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Laura Coates Live

FBI Investigates New Message In Nancy Guthrie Abduction; Trump Deletes Racist Video Of Obamas, Declines To Apologize; Trump Attacks Critics; Nancy Guthrie's Neighbor Speaks Out. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired February 06, 2026 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

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ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The comedians of "Have I Got News for You" are back. And this week, Senator Adam Schiff and comedian Hasan Minhaj are joining the crew. You can catch the all new episode tomorrow at 9 p.m. right here on CNN.

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UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is "CNN Breaking News."

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST AND SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good evening. I'm Laura Coates with the breaking news in the search for Nancy Guthrie right now. The FBI is trying to determine if her potential abductors have just made a new attempt at communicating. A second message was sent to local TV station KOLD this morning. The FBI says it's trying to figure out if it's real. Now, according to KOLD, the note has some sensitive information but no deadline.

In just the last hour, a very curious development. CNN's Ed Lavandera tells us that a car has been towed. It's a blue Subaru. And this is video of that moment that our CNN cameras captured. It's dark there, so it's unclear which home this car was towed from.

This came as law enforcement flooded Nancy Guthrie's home this very evening, one of the largest police presence that we have seen since she was taken from her home on Saturday night into Sunday. Agents looked inside and outside her garage. And look here, agents were also seen walking the roof of Nancy Guthrie's home. They even placed evidence markers. And whatever prompted this search, it appears urgent. They had agents out there with flashlights as it got dark and even cleared the press from the area immediately outside the home.

The president told reporters -- quote -- "We have some clues that I think are very strong." And he added, "There could be some answers coming soon."

Now, remember, it has now been six days since Nancy Guthrie was taken, six days without her medicine. We'll have a report from Tucson in just a moment.

But first, I want to bring in former FBI special agents, Jason Pack, Daniel Brunner, and Bryanna Fox. Daniel, I'll begin with you here because a car being towed from the neighborhood, unclear which home is coming from. But can you glean any information from that towing?

DANIEL BRUNNER, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT, CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF BRUNNER SIERRA GROUP: Just off the badges of the videos there, I think it's a little, you know, to get ahead of ourselves to speculate, you know, whose vehicle, what vehicle.

But just running off of this information that I just learned within the last few minutes, you could speculate lots of different possibilities. Maybe this was, you know, the subject or the individuals who conducted the kidnapping were in this vehicle. So, there could be physical evidence, there could be fibers, there could be threads that this vehicle may have been in the garage of, you know, Ms. Guthrie right there, and they should may have been a passenger with Ms. Guthrie while she was driving or if they were passengers. There's lots of different possibilities.

And the fact of the matter is that the FBI is going through every single piece of evidence, every single clue to ensure that they have every physical evidence collected because they don't want to -- they don't want to have anything left behind. So, everything is being meticulously collected by the Evidence Response Team, the ERT, right there in the Arizona. So, they're getting everything that will complete the package to build a profile and hopefully find Ms. Guthrie soon.

COATES: I mean, Bryanna, we're on night six, night six of this search. What developments could have happened in all these days that would lead to a car being towed? I know we don't want to speculate, but is very curious to think about all this happening now after we've seen the ransom notes that they were trying to legitimize, the videos from the family, and now this.

BRYANNA FOX, FORMER FBI AGENT: Right. Well, there are a few different possibilities. One is what the special agent in charge said yesterday at the press conference, that they were not at the initial search that happened on day one or, you know, the morning that she was reported missing. So, they're sort of going back over the crime scene and trying to reanalyze it, searching everything, and searching more than they had originally searched, thinking maybe now there are clues left behind.

A second thing is there could have been something new in the newest ransom note that could have suggested, oh, wow, this car is involved. Other ransom notes that may or may not be valid, they have referenced things like the crime scene, clothes that Nancy was wearing. Maybe there was a reference to the vehicle and now, all of a sudden, that's important.

COATES: I want to stay for a second with you, Jason, because I want to talk about this new -- the second note.

[23:05:01]

It includes some sensitive information, we're told, but no deadlines, no ransom demands as well, no way again to communicate with the family, and you've got no proof of life. But you got this car being towed. What are you seeing?

