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Scott Galloway Calls For Big Tech Boycott To Protest Against ICE; NY Post: Trump Threatens Guthrie Kidnappers With Death Penalty; Could A Republican Become Governor In Deep-Blue California? Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired February 16, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

SCOTT GALLOWAY, CO-HOST "PIVOT": You're effectively taking $10,000 out of the market cap of that company. And these companies are so sensitive to a slowdown in the growth of their subscriptions that I think consumers have missed a weapon hiding in plain sight.

And that is if they just check back, if they go from six streaming media platforms to one, from two ride-hailing programs to one, to the unpaid, the free versions of AI, that they could have a massive impact and send a very strong signal to the markets and to the administration that they do not support what's going on.

The Montgomery bus strike, being the most famous economic strike, had a cinematic moment where a brave woman refused to give up her seat. But what really moved the needle, Dana, was a coordinated carpooling effort that took place over a year with thousands of carpools that ultimately cost the municipal bus system there $2 million, and then they decided to desegregate.

So consumers don't realize the power they have when they pull back from spending, specifically on big tech subscription programs. We've already had a million people to the site. And I think just alone from these unsubscribes --

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Wow.

GALLOWAY: -- in this movement, we're going to take a quarter of a billion dollars out of the market cap of big tech.

BASH: Wow. I mean, that is a very big impact of what you're trying to do. So you just gave us an example, ChatGPT and subscribing, that's a lot of money. And that probably is a very specific subset of people you're trying to reach. But you're also saying, you know, get rid of Amazon Prime.

You're a wealthy person. I know you are very open about that and proud of that, as you should be, because of how well you've done in your life. There are people who are not as economically, you know, able to do things that you're asking them to do.

So I guess the question is, what do you say to people who are not sure that they can make economic sacrifices in order to push back against what you call corporate cowardice, that it's an asymmetrical sacrifice?

GALLOWAY: I'm not trying to be the arbiter of what you should spend money on or not spend money on. That's entirely your decision or when you resubscribe or unsubscribe or how many platforms you unsubscribe from or when you decide to rejoin them. What I want people to know is that they have more power than they think.

And also, I would argue, Dana, this is an incredible way to save money. I didn't realize I had auto-renew on Amazon One health care service that I signed up for during COVID and I'd spent $1,200. I didn't realize I had four subscriptions to AT&T charging me $60 each month for iPads and BlackBerrys that have been in landfills for the last five or six years.

You're going to -- if you go on to resist and unsubscribe, and I've tried to make it very easy, you're going to find that there are a lot of substitutes and most likely you are paying for subscriptions that you don't need. Automation and subscription is not your friend. The money comes out of your account very easily every month.

This is a great way to save $100, $200, $300 a month with very little disruption to your consumer life and send a powerful signal to these companies, to the Trump administration and to the market. So I'm not suggesting anyone, what I'm suggesting is this is the minimum amount of sacrifice relative to the impact and that it's up to you, you know, how many carpools you want to show up with.

Do you want to give someone a ride using the Montgomery Strike as an example? Do you want to show up with a moped? Do you want to show up with a truck and a van? But it is up to you. But you're going to find there's a lot of subscriptions taking money out of your account you didn't even know about.

BASH: On a related note, a little bit different though, I also just want to talk to you for a second about the idea of social media big tech companies. And you have said that you are convinced that at some point they're going to go the way of big tobacco or pharmaceutical companies with opioids.

There's going to be so much of a public backlash, parental backlash, that there will have to be some regulation. Are you still sure about that? I know you've said it in the past. Are you still confident of that?

GALLOWAY: Yes, and be clear, I've been wrong so far. But typically what happens is a company taps into a flaw in our instincts, whether it's addiction or overeating, and that company makes a lot of money for shareholders. Those shareholders deploy money to lobbyists.

There are more sitting lobbyists working for Amazon, full-time lobbyists working for Amazon in D.C. than there are sitting U.S. senators. And they delay and obfuscate. But eventually the arc of justice does bend towards justice. So it took us 30 years with tobacco.

You know, you saw -- remember that court hearing where everyone put up their right arm and said, I do not believe nicotine is addictive. And eventually it took us about 30 years, but then we regulated smoking. It took us about 20 years with opiates. I think it's going to take us about social and on mobile in 2013, teen self-harm and depression, polarization, making our discourse more coercive, absolutely skyrocketed. And there's no denying that these companies play a huge role in that.

[12:35:13]

And I think if you look 20 years, that would make a 2033. You're starting to see regular, we're seeing countries outright ban smartphones in schools because of my colleagues -- colleague Jonathan Hyde's good work. So when people come up to me, parents come to me and say, what do I do about my son who's three and five, our sons? I say, you're most likely going to be fine.

Because I think the world is coming to grips with the fact that these companies are not our friends. And then when you see these spikes in self-harm, when you see this type of misinformation and you see this lack of accountability, there is more regulation in that screen and that desk behind and in front of you than there is in big tech.

