Transcript of Another Shutdown Standoff Looms & Guthrie Mystery Deepens | 2.6.26

We've succeeded in passing a fiscally responsible package that actually cuts wasteful federal spending while supporting critical programs for the safety, security, and prosperity of the American people.

A whirlwind week for the White House wraps up with the President working to avert another showdown over ICE funding. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, February sixth. This is Morning Wire.

The search for Nancy Guthrie continues as officials provide urgent updates.

We have nobody of interest. We're not there yet.

And Super Bowl 60 kicks off this Sunday with a blockbuster rematch and brewing controversies surrounding the halftime show. We're simply going to go play some great songs, like I've said, for people who love football, love America, love good music, love Jesus.

It's pretty much that simple.

Thanks for waking up with MorningWire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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After Congress just scramble to end a government shutdown, President Trump is already working to avert another one over ICE.

Joining us now to discuss is DailyWire Whitehouse Correspondent Mary Margaret Olahan. Great to have you in the studio. Great to be here. A busy week, as always, in DC. Let's start with what the President has prioritized here. A lot of messaging on ICE and DHS. What is the latest?

Well, as usual, the President is keeping us absolutely inundated with new topics, new news. He signed a spending package on Tuesday that ends the partial government shutdown, but we have another one looming ahead of us if Republicans and Democrats can't come to an agreement on ICE and DHS business. Now, obviously, he's still fielding tons of questions on Minneapolis, on ICE, on the situation out there. He told NBC News on Wednesday that he will always have law enforcement's backs, but he's not totally happy with how things played out in Minneapolis.

I'm not happy with what happened there. Nobody could be happy, and ICE wasn't happy either. But I'm going to always be with our great people of law enforcement. If we don't back them, we don't have a country.

Now, the President also spoke Thursday morning at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, where he vowed to rededicate the United States as one nation under God. He announced that on May 17th, all Americans are invited to the National Mall for an event of prayer and thanksgiving.

To to be a great nation, however, you have to have religion. You have to have faith. You have to have God. Thankfully, as we gather today, there are many signs that religion is coming back. It's coming back so strong.

Now, our President is a builder. He has so many plans in store. He's talking about shutting down the Kennedy Center for two years as he spruces it up. He's also erecting a statue of Christopher Columbus outside the White House that has people in a tizy. And he's putting an independence Ark in the nation's capital. So all of these things happening. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance is in Milan, Italy, where he's attending the Olympics Winter Games, supporting our athletes. And today, he'll be meeting with Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Maloney. Yesterday, he spoke with the athletes, and he told them that their competition is one of the few things that unites the entire country. After that, he's going to be headed to Armenia and Azerbaijan to show support for the peace deal that he and the Trump administration brokered between those two countries.

So as we We've had a lot going on in DC. We are interested, of course, on this show in the legacy media's framing of what happens in the White House. What is the latest from them? How are they responding to Trump's priorities this week?

Well, it's always worth pointing out the difference between the actual news and the way the legacy media is framing it because they don't always coincide. Currently, reporters at CNN and other outlets are fixating on who exactly told Tulsi Gabbard to be at this recent high-profile search of an election office in Fulton County, Georgia. As I reported earlier this week, Tulsi says that Trump told her to be there. A legacy reporters are also spinning up about the Kennedy Center shutting down for two years. They're arguing that Trump's arc is going to be too big for Washington, DC. And on Tuesday, during an event with Melania Trump at the White House, She was speaking with these two former Hamas hostages about their time in captivity. And a reporter accused Melania of trying to use these hostages to promote her new movie.

So again, Melania can't seem to catch a break. Final question before you go. You have some big news yourself. It's important here for The Daily Wire, of course, but also you personally. Tell us what happened this week.

Well, we just found out this week that The Daily Wire has a seating the White House briefing room. This is a decision made by the legacy reporters at the White House Correspondence Association, which took a look at all the outlets that have been coming to the White House and going to the briefings over the last year and then applied for seats. I am really proud that we got a seat, not just because we've been working so hard, but also it shows the world that The Daily Wire is there for serious reasons. We are serious We're reporting the news, and now we have a spot in the White House briefing room. We do share with two other outlets currently, the Black Press Association and the Telegraph, but I'm confident that we're going to keep working hard. In one of these days, you'll see me in the front of the room.