JASON PACK, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, on the ransom note, it's encouraging that at least they're reaching back out if, in fact, it is the same person. So, there's at least a response to something.

As far as the car goes, a lot of people don't realize it, and I'll approach this for more of a digital evidence perspective, but these cars, particularly if that's a Subaru, have things like Starlink in them. They have their GPS. So, there are some data points in there that the agents and investigators would like to recover to see maybe not even during -- maybe weeks before where she has gone and just leading up to the entire event. So, they'll go back and pull those through special tools that they have and try to just get those data points into evidence to see if they match anywhere on the timeline or they provide any sort additional intelligence.

COATES: I want you all to stand by for a moment. I want to bring in Briana Whitney, who is in Tucson tonight at the Pima County Sheriff's Office. She's a reporter with Arizona's 3TV and CBS 5 and also host of "True Crime Arizona Live." Briana, do you have information about whose car was towed tonight and why?

BRIANA WHITNEY, REPORTER, ARIZONA'S FAMILY: We don't have confirmation tonight. We just have that concrete video showing it being taken from the crime scene tonight, that dark blue gray SUV. You have to assume though that there was something that made them tow that away so many days later. Remember, they had processed that crime scene, and they were done by Tuesday, Wednesday. And then all of a sudden, they're back out there.

And so, clearly, something has led them to that. We don't know if the catalyst for that was receiving that new note today or if there was something else they found in the investigation and felt that that required further testing. But, clearly, there's something there.

COATES: Tell me about this new note, this message that was received by KOLD. What else do you know?

WHITNEY: Yes. So, this is our sister station, so we are very up-to- date with the ransom note. There's only so many things that we're reporting just due to the respect of the family. But the three main takeaways from this, there is no proof of life in this new note, there is no additional ransom demand, and there is no way for the Guthrie family to communicate back to the sender. So, those are three really important aspects that we've learned in this.

But there are a couple other aspects of this as well. They received it this morning, the station did, they sent it immediately to the sheriff's department to review.

Now, in terms of the I.P. addresses, it doesn't appear to be the same I.P. address as that first ransom note that went out, but it's the same kind of server that protects you from seeing the I.P. address. So, that's important as well.

You can also tell in this new note that the person who wrote it thinks that they are giving information to investigators that makes them believe they are the person who sent that original ransom note.

Of course, all of that, we don't know, we don't know. And that's the thing. We didn't even know yet if the first ransom note was legitimate. And what makes this whole situation even more bizarre now is you had that 5 p.m. deadline yesterday and that second deadline that was supposed to come on Monday. And now, right in middle of this, we have this brand-new note on Friday. We don't know what that exactly means for the investigation moving forward.

COATES: It means torture for this family who desperately want to get their mother back. Briana, thank you.

I want to get back to my investigators and expertise here. Jason, that first letter, to Briana's point, it did include a ransom demand. There were deadlines for the family to meet. We had the second idea of a second deadline as well coming this Monday. But why do you think this ransom was not reiterated today?

PACK: Well, I think that they've known that they made their initial demands. And so, they want to just make sure they tell them that hey, we're listening. So, the second note says, hey, we've heard your messages. Hopefully, that's what it says. And that there is this deadline on Monday.

So, one of the things about it, Laura, though, I don't know if you've ever tried to even get the cryptocurrency. It seems like it's a generational issue with younger people. Maybe they're demanding this crypto for an older generation like how do you even go about doing that? So, it's going to take a lot of time, even if they do agree and come to terms. Hopefully, wish they will. But you're going to have to get -- it may have to even take longer than the Monday deadline to do it.

COATES: I mean, Bryanna, they want proof of life. We've heard these multiple times from the initial Guthrie siblings' message to the most recent one from Camron, Nancy Guthrie's son. You just heard Briana say -- and KOLD says the message was sent from a different -- it looks like maybe I.P. address, but the sender appeared to use the same secure server from the first note to try to hide the I.P. address. Describe what that might tell us about the level of sophistication of the sender.

FOX: Right.

