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John Cornyn Says End Filibuster to Pass GOP Voting Bill; Trump Suggested SAVE America Act Was Critical to Texas Endorsement; Trump Says U.S. Military is Hitting Iran Very Hard; Trump Says We May Cut Off Trade With Spain; Trump to Pitch Economy, Prescription Drug Plan in Ohio. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 11, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:24]

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': -- to somebody who is a Republican strategist who very much is in the business of trying to get Cornyn to win, who said the survival instinct is a powerful one.

MAEVE RESTON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: It sure is. And you know, I mean, you think of someone like Cornyn who is such an institutionalist, who has defended this for so long, just twisting himself into a pretzel to make sure that he gets this endorsement.

And we see that, you know, with so many of these other Republican leaders that need Trump's endorsement around the country. And in this case, Ken Paxton really put Cornyn in a box that was quite savvy.

BASH: Because he said that he would drop out if this SAVE -- the President Says SAVE America Act, not SAVE Act, which we'll get to in a second, passes. But just kind of to go back a step in the timeline that we're on here with this, you know, with this issue, the president, when I spoke with him on Friday, I brought up the Cornyn endorsement, asking when are you going to do it?

And his answer was, we have to get this done. So, the president laid this down as a clear requisite. He said -- the president said, I've got to have the assurance of -- you have a big story here, come to think of it. But I'm just telling you, I like John Cornyn. I get along with him well. Get along with both of them well, meaning Paxton also. But we have to go in with the SAVE America Act.

JOSH DAWSEY, POLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yeah, I mean, here's also what's happening. Republicans in Washington have been trying to get Trump to endorse John Cornyn for more than a year now. Right? Pushing, pushing, pushing, John Thune. Some of his own advisers have gone to work for Cornyn, some of Trump's own advisers have gone to work with outside groups. Everyone has tried.

And Trump has not been willing to do it, right? After the primary, folks leak out that Trump is leaning towards endorsing Cornyn and making this over. Right? And what you see happening are these folks on the right who are aligned with Paxton, who don't trust with Cornyn, go out and carpet bomb Cornyn. And they are attacking him left and right on social media, in right-wing media, on television, dropping everything out there that Trump wasn't, like, hey, do you remember what he said about January 6th? Hey, do you remember what he said about this? Hey, do you remember this, this, this, this, this? And so what's happening now, according to a White House official I spoke to yesterday, is that Trump is assessing. He's sitting back, waiting to see what happens. He's not determined to endorse Cornyn like he was potentially right after the primary. Right?

So a lot of the folks who are aligned with Paxton have made some headway in getting Trump to reconsider his decision. So if you're Cornyn and you've been trying to get an endorsement for more than a year, you haven't been successful. You think you're getting closer this time. And guess what? Here we go again. We're back in the trenches.

BASH: And exactly. And just back to the whole notion of survival being a very powerful instinct. John Cornyn is an institutionalist in the Senate, which is part of the reason why I think the sort of newer MAGA Republicans, they want to get him out. But, so much so that he has been out there defending the idea of needing the filibuster in the U.S. Senate. Just watch this. This is John Cornyn explaining the rule in 2022.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN, (R-TX): If you had no 60-vote bipartisan consensus requirement, either party, when they get in the majority and it tends to go back and forth each election, can do whatever they want to do. And then when the other party gets in the majority, they could undo it. And so, there's a lot of good reasons why we should have one place in America that forces us to do what maybe doesn't come naturally, which is to discuss things together, to debate them, to think about the consequences, both intended and unintended, and to pass laws which will endure the test of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: What a difference four years and a much needed endorsement makes.

JEFF SELENE, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: For sure. Look that was not an election year for him. But the reality is just watching a very senior member of the Senate sort of prostrate themselves to try and get an endorsement. It -- who knows if it's going to work. But his changing position here just is so, so obvious.

But look, the bottom line to this, if there's not an endorsement and even if there is, that doesn't guarantee that he wins. I mean, because Paxton isn't necessarily going to drop out, should he endorse him.

BASH: Yeah.

SELENE: So it all gives Democrats some hope that they could win Texas. But boy, that is still a very, very, very tall order. BASH: So let's talk a little bit more about what the president wants. What is this SAVE America Act? There's a version the House already passed. And then there's what the president wants and what it says about how he's feeling about this election year that he so desperately wants to change the election laws before people go to the polls. Gabe Cohen is at the wall to break that down for us. Gabe?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, it's important to note that there has been this gap between what President Trump has been calling for, what he says is in the SAVE America Act and what's actually in the bill that passed the House in February. So these first two bullets, these -- everything here, this is what the president has been saying he wants to see in the bill.

[12:35:00]

These first two notes, those are what's actually in the version that has passed. Proof of citizenship requirement for Americans to actually register to vote in federal elections and then photo ID requirements requiring Americans to actually show a photo ID at their polling place in order to cast their ballot on Election Day. What the president has said he wants added to the bill are these other three points.

First, severe limits to mail-in ballots. He no longer wants no excuse mail-in voting. Eight states allow all mail votes. They want to limit it to just people with disabilities, people traveling, people who are in the military.

And then they've added this language that really has nothing to do with elections, Dana, which would ban transwomen in women's sports and then ban gender affirming surgery for minors. But I do want to focus in for a second on this citizenship requirement that's already in the bill, because this has been really the focus for a lot of critics and advocates who are against this bill. These are some of the documents that Americans would have to show in order to register to vote.

