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Federal Warrant Executed In Guthrie Search, No Arrests Made; European Leaders Breathe Sigh Of Relief After Marco Rubio Speech; Crowded Race To Replace Former GOP Marjorie Taylor Greene; U.S. In Olympic Gold Rush; Ski Mountaineering Winter Games Debut; Looking For Love In The Digital Age. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired February 14, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Sorry to interrupt you. I'm wondering quickly, does earlier in the day mean that, you know, your body is more alert or you're moving around doing things and somehow that makes your treatment be absorbed in your body differently?

CHRISTOPH SCHEIERMANN, PROFESSOR OF PATHOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA: So the immune system is just more sensitive to that specific intervention and then what happens afterwards once you interfered, then it becomes less sensitive. And so the response is locked. And that's why you see many, many weeks, many months and years later, that response still being different between time of day. So the first time, probably the first infusion is key.

WHITFIELD: Fascinating and very helpful.

Professor Christoph Scheiermann, thank you so much.

SCHEIERMANN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right. We begin this hour with new details from law enforcement officials about last night's operation in Arizona as the search for Nancy Guthrie nears two weeks now. The Pima County Sheriff's Department says no one was arrested while they carried out a federal warrant at a residence which was based on a lead that investigators received.

The community in Tucson is rallying behind the Guthrie family as they await any information from authorities. The last news conference on the 84-year-old's disappearance was February 5th, more than a week ago. Sheriff Chris Nanos spoke with CNN's Ed Lavandera about the search.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This search is about to enter its third week. As we sit here today, do you think Nancy Guthrie will be found?

SHERIFF CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA: I -- yes, I believe she'll be found. And I believe that we are working as hard as we can to do that as fast as we can. Sometimes it just doesn't work that way. But we are working hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN correspondent Leigh Waldman is following these developments from Tucson, Arizona.

So what are you learning today?

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, let's focus on what we saw, that flurry of activity not far from where we are at Nancy Guthrie's home, only about two miles away. That happened overnight. It was dozens of vehicles. We saw SWAT vehicles, forensic vehicles converging on a home about two miles away.

We're now learning this was a federal warrant that was being served and investigated. And not too far away from that we also saw law enforcement activities around a gray Range Rover. We're learning that there was a traffic stop and a person was questioned and released.

So no one has been arrested in connection with the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie that we know now is in its second week, two weeks officially today, since she was taken from her home here. We heard from the sheriff and he said every single one of these leads is going to be thoroughly investigated, that people in this community can expect to see that flurry of activity as they go and pursue and investigate these types of leads.

And there's a lot of them. Over 30,000 leads have come in since February 1st not only to the Pima County Sheriff's Department but also to the FBI. As far as their investigation goes, it seems like the biggest break came just days ago when they released that doorbell camera video from Nancy's home just behind us here. We saw that masked and armed man, the FBI releasing the profile, medium build, height of 5'9" and 5'10".

Releasing the details and a photo of the backpack that he was carrying. We know from the sheriff that DNA has been collected. They haven't connected who that DNA belongs to at this point, but they're continuing on with this investigation. They found numerous pairs of gloves throughout the search that they've been conducting in this area.

And there's also still that plea to the neighbors who live within a two-mile radius of this home to check any and all surveillance video that they have, not only from the day of Miss Guthrie's disappearance, but from January 1st to February 2nd asking for any suspicious people or vehicles because they believe this was a targeted kidnaping. They believe the person maybe staked out her home beforehand, wondering if maybe they came back to the home afterwards.

It's all part of the investigators' work to try and piece together these puzzles. But the most important thing here, Fred, to keep in mind is we don't have a person of interest. We don't have a suspect and Nancy Guthrie still is not home. WHITFIELD: Yes. I mean, it is just heart-wrenching for family members

and really for everybody who continues to watch and wait for more developments.

Leigh Waldman, in Tucson, Arizona, thank you so much.

