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Pentagon in Dispute With A.I. Company; Tariff Refunds?; Interview With Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA); New Reward Offered in Nancy Guthrie Case. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired February 24, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A new plea for help and a big reward, Savannah Guthrie offering a million dollars for information leading to the recovery of her mother in an emotional Instagram video.

Convincer in chief. The president about to use a major speech to argue the country is better off under his leadership, but polls show many Americans do not agree.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: And it's your money. You paid for the tariffs that were collected on imports totaling billions of dollars. But don't expect to rebate any time soon, despite that ruling from the Supreme Court.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Savannah Guthrie is once again asking for the public's help in finding her mother, this time, though, with a reward bigger than any we have seen thus far.

KEILAR: In a new video, Savannah made this offer while admitting that her beloved mother may possibly be gone forever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, CO-HOST, "THE TODAY SHOW": We also know that she may be lost. She may already be gone. She may have already gone home to the lord that she loves and is dancing in heaven with her mom and her dad and with her beloved brother Pierce and with our daddy.

And if this is what it is to be, then we will accept it. But we need to know where she is. We need her to come home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Investigators are facing renewed pressure to solve the case, a source telling CNN that these two images are of the same masked suspect captured on doorbell camera footage on Nancy Guthrie's front porch from two different dates.

CNN senior and national correspondent Ed Lavandera is following the latest for us from Tucson.

And, Ed, the sheriff seems to be downplaying this new image of the suspect, calling it purely speculative. Can you tell us why?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first we will lay out kind of what our sources are telling us, is that this video and that dramatic, haunting images of the suspect at Nancy Guthrie's front door showed him in most of those images wearing the mask, a backpack and a gun and a holster around his waist.

But in that batch of photos that was released more than two -- about two weeks ago by the FBI, there was one photo that was just different, and it showed the suspect standing there without the backpack and the gun and the holster around his waist. So we raised questions about that.

But now we are told that it is believed that those images were captured on different days, which leads to the question and the suggestion that perhaps this person was here casing, doing reconnaissance in the neighborhood, trying to get a lay of the land here around Nancy Guthrie's home and property.

And it is important because investigators have been asking neighbors in this area for video dating from January 1 all the way to February 2. There's also been some other alerts to the neighborhood residents saying look around for video on January 11 from 8:00 p.m. to midnight, so some very specific dates in there as well.

We understand that investigators have long believed that this was a targeted attack, that it was someone coming specifically here for Nancy Guthrie. But the sheriff says, on those videos, there is not a time stamp, and so that's why he says it is speculative to suggest that these were on different days.

But our source and sourcing on this particular detail insists that it is the belief that these were images captured on different days.

HILL: So, Ed, what do we know too in terms of this reward about the timing here? And do we know why the family has decided to announce this now?

LAVANDERA: Well, we were told by a source close to the Guthrie family that this was an idea that the family wanted to do from the very first day of the investigation, that they were cautioned against it by investigators because there was so much publicity around it, there were so many phone calls already pouring in, that that might make the situation in these call centers, where they already had to staff up employees to handle the tens of thousands of calls that were coming in.

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They were kind of cautioned against that. But, on Friday, I was in the 911 call center here in Pima County, where they told us that in the days since that dramatic footage was released about two weeks ago of the suspect, that the calls have started ticking down.

So perhaps this is something that the Guthrie family feels it was time to get this out there, because everyone, the family, investigators, they do believe that there are people, either a person or persons, who know who this person is, who know the details of where Nancy Guthrie is and what happened to her.

And they are trying to shake that information loose as quickly as they can.

KEILAR: All right, Ed Lavandera, thank you so much for covering that for us from Tucson.

President Trump is going prime time. Hours from now, he is delivering his State of the Union address.

And we're getting some new details on what exactly he is planning to say. The White House says that he will call on Democrats to end the partial government shutdown, he will strongly defend his tariffs that the Supreme Court just struck down, and on the affordability crisis, we expect that he will blame his predecessor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: A large portion of the speech will, yes, focus on the economy. The president will lay out the case for why he and Republicans are better suited to tackle, continue tackling the affordability crisis that was created by the Biden administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill.

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KEILAR: More than two dozen Democrats are expected to boycott the speech, and those who will be there have been urged by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to sit in silent defiance.

We're joined now by one of the Democrats who will be skipping the speech. That is Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal from the state of Washington.

Congresswoman, Speaker Johnson is criticizing Democrats like yourself who are not going to the State of the Union. He calls it shameful. He says Republicans don't do that. Doesn't matter if there's a president from the opposing party. We don't skip out.

What's your response to that?

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Well, Brianna, what I think is shameful is that the president of the United States typically gets up at these speeches and tells lies. He's telling lies at the podium in the chamber. He's telling lies at the podium at press conferences.

He's telling lies from the Oval Office. And that is what is really shameful, and I wish Speaker Johnson would call that out, because the American people need to trust government.