[23:09:57]

Well, it would seem that the person who was sending either text messages or emails to the Guthrie family was not using this, right? And they were immediately caught. And so, that's what this person or group of people that were sending these other ransom notes were trying to avoid. That is a lot of sophistication.

Most people I talk to have no idea that you can trace the source of an email from the email header. And by using that basically digital data, you can trace it back to the exact location that an email was sent from. Whoever sent this message was aware of that.

So, they're taking steps to mask their location, which is certainly sophisticated. That doesn't necessarily mean it's real, but it means they are very sophisticated.

COATES: Does it -- just to follow up on that, is it truly untraceable if you use this message -- this masking ability to hide the nature of your server? Can it be -- can the FBI track down the secure server?

FOX: It certainly depends on that server and it does take a lot more time. So, now, instead of being able to just look at the I.P. address where that email was sent, now we're going to that server, now maybe you have to send subpoenas out, waiting for the returns rate. This becomes a much longer process, and you're hoping it's not international, which many are, and then cooperation could be difficult.

COATES: Daniel, yet again, they're using whoever this person is or people we don't know. They're using the media as the vehicle to communicate. Why do you think that is? Surely, they have put out messages they want to hear from them. I have not heard in those public messages from the Guthries a method that they could be communicated with or reached. But why is the media being the vehicle?

BRUNNER: I think that all of us are speaking about these different ways, the cryptocurrency, masking the I.P., using the VPNs, and now using the media. This is a different type of kidnapper. These are different type of criminals. This is not your Sinatra, a different kidnapping. This is a different type of kidnapping.

These individuals who are sending these messages are trained in this current generation. You know, they have been coming in here, then coming, growing up now in this world. And they're using the media, I believe, to get more attention to themselves because if you truly wanted about money, you would be sending directly to the family. You'd be sending.

This is not your traditional kidnapping. This is a -- this is a different type of kidnapping now, and they're using the media, and it's getting more and more attention to the situation.

And previously, what I've said here, on different shows, is that that concerns me, that if this more and more attention is brought to this, that the kidnappers may feel that the circle is closing in, and they may do something drastic. But I think they want this attention. I think they want it brought upon themselves. I think they want everyone in the world looking at them, and that's why. But it's curious that they sent it to a local TV station in Arizona.

COATES: Right.

BRUNNER: That, to me, really shows something that I think that they may be there in Arizona.

COATES: Jason, why do you think there is not a way to communicate directly with them in these letters? It appears to me that they intend this to be purely transactional. One would imagine the more interaction you would have with whoever this potential abductor would be, the more likelihood that you could be traced or that you could possibly be persuaded. Are you creating in your mind a criminal profile of the type of person that would want simply that bitcoin account number visible and that's it?

PACK: Yes. I think with each message that comes out, clearly, we are not privy to every word in there, but I know that the FBI's behavioral analysis unit, the profilers are taking a look at that along with the team there on the ground in Tucson. So, every message, every word is carefully looked at, and they're creating a profile.

But it seems to skew a little younger. I don't know if they're doing that on purpose but, you know, crypto, bitcoin, the wallets, all these things are terms that maybe are not familiar to people my age or a little older. So, it is a -- it makes it a very complex investigation.

And I'll tell you this: As a negotiator myself, I've been able to learn under some of the most legendary FBI profilers and FBI negotiators at Quantico. This one ain't in the playbook, right? This one, there's no scenario in crisis negotiation unit where we train our negotiators that this is -- that falls under this.

There are several things that are happening. Statistically speaking, the types of calls will go out. This one seems a little different. And they can tweak and they can, you know, they can adjust, but this one is a little different. So, I know that behind the scenes, I know we're talking about this ransom and these letters all the time, but just know there's also pretty much three sets of investigative pipelines of information to come.

[23:15:03]

There are people working on this part of it, but there are also people working on the more sure bets of the families, the people close to it, the workers in there. So, they're alibiing all those people, the people working the kidnapping or working that angle. They're pushing toward the middle.

And then you see these neighborhood canvases bring back this information to the timeline, and then you'll see them go back to the house because they have more information or they'll tow a car or I think they may have found some video at a local gas station or a car adventure.

