still have not apologized. There's something about Donald Trump that has created a culture amongst those around him that they think it's okay to post this. They think that it's fine to post this. And when they get the blowback, they think it's fine to defend it, which is just as offensive to me as posting it in the first place by calling it fake outrage.

That caller was not fake outrage.

WILLIAMS: Yeah.

ELLEITHEE: Tim Scott was not fake outrage. And they still have not apologized.

WILLIAMS: I'd say there's two things. I mean, I think this sort of meme-ification of the White House is definitely a thing. Just everything's good to go online. You know, it's interesting, particularly post-2020, I think there's a lot of the discourse around race. I think people often roll their eyes at because some of it is in such a gray area. When you start speaking about implicit bias and microaggressions and all that business.

There is certain stuff that is just on its face, not okay. I always thought that the one line in American culture and politics was the N- word, and that sort of a public use of that would be the thing that sort of set people off.

And now I'm pretty confident it's the Obamas as monkeys texted out by the president of the United States that that is the thing that even if it doesn't erode support for Donald Trump, he's a popular president to many people, is the thing that no reasonable person can look at and see as anything other than just horrific, and with no place --

[16:10:05]

HUNT: For what it is.

WILLIAMS: For what it is.

HUNT: Yeah.

Molly Ball -- yeah. Go ahead.

MOLLY BALL, POLITICAL REPORTER AND AUTHOR: I was just going to say it's honestly a little bit refreshing that there still is a line. And I think that that initial statement from Karoline Leavitt was so telling because they don't know where the line is and they know that this president is going to cross whatever line you set out for him. And the initial instinct is always to say that it's okay, is always to find some pretext to insist that everything he does is fine. And it's only when people are authentically outraged that they realize, oh, maybe a line has been crossed.

I think she made another good point when she said that this is not what the American people care about. That is also true. Like, as Doug was saying, the American people would like their president to be focused on bringing down costs. The American people would like their president to be focused on doing his job.

Instead, he or someone with his phone is up at three in the morning, posting again and again and again about the 2020 election and, you know, putting pressure on his justice department and his director of national intelligence to raid ballot boxes. That is not -- she's right. That is not what the American people care about in this moment.

HUNT: Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead.

HEYE: We both ran communications department for party committees. Quite often we would have staffers do and say things that they shouldn't have done. Clearly, nobody that I ever worked with or you ever worked with said anything this bad.

But if a staffer has done this, then we need to identify the staffer that is going to get fired by the president of the United States for putting this on his Truth Social feed at midnight, and why any staffer has access to that is another question. So, there are two other failures here.

HUNT: Can I also just say respectable leadership in politics and in life, you don't blame the staff, okay? When you are the principal, you act like the principal, and you take responsibility. You do not blame the staff.

WILLIAMS: I just -- this is purely a question I don't know the answer to. Just as a practical matter, do we really think that a staffer is tweeting fusillades of texts out from the president's Truth Social account late at night? Like, could that be the case or -- I don't, I don't know, I always thought at least those were him but --

HUNT: I will just say typically --

HEYE: Just remember, his day started with his head bowed, presumably in prayer at a prayer breakfast. And it ended with that video being shown.

HUNT: Yeah. Well, and I will also say, I mean, we report repeatedly here on what the president says on Truth Social, often late at night, sometimes early in the morning. And by and large, the White House does not come and say, actually, that was a staffer that said that it was not the president.

Molly Ball, I kind of -- I want to sort of zoom out a little bit here because, I mean, you've covered Donald Trump for at least a decade, right? If not longer. And it -- his history around this is long and complicated or maybe not that complicated. It goes back to the Central Park Five in New York.

We showed a little bit about of his comments about President Obama and birtherism and making all sorts of suggestions about him in that regard.

This is not a new thing with the president using race in a divisive political way.

BALL: Absolutely. It's always been a part of his character, and it's always been a part of his politics. I think in some ways, what's tragic here is that we saw the beginnings of a turnaround in the 2024 election for a Republican Party that could have gone in a different direction and become more diverse, a Republican Party that was making inroads with the multiracial working class. And we have seen all of that fall away, in part because of the approach to immigration enforcement and in part because Donald Trump is still Donald Trump.

And now, look, it is possible that there are a lot of regular people who maybe aren't as offended by this, but so much is being squandered when you have a president who insists on continuing to be as divisive as possible.

