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Trump Calls to Nationalize Elections After FBI Search in Georgia; Savannah Guthrie's Mother Abducted from Her Home; Alleged Charlie Kirk Shooter Tyler Robinson Back in Court. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired February 03, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

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BRIG. GEN. STEVE ANDERSON, U.S. ARMY (RET.): We've got incredible military capability in the region. We've shown our ability to launch attacks against the Iranians. We've shown a willingness to do this.

Now is the time to negotiate and take advantage of their weakness.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Brigadier General Steve Anderson, Michael Allen, obviously thanks to both of you. These are very rare face-to- face meetings where the foreign minister of Iran and a U.S. envoy meet directly, so it bears watching to say the least. Appreciate it.

Brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the president says take it over, calling on his party now to somehow throw out the Constitution and now nationalize elections. Will the party go along?

And the latest in the search for Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie's mother, Nancy. Police now say evidence found at the 84-year-old's home leads them to believe she was taken against her will, and they are asking for the public's help.

And a traffic stop turns just terrifying. Dash cam video capturing a crash in the moment a Tennessee state trooper almost gets pinned against his squad car.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, President Trump is now openly calling for the federal government to take over elections in more than a dozen states. It is prefaced on this, his lie that he won the 2020 election. Listen to what he told podcaster Dan Bongino, who was his deputy FBI director until just a month ago.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Republicans should say we want to take over. We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many -- 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The Constitution explicitly grants the states, not the federal government, not Republicans, the right to run their polls. This comes after the FBI searched an election office in Fulton County, Georgia last week and seized the 2020 ballots. Sources now tell CNN that the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who was on site during the operation, put the president on the phone with some of the FBI agents who carried out that search.

Gabbard now says the president asked her to be there and that during the call, he did not ask any questions of the agents or give any orders. CNN's Alayna Treene is live at the White House. Kate just spoke with one of the Fulton County commissioners there who says every single election has been fair and free.

But now you have this situation with the FBI picking up those votes and you have the president of the United States making a really disturbing claim. What are you learning about this?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, in some of the conversations I've been having, Sara, of course, you know, what the president is saying, particularly about this idea of nationalizing elections is just almost certainly not going to happen. They would have to -- it would require changing the Constitution.

And many Republican lawmakers, of course, see the way that this the election process works in the United States and having the states be the one to really get to decide a lot of the key parts of that is not is not going to change. But what this does, really, this rhetoric is continue a trend and a pattern that we've seen the president continue into his second term in office, which is to continue and, you know, cast doubt on the integrity of the election process in the United States.

And, of course, Trump himself. And I know he continues to believe this. He still rages about this behind the scenes, this idea that, you know, elections in the United States can be rife with fraud.

He still often talks about the 2020 election and falsely claims that he had won it. But then also this idea that perhaps there's some broader conspiracy that Democrats are engaging in to try and prop up undocumented immigrants, for example, in certain states. And that could also be affecting the election process.

Again, all that without evidence. But I think what we're seeing, what we saw happen last week in Fulton County, Georgia, is one part of this. But we've also seen the president take other steps.

One is that the Justice Department is now demanding that several states, including Minnesota, turn over their voter rolls, their full voter rolls, as the Trump administration is really trying to build a national voter file. We also know the president last year had, you know, pushed forward with these executive orders. He signed an executive order in March to make significant changes to the electoral process in the United States, including requiring documentary proof of citizenship and demanding that all mail ballots be received by the times that polls close on Election Day.

I will say that effort has largely been rebuffed by the courts. But again, this speaks to the broader pattern that the president has been doing, really having his administration in his second term try to put more influence on these election processes.

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Again, I will say this is something that Republicans, at least a lot of the lawmakers I've talked to on Capitol Hill in recent days or in recent hours have been saying more of a rhetoric thing. They wish the president wasn't talking about this. They want to be focusing on other issues ahead of the midterms, but still something, of course, we're likely to see continue by this president moving forward.

SIDNER: Yes, and this isn't happening in a vacuum because in the special elections, the Republicans have gotten trounced a few times. And so there is that, as well as the 2026 midterms are fast approaching. Alayna Treene, thank you so much for your reporting there from the White House -- John.

BERMAN: With us now, CNN Washington Bureau Chief and Political Director David Chalian. Even if these ballot seizures in Fulton County turn up the same things that every other investigation have, which is basically nothing down there, even if the president's calls for Republicans to take over elections go nowhere because of the Constitution, what's the potential impact of activity like this, David?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, I mean, I don't think anybody, including the Republicans, Alayna was just speaking to on Capitol Hill, should dismiss this as just rhetoric. Because Donald Trump very clearly in 2020 foreshadowed, maybe not the scale and the scope of what January 6th was, John, but you remember covering that campaign. He was laying -- he was sowing the seeds of doubt well before Election Day that he was going to call into question the results in some way and galvanize his base of supporters to do that as well. So I think we should listen pretty carefully to what he's saying right now because it's probably not just rhetoric.

