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Israel F-35 Downs Iranian YAK-130 In First Dogfight Of War; Suspected Iranian Drone Strikes Near U.S. Consulate In Dubai; James Talarico Wins Texas Democratic Senate Primary; Cornyn, Paxton Head To Runoff In Texas Senate GOP Race. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired March 04, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Erica Hill joining you from New York. We are covering two big stories this hour here in the United States, some high stakes U.S. primary elections in a number of key states.

BECK ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And I'm Becky Anderson from our Middle East programming hub here in Abu Dhabi in the UAE where we are covering the very latest on the war with Iran.

And right now Israel is launching what it calls broad scale strikes targeting Iranian terror regime targets in Tehran. And just a short time ago the IDF said it shot down an Iranian F-35 fighter jet over Tehran. This marks the 10th wave of Israeli strikes since the war began on Saturday.

U.S. based human rights group says more than 1,000 people, including children have been killed in Iran over the past few days. And in Beirut, explosions and smoke can be seen in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital this morning. This comes after the Israeli military issued an urgent warning for residents to evacuate the area claiming they were in close proximity to Hezbollah facilities.

Well, let's get you to CNN's Oren Liebermann who's following developments and joins us now live from Tel Aviv. And Oren, it's important to get us up to date on the very latest on both fronts now, both in Lebanon and in Iran, if you will.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Becky, let's start with Iran where I just want to go back to the statement we just got from the Israeli military a short time ago. It was an Israeli F-35 fighter jet that they say shot down an Iranian fighter jet. And they say that marks the first time an F-35 that's a U.S. made advanced stealth 5th generation fighter jet has shot down another manned fighter jet, an air to air kill, the first for the F-35. We'll wait to see if the Iranians comment on it, although I don't have the exact type of the Iranian jet in front of me. It is a Soviet fighter jet that is decades old.

Much of the Iranian air force is either decades old, Soviet fighters or decades old American fighter jets that were given to Iran in the 70s and 80s if I'm not mistaken, or the 70s, I should say. So that's the latest from the Israeli military, but they did say about an hour ago they are carrying out what they called broad strikes against Iranian targets in Tehran.

We have seen them say they're -- they've expanded their air superiority and that effectively means that the Israeli air force can do whatever it wants and can go after whatever targets it feels it needs to go to. Israel has said that over the past months, since the 12-day war between Israel, Iran in June, they have massively expanded their target list.

And it very much appears like we are watching them work their way down that target list as these go on. They have targeted not only ballistic missile arrays and ballistic missile launchers, but also Iranian regime targets, intelligence headquarters, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and they are simply now working their way down that list, not only going after the regime, but also the regime's ability to ensure and choose its own successors. That is the Iran front right now.

Iran has been able to retaliate. You can see some video that we got from Reuters earlier today. This is over the skies of Jerusalem. Alarms went off there early this morning and then at around six o'clock this morning, again interceptions over the skies of Jerusalem.

So despite Israel's best efforts to take out Iran's ballistic missiles, Iran still able to launch and still able to reach at least the skies over Israel, even though I don't believe we've seen a direct impact in the past 48 hours or so.

On to Lebanon where Israel has continued to carry out strikes and order evacuation warnings in southern Lebanon. Now Israel is focusing on Dahieh, a suburb of the southern part of the capital of Beirut. There where Israel says it's going after Hezbollah targets. The Lebanese Ministry of Health saying residential buildings have been hit, several killed there as the death toll in Lebanon continues to rise.

It was the Israeli military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir who said yesterday that Israel would not stop in Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed. Becky.

ANDERSON: Oren, good to have you. Thank you. Oren Liebermann is in Tel Aviv with the very latest reporting from there moving into the Gulf. And U.S. secretary of State Marco Rubio says all personnel are accounted for after a drone strike in a parking lot near the U.S. Consulate in Dubai late last night. It is now one o'clock in the afternoon here.

[04:05:02] Paula Hancocks joining us from Dubai. And Paula, just let's get some reaction there. People have been extremely concerned of course about these attacks. They do tell us they on the whole feel safe though. How is -- what is going on in Dubai and the broader picture of Iranian attacks on US Military and importantly non-military facilities going down?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, we had heard from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that they were expanding their targets. It was going to be American political centers hit as well. And we're certainly seeing that as you mentioned, the car park of the consulate in Dubai close to where we are here.

Now, there were no casualties because there was no one in the building. We know that the consulate at the embassy in Abu Dhabi, they'd cancelled all appointments up until March 4th, which is today. Clearly that is going to be extended.

And we're seeing embassies being shut with the Saudi embassy, the Kuwait embassy because they are being targeted. Now we also saw overnight in Qatar the Al-Udeid Air Base once again being struck. This is the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East. But again there would have been an awful lot of movement out of that base before this war started.