And everything that this president is doing is telling the American people not to trust him, whether it's the massive cover-up of the Epstein files, whether it's the blaming of the previous administration for the affordability crisis that this president put on us with his crazy tariff wars and the ways in which he's cut health care and housing from American people, or whether it is the cover-up of DHS that continues to kill people on our streets and in the detention centers.

So those are the things that are shameful, and I hope that Republicans call out at least some of them.

KEILAR: Polls show that there is a lot of dissatisfaction among voters when it comes to the president's policies, but there's also been a struggle in the Democratic Party to find kind of a message that everyone can coalesce around.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger is going to deliver tonight's Democratic rebuttal. Do you see that as a sign that moderates are winning out in this post-2024 Democratic struggle to find a message?

JAYAPAL: Well, I'm a very proud progressive, and I always say that progressives are just the first to the best and most just idea.

It is progressives in this country that have been pushing affordability for a very long time as the main economic message that we need to be bringing to people, and not just message, but policies that really expand universal health care, that expand childcare for everyone, that ensure that we're investing in housing.

These are the things that we have been pushing, and we're very happy that the entire Democratic Party is on board with that messaging. I think we have been very effective as a Democratic Party in bringing that message forward and also pointing out the hardships that Americans are under when you look at the rising health care costs,the fact that people are paying $20,000, $25,000 for premiums just for health care, and, of course, groceries that continue to go up because of what this president and this Republican Party has been doing.

KEILAR: So are you expecting that view to be represented in that rebuttal by Governor Spanberger?

JAYAPAL: I think so. I think so.

When Abigail was here as a House member -- we're so proud that she made governor, that she won her election as governor -- she was a big champion of universal childcare, as was now Governor Mikie Sherrill. These were people that we worked with very closely to push the idea of universal childcare.

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Had we passed what was then called Build Back Better, we would have had amazing investments in housing and childcare. Those were supported by 99 percent of the Democratic Party. So I do expect that she will talk about those issues and that there's a lot of agreement in the Democratic Party about those.

And we're proud, as always, as progressives to have been first to the best and most just idea.

KEILAR: So you are proud progressive. CNN polls -- the CNN poll finds the president is actually bleeding some support with some groups that were key to his reelection, folks that he was able to win over maybe more in the middle, right?

He is down 19 points with Latinos, 18 points with Americans under 45. He is at his lowest ever approval rating with independents, down 15 points from last year. Do Democrats have a message to win support back among these groups?

JAYAPAL: I think we do.

I think that really talking both about us as an opposition party to the corruption and to the grift and to the unaffordability of life, but also the proposition agenda, right, of Democrats really creating a world where everyone has the opportunity to thrive, not just survive, where we take on the giant corporations and the billionaires that are bleeding our economy dry and that we assure that everyone has safety and justice.

Those are the kinds of things that I think are not just progressive ideas. Of course, we have championed them, but they are popular in every part of the district. If you look at consolidation, for example, and the ways in which giant corporations have taken over entire industries, you see that that's popular in a very red part of the country, because farmers are feeling it, because grocery stores, drugstores are feeling it, and closing down.

And it's popular in a district like mine in Seattle, Washington. So I think those are the messages that we need to deliver, not just opposition to what Trump and Republicans are doing, but proposition about what we are going to do to fix that.

KEILAR: The president, as I mentioned, blames the affordability crisis on Biden. I think we expect to hear more of that tonight. And when Biden left office, he did leave a strong job market, falling inflation, but he also left Americans with steeper costs for housing, for health care, higher education and childcare.

And the White House is going to point to that. Does Biden's legacy haunt the Democratic Party?

JAYAPAL: No, I don't think so.

I mean, we -- as you point out, we did a lot of things for jobs, for stability. Had we passed the big investment, $1.5 trillion investment in housing, had we passed universal childcare, that was stymied by two at the time Democrats, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.

We could have passed those, and people would have seen that. That was supported by 99 percent of the Democratic Party. And I think it's a shame that we didn't. I had a lot to say about it at the time. But we know what the prescriptions are, and we know how to get it done.

And you can see that we don't suffer from scarcity in this country. People always say we don't have money. But then you see an article about Donald Trump's Pentagon trying to increase spending by $500 billion, and they can't figure out what to spend it on.

So I think that this is where we have a real opportunity to deliver, to take on the big corporations that are monopolizing all these industries, to take on billionaires who are sucking wealth out of the system, and instead return that to working people, to poor people across this country, who deserve to be the actual participants in our democracy and share in the profits of our economy.

KEILAR: Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, thank you so much. Big day today, and I think you will be sort of watching, or at least paying attention, even as you do your alternate activities tonight. Thanks for being with us.

JAYAPAL: I will. I will. Thank you so much.

KEILAR: So, still to come, we have much more on the State of the Union, including details about tonight's designated survivor.

Plus, we're following a flurry of updates in the investigation into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as members of Parliament unload on the former royal.

But first: Show me the money. With the government now on the hook for $134 billion in tariff revenue, how much could Americans get back? Well, the answer might not be pleasing.

We will have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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HILL: Tariff take-back.

