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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Sources: CIA Working To Arm Kurdish Forces To Spark Uprising In Iran; Interview With Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA); Trump Denies Being Pulled Into War By Israel; Texas Voters Picking Nominees In Competitive Senate Races; TX Sen. Cornyn Faces Off Against Paxton, Hunt In GOP Primary Fight; Talarico, Crockett Face Off In Texas Dem Senate Primary Fight; CNN Projects: Cooper Will Win NC Dem Primary For U.S. Senate; CNN Projects: Whatley To Win NC GOP Primary For U.S. Senate. Aired 8- 9p ET
Aired March 03, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Thirty-five-year-old Captain Cody Khork, 42- year-old Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjen, 39-year-old Sergeant First Class Nicole Lamour and Sergeant Declan Cody. Declan Cody was only 20 years old.
A source is telling us there was no siren. There was no warning to give any of them time to take cover. They have given up their lives for this war and for their country and America is grateful for their service.
Thanks so much for joining us. Our breaking news coverage continues now with special election coverage on AC360.
[20:00:40]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening, thanks for joining us. We are following two big stories tonight, war and politics. A fourth consequential night in the war with Iran. It's 4:30 A.M. in Tehran, 3:00 A.M. in Tel Aviv. And we've seen a new Iranian drone strike on another American diplomatic outpost, the second in the last two days.
Here at home, polls have started closing in Texas, where a U.S. Senate primary race in that ordinarily deep red state is getting a lot of attention from Democrats looking to turn the Senate blue in November. And we'll have extensive coverage of that Texas race. But we begin with the war and breaking news.
Qatar tonight saying an Iranian ballistic missile has hit Al-Udeid Air Base, which is the largest U.S. Military installation in the Middle East. According to the Qataris, there were no casualties.
This came a short time after the Pentagon released the names and photos of four of the six service members killed in another Iranian drone strike over the weekend in Kuwait. All four of those whose names were released are from an Army Reserve Logistics Unit out of Iowa. Their Captain Cody Cork, who was 35 years old. Sergeant First Class Noah Tiedjens, who 4, 39-year-old Sergeant First Class Nicole Moore and Sergeant Declan Cody, just 20 years old. Our thoughts are with their families tonight.
No casualties at the American consulate in Dubai after a suspected Iranian drone hit the compound earlier today. Also tonight, a new and detailed update from U.S. Central Command on the state of the war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many of you may remember the shock and awe strikes of 2003. The first 24 hours of this operation were nearly double the scale, and we continue with 24/7 strikes into Iran, from seabed to space and cyberspace.
Now, we're less than 100 hours into this operation, and we've already struck nearly 2,000 targets with more than 2,000 munitions. We have severely degraded Iran's air defenses and destroyed hundreds of Iran's ballistic missiles, launchers and drones.
And in simple terms, were focused on shooting all the things that can shoot at us. We are also sinking the Iranian navy, the entire navy thus far, we've destroyed 17 Iranian ships, including the most operational Iranian submarine that now has a hole in its side.
For decades, the Iranian regime has harassed international shipping. Today, there's not a single Iranian ship underway in the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz or Gulf of Oman. And we will not stop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, caught in the middle of all of this with Iranian reprisal attacks targeting countries from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Strait of Hormuz, there are a lot of Americans in harm's way with no way out. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, today said that about 1,600 Americans have already asked for help getting out.
Yet four days into the war and after months of war planning, this is what you hear when you called the State Department hotline were showing you at the bottom of the screen. The one Secretary Rubio has been urging Americans to use.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AUTOMATED HOTLINE RESPONSE: If you are calling about the crisis in the middle east, please press one. If not press two. Please do not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure or evacuation at this time.
There are currently no United States evacuation points. Please continue to check the Embassy's website for updated information. In the event of ongoing military action Americans should shelter in place until it is safe to move about freely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, at home administration officials briefed lawmakers ahead of Senate debate this week on a bipartisan resolution requiring the President to get Congressional signoff for any additional military action in Iran. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): I think the President has the authority that he needs to conduct the activities and the operations that are currently underway there.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): We shouldn't be proceeding to legislation providing votes to proceed to legislation until they put an authorization for military force on the floor of the United States Senate. This is as serious as it gets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: As we said at the top, we are also covering a big election night. So, in the hour ahead, we'll be checking in with our correspondents and political professionals on that and on the war. CNN's Clarissa Ward is near Iran's border with Iraq. CNN's Kaitlan Collins is in Washington and in Tel Aviv with new Israeli strikes outbound and a new wave of Iranian drones reportedly inbound CNN's Jeremy Diamond.
So, we begin with him. So, Jeremy, what more can you tell us about this, this broad wave of strikes launched by Israel in Iran and what are they targeting?
