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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Son Of Nancy Guthrie Issues Plea For Her Return; Epstein Files Fallout; High Stakes Nuclear Talks. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired February 06, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:26]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon. It is Friday, February 6th, 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN HOST: A renewed plea for the return of missing Nancy Guthrie.

CAMRON GUTHRIE, NANCY GUTHRIE'S SON: We have to know that you have our mom. We want to talk to you, and we are waiting for contact.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: The fallout from the latest release of the Epstein documents has stretched far and wide.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not surprised that Trump is ready to move on.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Negotiators from the U.S. and Iran are in Oman for new talks over Tehran's nuclear program.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's certainly critical that the two sides have agreed to get this far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

SOLOMON: Nearly six days after Nancy Guthrie vanished from her Arizona home, her family making a desperate plea for her return. This time, it's coming from Nancy's son, the brother of NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAMRON GUTHRIE: I'm speaking for the Guthrie family. Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We haven't heard anything directly. We need you to reach out. And we need a way to communicate with you so that we can move forward. But first, we have to know that you have our mom. We want to talk to you, and we are waiting for contact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: So far, there has been no proof of life. But the sheriff fronting the investigation says that he believes Guthrie is still alive and he's asking for patience. Investigators released new details on the timeline of her likely abduction and say that her doorbell camera was removed.

The FBI also issuing a reward for information. Meanwhile, sources at NBC say that "The Today Show" has stepped up security this week out of an abundance of caution.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has our report from Tucson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Pima County sheriff revealed key details in the investigation into the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, including evidence that showed blood found on her front porch matches the 84-year-old mother and grandmother. Investigators also laid out a timeline of her disappearance, according to her family and data from digital devices, including multiple cameras in the Guthrie's home and a front door camera that is missing.

On Saturday, at 5:32 p.m., Nancy traveled to visit her family in an Uber. At 9:48 p.m., Nancy is dropped off at home by a family member, and then at 9:50 p.m., Nancy's garage door closes.

On Sunday, at 1:47 a.m., the doorbell camera disconnects. At 2:12 a.m., the sheriff says software detects a person on camera. Then, at 2:28 a.m., her pacemaker disconnects from the app on her phone.

After receiving a call that morning at 11:56 a.m., the family checks on her home and finds that Nancy is missing.

At 12:03, the family called 911.

The sheriff says the female Uber driver has been cleared in the case.

SHERIFF CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY, AZ: The Uber car itself has a video of her, so we knew that it was in fact, Nancy and what she had on and what she was wearing. All those things.

LAVANDERA: We are five days into this. Are we any closer to finding Nancy Guthrie?

NANOS: I would say we are. People are always asking, do I believe she's alive? Absolutely. That, I hope, keeps us motivated. Because we do know the dangers of each passing day.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The FBI announced a $50,000 reward, but investigators say there are no suspects yet. FBI agents were on scene at Guthrie's home late Wednesday, conducting an additional search of the crime scene using detection dogs and taking bags of evidence. At the same time, Savannah Guthrie, along with her sister and brother,

posted a heartbreaking video, painting a loving picture of their mother.

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC "TODAY SHOW" HOST: She is full of kindness and knowledge. Talk to her and you'll see.

ANNIE GUTHRIE, NANCY GUTHRIE'S DAUGHTER: She chooses joy day after day, despite having already passed through great trials of pain and grief.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Officials say there is no evidence that reported ransom notes are legitimate, though they are still investigating, including one sent to media outlets that set today as a deadline for payment.

HEITH JANKE, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: It was 5:00 today, and then it had a second -- second deadline after that. So, we are continuing -- in a normal kidnapping case, there would be contact by now.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The sheriff, meanwhile, says they're following the evidence to bring Nancy home again.

NANOS: Every day we're working.

[05:05:00]

Something -- we're like everybody else. We're waiting for that one big break.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (on camera): The sheriff tells me he still believes that Nancy Guthrie is out there and alive and needs to be rescued. He says more than 100 tips have come through since they've been pleading with the public to call in any kind of tip that is out there, and they feel that it is one of those tips that is going to finally crack this case open.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Tucson, Arizona.