So, you're going to see that as the investigation continues routinely, and it's just another piece of that information until finally something breaks.

COATES: The jigsaw puzzle not clear to us but, hopefully, for the investigators. Thank you so much to all of you. The reward for any information that helps finance the Guthrie is now at $50,000. If you know anything, dial 1-800-CALL-FBI. You can also contact the local sheriff's department at 520-351-4900.

Up next, president posed something racist. The White House defends it. He won't apologize but does blame an unnamed staffer. Bakari Sellers, Michael Eric Dyson will join me on that, next.

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[23:20:00]

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COATES: I'm not coming on the air at 11 o'clock on a Friday night to explain why a post from the president of the United States is racist. I'm not going to belittle you by explaining why it's wrong to depict Black people as apes. None of us are stupid. I certainly am not. But the intelligence of the American people, well, that was tested today. Why? Because of the excuses the White House dared to give to explain why President Trump shared a video that did exactly that. Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dehumanized into the most stereotypical racist trope you could probably think of.

You know, I'm not even going show it to you, because I'm not your conduit of bigotry. It came in the last seconds of a 62-second clip in the middle of a late-night blitz of election conspiracy theory nonsense. And it didn't get taken down immediately. Nope. It stayed up for nearly 12 hours. At first, the administration waved it away.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt put out this statement: This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the king of the jungle and Democrats as characters from "The Lion King." Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American people.

Well, racism matters to the American people, the ones who believe in the Constitution or equality or dignity. But I guess if it was just a cartoon, well, we should all lighten up. But then, around noon, the video was taken down. And the new explanation? A staffer did it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It was a meme that was posted by a staffer on the president's Truth Social account. It was from a "Lion King" video depicting, as you pointed out, different Democrats as different animals. I think Kamala Harris was depicted as a turtle in this video meme. The president did take it down. He spoke with lawmakers today out of respect for them, including Senator Tim Scott. The post was removed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Out of respect for them? Wasn't that interesting? You've gone from cartoon to the Shaggy "It Wasn't Me." Others were also animals. So, it's OK. Let's pretend this wasn't the account of the so-called leader of the free world. Let's pretend it was the CEO of a Fortune 500. Well, really any company. If this was something a CEO posted, they'd be kicked to the curb. Ask your shareholders. In fact, if someone posted this on the company letterhead or from their company account and the company did not immediately condemn it, good luck with that boycott. If this was something you posted, well, you'd be staying in the unemployment line. If it were a child posting on a school group chat, well, you'd add suspension, if not expulsion, to that report card. Zero excuses would be tolerated.

So, why would the so-called leader of the free world get a pass? And if you're wondering why there is not the benefit of the doubt being extended to the president of the United States, well, I ask you to look at the track record. And you know what? I'm going to stick to just this term because there's that video Trump posted showing Democrats wearing sombreros. There's that moment that he publicly admitted eight years later to using the phrase, shithole countries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I've also announced a permanent pause on third world migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, and many other countries.

(APPLAUSE)

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Shithole.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: I didn't say shithole, you did. We had a meeting. And I said, why is it we only take people from shithole countries? Right? Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few? Let us have a few.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: There's that cabinet meeting where he called Somalis, well, garbage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks. We're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: And I'm not even talking about how he rose to political fame, pushing the birther lie that Barack Obama wasn't somehow American.

[23:25:02]

Like I said, this isn't some earth-shattering revelation that he would put this out there. But you know what might be? Republicans. Well, some of them are really using their voice in protest, speaking out against what Trump posted. You heard Karoline Leavitt mentioned Senator Tim Scott. He's the only Black Republican in the Senate. Here's what he said after seeing the video: Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House. The president should remove it. The most racist thing is if to admit this isn't the first or the only thing he has seen in that umbrella.

Multiple other Republicans called on Trump to not only take it down, but to apologize. Now, you know that's not going to happen. And that's not me saying that. It's the president himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I looked at the first one and it was really about voter fraud and the machines, how crooked it is, how disgusting it is. Then I gave it to the people. So, generally, they'd look at the whole thing, but I guess somebody didn't.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Mr. President, a number of Republicans are calling on you to apologize for that post. Is that something you're going to do?