[20:05:11]
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN, JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, this has been an extraordinarily active day of Israeli airstrikes over the skies of Iran, likely joined by American strikes as well. As far as the Israeli strikes are concerned, indeed, the Israeli military is describing the strikes that are happening right now as broad strikes, targeting in particular launch sites, aerial defense systems. And I can tell you from speaking with Israeli officials that one of the primary goals of the Israeli military right now is to degrade Iran's capability of firing ballistic missiles at Israel.
Those are the missiles that have killed at least ten people so far in Israel in these first days of this war. And indeed, it appears that Israel is succeeding in degrading Iran's ballistic missile capabilities. While we have continued to see ballistic missiles being fired from Iran towards Israel, it does appear like those barrages are getting smaller by the day. That is at least the trend line although it's clear that Iran still retains some capacity for firing these missiles.
Earlier today, I was on the outskirts of Tel Aviv with Israel's paramedic and rescue service at the scene of a missile that was intercepted, but nonetheless, just the shrapnel from that missile able to partially cave in a roof, resulting in seven light to moderate injuries among people there. So, these missiles are still posing a threat to Israelis. But in a sign that Israel is confident this threat has been reduced as early as Wednesday night.
We expect that some flights are going to start resuming back to Israel, mostly bringing Israelis who are stuck abroad, back home. COOPER: And Clarissa Ward is joining us as well.
Clarissa, sources have told CNN that the CIA is working to arm Kurdish Forces to try to help foment or spark some sort of an uprising in Iran. Is it clear how that might unfold? And is this do we know much about this? Is this a kind of a new effort?
CLARISSA WARD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, this is a pretty extraordinary development. We actually sat down earlier on tonight with an Iranian Kurdish senior leader who told us that Iranian Kurdish forces are literally preparing a ground operation inside Western Iran in the coming days, with the support of the U.S. and Israel. He wouldn't give any details as to what exactly that support looks like. But he did tell us that President Trump actually spoke on the phone today with the leader of the KDP-I, that's one of the big Iranian Kurdish groups here. He wouldn't characterize the details of the conversation, but he said it was a positive conversation.
And this is something that is coming at the same time as this reporting from Natasha Bertrand, Alayna Treene and Zachary Cohen that the CIA is actively arming Kurdish forces, Iranian Kurdish forces, in order to try to foment civil unrest in Iran with all the many multitude of risks and complexity that that entails.
But one of the big ones here, in terms of questions, will be the response of the Iraqi Kurdish leadership here in Iraqi Kurdistan, because they have tried very hard to kind of carve out a neutral path in this conflict. The relationships that they have with Iran and with Turkey are very important, and this really puts them in an extremely difficult position.
So, we are now waiting and watching very closely to see how they're going to respond, if indeed this ground operation is going to go forward and what that will look like and what this broader operation that the CIA is involved with will look like. Because again, the complexity, the dangers, the risks are multiple -- Anderson.
COOPER: Well, let me just follow up with you, because this is I mean, kind of remarkable that you were talking to one of these folks today. What are their, how many troops do they have? What sort of weaponry do they have? How capable are they? How big a force are we talking about?
WARD: We're talking thousands, but we don't know a specific number. There are five groups that have joined in this coalition. The Iranian Kurds have historically been treated appallingly by the Islamic Republic of Iran and I asked them you know, when you look at what happened to the Syrian Kurds, are you not concerned that you are going to be ostensibly, you know used and abused in this scenario, but they're so focused on trying to get back into their homeland and to carve out an autonomous region. They like to see Iran be a federal state.
I asked them about the weaponry because to our knowledge, they don't have heavy weaponry. He was pretty coy about that, Anderson. He basically just said, you know, don't worry about that. We're prepared and were always ready to go in. So, it's a pretty extraordinary moment. And I think making a lot of people across the region extremely nervous -- Anderson.
[20:10:10]
COOPER: Jeremy, you have some new reporting on how the plan to kill Iran's Supreme Leader actually came together. What have you learned?
DIAMOND: Yes, that's right, Anderson, as in previous cases where Israel has achieved, you know, the ability to assassinate some of its enemies, whether we're talking about the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, or others, in this case, we are finding out once again that this was a strike. That was the result of years of intelligence gathering and this specific operation involved Israel hacking into the traffic cameras in Iran's capital city.
That allowed the Israelis to have real time information about some of their targets. This is according to a source who was briefed on this operation, who I spoke to. It helped them establish a pattern of some of these targets.
And one of the groups of individuals that they tracked were actually the elite bodyguards to some of Iran's senior leaders and Israeli officials, intelligence officials were able to watch as these bodyguards were coming and going from the very compound where the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on Saturday morning in that opening wave of Israeli strikes alongside dozens of other senior Iranian officials.
And this was just one piece of the critical information that the Israelis had combined with signals intelligence, human intelligence, all of it fed into an A.I. powered data center that allowed the Israelis to build up this bank of targets and choose the right moment to be able to take out the Supreme Leader and other senior Iranian officials.
COOPER: It's fascinating. Jeremy Diamond, Clarissa Ward, thank you.
