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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
Local Station Receives Second Message In Guthrie Case; Trump Won't Apologize For Sharing Racist Video Of Obamas; DOJ - Congress Can View Unredacted Epstein Files Monday; Suicide Bomber Kills At Least 31 People In Pakistan; Trump Hails very Good Nuclear Talks With Tehran; Dow Crosses 50,000 Points For First Time Ever; Winter Olympics begin With Opening Ceremony Fanfare; Luigi Mangione's State Murder Trial Set For June; Taylor Swift drops music video for - Opalite Aired 12-1a ET
Aired February 07, 2026 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN HOST: Investigators are back at Guthrie's home after a second message was sent to local news station, KOLD, on Friday, it was immediately forward to law enforcement who are now probing its authenticity. A KOLD anchor who saw it said she thinks it's a response to the family's plea for the return of their mother now missing for nearly seven days, that anchor provided crucial details to CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARY COLEMAN, KOLD ANCHOR; SAW 2ND COMMUNICATION IN GUTHRIE CASE: We did get some information from them. I'm going to read some of my notes here, so I don't speak incorrectly, but they say that this is not the same IP address, but it appears the sender used the same type of secure server to hide their IP address. So that's all that we know about the sender at this point, which unfortunately, really isn't much and this new note does contain something that the senders seem to think will prove to investigators that they're the same people or a person who sent the first note.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Authorities returned to Guthrie's home within an hour of receiving that communication. Neighbors watched and expressed horror over Guthrie's disappearance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA GARGANO, NANCY GUTHRIE'S NEIGHBOR: I'm just -- just -- just don't want to imagine what happened that night and what she might have felt at that moment. She's very sweet woman, very nice. Welcomes me right into her home --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: For more, let's bring in Gil Carrillo, retired lieutenant who worked for the LA Sheriff's Department. He's known for his work on the Night Stalker case, which has been profiled in several Netflix documentaries. Gil, welcome to "The Story Is" for the first time.
GIL CARRILLO, LIEUTENANT, LOS ANGELES CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT. (RET.): Thank you.
MICHAELSON: One of the big headlines of the day is they get this note, then they go out and a lot of the detectives are on the roof, looking at evidence in a different way. Again, all these days later, after days ago, they cleared the home. What does that tell you?
CARRILLO: Well, it tells me that either they got some information in recently that would make them want to go back and look at certain areas, or that perhaps, in going back and looking what they did do that, they thought, well, maybe we didn't look on the roof as good as we should have. But in any -- for any -- whatever reason it is, it's for looking for something positive evidentiary.
MICHAELSON: What do you make of the fact that this person is sending notes to the media, to the local media.
CARRILLO: Well, it tells me that he likes the attention. He's got a big ego. But it's not unprecedented. Back several years ago, decades ago, there was the Zodiac killer who did the same thing in Northern California. We had the BTK killer in Kansas that was doing the same thing and was actually captured by his messages to the media.
MICHAELSON: And it may be clear that this person is obsessed with the media. They're targeting the mother of one of the best known TV news journalists in America.
CARRILLO: Sure.
MICHAELSON: So we don't, but we don't know. So based off of your experience, what's really going on here?
CARRILLO: I have no idea what's really going on. I hate to speculate. I know that with the people they have working it, they have members of the FBI, several members now from the FBI, they have the Pima County Sheriff's Department all working in collaboration. And their main goal is to find missing Nancy Guthrie. Bring her back, that's their main goal. And working together.
MICHAELSON: Talk to me about what it's like to work a very high profile case, like when you're doing the Night Stalker case, you've got the world media descending and you've got all these big bosses kind of in your ear. What is that like?
CARRILLO: It's a stress. It's a very stressful situation to be in. My heart goes out to those guys, as I would refer to when I was doing it, the working swine, people that get out there and really in the trenches, they're taking -- they're listening to their colleagues that are giving them advice. And everybody that gives you advice thinks that their advice is the best. They've got family members. They have got the neighbors. They have the news media, and they have the executives of their department. The weight of the world is upon their shoulders, and they want nothing more, and they are working tirelessly to bring this to a solution. MICHAELSON: I mean, does that sort of change the way you go about it. If you're being pulled in all of these different directions like that?
CARRILLO: No, no. The lead investigators, whoever's running this thing, they stay focused. They're good. You focused, and you just try and put out everybody else. You have other assistants, other investigators, helping you. In our case, we had all these people. We called them. We've heard them as clue clowns, following clues, and that's what we did.
MICHAELSON: How unusual is this case -- this idea, because we don't see like high profile kidnappings that that often.
CARRILLO: I can't -- I can't really say how unusual it is that kidnappings and stuff like this happen in the South and in Mexico quite a bit. We just haven't seen it up here. And when you get somebody that's connected, as Nancy Guthrie is, well, then it becomes high profile. And the first couple of days she was a missing persons, they didn't make much of it. It wasn't until the second or third day that they actually started making a big deal of it.