HUNT: Yeah, let's -- let's flash back a little bit to some of the things that President Trump has said in his past. I mean, lets, let's start with the debate. The most recent presidential debate in June and July of the debate was in June. His comments were followed up on in July in this clip, but let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The fact is that his big kill on the Black people is the millions of people that he's allowed to come in through the border. They're taking black jobs now, and it could be 18, it could be 19, and even 20 million people. They're taking black jobs and they're taking Hispanic jobs.

REPORTER: What exactly is a black job, sir?

TRUMP: A black job is anybody that has a job, that's what it is. Anybody that has a job.

REPORTER: All right. Mr. President --

TRUMP: And they're taking -- they're taking the employment away from black people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Mo, that's one example. Let's watch. Okay, so this is December 2025. This is a continuation of a remark that the president had made in his first term. Back in that first term, he didn't want to say and acknowledge in public that he had actually said what he had said.

[16:15:01]

But then flash forward to December of last year, and here's what the president said about certain countries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Why is it we only take people from shithole countries, right? Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few. Let us have a few. From Denmark. Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people, do you mind?

But we always take people from Somalia. Places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, Mo, I think one of the things that stands out about what we saw in this social media post is that when the president gets up there and says things like that and people say, hey, that was racist, the White House has some version of plausible deniability where they say he never said anything about their skin color, right? And now you can see it clear as day.

ELLEITHEE: A hundred percent. I mean he keeps showing us who he is. Period. Full stop. He doesn't hide it.

Those around him may scramble. Those who see that he gives them political capital may try to defend it or pretend they didn't see it or hear it, but he keeps showing us who he is and those around him enable it, promote it, defend it.

I mean, when the White House press secretary says this is just fake outrage, one of two things, right? One, they actually believe it's fake outrage and that this is okay. Or two, they don't understand why it's outrageous, which is just as bad. If you can't see that as racist, if you can't see why it's so offensive and outrageous, that's a problem as well.

HUNT: All right. We're going to have much more on this story when we talk to top member of Congress, the leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Congressman Robert Garcia, will be here in THE ARENA.

But first, the new plea from Nancy Guthrie's family as one deadline from a purported ransom note passes and what investigators on the ground are focusing on today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think everybody deals with it differently. And I -- I've just been very alarmed over not for my safety, to be honest. It's for Nancy. You know, I went to the vigil last night like a lot of people did. And I'm just don't want to imagine what happened that night and. And what she might have felt at that moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:22:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAMRON GUTHRIE, SON OF NANCY GUTHRIE: We need you to reach out. And we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward. But first, we have to know that you have our mom, we want to talk to you, and we are waiting for contact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: That was Nancy Guthrie's son pleading for his mother's possible captors to reach out as the first deadline in the purported ransom note passed last night. The FBI says there's another deadline set for Monday. And now, we're learning new details about these purported notes from one of the news organizations that received one, TMZ.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARVEY LEVIN, TMZ FOUNDERL; RECEIVED PURPORTED RANSOM LETTER: The Monday deadline is far more consequential. The bitcoin address we checked immediately, and it's a real address. The letter says, you will have no way of contacting me. This is the only contact. So that's why they're pleading for proof of life. That's why they are begging because they have no idea how to get in touch with this person. They begin the letter by saying that, that Nancy is okay, but scared. So, they say she is okay, and also that she's aware of the letter and the demands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: My law enforcement experts are joining us now in THE ARENA. Former senior FBI profiler, special agent Mary Ellen O'Toole, and CNN senior law enforcement analyst, Chief Charles Ramsey, who led the Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia police departments.

Thank you both for being here.

Mary Ellen, I want to play another piece of that interview from TMZ founder Harvey Levin, where he alludes to this note giving geographic clues. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEVIN: My sense is this is whoever sent this letter is based in the Tucson area, and I say that because of a reference made in the letter, a sentence in the letter, it feels to me reading it that this is Tucson based.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, to be clear, CNN has not received the letter. We haven't independently verified what Levin said -- Levin says is in it. How heavily do you think investigators are reading into these notes for information on where Nancy could be?

MARY ELLEN O'TOOLE, FORMER SENIOR FBI PROFILER & SPECIAL AGENT: Well, they're looking at the notes very carefully and very closely. But they're also at the same time keeping an open mind to the idea that this may not be the kidnapper, it may be somebody that sent a note but had nothing to do with the kidnapping. So, they don't want to go down a rabbit hole, and they know not to, but they are training really sort of forces us to keep an open mind to a number of possibilities all at the same time.