TRUMP: No. I didn't make a mistake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: I didn't make a mistake. But the voting machines, that theory, that got the word "disgusting" attached to it. Black people as apes, I ain't making a mistake. No mistake, no accountability, no consequences, just excuses from the president of the United States of America.

And you know, the timing, it couldn't be more significant. I mean, you realize that the opening ceremonies of the Olympics start today. Americans beaming with pride at the chance to represent this country, praying that after all their diligence and discipline and skill and hard work and toil, that they will hear our national anthem from the top of a podium.

Can you imagine that meanwhile their president not only refused to honor their values, the collective values we espouse of the entire world, but won't apologize for failing to either? And if you're wondering what the world saw from America today, well, it wasn't gold, it was shame.

I'm joined now by Michael Eric Dyson, distinguished university professor of African American & Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University and co-author of the book, "Unequal: A Story of America." Also with me, CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers. Glad to have both of you here. I'll begin with you, professor. Michael, the floor is yours. What is your reaction to the unapologetic response, albeit not a surprising one?

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, PROFESSOR OF AFRICAN AMERICAN & DIASPORA STUDIES, VANDEBILT UNIVERSITY: Well, Laura and Bakari, we know this man is an imperial ninny hammer. He's an autocratic moon calf. He's an inveterate feather brain. So, we know the nincompoopery and the nitwittery that emerged from him are for entertainment of white supremacists and racists. This is our racist in chief.

This is a man who is making it extremely clear and transparent that he disregards the life of Black people, that he disrespects the lives of African Americans, that he dehumanizes Black people by going after the biggest Black, Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. Statements have been made before that she doesn't belong in Vogue magazine. She belongs in, you know, the scientific journals or national geographic because she is an ape.

The dehumanizing impulse to call Black people apes is something deeply entrenched and not only American culture but in Western civilization. Long before Charles Darwin began to talk about the evolution of human beings, Black people were seen as simians, as apes, as animals who were incapable of self-government. Therefore, the justification of going to Africa to extract them from their resting place in their native soil and to bring them here under the civilizing impulse of white Christianity to save us.

This is what this man represents. He has no apology. He has no brain. He has no conscience. He has no soul.

COATES: Bakari, we should point out that aside from Tim Scott, senator from, obviously, your home state, it has only been a handful of Republican lawmakers who are condemning this in a full, throated way. And on the flip side, you have people like the president's son, Don Trump, Jr., who's posting -- quote -- "Would be nice if we had more Republicans who didn't immediately fall for every leftwing media hoax."

[23:30:00]

Was the backlash we saw today from Republicans even approaching enough?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think, first, Michael Eric Dyson stated it correctly. And I think we have to be unequivocal in calling a thing a thing, which is that Donald Trump is not just someone who uses racism as political currency, but Donald Trump himself is a racist. Many of the events and instances of racism that you chronicled in your monologue are so true from 1973, where he was sued for refusing to rent African Americans to the birtherism, shithole countries, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But let me explain, as Dr. Dyson was doing, why this is so cringe- worthy even beyond that, why this is so important. It's simply because by calling African Americans, by showing Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes, by not apologizing for this, it furthers that notion where we don't get the benefit of our humanity. And what happens when you don't give a people the benefit of their humanity is you are able to treat them less than.

And so, whether or not it's the state sanctioned violence that we've seen with Keith Porter by an unarmed ICE agent, or whether or not it's the miseducation of the Negro that we've seen throughout the South, or the fact that Black folk don't have access to quality health care in many of these places, or you're drinking unclean water, or you, Laura, or my wife, Ellen, are three to four times more likely to die during childbirth and their white counterparts, all of these coalesced into one envelope is the violence that we talk about when you don't give people the benefit of their humanity.

And so, they're very tangible political and policy outcomes that come from the racism that we're talking about. I think Dr. Dyson would agree with me. I don't care when you call me nigger, but the problem that I have is when you have the systemic racism that comes from races in these positions of power that continue to keep people like the three of us in a situation where they have their foot on our necks.

COATES: Your response, professor?