I'm sure we will. Thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you in studio again.

Thanks for having me.

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The nation has been holding its breath since the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today's show host, Savannah Guthrie.

Joining us to break down the timeline of the case is Daily Wire reporter Lyndon Blake. Lyndon, we got some new information yesterday. What have we confirmed since last we reported?

Now we have a clear picture of what went on Saturday into Sunday morning when Nancy Guthrie was forcefully taken from her home. We know she got home from family members house where she had dinner at 9: 48 Saturday night. Her doorbell camera was disconnected at 1: 47 AM Sunday. At 2: 12, a person was detected on a camera inside the home, and at 2: 28, Nancy's pacemaker disconnected from her phone. Those gave us details that we have been wondering since this search has entered its sixth day. We don't, though, have any suspects or person of interest at this time.

Now, on Wednesday, it began to be reported at some outlets that there was a person of interest. At least one outlet even called that person a suspect. They were talking about the son-in-law of Nancy Guthrie. What do we know about him?

So independent journalist Ashley Banfield, she says she has a source there working the case in law enforcement that told her that Tommaso Sioni, the son-in-law of Nancy Guthrie, may be a prime suspect in the case. After this report was made, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said they have no suspect or person of interest in the case. During the press conference Thursday, that was brought up several times by reporters asking about the brother-in-law and if he's been questioned. Sheriff Nanos said that no one has ruled out. They are questioning everybody because they have no suspect in custody at this time or person of interest they're looking at at this I know there's been a lot out there about suspects, and I want to be very clear.

At this time, we have not identified a suspect or a person of interest in this case. We are working our best to do that.

Now, the reason Tomaso was brought up is because it was originally reported that he was the last person to see Nancy. He was the person that dropped her off Saturday night. She Ubered to the family member's house on Saturday. She was taken home by Tommaso on Saturday night. But Sheriff Nanos did say no one specifically took her home. He rolled back on that and said, We're just going to say a family member was the last to see her. Also, the impounded car that's in evidence that we know is another reason why Tommaso was brought up. Chris Nanos, the Sheriff, did say that that is standard procedure since they were the last person to see Nancy.

Now, the other major thing that came out was the ransom note. Can you tell us who received the ransom note and what did it say?

All right, there are two local stations in Arizona plus TMC that received the same ransom note, KOLD, KGUN, and TMZ. The ransom note demanded millions of dollars. That has been previously reported. The ransom note mentioned her Apple Watch and mentioned a floodlight at her house. Another thing that the ransom note had, and this has been reported by KGUN, one of the outlets that had the ransom note, were deadlines for the payment. The first deadline, Thursday, 05: 00 PM. It said a payment wasn't received by this coming Monday. There was words in there that had the language that it was threatening towards Nancy's life. Those are things that are looming, and you have to I wonder if those deadlines is what pressured the Guthrie family to feel like they needed to make a response Wednesday night. Thursday during the press conference, the FBI, who was handling the ransom note part of the investigation, did say they can advise a family all day long about things they should do, shouldn't do. At the end of the day, it's the family's decision if they want to speak out and address the ransom note.

Now, you mentioned the statement the family made. We're going to play a little clip of that.

We are ready to talk. However, we live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know without a doubt that she is alive and that you have her.

Now, it's also been reported that there's been an arrest, but it's not necessarily in connection with the abduction. It's been in connection with another ransom note. What happened there?

Unfortunately, authorities are aware that people out there are trying to take advantage of this case and trying to get money out of it. They did arrest someone who they believe this ransom note had nothing to do with Nancy Guthrie, no connection to Nancy Guthrie. It was someone that was wanting money and trying to, as the authorities are saying, take advantage of this horrible situation. That's the only arrest that's been made, I guess you could say, in relation to the case, but had nothing to do with the ransom notes that the Guthrie family addressed Wednesday night.

Well, a very fluid situation. For people who want to follow the latest on this, Lyndon, can you tell them where they can find your reporting?