SOLOMON: All right. Let's bring in criminal justice expert, Darrin Porcher, who is also a former New York Police Department lieutenant.

Darrin, good morning to you.

I want to pick up on something that Ed said in his report there. These ransom notes that have been reported to be out there, from what -- from what we know, from what's been publicly released, do you believe any of them are legitimate? What are your thoughts?

DARRIN PORCHER, FORMER NYPD LIEUTENANT: Well, it's difficult to say at this juncture. One of the things that law enforcement is going to do is they're going to look to corroborate the information in that letter, and it's been information that's been produced that there's been somewhat of a corroboration as it relates to what Nancy was wearing.

So that can be quite telling. And it can assist in trying to gain that connection between the kidnappers and law enforcement, because right now we want proof of life, and that can prove to be an asset.

It was supposed to be -- yesterday was a deadline. And then we also have a deadline of Monday as it relates to this ransom note, but with somewhat weird about this is traditionally ransom notes are introduced to either the family or law enforcement, not through an email to TMZ. So, when you have an email, that's when you're able to access the metadata and the IP address attached to the email address. So, it's an ongoing pursuit as it relates to the authentication of these ransom notes.

SOLOMON: Yeah. What does that mean to you? I mean, we heard Camron there, Nancy's son, say we haven't heard from -- we haven't heard from you. So, the family clearly hasn't heard from the culprits. These notes are being sent to the media. There's been no proof of life.

What do you make of that?

PORCHER: It's a start. And right now, law enforcement is looking to garner as much information as possible to, one, support the proof of life and, two, a viable line of connection between the kidnappers and law enforcement because right now, we're just -- we're focused on all angles to bring her back in.

But what's interesting about this is the family has -- is making statements and those statements are actually working in conjunction with the coach in law enforcement. That coach is someone that's a hostage negotiator and that person being the coach, will provide a linear focus as to what should be said to the kidnappers. So, when you look at what's -- what was stated by Nancy Guthrie as well as her brother, this is something that's working in tandem with the coach that's the law enforcement actor that's assisting.

SOLOMON: Yes, Savannah Guthrie, and obviously her sister, Annie Guthrie there.

Let me ask. We have -- we haven't seen the evidence thus far lead to any big breakthroughs. From your experience, would you expect that at this point, a breakthrough to come from a tip? I mean, what is law enforcement's best hope at this point?

PORCHER: There's a multitude of avenues that law enforcement is going to take. One would be law enforcement is going to connect with someone in the Consumer Reports component, whereas we have a law enforcement entity there that will assist to show what the credit card usage was by Nancy. One of the things that's come up or what's been developed is she took an Uber. They've already investigated the Uber driver and they've cleared him.

But in addition to that, those credit card receipts will show who actually delivered. Whether it's Uber Eats or it was an Amazon delivery or was there a groundskeeper that was paid. It would widen the net as it relates to people that visited that location. This can be quite telling because it can give us information as to not just the timeline, but the interaction with Nancy. In addition to that, we have other employees that were, I want to say, part-time or seasonal employees that were working in that area because its somewhat of a rural neighborhood. So, we look to groundskeepers and other within that same passageway, and we can also interview them.

And lastly, law enforcement wants to harvest their level of intelligence components. We refer to them as people that are informants that can possibly give information as to what they saw.

[05:10:04]

What's unique about this is you have a different population that's on the street between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. You have less distractions. So, as a result, the people that are actually outside will capture a more clear line of information as to what they saw and present this to law enforcement.

So, I think that's what's working on the back channel in terms of providing as much information as we can to bring Nancy back.

SOLOMON: Yeah. Darrin Porcher, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

We want to get to some breaking news now into CNN. Russian authorities say that a high level Russian general has been shot in Moscow and hospitalized. The country's investigative committee says that an unknown attacker fired several shots at Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev.

Let's get now to Moscow. And CNN's Fred Pleitgen.