At home, four days into the war, the administration is still trying to explain why they decided to strike Iran and why now. Yesterday, you may remember Secretary of State Marco Rubio surprised many with a comment he made to reporters suggesting that a decision by Israel to attack Iran led the U.S. to join in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher than those killed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Those remarks were widely criticized. And today, President Trump claimed it may have been him who forced Israel's hand. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Mr. President, did Israel forced your hand to launch these strikes against Iran? Did Netanyahu pull the United States, into this war?
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: No. I might have forced their hand. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first they were going to attack. If we didn't do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That was the President this morning. Now, here's secretary Rubio late this afternoon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Yesterday you told us that Israel was going to strike Iran and that that's why we needed to get involved. Today, the President said that Iran was going to get --
RUBIO: No, yes, your statement is false. So that's not what I was asked very specifically. Were you there yesterday?
REPORTER: Yes, I am present.
RUBIO: Okay, where you the one -- because somebody asked me a question yesterday, did we go in because of Israel? And I said you asked me that the follow up. And I said, no, I told you this had to happen anyway, the President made a decision, and the decision he made was that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ballistic missile program, that Iran was not going to be allowed to hide behind its ability to conduct these attacks.
That decision had been made. The President systematically made a decision to systematically destroy this terroristic capability that they had, and we carried that out. I was very clear on that answer. This was a question of timing of why this had to happen as a joint operation, not the question of the intent once the President made a decision that negotiations were not going to work, they were playing us on the negotiations and that this was a threat that was untenable. The decision was made to strike them. That's what I said yesterday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: More on all this from CNN anchor and chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins, who joins us now. Clearly, they now seem to be on the same page or in sync in their explanations. It did not seem that way yesterday.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN'S CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT AND THE ANCHOR OF "THE SOURCE": Well, it also didn't seem that way this morning when the President was asked that question. And I think the reason we're seeing this change, Anderson, is because the administration and the President, they were facing a lot of criticism from people on the right who walked away from that answer from Secretary Rubio yesterday, not what he said just there, but what he said repeatedly yesterday during that back and forth with reporters about why this had to happen now.
That was the question that was being posed to him. And obviously, the argument coming from him was that Israel was going to strike anyway and Iran was going to hit back at the United States should they do that? And the President arguing that he believed that there was going to be a preemptive strike from Iran because they were worried about Israel striking them, and that was why the United States needed to get in. They faced criticism from that because people on the right were taking that answer as the White House, saying that because Israel was doing this, that is why the United States felt the need to do it.
And so, the President obviously offered a different answer today, saying that he actually was the one, he believes, who forced Israel's hand on this front. And it matters, obviously, as the White House has been trying to rally support for this decision and for what the President is doing here and get Republicans behind what exactly is being carried out here.
But those are two very different reasons than what we heard from the Secretary of State yesterday and what we heard from the President this morning.
[20:15:23]
COOPER: Yes, certainly. Kaitlan Collins thanks very much. We'll see you at nine, one of Kaitlan's guests is going to be former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as the results start coming in from tonight's big primary races in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas. We're going to dig into that as well, coming up in this hour.
Next though, more on the war the administrations justification for it and fighting of it. We're joined by top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, also by retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:20:06]
COOPER: With Iran continuing to lash out at targets around the region including the American consulate in Dubai and the big American air base in Qatar, and with hundreds of American civilians stuck in harm's way, lawmakers got a briefing on Capitol Hill today on the war from administration officials.
Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. He took part in yesterday's briefing for the Gang of Eight. Congressman, thanks for being here. I'm wondering what your reaction is to these new details from CENTCOM, nearly 2,000 Iranian targets struck by U.S. forces, the destruction of hundreds of ballistic missiles, launchers drones, 17 Iranian naval ships. Is it clear to you what the strategy is here? What the objective is?
REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): It is not and that's part of the problem. It's bounced a lot, around a lot on a number of different pieces. You know, from being in that briefing and talking with other people, it seems like the strategy is to hit Iran as hard as possible and President Trump has made allusions to what happened in Venezuela.
Now, comparing Venezuela to Iran is just a remarkable amount of ignorance, much more complicated problem than Iran. But I think President Trump's vision, to the extent that he has one, is that he will batter Iran to the point where no matter who is left in charge they will feel like they can't stand up to the U.S. and they'll have to do what we ask them to.
Now, that's not really playing out. And also, it leaves behind the question of all the people in Iran who want a bigger regime change than that. And frankly the means and the ability of achieving either one of those outcomes.
COOPER: There's been this report about the possibility of the CIA or others arming Kurdish forces in Kurdistan to, in Iraq, to enter to enter Iran tried to foment regime change. I'm wondering, is that something you would support?
SMITH: No, I don't support regime change. And we see how this plays out I mean, look, think of it this way I mean, Trump is basically a bull who just walked into the world's largest, most densely populated China shop. Everywhere he turns, something breaks, as you were reporting. Okay, so you send in the Iranian Kurds. How do the Iraqi Kurds react to that? Are they then dragged into the war and attacked even more? As you mentioned we have, gosh, over 100,000 U.S. civilians trapped in the Middle East being told to leave even while the airports are shut down. Hezbollah and Israel are now back in a full-scale conflict.