Yeah, We have a podcast called Finding Nancy Guthrie, where we are going through this entire investigation. We're deep diving into the latest evidence. We're going to continue to follow this until this case is solved.

All right. Well, Lyndon, thank you so much for reporting. The Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots face off this Sunday in Super Bowl 60 in Santa Clara, California. In addition to the excitement for the game, there is a good bit of controversy surrounding the halftime show.

Here to tell us everything we need to know heading into the weekend is David Cohn, host of Crane and Cohn. Great to have you back in the studio. So let's start with the matchup itself. How did these two teams get here? What do we need to know in terms of expectations on the field?

Well, thank you for having me in. We're in for an incredible football game this weekend, and this is a rematch of the 2015 Super Bowl when New England defeated Seattle with that last minute interception by Malcolm Butler. That's right. The Patriots are competing in their first Super Bowl since the tandem of Tom braided and Bill Belichick won the title in 2019. They are representing the AFC where they compiled a record of 14 and 3 under first-year Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel. Now, remember, he spent six seasons as the Tennessee Titans head coach. He also won three Super Bowl as a player for New England. The Seahawks, representing the NFC, Also finished with a record of 14 and 3 this season under second-year head coach Mike McDonald. A win this weekend would be the franchise's first Super Bowl victory since 2014 when they won the title with Russell Wilson and under head coach Pete Carroll.

So both of these coaches, Vrabel and McDonald, their first Super Bowl appearances as head coaches. What about the quarterbacks? They're also new to the Super Bowl game, correct?

Correct, which is a little bit different than last year when Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hertz had already combined with five Super Bowl starts. Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold, he was the third overall quarterback taken. That was in 2018. He's had incredible seasons, back to back years. Last year with the Vikings, this year with Seattle, throwing for over 4,000 yards and 25 touch downs. Patriots quarterback, Drake May, was also taken third overall just last year. So the young kid is making a Super Bowl appearance in just his second year as a professional quarterback. And statistically, he had even a better season, thrown for over 4,300 yards and 31 touch downs. It's also worth including both of these defenses are elite, ranking in the top of the NFL in almost every category.

Now, I also wanted to talk to you about the controversy over the halftime performance. A lot of buzz about that, really building up. And there was discussions early on about counter programming, and TPUSA stepped in to provide exactly that. What is the latest on the TPUSA halftime show?

So let's go back to the beginning here. The NFL announced in September that Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny would perform the Super Bowl halftime show. This was met with a lot of pushback, particularly from the Trump administration, due to the rapper's public criticism over his administration's immigration policies, among other things. In fact, the rapper even slam ICE again at the Grammys just this week, starting off his speech by saying, Ice out. Now, Department of Homeland Security Advisor, Cory Lewandowski said on a podcast, and I'm quoting here, It's so shameful that they've decided to pick someone who just seems to hate America so much at the halftime performance, a game of this magnitude. There's also been a petition to have him removed, citing his drag performances that he's had in the past. Espn reported this week that some NFL owners were concerned with Bad Bunny, particularly He sings primarily in Spanish. Ultimately, the owners okayed this decision due to the league's main objective, which is to grow the game internationally. That's really what this halftime performance is about, is international growth. Even Roger Goodell himself has defended the decision to give Bad Bunny this platform.

The league's increasingly been focused on growing that international market for sure. Then we have, again, this counter programming from TPUSA. What is the plan for this weekend? Correct.

Tpusa is going to host a counter halftime show, and that is titled the All-American Halftime Show for Viewers, and I'm quoting here from them, Seeking Uplifting and Patriotic Entertainment. Now, Kid Rock will headline, and he will be accompanied by country singers Lee Bryce, Brantley Gilbert, and Gabby Barrett. The goal there is, as you would expect, give performers an opportunity to sing patriotic songs and to stand up for traditional American values, basically the opposite of what many viewers are going to get from the Bad Bunny performance.

Right. And I should note that the Daily Wire will be streaming TPUSA's live show on our platform on dailywire. Com and the app for viewers. Dave, thanks so much for joining us.

Excellent. Thank you for having me.

Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're listening to the show, now you can watch for free on Daily Wire Plus. We'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.