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Inside Politics

Cornyn Wins More Votes Than Paxton but Race Heads for Runoff; GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw Loses Primary to Cruz-backed Challenger; Right- wing Texas State Rep. Steve Toth, a Former Megachurch Pastor, Wins Nomination; Embattled GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales Forced Into Primary Runoff; Americans Stranded in Middle East Search for Ways to Return Home. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 04, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:30:24]

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': Welcome back to "Inside Politics." So much more to discuss about last night's primary race. David, pick up where we left off on this Senate race last night.

DAVID GURA, BLOOMBERG CORRESPONDENT: I too seized on the spirit in this line from Leader Thune, but also just on the expensiveness of this as well.

BASH: Yeah.

GURA: And I think that's a real important thing to note here, just how much money was poured into this vessel over these last many months. And the cost could be even more going forward.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Yeah, John Cornyn especially.

GURA: Yes.

BASH: I mean there was a lot of money. John Cornyn spent $70 million and the people supporting him.

GURA: By a mile. So just looking ahead here, 12 more weeks of this. Does more money go into that race? Obviously, Senator Thune and others are worried about these other states. North Carolina, my home state, among them.

I guess my question is the degree to which are people going to continue to put more money into that race or look at these other ones?

BASH: Let's turn to another sort of shocker last night and that is Dan Crenshaw --

ASTEAD HERNDON, HOST AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, VOX: Yeah. BASH: -- a Republican Congressman in Texas, he was I think the only incumbent Republican running for re-election that didn't get an endorsement from President Trump on the House side. He lost by 15 points to Steve Toth.

HERNDON: Yeah, I mean if you're asking why Senator Cornyn and Senator Thune are begging Donald Trump for the endorsement, the answer is in Dan Crenshaw because Donald Trump still shows the ability to move the Republican base to bring out a certain type of voter who basically only votes for folks that Donald Trump tells them to.

And so, I think the lesson when I think about Crenshaw, who was someone who was pitched as a kind of MAGA rising star as recently as two to five years ago, and I said this a couple minutes ago, but I'm like there's no 70 percent version of supporting Donald Trump. There's no halfway doing MAGA.

They recognize the gap in electoral vulnerability that that presents and Donald Trump uses that as leverage. And so, we have seen him make this play whether it's to the Liz Cheneys of the world who are obviously going way further than someone like Dan Crenshaw, but just that --

BASH: A lot further.

HERNDON: A lot further.

BASH: Yeah.

HERNDON: I'm just saying, just that opening in itself is enough for them to try to create a wedge. They see a marginal difference of importance between fully MAGA and somewhat MAGA, and that's what they're trying to reshape Congress this time (ph).

BASH: And I think the point you're trying to make here also is that it wasn't so much on policy.

HERNDON: For sure.

BASH: There was a personality clash.

HERNDON: It's power.

BASH: Especially with the Senate Republican -- the Republican Senator, Ted Cruz. He backed the guy who ended up winning, Crenshaw's opponent, and our colleagues wrote how Dan Crenshaw's feuds with Ted Cruz and MAGA threatened his political future. They didn't just threaten it. They ended it, at least temporarily.

JAZMINE ULLOA, IMMIGRATION REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yeah, I mean I was having flashbacks to actually being on the Nikki Haley campaign. I trailed Haley all over the country during the primary.

She was the last standing challenger to Donald Trump in that Republican primary and she made a very similar message on foreign policy, a very similar break on foreign policy with Donald Trump. And I just saw that message fall flat, especially in Texas.

BASH: And just real quick, Tony Gonzales, we've been covering him --

S.E. CUPP, "OFF THE CUPP" PODCAST FOR IHEART RADIO: Yeah.

BASH: -- on this show and elsewhere because of allegations against him, text messages that came out about an extramarital affair. He was in a primary and he lost the primary, but there's also going to be a runoff.

CUPP: Yes. So --

BASH: He's still in the hunt.

CUPP: He is and you'd think a guy who was accused of having an affair with a staffer, who then killed herself would be disqualifying. I don't think it is today.