It's spiraling out of control with no clear plan how to have an off ramp either a short term off ramp or to your point. You know, it's the sort of long-term plan here. Is the CIA planning on backing Kurdish rebels to eventually overturn the government and give us a new government, Iran? And who's that going to be?
We have walked into a huge mess this is exactly the lesson that we should have learned and that President Trump claimed he had learned when he was running for President from Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya, you just can't go dropping a bunch of bombs and know where it's going to go, particularly in the Middle East.
COOPER: What role should Congress have in this?
SMITH: Yes, well, Congress should have had approval in the first place. And by the way that's the reason for the little, you know, dance step with Marco Rubio about, well Israel was going to attack and then they were going to attack us. That's the argument that this was an imminent threat, which is the only justification for this type of large-scale military action without Congressional approval. Is it imminent threat?
Well, you know President Trump shot that down. He said, no I decided to go hit them. And by the way there is no evidence whatsoever that Iran was getting ready to attack. They were building up their ballistic missile capability, definitely a problem, but there's no evidence that they were going to attack us or Israel anytime soon.
So, you know, that's the problem with justification for this, which means Congress' role is we should have to approve this before it goes forward. That's the vote we're going to take tomorrow on a war powers resolution.
And I think even if you support this war and I don't, just to be clear, but even if you support it as a member of Congress, House or Senate, you should be willing to go on record and vote to back that up the President shouldn't be allowed to do this on his own.
COOPER: Congressman Adam Smith, thanks for your time, appreciate it.
SMITH: Thank you.
COOPER: Joining me now is retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. He's the author of a new book which is incredibly moving, "If I Don't Return: A Fathers Wartime Journal".
We're going to have Mark on next week to talk about the book because it's really good. It's in bookstores March 10th.
General Hertling, I appreciate you being with us on this topic. When we look at this map of where the U.S. and Israel have struck, I'm wondering what your assessment of this mission is so far and where you think it goes from here.
LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, from both a tactical and operational standpoint, Anderson, the individual battles, if you will, aircraft strikes and navy missile tomahawk missile strikes, they're doing very good in terms of the tactical fight and putting those battles together for an operational plan.
But as Congressman Smith just said, if you don't have a strategy those two things don't matter. Where we stand right now, I think, is the very beginning of something that the President's administration did not anticipate, that Iran gets a vote and they get to fight back.
[20:25:20]
They are going to do their very best, just like Hamas and Hezbollah did, of extending the timeline. And we, the U.S. as a nation, we tend to get bored with combat, so we will become bored. The nation will become bored with this. While Iran continues to draw it out. I also think we're going to see Iran putting leadership in the security apparatus. They're going to continue to replace dead leaders.
They've got a plan for that. They learned the last time they were attacked by Israel and the United States, what to do. And doing that is going to keep the regime in place in check. They were trying to vote on new leaders today when those new leaders were struck. But truthfully, they have a transformation plan. They know what they have to do to maintain the offensive and defensive operations. And finally, I think they're going to continue to raise the cost for the U.S. and Israel by continuing these fights with other gulf cooperation council members.
We're seeing an extensive number of Iranian strikes against other countries in the best way possible, and they're mixing the cruise missiles that they have, the long-range missiles with those Shahed drones, and baffling some of the air defense systems that are in defensive positions in those countries.
So, the fight is going well from an air force campaign perspective. But were talking about long term strategy and understanding what the enemy is going to do.
COOPER: I mean, you know, what happened in Iraq better than anybody? De-Ba'athification, which was the policy of the U.S. led to you know essentially funneled all these people into an insurgency. They had access to weapons, they had military training, and suddenly they were without power, and they were fighting back.
The CIA now, there's these sources telling CNN that the CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of sparking a popular uprising in Iran. We've seen incredibly brave protesters go out into the streets thousands, maybe tens of thousands have been killed. You still have an awful lot of people from the revolutionary guard corps on down who are armed and have weapons and access and the levers of control still.
HERTLING: Yes, you know there's estimates when you're talking about the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij, the two major groups, along with a lot of other minor groups inside of Iran, they will continue to fight. And the estimates of the size of those are anywhere from 400,000 to about 700,000 fighters. And they all have pretty good weapon systems. They're well-armed as infantry forces.
I heard your question to Congressman Smith about the Kurds and when I first heard that the CIA manning the Kurds, you know, I think you and I talked one time a long, a long time ago about my experiences with the Kurds. You have about eight or nine different Kurdish parties that are in Iran, Iraq and Syria, you mentioned that. They all don't get along with each other, and I'm not sure they're going to come together in a common bond, like they get that they get against ISIS to try and take over the Iranian, or what's left of the Iranian government.