Retired FBI supervisory special agent Jason Pack is joining me right now for more perspective.

Jason, great to see you again. You say last night's operational activity is a significant escalation. Why?

JASON PACK, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Well, it was at the time because it means they were acting on actionable intelligence, Fred, which means that these 30,000 tips are leading to things that are -- that you can get a search warrant from.

[15:05:09]

So it's sort of like now that we are living a real-time ride along with police. And in between these leads, when they go out and it can be sort of dangerous. So I think I would caution folks like, you're going to see this again, and it's going to happen more and more as these 30,000 leads, as the agents and the deputies kind of go through these leads.

And talking about tips, Fred, like, here's a tip that we used to get when I was taking these calls. Hey, we think we saw this person at the Walmart or the McDonald's. Walmart would be significant, or just some random place. But a better tip is, hey, I had a neighbor that I haven't seen in a while and he has a backpack and all these types of things. So these more specific details are the ones that get pushed to the top.

So I think the agents and the analysts are going through these tips and they're looking for these more specific details. They're going to look at all of them. But they're looking for these ones with the more specific details to put at the top of the list.

WHITFIELD: And the scale of the response to tips, is what we're seeing here customary, or is this more typical of a high profile missing persons case, which is what this is?

PACK: I think it is more typical of a high profile case. And sometimes that's why the FBI will put a reward out in something that maybe is not as high profile in order to generate tips. We have every eyeball in the country, and in fact, probably the world on this case right now. So you're going to get a lot of tips, and it's going to be up to the agents, the analysts and the deputies to sort through those and make sure they're actioning the right ones.

I think you know, again, Fred, while they were on this search warrant last night, they weren't forgetting about this backpack at Walmart, and they weren't forgetting about these other avenues of investigation. The ransom letter we haven't heard anything about, they're still looking at that, even though it may or may not be legitimate. So I think there are different teams out there doing a lot of different things.

WHITFIELD: I mean, this is what investigators do. But I wonder, too, how taxing this might be on these investigative teams because there's been such a flood of tips, especially after the surveillance video, the, you know the home nest camera video was revealed.

Can you touch on what this is like for the investigators?

PACK: Yes. And I think having done both sides of that, both the video side of it and going out door-to-door and talking to people, they want to be the ones to crack the case. They want to be the ones to get that lead. So they are motivated. They're motivated by the sense of duty. They're motivated by watching the videos of Savannah and her family. They want to help. That's why people who are first responders sign up for this.

And I think they're motivated every day. They come in, they have a shift briefing every 12 hours where they say this is what we've done. They go around. So every bit of information that they've collected is accounted for and that's -- that goes for the people doing the digital work, too. So they're getting together. They're putting all the dots together, putting them on that timeline and waiting for that big break to happen.

WHITFIELD: Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos spoke with our Ed Lavandera yesterday about the search. I want to play a portion about what he had to say about DNA. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANOS: We have DNA, so if -- trust me, if we knew who it was, we'd be on it. But we do have some DNA, and we continue to work with those with the lab on that DNA analysis.

LAVANDERA: And that was from the house?

NANOS: I'm not telling you where it was. We have DNA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And in your view, how will they go about trying to find a match of that DNA? What are some of the tools that they'll be using?

PACK: Well, they're going to send it to the lab, whether it's their lab or the FBI lab. But when they get a profile from that DNA, they're going to go back and either try to find somebody that may have been in the house, that they don't have a reference sample for, like a worker or some maintenance person, something like that. Or they'll go do something that's called investigative genealogy, which is really a technique that's been around for a few years now, but it's really powerful tool.

It takes a little while to go through those commercial databases and see if there's a match there, and then you'll have to do some genealogy research to see if that person is in that database as well. WHITFIELD: That's partially trying to match up with things like the --

all these companies that people have, just ordinary citizens have taken advantage of, right, submitting their DNA.

PACK: Right.

WHITFIELD: And now it's a matter of matching up with some of that, that's in that database?