MICHAELSON: And so where did -- where do things go from here?
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CARRILLO: Prayers.
MICHAELSON: Prayers.
CARRILLO: You pray that she's alive and they find her good and bring her back, certainly weak from all the ordeal, but lot of prayers for everybody involved in this case.
MICHAELSON: Yeah, well, we know Savannah has talked openly for years about how important prayers are to her? How important prayers are to her mother? And so that family is in all of our prayers right now. Gil Carrillo, thank you so much for coming and sharing your insights.
CARRILLO: It's my pleasure.
MICHAELSON: Now to politics. President Trump is refusing to apologize as he faces bipartisan backlash for posting a racist video, which depicts former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I looked at the first part, and it was really about motor fraud and the machines, how crooked it is? How disgusting it is? Then I gave it to the people. Generally, they look at the whole thing. But I guess somebody didn't. They posted and we took it down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A number of Republicans are calling on you to apologize for that. Is that something you're going to do?
TRUMP: No, I didn't make a mistake.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: President Trump eventually removed the post after it was up for nearly 12 hours. Want to warn you before we show it that it is disturbing. It's offensive, but it's important to show what was posted on the President of the United States account. You can see here the faces of the Obama put onto the bodies of apes. They put the faces of other Democratic politicians on other animals as part of a Lion King sketch, and they made Donald Trump The Lion King. They all bow down to him.
Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, called the post, "The most racist thing out of this White House," but he wasn't the only Republican to quickly call out the President. Mr. Trump's decision to delete the post came after the White House initially doubled down.
(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.
KEVIN KILLEY, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: I looked at the video, and it seemed to come in just for a second at the end of some totally unrelated video. So I don't have any idea how it actually ended up getting there, but however it did, I'm very glad that it's been taken down. This is extremely offensive, extremely inappropriate imagery has absolutely no place in our country. It goes 100% contrary to values that all of us here share.
GLENN IVEY, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT: It is racist. It's shocking. It's sickening, and we should all be disgusted by it, but I think we also need to make sure we're not distracted by it as well. I mean, the President's had a very bad series of weeks here, with respect to I.C.E. and the killings that have taken place, and the distensions and how that's flipped the issue on him. They're now way under water. I think the 65% to 70% of Americans disapprove of the way he's handling that situation, and there are others like that too.
The economy, he's failing to focus on bringing down the high cost and increasing costs of things like rent and groceries and utilities. And the American people are like, wait a second, we voted for you to try and address those issues. You're dealing with everything else, but that. We don't even have to bring up the Epstein files, right? So there's a lot going on that's bad for the Trump White House. And frequently these types of things pop up when things are at a low, but I think he's going to continue to go low, and I think they're going to continue to get worse for him.
I think -- I think the public's tiring of this, even the mag a die harder. So I think losing some patience for all this kind of non- sense.
CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS, FORMER PRESIDENT & CEO, NAACP: We have shifting narratives, apparent lies, and the President taking -- not taking responsibility for his actions and the consequences of it. We would need to really be clear here, the President was drawing from a deep, toxic well of racist tropes going back to at least the 1850s with scientific racism. This notion that black people are most closely related to apes and gorillas and simians, such that they are subhuman and sub citizens.
And since this president has called into question President Obama's birthplace and his legitimacy, credibility. As a citizen, this is true to form. So in other words, this is incredibly offensive. It is not entirely new.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Let's talk about with our political panel, legal and political strategist, Katie Zacharia, on the right and on the left. Brian Taylor Cohen, host of the podcast No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen. Welcome back to both of you. Thanks for being here.
All right. Katie, is it racist for the President United States to put out an image of the former President United States and the former First Lady as an ape?
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KATIE ZACHARIA, LEGAL AND POLITICAL STRATEGIST: President Trump made it very clear. He put out a video on the Georgia fraud, and within that video was an unedited portion of a reel that went up and should have been clipped by his staffer. When he said, I didn't see it. He just made the statement on Air Force One. I didn't see it. The staffer was supposed to clip it. It wasn't clipped. I took it down right away.
MICHAELSON: He didn't take it down right away. He took it down after 12 hours, and the White House doubled down on it for that entire town.
ZACHARIA: Took it down when he realized the content of it.
MICHAELSON: So, if -- if -- so is it racist? You didn't answer the first question. Is it racist that the that image itself?
ZACHARIA: The image ties into a greater AI whole video that was made on the Lion King. So and --
MICHAELSON: Where in the Lion King was there an ape? I don't remember that character.
ZACHARIA: The entire video. We can watch it if we want to pull up the -- the AI video from the real that had this whole AI video of all of the animals period the end. And President Trump won a historic -- the Hispanic Latin vote by a historic margin, the most any other Republican has in history, the most black voters since the 1960s he's not racist time and time again. He was on stage with Nicki Minaj the other day. I mean, this man is not racist. He made it very clear what happened in that statement. I stand by that. And I watched both that clip and the AI clip of The Jungle Book or the Lion King -- excuse me, with the music. And I thought, this isn't racist.
