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New Plea From Guthrie Family: We Have To Know That You Have Our Mom; Lindsey Vonn Tests Torn ACL In Olympic Training Run; Bad Bunny Says He Will Bring His Culture To Half-Time Show. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired February 06, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

DOUGLAS KELLEY, FORMER ASST U.S. ATTORNEY IN MINNESOTA: If one of the legs of that stool buckles, the whole stool falls over and right now, we're just swamped with things. And a number of judges across the country, not just here in Minnesota, have said this was really incompetently planned, because if you're going to have all these cases come in, you should provide the infrastructure, meaning lawyers and teams to be able to handle them, and the Trump administration has not done that.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We also learned that that attorney Julie Le was then subsequently fired by the DOJ after the conversation that she had with the Judge. Doug Kelley, it is a pleasure to have you. You know the inside and out of what is going on there, and as you say, there are some disturbing developments coming out of the U.S. Attorney's Office and how it is trying to try cases and unable to because it doesn't have the staff. Appreciate it. John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So did the knee hold out. Just a short time ago, legend Lindsey Vonn with a test run at the Winter Olympics after a full rupture of her ACL. We get the latest reporting on whether she can ski in the actual games. And there are a lot of excuses out there to get out of jury duty, but this might be one of the best. She was just four years old.

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[09:35:00]

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SIDNER: Authorities are working to determine if several ransom notes in the abduction of Nancy Guthrie that were distributed to media outlets are legit. Her family made another direct appeal to their mother's kidnapper, or kidnappers on social media.

Joining me now is Ed Smart. He is the father of Elizabeth Smart who was kidnapped from her home in 2002 when she was just 14 years old, and she was held captive for nine months. Thank you so much for joining us. I know this has to bring back some really horrible memories. Can you give us a sense of what this family is going through, what they're having to navigate and deal with because you went through this for nine terrible months.

ED SMART, DAUGHTER ELIZABETH WAS ABDUCTED IN 2002 FOR 9 MONTHS: We did. I think that you know, not knowing is one of the worst things out there, not knowing what you know, Elizabeth was going through, how was she was surviving, and all of these questions, of course, apply to -- to Nancy, and you know, I think remaining positive, remaining hopeful, and faith that you know, she'll be recovered, and that things can be complied with to make that happen.

I think that there are some -- some difficult decisions to make. You know, we tried to follow law enforcement and the FBI in how we dealt with the ransoms that came our way. Of course, we had a fictitious ransom, and the fellow was -- ended up being arrested and went to jail. But this is really a different circumstance where you know A -- A.I. -- what -- what is real? How do you substantiate it? There are just factors in there that are -- exceed, you know, what we dealt with?

SIDNER: Yeah, I mean, more sophisticated. There's technology that -- that really makes it much harder for police and investigators in the FBI to figure out who's who and what's real and what isn't. That has changed since 2002 when Elizabeth was taken. But what do you do if you do believe that the note is legitimate eventually, and that the abductor is -- is asking for money, in this case, Bitcoin, what do you do?

Do you meet the demands or not? I mean, it's such a horrible decision that a family and the authorities have to make.

SMART: It is and I -- I mean, we certainly had to rely on law enforcement. I don't think that you can put a price on a person's head. So, you know, we wanted to do whatever we had to do to bring Elizabeth home, and we were willing to do that. And I -- I feel confident that, you know, Savannah and her family are -- are feeling the same way that they have to do whatever it takes to bring their mother home.

SIDNER: You -- videos were made by you all when Elizabeth was taken. What is the impact, do you think of the video messages that are being sent out by the family?

SMART: I think there are -- there are obviously two directives that they're trying to get across. One is for their mother to know that they're doing everything possible that they can, and to please keep hope. And the second one is to try to deal with the abductor and try to get them to cooperate so that there can be a good resolution to -- to the -- the outcome. I think it's incredibly difficult in in our age, once again, how do you determine what is real and what is not?

SIDNER: Did Elizabeth ever see those videos that -- the videos that you all made pleading for her safe return?

SMART: No. Brian Mitchell did come from the city, and they -- and told her, you know, you can't believe what they're doing. You know your face is plastered all over the place. And of course, you know they don't know that I have you. And so I'm sure that the captors are probably also using that, as you know, coercion, to get her to try to comply with whatever they're -- they're asking.

[09:40:00]

But certainly Elizabeth did get the message, and I think it gave her hope, knowing that we would try to do everything in our power to bring her home.