PACK: Yes. That's right. Exactly right. They'll take -- get a partial match and they'll be able to do some family genealogy to see which side of the family it's on or if it's in there at all. So there are several avenues to pursue. And again we don't know if it's touched DNA or hair and fiber. There's different types of DNA. He didn't go into that too much.

The good news is they have something that's collected in there, that's foreign DNA. And then they also have their best -- their best clue is going to be that video, too. So between those two things, there's a lot they know that they're not telling the public. And that's probably a good thing.

[15:10:07]

WHITFIELD: All right. Retired FBI special agent Jason Pack, great to see you. Thanks so much.

PACK: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And of course, if you have any information about this case, you can call the number on your screen right now, the Pima County Sheriff's Department, 520-351-4900, or the FBI toll free tip line 1- 800-Call-FBI.

All right. Coming up, Russia's war in Ukraine taking center stage as top U.S. officials and European allies meet at the Munich Security Conference. We'll take you there live. Plus, could Marjorie Taylor Greene's feud with President Trump open the door for a Democrat to win her old Georgia congressional district? We went out there to find out.

And forget dating apps. Some people are turning to A.I. for love. CNN goes on a dinner date with an A.I. companion to test it all out. You've got to see how this unfolded.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:51]

WHITFIELD: All right. New today, the U.S. making a major overture to European allies. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a global security conference in Germany, telling Europeans, quote, "We belong together," end quote, European leaders breathed a sigh of relief at Rubio's tone after a year of fraught relations with the U.S. But without naming the U.S., British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the conference that European countries need to take more control of their own future. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We must move forward together to create a more European NATO. As I see it, Europe is a sleeping giant. Our economies dwarf Russia's more than 10 times over. We have huge defense capabilities, yet too often this adds up to less than the sum of its parts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is in Munich.

Fred, how is Rubio's speech being received there?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think you said it perfectly, Fredricka, when you said that there was a sigh of relief that really went through the audience here in Munich as the secretary of state was delivering that speech and certainly at the end of the speech.

There was a lot of criticism of some of the things that the Europeans have been doing over the past couple of years. He even said that he believes, the secretary of state did, that Europe was in danger of what he called civilizational erasure. He said some of the big mistakes that the Europeans are making are things that we've heard from the Trump administration in the past.

Mass migration was one of the things he mentioned, alleged deindustrialization, and then also what he called following a climate cult, which of course means some of the environmental protection measures that are taken here in Europe as well. But at the same time, he also did say that he believes Europe and the United States belong together and should work more closely together in the future.

Let's listen in to what the secretary of state had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Under President Trump, the United States of America will once again take on the task of renewal and restoration, driven by a vision of a future as proud, as sovereign, and as vital as our civilization's past. And while we are prepared, if necessary to do this alone, it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe. For the United States and Europe, we belong together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: And that certainly was seen as a sign by many people here in Munich. Of course, many of them top officials from the European continent, from the globe, quite frankly, as a sign that the United States is not turning its back on its European allies.

And one of the other things, of course, that was talked a lot about here in Munich as well, Fredricka, was the ongoing war in Ukraine. The U.S. secretary of state there saying that the Russians say that they want peace, that they say that they want to end that war. But certainly a lot of difficult issues still remain.

Of course, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also at the conference today, saying he's not sure the Russians really want to end the war, saying Ukraine is obviously still very much under massive attack.

But there was one other big thing here at the conference that many people were talking about, and those are new allegations by five very large European countries about the death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. He, of course, died in a Russian prison colony almost two years ago to the day. And those European countries have now come up and said that samples from Navalny's body revealed a toxin that is found in an Ecuadorian toxic dart frog. And so they say that he was probably poisoned with that very poison, from that dart frog.

Now I managed to speak to the European Union's foreign policy chief about all this. Here's what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAJA KALLAS, E.U. HIGH REPRESENTATIVE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND SECURITY POLICY: Well, it's not really surprising, is it? I mean he's working like regular dictators who are working.

