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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

IDF: Tenth Wave Of Strikes On Tehran Now Underway; Gulf Countries Face Continued Attacks From Iran; CNN: Talarico Wins Senate Democratic Primary In Texas. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 04, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: 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 in New York, following the U.S. primary elections in several key states.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Becky Anderson, live from our Middle East programing hub here in Abu Dhabi in the UAE, where we are closely watching the war with Iran.

And right now, Israel launching a 10th wave of attacks on Iran as the death toll there surges. And earlier, the IDF said it shot down an Iranian fighter jet over Tehran.

Now, the Israeli military says it is conducting, and I quote them here. Broad scale strikes targeting Iranian terror regime targets in Iran, a us based human rights group says more than 1,000 people, including children, have been killed in Iran since the war began on Saturday. Information coming out of Iran is very, very sparse.

So, it's very difficult for us to get a real sense of the casualties on the ground. Israel also targeting Beirut explosions and smoke could be seen in these southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital this morning, and that comes after the Israeli military issued an urgent warning for residents to evacuate that area claiming they were in close proximity to Hezbollah facilities.

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ANDERSON: Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, sirens could be heard blaring as missiles were being intercepted above the city there. And in the U.S., a military bases across the country have been ordered to ramp up security as this conflict here drags on.

That comes as the Trump administration struggles to get its messaging straight on why it went to war in the first place. We're going to do more on that this hour. Let's get you the very latest, though as we understand it.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is following developments for you live from Tel Aviv.

I want to start with the significance of the Israelis shooting down this Iranian fighter jet over Tehran. What do we know?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: So the Israeli military announced a short time ago, right about an hour ago, that an Israeli F-35 fighter jet that's an advanced stealth, fifth generation fighter jet that's purchased from the United States shot down an Iranian Yak- 130. That is an aging Soviet fighter jet. And frankly, between these two aircraft, its no match and would have been an easy air to air kill for the F-35.

This is significant for two reasons. First, it marks the first time an F-35 has shot down an adversarial fighter jet. The U.S. hasn't done that. Other countries that operate the F-35 haven't done that yet and there aren't all that many. So, this marks the first air to air kill of an F-35 second, Israel itself hasn't shot down an enemy jet, a manned enemy aircraft in flight in some four decades.

So, although this might have been much more commonplace in previous wars decades ago, it is a fairly rare occurrence in modern war and Israel. Saying this happened a short time ago over the skies of Tehran. This as Israel says, it has increased and expanded its aerial superiority and that its air force can effectively do whatever it wants. A few days ago, Israel said that it had struck Iranian F4 and F5 fighter jets on the ground but this obviously another development here.

Becky, it is worth pointing out that Iran doesn't have its homemade air force. Its air force is aging Soviet and U.S. fighter jets.

ANDERSON: Oren Liebermann is on the story in Tel Aviv. Thank you for that.

And more, of course, on what we understand to be happening in Iran as we get it. And indeed from our colleagues in Jerusalem and Beirut, as we get more from there.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that all personnel are accounted for after a drone struck a parking lot near the U.S. consulate in Dubai.

Now, Paula Hancocks joining us from Dubai.

And it does bear repeating that the UAE, where we are, Paula, has been uniquely targeted by Iran. There have been more than thousand drones and missile attacks here since Saturday, with more than 90 percent intercepted. What is the latest there in Dubai and across this Gulf region?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Becky, it's really remarkable the number of incoming missiles and drones that we've seen here in the UAE.

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It appears, at least according to the official figures to be the hardest hit of all the Gulf nations, or at least the most significantly targeted. Now, when it comes to Dubai itself, as you mentioned, that the consulate, the U.S. consulate did have a hit in the car park nearby. We have been hearing a couple of interceptions earlier this morning.

We're hearing a lot more fighter jets in the air. We noticed this yesterday as well, and one reason for that potentially is we also know now that there are French fighter jets which have been sent to the UAE. We heard from the French foreign minister saying that one of their military bases in Abu Dhabi was hit.

So, they have sent fighter jets over to be in the skies above the UAE to try and protect those bases. So certainly, we are hearing a lot more of that.

We're starting to see a bit more life come back to Dubai as well. It is nothing like it usually is, of course, but there are definitely more people out on the streets, more cars on the road, people trying to grab some kind of semblance of normality. But, of course, it is very far from, from normality here in the UAE.

It's not a country used to this level of military attack across the Gulf. It is not a region that's used to this sense of military attack. Despite the tough neighborhood that these Gulf nations do live in. Now, we've heard from Saudi Arabia. They had two cruise missiles which hit an area very close to a key military base, where we know that that U.S. military aircraft have been stationed in the past in Kuwait.

