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War Spirals Across Mideast As Trump Warns Iran Of Bigger Strikes; New CNN Poll: 59 Percent Disapprove Of U.S. Strikes On Iran; Mud-Slinging Dominates Messy Texas GOP Senate Race; Cornyn Goes Scorched Earth On Paxton To Try To Save Senate Seat. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 02, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: -- reported or are reporting from people who have seen the intel, who said it would still be years until that happened. But I do want to go through just quickly, because I think Americans are wanting to know, he did tick through what the objectives are, and again this leaves him room because these are open to interpretation, or at least some of them are.

Destroy missile capabilities and capacity to produce new ones, annihilating the Navy, stopping nuclear ambitions, and then essentially ensuring that Iran cannot arm, fund, help terrorist armies outside of their borders. And I do know from lawmakers who had spoken to Trump, particularly these Iran hawks, part of the selling point of this had been this idea that until you knock out Iran, cut the head off the snake, then you can't really have peace in the Middle East, because they are funding all of these outside terrorist groups.

This, again, will stand as the record for the rationale for this. Again, you mentioned these various five 3-minute interviews that he did with all of, you know, several news agencies. This is the first time he's actually talking on camera. No questions yet from the press, but it did feel like the first time he has outlined for the American people or made his case to the American people.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: He, of course, did those taped videos, but it's different from this kind of official address from the White House.

Thank you so much, Kristen. Appreciate it.

I want to now go to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Nic Robertson is there now. Nic, this conflict is widening, it seems, by the hour, including where you are in Saudi Arabia. How successful has Iran been in what they're trying to do there, which is targeting oil refineries?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: And which they hope, and that's certainly interpretation here in Saudi Arabia, that Iran appears to hope that it wants to drive up the oil prices. And it's not just targeting them, as you've been saying, in Saudi Arabia. We're hearing in Qatar as well of multiple targeting of their facilities there, the liquid natural gas production facilities, reports potentially that some of that has been shut down.

Part of the massive oil production facility at Ras Tanura here in Saudi Arabia was shut down today. And that was because of Iranian drones that were intercepted, but fell, ignited fires. No one was injured. But the repercussions of Iran's strategy, because while we've heard from the President lay out his strategy, the Iranians are, by default, laying out theirs in their actions and targeting multiple of the Gulf states here, not just the sort of high-profile targets like hotels, like airports, that trap tourists around the world, that highlight international focus on what's happening.

They're going after the economics of this war in a way that they appear to hope that President Trump can't bear that pain. I think the concerns here will be understanding that President Trump is talking about a four or five-week war. The GCC countries, Saudi Qatar, whose oil and gas facilities have been targeted just today, have made very clear that they will respond, or there's a possibility of response, if there's aggression.

Iran is trying to go up this escalation ladder, and there is a concern that it really can escalate further. And that will have a knock-on global economic impact. But it will be the lasting impact on the region, and in particular, the pressure that will be left on countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, others in the Gulf, as Iran falls into a questionable state without somebody taking control during this extended war, somebody taking control that's willing to negotiate an off-ramp.

BASH: Yes. And it is fascinating that Saudi is being targeted, and other countries in the region are being targeted, but particularly Saudi, because by a lot of accounts, MBS, who is the head of Saudi Arabia, he wanted the U.S. and Israel to be striking Iran. So, you see so many different layers of this very, very complicated issue that is going on, this war that is going on across the region.

Thank you so much, Nic. Appreciate that.

Up next, we have brand-new reporting, and brand-new CNN poll, I should say, which is going to give us some reporting about how the majority of Americans are feeling right now on these strikes in Iran.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:39:20]

BASH: We have a brand-new CNN poll out right now showing high disapproval of President Trump's strike on Iran. A brand-new CNN poll found that nearly 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of the airstrikes on Iran. And there are few signs of good news for the President elsewhere in this poll. 59 percent of Americans say they don't trust President Trump to make the right decisions on the use of force in Iran. 60 percent of Americans do not believe the President has a clear plan on how to handle the situation.

My panel is back now, or starting now, I should say. We've been listening to the President. Tyler, you cover the White House. You've been covering this all weekend. Is this data that's going to surprise the White House?

[12:40:09]

TYLER PAGER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I think the White House will largely ignore some of this data. But I think one of the things that we just saw is the President has clearly struggled to outline clear objectives for what he is doing and what measures of success are and how long this is going to go.