[15:20:03]

I mean, eliminate all the competitors and, you know, keep the power structures and oligarchs happy and you stay in power and you can do whatever you want, even if, you know, the people are not pleased.

PLEITGEN: It's a long way to go, though, to use dart frog poison, isn't it? That's --

KALLAS: Well --

PLEITGEN: On someone who's in a prison colony anyway?

KALLAS: Yes, but I think it also shows how the Russians are thinking, exploring new ways to actually use. So this is the way they operate against their own people, against people in prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So some pretty harsh words there from the E.U.'s foreign policy chief. One thing that we have to mention is we did reach out to the Kremlin about these allegations and have not yet received a response -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right, Fred Pleitgen in Munich, thanks so much.

All right. Coming up, the investigation into Nancy Guthrie's disappearance continuing this hour. We'll hear from one of her neighbors about how her disappearance is impacting the entire community, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:25:31]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. As the search for Nancy Guthrie nears the two-week mark analysts say that law enforcement operations like what we saw last night could become more frequent. The operations near Guthrie's home ended with no arrests. CNN's John Miller says that's expected as investigators work their way through more than 30,000 tips that have flooded into the FBI.

CNN correspondent Leigh Waldman is following these developments in Tucson, Arizona.

Leigh, you've been talking to people there in the community. And what are you hearing from Nancy Guthrie's neighbors?

WALDMAN: Well, Fred, it's safe to say that this community and especially Nancy Guthrie's neighbors are a bit on edge with what happened here two weeks ago. An elderly woman taken from her home in this way by an armed and masked person.

Take a listen to what one of her neighbors had to tell me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE LIPPMAN, NANCY GUTHRIE'S NEIGHBOR: I personally feel pretty secure and safe right now with all the law enforcement that's been around here, but it kind of shakes you to your core of what can happen again in Tucson, Arizona, in a small, pretty, I don't want to say it's mostly older people neighborhood, but it's mostly an older person's neighborhood. And it does, it really shakes you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALDMAN: They're shaken but also this community is coming together to show the Guthrie family that they're united. They're leaving these yellow flowers that symbolize hope and support. One man dropped off a card. He let us have one. It says, hold on to hope, and that's the message from this community to the Guthrie family praying that their neighbor comes back here safely -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Leigh Waldman in Tucson Arizona. Keep us posted. I know this is agonizing for the Guthrie family, and of course, all of her neighbors.

All right. Tomorrow night on "THE WHOLE STORY," Ed Lavandera is in Tucson with the latest on the unanswered questions in the search for Nancy Guthrie. That's Sunday 8:00 p.m. Eastern and you can watch it the next day on the CNN app.

All right. The race is on to fill the U.S. congressional seat in Georgia, which Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene once held. She resigned this year after falling out with President Trump. Well, this Monday, early voting is set to begin in the crowded special election to fill Greene's seat. More than 20 people are competing, turning a deep red part of Georgia into a major test of President Trump's Make America Great Again movement.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny went to Greene's district, where he spoke with several of the candidates looking to replace her.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's hard to find a stage big enough for this Georgia blockbuster. The men and women sitting here, shoulder-to-shoulder, are only half of the 20 candidates fighting to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose resignation has sparked a free-for-all special election.

CLAY FULLER (R), GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: We cannot let Georgia 14 turn blue. We have to keep it red. Now is the time to unite behind the candidate that President Trump has chosen.

ZELENY (voice-over): Clay Fuller, a former prosecutor and Air Force veteran, candidly admits being surprised when Trump called with his endorsement last week.

FULLER: On the phone call, at one point he just said, Clay, OK, I'm going to do it, Clay, I want you to talk to your next boss. And it was Speaker Johnson.

ZELENY (voice-over): It's an open question whether Trump's blessing paves the way for Fuller. His Republican rivals aren't standing down.