BASH: All right, everybody stand by. 1,500 Americans asked the State Department for help evacuating from the Middle East. Where do they go? How do they leave? We're going to discuss next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:38:33]

BASH: Americans stranded throughout the Middle East are trying to get home and they're trying to sift through chaos and confusion. They're being told to leave, they're being told to shelter in place, and now the State Department is saying that they will contact them when it's time to go as long as they have registered with the State Department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOMMY PIGOTT, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON, STATE DEPARTMENT: We will proactively reach out when charter flights, charter buses, other options are available. When they call, when they register, we have people right now, hundreds of people proactively making calls. Advice for the American people in the region is to be ready to go quickly once you receive that call.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Fundamental question is why are Americans in this position at all? Here's what the president said about that yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why wasn't there an evacuation plan and will you send planes to get people out?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, because it happened all very quickly. We thought, and I thought maybe more so than most, I could ask Marco, but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: My panel is back now. I know that you've been speaking to some formers who have dealt with similar situations.

GURA: Yeah, I talked with former Secretary of State, Antony Blinked, this morning who had to deal with something kind of similar in the wake of the attack on October 7th, getting a lot of Americans out of the region.

And he, I think like a lot of people, expressed astonishment at how this is playing out, the mixed messages, and the fact that there are so many Americans throughout the region really wondering what to do next in light of that.

[12:40:00]

Obviously, the skies are shut down. There's not a whole lot of commercial aviation. But I was struck by his optimism that there's still an off-ramp here somewhere. He's still thinks that there is room for diplomacy going forward here.

And he talked about two things in particular as kind of driving factors in the way this proceeds. The first is markets, and the second is munitions. We all know that President Trump cares a lot about how something like this reverberates through the economy and through the markets.

And we have seen, obviously, deep drops in the stock market.

BASH: Yeah.

GURA: Concern about oil prices, which plays into the political side of things as well. And then there's this question as this widens throughout the region, do we have adequate munitions? Are we able to navigate this in the way in which the president has so far on a kind of ad hoc way, as it gets to a larger and larger geography? And I think that's bound to be a bigger and bigger problem.

BASH: Yeah. Which Pete Hegseth, I think, both he and General Caine said this morning, they don't want to talk about because it's operational. On the Americans --

HERNDON: Yeah.

BASH: -- trying to find their way home, listen to what the Secretary of State, the current Secretary of State, said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: Here's the message I want to deliver Americans who are in the Middle East and in need of assistance. It is very important. And I ask this of the networks as well. It is important for you to please put both the website and the phone numbers on your screens because we need people -- we need to know where you are. We need to know. We need to have contact information for Americans that need assistance. They have to register with us because as these options begin to open up and as they open up, we have to be able to call you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HERNDON: Yeah, I think this speaks to the lack of a day two plan that we have seen kind of throughout this administration. The fact that they are giving contradictory reasons and also seem to not have an evacuation plan, I think speaks to the reason on the American public side. You've seen widespread disapproval of these strikes. I think the third thing I would add to David's analysis is public pressure.

I think that you usually see a kind of rallying of the flag in these moments. It hasn't necessarily happened. If you believe public polling, which only shows this as kind of 20-something percent, Donald Trump has tried to say that he doesn't care about that, that he can shape that public opinion, but we're seeing that change led -- we are seeing that ability less and less than what he used to.

And I think even on things like Minnesota, show that an organized resistance can shift the kind of White House tactics. The pushback, particularly from MAGA, I think is important on this front. And if he is seen as really to have broken that core promise of expanding war in the Middle East, that could also shift what goes forward.

BASH: Yeah. Although I would just caution that the pushback from the MAGA voices are those who have very loud megaphones.

HERNDON: For sure.

BASH: -- and that in internal polling, they're seeing that, just like you were saying before on politics, on foreign policy, MAGA is what the president says.

HERNDON: Yeah, I think that's important to say too.

BASH: Yeah. All right. I do want to play what Pete Hegseth said this morning in his opening, where he compared Iran to a football team.

CUPP: Yep.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I liken Iran's predicament to a football team who scripted the first 20 plays of a game. The team knew what plays to run because their first few drives were scripted.