We know that there were several hostile aerial targets that were intercepted. Now unfortunately, the debris from one of those interceptions hit a residential building and an 11-year-old girl was killed by that falling debris. This is the biggest concern for authorities across many of these Gulf nations.

They are asking people to be very careful of what could fall out of the sky. It is the interceptions that stop the hits. But, of course, there will be fragments dangerous fragments falling down. So, clearly, that is why we are seeing these emergency alerts continue. And seeing the shelter in place warnings continue as some of these missile and drone attacks come in -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Paula Hancocks is in Dubai for you folks. Paula, thank you. And we will have a lot more on the war with Iran and its fallout later this hour.

For now, though, let me pass you back to Erica Hill, my colleague in New York, for the very latest on the U.S. primaries and their significance.

HILL: Yeah, Becky, thank you.

Well, CNN can now project a winner in what is perhaps the most closely watched primary in the country in Texas, where State Representative James Talarico will win, CNN projects, the Democratic Senate race, the Democratic Senate primary, defeating U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett.

There was some confusion over where to vote on Tuesday, which led election officials to extend their hours at some locations in the state but there now questions about whether those votes will ultimately be counted. Crockett has threatened legal action.

Meantime, on the Republican side, CNN projects incumbent Senator John Cornyn and State Attorney General Ken Paxton are now headed for a runoff.

In North Carolina, CNN projects former two term Governor Roy Cooper will win the Democratic Senate primary, and this November, he'll be facing off against former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley. They are both aiming to replace retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis in Arkansas.

CNN projects incumbent Senator Tom Cotton will easily win the Republican Senate primary. Hallie Shoffner is projected to withe Democratic primary. She's a sixth generation farmer who says she recently closed her family farm due to economic challenges.

Joining me now to dig a little deeper, former New York state house Democrat David Carlucci and former U.S. House Republican from Pennsylvania Charlie Dent.

Gentlemen, nice to see you both dark and early, as we say here on the East Coast.

When we look at where things stand. Let's start off in Texas. So much attention on this state, and were going to stay focused on it for another 12 weeks. A lot more money is going to be thrown at it as well as we look ahead to this runoff between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton.

Charlie when you look at this moment there was a question about not only how this plays out, but what we could ultimately see from President Trump, who did not endorse, of course heading into what was a three-way bid in this primary. What do you expect of the next 12 weeks?

CHARLIE DENT, FORMER U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: Well, you're going to see all out war in Texas for the next 12 weeks. Republicans clearly believe, and I agree that John Cornyn is a much more electable candidate than Ken Paxton. And of course, Cornyn received a slight plurality over Paxton last night.

So, if Paxton were somehow able to prevail in the runoff, I think, you know alarm bells are going off everywhere because they don't want -- they don't want a Paxton-Talarico matchup.

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That's the one they never wanted. And that would certainly put Texas in play.

I think if Cornyn is able to prevail in this runoff, and he would be a much stronger candidate. But right now, I mean, Texas shouldn't be in play, but there's a lot of bad things happening right now down there. Democrats are turning out in huge numbers. And so, Republicans have every reason to be alarmed about the

situation they're facing. They're going to waste a lot of money in this runoff that could be better spent in states like Maine and North Carolina, in Iowa and Ohio, where they're expected to be some competitive races.

HILL: I mean, even the money spent so far is a staggering, staggering amount. So much more to come. David, when we look at this as you know all too well, it's more than 30 years, of course, and Democrats have won a statewide race in Texas, how competitive do you think James Talarico is in this moment?

DAVID CARLUCCI, FORMER NEW YORK STATE SENATE DEMOCRAT: Well, I think just like Charlie said, this cues up the Democrats for a real opportunity. The Republicans are just lighting their donor cash on fire. We're headed to another 12 weeks of this just all out brawl in Texas.

And now remember, it's going to be just one on one between Paxton and Cornyn. And now that's a real opportunity, I think for Paxton. Unfortunately for the Republicans, we look back. Cornyn was able to outspend Paxton by almost 20 to 1 and still he wasn't able to get that plurality.

So, with just these one on one candidates the other minor candidates have fallen off in the primary another 12 weeks of disunity of just what their message is, is their spending record levels to say, hey, when Donald Trump says jump, Republican candidates say how high? Not what are we going to do to lower prices? What are we going to do to capitulate, to just bow down to Donald Trump?

That's a problem for Republicans, not only in Texas but across the country.

HILL: Let's look at, you know, so, Charlie, as you pointed out, some of the money that's going to be spent in Texas, in your view, could be better spent, better spent, rather in places like Maine. You also mentioned North Carolina. So, North Carolina, we now know were going to see former Governor Roy Cooper in a matchup with former RNC Chairman Michael Whatley.

When we look at this, I mean, you have two pretty formidable candidates. How would that be better spent? I mean, how do you think how do Republicans approach this in North Carolina?