It is probably a bit of a game plan. And you are right. Obviously, the Constitution doesn't allow for nationalizing elections. We get that.

But what's going to stop Donald Trump potentially if he feels he wants to put ICE enforcement agents at polling places? And might that be a way to intimidate some people from showing up at the polls?

There are other levers of power that he can pull here to have an impact. And he's clearly stating that he understands the political environment is dis-favorable. It is not a favorable political environment for him.

And he is looking for every lever possible to try and effectuate a different outcome. BERMAN: It's not a favorable political environment because of concerns about the economy. And David, you know, Greenland, the Kennedy Center, all this election activity, arresting Don Lemon, none of those things are the economy. So what does it tell us about the president's focus and maybe intentions and his use of power?

CHALIAN: You know, it's a good question, John, because you heard the president at the end of the year and his advisors talk about how he was going to get out on the road once a week. The focus was going to be the economy. They really wanted to focus on the economy.

He looks totally disinterested in doing that for the large part, as you are describing all of these other things that he puts his attention on. Here's what's also intriguing to me. None of those things seem to be changing the environment or changing -- it's not even sort of revving up his base in a way to get to an enthusiasm advantage over the Democrats.

We see him poll after poll. Democrats are much more motivated to vote.

And to your point about the economy, what every poll indicates to us right now, not only is the economy most important for voters, but specifically voters are saying that they think Donald Trump's policies on the economy have made things worse and that he is focused on the wrong priorities. So exactly to what you're saying. You would think there's all the information for Donald Trump to shift his attention and focus and he's choosing not to.

BERMAN: Very quickly, David, Bill and Hillary Clinton, the former president, former secretary of state, have agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee. What happened there? And what do you think was learned in this process?

CHALIAN: Well, you remember they sent that sort of unprecedented letter to Comer and really in their refusal to come and testify and really enjoined in political battle in a way we don't normally see former presidents do. And I think perhaps the thinking was that was going to somehow shift the ground beneath them to be OK, not to testify. That is not at all what happened.

And I think it's a misreading of where the modern day House Democratic caucuses and where the American people are on this Epstein story. This is not 1998. This is not every House Democrat is going to be a heat shield for Bill Clinton in this environment.

It's a different generation. And quite frankly, the country is in a totally different place about this Epstein story.

BERMAN: Yes, I mean, there are people who were like in elementary school in Congress when Bill Clinton was president, who may not have nearly the loyalty for him that he may have thought. All right, David Challen, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Bring her home. A wish, a prayer and a plea this morning from Savannah Guthrie, the anchor of The Today Show. Her mother has now been missing since Saturday night. And authorities say they believe she was abducted.

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What they are asking from the public now to help.

Plus, the man accused of shooting and killing Charlie Kirk is going to be back in court today. Why has legal team now wants prosecutors tossed from the case?

And a baby pulled from a burning home, an incredible rescue captured on camera.

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BOLDUAN: The investigation continues and now becomes all the more urgent of a search for the mother of Today's Show anchor Savannah Guthrie. Officials have been giving updates and now say that the evidence found at Nancy Guthrie's home in Tucson lead them to believe that she was abducted and also saying that her home is now a crime scene.

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It's been more than two days since she was last seen by family. CNN's Marybel Gonzalez is on the ground at the Pima County Sheriff's Department with much more as they're leading this search and investigation for her. What's the latest that you're learning?

MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate. Well, time is of the essence here. We've heard that over and over again.

The search for Nancy Guthrie is just becoming more urgent by the minute. That is because investigators say she takes a daily medication that is critical to her health. But as you mentioned, now several days have passed since officials say she was taken from her home in the middle of the night against her will.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen on Saturday. She had gone out with family that day. Family dropped her off at home, where I should mention she lives alone.

And it wasn't until she did not show up to church -- after she didn't show up to church on Sunday, that they reported her missing. Now, as far as why and how investigators believe she was abducted, they're being very tight-lipped about those details. They did, however, say that when detectives showed up to the home, they found evidence that was concerning.