But now that the game has started and the blitz is on, they don't know what plays to call, let alone how to get in the huddle and call those plays.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUPP: Yeah, if I were a service member engaged in this or thinking I might be called into this, I would really be kind of bummed that this is the way the defense secretary sees this. A couple of things, Iran telegraphed very early that if it were striked by the U.S. and/or Israel, it would start targeting the greater region.

We had all the foresight to know this was going to happen. There's no excuse for not giving an evacuation plan out to our assets. Two, Republican lawmakers, I know we like to look at Trump and Pete Hegseth, they are the faces of this war and Marco to an extent as well.

But Republican lawmakers hit the snooze button on Trump's illegal wars, illegal tariffs, illegal drug boat strikes, all of it. And their absence is glaring because they should be asking so many questions on our behalf.

What is the goal here? Why so many mixed messages? Why are you saying on one side this could go on for a long time and out of the other side of your mouth, we've already won, mission accomplished? Are we there for the oil? Are we there for the regime change?

It is astonishing how Congress has not been doing its job.

BASH: And this morning, the Speaker said very emphatically, I do not want to have a war powers vote. I think it would be detrimental to the mission. And he said again, he insisted it is unnecessary because this is a limited military operation.

HERNDON: The Speaker is continuing to do Donald Trump's bidding over the concerns of American people, both on process and on substance. To hear Pete Hegseth in that moment is shocking for what Republicans have talked about for years. They have made clear that they were against a growing war in Iran and what that would mean for the region.

And here, to see them go 180 like that, I just think speaks to how so many of them march into the tune that Donald Trump tells them on a given day.

[12:45:00]

BASH: Thank you all. Don't go anywhere because I hit the campaign trail right here in New York City with somebody who wants to make people believe again. And he has a legacy that we want you to know about, but also want you to know it doesn't mean that he's a shoo-in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK SCHLOSSBERG, (D) NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I am Jack Schlossberg. I'm very proud of that. I have two grandfathers. They were both president. One of the U.S., the other of his temple just uptown.

(LAUGH)

And I feel really connected to that as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:50:00]

BASH: He's a political newcomer with a last name you might not recognize, but a family history you definitely know. Jack Schlossberg is the only grandson of John F. Kennedy, and he's channeling online star power and progressive ideas in one of the most competitive primaries in the country.

And in an extended one-on-one discussion with him, he gave me a tour of underground subways on the streets, from subway cars to a diner booth in this district he hopes to represent. It's where I'm sitting right now, New York's 12th District.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHLOSSBERG: Hey guys, what's up? Hey, nice to meet you, I'm Jack. Thanks, guys.

BASH: Do you guys know him from Instagram and TikTok?

CROWD: Yeah.

BASH (voice-over): 33-year-old social media sensation, Jack Schlossberg walks through Grand Central Station.

CROWD: Thank you so much.

SCHLOSSBERG: Thanks guys.

BASH (voice-over): Jack, like his grandfather Jack, President John F. Kennedy, is running for Congress.

CROWD: Thank you.

SCHLOSSBERG: Nice, U.S. Congress, District 12. We're in it right now; we're standing in it.

BASH (voice-over): Grand Central is in the heart of the Manhattan District he wants to represent.

BASH: And that's your grandparents' --

SCHLOSSBERG: Yeah, just right here.

BASH: -- wedding photo, right in Grand Central.

SCHLOSSBERG: So cute.

BASH (voice-over): An American landmark still standing, largely thanks to his grandmother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

BASH: In a day when the new was favored over the old, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis understood the legacy of Grand Central Terminal. SCHLOSSBERG: She did. She helped to save Grand Central Station. She's Upper East Side born and bred, so she's from the district I'm running in, which is pretty cool.

BASH (voice-over): He was born and bred here too. The son of Caroline Kennedy and Ed Schlossberg is eager to show off tricks from his childhood.

SCHLOSSBERG: You go there, right?

BASH: OK.

SCHLOSSBERG: You have to listen.

BASH: Oh my gosh.

SCHLOSSBERG: You have to -- oh yeah, can you hear?

BASH: I can totally hear. Can you hear me?

SCHLOSSBERG: Yeah, I can totally hear you.