Now in Kuwait there was, there were interceptions of aerial objects were being told. One of the interceptions created debris which then hit a residential building and killed an 11-year-old girl. So, these incoming missiles and drones are continuing. They are we are seeing having a very high success rate of managing to shoot down these missiles and drones. We heard a couple of interceptions overhead a couple of hours ago.

We're also hearing a lot more fighter jets in the air above the skies of Dubai today and yesterday. One interesting point to make is that France has now decided to send fighter jets into the skies above the UAE. The French minister saying that was to make sure that they could protect their military bases here.

They said that a military base in Abu Dhabi had been hit. It's unclear at this point whether they will be actively involved in shooting down missiles or drones. But it just shows that the number of countries, particularly in Europe as well being drawn into this war is increasing. France was very critical of the U.S. President for making the decision to go ahead and attack Iran. Becky.

ANDERSON: It's good to have you. Thank you very much indeed. All right, that is the picture out of Dubai. Then it is Wednesday, March the fourth, just after 1:00 p.m. here in the UAE, 12:30 p.m. in Tehran and more from this region on what we know and crucially what we don't know at this point with further analysis coming up this hour. For the time being, I'm going to throw this back to Erica in New York. Erica.

HILL: All right, Becky, thanks. We are, of course, closely following here in the United States a number of important political contests in the primaries that were held on Tuesday. CNN can now project a winner in perhaps the most closely watched primary in the country.

This coming out of Texas, where State Representative James Talarico will win the Democratic Senate primary, defeating U.S. congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. There was a fair amount of confusion over where to vote in Texas in the Dallas area that led election officials to extend the hours at some voting locations. Crockett is throwing threatening legal action over the way some of that was handled.

Meantime, on the Republican side, CNN is projecting incumbent Senator John Cornyn and State Attorney General Ken Paxton are now headed for a runoff that comes at the end of May.

In North Carolina, CNN projects former two-term Governor Roy Cooper will win the Democratic Senate primary. He's set to face for Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley. The two are competing for the seat of retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis.

Just ahead, we'll take a closer look at what this win for James Talarico in Texas means for Democrats moving forward and also whether Donald Trump will now endorse in that Republican runoff in Texas. One thing we do know for sure here, the Lone Star State will continue to be a major focus for the next several weeks. Stay with us. You're watching CNN.

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ANDERSON: Right. I'm Becky Anderson from our Middle East programming headquarters here in Abu Dhabi in the UAE, continuing to follow the fallout of this war on Iran. Joining me now from London is Negah Angha, who is a visiting fellow with King's College London and former senior adviser at the U.S. State Department. Your experience, your deep experience, extremely important for us as we look at what we know and what we don't know at this stage about what is going on in this region.

Let's begin with the U.S. rationale for this war, which has frankly, been all over the map. Have a listen to this.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I've made the statement very strongly that if they start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved.

JD VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: He wanted to make sure that Iran could never have a nuclear weapon.

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Their swelling arsenal of ballistic missiles and killer drones were no longer -- are no longer tolerable risks.

TRUMP: They were going to attack. If we didn't do it, they were going to attack first. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That experience was clearly on his mind. And as he

ordered the attack that killed the Supreme Leader, he told me I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first.

TRUMP: Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Elimination of their navy so we can have freedom of the seas and not be threatened with the shutdown of the Gulf of Hormuz.

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TRUMP: When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR) Iran has posed an imminent risk to the United States for 47 years.

TRUMP: Because they're evil and they're bad. It's a bad seed and somebody had to do it and it should have been done sometime during a 47-year period.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Congressional Democrats came out of what was that classified briefing yesterday saying they left with more questions than answers. What they had been seeking was a clearly defined strategy and end game. They didn't get it. What do you make of what you understand to have been shared and the response?

NEGAH ANGHA, VISITING FELLOW, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: Good morning. Well, thanks for having me on. Look, I think President Trump's endgame is not quite clear right now. I think he was clear that he was going for the full menu essentially of options when he put out that truth social post over the weekend discussing how he wanted to take out the nuclear missiles, the ballistic missiles and essentially regime change.

But the nuances behind each of these huge major buckets were left to the imagination. And I think where we are right now is all these various details are getting sussed out. I think it's disconcerting that in these classified briefings, members of Congress came out even more confused, which leads us to believe that we are essentially, potentially assessing day by day which of these buckets will become more of a priority and which of these buckets would we choose to pursue that we may be successful with foreign off ramp.

Because at this point in time, President Trump really is left with two options. It's either continue to go full force and essentially force what would be considered an entire regime change, or take the win essentially and start going into negotiation talks.