As Kristen said, this is the first time we're hearing from the President in a live setting. And I think there's a lot of Americans who woke up Saturday surprised by this operation, surprised that this could go on for weeks, and have a lot of questions about what we're trying to do here and how will Americans know when it ends.

And I think the President did not provide a lot of clarity there about what the length of this operation looks like. And he also is saying that American troops may be on the ground. The one thing that I would say, Dana, is I spoke to a lot of the President's most ardent supporters over the weekend, and they are giving him a long leash.

The MAGA base, there's obviously some high-profile vocal opponents, Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene. But a lot of the rank and file are giving the President some space to operate here, and we'll see how long that lasts.

BASH: And that also seems to include Republican voters. Let's look at a little bit more of our poll question about approving the strikes, and this is separated by party. 77 percent of Republicans say that they approve of it, which is interesting, given the fact that a lot of Republicans voted for the President, thinking that there would not be, OK, maybe not any war, but not, in his words, endless wars, Independents 32, Democrats 18.

This is something that is really interesting, though, to look at. Let's put up young voters. The question of whether young voters -- this is 18 to 34-year-olds -- support these strikes. 71 percent say that they disapprove. You know, generationally, usually it's younger people who don't like war.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Yes.

BASH: I mean, we go back and look through time --

MITCHELL: Yes.

BASH: -- maybe not World War II, but --

MITCHELL: Yes.

BASH: -- since World War II?

MITCHELL: Because the young people are the ones who are going to be on the front lines. If there is war, if there are troops on the ground, or even, you know, as we start to look at the casualties of the conflict that is already underway, it's more than likely that it's going to be young people at the greatest risk. They are who our frontline military members are.

I think it's just interesting that when you go back to the partisan divide in the latest CNN poll, that Republicans are willing to support Trump. They are willing to give him a long runway. They are willing to kind of take his word for it on whatever the topic is of the day. I think it goes back to the fact Trump said, you know, MAGA is whatever I say it is, and this is just the latest example of that.

It is very true, which is why there are people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and like Tucker Carlson who said, no, we thought MAGA had certain principles, and we're not sticking to those principles. But I think they're realizing that a lot of the Republican Party and MAGA is about loyalty to Trump, supporting Trump, whatever that means.

BASH: Yes. And the poll does bear that out. People who describe themselves as MAGA give the President an even longer leash than those who just describe themselves as regular Republicans, whatever that means these days.

ELI STOKOLS, WHITE HOUSE & FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Yes, I mean, Republicans are already facing a very difficult election cycle. And now it seems like, at least in the short term, they're all going to be defending something that is unpopular and not really fully understood by the American public. I think to Tyler's point, what you saw from the Defense Secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chief this morning, their press conference at the Pentagon and from the President just a few minutes ago, is this effort to explain what they're trying to do, what the objectives are, because there's an awareness that that's not clear.

It's clear from the President's interviews that maybe he hasn't been entirely certain about what he wants to do. At first it was regime change. Now, today, what we're hearing is this is just to sort of neuter Iran and make sure that they cannot be a hostile actor in the region.

But in terms of answering that question about why did we have to do this now? Why is this worth risking American lives? The President continued to say that the intelligence showed that Iran was close to having the missile capability of striking the United States.

We've heard imminent threat. We've heard soon close to that. I don't know what their definition of that is, but the first briefings by the Pentagon for members of Congress over the weekend, people left those meetings saying we didn't see any evidence that these threats are imminent.

And so, you know, I think a lot of people recognize that the regime in Iran is a problem, has been a problem for a long time. There are a lot of people who are going to give the President some leeway on this. But generally, they are in a hole. There's a deficit. The country does not understand why this is the right thing to do and worth doing right now.

[12:45:01]

And even as they are trying to clarify the objectives, they have still not, I don't think, sold the country on why they had to do this right now. This is the seventh country that this President has authorized military force again against in 13 months. And this is far different from any of the others.

We're talking about a weeks-long campaign. We've seen casualties. And the plan, the strategy is much more opaque than it was, say, in Venezuela just weeks ago, where they went in, they knew who the successor was going to be, the new government.

They had a plan to -- they had a very simple objective, get Maduro out. This is much more open-ended. And I think that's part of why so many Americans are looking at this skeptically.