BASH: OK, so what's the secret?

SCHLOSSBERG: It's our secret that there's a chamber of secrets, and we have to keep it a secret. (LAUGH)

SCHLOSSBERG: Cool, right?

BASH: Very cool.

SCHLOSSBERG: Very cool.

BASH: Jerry Nadler is retiring. He's been here for 30 years?

SCHLOSSBERG: Yeah, he's been a progressive champion here in the city and leaves a big legacy, big shoes to fill.

BASH: Why are you better than all the other Democrats running?

SCHLOSSBERG: I think my experience really sets me apart. I have experience in practicing politics of 2026. I went to law school. I've got an MBA. I work at the State Department. I've got more plans than any other opponent running. I'm the only candidate who has put out a housing plan.

People have been so excited about our standard renter's deduction. And I mean --

BASH: What is that?

SCHLOSSBERG: If you own a home and you borrow against it, you can deduct your mortgage interest payment from your federal income taxes. Renters in the city can't do that, and it's basically the same. I love street musicians. Oh, my God. Performing arts is so important to New York City. We've got our Actor (ph) Act. Basically, it is a plan that I put out which would allow performing artists, actors, musicians, dancers to deduct their management fee from their federal taxes as well as certain expenses that are related to their profession.

BASH: Are you still dancing? Not saying?

(LAUGH)

BASH (voice-over): He recently learned ballet as part of rehab for a bad back. This is the kind of viral video that put him on the map.

SCHLOSSBERG: She walks in beauty like the night. Cloudless climes (ph), starry skies.

BASH (voice-over): Sometimes more cameo than Camelot.

SCHLOSSBERG: It's me, Jack Schlossberg. You insulted me, and so I'm just checking in, starting a dialog, seeing if you're OK.

I went to school because I wanted to be an environmental lawyer. I took the bar, all prepared to be a lawyer, but it was 2023, and I saw an election on the horizon, and I was not thrilled with what I was seeing because I thought, I'm a young person. I love Joe Biden. Why? Because he's a progressive person's dream president.

He did an incredible job. That major legislation passed, but nobody knew about it. The Internet was just so full of right-wing voices, and especially if you're a young guy, it's almost automatic. You watch one workout video, and then your algorithm feeds you all of this -- all of these macho guys spreading misinformation lies who are supporting Trump.

BASH (voice-over): He went to work on the Biden campaign, but says they didn't get him. He quit.

SCHLOSSBERG: And I said, I got to do this my way. I started making videos on my own. A month goes by, Biden campaign calling. Can you speak at the DNC? Can you go to every single swing state for us? I was surprised as anybody that I became a content creator after going to law school, but I saw the power that new media has.

It's possible that Trump is trying to crash the economy on purpose.

As Mary Poppins said, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, and it applies to social media. You can totally give people facts, information, but you also got to mix in some fun stuff about your life, your personality, because that's just --

BASH: Like skateboarding and reciting poetry?

SCHLOSSBERG: Yeah. Exactly. You can be a fun, humorous, young guy, and also be a Democrat. Those two things aren't in opposition to each other. [12:55:00]

I'm excited to see if anyone showed up to our pizza party.

BASH (voice-over): A blizzard was hitting, but the place was packed.

SCHLOSSBERG: Nice to meet you. Hey! Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, too. Thanks for coming.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wouldn't say I was a fully committed Jack voter, but I'm definitely interested in hearing what he has to say in these next couple of months before the election.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need someone to stand up, and he's the right guy.

SCHLOSSBERG: Hey, guys. Do you think that my videos are good?

CROWD: Yes.

SCHLOSSBERG: Yes. Do you think they make a difference?

CROWD: Yeah.

SCHLOSSBERG: Our campaign slogan is "Believe in something again." Right, guys? Believe in something again.

CROWD: Believe in something again.

SCHLOSSBERG: Which I think is so dumb, but also --

(LAUGH)

SCHLOSSBERG: -- so smart, and I think it sums up everything. I feel connected to a past. We're all connected to a past. We have that in common. Where people believed in America. I'm like the Postal Service, OK?

BASH: Yeah.