SIDNER: Yeah. We are hearing about one of those notes, and according to TMZ's Harvey Levin the -- the abductor said she is aware of the -- of the ask for her. She's aware of what's going on. It's just a terrible, terrible scenario, and we don't yet know if any of these notes are legitimate. Authorities working around the clock to try to figure that out, and now the sixth day since she's been gone. Ed Smart, thank you so much for giving us some insight into this really difficult time. I do appreciate it, and I'm so glad that Elizabeth finally did make it home.

All right. Up ahead, the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics is just hours away. We are live in Milan with the excitement there, and we're just two days away from the Super Bowl. What to expect from Bad Bunny, as he becomes the first predominantly Spanish language artist to headline a half time show.

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[09:45:00]

BERMAN: I do not think any state, this election year is being watched more closely than Texas. Why? Obviously, it's a very big state. There are crucial contested elections, and it's also the state where these redistricting wars, these mid-decade redistricting wars, began. So what do we know about what the numbers show where things stand in Texas right now?

With us now, CNN Chief Data Analyst, Harry Enten, and I should also note, there are primaries in Texas in one month. So we're coming up on a time when actual, real people --

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes.

BERMAN: -- vote, not just the polls, but let's talk about how things have shifted in Texas first.

ENTEN: You know, one of the things about Texas is it's kind of the boy who cried wolf syndrome going on there. Every two to four years, we say, hey Texas could be in play for the Democrats. And then every two to four years, you find out, no, it's still red. But this time might be a little bit different, because I want you to take a look at Republicans' margins in Texas.

You know, in 2024, Donald Trump won the state of Texas rather easily by 14 points. But look at the 2026 generic congressional ballot. Republicans still lead, but only by two, only by two. We're talking about a 12 point shift here. I was looking back at the numbers. This looks a lot more like 2018 where you might recall that Beto O'Rourke came very, very close to winning that Senate race against Ted Cruz. So at this point, yes, Republicans still favored, but -- but maybe it

might not turn out so well for Team Red. One of the things we saw in 2024 was this shift to Donald Trump among Latino voters in Texas. What do we know about that vote right now?

ENTEN: Yeah. OK, so I think one of the reasons to wonder why Texas may, in fact, be becoming a little bit more purple, a little bit more purple and a little bit less red, is because what are we seeing nationally? We're seeing nationally a real movement among Latino voters. So this is among Latino voters nationally.

In November of 2024, Kamala Harris won Latino voters by just four points. When you can put a margin on one hand, you know it's small, and this was historically small. Donald Trump put a historically strong performance for a Republican candidate. But now look among Latino voters nationally. Look at this. This margin has widened significantly. We're talking about a 19-point margin. What is that?

That's more than quadrupling the margin, and of course, keep in mind, in Texas, 25 percent of voters in Latino, at least 25 percent are, in fact, Latino in the state of Texas. So we expect that trend to really be showing there.

BERMAN: All right, so as I mentioned, there is an election for a Senate seat in Texas. There's an incumbent Republican, John Cornyn who actually is a pretty powerful Republican senator who's been in office for some time. He's running for re-election now. He's getting primaried.

ENTEN: He's getting primaried, not by one candidate, by multiple and this is one of the reasons why that I think a lot of Democrats say, hey, we can really play in Texas. Look at this. Chance to be Texas GOP Senate nominee. Look at this. According to Kalshi prediction market, the favorite is actually Ken Paxton, actually Ken Paxton at 54 percent, John Cornyn at 37 percent, Wesley Hunt, another candidate back here at 11 percent.

If Ken Paxton is the Republican nominee, hello, I think Democrats really, really, really want to play there. And I will note, when we look towards the general election, look at the odds here. We see a month ago, it was 80 percent that the GOP won the Texas Senate race. Now still favorites, but those odds are becoming lower, lower for the GOP.

Democrats have a real shot in Texas. At this point, Republicans favored, but Democrats may really have a real play.

BERMAN: Axios actually led this morning with their morning note talking about how Republicans are starting to get a little nervous about the Senate overall, and this could be one reason why. Harry Enten, thank you very much for that.

ENTEN: Good luck this Sunday.

BERMAN: Yeah, thank you. Need it. Lot of news. We'll be right back.

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[09:50:00]

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BERMAN: All right, we're getting some new video into CNN. Lindsey Vonn back on the slopes just a short time ago. This was a test run after the full rupture of her ACL last week. Let's get over to of CNN'S Amanda Davies, who was in Milan. So how did it go? What do we know if she's going to be able to ski in the games?

