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CNN This Morning
Savannah Guthrie's Plea to Mom's Kidnapper: 'Reach Out to Us'; Trump: Immigration Enforcement May Need 'A Softer Touch.' Aired 6- 6:30a ET
Aired February 05, 2026 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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DAN BROWN, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS GUARD: They -- they don't last very long in there.
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ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: What's the best thing you've had?
BROWN: I think we had some kind of -- during Christmas, it was -- it was almost like a sugar cookie. But with, like, peppermint bits in it. And I may have gotten that wrong. I don't know. I just saw and I may have gotten that wrong. I don't know, I just saw it and I ate it and it was delicious.
SCHOLES: Now, Maye will likely finish second in the MVP voting to Matthew Stafford, but we'll find out Thursday night who is the MVP, along with all of the other awards as the NFL holds their annual awards show, NFL Honors, here in San Francisco at 9 Eastern.
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RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right. That'll do it for us here us here at EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon in New York. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, where's the big reckoning over the Epstein files? There's outrage in the U.K., but here not so much.
Plus, the public plea from Savannah Guthrie for the safe return of her mother. The former FBI director tells us how the FBI could help find her.
And also, President Trump's talking about a softer touch on immigration. Polls suggest it might be a little late for that.
And the Supreme Court just handed Gavin Newsom a big win. Could it help Democrats in this year's midterms? CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
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SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, CO-ANCHOR, NBC'S "TODAY SHOW": Everyone is looking for you, Mommy. Everywhere. We will not rest. Your children will not rest until we are together again.
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CORNISH: A tearful plea from Savannah Guthrie and her siblings, begging the person who took their mother to bring her back home.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and that's where we start, with that heart-wrenching video.
The search for Guthrie's mother, Nancy, is now entering day five. Authorities believe she was kidnapped from her home in Arizona Saturday night. Her family says that they want to talk to her abductor, and that they need proof that she's alive.
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GUTHRIE: We live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know without a doubt that she is alive and that you have her. We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen.
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CORNISH: OK, I'm going to bring in CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.
Andy, thanks so much for being with her [SIC] -- with us.
First, I want to start with the idea of the ransom note, which lots of people have been talking about the last few days, because it went to news organizations. And I want to play for you, a local anchor at KOLD who described the note that they received.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of it is information that only someone who is holding her for ransom would know. Some very sensitive information and things that people who weren't there when she was taken captive would know.
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CORNISH: So, Andy, the thing is, you don't hear Guthrie in the video saying that they had received these notes. Right? They -- they say we heard about it in the media.
And they're also raising the specter of manipulated images and videos. Can you talk about what some of the question marks here?
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, sure. So, this is a very common practice in these terrible cases. You routinely get demands or communications from -- from people who aren't actually involved.
So, there's a process that law enforcement uses to vet to try to determine which note is authentic and which note is a communication from the actual abductors.
The first piece of that is looking for the sort of details that you heard referred to in that last clip. So, any -- any demand that has kind of insider information that has not been released to the public is going to rise to the top of that pile as a possible, you know, legitimate ransom demand.
But ultimately, Audie, none of these demands are acted upon until the abductors communicate in a two-way fashion with the family, with law enforcement monitoring it and provide a proof of life. So, I think that's kind of what you saw in the video last night. It was very clearly a request for proof of life.
It was interesting to me, too, that it did. -- it did kind of acknowledge that, like, hey, we have a high standard here. We understand that images can be manipulated. So were on the lookout for that.
You need to give us something that absolutely, unequivocally proves that you have our mother and that she is still alive.
CORNISH: But, Andy, how in the age of A.I., like, what does proof of life really look like? I mean, we know that, you know, she had appeared on television. Her image is public, and we know people can manipulate the images of someone just by having that data.
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MCCABE: Sure. So, there are going to be -- there's a high standard here, right? They're going to be looking for an image, a video of something that absolutely has never been released before, that doesn't exist in the public.
They're going to be looking for possibly, like, actual statements and reactions and motion from -- from Ms. Guthrie. And there's also forensic ways that -- that you can analyze video or photographic evidence to determine whether it's been tampered with, whether it's -- whether it's legitimate or not.
So, there's -- there's a lot that goes into it, both kind of just physically and also technically.
CORNISH: I want to play for you another part of this video of the Guthrie family, where they are describing their mother, but also alluding to time here being of the essence. Let's take a listen.