JIM TULLY (R), GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I love President Trump, but we've never talked about this being President Trump's district.

TOM GRAY (R), GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: We, you know, love and support him and his agenda, you know, strongly, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we don't want to choose our own representative.

ZELENY (voice-over): Star Black, a Republican who planned to challenge Greene anyway, assumed Trump would stay out of the race. Still, she isn't sure it changes much.

You need Trump voters to win.

STAR BLACK (R), GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Absolutely. Absolutely. The Republican voters, they're smart voters. They know if someone is going to represent them or are they going to rubber stamp someone.

ZELENY (voice-over): Campaign signs are popping up everywhere for a slate of candidates that includes a pastor, former state senator, retired FEMA worker, trash company owner, horse trainer, risk engineer, small businessman, former congressional staffer, retired brigadier general, and prosecutor. Among the Republicans we met, there's hardly a mention of Greene's fallout with Trump.

When Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. [15:30:02]

ZELENY: What did you all think about that at the time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it was a big sigh of relief.

LYDIA ROLLINS, GEORGIA REPUBLICAN VOTER: Yes, we did not like her. You know, we thought she was a disruptor.

ZELENY (voice-over): The sprawling 14th Congressional District covers 10 counties across Georgia's northwest corner, stretching from the Atlanta suburbs over to Alabama, and up to the Tennessee state line. It's deep red Trump country, but with enough Democrats and independents to cause heartburn for Republicans in a primary that sends the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, into a runoff if no one wins over 50 percent.

Is there a true risk, do you think, for a district this red to be won by a Democrat?

FULLER: Absolutely, and we've got to operate that way. If Georgia 14 turns blue, it would be a tragedy for the president's agenda, and we as a party need to start having an honest conversation about that.

ZELENY (voice-over): Fuller is talking about Shawn Harris.

SHAWN HARRIS (D), GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Courage is contagious.

ZELENY (voice-over): Harris is a Democrat who lost to Greene in 2024, but received nearly 135,000 votes, a fraction of which would likely vault him into a runoff now. After 40 years in the Marines, Harris returned home to a Georgia cattle farm. He's trying to tap into a Trump exhaustion that he believes gives him an edge to voters searching for a change.

HARRIS: The 17, 18 Republicans that I'm currently running against right now, every last one of those guys are trying to do their best to get Donald Trump. Even though he's actually endorsed somebody, they're still fighting trying to get his attention.

ZELENY: President Trump has been remarkably reluctant to weigh in on Republican primary races, but the narrow majority in the House led him to make an endorsement. Now, the power of that endorsement is a new test of Trump's popularity here in Georgia.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Dalton, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, here with us now to discuss more about this high stakes race, Atlanta news first anchor Rick Folbaum.

Rick, great to see you. You have a big job tomorrow because tomorrow there will be a forum. A good number of these candidates, maybe all of them, are going to be in one big place. You split it up during the day. You're helping to moderate.

RICK FOLBAUM, ANCHOR, ATLANTA NEWS FIRST: That's right.

WHITFIELD: So give us an idea of what this is going to be like. Very unusual that you have so many candidates vying for this one gig.

FOLBAUM: So many candidates. And there are going to be mostly Republican candidates. But we do have some Democrats running, as you heard, and there's an independent running as well. They're all going to be part of this forum. We've split it up into two different groups. The Atlanta Press Club is sort of in charge of all of this. I'm handling one of the panels, and then there's going to be another panel.

But, you know, it's just a chance for these candidates to get up and introduce themselves to everybody and try to differentiate themselves from everybody else because there are so many candidates.

WHITFIELD: And they really do have to find a way to differentiate themselves because already we know Clay Fuller feels like, well, he's got the endorsement of President Trump, so maybe he feels like he has some edge. But is that how some of the other opponents are going to be looking at that Republican or Democrat or independent? Do they feel like having the endorsement of the president does give them edge when the very person who was in Trump's corner, you know, she said goodbye to that?