BASH: All right, everybody, thank you so much. Don't go too far.

As we've been talking about, a lot of Democrats in Congress are drawing parallels between this moment and the invasion of Iraq. The Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, a veteran of that war, said there's no comparison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both. Our generation knows better, and so does this President. He called the last 20 years of nation building wars dumb. And he's right. This is the opposite.

This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission. Destroy the missile threat, destroy the Navy, no nukes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, who is also an Iraq War veteran and sits on the Armed Services Committee. Thank you so much for being here. Your response to Secretary Hegseth?

REP. CHRIS DELUZIO (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Well, I remember hearing something similar out of then-Secretary Rumsfeld. And yet, even today, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, what did he say? He said, well, it's not a regime change war, but there's been regime change.

I don't think they know what they are doing. They've now launched this war. We have four dead Americans, which is horrible, others battling their wounds. They've spent through billions of dollars already.

I think folks at home want cheaper health care, cheaper housing. I can go on and on. They don't want billions spent on unnecessary wars overseas and Americans coming home in flag-draped caskets. That's not what people voted for. Certainly not what I'm going to be voting to do when we get back to session this week in Congress.

BASH: I mean, there are obviously so many differences, I don't need to tell you as an Iraq War veteran, between what we've seen so far and even at this point going into Iraq, we all knew that there would be ground troops going into Iraq.

And on that note, there have been, you know, different kind of answers in the last 48 hours from the administration on whether ground troops. This morning, President Trump told the New York Post, "I don't have the yips with respect to boots on the ground -- like every president says, 'There will be no boots on the ground.' I don't say it." How seriously do you take that possibility?

DELUZIO: Look, the President and the Secretary both had a chance to say they're not going to send Americans on the ground to fight and bleed and God forbid die. And yet they didn't say that. They've started this war without permission from the American people or from Congress. It's unnecessary.

Their argument that there was an imminent threat of nuclear attack on the American people is bogus on its face. We know the Iranians don't have that capacity. They presented nothing to the American people or the Congress to say that they do. And again, they're asking other people's kids to go fight and bleed and die.

And there already are dead Americans from this, which is horrible as a reminder of the cost of war and why you don't go rush into fighting unnecessary ones in the Middle East that we have a horrible history in this country of spilling precious American blood and treasure. I don't want to see the same thing happen again for another generation of veterans.

BASH: Congressman, I want you to listen to what your party leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, told my colleague Kate Bolduan this morning about where he thinks this war is going.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D), MINORITY LEADER: The American people want us to focus on making their life better, making their life more affordable, not getting involved in another endless war in the Middle East that is going to end in failure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Do you agree -- I know you agree with the first part because you were making that argument to me in our conversation that you believe that the focus should be on affordability at home, not what's going on in the Middle East. But what about him saying that it's essentially doomed to end in failure? Do you agree with that?

DELUZIO: Well, I think what the leader is getting to is an important point here. We don't even know what the objectives are of President Trump and his team. And if you don't understand what the objectives are, there's no way you can have success. If you can't describe the American people why you're asking us to sacrifice, why you're sending young people to fight, you don't have a goal.

And I heard Secretary Hegseth say, do not articulate a goal for this war. I think it's an unnecessary one. And when you're making it up as you go along, when you're looking for justifications to pull out of thin air, to give you an excuse for what you've already done, you can't succeed.

[12:50:04]

And I think that speaks to the problem here. Yes, there are process problems. They didn't come to the Congress. But this war is not a necessary one. I think we should be fighting necessary wars only. This is not one of those to me.

BASH: And just real quick, what about the argument that Ted Cruz told me about and others that Iran was at its weakest point, that they are the state sponsor of terrorism globally, and that if you deal with Iran, and you cut off, you know, the head of the snake, then that could help immensely around the world.

DELUZIO: I just don't see the evidence for that. We heard months ago from this administration, they had obliterated Iran's nuclear program. Was that a lie? I think it was, because they're now supposedly telling the American people that they were imminently away from being able to launch nuclear weapons.

They're not telling the truth. Again, I think they owe all of us and the American people the truth. And we can look all over the globe and find bad actors. Certainly in my time in Iraq, we saw what the Iranians are willing to do. We don't go send Americans to fight and bleed without the country having a say and doing it all over the world. I think that's foolish and a mistake.