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GUTHRIE: My mom is a kind, faithful, loyal, fiercely loving woman of goodness and light. She has grandchildren that adore her and crowd around her and cover her with kisses. Her health, her heart is fragile. She lives in constant pain. She is
without any medicine. She needs it to survive. She needs it not to suffer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: On day five, no likely -- pretty likely, a deluge of tips. What is the investigation or the investigators, what are they facing right now?
MCCABE: Yes, it's just an enormous task. And as you highlighted, really, with that clip that the clock is ticking here because the victim is so uniquely vulnerable due to her age, due to her physical -- physical ailments and things of that nature.
The stress of being detained in the way she likely is, is just enormous for anyone, and particularly for someone, for an older person like her.
So, this is an amazing moment. Unbelievable. Heartbreaking to watch. And my heart goes out to Savannah and her family. But they did such a -- such a -- an amazing job of humanizing their mother.
They want whoever has her to think of her as a human being who's loved and valued, to understand that she has these unique, physical, conditions that need to be addressed.
That's all in an effort to keep her going. Right? To have whoever has her think of her as a valuable person who needs to be returned.
As for investigators, you know, they are going to be bombarded today. The -- the personnel resources that an investigation of this scope requires is just unbelievable. Because you have dozens and dozens, maybe hundreds of agents who will be doing nothing but responding to those leads that you just referred to. The vast majority of which are not relevant and won't lead to, you know, a discovery or return of the victim. But one of them might.
So, every one of them has to be covered explicitly. And of course, they'll be, you know, acutely looking for the next communication from whoever sent the -- the ransom notes that we know already exist, or maybe from someone who hasn't communicated with them at all at this point.
CORNISH: OK. That's probably why we've got some reports now, the president saying he's going to send more federal resources to the region. FBI Director Kash Patel could be heading to Arizona.
Andrew McCabe, thanks so much for talking with us.
MCCABE: Thank you.
CORNISH: Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, the fallout from the Epstein files, why it seems to be hitting harder overseas.
Plus, why millions of people who depend on SNAP could soon be cut off. And a softer touch. What's behind the president's about-face on
immigration enforcement?
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TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: I have announced, effective immediately, we will draw down 700 people, effective today.
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MAYOR JACOB FREY (D), MINNEAPOLIS: The continued presence of 2,000 federal agents in a city that only has 600 police officers is still not de-escalation. So, we have been very clear that Operation Metro Surge needs to end.
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CORNISH: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey wants the drawdown of 700 federal agents in his city to go even further.
And new polling in response to the killing of Alex Pretti shows why the Trump administration may be looking for an off ramp for their immigration operation in Minnesota.
The Quinnipiac poll finds registered voters believe Pretti's shooting was not justified. And we're talking about a 40-point margin, 62 to 22.
You look at independents, it goes further than that, by a 50-point margin saying it was not justified. In an interview on NBC, President Trump did appear to acknowledge how Operation Metro Surge is being perceived.
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch, but you still have to be tough.
It should have not happened. It was a very sad to me. It was a very sad incident, two incidents. And, you know, they mentioned the one. Now they don't mention the other. Well, I think they were both sad. And you know, who feels worse about it than anybody? The people of ICE.
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CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss: Garrett Graff, federal law enforcement journalist.
Garrett, I wanted to deep dive on this yesterday, because there was this extensive press conference with Tom Homan where, I'll be honest, he did talk more about ICE and what he felt as a lack of sympathy about ICE than about these deaths the president is referring to.
GARRETT GRAFF, FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT JOURNALIST: Yes. And I think that there's -- there's a sort of tension in the words that we're seeing come out of Tom Homan's mouth and Donald Trump's mouth, and what the reality on the ground is.
You know, as the Minneapolis mayor was just saying, sure, we can celebrate the drawdown of 700 federal agents.
CORNISH: And this is out of, what, 2 to 3000?
GRAFF: Three thousand.
CORNISH: Yes.
GRAFF: So, the force on the ground is still 2 to 3 times larger than the force that was sent into Chicago last fall in Operation Midway Blitz.
CORNISH: Yes.
GRAFF: So, this is still probably the largest law enforcement operation, federal law enforcement operation in modern times in American history. And --
CORNISH: Which caused a major backlash. There's been this chicken or egg thing about what is the cause of the strife, and is there something particular to Minnesota?
Let me play for you something that Homan did say during his press conference. When asked about what he thinks operations should look like at this point.
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HOMAN: We want to get back to the normal operational footprint here, but that depends on the people out there putting up illegal roadblocks. That depends on people that want to intimidate and interfere and -- and put hands on ICE officers. Tone down the rhetoric.