MICHAELSON: Brian?
BRIAN TYLE COHEN, HOST, NO LIE WITH BRIAN TYLER COHEN PODCAST: Look, I think the reason that Donald Trump did this, that he engaged in this whole process where to your exact point, we didn't see an apology for hours and hours and hours and hours, is because he is a small petty fragile man who cannot take responsibility for his own actions. And the second reason, frankly, is because he is a racist, and we have seen Donald Trump engage in racist activity in the past, numerous times.
We watched as Donald Trump took out a full page ad in the New York Times calling for the execution of five black kids for murdering someone who they did not murder. We saw Donald Trump start his political career by denying the citizenship of the first black President. And right now, we're watching a secret police force rove around the country so that they can round up brown and black people for the crime of being brown and black in this country. And to claim then that Donald Trump is somehow not racist, is just to deny what we can all see with our -- with our own eyes.
ZACHARIA: Well, first of all, it's not a secret police group. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers are here to enforce the immigration laws.
COHEN: Do they show their faces? Are they wearing insignia to give their names? Do they have badges?
ZACHARIA: They were mask, because we have a bunch of Governors and Mayors that have absolutely come out and said, this is the Gestapo, and they've enraged these people.
COHEN: I think if they don't wanted to call the Gestapo.
MICHAELSON: All right. We can leave. We're not talking nice I.C.E tonight. We're not talking I.C.E. tonight. We've done that debate before. Let's talk about this particular video, though, because how do you respond to the claim that, okay, if it was racist, and -- and there was, it was a mistake. Why not just say that was wrong? We shouldn't have put that out. I'm sorry that it got put out that way, but it's offensive to clearly a lot of people in this country, and I don't want to offend anybody, and I'm taking responsibility. When he has so often criticized people, including Joe Biden, for not taking responsibility, for being the auto pen guy, and then now blaming this on some staffer.
ZACHARIA: The latter part of his statement on Air Force One they said, did -- would you be offended? Or he said, I didn't like it, I wouldn't like it either. I mean, this was the question. And are you -- did you apologize? Are you sorry? He said, I'm not sorry because I didn't do anything wrong. He didn't see it. So he's not apologizing for that. And honestly, the amount of information that President Trump intakes from his staff, and then goes through he saw the Georgia fraud. They passed it off to a staffer. This is truly how it works. They clip it up and put it on his Truth Social. I believe his statement, and I don't think he had racist intent in the least.
COHEN: Katie, you -- you don't have to do this, like you don't have to debase yourself for Donald Trump. In the way all of these Republicans debase themselves for Donald Trump. His claim that that this was the fault of some staffer. What was the staffer? A 79-year-old with swollen ankles, who is weirdly attracted to his daughter, like we all can see --
MICHAELSON: Well, that's unfair, I mean, that's unfair -- that's unfair.
COHEN: We all can see the truth. We know there was no staffer. We know that Donald Trump has his phone. He's tweeting.
MICHAELSON: We don't know that. We don't know that there was no staffer. We don't know -- how do we know there is no staffer.
COHEN: He's tweeting it all hours of night. We have to contort ourselves into -- we have to do mental gymnastics. We could enter the Winter Olympics right now with the mental gymnastics that we would have to do to believe this idea, that it was totally, definitely not Trump's fault, that it was just some staffer that Donald Trump is apparently curating content, but sending it to this staffer, who then -- if you have a staffer, presumably your job would be to vet the content.
MICHAELSON: But that is, that is the bigger question. It certainly could have been a staffer. He's the President United States. There's a lot of stuff that comes at him, right? I mean, that's -- that happens. That is fine, but -- but then why not say that that was wrong? What accountability is there for the staffer?
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And by the way, what's the screening process? This is the President of the United States who speaks on behalf of the United States Governor, government, and that some staffer has the ability that would never fly here. We couldn't do that at CNN, there's a bunch of people, and if I did something like that, I would potentially get fired. There's a vetting process. Why isn't there more of a vetting process at the White House?
ZACHARIA: Look, it was a tweet or a truth at 02:40 a.m. in the morning. And have you watched the whole both clips? Have you watched the Georgia?
MICHAELSON: I watched the whole clip.
ZACHARIA: And as you watch it, you see it that 58 second mark, and real starts popping up and then goes back down. This is exactly how it went, and it just needed to be edited in that back end. Whether or not a staffer missed that part, I'm not going to speculate at what they're doing at 02:40 a.m. when they're asked to do this. Maybe they were tired, and I'm not going to justify it. Look I said -- MICHAELSON: Maybe we shouldn't be posting videos at 02:40 a.m. in the morning.
ZACHARIA: And at the end of the day. If the question is, what was his intent? His intent was to show Georgia fraud and talk about the Georgia election fraud and the stolen election in Georgia.