DYSON: Yes, absolutely right. The name is one thing. To dehumanize us through that name, the most dehumanizing name and nomenclature in Western civilization, because attached to it, as, you know, Attorney Sellers is saying, is action. It's not simply a rhetorical gesture made it an abstract condition. When he says, I don't like the Somalians, and then he sends ICE to Minnesota looking for the Somalians, there's a direct line of correlation of empirical verification, of an internal belief, I don't like them, and in external action, they will die.

This is the legitimation of Black death as a spectacle that can be accepted and perpetuated by a white supremacist bigot in the White House who continues to radiate the most intense forms of hatred of the other.

And watch out, folk out there. He's starting with Black folk. It ain't only us. Poor white people are in the offing. Latinos are in the offing. You know the famous Martin Niemoller poem. You know, I didn't do anything when they attacked everybody else, then they came for me, and no one was left.

We must see during Black History Month, a man who says that Black history is not something special or significant, but part of American history. Would it be so that you recognize that American history is Black history? But what he means to do is to marginalize us and to de- center us because he can't stand. In his myopic narcissism, one moment of attention drawn away from him. Black people have survived, Black people will survive and continue to face this kind of bigotry.

COATES: I want to give you opportunity for a quick last word, Bakari, because it is stunning to people that this would not be even politically disqualifying. What's your reaction?

SELLERS: Well, I'm not stunned but -- I mean, I'm actually extremely hopeful, and I'm faithful. You know, I'm very much reminded during Black History Month that when we were brought to this country, we were stripped of everything but our faith and our hope. And the reason that I'm faithful and the reason that I'm hopeful is I am more concerned about the individuals who wrap their arms around Donald Trump, I'm not concerned about the racist himself. But I'm interested to see the people who find his behavior to be immoral, unethical, whether or not they still stick with him because they appreciate the outcomes or whether or not their heart is pulled in a different direction. You know, the book of James teaches us faith without works is dead. And so, I do have faith in tomorrow.

[23:34:50]

But I want to see the work that is done, particularly by white evangelicals and white young people as they see the bigotry, the hate, and they also see the violence with their own eyes that this is not the country that we believe in, this is instead the country that has written all of us, particularly Black folk, a check that has been marked insufficient funds. So, my hope is that tomorrow will be better than yesterday.

COATES: I'll leave on that high note. Michael and Bakari, nice to see you both. Thank you.

DYSON: Good to see you.

SELLERS: Thank you.

COATES: Up next, Trump says CNN has been forewarned not to put a member of his first administration on T.V. Noted. But that former administration member, Miles Taylor, is here on set. We'll talk after this.

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[23:40:00]

COATES: The president going after some of his vocal critics on Truth Social, singling out his former White House lawyer, Ty Cobb, and my next guest, Miles Taylor, who worked at DHS in Trump's first term and authored that anonymous memo.

Miles, let me read for the audience what Trump said after he mocked Ty Cobb. Miles Taylor is, in many ways, even worse because I have no idea who he is, except that CNN and MSDNC put him on, for years, like he's a Trump expert. So, when you watch these two guys on television, which, fortunately, doesn't happen often because there's very little audience at either CNN or MSDNC, remember, they know nothing about me, just two dopes trying to make a buck by pretending to know something about someone who turned out to be very famous. These two networks are forewarned not to put them on air again because they have no knowledge or credibility with respect to anything have to do -- that's their type, not mine -- with Donald J. Trump.

Well, Miles is also the founder of Defiance News. Trump has accused him of treason and ordered he be investigated. Miles, it seems like the president keeps tabs on your cable news hits. Is there anything you want to say him tonight?

MILES TAYLOR, AUTHOR, PODCAST HOST, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF AT DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Well, look, I mean, yes, if I was -- if I was going to speak directly to the president right now, I would say, you are at the end of your career, and when you are gone, I will spend the rest of mine working to undo your legacy, and I won't be alone, there will be millions of people who work to take your name off of everything until one day, I might have the privilege to sit in the Renee Good Hotel and Spa, in the Alex Pretti Lounge, and I will sit back, and I will thank Donald Trump for everything he built. That's what I would say.