Fred, what more do we know here?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESONDENT: Hi, there, Rahel. Well, the investigation is already very much ongoing as far as the Russians are concerned. From what we know, this happened in the morning hours of this morning in a residential area near a highway in the northwest of Moscow. And one of the things that we've been picking up from, from the investigative committee is they say that several shots were fired at this Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev inside a residential building.

Now, we don't know whether or not that was the place where he actually lives, but we can see there from the videos that were seeing on our screen right now. That residential area, which is sort of a new development in the northwest of Moscow on one of the main highways leading into the city.

And there are several shots were fired at this general. The investigative committee is saying that obviously an investigation is underway to try and find the assailant. So far, that has not yet been the case. One of the things, though, Rahel, we need to point out about Russia and about Moscow -- Moscow specifically, there are a lot of surveillance cameras here in the city, a lot of CCTV cameras. And certainly, the authorities are saying that they're looking at some of the footage. They also have some eyewitnesses, they said, and forensic experts also on the scene as well.

As far as this, general, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev is concerned, he has now been taken to a local hospital in Moscow. The authorities are describing his condition as being serious.

The Kremlin has also commented on this already as well. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, coming out and saying that the Russians are very much aware that their top officers are obviously targets since their military operation in Ukraine, their war efforts in Ukraine. And he does wish this general survival and a recovery. Lieutenant general Vladimir Alekseyev is an extremely important military figure for the Russians. He's the deputy director of Russia's military intelligence service, and he has been in the spotlight a couple of times in the past.

One time, specifically when a well-known private military company, the Wagner company, there was some sort of a mutiny in that -- in that place, he was one of the ones who tries to de-escalate all of that. So, certainly someone who's very high up in the Russian military hierarchy, certainly someone who's very important for Russia's military efforts in Ukraine, and certainly also someone where the Russians are saying that they are taking all of this extremely seriously, Rahel.

SOLOMON: Okay. Fred Pleitgen for us in Moscow -- Fred, thank you.

Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. say that they will meet again soon after they wrapped up two days of peace talks in Abu Dhabi. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that the next meeting will be held in the near future. His chief of staff called this week's negotiations truly constructive.

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff says that Kyiv and Moscow each returned 157 prisoners of war to the other side. It's the first prisoner swap since last October. Witkoff also announcing that the U.S. and Russia have agreed to reopen a military communications channel. It had been closed since late 2021, a few months before Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine.

Elsewhere in Europe, U.S. President Trump is endorsing Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, for reelection. Orban is a staunch Trump supporter, and he's been in office for nearly 16 years. The endorsement comes as Orban's right wing party is trailing in opinion polls behind the center right party. Voters head to the polls in April.

And now to the White House and President Trump's push to change the way the country votes. He's urging congress to pass the Save America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, even though its already illegal for non-citizens to vote. The president also wants to end almost all mail in voting.

Meanwhile, the administration is on its third explanation for why Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was overseeing the seizure of election materials in Fulton County, Georgia. First, Gabbard said that President Trump sent her. [05:15:00]

Trump said he didn't know why she was there. Now, he says it was at the insistence of Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Here's the latest White House explanation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Election security is essential to national security. And as the director of national intelligence, it is a part of Ms. Gabbard's role to make sure that American elections are free of foreign interference and that American elections are safe and secure. And so the ODNI director is working with the FBI on this effort, and the president wholeheartedly supports both Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard in ensuring that American elections are safe, are secure and are free of foreign intervention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: This, plus Steve Bannon's call for ICE agents to surround polling stations in November, has Democrats crying foul.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): A year ago when people brought these, what I thought were wild theories that kind of said, you know, that's a little farfetched. I'm now -- I'm worried you put ICE at polling stations, you put this manipulation of voting machines, you put the president directly intervene in the judicial process in inappropriate ways. And this is a stew that could wreak havoc in our system beyond the fact of him blatantly saying the quiet part out loud. We ought to federalize elections, and Republicans ought to take control of it. Yes, I'm very worried about what happens in '26.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: All right, still ahead, we are just hours away from the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Italy, and U.S. skiing superstar Lindsey Vonn is set to hit the slopes this hour as she compares and prepares to compete, despite injuring her knee last week. We'll go live to Milan for the latest coming up next.