MICHAELSON: But then posting a video of a bunch of people bowing to you may not be the way to do that. All right, let's talk about the Epstein files. There's news on that front tonight, which is that on Monday, Members of Congress are going to be able to look at some of the unredacted files for themselves. It's interesting. We're also going to be anticipating the Clintons testifying this week. Bill and Hillary Clinton admitted -- agreed to testify on this case.
Brian, you think it's interesting that the Clinton's are testifying here, but not Donald Trump, who also is in the Epstein file.
COHEN: Absolutely. I mean, look, I am fully in favor of the Clintons coming and testifying. I'm in favor of them doing it in public, so that we can all see with our own eyes what they say. I'm in favor of anybody, Democrat, Republican, Independent. If you are implicated in the Epstein files, you need to be held account, held to account for what you've done. You need to put this stuff out in the light of day and in the same way that I'm fully supportive of the Clinton's coming and testifying, just as I'm supportive of anybody coming and testifying.
I think the Donald Trump should do the absolute same thing. Will he do that while he's President? No. But you know what, if Republicans want to set a precedent where former presidents and their family members who have some involvement with Jeffrey Epstein have to come before Congress and can't defy any subpoenas to do so, then I'm fully in support of that precedent.
MICHAELSON: I mean, do you think that Donald Trump, maybe even after he leaves office, should then have to go testify?
ZACHARIA: President Trump has been the most transparent President on the Epstein files in all presidential. How many Epstein files to Joe Biden release? How many?
COHEN: There was an ongoing investigation?
ZACHARIA: How many Epstein did Joe Biden released? Zero. How many did Obama did? Zero.
COHEN: Wait, I mean, I acknowledge what I just said, there was an ongoing investigation, up to 2022 that was appealed, and that appeal ended in 2025 because there was an ongoing prosecution.
MICHAELSON: So let her finish her point.
ZACHARIA: So President Trump has been transparent about this. He has also been under the inquisition of the press and everyone else that asks him a question. He has answered and answered and answered. Oval Office, press room, Air Force One, you name it, he's answering questions. How many times has Bill Clinton been asked by the conservative press or even the liberal media hard questions about the Epstein files, zero.
MICHAELSON: Well, he is not the President?
ZACHARIA: But he is implicated in the Epstein files. If he wanted to be transparent about this, he would come and pro offer the information, so people could have information. Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton didn't voluntarily go testify on this. They had been subpoenaed, and they were in contempt. And Comer was about to charge them, and then they decided to do it.
MICHAELSON: But Trump is not doing his stuff under oath. I mean, would you -- do would you support the same standard that's being used for the Clintons being used for Donald Trump?
ZACHARIA: I think President Trump has answered and if the -- and they have failed to answer. President --
MICHAELSON: As a lawyer, there's a big difference between answering something under oath and answering something to the media, right?
ZACHARIA: I don't think he needs to do that right now.
MICHAELSON: Okay.
COHEN: Look, you say that he's been the most transparent President in history. You've heard his answers. He's come out and said, are you still talking about the Epstein files? When a reporter on Air Force One asked him about the Epstein files, he called her piggy. When Caitlin Collins, just a few days ago, tried to ask him about the Epstein files, he attacked her and said that she should smile more. This is the transparency that you expect from the President.
ZACHARIA: Files released are the transparent.
MICHAELSON: All right. Okay.
COHEN: We have 6 million files, and 3 million are released. What about the other 3 million? Are you okay with that? Are you okay with 3 million files not being released?
ZACHARIA: Let's -- let the process tease out.
COHEN: We've already learned from Todd Blanche that the process won't be teased out.
MICHAELSON: All right, Brian. We're out of time. But I just want to end on something fun to show that we can come together at the end of a crazy, hard week. What are you most excited about for the Super Bowl?
ZACHARIA: Oh, man, I'm excited when everyone else is doing something, and I can go to the gym and check out. I am not a big football fan.
MICHAELSON: You're not going to watch. ZACHARIA: No, I'm not.
MICHAELSON: Okay. What are you most excited about?
COHEN: I am excited for the halftime show. I want to see any show that does not have Kid Rock involved. That's what I'm excited for.
MICHAELSON: That was the moment -- unity moment, and he used it as a moment for division. All right --
COHEN: Was reported working out.
MICHAELSON: Okay, maybe they'll go to the gym together. Thanks guys. Nice to see you. Appreciate it.
COHEN: Thanks so much.
MICHAELSON: President Trump is using a good cop bad cop strategy after new nuclear talks with Iran.
[00:20:00]
He is praising the dialog, but ramping up pressure on Iran's economic lifeline. That story is ahead plus.
The actor who played Jaime Lannister on Game of Thrones. You see him right there, joins me later in the show to fill us in on his newest projects, stay with us.
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MICHAELSON: A suicide bomber killed at least 31 people and injured 169 at a Shiite mosque in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad. A warning to our viewers, the video you are about to see may be disturbing to some. This is the aftermath, bodies covered in blood, surrounded by shards of glass and debris. One worshiper said Friday prayers had just started when they heard gunfire followed by a loud explosion.
