President Donald Trump used the bully pulpit Monday to threaten Nancy Guthrie’s alleged kidnappers with the death penalty if they do not return the 84-year-old alive.
Speaking with the New York Post over the phone, Trump said that Guthrie’s alleged abductors will face “very, very severe — the most severe” consequences if Guthrie is discovered dead.
When asked if he specifically meant that the Justice Department would seek the death penalty, Trump confirmed that’s what he meant. “The most, yeah — that’s true,” he said.
Nancy Guthrie is the mother of three grown children, including Savannah Guthrie, the high-profile, 54-year-old co-host of the Today Show. Nancy was last seen by her son-in-law on the night of January 31st. A few hours later, according to police, in the early morning hours of February 1, Nancy was removed from her home. While there have been four ransom notes, there has been no proof of life, so no one knows if Nancy is alive or dead or even if she was alive on the night of her disappearance.
Although Trump has had an adversarial relationship with the corporate media, he has set that all aside to call Savannah Guthrie and assure her all the tools of the federal government are available to bring her mother home safely.
Today’s statement from the president is apparently him helping in the way only a president can: using the presidential megaphone to tell the alleged kidnappers that they can possibly avoid the death penalty, but only if they release Nancy Guthrie alive.
Nancy Guthrie has been missing for two weeks now, and based on what we know, the police and FBI are no closer to a resolution today than they were two weeks ago. Maybe Trump’s threat-slash-offramp will break something loose.
The truth is that we don’t know if Nancy Guthrie was abducted or kidnapped. We don’t even know if the four ransom demands are real.
For their part, the family has repeatedly used social media to assure the alleged kidnappers that they will pay any ransom.
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