DENT: Well, North Carolina is look, this is a state, too right now where the Democrats have nominated a very formidable candidate in Governor Cooper and so I think in many ways, Republicans realize they're probably playing catch up down there. They're going to need not just money, but a strong message in order to defeat Cooper.

So, you have to look at that race in North Carolina, at the very least, as a toss up, maybe even slightly Democratic in this environment. It shouldn't be a competitive -- it shouldn't be that competitive a race, but it absolutely is because of the strength of the Democratic candidate. And this is going to require a lot of resources for Republicans.

But to the extent that resources are going to be diverted to Texas in a runoff certainly is going to have an impact on North Carolina and Maine. And Republicans have to watch out for Ohio. They have to watch out for Iowa even Alaska. So I'm not going to say they're going to lose all these seats, but they have to play hard here in states where they ordinarily wouldn't have to be playing so hard because of this political environment.

This election is largely going to be a referendum on the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who is very unpopular even in states like North Carolina and Texas right now.

So, Republicans are running into a heavy headwind they know it. And they can't afford to waste resources. There used to be a time when parties were concerned about electability.

And in Texas, Republican voters had a clear choice in Cornyn and they still haven't gotten there. Maybe Trump will get off the dime there. And maybe endorse Cornyn. He should if he wants to hold the seat.

But that's not what we're dealing with. The Democrats, to their credit, I think they nominated the more electable candidate in Texas. The electability argument seemed to work. They're not saying Crockett wouldn't have been a strong candidate, but it seems that Talarico was stronger.

But Republican voters are still, you know really more concerned about purity over victory in too many cases.

HILL: They're certainly still a bit of a purity test, as we see in a number of Republican races.

David, heading into these next few months, you know certainly rightly points out midterm elections, right? They are a referendum on the president, even when he's not on the ballot. The reality is, in this environment, given just what we've seen in the last five days of the war with Iran, so much can change on a dime.

Are Democrats doing enough in this moment to continue to focus on the one thing that we know that voters will likely still be very focused on come November and that is affordability.

Do you think that your candidates are doing enough to hone their message effectively?

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CARLUCCI: Well, I think that they are. And I think that the issue is that we see that there's just enthusiasm on the Democratic side. There's a lot of indicators that we can look at to predict the elections in November we can look at polls, we can look at focus groups. But most importantly are these primaries.

And when people go out and vote in these numbers, record numbers out of Texas, large numbers out of North Carolina, that enthusiasm gap between the Democrats and the Republicans is widening. And of course, we got to talk about local issues about when members of Congress are running, how are they going to impact their districts, and Democrats are able to do that, they're able to focus on these kitchen table issues while Republicans are talking about how they are going to pay allegiance to Donald Trump.

Now, that works for the base, the MAGA base that is very powerful in this country. But that is it that hits a ceiling that is low especially when Donald Trump is not on the ballot. And that's what Republicans are laser focused on to the tune that they're willing to spend records amount of money to just hone in on that message that they will be most loyal to Donald Trump don't need an opinion, don't need a record all they need to do is follow the whims and impulses of Donald Trump.

And in this type of environment that bodes well for Democrats. Yes, we can't fall into the trap of just relying on the Republicans to shoot themselves in the foot so that's why Democrats need to stay focused on those kitchen table issues. Talk about affordability and how the United States will be cautious and make sure that were not entering into foreign conflicts without a plan to move forward and to really make sure that it's impacting the quality of lives here in the United States.

And that's something that Republicans are clearly not doing. And Democrats can step up, grab the microphone and talk directly to people at their kitchen tables. That's what they're doing. And that's why we see this enthusiasm gap growing.

HILL: Charlie Dent, David Carlucci, really good to have you both here this morning. Thank you

CARLUCCI: Great to be with you

DENT: Thank you.

HILL: Much more to come here on CNN, including the latest from the Middle East a fresh wave of Israeli strikes on Iran is now underway. Becky Anderson is covering it all.

We'll return to Becky in Abu Dhabi, next.

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ANDERSON: We're back to our breaking news in the war with Iran in just over two hours from now, we expect to hear from U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine, about what they dub Operation Epic Fury as confusion reigns over the Trump administrations war aims. At this point, it comes as the Israeli military says it has shot down an Iranian fighter jet over Tehran and has launched a 10th wave of attacks on the Iranian capital, calling them, and I quote here broad scale strikes targeting Iranian terror regime targets. We are also tracking new strikes in Lebanon where smoke you can see it

on the next images could be seen rising in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Earlier, the Israeli military had urged residents in the area there to evacuate, claiming they were in close proximity to Hezbollah facilities.

I want to bring in H.A. Hellyer. He's a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies.

Hugely -- well, sort of imbued in this region. And what is going on? Thank you for joining us today from Cairo, H.A.