[00:25:00]
Officials say early findings point to Pakistan's Taliban, but the group says it had no connection with the attack. Here's what the country's interior minister said about the suspect.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TALAL CHAUDHRY, PAKISTANI INTERIOR MINISTER (translated): We have collected information about the terrorist who carried out the attack. He is not an Afghan national, but he has traveled to Afghanistan several times. And we have gathered all information from the forensics of his body parts that we found on the spot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: At least 400 worshippers were inside the mosque at the time. This was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since 2023. President Donald Trump is taking a carrot and stick approach following Friday's indirect nuclear talks with Iran. Hours after the meeting in Amman, he slapped new sanctions on Iranian oil and some vessels that carry it, but he still prays the talks as very good, while also putting Tehran on notice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The results today were with Iran. It was a meeting. We're going to meet again early next week, and they want to make a deal Iran now. As they should want to make a deal. They know the consequences if they don't, they don't make a deal, the consequences are very stable, so we'll see what happens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Iran's Foreign Minister described the talks as a good start. He said Iranian diplomats will now report back to Tehran before deciding on next steps.
Good news for you. If you own stocks, the Dow hit a new all-time high on Friday. The blue chip index soared over 1,200 points, hitting 50,000 points for the first time ever. The tech heavy, NASDAQ and S&P 500 also closed higher. This was a sharp rebound after tech stocks dragged Wall Street down earlier this week. Investors had gotten spooked that all the world would disrupt -- all the problems in the world would disrupt business models which hurt software stocks.
More than 90 million people from Virginia to Maine under extreme cold alerts in the Northeast and U.S. this weekend, for some it will be the coldest stretch of a winter that has already kept many shivering for weeks. The cold snap already caused issues in western Pennsylvania on Friday, authorities say an 18-year-old college student was killed in a 25 vehicle crash amid snowy and icy conditions. Look at those pictures. Nine others were injured there.
Much more ahead this hour, including the Winter Olympics officially underway in Italy, the first medals of the competition will be awarded in the coming hours. We'll discuss that and more with my next guest, Steve Mason, Host Mason & Ireland show on ESPN Radio. He's here to talk about that and that other thing happening this weekend in sports, the Super Bowl. Stay with us.
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MICHAELSON: Welcome back to "The Story Is" I'm Elex Michaelson. Let's take a look at today's top stories. President Trump is blaming a White House staffer for posting a racist video of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. The Post depicting the Obamas as apes in a jungle has now been deleted from his Truth Social. The President is insisting he didn't see that part of the video, and is refusing to apologize despite bipartisan backlash. Canada and France have opened new consulates in Greenland, calling the move an act of solidarity, friendship, and cooperation with fellow NATO member Denmark. The new French consul says it's not a signal to the U.S., but comes after President Trump's call to acquire the Danish territory for U.S. security reasons.
Investigators return Friday to the home of Nancy Guthrie, missing for nearly a week after a second message connected to her disappearance was received. They're now checking the messages authenticity. Later, the President told reporters that the Justice Department or the FBI could soon have something to add to the case.
The 2026 Winter Olympics are officially underway in Italy. This is a live picture from Milan, where it is now 6:30 a.m. in the morning on Saturday. The opening ceremony kicked things off on Friday night, three and a half hour celebration, paying tribute to the country's rich history, art and culture. The full competition heats up in the hours ahead with five events awarding medals on Saturday.
CNN, Amanda Davies is in Milan with the latest. Amanda?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Friday night may have been the official start of the 25th Winter Olympic Games here in Milan, Cortina. Dancing coffee pots, catwalk models Mariah Carey and all, but for so many of the athletes, their main job is well underway already, and that, of course, is the competition.
Whilst we were enjoying that always iconic moments of the lighting of the Olympic flame here in Milan up in Cortina. Lindsey Vonn and her team were working on creating magic of their own after the 41-year-old made her much anticipated first appearance on the snow for her first downhill training run in Cortina on Friday, just a week after that crash in Switzerland that saw her rupture her ACL.
Her coach, Aksel Lund Svindal described it as smart skiing as she posted the 11th fastest time from a group of 43 athletes. It wasn't perfect, but she made it down much to the relief of those of us watching on, holding our breaths and wincing with every landing.
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And the decision now is whether or not she takes part in Saturday's second training run or goes full steam ahead to Sunday's race and her quest for a fourth Olympic medal, 16 years after her first.
You wonder what will be running through the mind of U.S. figure skater Ilia Malinin, too. He is finally set to make his Olympic debut on Saturday. The superstar known as the Quad God, the reigning world and U.S. national champion taking to the eyes for his short program as part of the team competition. His teammates have given themselves a two point lead over Japan after the first day of competition.