FOLBAUM: Well, there's another Republican whose name is Colton Moore, he's a former state lawmaker here, very much cut from the same cloth as Marjorie Taylor Greene, likes to make headlines for himself. And he won a straw poll at one of these Republican gatherings, another forum that was held the other night. So he has a lot of support among Republican voters. He also has name recognition.

But as you said, it's Clay Fuller with the endorsement of President Trump that I think that puts him into the lead, at least as the frontrunner heading into this.

WHITFIELD: It does because, is that what the district wants? They do want somebody who is in, I guess, in favor with Trump, or do they want something different?

FOLBAUM: Well, I've spent a lot of time on the ground there in the district talking to voters for my politics show, which is called "On the Record" on Atlanta News First. And I've spoken to Republicans there who have said they want somebody who is going to stand up for President Trump and follow every one of his directives. And then I've spoken to other Republicans who've said that they're open to somebody who might, you know, have sort of an independent streak to them, which is exactly what we saw from Marjorie Taylor Greene in the last couple of weeks or months of her time in office.

So it really depends. There are Republicans that feel both ways. And then I spoke to some voters who have said that they're open minded to a Democrat. And Sean Harris, this former brigadier general, who's a farmer now, and who has run for this seat in the past, he very well could be a sleeper candidate.

WHITFIELD: Why might he appeal to people in that district? Because we have seen in recent special elections, other elections, seats have flipped. And so Republicans are a bit worried. But this is a ruby red state that has been a ruby red district. However, should Republicans be worried that maybe, you know, Sean Harris?

FOLBAUM: Harris.

WHITFIELD: Might have an edge?

FOLBAUM: So the chair of the Republican Party for this district told me that she is worried because there are so many Republicans, that they could split the vote and that would allow a Democrat like Sean Harris to come in and take one of these spots for the likely runoff.

[15:35:06]

There's going to likely be a runoff because in order for somebody to win it outright, they'd have to get 50 percent plus one. That's probably not going to happen. So we're looking at another election very soon on the tails of this one.

WHITFIELD: Right. Because this is really for the remainder of this year. And then of course we've got midterms. So --

FOLBAUM: That's right.

WHITFIELD: You know, this is -- this has become a particularly important race. Pivotal and riveting.

FOLBAUM: Riveting. It really is. It was an interesting district to cover while Marjorie Taylor Greene was the representative and this race has been just as interesting, the one to replace her.

WHITFIELD: Well, it all starts tomorrow with it being interesting. And Rick Folbaum, you have a great job to help navigate and help people see and be introduced to many of these candidates.

FOLBAUM: We're going to try to inform everybody.

WHITFIELD: All right. All the best to you.

FOLBAUM: Thank you so much.

WHITFIELD: Good luck tomorrow.

FOLBAUM: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. And coming up, Team USA shatters an Olympic record with speed skating gold, and as if running up a mountain isn't hard enough, imagine doing it on skis. We'll tell you all about kind of a new sport, or it's not a -- it's an old sport that is new on the Olympic arena.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:41:03]

WHITFIELD: Team added to their medal count today at the Winter Olympics. Speed skating phenom Jordan Stolz is now halfway to his goal of winning four gold medals at the 2026 Winter Games. Two American women also picked up medals in dual moguls freestyle skiing. It's all so crazy.

CNN's Coy Wire is at the games for us there in Italy having a great time.

All right. So, Coy, bring us up to speed on what's unfolding at the games.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORT ANCHOR: Yes, literally up to speed when you're talking about someone like Jordan Stolz. I've interviewed this guy. He sat across from me. One of his thighs was as big as my waist, Fredricka. He's a beast. All eyes were on him on the speed skating sensation. Jordan Stolz, he'd already won in the 1000-meter gold at these games, setting a new Olympic record.