But you know why he's doing this, Laura? He's doing this because he's mad that we keep exposing him. For the past seven years, I've been working to call out his corruption. And in April of last year, he tried to shut me up. He issued an executive order, accused me of treason, put me and my family under federal investigation. But unfortunately for him, it backfired. It didn't work. We didn't shut up.

COATES: But why now, Miles? I mean, you've been on his list, frankly, for quite some time. Why single you and Ty Cobb out now? Anything happened?

TAYLOR: Well, I can tell you why I think he did it this week. So, we launched something a few months ago called defiance.org. And this week, defiance.org brought local prosecutors from around the country to Washington, D.C. to talk about charging Donald Trump's federal agents for breaking the law. He's very, very unhappy about that. But we're not going to stop doing that because he said he wants us to stop doing that.

And Donald Trump makes a mistake about his critics. He thinks they're motivated by the same things as him. When you see in those tweets him say, these people are doing it to make a buck, here is the thing: Donald Trump may be doing it to make a buck. But unlike Donald Trump, I can't be bought, I can't be bullied, I can't be bribed, and I will not barter my conscience for a better room in a skyscraper. He needs to know that. And a lot of his critics feel the same way.

COATES: You know, the attorney general, who serves at the pleasure of the president of the United States, today was defending the DNI, Tulsi Gabbard's involvement, I know you know this quite well, in that election investigation in Fulton County where 2020 ballots were seized. I want you to listen to what happened. I want your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: DNI Gabbard and I are inseparable. I'm not going to talk about any other details of that matter right now because George is a very important issue to us. She was there. We're inseparable. That's all I'll say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: They're inseparable. I wonder if she will learn to regret that statement or not. But they're making it seem like this is very ordinary for the DOJ and the DNI to work so closely together.

TAYLOR: I think people forget what happened three years ago. You and I sat on set and talked about this. I think in August of 2023, I think that's when Donald Trump was charged with 13 felony counts in Fulton County, Georgia for trying to meddle in the election, including in the ballots, to try to find 11,000 missing votes that would potentially help him win the state. Fast forward, this year, once he has returned to the presidency, FBI agents go and seize those ballots.

Now, you can believe one of two things. You can either believe the administration story that there is as yet disclosed foreign interference that somehow popped up when Donald Trump came back into office in that very exact district or that Donald Trump is continuing the criminal conspiracy that he started five years ago and trying to finish the job.

And Donald Trump, here's what's really interesting that he said this week, Laura. This week, he said, I didn't know Tulsi Gabbard was going to be down there. And he said, I had nothing to do with the raid except for the fact that his two lieutenants have effectively dimed him out. And Tulsi Gabbard said, he did send me down, which means he knew that the raid was coming. He was in communication with two of his top lieutenants. He told one of them to be down there. And then he was so interested in how this raid ended up that he spoke at the end on the phone with federal agents and thanked them for what they did.

The last thing that was damning this week, Laura, is Donald Trump in an interview with NBC News in the Oval Office said nothing about foreign interference.

[23:45:02]

I mean, he briefly mentioned foreign interference, but then he said that those FBI agents would be counting the ballots to figure out who actually won in 2020.

COATES: They, of course, dispute your summation of what has taken place. And yet, I want to point out what our colleague, Aaron Blake, put out and put together. It's all the different versions that explain

Gabbard's role. I mean, just look at this. As you talk about, he hails it, there's the idea of some distance, it goes back and forth. Why do you think this story has shifted as much as it has?

TAYLOR: Guilt. Why was Tulsi Gabbard wearing a baseball cap and trying to evade detection?

COATES: You think she felt guilty about her presence there?

TAYLOR: Sure. I don't think she wanted to be seen. Were it not for the Reuters photographer who took that photo, we might not have known. But here, even before anything in the timeline, perhaps the most damning thing is the beginning of January. Donald Trump did an interview with "The New York Times." And you know what he lamented? He lamented that he didn't seize the ballots when he had the chance in 2020. And coincidence of all coincidences, three weeks later, FBI agents stormed in. And what do they do? Seize the ballots.

COATES: Well, three weeks later and what? Six years.