And also on Saturday, the fastest male skiers on the planet will get their moments on the mountain to shine their downhill race set to take place in Borneo. The man known as the Alpine's version of Shohei Ohtani, Marco Odermatt, because he excels in all forms of the game of skiing, as is the case here. He's many people's favorite, but the USA is Ryan Cochran-Siegle won his only World Cup victory on this course and home favorite Giovanni Franzoni would love to follow up the best season of his career so far.
Winning Kittsball just a few weeks ago, he is hoping to bring home Italy's first gold of the games. Amanda Davies, CNN, Milan.
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MICHAELSON: Thank you, Amanda. Joining me now live on set is Steve Mason, host of the Mason & Ireland Show on ESPN Radio. Also can listen to that on the app as well. Steve, welcome back to "The Story Is."
STEVE MASON, HOST MASON & IRELAND SHOW, ESPN RADIO: Thank you for having me. Always excited, especially this weekend.
MICHAELSON: I mean, so much going on is crazy. Good for NBC. We got a lot going on.
MASON: Got it going on.
MICHAELSON: Lindsey Vonn, ACL tear still going.
MASON: It's unbelievable. I mean, if you think about it away from the sport for five years, comes back tears her ACL, you would think without those stabilizing ligaments, she would have problems, but apparently, she's wearing such a heavy brace, it's going to allow her to race. I just think it's going to happen during the Super Bowl, then it will air after the Super Bowl. So Sunday is a gigantic day. Her Super Bowl is on the slopes.
MICHAELSON: I mean, when we saw the practice video of her day, she looks great, you would know the difference.
MASON: You would have no idea.
MICHAELSON: It's amazing. You're especially excited about Chloe Kim --
MASON: Yes.
MICHAELSON: And we have pipe.
MASON: Chloe Kim is looking for her third consecutive gold medal. Her big move is the let me see if I get this right, The side front 1080, that is her big move. And it's three full rotations, incredible. She's looking for her third gold medal now.
MICHAELSON: And the biggest star of the game. We just heard him referred to as the Quad God, Ilia Malinin.
MASON: Yeah, he's going to be gigantic. I mean, I know that my mom and figure skating fans everywhere incredibly excited for the figure skating competition. This guy is an athlete. He jumps out of the rink. He is a -- as they say, the Quad God, he's the only guy to ever land a quadruple Axel in competition, and he'll try to do it this week at Milan.
MICHAELSON: That's going to be very exciting. Also, this weekend, of course, is the Super Bowl.
MASON: Oh yeah.
MICHAELSON: That's we've got Sam Donald, a product of the University of Southern California, starting what a journey it's been for him.
MASON: Amazing. Literally four teams gave up on him. Literally, four teams said no, thank you. And now here he is in the Super Bowl. It's an incredible story. If you go back to the 2018 draft, you will see that Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson were both in that draft, and yet, the first quarterback from that draft to make it to the Super Bowl, Sam Donald, wow.
MICHAELSON: It's amazing. Let's say.
MASON: First USC quarterback to start a Super Bowl, maybe first to win a Super Bowl.
MICHAELSON: Right onto him, but he's opposing Drake Maye, Patriots quarterback who could also make history.
MASON: Would be the youngest quarterback to ever guide his team to a Super Bowl Championship, surpassing, I think Ben Roethlisberger is currently the youngest guy to do it. That's an incredible story. Mike Vrabel, head coach of the New England Patriots. They were 4 and 13 last year. This year, they were 13 and 4, a massive turnaround.
MICHAELSON: Unbelievable. Okay, one of the fun parts about the Super Bowl is you can bet on everything.
MASON: Yes, yes.
MICHAELSON: Right. And so let's go through some of the Big Bets. Bad Bunny, the Big Bet is, what song will he start his set with?
MASON: And the answer is, Titi Me Pregunto. That will be the first song.
MICHAELSON: And do you have the inside info. Have you seen the set list? Are you giving us some info?
MASON: It's just a hunch. It's just a gut hunch, but I think that's a perfect way to start a Super Bowl halftime show.
MICHAELSON: That will be fun to see. Another one is Charlie Puth is singing the national anthem?
MASON: Yes.
MICHAELSON: And there's an over/under of a minute 19.
MASON: Yeah, it's actually, I went back and checked. It's actually two minutes. MICHAELSON: Two minutes, okay.
MASON: Four of the last five national anthems have gone over.
[00:40:00]
So if you are going to wager on the national anthem, you might go more than two minutes.
MICHAELSON: Okay, that could be a good bet. A lot of people watch the game for the commercials, right.
MASON: Yes, yes.
MICHAELSON: And we're starting to see many of them roll out. I have a favorite so far this. Have you -- this Jurassic Park ad?
MASON: I watched it tonight. It's fantastic.
MICHAELSON: Isn't it amazing? So they bring back the cast of Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, Laura Dern are all back. Amazing costume work. They look like they were the exact same castings.
MASON: Yeah, it does.