It's just a mission that's too big and if you haven't planned that beforehand, and if the U.S. government is just beginning to think of, hey, maybe we should arm the Kurds it's a little bit too late for that. That takes a whole lot of coordination, a whole lot of on the ground discussion and collaboration with those groups to get them into a fight and I'm not sure, unlike what happened in Iraq, that they would be willing to fight against the Iranian government and plus, it's a country that's three times the size of Iraq, and it's a whole lot more space to move to go into the capital city and trying to provide the leadership for any kind of resistance group. COOPER: Yes. General Mark Hertling, always good to talk to you. We'll talk to you next week as well. Thank you.
Up next, we have breaking news in Texas. The hotly contested Republican and Democratic senate primary races. We'll get the latest from our reporters on the ground in the Lone Star State. And John King is at the magic wall.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:30:00]
[20:34:17]
COOPER: You're looking there at four major Texas Senate contenders competing in Democratic and Republican primaries that have taken on new significance this time around because control of the Senate is in play, and even deep red Texas could be too. Some polls have closed there.
CNN Chief National Correspondent John King starts off our coverage. So where do the races in Texas stand right now, John?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, we are counting the first votes of this consequential midterm year. So that is breaking news in its own right, but we have a long way to go before we know anything clear about these two marquee Senate races, primaries in Texas tonight, plus a few great House primaries as well. We'll want to watch.
This is the Republican map as we have right here, but just the fact that we're talking about this, right, tells you something. John Cornyn is a longtime Senate incumbent Republican from the state of Texas, and yet he faces a big primary challenge this year from the MAGA conservative Ken Paxton.
[20:35:03]
Now, the President has not endorsed in this race. He says he likes all of the candidates. Congressman Wesley Hunt is running as well. We're very early on in the vote count.
You see Senator Cornyn ahead a bit there by 21,000 votes. We just got our first votes in Dallas County. That's the second largest in the state, and you see that Senator Cornyn is leading there. If he is to win this primary, you have to get 50 percent, 50 percent plus one, or else we have a runoff down the road a little bit between the two top candidates.
This is what Senator Cornyn would have to do. Think of this as establishment versus Trump, if you will. We've talked about this for years. Establishment Republicans like Cornyn, in a primary, he has to win in the urban areas where you have the suburbs, the more affluent, college-educated Republicans, not-so-Trumpy Republicans.
They might vote for Trump, but they're not so Trumpy. And look for Paxton when we get out here in all these rural counties to run it up like Trump does. So we're going to watch this one as it plays out on the Republican side. Again, a competitive Republican primary involving an incumbent who was in the Senate leadership is a big deal. It tells you about tension within the Republican family.
Now, the question, as you mentioned, is this the year? How many years have we said might Texas finally go blue, at least for a cycle? You have two prominent Democrats running here, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. She's ahead at the moment, just shy of 52 percent of the vote. State Senator Seminarian James Talarico is running there.
These are both progressive candidates. A lot of people want to cast this, Anderson, as, you know, sort of the liberal versus moderate. That's not really fair. Their personalities are very different. How they sell themselves are very different, but their approaches are pretty similar. Left of center there.
And again, none of the urban areas here. We had some Republican votes in Dallas. We have nothing from Dallas County when it comes to the Democrats.
Harris County is Houston. That's number one. Dallas County, Dallas, obviously number two. Then you go over here. We do have some. Tarrant County is number three. In terms of size, that's Fort Worth.
You see Congresswoman Crockett ahead a bit there. And then you're talking about the San Antonio area, the Austin area. But they're just starting to sprinkle in. We're going to be at this for quite some time.
But you make the point, will Texas be competitive in November? If you and I are talking about Texas on election night, come November, that tells you Trump and Republicans are having a very, very, very bad year. If red Texas is in play come November, that's bad news for the White House.
COOPER: Yes. John, thanks very much. We're going to check back in with John throughout this hour.
Right now, I want to go to CNN's Jeff Zeleny. He is in Austin at the campaign headquarters of the Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico. So what's the latest there? What are you hearing from voters?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, one of the reasons that no votes are in Dallas County yet, the voting has been extended there for two extra hours. So that is something that has thrown a bit of a curveball into the late stages of this race. There was some confusion over where voters were supposed to show up and vote today.
They did a precinct-level voting, as opposed to just showing up to a wider voting area that everyone could vote at. So all eyes of both candidates are on that. But the bigger question here, Anderson, hanging over this race is, what type of fighters are Democrats looking for? What type of resistance are Democrats trying to build? Jasmine Crockett, of course, a member of Congress from the Dallas area, she portrays herself as the strongest fighter of all, taking it to the President and Republicans. James Talarico, a state representative from the Austin area, he casts himself as a fighter, yes, but in a softer mold. He talks about love over hate.
He is trying to build the party through Democrats, yes, also some moderates, and even some disillusioned Republicans. So Anderson, for all the voters we've talked to here as we spent quite a bit of time here in Texas, I'm thinking to a man from Houston we met yesterday.