And the question I would pose back, Dana, and this matters to guys like Ted Cruz, how many Americans are you willing to see die in this war? If you cannot answer that question, they ought to shut up about cheerleading for this war.

BASH: Congressman Chris Deluzio, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.

DELUZIO: Thank you.

BASH: And I'm going to switch gears because this is Inside Politics, and there is a primary that is happening in Texas tomorrow. The Republican side faces a three-way faceoff with Senator John Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Congressman Wesley Hunt.

CNN's Manu Raju, hit the campaign trail for a firsthand look at one of the most bitter primary races we've ever seen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: We haven't elected a Democrat since 1994, but all of that is at risk in this election.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He has been a fixture in Texas politics for decades and had aspired to lead Republicans in the Senate. But now John Cornyn could see his career come to an abrupt end as he confronts a MAGA base hungry for change and is engaged in a mudslinging three-way primary that could cost him the seat he's held since 2002.

KEN PAXTON (R), TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: So John Cornyn has asked for a fifth term. Now, so -- now fifth term would mean --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No!

PAXTON: I know.

RAJU (voice-over): With President Trump staying neutral, Cornyn has struggled to gain traction against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, despite pummeling him on the air for months as he issued this dire warning in Fort Worth last week.

CORNYN: If Ken Paxton is the nominee, we could well experience a massacre.

RAJU (voice-over): As Cornyn and Senate GOP leaders sound the alarm over Paxton, they failed to prevent two-term Congressman Wesley Hunt from jumping in. Now their fears are ringing true. No candidate is expected to win an outright majority in Tuesday's primary.

Polls showing Cornyn in second place, meaning, it's all but guaranteed that the two top vote getters will battle in a two-month runoff the day after Memorial Day, where turnout could be low and might hurt Cornyn.

REP. WESLEY HUNT (R), TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: The best part about my candidacy is this race is going to a runoff.

RAJU (voice-over): The runoff alone could cost the party a staggering $200 million. This on top of what has already become the most expensive primary in the history of the country, squandering money that could be spent in other battleground states, and possibly giving an opening to Democrats in their quest to pick up four seats and flip the Senate.

RAJU: Is there a limit to how much they should -- the Republican Party should spend to help you in a runoff?

CORNYN: From Ohio, when Bernie Moreno won, that was a half a billion dollars. So I think by doing what we need to do here in the primary and runoff, we'll save hundreds of millions of dollars trying to salvage a flawed candidate in the general election and still risk losing the state.

RAJU (voice-over): The amount of money pro-Cornyn groups have spent so far is jaw-dropping, more than $68 million, dwarfing his two GOP rivals and their allies. Cornyn has seized on Paxton's legal and personal problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We discovered unprecedented abuse in the Texas attorney general's office by Mr. Paxton.

RAJU (voice-over): Including being impeached in 2023 by a GOP-led statehouse on charges of bribery and abusing his office, and facing felony security fraud charges in a separate case. But Paxton was acquitted by the state Senate in his impeachment trial and settled the fraud case. More recently, Cornyn has attacked the state attorney general over his messy divorce from his wife, state Senator Angela Paxton.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now think of the Paxton dirty deeds we don't know about yet. The wife cheater and fraud or the Texas workhorse.

RAJU (voice-over): Now Paxton's daughter coming to his defense.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our kids call him Pop Pop. He'll, you know, take a FaceTime from them when he's in a meeting.

[12:55:08]

RAJU (voice-over): All as Paxton claims that he's been the victim of a witch hunt, resonating with many MAGA voters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like Paxton. Cornyn's a rhino.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of those investigations are just hype.

RAJU: So the allegations, were you willing to look past that even -- yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

RAJU (voice-over): Paxton touts his pro-Trump actions, including his 2020 lawsuit claiming election fraud in four states that Trump lost, which was thrown out by the Supreme Court and criticized by Cornyn. Speaking to CNN outside of Houston, Paxton compared himself to Trump.

RAJU: The investigations and, you know, concerns about your personal life, the concerns that this could be a liability for you and Republicans in the general election.

PAXTON: Since I started running, I've been victorious. You know, Trump went through the very same thing and look where he's at. It's going to be the same way for me. You can make up whatever you want to make up, but the allegations are the allegations, but the truth is the truth.