MICHAELSON: They're back in this era, and it's all done as -- as an ad for Xfinity. They're like, if you had us, we could have avoided this whole mess.
MASON: Yeah, the fences wouldn't have come down if they'd used Xfinity for their Wi-Fi, apparently at Jurassic Park. Great ad. Really cool take.
MICHAELSON: Really cool take, and you -- and there's an AI generated ad that you don't like.
MASON: I do not like. This is SVEDKA Vodka, and they have taken their robots and created this unbelievably soulless kind of ad.
MICHAELSON: Oh my God. I haven't seen this yet.
MASON: You know the expression AI slop? It's right there. That is exactly what they're talking about.
MICHAELSON: Oh, I guess they save some money in making it. The Super Bowl ads are $10 million.
MASON: You would think you'd want some, some human beings involved in the creation of the ad, but SVEDKA Vodka says, no.
MICHAELSON: What's the best ad of all time?
MASON: It is the 1984 ad that Apple ran. It is an incredible ad created by Ridley Scott. And the incredible thing about this ad is it ran exactly one time. It ran during the Super Bowl, never again, but it is absolutely iconic, and most experts think the coolest best Super Bowl ad to ever run.
MICHAELSON: And sort of the concept that they were warning about the 1984 aspect of it.
MASON: Yes, they are.
MICHAELSON: Maybe.
MASON: We've gotten there. We've arrived.
MICHAELSON: Steve Mason, host of Mason & Ireland and upcoming podcast Mason Plus.
MASON: Yes, coming soon.
MICHAELSON: Coming next month. Can't wait to listen. Thanks, Steve.
MASON: Thank you very much. See you.
MICHAELSON: Thank you very much. Have fun on Friday, and this is exciting for us. Join me and Andy Scholes here on CNN, after the Super Bowl. We'll be live on the field at Levis stadium. Sunday, 11 o'clock Eastern, 8 o'clock here on the West Coast, 4 o'clock if you're getting up early in London. We'll have some post-game surprises, player interviews live on the field. It's going to be great. I can't wait to be doing that.
Up next, Jaime Lannister actually, actually played him on Game of Thrones, joins us to talk about his latest mystery thriller show featuring him and Jennifer Garner. Stay with us.
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MICHAELSON: That is a scene from the second season of The Last Thing He Told Me on Apple TV. Look at that look. The thriller series revolves around a woman, Hannah, played by Jennifer Garner you see there, who searches to find the truth about the disappearance of her husband played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Nikolaj joins me now right here on "The Story Is." Welcome. Congratulations on the show, Season 2, premiering February 20th.
NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU, EMMY-NOMINATED ACTOR: Yes.
MICHAELSON: On Apple TV+.
COSTER-WALDAU: Well, you want to know what happens with that beard?
MICHAELSON: Yeah. What what's up with that beard? Let's start with the beard.
COSTER-WALDAU: Clearly, that's like there was this -- the popular demand for Season 2. Because people, that was the end of Season 1. MICHAELSON: You guys have been off for so long. That that's how long it's like you they wrote that beer, right?
COSTER-WALDAU: The millions of people were like riding in saying, we got to know what -- how do you explain that beer? No, I mean, that is actually this was just supposed to be a one off, like Laura Dave wrote the book that this is based on, and that was it. But she left with such an amazing cliff hanger that you kind of go, what happens next? And then, because the show also did really well for Apple. They kind of went to Laura and said, please, is there something, and do you have -- and she did have an idea. And then she started writing. And then she realized, hang on, there's actually, there is a book. And then the book just came out. It's a great book. And -- and then the show. So we were shooting the show the same time as she was writing the book.
MICHAELSON: Well and, and she's got a sort of close relationship with one of the writers for the show, right?
COSTER-WALDAU: They married, Josh Singer. Yes, so to him and Aaron Zelman, who was the other writer.
MICHAELSON: So he kind of knew where she was going with this.
COSTER-WALDAU: He had a very good idea. Yeah, so they were, but they were also in the writers room, are coming up with ideas. They were trying to keep it separate. But of course, they kept talking, which only makes sense.
MICHAELSON: Yeah, and the book just, just came out as well, so people want to read that. Do you think that your character is a good guy?
COSTER-WALDAU: I think he -- yeah, but I think that sometimes even the best intentions don't necessarily give you good results. He -- he left. He had a plan.
MICHAELSON: Give us a little bit of the synopsis for people who didn't watch Season 1.
COSTER-WALDAU: Well, the thing is like in the Season 1, there's this beautiful this couple, they're married. He has only been married for four years. They met late in life. He has a teenage daughter, and there's a problem with a teenage daughter and the step mother, they do not get along. And then one day, there's a knock at the door and there's a woman -- a girl, gives Hannah, Jennifer Garner's character.
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This note says protect her, and from that -- from then on, she's basically on the run. Her husband's disappeared, and she has to find out what happened, and we realize he was not who he said he was. There's a whole mystery unfolding.