So we're left in, not just us, but I think the Gulf states, other key allies are left in a precarious situation. And I think the next 48 hours will be very telling. ANDERSON: And Negah, you're absolutely right to point that out. The

next 48 hours, I think sources in this region tell me will be telling and I want to be absolutely transparent with our viewers. We are assessing what we know and what we don't know at this point, which is crucial when it comes to the U.S. offensive sort of position. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine are due to speak some four hours from now after we heard this update from CENTCOM Commander Brad Cooper. Have a listen.

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ADM. BRAD COOPER, COMMANDER OF U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: 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, we're focused on shooting all the things that can shoot at us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: And he added that they have destroyed 17 Iranian ships. How do you assess the progress, given what we've heard, how do you assess the progress the U.S. has made in degrading the Iranian military and its sort of stockpile of military assets at this point?

ANGHA: Look, I think, you know, as they're articulating, they are making very targeted attacks against the security apparatus. They are taking out the bit by bit, whether it's the individuals, whether it's the bases and facilities, whether it's the stockpiles. It takes quite a bit. It was spread across the country. So that goes without saying.

There's air and space superiority that the United States and Israel bring to the table. I think the concern right now is there is going to be a need for a lot more on the ground engagement if, you know, if President Trump is to be seen as successful in this initiative for outright regime change.

I think one of the key components for this sort of scenario for all three buckets is the security apparatus. Are they going -- will there be fissures? Will there be fractures between them or not?

Right now they are in survival mode. And they -- there haven't been defections. They haven't necessarily put down their arms. Yes, of course, the top brass has been taken out, but there is layers upon layers that continue to emerge that are, you know, have this sort of rally around the flag moment and they have nothing to lose.

[04:20:05]

And so I think once we start potentially seeing those fissures, then there might be success. You know, there's a lot of talk, but there needs to be more essentially boots on the ground, not necessarily American or Israeli, but other potential partners. And that's where we are. And I think that's why, you know, going back to the previous sort of comment, the next 48 hours will be very important in terms of the trajectory of this conflict. ANDERSON: Before I let you go, I do want to get your thoughts on a

story that is developing this morning that the CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces to spark an uprising in Iran. Can you just explain the significance of that? If indeed that is what is going on?

ANGHA: That is quite significant, essentially news story or, you know, potential addition to the calculus if that does occur. And that's essentially sending people into Iran to fight on the ground, right. So moving it away from air and space to military. I've been seeing also, you know, potential reporting and I guess a lot of this is speculation, whether it be the Kurdish or the Baloch sort of separatists coming in.

And the idea being that these essentially these various different populations around Iran, so the Kurdish more north, the Baloch towards the south, east, you know, sort of coming in and picking away at the IRGC's command and control, picking away at their ability to operate, really causing a bit more of that, you know, combat sort of space, changing potentially the calculus because they are effectively taking out whatever they, the United States and Israel, whatever they can through air assets.

ANDERSON: That is fascinating. And we will continue to watch what looks like it may be a developing story at this point. Important to get your insight on that as we move forward. Thank you for joining us. We'll have you back.

Right. Let's get you up to speed on our breaking U.S. political news. Let me hand that over to Erica for you.

HILL: All right, Becky, thanks. Well, CNN projects James Talarico will win the Senate Democratic primary in Texas, defeating U.S. congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. Some confusion over where to vote in certain areas of Texas prompted election officials to extend voting hours at some locations.

The state Supreme Court then said, though those elite ballots should not be counted. Congresswoman Crockett has threatened leg action, at this point, though it is unlikely she'd be able to close the gap with Talarico. For a closer look at the contentious Republican Senate race In Texas here, CNN's Arlette Saenz with some more the details and the high stakes runoff ahead.

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Republican primary is now set to extend another 12 weeks. And one supporter of Attorney General Ken Paxton said they are preparing for all-out war with Senator John Cornyn. Paxton and Cornyn failed to reach that 50 percent majority threshold needed to avoid a runoff and instead the two men will be facing off in that May 26 contest.

Now, as they wrapped up their primary night remarks, both candidates laid out some of their lines of attack heading into that race.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Character is on the ballot. Ken Paxton doesn't believe that matters. He believes that all of his misbehavior and his scandals are sort of baked in the cake. And he's won a couple of elections since much of that has come out.

KEN PAXTON, TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL: When he compromised, we fought. It's not about personal attacks. It's about what your record of delivering for the people of Texas is. And on that front, John Cornyn has failed us time and time again.

SAENZ: The contests on the GOP and Democratic sides here in Texas were already the most expensive Senate primaries in U.S. history with the majority of that spending taking place. On the Republican side, Senator John Cornyn saw more than $70 million poured into efforts here to try to boost his campaign. One big question going forward is whether President Donald Trump will decide to get involved.