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Isn't it a great sight? I mean, you have to say it's another step, John in the right direction for Lindsey Vonn. That first downhill training run here in Cortina, completed despite the best attempts of the weather to thwart her return to action. I mean, can you believe it's only a week on from that crash that saw her rupture her ACL in Switzerland.

It wasn't a perfect run, but she made it down, and this is the venue that's brought her more success than any other female alpine skier, even if those of us watching on, I have to say, we're holding our breath, wincing with every landing. She gave very little away with her reaction afterwards, but she finished 11th in a field of 43 and she's invested so -- so much into this come back against the odds, since her return to action after that retirement and then her other knee replacement surgery.

[09:55:00]

It seems, there's no chance at this point that she's giving up on her dream of Olympic competition number five, and of course, the chance of a medal 16 years after winning that gold in Vancouver. I mean, as she put it on social media this morning, I know how lucky I am. I am not going to waste this chance. And her coach is the person who's spoken after today's run. Aksel Lund Svindal described it afterwards as smart skiing.

He said they're going to decide whether or not she's going to run again tomorrow in the other practice run, or just focus straight on Sunday's big race. I have to tell you, though, excitement really building here in Milan, about six hours drive from Cortina, because a couple of hours ago, the Olympic torch passed underneath us here at the CNN studio as it makes its final journey to that iconic San Siro Stadium. It really is one of the most iconic sporting stadiums in the world.

It was the venue of that incredible Cameroon victory over Argentina at the 1990 Football World Cup. It's the home of AC and Inter Milan, and this evening is going to play host to Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli, the U.S. Vice President J. D. Vance, his wife, Usha and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, along with the delegations from the other participating countries as we declare the games officially open, John.

BERMAN: I get heart palpitations watching the video of Lindsey Vonn looking at that photos, and I know she made it through the run. I literally can't believe she's doing this on a ruptured ACL. Amanda Davies, thank you so much for that. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, we're just days away from the Super Bowl, a couple of days and Bad Bunny's half time performance. The show is coming as the international superstar continues his global tour after wrapping up a wildly successful residency in Puerto Rico. CNN's Isabel Rosales takes a look at the impact his concerts have made on the island.

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ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Puerto Rican Superstar, Bad Bunny on his way to the Super Bowl for a one of a kind halftime performance just months after closing out his sold out 31-show residency, a run unlike anything his home island has ever seen.

Lucia Coto may be his oldest fan. At 101 years old, she was born six decades before reggaeton even existed. She once wanted to be a nun. Today, Lucia has proof reggaeton and Bad Bunny has no age limit.

Video is shown of Bad Bunny's 101-year-old fan, Lucia Coto.

ROSALES: It's clear this wasn't just a concert, it was a cultural moment that continues to grow as Bad Bunny prepares to take one of the biggest stages in sports. Tourism agency, Discover Puerto Rico says around 600,000 visitors flock to the island in just two months, and an estimated $400 million to $700 million pumped into the local economy. Lucia among thousands of other Puerto Ricans relishing their hometown hero's first residency. On her way to see her favorite artist live for the first time.

Video is shown of Bad Bunny's 101-year-old fan, Lucia Coto.

ROSALES: For fans, it's a cultural homecoming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: That is so cool. It's going to be fun. But I know you're watching for other reasons. I'm watching for Bad Bunny. You're watching for?

BERMAN: There's a game. There's an actual game that's being played. Actually, you know, for years at ABC and then here, for a little bit, they used to make me do the wrap of the Super Bowl commercials.

SIDNER: It's so fun, usually.

BERMAN: I know but I care about the game. I mean, half the time the Patriots are playing like, I don't want to have to pay attention to the commercials.

SIDNER: You had to put in --

BERMAN: I didn't even mean it like that. But you know what I mean? It's just -- it's every once in a -- you know, we focus so much on the halftime show, and I get it to cultural event. We focus on the ads, we focus on the Puppy Bowl. I love the Puppy --

SIDNER: But people are watching for the game. That's for sure.

BERMAN: There's a game.

SIDNER: There's a whole game.

BERMAN: There's an actual football game being played.

SIDNER: Fine. Yeah, we'll watch it. I'm watching for Bad Bunny. I'm just letting you know. Thank you for joining us.

BERMAN: Drake -- Drake Maye may [ph], this is CNN News Central. Situation Room, up next.