So that's -- that's really what they're doing. And they are also putting together pieces of the puzzle. So they're looking at this case that the kidnapping and I'm sure that they're considering that the offender had to have knowledge of the area, the neighborhood, and maybe even inside Nancy's home to carry that out successfully. And that would go along with someone from the Tucson area. But that's not exclusive to that.

So again, that's an example of their being able to keep an open mind about the possibilities.

HUNT: Chief Ramsey, what do you read into what Levin outlined there? I mean, what he says he has seen in these notes?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, if that is in fact the person who abducted Nancy who wrote that letter and again you know, we don't know 100 percent. It's going to be very difficult. This person may not reach out at all, as that's what he says in the letter and probably out of fear that, you know, the more times he reaches out or she reaches out, the more likely it is the FBI and law enforcement can trace who they are and find out their identity.

Now, that puts them in one heck of a position. The family, law enforcement, everybody concerned, they're going to keep digging. They're going to keep working this thing. But they need a tip, a clue, something that's going to put him on the right track. I have no doubt they have more information than we have available to them. We can only hope that information is somehow going to solve this puzzle.

HUNT: Mary Ellen, it's clear the family is trying to get the person on the, you know, on the opposite end of whether it's this ransom note or, you know, if it's someone else who actually has their mother trying to get them to reach out to them. Can you help us understand a little bit of like, what the FBI might be telling them in terms of how to do that effectively, what to do, what not to do, and what you're seeing in their videos?

O'TOOLE: Sure. I think the second video was very interesting because we heard a change in content and a change in tone. So, in that video, Camron, came forward as, as the spokesperson for the family and his message was really without, hardly any emotion. It was transactional. If we do A, you need to do B.

And he was pretty clear, I thought, with saying, we're ready to move forward, we're ready to do this, but we need more direction from you, words to that effect. So, it puts the onus back on the letter writer to say, if I want to get my money, I am going to have to at least make that effort to reach out again to these people, even though I don't want to.

We don't know if that's going to happen, but they did put the onus on that, on that person to realize that that has to now be on them. And if you -- if you think about the fact that this person could have also been the kidnapper, we don't know that. But if they were, they went to a lot of trouble to plan the crime and to do it in a very stealthy way and to be successful at it.

And now, they have a choice. Do I reach out one more time, get what I want? Or just do I just walk away from the whole thing? But now I have a real mess on my hands.

So, now, the letter writer again. If they are the kidnapper has some decisions to make, none of which are good ones.

HUNT: Chief Ramsey, the deadlines involved here, the TMZ founder saying that this Monday deadline seemed to be much more critical. How? I mean, what do you make of that? And if there's no more communication in this deadline passes, it would seem that were at an impasse.

O'TOOLE: Well, yeah, I mean, that's the problem, you know? I mean, there's a second deadline, which the reason why there's two deadlines, we don't know for sure, but that could be to give them sufficient time to come up with whatever the funds are that he's asking for. She's asking for. But certainly, a second deadline. And again, none of us have seen the

letter, but it does sound as if there's a threat to for harm. If a second deadline is not met. Now, I hope that's not the case. But the longer this goes, the more likely it is, in my opinion, that something could happen if it has not already.

I mean, you have to also think the possibility. I hate to say it, but they're asking for proof of life. Well, they have to be able to do it. And if that's not possible, then its not possible.

HUNT: Yeah. All right. Chief Charles Ramsey, Mary Ellen O'Toole, thank you both very much for your time today. Really appreciate it.

O'TOOLE: You're welcome.

HUNT: All right. Anyone with information about Nancy Guthrie's disappearance is encouraged to contact the Pima County Sheriff's Department at 520-351-4900, or the FBI tip line 1-800-CALL-FBI.

[16:30:00]

All right. Coming up next, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Congressman Robert Garcia, will be here with us live as his committee prepares to hear from Ghislaine Maxwell and considers bringing in some of the world's richest men to testify about their ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

We are continuing to follow the bipartisan backlash against that racist video that was posted to President Trump's Truth Social. It portrays former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.

Joining me now in THE ARENA to discuss, Democratic congressman from California, Robert Garcia.

He is the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

Congressman, thanks very much for being here.