I want to start with the broader regional picture here. The U.S. estimates that the Iranian military has launched more than 500 ballistic missiles and over 2,000 drones across this region, where I am of the gulf. Almost half of those have been on the UAE, the vast majority have been intercepted. And I have to say, in the past 15 hours or so, it has been a lot quieter.

Be that as it may, H.A., what's the risk that this theater of war moves increasingly to the gulf as Iran starts to run out of longer range missiles, but appears to have a steady supply of these short range drones.

H.A. HELLYER, SENIOR ASSOCIATE FELLOW, ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUE: Thank you very much, Becky, and I hope you and the team are all staying safe. When it comes to the risks, I think we've passed the point that there's risk. This is drawing closer and closer to certainty.

When you have the Gulf being struck by these Iranian strikes of different types, whether they be missiles or drones and so forth, then the calculus for the Gulf itself changes. I want to make it clear pretty much every government in the Gulf region rejected these attacks did not want the United States and Israel to attack Iran. Precisely because they were worried, in part, at least about reprisals from Iran on their territory, despite their efforts to try to ensure that these U.S.-Israeli strikes did not take place in the first place. The Iranians have still struck them.

So, the calculus begins to change. If the idea is to avoid reprisals from the Iranians, there are two routes for the Gulf to take. One is to put pressure on the United States to stop the attack and to hold the Israelis back. That's one route. And that, I think, is the route that the Iranians are banking on.

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But there's another route and its probably a quicker route. If were talking just in terms of pure time which is to urge the United States to go ahead and pummel Iran even further and to use to use Gulf territory in order to do it simply to get the Iranians to stop striking Gulf targets. And because this also can go on for quite some time, the drones don't cost a lot to make. It costs a lot more to have the defense mechanisms in place to shoot them out of the sky. So, the Iranians could have a lot more of these types of projectiles

of different sizes and types, more than what different countries in the gulf have in order to repel for a much longer period of time.

ANDERSON: Yeah. We are looking at pictures from earlier today. Let's make sure we're on these. From a fire in Fujairah, which is one of the emirates of course, here in the UAE, this is a fire in its oil industrial zone near the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring Tehran's attacks on what are these nonmilitary economic and civilian targets, as well as these attacks on military targets, which they had threatened.

The economic pressure is going to be the most effective off ramp, it seems, surely, for both the Gulf and Washington what are you hearing about coordination with Washington at this point from the Gulf and, you know, what these -- what the aims are at this point, which are very unclear what the sort of ultimate goal, is for Washington today.

HELLYER: So several things, I think that you have most leaders in the Gulf trying really hard to get de-escalation in place a return to the negotiation table a stop to the strikes. But as I said, I think quite a few are drawing quite dangerously close to coming to the conclusion that, okay, we didn't want this war, but we can't take this for much longer.

So may have to allow for participation in this effort in some sort, or at least to make it easy for the United States to do so themselves via our territory. I don't think that decision has been made yet, but I do think the joint dangerously close. When it comes to American objectives, they've been quite bizarre things said over the last few days because the objectives seem to change, at least in terms of public declarations through the day now.

The Israelis are very clear. The Israelis want regime change when it comes to the United States they seem to be focusing more on any nuclear capacity, missile capacity. The navy as well. So basically, military capacity. But they seem to be going back and forth when it comes to regime change.

They haven't expressed support for Reza Pahlavi. In fact, Trump was quite dismissive of him, and is talking about, you know, we'd rather have somebody who's on the ground and popular, but essentially take over. But at the same time, you've seen these reports about American support for Kurdish, Iranian forces that are currently in Iraq, to try -- for the CIA to arm and assist them in being a ground force and I think this is very dangerous --

ANDERSON: And you've called that tremendously risky. Yeah. Go on explain.

HELLYER: Well, I think that this runs the risk of turning the whole war into an ethnic separatist quagmire. And of course, the Kurdish political parties that are engaged in this, they're saying we don't want a separate state. We simply want to protect Kurds. But I think that when once you once you set the ball rolling, you've got Kurdish groups, you've got Baluchi groups, you've got Azeri groups. This isn't looking at all what I think those who wanted regime change in Iran to look like and it's looking more and more actually what the gulf was concerned about all along, where you have destabilization of Iran and it fragmented.

I'll also say that when it comes to fragmentation, its not just about Iran that runs the risk in terms of stability. If the United States pushes support for Kurdish Iranian groups that are in Iraq -- well, Iraq is not, quote/unquote, "neutral territory". You have, of course, Kurdish forces in Iraq that will be supportive of this. You have many other Iraqi forces that definitely will not be and are very closely aligned with the Iranian regime.

You don't want to see another set of civil strife unfold on Iraqi territory.