So, Democrats are now issuing their first formal demand for the Trump administration to refund that more than $130 billion that had been paid out in President Trump's tariffs, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Peter Welch writing in a letter to the president, demanding the money go back to consumers and small businesses.

KEILAR: Before the Supreme Court struck down Trump's tariffs last week, the president also thought tariff revenues should go directly to Americans in the form of rebate checks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have so much money coming in from tariffs that we will be able to issue at least a $2,000 dividend and also pay down debt for the country. But we do a $2,000 dividend to the people of our country. We would probably set a limit of -- income limit where it made sense. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Last November, the president posted that the $2,000 will not go to high income earners.

CNN senior reporter Matt Egan is here with us.

All right, Matt, so how likely is it that American consumers are going to get tariff refunds?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Erica and Brianna, remember, the Supreme Court punted on this issue of tariff refunds. They're leaving that mess for lower courts to clean up.

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But even if courts mandated refunds, they would go to the importers who directly paid for these tariffs, not you and I, who all paid indirectly in the form of higher prices. But, look, the stakes here are massive. The government collected $134 billion through mid- December just from the tariffs that the Supreme Court has declared illegal.

That's from more than 300,000 importers. Now, in theory, this $134 billion in revenue could be used to fund tariff rebate checks, like what the president has floated in the past. But that always looked like an uphill battle, because it's expensive. It would require an act of Congress. It could be inflationary.

And now it looks even less likely because this revenue could have to get refunded altogether. Now, the president has argued that it's other countries, that it's companies overseas that pay these tariffs. But the New York Fed has found that it's really only 10 percent of the tariffs last year were paid by foreign exporters, the vast majority, 90 percent, paid by U.S. companies and by consumers.

And the Tax Foundation has found that the president's tariffs amounted to a $1,000-per-household tax hike last year. And they're estimating hundreds and hundreds of dollars of additional costs per household this year.

Now, all of this comes as, as you mentioned, Democrats are ramping up the pressure on the White House on this issue of tariff refunds. Elizabeth Warren and colleagues wrote this letter to the president, where they argued that his "inability or unwillingness to provide tariff refunds to American families represents an egregious abdication of your responsibility as president, a giveaway to giant corporations that amounts to theft from the middle class."

Now, we reached out to the White House, have not heard back. But the president has said this could take years, perhaps five years, to settle through litigation this issue of tariff refunds -- back to you guys.

HILL: Ah, yet another thing to watch, I suppose.

Matt Egan, appreciate it. Thank you.

EGAN: Thanks.

HILL: Still ahead here: the new A.I. tool that Wall Street fears could disrupt not only industry, but the economy.

KEILAR: Plus, Mexico's government says things are starting to return to normal after widespread violence in major tourist cities.

We will check in with a man currently stuck in Puerto Vallarta.

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KEILAR: One of the world's biggest A.I. companies is locked in a fight with the Pentagon.

The CEO of Anthropic is meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today to discuss a growing dispute over the U.S. military's access to its technology.

HILL: CNN's A.I. correspondent, Hadas Gold, joins us now.

So, Hadas, what is going on here in terms of the dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic?

HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so Anthropic's Claude was the first A.I. model that was actually cleared for classified use by the military. And Anthropic has a big $200 million contract with the Pentagon.

But, recently, according to a source familiar, the Pentagon has wanted to renegotiate part of that contract, specifically Anthropic's acceptable use policy in that contract to make it so that the military could use their systems for all lawful use.

But Anthropic has some issues with this. These negotiations have been going on for months. Now, two of the key issues that Anthropic has with this are concerns about A.I. controlling weapons, essentially the A.I. being able to decide when and how to shoot a gun, which Anthropic does not believe that A.I. is reliable enough to do so yet, and also A.I. being used for mass domestic surveillance of American citizenships.

And Anthropic worries that there are really no regulations or laws yet about how A.I. could be used in surveillance. Now, this has very much angered the Pentagon. Last week, Axios reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was close to not only cutting the Pentagon's contract, that $200 million contract, with Anthropic, but also designating the company a supply chain risk.

And that designation, that's actually usually reserved for companies that are believed to be sort of arms of foreign adversaries like Russia or China. It is -- I don't know if it's ever been used for an American company. This would severely impact Anthropic's business. And not only would losing this big contract impact their business,

but, more importantly, by designating them a supply chain risk, any company that works with the Pentagon would not be able to use Anthropic's tools. And Anthropic has huge enterprise contracts that are a big part of their business model.

So by designating them a supply chain risk, that could really impact Anthropic's business. Now, the Pentagon has only confirmed that this meeting took place. We know it took place this morning. I have not heard yet from any sources about what happened at that meeting or if they resolved these negotiations.

But Anthropic's spokesperson did tell me that they are having productive conversations in good faith with the Department of War on how to continue their work and get these complex issues right -- guys.

KEILAR: All right, Hadas, thank you very much, something to watch there.

And, next, we're going to head live to London, where, in a rare moment, members of Parliament were just allowed to speak freely about the royal family. And many took quite advantage of that. We will take a look at what they said.

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