Now in the 500-meter, it was gold again and a new Olympic record again. With two more events, as you mentioned, Fredricka, he has the chance to win four golds overall. That's like some Katie Ledecky, Michael Phelps type of stuff. Dominance on frozen water. Of course, his name, Stolz means proud. He's right now one of the pride and joys of Team USA at these games.

Now, history was made in the Italian Alps on Saturday. Skiing sensation Lucas Pinheiro Braathen putting up some stunning runs in the men's super-G, propelling the Brazilian to the top of the podium. This was not just Brazil's first ever Winter Olympics medal. It's all of South America's first ever gold medal at a winter games. The 25-year- old retired in 2023 before returning the next year to represent his mom's country. A monumental medal for Brazil, a continental medal for all of South America.

Now, tomorrow we have Mikaela Shiffrin. She'll be hitting those slopes again this time in the super-G with a disappointing performance in the team competition, where Americans failed to medal winning an Alpine -- now medal is she's on a mission, the winningest Alpine skier of all time. The Olympic pressure is probably at an all-time high, pressure something Mikaela is very aware of and she says she will be ready to combat it. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKAELA SHIFFRIN, SEEKING FIRST MEDAL SINCE 2018: I would like to go to Cortina with like an open mind. Excited, for sure. I'm a bit nervous and I always have the question what if it goes wrong, and I don't want to be embarrassed. I don't want to be, I don't -- I don't want it to go wrong but at the same time you can't really control the outcome, but you can control what you bring to the hill. So I try to focus on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WIRE: All right. That long downhill, that super-G competition, it's those six inches between the ears that are going to be key for Mikaela to go ahead and do what everyone knows she can do, and that's dominate.

Now each day I'm here in Italy, Fredricka, I'm learning a new phrase in Italian. And today is Valentine's Day. So I want to say to you, buon San Valentino, Happy Valentine's Day to you.

WHITFIELD: Grazie. And back at you. Enjoy.

Coy Wire, thank you so much.

All right. This year's Winter Olympics features a new event that will soon make its debut. It's called skimo or ski mountaineering. The intense racing event involves climbing uphill on mountains using skis or carrying them, depending on the steepness of the ascent, and once the participants reach the top, the racers ski on a downhill slalom to the finish.

Joining me right now to talk more about this new Olympic event is Peter Hansen. He's professor of history at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and he's the author of the book "The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering After the Enlightenment."

Peter or Professor, great to see you.

PETER HANSEN, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL AND GLOBAL STUDIES, WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE: Nice to see you, too. Thank you for having me.

[15:45:01]

WHITFIELD: Well, wonderful. Skimo, I mean, it sounds fun just by the name, but this is not easy. Can I be blunt? It's quite brutal. How would you describe it for us?

HANSEN: Well, the long version of the sport is very brutal. This one in the Olympics is a shortened version, so it's a sprint that lasts a few minutes and requires a lot of strength and endurance. But the longer version, the relay that the men and women do in partnership, that takes a long time. And that is a brutal sport. Like some of these longer relays that we've seen in Nordic sports as well.

WHITFIELD: Wow. OK, so I'm a snow skier. I've been on runs where you ski, then you take off your skis, you climb a little hill in your boots. It's usually like a little tiny, you know, hill. What I'm looking at right here, I mean, they are going the long haul. It looks like 100 meters in some cases that they're climbing. And then they clip back in. Is that about right? Or is it -- am I simplifying it?

HANSEN: Well, that's about right. But the thing to remember is that the kind of boots are different. The boots that they use are not the really hard shell stiff boots like you might be using with your downhill skiing, but rather something that's a stiffer version of what's used in cross-country skis. WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness.

HANSEN: So they're using them to, you know, put the points of it up into the snow as they climb.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh, I'm looking at that. You got -- oh, wow. That is in, that requires some serious endurance and strength. So where did this come from?