He three times voted for Donald Trump. He went to see James Talarico and said he's voting for him because he said he believes it's time for a change. How many voters are like that? We shall see. But that's one piece of anecdotal evidence out there that James Talarico is building and expanding the party. Of course, Jasmine Crockett is trying to fire up the Democratic base. Anderson?
COOPER: All right, Jeff, thanks for that.
I want to go to Dallas and the campaign headquarters, Republican candidate Ken Paxton, who's trying to unseat the longtime incumbent Senator John Cornyn. CNN's Arlette Saenz is there. What's the latest there? And what are you hearing from voters?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, voters here are gathering as they hope that the state's Attorney General Ken Paxton will be the eventual GOP nominee. Paxton is posing a very real political threat to Senator John Cornyn, who is in one of the toughest political battles of his longtime career in Washington.
Paxton and his allies have argued that Cornyn is not conservative enough, that he is not closely aligned with President Trump. But Cornyn has tried to push back on that. And he has also tried to argue that some of the past controversies surrounding the state's Attorney General, including on legal levels and personal levels, that that would be detrimental to Republicans' ability to win here in Texas in November, not just in that U.S. Senate seat, but also in down-ballot races.
Now, in speaking to operatives with both the Cornyn and Paxton camps tonight, they are anticipating that this contest will head into a late May runoff, because it is a crowded three-way field that also includes Congressman Wesley Hunt.
[20:40:07]
These campaigns are expecting that they may not reach that 50 percent threshold to avoid the runoff. And this has already been an incredibly expensive race, with it expected to bring in even more and more money in the weeks to come if this does, in fact, extend to that runoff.
COOPER: All right, Arlette Saenz, thanks very much. We'll continue checking with you.
We're going to get some perspective from our political panel next. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: CNN can make a projection in the North Carolina Senate primary. In the Democratic side, former Governor Roy Cooper projected to win. And on the Republican side, it is Michael Whatley.
Here to talk about it, CNN Senior Political Commentator Scott Jennings, CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, CNN Senior Political Commentator Van Jones, and John King is back as well.
John, I want to start with you. What's the early vote telling you right now?
[20:45:01]
KING: So let's just look quickly at that North Carolina race. This is one of the races where Democrats are hopeful because they have a good statewide candidate, a former governor running in the primary. Roy Cooper getting, this was not a hard call, 93 percent of the vote as the votes come in. So he will be your Democratic nominee.
This one's a bit more interesting. I'd like to hear Scott's view on this when you get to the panel. With Michael Whatley was the former Republican National Committee chairman, he's become a Donald Trump guy. He used to be more of an establishment Republican.
The two candidates running against him are more MAGA candidates here. Michael Whatley is winning easily. Don't get me wrong here. He's getting 64 percent of the vote. He will be the Republican nominee in November. But you are seeing a bit of a, you know, more MAGA candidates getting some of the -- what you would think of normally as the Trumpy base.
So some of the Trump base not going with Trump's candidates. Is that a big deal? We find that out in November when folks vote in the general election. But I just point that out that Roy Cooper coasts and Whatley has just a little bit.
Let's just look at Texas. This is the marquee race we're going to be talking about tonight. And again, we're nowhere close here. Number one, as Arlette and Jeff were talking about, both campaigns, Cornyn and Paxton, believe this is going to head to a runoff. We'll see if we get there. You have to get 50 percent plus one to get there.
We're at about 26 percent of the vote. We're beginning to get some votes. If you're Cornyn, you're seeing Harris County. That's the largest population center in the state. You're getting 39 to 39 there. So that's a draw.
If that's a draw at the end of the night, then guess what? We're going to a runoff. Cornyn has -- would have to run it up here to surprise us in places like that. Because when you get out here into these rural counties, you should expect Paxton.
Although Cornyn's doing well up in the top quarter of the state, you should expect Paxton to do well in the smaller rural counties. Very quickly, I don't want to take all the time, just look at the Senate Democratic primary. Talarico has pulled into the lead. Crockett was ahead early on.
But again, we've got about 30 percent of the vote counted. But as we get more votes, again, we're waiting on Dallas. They kept that open a little longer because of some polling place confusion. Harris County, 53 to 45. That's the largest vote center there.
So a long way to go. It's just great to be back counting votes in the first primary night, Anderson. This is going to be a big monumental midterm year.
COOPER: Yes, it's a really fascinating night.
Dana, I mean, both primary races in Texas are kind of indications of -- for both parties, really, of a path forward.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question. And, look, this traditionally is not a state where we look to see a possible general election matchup that is going to matter. A Democrat hasn't won statewide since 1994. But there are also, to your point, kind of many races that are indicators of where the Democrats are. And it's not as if -- and I think John made this point earlier, James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett are super far apart on policy.
COOPER: It's more approach.