SCHLOSSBERG: Which Trump is trying to cut. Rain or sleep or snow, we are campaigning.

(LAUGH)

BASH: I heard you say that you're an outsider in this race.

SCHLOSSBERG: Yeah.

BASH: To people who are on the outside, they hear you say you're an outsider, and they're like, come on.

SCHLOSSBERG: I know. I know. It's ironic coming out of my mouth with Kennedy legacy and what I represent. It might be hard to believe, but it's absolutely true.

Because there's a local insider political machine here that is running the playbook from the '90s America.

BASH (voice-over): Some of his posts sparked backlash. In one controversial video that he deleted, he mocked his cousin, RFK Jr.'s speech disorder.

BASH: I mean, it was interesting, the poll that you took when we were in the pizza parlor.

SCHLOSSBERG: Yeah.

BASH: -- where people said that they liked your videos. Because there is a disconnect between those people and those who just don't get it.

SCHLOSSBERG: Yeah. You know, it is --

BASH: And they -- you know, they're like, is there something wrong with you?

SCHLOSSBERG: I think that is the best evidence that it's working. Someone who says, is he crazy? His videos are wild or offensive. I would say this to them. My videos are all political content. It's all to rally people toward a progressive cause, to stand up against President Trump.

These aren't crazy videos just for the sake of being crazy, getting attention or making money. This is all to galvanize a group of people that needs to be brought into politics if we're going to make a change. It's all a political tool.

Could I tell you about my wife?

(LAUGH)

SCHLOSSBERG: I was a bad, bad boy this weekend.

BASH: One of the criticisms of you is they say, oh, Jack Schlossberg, he's never had a real job.

SCHLOSSBERG: Yeah, I love that. Not only is it not true, I worked at the State Department. I worked in Japan, I went to school there.

BASH: When your mom was ambassador?

SCHLOSSBERG: Yeah, there's no gap on my resume. But I love that because they think that content creation isn't a job. It's a full-time job.

BASH: On your cousin, on RFK Jr., I think you were the first person in your family to come out publicly and say --

SCHLOSSBERG: Yeah.

BASH: I mean, you were obviously against his presidential run.

SCHLOSSBERG: I saw it coming a mile away.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Did you get a lot of crap from members of your family, privately?

SCHLOSSBERG: I'll say this, I wish that more of them had spoken up sooner, but I am encouraged that so many have come around and are doing that now. I think that that's great.

BASH: We hear a lot about the Kennedy side of your family, but the Schlossberg side of your family is very deeply rooted here in New York City.

SCHLOSSBERG: Yeah, absolutely. I am Jack Schlossberg. I'm very proud of that. I have two grandfathers. They were both president, one of the U.S., the other of his temple just uptown.

(LAUGH)

SCHLOSSBERG: And I feel really connected to that as well. I'm proud of my Jewish heritage, and yeah, I'm a New Yorker through and through.

BASH (voice-over): A month after he announced his bid for Congress, Jack's sister Tatiana passed away from cancer. She was only 35.

SCHLOSSBERG: I miss her, and I'm so happy that I get to spend time with her kids, who are amazing. And you know, I feel even more committed to doing what I'm doing now because of how precious life is and how lucky I am to be here.

BASH: The tragedy is beyond belief, and I know that you spent a lot of time with her and her kids. I mean, uncle was your full-time job --

SCHLOSSBERG: Oh, yeah, Uncle Jack.

BASH: -- as she was sick.

SCHLOSSBERG: Yeah, I mean, Tatiana was my best friend. We could look at each other and have a conversation without saying anything. She knew exactly what I was thinking all the time. But she's still with me. She's out there campaigning with me, I think.

I try to honor her in some way every day by doing something that she loved to do. So maybe that's -- she loved to swim. Maybe let's go to the pool and remember how lucky I am to be here and be able to do that, or hang out with her kids or whatever it is.

BASH: She wrote about, like, how could this be happening to my family again?

SCHLOSSBERG: Our family has had its share of tragedies. It's absolutely true. And I think my mom sets an example for everybody on how to handle tragedy and difficult circumstances with grace. And she's the toughest person I've ever met.

BASH: How do they feel about you running for --