But I'm hopeful that we're starting to see movement. I think we'll see more movement outside of the U.S. I wouldn't be surprised if an E.U. country in the next year outright bans a U.S. tech company as sort of a reciprocal kind of tariff, if you will. But I do think eventually the public does catch on to externalities.

Externalities have been greater here and it might take a little bit longer because of the money involved. But I'm hopeful eventually we're going to regulate this technology as we've regulated other sectors.

BASH: Scott Galloway, I could talk to you for hours and hours and hours. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. I really appreciate it.

GALLOWAY: Thank you, Dana. Thanks for your good work.

BASH: Still ahead on Inside Politics, President Trump has a new warning for the kidnappers, alleged kidnappers, in the Nancy Guthrie case. You want to hear it after a break.

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[12:41:14]

BASH: A warning to the purported kidnappers in the Nancy Guthrie case, courtesy of President Trump. In a new interview with the New York Post, the president warned those responsible will face the, "most severe federal consequences," including the death penalty.

Meanwhile, on the ground in Arizona, the FBI is analyzing a glove found 2 miles from the Guthrie home for any traces of DNA. It appears to match the one worn by a suspect. The one seen there in that video from the doorbell camera footage. Joining me now is CNN's Josh Campbell. Josh, you -- first of all, I want to ask you as somebody who worked at the FBI, was involved in a lot of high profile cases. If you were doing that and the president of the United States said what he said about the death penalty, how would that help or hurt the case?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, in a normal situation, I mean, you can understand the thrust of what he's saying that, look, if she is actually killed, you know, the worst case here, there will be severe consequences. The problem is in this situation, the alleged kidnapper has all the cards right now.

And if you're one of these negotiators, you know, this highly specialized team that we know that the FBI has brought in to work with the family, to try to make some kind of contact with the alleged suspect here. You want to cool things down. This is the opposite of that. Because there is no leverage.

You want this person to understand that, look, the possible resolution here, the best outcome is for you to release her. Savannah Guthrie in her videos, she's been saying the same, trying to appeal to this person. This is the opposite of that. I think if you're an investigator, you're looking at that thinking, not now, Mr. President, this is just not part of our strategy.

BASH: Talk about the DNA on that glove found.

CAMPBELL: This was an important development. We learned yesterday that the FBI says that investigators have recovered various different gloves. But there was one glove in particular that they believe matches a glove seen on that video right there that the suspect was wearing outside Guthrie's home.

They say there's DNA on it. They are sending it to a laboratory to test, to try to see if they can identify this person. Typical first step is you run that through criminal databases to see, is this a known criminal? If not, there are other techniques, this burgeoning field called genetic genealogy, where, you know, the 23 knees (ph) and the like, where people out there submit their DNA to understand their own family history, that could be a gold mine for investigators.

Because even if the suspect never took part in one of those programs, maybe a family member did, and because of the unique nature of familial DNA matching --

BASH: Wow.

CAMPBELL: -- that could help them potentially with clues.

BASH: That is so interesting. Can we just talk about the investigation overall? There has been some question about Pima County, whether or not they sort of approached this investigation properly from the beginning. Now, of course, it's been overtaken by the FBI.

But as a law enforcement alum, what do you say to that when people are looking at this saying, this is so many resources are involved, there's so much focus, time and attention, how is it possible that this many days in, two weeks in, she's not been found?

CAMPBELL: Yes, it is an important question. I mean, I think, you know, I'm not -- I have no qualms in criticizing law enforcement, that's part of our job sometimes when they actually do wrong. Here, I think a lot of this criticism has actually been overblown. Some of it is innocent.

I mean, we live in an era where I think so many people are conditioned by the entertainment industry, you know, CSI, the television shows that these cases have to be quickly resolved, you know, wrapped up in an hour. It just doesn't work that way. It takes time.

You know, we've seen two law enforcement operations not actually yield a suspect. That happens all the time in these cases. The difference here, it's under this global spotlight.

And then, if I could say, the last point I was going to make is that I talked to investigators, they say some of their biggest frustration is from former law enforcement people out there who are saying, look, you know, they should have done this, they could have done this, when they have no insight into this investigation.

[12:45:00]

And, you know, the motives may be, you know, differing for why that's happening. But imagine the ego that takes to say, this is one of the most highly trained kidnapping investigative teams on the ground in Arizona right now. But if only they'd listen to me, that frustrates investigators.

BASH: I mean, I don't think anybody in television has an ego, so I don't know what they're talking about.

CAMPBELL: No reinforcement (ph).

BASH: Josh, thank you so much.

CAMPBELL: Always.

BASH: Always good to see you.

CAMPBELL: Thanks.

BASH: Appreciate it.

Coming up, there are so many Democrats running for governor in California that a Republican could do better than expected. Here in California, the race to replace Gavin Newsom, who is term limited, we're going to talk about that next.

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[12:50:07]

BASH: How many Democrats does it take to blow an election? That is the question party leaders here in California are fretting about. We're talking about the governor's race. The ballot in the June primary will list all the candidates, Democrats and Republicans together. That's how it works here.

