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Nancy Guthrie One Deadline Passes, Six Days Without Crucial Meds; U.S. Strikes Another Boat in the Eastern Pacific, Killing Two; Senior Russian General Shot and Wounded in Moscow. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 06, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, plea for her return. Nancy Guthrie's son speaking out for the family in a new video, and the new reward for her return. The late reporting coming in from Arizona.

Also TrumpRx promises a big savings, weight loss to fertility drugs. This morning, we're asking who's eligible, who's not, and what drugs are on the site. Dr. Oz, who was with the president for the announcement, is in The Situation Room.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Also boat strike, a new target this time in the Pacific turning deadly. New reporting coming in from the Pentagon this morning.

And Bitcoin bust, the cryptocurrency losing half its value in just months. Why it's falling and what it's doing right now.

We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

Happening now, the search for Nancy Guthrie growing more urgent. The 84-year-old mother of NBC Anchor Savannah Guthrie has now gone six days without her critical medication. And the first deadline in an apparent ransom note passes without any breakthrough.

BROWN: Her family, desperate for leads, makes another direct plea to anyone involved in her abduction.

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CAMRON GUTHRIE, NANCY GUTHRIE'S SON: 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 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)

BROWN: And police release new details. The blood found on her porch is hers, and the front door camera is missing.

Let's go live now to CNN Senior National Correspondent Ed Lavandera. Ed, what is the latest there in Tucson?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, investigators here have detailed the timeline of where they think Nancy Guthrie was abducted in the middle of the night from her home. And they really kind of focus on a time period between 1:45 A.M. and about 2:30 A.M. And during that time, you talked about the camera that you mentioned that was taken from the home that the camera system essentially disabled.

And what it must be frustrating for investigators is that the system detected a person on camera. They also acknowledge it could have been an animal, but it's not clear which camera detected the person, but a camera is missing. The video is -- they're having difficulty accessing it, and they continue to try to do that. But at that time also the pacemaker that Nancy Guthrie had became disconnected from her phone as well. So, all of these clues point to this being the critical moments where this abduction took place.

But despite that, there is still no development as far as we know from the messages that the Guthrie family has put out to the possible ransom authors of the note. So, we just don't know if those notes are even authentic at this point.

But despite all of this, I sat down and spoke with the sheriff yesterday after the lengthy press conference, he still maintains that the belief that Nancy Guthrie is out there alive.

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SHERIFF CHRIS NANOS, PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA: People are always asking, do I believe she's alive? Absolutely, absolutely. I, there's nothing to say she isn't.

We're waiting for that one big break. I just hope it comes faster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And, Pamela and Wolf, the sheriff also says they've gotten more than a hundred tips. They continue to plead with the public to call in anything they might see or anything that they might discover or video or anything that they might have. And perhaps that timeframe around those early morning hours of Sunday morning might be able to clue people into to what happened. But the sheriff tells me he believes that it's going to be a tip that comes in that breaks this case open.

BLITZER: And, Ed, as you know, we're now learning that a California man is due in court today charged with sending fake ransom demands to the Guthrie family. What can you tell us about that?

LAVANDERA: Yes. According to the federal complaint, a California man was charged with reaching out to the Guthrie family after Savannah Guthrie and her siblings put out that initial note or video trying to connect with the possible ransom, the author of the ransom note.

According to this federal complaint, this California man sent several text messages, asking the family if they had the Bitcoin.

[10:05:00]

That person, they were able to trace back the text messages and the phone call to a person in California and the lead FBI agent, special agent in charge here in Arizona said that this person was trying to take advantage and poses an imposter of this to take advantage of this moment. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Ed Lavandera on the scene for us, thank you very much.

And to our viewers, if you have any information at all, please reach out to the Pima County Sheriff's Department at (520) 351-4900.

BROWN: Well, new this morning, for the first time in more than a month, the U.S. military has carried out another strike on an alleged drug boat. This video right here of the strike, it happened in the Eastern Pacific. The U.S. Southern Command says two people were killed in the second known attack of the year. At least 119 people have been killed since these attacks began last September.

CNN National Security Correspondent Kylie Atwood joins us. So, what more do we know about what's going on here?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, as you said, Pam, according to U.S. Southern Command, which tweeted out a video of this attack, there were two people that were killed. They say that this occurred in the Eastern Pacific. That is similar to the boat strike that we saw that was carried out earlier this year by the administration.

But we should note that there have been more than 30 of these types of strikes carried out against alleged drug traffickers, obviously as the Trump administration went into their operations in Venezuela, claiming that it was majorly focused on the drug trafficking, of course, that Maduro, they said, was central too.