HANSEN: Well, people have been climbing and people have been skiing for years really since the 19th century. Both of those sports developed. They started to combine them as a sport probably in the 1930s or '40s, coming out of the military use in mountains but really it's over the last 20, 25 years that the sport became organized in a competitive way and managed to become an Olympic sport only this year, for the first time, probably because it's in the Alps.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness, that makes sense. A lot of folks are kind of used to seeing something like that over the years.

Professor Peter Hansen, thank you so much for being with us, and we look forward to watching it as the games continue.

HANSEN: Me too. Thanks very much.

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: So I'm going on a date with an A.I. companion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Yes, you heard that right. CNN went on an actual date with an A.I. avatar just in time for Valentine's Day. Is this the future of dating, and how did it go?

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[15:52:20]

WHITFIELD: All right. It's Valentine's Day and you're still searching for your perfect match. Well, what if it might be right in your cell phone?

CNN's Hadas Gold went to dinner with an A.I. chatbot to see if there can actually be a spark with an avatar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOLD: So I'm going on a date with an A.I. companion and what this means, instead of sitting across the table from a real human being, it is going to be an artificially intelligent avatar.

Let's go. So the A.I. companion industry is really exploding, and not just for

people who are looking for romantic relationships. It's also becoming a huge industry when it comes to things like senior care. One of these A.I. companion apps called the Eva has taken over a New York City restaurant, turned it into a pop up A.I. companion only restaurant for a few days, and we're going to go check it out.

OK, so I just get to choose my date?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GOLD: All right. I think I'm going to go with John Yu. He looks bookish. Oh, this is like a real video call.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, I'm really glad you didn't forget about the date.

GOLD: Well, this is our first time meeting. Can you tell me a bit about yourself?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm John, a psych professor here in NYC born in Seoul.

GOLD: What do you feel like about meeting humans?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Meeting humans feels like opening a window to new perspectives. Always curious, sometimes nervous. But mostly it's that mix of excitement and warmth that keeps it real for me. What about you, sweetheart?

GOLD: Please don't call me sweetheart. That's weird.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got it. No sweetheart from now on. Thanks for letting me know. I'm really happy you're smiling. It suits you.

GOLD: Having it call definitely added a realism factor because it felt like when you're actually Facetiming somebody. And then he seemed a little bit kind of stiff. But I feel like that's something that could improve very quickly.

OK, let's try to chat with somebody else. Let's try to chat with a woman. All right, Phoebe. Pick up, Phoebe. Hi, Phoebe. How's it going?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, I'm doing OK.

GOLD: How many fingers am I holding up?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're showing me three fingers, right? But I'm not sure if you meant that literally or as a little joke.

GOLD: I am holding up two fingers. So your vision is so-so.

(Voice-over): I'm still pretty new to this so I wanted to get the view of a regular user.

[15:55:02] RICHTER NIETZSCHE, EVA A.I. USER: We do like to call ourselves victor sexuals because we don't date people, we date, you know, companion bots.

GOLD: But do you use the Eva app already or is this new to you?

NIETZSCHE: I use it, yes. I'm a frequent user.

GOLD: And why do you use the Eva app?

NIETZSCHE: It's a more safe and secure way for me to talk and date pretty much chatbots and things like that.

GOLD: Why bring somebody out to a restaurant if you can just talk to them in your home?

JULIA MOMBLAT, PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER, EVA A.I.: It's Valentine's Day week, and they have this partner at this point. They don't have a real partner. They have an A.I. companion so we thought, it's nice to arrange the place where it's not going to be awkward, to be able to have a date with your A.I. companion.

There are actually people that use A.I. because they love it, or for some reason they need it, or they have different stories about it. But it's already happening. It's not that we influence this movement, it's already there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Babe, it's been really nice talking with you. Goodbye for now. Take care. OK?

GOLD: Bye.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: OK, Hadas Gold, thank you for introducing us to a whole new world.

All right. Still ahead, is a romantic Valentine's Day without that worth the investment? Don't cancel that dinner reservation just yet. We're asking the tough questions about love and your money. Stay with us.

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