Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

U.S. Striking "Deeper" Into Iran As War Spirals Across Region; Hegseth Says War Has "Just Begun" As U.S. Expands Iran Strikes; Sources: CIA Working To Arm Kurdish Forces To Spark Iran Uprising; Cornyn Wins More Votes Than Paxton But Race Heads For Runoff; Talarico Beats Crockett By 7 Points To Win Texas Senate Nomination; Can Democrats Finally Win A Statewide Race In Texas?. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired March 04, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash. And we are following major developments out of the Middle East.

New video shows plumes of smoke billowing across Tehran. As the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, says the U.S. will start striking deeper into Iranian territory. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insists the U.S. is dominating the war in Iran, but there's no finish line in sight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy. Iranian leaders looking up and seeing only U.S. and Israeli air power, every minute of every day, until we decide it's over. And Iran will be able to do nothing about it. We are just getting started. We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran's capabilities are evaporating by the hour, while American strength grows fiercer, smarter and utterly dominant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Secretary Hegseth also announced a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship with a torpedo. According to the Pentagon, this hasn't happened to an enemy ship since World War II. Also today, a NATO Air Defense System shot down an Iranian missile that was traveling toward Turkey's air space. It's the first time NATO has intercepted a missile heading toward a member state since this conflict began.

I want to get straight to CNN chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, who is live in Erbil, Iraq, the capitol of Iraq's Kurdistan Region. Clarissa, what have you been seeing on the ground there today?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, literally, Dana, just in the half an hour before we came on air, we heard a loud series of explosions, perhaps about 10 booms. And we think those were projectiles that were heading to Erbil International Airport, which is just over behind me, in that direction from what we have heard and learned so far. And this is just preliminary.

It seems that air defenses were activated to intercept those projectiles. We don't know yet what kind of projectiles they were, but I can tell you now, for the time that we've been here, that airport, which is one of the last places in Iraq where there is still a U.S. military presence has been getting hammered on a regular basis.

Another target has been the U.S. consulate in Erbil to that end. The U.S. State Department announcing the evacuation of all non-essential employees, though, from what we understand, the consulate and also the Baghdad embassy have been operating at a sort of bare bone staffing level anyway.

And it's interesting because this is against the backdrop of a lot of speculation that Iran could not possibly continue to fire off this amount of fire power for very long. One official who wanted to remain anonymous, speculating that maybe they could keep this up for another few days.

What we've seen on the ground, though, interestingly, Dana, is maybe fewer missile attacks, but these drones, these shot head drones that we actually watched literally fly over us when we were on the border from Iran into Iraq, continue to pose a real threat, and we have seen how they have been hammering different targets throughout, not just Iraqi Kurdistan, but throughout the entire region, Dana.

BASH: I mean, it's really remarkable. Stand by Clarissa. Don't go anywhere, because I want to bring into the conversation former Deputy Director of National Intelligence Beth Sanner. Beth, we heard from Secretary Hegseth this morning say that the operation is going very well and that Iran can't outlast us. You spent your life in intelligence. I know you studied war and the concepts of war. When you hear that, what do you think?

[12:05:00]

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think that's what every military commander defense secretary has said at the beginning of a military campaign in U.S. history, pretty much. You know, shock and awe is something that the U.S. military will excel at, and we are bigger and we are better and we are more sophisticated than anyone in the world, and we have the Israelis who are always punching way above their weight.

So yes, of course, this is really, really successful, but this idea, when Hegseth said, you know, we'll end this at -- what did he say? You know, when we decide it's over. Well, you know, when would that be? Because when you don't have clear war aims, you don't know when that's over. And I think that this is going to be the complexities of this will emerge only as this part of the war that we're winning comes to an end.

BASH: And Clarissa, you just described what it's been like there, where you are in the Kurdish part of Iraq, but you -- sources all over the region. What is your sense of how things feel on the ground in the broader Middle East, particularly the Gulf? Does this feel like a U.S. operation totally under control.

WARD: I think that in the Gulf, there is a sense that things are spiraling to a level that they're deeply uncomfortable with. They're feeling increasing pressure to respond in some kind of way, but obviously they don't want to escalate the situation. It's important for our viewers who maybe haven't had a chance to visit Dubai or Qatar or any of these places to understand that their whole model is a sort of peaceful oasis, a calm and quiet and safe place for where anyone from anywhere in the world can come and enjoy all sorts of tourism activities or business activities.

Once you take away that veneer of security, you are really creating almost an existential dilemma for these Gulf states, and so obviously, they're incredibly anxious about the situation. I read one analysis that I thought was really interesting though, which said that basically these Gulf leaders woke up on the first morning of the war feeling really angry at the U.S. and Israel for starting it. But by the end of the day, when they went to bed, they were feeling really angry with Iran for firing off with huge, huge fire power.

I mean, we're talking hundreds and hundreds of missiles and drones raining down on Qatar, on Saudi Arabia, on the United Arab Emirates, and feeling real frustration that hold on a second. We have always told the Americans don't do this. We have always tried to kind of not fight your corner, but act as a neutral intermediary. And we have the U.S.' ear, and we tell them not to strike you, and then you end up retaliating against us.