MICHAELSON: And we start in Season 2 to kind of figure out.
COSTER-WALDAU: Well, Season 2 says that, the at the end of Season 1, I can say that, of course, because they there was a deal made -- with there was a whole, I mean, it's a big thing, but basically the deal was, he has to stay away to keep those two safe. But now he reappears at the very end of five years later, he's back. And you go, why is he back? Well, because they're not safe anymore.
MICHAELSON: And that look in her face was quite something, some amazing acting.
COSTER-WALDAU: She is very good. She is very good.
MICHAELSON: Somebody should give her a job as an actress.
COSTER-WALDAU: I know. I know.
MICHAELSON: Yeah. And so this concept of kind of moving on, even past the source material is something we saw know.
COSTER-WALDAU: I've tried that before.
MICHAELSON: We saw with Game of Thrones, that show after the books.
COSTER-WALDAU: I think Laura Dave needs to call (inaudible) and says, listen, you can you can do it.
MICHAELSON: You can do it.
COSTER-WALDAU: You can do it.
MICHAELSON: He still hasn't finished. Obviously, people know you from that, which is one of the greatest shows in the history of TV. One of the most beloved shows in the history of TV. When we think of, there's so many iconic lines and iconic memes that have come from Game of Thrones. Do you have a favorite, a favorite game of thrones line?
COSTER-WALDAU: I will have. Yes, the things I do for love. That's the first -- well, it's from the Episode 1, and then where Jamie my character, pushes a kid out the window. And because it's such a, it's a -- it's such a beautiful line, but what he does is so horrific, and it's just the juxtaposition is cool.
MICHAELSON: And kind of set up the rest of the shows up the rest of the show?
COSTER-WALDAU: It sets up the rest of the show.
MICHAELSON: All right. Yeah.
COSTER-WALDAU: So, so I had to -- if I had to pick, I would pick that one.
MICHAELSON: People can check that out on right now, of course, on HBO Max. They also can watch a show that you did called through Greenland on YouTube.
COSTER-WALDAU: On YouTube. Yeah.
MICHAELSON: And some people might not know that your wife is from Greenland. You are from Denmark.
COSTER-WALDAU: I'm from Denmark.
MICHAELSON: -- which is technically in charge of Greenland, not the United States.
COSTER-WALDAU: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
MICHAELSON: You've spent a lot of time there with your wife. You were just there for the holidays as well. And you've documented this. What do you make of this whole controversy over Greenland?
COSTER-WALDAU: It's very -- it's tricky. It's very difficult. Because for us both in Denmark and Greenland, the U.S., our friends like -- we've looked up to you. We, we -- I mean, there's such a strong -- there's all historically been a very, very strong relationship between Denmark and -- and the United States. We knew, of course, after the first term with President Trump, that he had an interest in Greenland. He offered to buy it back then, and he was told that, well, it's not for sale. There are people living there, and they are really happy with the country.
I think the big thing that happened here was that he's -- there was suddenly this fear of he was going to muscle his way. He's just going to take it. This is kind of what he said. So it was just horrible to see how scared people were, like we actually thought, is this really? Is this going to happen? Now, it seems that it has calmed down somewhat, but it has -- it's been a -- every -- it's been very strange, because this is not, we're supposed, we're friends, we're allies, and you don't steal from your allies.
MICHAELSON: And there is a U.S. base, which you started.
COSTER-WALDAU: Yes, my father, when I was kid, he worked at the U.S. base in Tula, it's a very top of Greenland. And I did this, Greenland is vast, and I always wanted to explore the whole island, the whole country. And I did this, this docu series where I travel, started the U.S. base, which was the eight people, amazing airmen and women, just cool. And then we travel all the way around. And you can check it out on YouTube, through Greenland with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and it's -- it's just, and also, can I just the Greenlandic people, just the best, I mean, it's -- they're not going to go to war and that -- we love the U.S. and so. So hopefully this was just a -- just a side note in history.
MICHAELSON: In the meantime, though, we could check out your new show on Apple again, debuting on February 20th. Congratulations. You're a busy guy.
COSTER-WALDAU: Thank you so much.
MICHAELSON: Clearly in demand.
COSTER-WALDAU: Thank you so much.
MICHAELSON: Thank you so much for coming in. Congrats on everything. We'll be back with more "The Story Is," right after this.
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MICHAELSON: The state murder trial for Luigi Mangione is set to start in June. The judge overseeing New York's case accelerated the timeline at a hearing on Friday. Mangione is facing state and federal charges in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan Street. State prosecutors say the Feds reneged on a deal to let their case go first, so the timeline was pushed up. That leaves the defense in a rush to prepare. Mangione has pleaded not guilty.
Taylor Swift has dropped the music video for Opalite, the newest single from her album, The Life of a Show Girl. Pop Star wrote and directed the video, which borrows vibes from the 1990s. The video also includes cameos from Cillian Murphy, Domhnall Gleeson, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith and Lewis Capaldi.