And so, we have seen these drug boat strikes be continually carried out. We should note that now there have been about 119 people killed in these drug boat strikes. And there has been major controversy, as you have discussed on this show, from lawmakers, from experts who say that these strikes are extrajudicial killings, that they are not legal. The administration has said that they are legal because these are people who are posing a threat to the United States.

But, of course, there was that really tremendous controversy around the first strike that was carried out. That was on September 2nd, months ago now. This has been going on for months because there was a follow-up strike there, which killed two people, and that was carried out by a military aircraft that was painted to look like a civilian plane. So, there is plenty to dig into when it comes to these drug boat strikes, but I do think it's important to note that we haven't heard a ton from the administration about the drug trafficking in Venezuela since they ousted Maduro late last year. They've really been focused on trying to build up the country so they can get its oil production up, and that is really their focus right now.

But, of course, these drug boat strikes continue to take place on the Eastern Pacific. We haven't seen so many on the other side of the country.

BROWN: All right. Kylie Atwood, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: And still ahead, a high ranking Russian General was shot and seriously wounded in Moscow. Now, Russian officials are calling it attempted murder.

BROWN: And is Bitcoin going bust? What's driving a sharp dive in the cryptocurrency's value?

You're in The Situation Room and will be right back.

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BROWN: And we have breaking news coming in. A senior Russian General was shot and seriously wounded right outside a residential building in Moscow. That's according to Russian officials. Witnesses say they heard shots and screaming at about 6:30 in the morning. Right now, he is in serious condition.

The general is known for having involvement in the conflict in Ukraine and was sanctioned by the U.S. back in 2016 over malicious cyber activity.

So, let's go live now to CNN Senior International Correspondent Fred Pleitgen, who is in Moscow. Fred, what more can you tell us about this general in the investigation?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Pamela. Yes, another one of Vladimir Putin's top generals gunned down here in Moscow. The authorities saying this happened in the early hours of this morning inside a residential building in the northwest of the city. And the authorities are saying that they're investigating the matter, that they have eyewitnesses that they're talking to, looking at forensic evidence, obviously looking at surveillance cameras as well, but they have not yet apprehended a suspect.

And you're absolutely right, this general, Vladimir Alekseyev, a lieutenant general, he is the deputy head of Russia's military intelligence, and, of course, deeply involved in Russia's military efforts in Ukraine as well. He is indeed sanctioned by both the United States and sanctioned by the European Union as well.

So far, the Russians are saying they don't know who's behind this. The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, has already come out and blamed the Ukrainians for all of this and accused them of trying to derail any sort of process of negotiations that, of course, has been going on over the past couple of days.

And this is not the first time someone from Russia's top military brass has been targeted here in the Russian capital. There was a car bomb attack just a month ago killing a top Russian military leader. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Fred Pleitgen in Moscow, thanks so much, Wolf?

BLITZER: And we have more breaking news coming into The Situation Room. Rare talks between the U.S. and Iran have just wrapped up in Oman. The negotiations focused primarily on a nuclear deal and ended with a, quote, willingness to continue on Iran's part, that according to Iranian state media.

The U.S. Mideast special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, led the talks through a mediator.

Let's go live right now to CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson, who is joining us from Jerusalem.

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Nic, these two sides were even having some serious trouble deciding what they were going to talk about. Were there any signs of real progress as far as you could see?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. The Iranians, and they're the only ones who have spoken so far, the foreign minister coming out after the meeting and saying that he thought that it was positive.

The way that this seems to have happened, there were proximity talks, as you say, not face-to-face, the Omani foreign minister, the interlocutor speaking first with the Iranians and the U.S. delegation, then back to the Iranians, back to the U.S. delegation. The meeting took place or these meetings took place over a number of hours. They've broken up now.

The Iranian foreign minister coming out and describing what sounds a lot like talk about talks coming from a place of mistrust. He said he thinks that there is a path forward here. This is what he said.

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ABBAS ARAGHCHI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: I want to create a framework for the negotiations, the plenary stage of negotiations has finished now but the con negotiations will continue in the future.

If we build trust, then we can agree to some sort of framework for the longer negotiation.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTSON: You know, and I think that's the key there, he's talking about longer term negotiations. That's going to be one of the key points here, is the United States prepared to get into long and detailed and arduous discussions over a range of issues that we don't know about yet with the Iranians?

The Iranians have form, if you will, that they will run negotiations long to squeeze out everything they want to get. Is it going to go that way this time? It certainly seemed to in 2015, the last time the U.S. and the Iranians had a nuclear deal.