[16:35:01]

There has been widespread backlash to this post from Republicans, of course, from Democrats. The White House has taken it down. Is that enough?

REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): Absolutely not. I mean, first, it was -- it was disgusting. I mean, for the president of the United States to put that out. That was that depiction completely racist. When you think about all of the other kind of efforts by the administration to cozy up to white supremacists or the coded language that's being used, some of the racist comments that the president has made in the past. It is an absolute pattern. I mean, this was disgusting, and I'm glad that we're actually hearing some Republicans actually stand up finally and call this out.

But the idea that were somehow going to, you know, wish it away or we're just going to somehow it's going to be thrown under the rug because possibly some other staff member or some intern or someone did it is not acceptable. I mean, the next question is who actually put the video out and who approved it? And those individuals need to be fired immediately. That is accountability, and nothing less can be accepted.

HUNT: And -- I mean, what have you been hearing from colleagues that you've talked to about this, especially on the Republican side? I mean, the reality is the president has actually been increasing his vote share with Black Americans over the years. They've touted that they have tried to essentially make inroads with working class black men. This surely doesn't align with that mission.

GARCIA: Yeah. Look, I think a lot of those gains have evaporated and are actually going in the opposite direction now. And we've seen particularly some recent polling and research that's not just with black men, but you look at Latino voters. I mean, these are populations that had moved to Trump that I think are now moving back the other way.

And they're seeing the racist language. They're seeing the actions by the president. They're seeing what he's actually saying. And I think what's really disturbing about what was posted is were talking about the president and anything the president posts on his truth social, on his social media. Those are words. Those are messages that the president, the leader of our country, is sending out to our people here, but across the world.

And so, I'm glad that Republicans are standing up finally and actually saying something. Some of them I talked to one Republican earlier and it was horrified and horrified. And look, I wish there, there some of their actions in the language would be much stronger than kind of what we're hearing behind the scenes.

But you're finally starting to see Republicans on this issue and other begin to break away some from the president, whether it's on his racist language, racist videos, or whether it's on the Epstein files. I think they're finally realizing that the president is isolating himself. He's not supporting the American public. He's using racist language. And people need to stop bending the knee and actually say something.

HUNT: I'm glad you mentioned the Epstein files. That's the other topic I want to talk to you about, because you are, of course, the top Democrat on the committee that has been doing its own investigation. And we just learned that the White House is going to start to allow members of Congress to view the unredacted files that they have released.

Do you -- can you confirm that's the case? Do you know when you may be able to do that? And what are your plans for viewing them?

GARCIA: So, yeah, it's our -- it's our understanding that they're going to begin that process. As far as the details, we don't have exact all the information, but they have made that -- they've let -- they've certainly let the Democratic House know that they're going to begin the process of allowing Democratic members to view those files.

Look, I think it's -- we have to wait and see what we actually get to look at, what the access actually looks like, how easy it will be to review the files. And so, I think all of that, we have to take honestly with a grain of salt, because we've seen what Republicans have done in really what's been a cover up at the White House.

And so, we need access to the files. We need to take a look at them. If the DOJ and by the way, they're mandated to do this in the law and the subpoenas, it's a mandate.

So, they're going to begin allowing that. That's a step in the right direction. But they need to actually let us see the documents and give us complete access. And so well see what happens next week. But I'm certainly going to be involved and taking a look at those documents.

HUNT: The chairman of the committee has suggested, James Comer has suggested that he would be willing or interested in calling some of the other men that are in the files, perhaps Bill Gates, for example, to testify before the committee. Would you and others in your party on the committee support bringing people like Bill Gates and others that are in these files to testify? Would you consider voting for those subpoenas?

GARCIA: Yes. In fact, I've already told -- I told James Comer just a few days ago that I would certainly support asking questions of Bill Gates and other powerful men that we have seen in the files.

[16:40:00]

And look, it's not just Bill Gates that we need to speak to.

I mean, look, there are people like Steve Bannon who clearly has an incredibly close relationship with Epstein. We should be talking to Steve Bannon. Why haven't we talked to more of the financial titans that their names are being released and what their relationship was with Jeffrey Epstein?

So, there's a lot of names and information that is now out there. We have providing lists and essentially people that we think we can subpoena in a way that is bipartisan. We would support certainly, the Bill Gates subpoena or testimony. And there's a lot of others as well.