RAJU: But you are not a candidate since you were impeached. And now this will be the first time you'll be a statewide candidate. And Trump is not on the ballot this time.

PAXTON: Yes, but he was also impeached twice. Look where he's at, president of the United States. Maybe --

RAJU: But you're not Trump. I mean, you're not Trump.

PAXTON: I never said I was Trump. I'm just comparing. You're saying that's a negative thing that it's a disqualifying event. It's not. What matters is what the people of Texas think. And they've been behind me from the beginning. RAJU (voice-over): Behind the scenes, GOP leaders have tried to convince Trump that backing Cornyn would save the party enormous sums to stave off either Democrat James Talarico or Jasmine Crockett.

CORNYN: We've made the business case to him. It's not based on emotion.

RAJU (voice-over): But so far, Trump isn't sold.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I like all three. Those are the toughest races. They've all supported me.

RAJU (voice-over): And that indecision opened the door for the 44- year-old Hunt.

HUNT: The United States Senate, it's not a retirement community.

RAJU (voice-over): Who is now making a generational case against an incumbent 30 years his senior. After an event in East Texas, Hunt blamed top Republicans for burning cash to prop up Cornyn.

HUNT: You have literally spent a Powerball ticket on John Cornyn already, and you're going to spend more. You're spending $80 million plus on a 24-year incumbent that can't get out the 20s. That's insanity. If you're struggling this much to get out of the primary, how are you going to survive a runoff? It's even further right than the primary.

RAJU: If you don't get into the runoff, will it have been worth it?

HUNT: Of course it's worth it.

RAJU (voice-over): But Hunt has faced a barrage of attacks from Cornyn and Paxton allies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's been absent.

RAJU (voice-over): Over the scores of votes he has skipped in the House, something the former Army pilot has dismissed.

HUNT: How many questions do I actually glad to get asked when I'm actually on the stump about how many votes I've missed? It never happens. It never happens.

RAJU (voice-over): But some voters have noticed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Part of your job as a congressman is to be there and vote.

RAJU (voice-over): But it's one of Cornyn's big votes that has become fonder for both Hunt and Paxton, the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a law responding to mass shootings like the one in Uvalde, Texas, and signed by President Biden, who thanked the leaders of the effort.

JOE BIDEN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Especially Senators Murphy, Sinema, Cornyn and Tillis. PAXTON: And Joe Biden congratulated him and thanked him. I have never been thanked by Joe Biden. Never.

RAJU (voice-over): On the trail, Cornyn tends to steer clear of touting the gun law, instead boasting about voting more with Trump than even his fellow Texan, Ted Cruz.

CORNYN: Don't tell Ted Cruz I said it, but it's better than Ted Cruz.

RAJU: When you talk about your accomplishments, you have not mentioned the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Is that a liability for you in a primary?

CORNYN: Well, unfortunately, it is too easy to tell lies about what we did and what we didn't do.

RAJU: You have no regrets for that legislation?

CORNYN: I do not, because it's not as some people have represented. We did not pass a red flag law, and no law-abiding gun owner or citizen has been denied access to a firearm. So I'm -- and I think we've saved lives.

RAJU (voice-over): But as Cornyn touts his experience, he's trying to turn the race on Paxton's character.

CORNYN: If his own family can't trust him, you can't trust him either.

RAJU (voice-over): An argument that resonates with Hunt voters like this one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's the most corrupt politician Texas has ever had, and I think that will come out pretty clearly in the race.

RAJU (voice-over): All as the GOP fight is set to get even uglier if Cornyn faces Paxton in the runoff.

RAJU: Why has it been so hard to really land a finger on him?

CORNYN: Well, we're just beginning. There's just one piece of corruption after the next, and it's really going to be a baggage, a dead weight around our candidates in November.

RAJU (voice-over): Yet it's the MAGA-dominated GOP that has some Cornyn backers unnerved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm for old-style Republicans, and I think he's an old-style Republican. It's strange to be in a minority in the Republican Party.

RAJU (voice-over): Something Cornyn seems to recognize, as the Bush- era Republican now aligns himself with Trump.

RAJU: Are you, in some ways, out of step with a changing Republican Party? CORNYN: You know, politics doesn't -- never stays the same. It changes

all the time, and yes, if you run every six years, politics can change.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Thank you so much, Manu, for that report.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts right now.