The top two will advance to the fall general election. But with so many Democrats in the race, so many, they could split the vote. And there is a possibility that two Republicans and no Democrats could move forward in deep blue California.

My very smart panel of Californians are here. I'm so excited to talk to you about this because it is absolutely fascinating to me. Let's just put up on the screen the Democrats that we're talking about. And then after that, we'll talk about the Republicans.

I mean, look at that list. And this is not exclusive. I mean, there are a lot more, Maeve, than what we have up there. A lot of them are names that Inside Politics viewers will recognize, mostly because they came from Washington. Katie Porter, we know that she had some issues. Xavier Becerra, Tom Steyer, what ran for president, a billionaire activist. Eric Swalwell is a congressman, the former mayor of L.A., Antonio Villaraigosa. And the list goes on and on and on.

MAEVE RESTON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: It does. And there have been some really interesting new entrants into the race. Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, and also, you know, Eric Swalwell, somewhat recently got into the race. So they are all just dividing up this vote.

And when you have, you know, a jungle primary situation where people are in the teens, it is anyone's ballgame. And it's just a wild race. You could potentially have the two Republicans rising to the top.

BASH: Yes. We'll put them up on the screen as well.

RESTON: Yes.

BASH: We're talking about the Riverside County Sheriff and Steve Hilton --

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes.

BASH: -- who has -- certainly has a famous last name.

MICHAELSON: Well, Chad Bianco is the Riverside County Sheriff. Steve Hilton was on Fox News for many years hosting a weekend show. So he's got a lot of fans in that space. And they're both kind of even in the mid-teens. So you do see this possibility. Is it going to happen? Probably not.

But the fact that it's even a possibility in a state that has two to one Democrats to Republicans. Remember, in this state, there has been no Republican elected statewide since 2006. And that guy's name was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was married to a Kennedy and was the most famous movie star in the world.

BASH: That's right. MICHAELSON: You know? So the idea that the state could be run by a Republican when every single statewide office holder is a Democrat and Democrats have two thirds majorities in both chambers here is kind of wild.

RESTON: But there's so much money that is waiting in the wings. I mean, we've all seen this movie, particularly in California before, where these outside groups come in to, you know, strengthen one of the Republicans and try to sort of even out, you know, turn it more into a two-man race, right?

MICHAELSON: Right. Well, that's what they usually do. So usually in California, there is a Democratic front runner who then spends money to try to lift a Republican into the top two. So that way they win because there's so many more Democrats. But that may not happen right now because there isn't a Democratic front runner. If you think about it, so many big, big names who could have cleared the field passed.

BASH: That's right. No Kamala Harris.

MICHAELSON: No Kamala Harris --

RESTON: Alex Padilla.

MICHAELSON: -- no Alex Padilla, the senator, no Attorney General Rob Bonta, Rick Caruso, billionaire businessman. They all said, no, we're not running.

BASH: Can you talk a little bit more? You mentioned the --

RESTON: Mayor of San Jose.

BASH: -- San Jose Mayor --

RESTON: Yes.

BASH: -- which we were talking about in the break.

MICHAELSON: Matt Mahan.

BASH: Matt Mahan, I mean, I have just heard from Democrats here in California that he is somebody who might be emerging. But to do that, you have to get attention.

RESTON: Yes. And he's a, you know, he's a newcomer to the race. He's a newcomer to the scene, but he has a really interesting record in San Jose. He really put a marker on accountability for, you know, homelessness funding. You know, he did a big push in data.

He's got a lot of people from Silicon Valley that are really behind him. And it'll be so fascinating to see if big tech money does come in behind him. Because, you know, right now the race is awash in money just because of one Tom Steyer.

BASH: Right. RESTON: But he's never made it very far, you know, in the rankings when he ran for president, and also here just in poll numbers. So if real tech money comes in behind the Mayor of San Jose, that could be a real battle.

MICHAELSON: I mean, the interesting thing about Mahan is, he has gotten attention for going against Gavin Newsom, basically saying the way that this state has run in terms of homelessness, in terms of crime, has been too liberal. So let's attack Newsom.

[12:55:00]

But that happens at a time when Newsom is emerging as a Democratic frontrunner and the face of the anti-Trump resistance. So will that message of let's focus on state issues work at a time when this race and so many races have become so nationalized?

RESTON: And it'll make it a fascinating lens into Newsom's record as the rest of the country is vetting him, you know, if this becomes the conversation of how much he's accomplished in the last couple of years. And I'm sure that all the other 2028ers will love that conversation.

MICHAELSON: Which is why Newsom probably does not want Mahan to be the guy to have somebody who's bringing up his negative.

RESTON: When he was asked about him recently, he was like, oh, that guy.

MICHAELSON: Who is that? Who is that? I don't know him. Yes.

BASH: I love California politics. You guys are so lucky.

MICHAELSON: It is fun.

BASH: Well, we'll be doing a lot more of it. Thank you both. Appreciate it.

MICHAELSON: All right, great to see you.

RESTON: Thank you very much.

BASH: Thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

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