HUNT: We have a new statement in from Bill Clinton just posted on the platform X, talking about, of course, they have been subpoenaed to testify. They have agreed to come in, but he's echoing what we heard from his wife, Hillary Clinton. She demanded an on-camera appearance.

Now, he says that Chairman Comer says that he wants cameras for their depositions, but for their testimony. But only behind closed doors. Bill Clinton says who benefits from this arrangement is not Epstein's victims or the public, but rather that it serves partisan interests. And he says, I will not sit idly as they use me in a as a prop in a closed-door kangaroo court by a Republican Party running scared if they want answers, let's stop the games and do this the right way in a public hearing.

Is a public hearing an actual possibility here?

GARCIA: It should be. And at first, I completely support having these depositions in public. And I mentioned that already to the Republican majority. I've said that in public. I think the -- particularly in this moment where were trying to have transparency, trust in government with the DOJ is doing the corruption, basically. James Comer and Republicans going after Donald Trump's political enemies.

Let's have these depositions in public. I think it is -- I'm glad that both former President Clinton and Secretary Clinton are pushing on this, and it's something we absolutely support.

HUNT: All right. California Congressman Robert Garcia, thanks very much, sir. I appreciate your time.

All right. Ahead here in THE ARENA, much more on the search for Nancy Guthrie. Callahan Walsh, the co-host of "America's Most Wanted", is here with us. What he says investigators should be doing as the desperate search nears the one-week mark.

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[16:46:49]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARVEY LEVIN, TMZ FOUNDER: They do mention an Apple Watch, as the FBI said, and they do mention the floodlight, the damaged floodlight. There is something else. And it is the placement of the Apple Watch, which has not come out. And if that placement is accurate, I'm sure that is something that puts this letter on the FBI's radar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: We're continuing to learn more details about the purported ransom note for Nancy Guthrie after the first deadline passed last night. According to authorities, the ransom deadline is Monday.

Joining us now in THE ARENA is Callahan Walsh, co-host of "America's Most Wanted" and the executive director for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Callahan, thanks very much for being here.

I want to sort of zero in on some of these details that were learning from Mr. Levin about this note, this ransom note, especially this Monday deadline. You obviously work with these kinds of cases all the time.

I mean, how common is a ransom situation like this? And what would you point us to? CALLAHAN WALSH, CO-HOST, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": Ransom in kidnapping here in the United States is very, very rare. I mean, it does happen around the world, especially in areas that you see cartel activity, organized crime, things like that. But here in the United States, we haven't had a ransom kidnaping in quite some time.

So, it's very rare. And it's something that law enforcement doesn't have a ton of experience on. Right? If regular crime that happens, law enforcement gets thousands and thousands of repetitions to go over how exactly those crimes are committed. Best tactics to prevent them, how to solve these types of cases.

But with ransom, they just don't have the repetitions. And so, it's going to be very difficult, you know, especially in this age of technology. Yes, we have better abilities to track people and all that. But there's also great abilities to mask your location.

And I'm sure if these kidnapers have any, you know, tech worthiness, which it does seem like they do from that ransom letter you know, requiring and demanding bitcoin instead of cash, they probably have it figured out how they can communicate with law enforcement or with the family without being detected. So, law enforcement has a lot of work to do.

HUNT: What does it tell you that the person who wrote this particular note said that this would be the only contact?

WALSH: It's very interesting because, you know, with most ransom cases, which again, there aren't very many, there needs to be communication, there needs to be proof of life. First of all, a family isn't going to pay up, especially bitcoin to a bitcoin wallet that does exist but could belong to anybody. They're not going to pay. If you cannot prove that the person who's been kidnapped is still alive.

So there has to be some communication there and there has to be communication as far as how to provide that ransom money. And when it's -- when it was, when it's going to be delivered and what not. So, the fact that they're -- they have withheld that information that within that ransom note, there isn't contact information is a bit different, but there may be another letter coming soon with that information in it. Time will tell.

[16:50:01]

HUNT: One of the other things that the TMZ co-founder said, a TMZ founder said is that, he thinks based on some of the details in the letter, that this person is local to the Tucson area. Given your experience and understanding of, you know, this, a breadth of these cases, do you think that that is unusual or unusual?