He declined to endorse any of the candidates when it was a three way primary, but he's left the door open to potentially endorsing in a runoff.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: And our thanks to Arlette there. Well, joining us now from Los Angeles Democratic strategist Caroline Heldman and Republican strategist Katie Frost, who is in Atlanta. Good to see you both. I mean, let's start in Texas, shall we? So much going on there.

Katie, I want to start with you. And you know, I think Arlette just pose an important question there at the end because the president did not endorse when it was this three-way race.

[04:25:00]

The big question now, and specifically knowing that the Republican will ultimately face James Talarico in that Senate race is. Katie, do you think President Trump comes out now? And if so, does he throw his weight behind Cornyn or Paxton?

KATIE FROST, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, it's great to be with you this morning, Erica. I will tell you, I know it's a full time job to try and predict what President Trump does, but I try to avoid doing that because there really is no predicting what President Trump is going to do.

But look, I can make an argument for either case why he should endorse Senator Cornyn, why he should endorse Attorney General Paxton. I will say a lot of people who are in President Trump's orbit have been hired to work on the Cornyn campaign. So that clearly is going to work in the senator's favor.

But if you're looking strictly at their records, Attorney General Paxton has more of a MAGA record, the kind of thing that would appeal to President Trump in a primary. But you know what, I think that if you look at this primary, you look at the amount of money spent and that's what time about earlier was $70 million was spent to promote Senator Cornyn's campaign and Attorney General Paxton only had $4 million spent on his behalf. And look at the finish. If you're John Cornyn, you have to be looking

in the mirror right now and going 70 million and I couldn't win this outright. So is it really worth trying to get back in and save him, so to speak? But regardless of the Senate outcomes, the House races are also something I was watching very carefully and it will be very interesting to see how those all emerge. There's going to be a great crop of freshmen coming out of Texas for the Republican Party.

HILL: There is a lot happening to your point, especially when we talk about the House races. There, of course, Tony Gonzalez is also going to be forced into a runoff. So many calls for him to step down amid these allegations of an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide. A lot of focus on that.

Before we get to the House races though, Caroline, I want to bring you in here on what we saw. Jasmine Crockett jumped in sort of 11th hour, right, to run in this primary against James Talarico. How much do these voting issues that we saw in Tallis County, do they cast a shadow at all and what we're seeing in terms of results?

CAROLINE HELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I would imagine that Jasmine Crockett will probably be filing something, a complaint about this. But at the end of the day, I mean, Talarico is up at 53 percent. This is a pretty resounding win even without those issues. And it's speaks to this idea of electability. And I will just preface this by saying I think that electability concerns come up a lot with women, especially women of color. And we know as a political scientist that women and women of color win at the same rates as white men.

And so I'm not entirely sure whether or not the voter assessment that he would be more electable is legitimate. But at the end of the day, she was pitching to the base. He was pitching to the center and the base. And that was clearly what voters, what Democratic voters in the state of Texas thought would be more electable come the general election.

HILL: Caroline, stay with me for a minute on this one because as you talk about pitching, Talarico pitching himself to the center and the base, looking at the potential of these two candidates, right. Facing either Cornyn or Paxton, one would imagine the Democrats, you could actually make the case for either, right, who would be a better matchup for Talarico? What are you eyeing in the next 12 weeks? What can Democrats do, if anything, as they assess the potential matchup?

HELDMAN: Well, honestly, you know, Democrats haven't won a state one election in Texas in 30 years. It's kind of the annual or the every four years heartbreak. If you remember Colin Allred $100 million four years ago, Beto O'Rourke $80 million four years prior to that.

It is very unlikely that Telarico will be able to stand up against Paxton or Cornyn. But I do think that what the Democrats do, they'll probably lose this race, but they'll want to drain the bank accounts. Right. So if Trump on the Republican side, so if Trump doesn't put his thumb on the scale, that's exactly what's going to happen.

It's the most expensive primary in history and it will likely be a place where they get Republicans to dump a lot of money into that race between now and May 26th when it'll be decided whether it's Paxton or Cornyn. But again, I don't know Talarico as shiny of a candidate as he is on the Democratic side, and I think he has a long political journey in front of him. I think he'll be very successful. It's just really hard to win a statewide office in Texas, especially the Senate.

HILL: Yes. As you point out, not since I believe it was 1994. Katie, when we look at this, what about the Wesley Hunt voters, where did they go in this runoff?

FROST: Well, that's an excellent question. And frankly, I would be cautioned the Cornyn campaign for their approach on that. You know, Paxton, in his remarks, definitely was reaching out to those Hunt voters. He thanked Wesley Hunt for his service to the country, whereas the Senate Leadership Fund that's aligned with Cornyn put out a rather snarky statement.

[04:30:02]

So if you're trying to get those Hunt voters, you're not helping yourself at this moment. But that question is, you have to look at it.