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GRAFF: I think the challenge here is ICE is the thing that is provoking the violence. And ICE, you know, obviously, is both Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol agents who are part of this and were actually involved in both of the shootings that we saw of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
And so, again, this weird chicken and egg tension of Tom Homan saying, you know, well leave when the violence stops, when they're the ones actually provoking the violence in the community. And if they just stopped, the -- the city would de-escalate. CORNISH: I want to play for you one more thing. This is President
Trump in that interview with NBC News when he was asked directly about these deaths. And I want to play it for you because, again, it's this like -- does the White House sort of understand how this thing is coming off? And here he is.
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TRUMP: Nobody talks about all of the murders that were taken out of our country. They don't talk about --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it was two Americans.
TRUMP: They don't talk about we have the smallest trucks. As an example, we've been very tough on the waters. And soon, you know, pretty much overall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The -- the waters?
TRUMP: But if you look at -- if you look at the waters where we knock out boats, each boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives.
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GRAFF: So again, I think you have to think about what has changed in the last year. And this is not me saying that everything was hunky- dory in immigration enforcement prior to noon on January 20th last year.
But ICE and CBP were actually deporting a larger percentage of criminals than they are right now under the Donald Trump deployments.
And that what we have actually seen on the ground in Minneapolis and the whole rest of the country is the administration shift dramatically away from the targeted enforcement operations, going after those so- called worst of the worst that Donald Trump likes to tout.
And instead, we're looking at numbers where 75 to 90 percent of the people that ICE is detaining in operations like Midway Blitz or Metro Surge in Chicago and Minneapolis, do not have a criminal record in the United States. And less than 5 percent of them, in many instances, have a violent criminal record.
CORNISH: OK, we're going to talk more about this today. And some of the fallout from this conversation.
But after the break on THIS MORNING, the -- the ICE attorney who told the judge, this job sucks. Well, they're getting reassigned.
Plus, the Winter Olympics kick off this week. We're live from Milan with all the excitement. In the meanwhile, good morning.
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CORNISH: It is 23 minutes past the hour. And here are five things to know to get your day going.
The ICE attorney who told a judge "This job sucks," has been removed from her assignment in Minnesota. Julie Le made the comments as immigration and enforcement cases were piling up in federal court in Minneapolis.
She told the judge that the system is overwhelmed.
Now, the Justice Department say that they are now reviewing what happened.
And it's a life sentence for the man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump when Trump was a candidate in 2024. Prosecutors say Ryan Routh set up a sniper's nest on the edge of Trump's West Palm Beach golf course before a Secret Service agent spotted his rifle pointing through a fence.
And when it comes to SNAP, the Trump administration has a new rule. Stop making so many mistakes or lose your funding.
The USDA is demanding states lower their error rate to 6 percent, which is how much a state ends up overpaying or underpaying per household. So, if that rule were to go into effect now, 42 states could lose funding altogether.
Oklahoma's auditor sounding the alarm, because the error rate in her state is 11 percent.
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CINDY BYRD, OKLAHOMA STATE AUDITOR: If nothing changes, Oklahoma will be one of the states that stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in SNAP funding. It is critical for state and federal officials to unite to ensure that SNAP benefits are reserved for the families that need them the most.
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CORNISH: So, that new rule will take effect in 2028.
And Washington, D.C., residents are finding creative ways to protect their parking spots. As snow and ice linger from last month's winter storm, they've been carving out spots and reserving them with everything from chairs to buckets and traffic cones.
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JOSEPH CRIDER, RESIDENT: It seems like everybody's been respecting everybody's spot. They haven't really been pulling in, you know, because when they do, I guess they don't know what's going to happen to them.
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CORNISH: As someone from Boston, this just makes me feel like it's more at home.
But the transportation secretary says that the spot savers have to go, because that's going to impede snow removal.
So, one man is carrying on his tradition to attend every single Super Bowl, and Sunday's big game will actually be his last. Don Crisman has not missed a Super Bowl in nearly six decades, even created a fan club out of it.
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DAN CRISMAN, ATTENDED SUPER BOWL EVERY YEAR SINCE 1967: Became a habit, and then it became a challenge. How far can we go? Never in my wildest dreams did I think we'd ever reach 50, never mind 60.
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CORNISH: The lifelong Patriots fan says he is excited to watch his favorite team bring home another title.
And straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, it's day five in the search for Nancy Guthrie. We're live from Arizona with the family's plea to whomever took her.
Plus, we're going to talk about the Olympics as they kick off. Will the U.S. be the sports villain of the games?
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