So, there's a lot of anger and an increasing feeling, I think, of pressure to respond in some way. But at the same time, they're desperate for this to end because it is very bad for their whole, you know, raison d'etre.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, that's such a good point. And obviously this was Iran's playbook to try to bring in the water -- the wider Gulf region with what they're doing there. You have reporting Clarissa about the CIA working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of spurring an uprising in Iran. Tell us more about that.

WARD: This is a pretty crazy story, honestly, Dana, that we have been working on with Natasha Bertrand, Alayna Treene and Zachary Cohen in D.C. Basically, we spoke with a senior Iranian Kurdish official here last night, who told us that they are preparing to go into western Iran as a part of a ground operation with support from the U.S. and Israel. They wouldn't say exactly what that support looks like.

They told us that the President Trump himself actually called the leader of the Iranian Kurdish KDPI party. And this is really creating a huge amount of tension here in Iraqi Kurdistan because the leadership of Iraqi Kurdistan does not want this territory to become a launch pad for some kind of a ground offensive inside Iran.

And I spoke to a senior KRG leader here who told me the Iranians told us just a few days ago, if any fighter steps across that border, there will be hell to pay. So, they are very frightened. They think the situation is incredibly dangerous, but they also feel that they don't know how they can effectively stand up against the U.S. in this situation, and those Iranian Kurdish fighters along the border are willing to go in, no matter what, Dana.

[12:10:00]

BASH: And Beth, just based on your years of experience and understanding of how these things work and how these things might go. What else should we be thinking about right now?

SANNER: These are always the unintended consequences, right? It sounds like a good idea at the beginning. You arm the Mujahideen in Pakistan to help in Afghanistan, and they turn into the Taliban. And in this case, I mean, you know, you could very well have a Bay of Pigs type situation, because the Basij, I think has about 6000 different stations all through the Kurdistan Kurdish region. They're very militarized in that area and prepared because they think of the Kurds as separatists.

Then you have the complication of Turkey, which you know, absolutely doesn't want an expansion of kind of Kurdistan. And then this whole idea is separating and dividing, creating civil wars in different parts of ethnically controlled or dominant areas in Iran. Is that a good idea? Or are we just creating chaos? Is chaos better? We don't know a complicated question.

BASH: I mean, the layers of complicated questions are deeper than I think we even have, like 24 hours to talk about here. And I appreciate both of your incredible reporting and analysis. Thanks so much for being here. And up next. The United States tells its citizens in the Mid East to get out. But with transportation options limited, is the Trump administration doing enough to help them leave.

Plus, signs of life from former senator -- excuse me, from Senator, he's very much still a current Senator John Cornyn in Texas. He won more votes than Ken Paxton. There is a runoff. And now the question is, what will President Trump do and when will he do it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Senator John Cornyn is playing a game of Texas hold 'em. He may just have pulled an inside straight. He shocked Texas Republicans by finishing ahead of MAGA fire brand Ken Paxton, who led most primary polls by double digits. No one got 50 percent. That means this is now a runoff. Now both candidates have 12 more weeks to make their case to voters. It's going to be ugly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I refuse to allow a flawed, self-centered and shameless candidate like Ken Paxton, risk everything we've worked so hard to build over these many years. KEN PAXTON (R) TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: John Cornyn has failed us time and time again. In his over 40 years of office, you cannot name one single accomplishment that he's done to help the state of Texas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The winner will face off against state representative James Talarico, who also once trailed by double digits in primary polls, but he beat Jasmine Crocket by a comfortable margin to take the Democratic nomination.

My great panel is here. Bloomberg's David Gura, Astead Herndon of Vox, S.E. Cupp of the New York Daily News and CNN, and Jazmine Ulloa of -- I just screwed it up, even though I said it was going to get it right. Ulloa, here's what matters, look at with the screen. This is the book that she wrote. It's called El Paso: Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory, which we're going to talk about in one second.

I do want to start on the Republican side, S.E, because the question right now is, because President Trump didn't endorse in the primary and the hope among people in and around John Cornyn and John Cornyn himself, never mind national Republicans who don't want to spend money as much as they did before, is that the president will make a decision, an endorsement that will make this less competitive.

John Thune, who is a very big ally of his colleague, John Cornyn, just said the following. I've been making that case for a long time and will make it again, that being that Trump should endorse. And today, I think even more emphatically, given the outcome last night, Cornyn is positioned to win the runoff. And if the president endorses early, it saves everybody a lot of money, and a lot of, you know, just 10 weeks of spirited campaign on our side that keeps us from spending time focus on the Democrats.

S.E. CUPP, "OFF THE CUPP" PODCAST FOR IHEART RADIO: Spirited. That's John Thune, speak for ugly. It's going to be ugly and it's going to sort of, you know, point out a lot of the deficiencies in the Republican Party and the infighting. And I think, you know, Cornyn was and John Thune's smart the safe choice, and he always was. He's the incumbent. He's been there for, however many terms. I think this might be his fifth or sixth go with this. He was the safe choice, but Trump got his feelings hurt with John Cornyn and decided he needed to be primaried.