BASH: But it's more approach and personality. Jasmine Crockett is an Internet sensation. And that's how she became well-known across the country and even more so in Texas, where she was already known. And Talarico is trying to win with a more pragmatic approach. He talks about his faith a lot. He's trying to insert that back into the Democratic Party.
Yes, and on the Republican side, this is the ultimate test of a traditional Republican. John Cornyn, we were talking, is kind of the ultimate country club Republican. And Paxton, who has tried as hard as he could for the past 10 years to be as MAGA as possible, leading the charge, particularly on lawsuits wherever he could on behalf of the president. And that --
COOPER: Scott, where do you see this race, and how concerned are you about all the money that's being spent by Republicans on this? I mean, it should be a --
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Makes me very happy.
COOPER: Yes, sure.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Of course it does, man.
BASH: So much money.
JENNINGS: Well, look, number one, it is a big split down there. And, you know, Cornyn's been a reliable ally of Donald Trump. He's been a reliable Republican. It's the performative nature of it. It's the attitude. It's the way you carry yourself in the new Donald Trump era.
Cornyn sort of predates that era. And so some of it is stylistic. And Paxton obviously thinks he has energy that better matches the current iteration of the base of the Republican Party. But Cornyn has been around a long time. He's been a very reliable and conservative Republican, even if rhetorically or performatively. He doesn't do the same things that Paxton does.
Interestingly, there's a third person, Wesley Hunt, who's a congressman. He's going to get some votes. That's going to keep this probably in runoff territory. And you're talking about money. So if Cornyn and Paxton do go to a runoff, there'll be a huge amount of money.
But I'll tell you, that's where Donald Trump comes into play. He did not choose a candidate in this primary yet. He has relationships with all three. But if you get to a runoff, both Paxton and Cornyn will be making an argument to the President. Hey, let's just settle this now.
And you tell the people in Texas who you want. Cornyn would say, I'm more electable statewide. Paxton would say, I'm a more reliable ally. And we'll have to see where the President goes. There are some Republicans who believe that Paxton would be a harder sell statewide in a tough midterm year. And that would be an argument that Cornyn would make to say, hey, we don't have the money to do this.
You don't have $100 million to spend here in Texas. And that's why you should endorse me. But a lot of it will fall on President Trump's shoulders if he chooses to get in.
[20:50:07]
COOPER: Van, what do you think on the Democratic side?
JONES: Well, look, Jasmine Crockett has a different theory of politics. The policy stuff is pretty much the same. But her view is if you put somebody up who's a fighter, who's electorate, that people who don't vote will come out. You can change the map. You can change the math with a different style of politics.
Tonight, we'll see if she's correct. If she's correct, that should first show itself inside our own party. And if she pulls this off tonight, then it's a signal that maybe there's some new wisdom emerging from the grassroots that a different style of politics can change the math and change the map.
But I think, you know, most people would usually go with someone like Talarico because they think he can pull in the moderates. He can pull in even some Republicans, as we saw tonight. This is up to the voters. We can sit up here all night long and talk. We will see what the grassroots thinks is the best way to take on Donald Trump.
But don't think that Jasmine Crockett is just an Internet sensation. She is that, but she also was trying to see if she can change the turnout ratio of unlikely voters. There is a strategy here.
COOPER: But, you know, for people who are sick of kind of the tone of politics today --
JONES: Well, then Talarico's your guy.
COOPER: -- that would be the argument for tonight (ph).
JONES: Yes. I mean, you know --
BASH: Yes.
JONES: -- if you want somebody who's going to go toe-to-toe with the people who jump on TV and do, like, jazz with your person --
BASH: Yes.
JONES: -- but some people are tired of that.
BASH: Yes. Yes, no question about that. I thought you were going in a different direction with that question, which is on the Republican side. Because Paxton, I mean, he -- you were talking about how it's gotten ugly, it has gotten really ugly on the --
JENNINGS: Oh my goodness.
BASH: -- Republican side. And it is in large part because Cornyn is jumping on a lot of issues that Paxton has had. Never mind --
COOPER: Yes, I mean, he's got a lot of --
BASH: -- personal issues --
COOPER: -- emotional -- personal baggage.
JENNINGS: Well, look, he ran an ad --
BASH: Yes.
JENNINGS: -- John Cornyn, at the end of his primary. That when I first saw it, it like melted my eyebrows off. I've never seen anything like this before.
JONES: You --
JENNINGS: And, I mean, it's --
JONES: -- are a cheater and a liar.
JENNINGS: -- it touched a lot of issues. And even if you do see things that incendiary, it's usually an outside group. No, no, this was incendiary. And I'm John Cornyn and I approve this message. It was wild. And so, to your point, it has gotten a little chippy down in Texas. There's no love lost between these campaigns.
COOPER: Why do you think the President hasn't weighed in? BASH: He's -- he --
COOPER: He's wants to see where the wind is blowing?
BASH: Well, I think in the short term, meaning up through the primary, John Cornyn is a longtime senator. As you said, Scott, yes, the two of them are very different stylistically but Cornyn has voted with the president consistently. And Paxton has been on the front lines for the President. I mean, he was there with the President --
JENNINGS: Yes.