WALSH: Well, it is interesting because that does help law enforcement. If the person is somewhat local, if they can pinpoint a general location, then they're not having to search the whole United States. But information can be found online very easily. And again, if these kidnapers have any sense that they're going to try to throw law enforcement off their trail and try to plant information that could lead law enforcement in different directions, possibly other places where they're spending resources. And that's exactly what's happening with this ransom letter.

You know, we don't know if it's true or not. We don't know if it's a ransom letter from the kidnappers. Law enforcement is spending a lot of resources looking into this and where those resources could have been spent other places.

So, you know, there is hope that Nancy is still out there. If she's being held for ransom, that hope is there, that she may be returned alive. And so, law enforcement has to go down this path. They have to follow up every lead, including this one.

So, we'll see. I really think that once we get to the bottom of this, there's going to be a lot of details that we just never expected. Or it could be an Occam's razor type situation where there's a much simpler explanation. But right now, we're all just as baffled as law enforcement.

I mean, it's pretty clear that they don't have a suspect. They don't really have a direction they're going in, hence why they're now putting up billboards of Nancy on interstates. It just doesn't seem that they have a clear direction.

HUNT: Callahan, stand by for me. I'm going to bring our panel into this conversation.

Elliot, of course. You know, there's a lot of important news in the world. We're spending a lot of time you know, talking about Nancy Guthrie and the plight of the Guthrie family. I, you know, I know Savannah personally. So this hits close to home from that regard.

You know, I think there's obviously a lot else going on in the world, which were also covering here. But I've noticed, you know, in my own life that this is what my friends are talking about, my family is talking about. This is something that has really, you know, people feel like they know Savannah from the way she is. Her time on the "Today Show". It's really kind of a remarkable national moment in that regard.

WILLIAMS: There's something -- honestly, there is something special about the "Today Show". And I read at some point, people regard the today show as not America's first family. But like America's -- I don't remember what, it's like Thanksgiving dinner, but that's not the right one. But something like that, where there's something, some parasocial bond. If you know, folks know the term that people have with everyone who has inhabited that role over the years, whether its Bryant Gumbel or Jane Pauley or Katie Couric, there's just something comforting and warm. And Savannah Guthrie plays that role.

Now, you can, politics, Democrats, Republicans, ask anybody, who doesn't like Savannah Guthrie or who doesn't like the "Today Show"? And I don't think you'd find people calling them the woke fake liberal news media or whatever else. It's just something that everybody loves and something hits very close to home for many people watching this, it almost feels like a part of your family is missing, too. HUNT: I mean, I grew up watching it. Katie, Matt, Allen and first on

your TV. I can still sing the jingle.

WILLIAMS: I left Matt out for --

HUNT: I understand, but you know, just for the interest of transparency.

But, I mean, Mo, what is your sense of what this means to all of us?

ELLEITHEE: No, I think that's -- I think everything Elliot said is right. I -- to know Savannah. We both are from Tucson, my home where I grew up is just a couple of miles from where Nancy Guthrie's home is. So, to me, this is very much a hometown, crime and tragedy.

And I think there's also something besides this bond that so many of us feel with Savannah and the "Today Show". It's her mom. Right? And I think that hits a certain way.

You know, going after somebody's elderly mother. And you see these pictures and how sweet she was. And I remember Savannah talking. It's just -- it just hits in a way that a lot of other crimes don't. It just feels personal I think to all of us.

HEYE: I think it's not that people think they know Savannah. They do.

ELLEITHEE: Yeah.

HEYE: She is as kind and warm, as generous as what you see on TV.

When my father passed away, nine years ago, Mike and Savannah, her husband, Michael Feldman, who's a close friend, has been a mentor.

[16:55:01]

One of the people I look up to the most in my life.

They were right there. They were proactively kind and generous, not just the "hey, thinking of you" email. And that's who they are. That's what -- that's what comes across on the screen.

HUNT: Yeah. No, it's a really, really, really good point. I mean, the Savannah that is warm on the today show every morning is the person that you see in real life. And that's definitely a big part of this.

All right. Callahan Walsh, thank you very much. I really appreciate your time, sir. Hope you'll come back.

We'll be right back.

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HUNT: All right. Thanks to my panel. Really appreciate you all being here.

Thanks to you at home for watching as well. Don't forget you can catch more of THE ARENA tomorrow. THE ARENA SATURDAY airs at noon Eastern right here on CNN. Please do join us.

But don't go anywhere right now because Jake Tapper is standing by for THE LEAD.

Jake, Super Bowl weekend.