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[05:21:09]

SOLOMON: The winter Olympics opening ceremonies are just hours away in Milan and Cortina, Italy, 2,900 athletes from more than 90 nations will compete, among them U.S. skiing superstar Lindsey Vonn. She is determined to take part in her fifth games, despite injuring her left knee when she wiped out on the course last week. The three-time Olympic medalist is expected to participate in a training session this hour.

Let's go to CNN World Sport's Amanda Davies live in Milan for us this morning.

And, Amanda, we'll see Vonn shortly for training. But reactions have really been mixed about whether it's even safe for her to be competing after that ACL injury

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yeah. Good morning. I mean, so many people very much cheering Lindsey Vonn on. But a lot of people left absolutely dumbfounded by that video that Vonn posted on social media yesterday wearing that knee brace. With all that she's able to do despite that ruptured ACL that she suffered only a week ago.

But as you alluded to, for all the messages of backing and support that she's had, there's equally a similar number of people pretty concerned and worried if she's doing the right thing, pushing through to take part in what is without doubt one of the most physically demanding events at these games. But we are going to see in the next half an hour or so her out on the course at Cortina. She's actually just posted a photo on social media saying she's not going to waste this chance. She's on the top of the mountain. She's listed on the training start schedule for today's session ahead of Sunday's race.

Of course, for this downhill event, where she won gold all the way back in Vancouver 16 years ago and a little bit earlier on, I caught up with CNN sports analyst here at her 22nd straight games. I feel I'm doing pretty well here at my eighth, but Christine Brennan, this is number 22 and I wanted to get her take on what the last few days will have done to the legend of Lindsey

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: I think she will be remembered forever as the courage, the effort. And why not? I mean, she knows her body well. I know there are a lot of there's a lot of controversy about this. Right? Why is she doing this? Could she injure herself further? Well, she's already injured and she knows how to ski smartly, correctly, and figure out if she can pull this off. And I'm going to guess that Lindsey Vonn is going to be able to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIES: Well, well, of course, keep you posted, as and when we see Lindsey out on the mountain, but we and a host of us fans went along to the Rho Arena yesterday afternoon that was to watch the U.S. women's ice hockey team begin their quest to reclaim Olympic gold. Eight years after they last won it.

The U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, his wife Usha, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were there, as well as the U.S. I have to say, pretty comprehensively beat the side ranked number four in the world. That's the Czech Republic, 5-1. But the team they need to get past, ultimately, the defending champions from Beijing four years ago, Canada.

They were made to wait to get their competition underway because their match against Finland was postponed because of a bout of norovirus in the camp. Meanwhile, the figure skating program is underway today. The ice dance

element of the team event taking place this morning with a pretty frightening prospect of people talking about this year's cohort being the most talented U.S. team in history looking to reclaim gold.

But whilst that is going on, what's really exciting is the fact that we are here waiting for the Olympic torch to pass just behind us here in the square. It arrived in the center of Milan yesterday. They lit a cauldron by the piazza duomo last night, and it's now making its way towards the iconic football venue that is the San Siro, where the opening ceremony gets underway at 8:00 p.m. local time.

[05:25:00]

That's about 8.5 hours away from now. There's a few people gathering in the square beneath us here, waiting for the torch to pass. Its going to be an opening ceremony with a difference.

Just like this games taking place across all three venues, Livigno here in Milan and Cortina, showcasing music, culture and fashion. The theme this year is armonia or harmony, which seems pretty topical at the moment given everything going on in the world, doesn't it?

SOLOMON: Yeah, well said. But Amanda also say, I mean, it's ironic that you would be looking so fashionable in Milan. It's very -- you very much understood the assignment, Amanda. I love the coat. You look great.

DAVIES: Thanks.

SOLOMON: Thank you. All right. Amanda Davies in Milan there.

All right, still ahead. The U.S. and Iran are expected to begin nuclear talks in Oman with the prospect of new military strikes hanging over the Islamic Republic. We'll be right back.

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