TAYLOR: That's right.

COATES: Miles Taylor, thank you so much.

TAYLOR: Thanks, Laura.

COATES: Up next, Nancy Guthrie's neighbor speaking out, telling us what questions the investigators out there are asking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: Breaking tonight, investigators combing over Nancy Guthrie's neighborhood on the sixth night of their search, now towing a blue Subaru SUV. Why? We're not sure. Whose car is it? Also unconfirmed. But we did see law enforcement asking neighbors questions throughout the day again.

With me now, one of Nancy Guthrie's neighbors, Laura Gargano. So glad that you're here, Laura. Thank you for joining us. I mean, have the investigators talked to you tonight?

LAURA GARGANO, NANCY GUTHRIE'S NEIGHBOR: I haven't spoken with any of the detectives this evening. But over the last three days, I've had various conversations with detectives who have come to my door or seen on the street, both FBI and local county sheriff department.

COATES: What did they ask you about?

GARGANO: Initially, the first few days, they wanted to know about cameras. And they asked me about what cameras I had, if I could check those cameras. Of course, by the time they got to me, I already checked my cameras which showed nothing other than wildlife. To be honest, they're mostly wildlife cameras because there's a lot of wildlife around here.

COATES: Right.

GARGANO: Then I had my last visit with -- the FBI came around when I pulled up my driveway. There were three FBI agents at the top of my driveway behind my house.

COATES: What were those agents asking about?

GARGANO: Same thing. If I'd seen anything --

COATES: OK.

GARGANO: -- if I had rechecked me cameras. And, of course, you know, I had, and I didn't have anything else to share.

COATES: Well, let me ask you, Laura, about something in particular because I know that we had seen officials towing a blue Subaru just about an hour ago. A fellow neighbor says that he spotted an unmarked white van on the street in the days leading up to Nancy's disappearance. Did you notice any suspicious vehicles or anything strange in that area prior to her disappearance?

GARGANO: I hadn't noticed any suspicious vehicles. I don't live right next to her, so I wouldn't notice anybody pulling in and out of her house.

But I can also say we have a lot of service vehicles in this neighborhood. We have pool services, yard service as you would find a lot of pools. Everybody has pools. We have lots of -- we've got construction going on around here, some remodeling of homes. And so, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary.

But because I'm home quite a bit, I do tend to notice if there's anything suspicious on my street or next door. Having said that, I can't see my neighbor's house from here.

COATES: Had you noticed that Nancy had any work done at her home? Any reconstruction, any renovations or any kind at her home recently?

GARGANO: I hadn't noticed --

COATES: OK.

GARGANO: -- her home, but I did notice an aerial shot. It must have been a drone overhead. That -- it looked like her roof had been recoated recently. You see in that image, you see how white her roof is. It's -- those of us -- my roof is not completely flat, just my garage, but when you recoat your roof, as is the case anywhere, it gets dirty pretty quickly. And we've had a lot of rains. And not this week, but the previous three weeks. We had a lot of rain. So, it would be normal for a roof to be a little dirty after it rains.

So, I have just mentioned to a detective, just check out whoever was there doing -- you know, if somebody had -- if she had recoated her roof recently because if you're looking for surface people who visited, see how white that is, that's just one thing to check.

COATES: Laura --

GARGANO: And it's just from being a homeowner noticing that my roof gets dirty, and then I notice how dirty it gets when it's raining or windy, and that looks really white. So, it could be nothing, but I noticed --

COATES: Every detail is important.

[23:55:00]

Laura Gargano, thank you so much.

GARGANO: You're welcome. Thank you.

COATES: Hey, so much to be considering in this investigation. We are praying for the family. I want to thank you all so much for watching. "The Story Is with Elex Michaelson" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to "The Story Is." I'm Elex Michaelson. We begin with new developments in the case of Nancy Guthrie, mother of "Today" show anchor Savannah Guthrie. A new message connected to the 84-year-old's disappearance. And late tonight, President Trump suggesting on Air Force One that that government may soon have something to add. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have some things, I think, that will maybe come out reasonably soon from DOJ or FBI or whoever.

[00:00:04]