And Ken Paxton, I guess, was the guy that emerged to do it. He is scandal-ridden. He is a problem, but he is, you know, sufficiently Trumpy in today's MAGA landscape. But I -- you know, I feel like this is kind of a case of play stupid games, win stupid prizes. If you want to play around with Texas and the majority, and, you know, Cornyn seed, you better do it smartly. And I don't think they expected Talarico to be on the other end of this, of this see-saw, and they're going to get a real competitor.

[12:20:00] BASH: Yeah. And Talarico did, as I said, kind of went comfortably. I just want to also say that even though Republicans, who are pro-Cornyn are very excited about the fact that he did much better than they expected. It was still not even two percentage points more than Ken Paxton, and he has been an incumbent Republican. And this is Republican on Republican.

Let's look at the turnout, because the turnout was pretty remarkable. You see on the Democratic side 2.2 million, Republicans 2.1 million. Now, this was a very formidable race among two Democrats who have very big followings, and so it got a lot of people out. And the question the Democrats are asking is, as they have for decades, is that transferable to a general election where they haven't won statewide since 1994.

ASTEAD HERNDON, HOST AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, VOX: Exactly. They're trying to hope that this is an injection of energy, but I think there's a couple ways of looking at it on the Democratic side. To your turnout numbers point, I think it's a result of a competitive primary between two engaging candidates. That's nothing inherently bad for the party on that front. But you could see this as Jasmine Crockett losing a race that was obviously very winnable for her.

She came in with big name recognition, with social media star power, but show the kind of unwillingness to expand her message beyond core base, beyond core constituency. I mean, to quote succession, I think she ended the last parts of that race, losing context to online. You know, she's complaining about Democratic consultants, complaining about the kind of fights internally, rather than, I think what Talarico did, which is make a top to bottom message everywhere.

But I think he also shows a playbook of winning beyond the traditional black establishment that even are showing up around Democratic races. Even look at New York, Zohran Mamdani wins by kind of combining urban liberals with an emerging Democratic coalition of Latinos and Asians. That's similar to what Talarico did in Texas. And I think it's a warning shot for some Democrats who have basically bet their entirety of their playbook. Think maybe Kamala Harris on that southern, black, traditional Democratic electorate. It's changing.

BASH: And Jazmine, I do want to dive into that with you, because if you look at the map and where the voters landed on the Democrats. The idea that it's, if you look kind of at the Rio Grande, which is literally what you wrote about in your book, and you're so familiar with. Talarico, did very well.

And so the question is, how that plays out again in a general election, given the fact that one of the reasons Republicans were so happy about the way that Donald Trump won in 2024 is because he won with a lot more Latino support than a Republican in recent history has gotten especially around that Rio Grande area. And given the sort of way that the bottom has fallen out for that support for the president, is that going to translate down ballot for Democrats?

JAZMINE ULLOA, IMMIGRATION REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yeah. I mean, it was really fascinating watching Talarico campaign, because he was coming with -- he was exuding the same kind of charisma and oratory style of Beto O'Rourke. I was getting that excitement from Latino voters, that that same kind of excitement from him.

He was echoing this class message against corporations and corporate interests and, you know, and billionaires that Bernie Sanders did very well with in that region, so that, that same class message. But I think what makes him especially unique is his appeal to religion and his -- how he grounded so much of that message and his faith.

BASH: That was going to ask you because he is one of -- before people really knew a lot about him, like the Stephen Colbert, sort of, who -- you know, whatever it was, the moment. People knew him as a Democrat who was leaning into his faith, talking about making that a bigger issue for Democrats on the campaign trail and policy wise.

ULLOA: Right. And I've driven so much in -- through that Rio Grande for -- through the border, and, you know, from El Paso to Brownsville for research for my book, but also on the campaign trail. And the message that I kept hearing from voters, I can't tell you how many times I heard voters tell me is -- I think Democratic voters tell me is, I feel like Democrats have just moved too far left.

They're talking too much about race and gender issues. I don't understand them on trans issues, and -- but I -- and I also just don't see them speaking about faith anymore. And a lot of these are voters who came to the Democrats through candidates like JFK, who, what you know -- who really grounded his Democratic message in faith and God. And so, I feel like that was -- they were kind of starving for that message and that approach.

[12:25:00]

BASH: Go ahead.

CUPP: Sorry. I think, well, I just want to say, like, all of this is right, but like -- and Talarico played this really smart, but he also benefited from me giant self-owned by Republicans, in targeting Talarico the way this administration did and he's not the only one. I think Mark Kelly has benefited from the same targeting by Trump. Don Lemon has benefited from the same targeting, right? Even Colbert himself and Jimmy Kimmel. Talarico was under Crockett by as many as 18 points just two weeks ago, and then the Colbert of it all happens, and I think that was hugely helpful.

BASH: Hold that thought, you're going to want to hear what he has to say. We're going to take a break, but there's a lot more, including the fact that a rising Republican star is now out of a job. We're talking about Congressman Dan Crenshaw. Why did MAGA nation turned against him and vote him out in the primary yesterday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:30:00]