They've also said that they have found DNA evidence that they're reviewing as well. Now, when asked by CNN whether this could be a case of kidnapping for ransom, given Savannah's public persona, the Pima County Sheriff here said that is not the direction that investigators are taking. He also said that investigators don't believe this is a home robbery or robbery gone wrong, but he says they are not discarding any possibilities. Here is more about what the Pima County Sheriff had to say about the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA: This isn't somebody who wandered off. This is an elderly woman in her mid-80s who suffers some ailments that makes her mobility, her ability to walk around very difficult. The family told us she couldn't go 50 yards.

And that in and of itself is a concern. But then we also have some things at that scene that indicate to us that she was removed from that scene against her will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GONZALEZ: Now, we've also heard from Savannah Guthrie herself, who is here assisting and also supporting the massive search for her mother. In a social media post, she says, quote, "Thank you for lifting your prayers with ours for our beloved mom, our dearest Nancy, a woman of deep conviction, a good and faithful servant. Raise your prayers with us and believe with us that she will be lifted by them in this very moment. We need you. Bring her home." -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, Marybel, thank you very much for being there on the ground for the very latest. We stand by for more updates from the sheriff there. And as you can see on the screen behind me, Pima County is asking that anyone with information to please call their tip line.

They clearly are asking the public for help. 520-351-4900 -- Sara.

SIDNER: And we know Savannah has asked that as well. Just if you know anything, make the call.

All right, coming up, the race for rare earths. Trump's administration is stepping up its efforts against China. The enormous investment it's making to get the minerals that help make everything from computer chips to batteries.

And new video this morning of an Olympic stars arrest. Sha'Carri Richardson pulled over for allegedly speeding over 100 miles an hour.

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SIDNER: Happening today, the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk is back in the courtroom. Tyler Robinson's defense team is trying to get the entire prosecutor's office disqualified in the case. At the center of the dispute, the 18-year-old child of one of the prosecutors happened to be in the crowd during that fatal September shooting at Utah Valley University.

Now, prosecutors deny any conflict, insisting the student never saw the gunman or the shooting itself. This morning, Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray returns to the stand to testify under oath about what his office knew and when.

CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson is joining us now. All right, so this claim here is that there's a conflict of interest. Does this rise to the level where all the prosecutors could be disqualified from this case?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So, Sara, good morning. It could. OK, so here's the issue.

Apparently, the adult child of this deputy prosecutor was there, was physically present at the time that they occurred. And being there, they shot a text message to dad. Dad then distributed that text message throughout the office, even going to the county attorney himself.

And so the issue is, particularly when if you look at the timeline, right, county attorneys usually in Utah, they have 60 days to make a decision as to the death penalty. They did so in six days. What the defense is arguing is that it was an emotionally tinged decision.

They're also arguing that the fact that this text message was sent and everyone --

SIDNER: To everyone.

JACKSON: -- in the office, right, saw it and had an emotional reaction to it, that it could impair the judgment of the entirety of the office. That's the argument. Whether they meet the legal standard for that is another matter.

SIDNER: And a judge will make that decision after they go through the legal means and the in the interviews of the witnesses coming to the court. I do want to ask you what would happen if the judge said, yes, this is going to be a problem here, especially potentially on appeal. So what would happen?

JACKSON: Yes, I think the ultimate issue is to get this death penalty off the table. And in doing so, I think the hope of the defense is to send it to a neighboring county to prosecute. The most logical explanation or the most logical destination would be Salt Lake City.

SIDNER: Change of venue.

JACKSON: Change of venue. They would have and they do have a Democratic district attorney who is opposed to the death penalty. And so I think that's the play.

But there's a lot to evaluate. The issue will be, you know, were people tainted?

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Are you making under the ethical rules a personal judgment that impairs your ability to be fair? Remember, Sara, fairness is the cornerstone of the system. And then the other issue, is there an actual conflict? Has this developed into an actual conflict such that your personal

judgment, right, has been so impaired as a result of what happened that you cannot really pursue this in a way that's fair and meaningful?

And finally, if you look at it, would an objective, reasonable person believe that impartiality is called into question? And so after all these witnesses testify about what you noted, what they knew and when they knew it, a judge will make a determination as to what specifically is going to happen. Another option, Sara, might be the state attorney general's office.

Yet another option could be a special prosecutor. So a lot of options here. But when someone's life is in the balance, to be sure, a hearing like this is necessary and appropriate.

SIDNER: It is how the system works, Joey Jackson, thank you so much.

JACKSON: Thanks, Sara, Pleasure.

SIDNER: John.

BERMAN: All right, new video, a near miss for a trooper at a traffic stop.

And the new reporting on the eternal question in sports. First, they thought natural grass was a safer playing surface. Then it was a switch to artificial turf. Oh, and then maybe it's grass after all.

What's the actual answer for the best playing surface?

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