BASH: -- after January 6th. He was suing people left and right during --
COOPER: He went to court in the courtroom with --
BASH: Exactly --
JONES: Yes, yes.
BASH: -- suing people left and right after Joe Biden took over. So --
JENNINGS: Yes.
JONES: We could love to go --
JENNINGS: And Wesley Hunt, the third person --
BASH: Yes.
JENNINGS: -- he's been a big -- so Trump had legitimately three allies. It was a tough choice.
COOPER: We're going to take a quick break. Back with everyone as the vote in Texas continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:56:30]
COOPER: As Texas counts the votes, we were talking primary politics and what it could mean. To that, we go to John King. Before the break, he called it a monumental midterm year. John?
KING: It is a big year. Remember 2018, that put the brakes on the Trump presidency. Democrats won the House. Nancy Pelosi became Speaker. The question is, does that happen again?
The President's approval rating right now tells you it's a possibility. Texas is leading us off on the first big primary. And I'll just give you a quick update on the Senate race right now. State Senator James Talarico, 52 percent to 47 percent. If you round up for Congressman Jasmine Crockett. What's interesting about this, Anderson, Jeff Zeleny told us earlier, Dallas extended the voting hours for a couple hours. So we have to wait to see when those big Democratic location comes in there. But Talarico is running it up in the more moderate counties right now. The more rural counties, smaller vote count. But this is how Trump does it. You run it up big in these smaller counties and it helps you, but it's early in the vote count again.
A lot to still come in in Dallas and a lot to still just check in Houston. Or up to almost 70 percent down there in Harris County. So we'll keep watching that. And then the question here on the Republican side, does somebody get to 50 percent plus one? That would avoid a runoff. None of the campaigns think that will happen.
Senator John Cornyn, the incumbent, ahead right now at 44 percent when you round up. The Attorney General, Ken Paxton, a very MAGA candidate at 39. But again, you're seeing the votes trickle in here. But the key here, Anderson, as we watch this, we'll try to see where are the splits in the Republican Party. But most likely, still a couple hours of county to go, most likely we go to a runoff in May here between the top two.
COOPER: John King, thanks very much.
Back with the panel. How much do you think James Talarico, his prospects were boosted or name recognition was boosted by the whole thing with Stephen Colbert?
JONES: That was a big rocket for him. He had to be a real news nerd to know who he was before then. But that moment where, you know, suddenly, you know, Stephen Colbert, who's obviously a legend among Democrats, says, hey, this kid, Trump and these guys don't want to hear from. I'm going to let you hear from him now.
That's when he really, I mean, he got $2.5 million, I think the next day. And it put him on the map. You could see it kind of irritated Jasmine Crockett a little bit that he was getting all this attention, because up until then, I mean, she was very far ahead. If in fact he closes, probably that's the day that started.
BASH: Yes.
COOPER: Do you think that's --
BASH: I definitely think it was true. Like you said, we obviously knew Talarico. We were covering him, looking at, you know, the kind of personality he was. But it was completely different after that.
JONES: You can't pay (ph) for that level.
BASH: You can't, you can't. Which is ironic because it was Jasmine Crockett who before was getting all this sort of, you know, earned media online.
COOPER: Scott, you look skeptical.
JENNINGS: But -- well, look -- but let's just admit it was an op, right? I mean, Trump had nothing to do with it. COOPER: Yes.
JENNINGS: It was CBS's lawyers that had raised internal issues today (ph).
BASH: No, no, it's not --
JENNINGS: I mean, it was a total sort of a hoax about how they positioned it. But I tend to agree --
JONES: Detailed details.
JENNINGS: I know. I'm glad that's what you think. But I tend to agree --
BASH: That's happened to Democrats.
JENNINGS: It -- I'll tell you this, it showed where the Democratic --
BASH: Exactly.
JENNINGS: -- establishment is on it. They don't want Crockett. I think the Republicans would love to run against Jasmine Crockett, because she's easier to paint as a radical. But it kind of showed you where the power brokers and the Democrats were (ph).
COOPER: Do you think Talarico would be harder for Republicans to run against? He has more crossover appeal, do you think?
JENNINGS: Probably, although I still think he's an extremist. But Crockett is easier to paint as a radical. I think that's become clear.
COOPER: All right. Thanks. Appreciate it, everybody on the panel.
One last note. Toward the top of the program, we played a portion of the message you hear from the State Department when calling the hotline that you see at the bottom of your screen. Well, they have updated that recording to say that the U.S. is committed to helping U.S. citizens who want to leave the region to do so.
If you're calling for assistance with travel, please stay on the line. Previously, the message that we had played went -- essentially said that we can help you, call back, keep checking. Now they're saying, please stay on the line, that someone will help. At that point, the caller is eventually connected to an operator.
That's it for us. The news continues, the election coverage. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