BLITZER: Clearly, the stakes are enormous. Nic Robertson in Jerusalem for us, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: We have some breaking news, Wolf. The Justice Department is announcing the arrest of a, quote, key participant in the 2012 Benghazi attack.

CNN's Evan Perez was there for the announcement. What do we know, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pamela. This is a long time incoming for the FBI and for the Justice Department. Zubayar Al-Bakoush, who is a, an alleged militant who participated, and what the Justice Department says was a key leader of the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

He has been brought here to Washington where he's now going to face charges. He's been under indictment under seal for about ten years, and according to prosecutors, played a key role in that attack that killed the ambassador, Chris Stevens, as well as a number of other Americans, I believe three other Americans who were killed. He is being charged now with terrorism, arson, and a number of other charges here in Washington, D.C. He's going to stand trial here.

Obviously this is a part of a wider investigation that's been ongoing now. We know that Ahmed Abu Khattala, who was one of the leaders of the attack, has already been brought to trial here in Washington. He is now serving a 28-year sentence for federal charges related to that attack.

So, this is now another person who was alleged to have been a leader of that attack, that militant attack that killed Americans in Benghazi is now facing justice here in the United States.

Obviously, this was a press conference that we just had with the attorney general, Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney, Jeanine Pirro, and the FBI director, Kash Patel. One of the things that, that, that was discussed certainly from our standpoint as reporters, we asked the attorney general to clarify the role of Tulsi Gbbard, the director of National Intelligence, who was seen at that search, that extraordinary search, in Fulton County, Georgia, just a few days ago. The attorney general defended Tulsi Gabbard's presence there but did not clarify really the situation as to whether she sent Tulsi Gabbard there, or as the president says, he says that the Pam Bondi is the one that authorized the president of Tulsi Gabbard there. I should note, Gabbard has told Congress in a letter that the president is the one that sent her there.

So, a lot going on in that press conference just now. Pamela?

BROWN: And the president was asked by NBC's Tom Llamas about that, and he said he didn't know why she was there. The administration has been all over the map on that.

Evan Perez, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: Also coming up, a dispute between the state and federal prosecutors in New York, who will be the first to try Luigi Mangione for the killing of a UnitedHealthcare CEO?

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BLITZER: Happening now this morning, Bitcoin is rallying back a little after losing roughly half its value since October.

BROWN: It fell below $63,000 yesterday for the first time in 16 months. Right now, it's bouncing back, covering around $68,000. One financial analyst overnight adjusting his firm's price target for the currency to zero.

So, let's go live now to CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich. Vanessa, what's going on here? What's behind Bitcoin's bust?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is a notoriously volatile asset to begin with. But what we have seen in the last couple months is pretty dramatic. As you mentioned, the high for Bitcoin was trading at about $126,000 per coin in October, and just yesterday, it was trading close to almost $60,000.

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That is a 50 percent drop in value. And that is unusual because it's only happened a few times before in Bitcoin's sort of history. But it's important to note that this currency, this cryptocurrency, is almost behaving like a U.S. currency or a Wall Street index, like the Dow or the S&P or NASDAQ and traders are almost starting to trade this as they would a stock on Wall Street.

And here's what I mean by that. There's no particular reason why we've seen this dramatic drop, but here are a couple reasons that we know of and what we're hearing from some investors. A key reason is that traders and Bitcoin is reacting to the news. And a lot of the news recently has been nervousness from investors over geopolitical uncertainty and volatility. I'm talking about when the president says that he is threatening to attack Iran, or if he's trying to escalate a trade war or his acquisition of Greenland. That throws a lot of the economy, the global economy into chaos. And you have Bitcoin traders reacting.

Also, Wall Street has been reacting on its own to concerns over A.I. enhancements and what that means for software. You've seen tech stocks drop in the last couple days. You've seen the NASDAQ drop, you're seeing that now with Bitcoin. And then, finally, Bitcoin was referred to, or has been referred to as a digital safe haven, much like gold is a safe haven, but people are wondering if that's the case right now.

And, guys, this is ultimately a market at the end of the day. So, it goes up, it goes down. And as I mentioned in 2022, during the collapse, Pamela, of FTX, that is the last time we saw such a dramatic drop in Bitcoin's value, 60 percent. We are not there today, but, of course, since then the Bitcoin market has rallied and rallied even higher.

So, is this a moment? Is this a trajectory? We'll have to wait and see. But, of course, as a market, things always go down, but they rise again. Pamela?

BROWN: We see that time and time again.

Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: And just ahead, Pamela, the White House is struggling to figure out its messaging just ahead of this year's midterm elections in November. How President Trump's fixation on the 2020 election complicates matters big time.

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