Yes, there are certain states where your real ID shows citizenship. Military IDs can be used. Some government issued photo IDs could be used. But for most Americans, the easiest way to do it, to register, is going to end up being a valid U.S. passport. The other way you could potentially register is with your government ID, a driver's license, let's say, and then a birth certificate, a hospital record, a naturalization certificate, a tribal card.

But the issue that people point to here is all about access to these documents. Look, there are only about 180 million valid, non-expired passports in the United States. Just more than half of Americans have one. And then by one study, only about 21 million Americans, eight or nine percent of the country, actually has easy access to these documents to be able to prove their citizenship quickly, to be able to meet the requirements of this law.

Now, these are the IDs that would need to be shown actually at your polling place in order to vote. That is where you could show your driver's license, your passport, other forms of ID. And I will note, there are a lot of states that already have some sort of photo ID requirement in order to vote on Election Day.

And there are also states, Dana, that are passing these citizenship requirements. The state of Florida right now is discussing it. And that gets to what the Trump administration has said again and again about this.

They said, we heard Karoline Leavitt say just yesterday that Americans are competent. They can get to this paperwork. And yet, there is a lot of concern that it's going to be costly for Americans if they want to go ahead and go get a U.S. passport. It's going to require steps.

By the way, they're adding as part of this law, potential civil or criminal penalties for elections officials who are registering people, if they mis-register somebody who is not supposed to vote. So you can imagine election officials are going to be on edge.

And all of this, of course, is with the backdrop that there is no evidence of widespread voting by non-citizens. So a lot of people argue this is putting up barriers to Americans to solve a problem that does not really exist.

BASH: Yeah. The idea of a photo ID to a vote has a lot of support in America. The idea of proving citizenship is a different question, as you so -- as you pointed out so well, Gabe. Thank you so much.

And just moments ago, President Trump took questions about Iran as he left the White House. Let's listen.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And as you know, we're doing something that nobody ever thought was possible to do. Our military is the best. It's the most powerful in the world. And they're hitting them very hard. This is 47 years of abuse and killing lots of people, killing and maiming lots of people.

What is it, Peter?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, what more do you need to do militarily for this operation to end?

TRUMP: More of the same. And we'll see how that all comes out. Right now, they are -- they've lost their Navy. They've lost their Air Force. They have no anti-aircraft apparatus at all. They have no radar. Their leaders are gone. And we could do a lot worse.

We're leaving certain things that if we take them out, we could take them out by this afternoon, in fact, within an hour. They literally would never be able to build that country back.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: A new report says that the military investigation has found that the United States struck the school in Iran. As commander in chief, do you take responsibility for that?

TRUMP: That is what?

HOLMES: As commander in chief, do you --

TRUMP: For what?

HOLMES: For the strike on the school in Iran? A new report says the military investigation has found it was the United States that struck the school.

TRUMP: I don't know about it.

(CROSSTALK)

[12:40:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you talking to the CEOs of various oil companies, encouraging them to use the Strait of Hormuz?

TRUMP: Yeah. I think they should. I think they should. I think they should use the Strait.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Look, we took out just about all of their mine ships in one night. We're up to boat number 60. I didn't realize they had that big a Navy. I would say it was big and ineffective. But every one of their ships, just about all of their Navy is gone to bottom of the sea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, have they laid any mines in the Strait of Hormuz?

TRUMP: We don't think so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, is Senator Thune listening to you when you say you want to pass the SAVE America Act? He says they aren't the votes to do it right now. What's your response?

TRUMP: Well, he's got to be a leader. You know, he's a leader. He's got to get them. It's the most popular bill I've ever seen put before Congress. And it's voter ID and it's voter. You have to be able to be a citizen to vote.

You've got to prove (ph) citizenship. And we're also adding in no men playing in women's sports, no transgender mutilization of our children, and no mail-in ballots, fake mail-in ballots. We have none of that except in the case of the military, et cetera.

It's the SAVE America Act. It's the most popular bill I think I've ever put before Congress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you declare victory in this war if the Supreme Leader remains the Ayatollah's son?

TRUMP: I don't want to comment on that. I don't want to comment. But I will tell you, I just spoke with various countries, the leaders of various countries. You'll have a list. And they said they've never seen anything like it. We have, and I built it during my first term and I used it.

I didn't realize I was going to use it this month. But we have the greatest military in the world, by far. Nobody close.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you concerned about a domestic terrorist attack by Iran, do you think?

TRUMP: No.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- invited to the Kill of the Americas. Mexico, Brazil and Colombia were not invited to the Kill (ph) of the Americas. Why was that? And do they come in the future to the event?

TRUMP: I think they were invited. Maybe they didn't come. I think they were. I get along very well with all of them.

[Foreign Language]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, in Iraqi Parliament, a few days, members' slogans, death to America, death to Israel, what is your response to them? What is your message for Iraqi government?

TRUMP: What did you say?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Iraqi Parliament, slogans, death of America, death Israel, members of the Parliament.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Death to America, death to Israel. What's your response?

TRUMP: That's not a nice question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, did Spain intervene after you told them that you would come and side with them? Are they cooperating with the United States?

TRUMP: Who?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spain.

TRUMP: No, they're not. I think they're not cooperating at all. Spain? I think they've been very bad. Very bad. Not good at all. We may cut off trade with Spain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you guys do (ph) all trade with them?

TRUMP: I don't know what Spain' is doing. They've been very bad to NATO. They get protected. They don't want to pay their fair share. And they've been that way for many years, actually.

Let me give you the good news. Let me give you the good news. The people of Spain are fantastic. The leadership, like you. The leadership, not so good. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Regarding Hezbollah in Lebanon, Lebanon is under attack, and Hezbollah is making dangers for the Lebanese, especially the Lebanese aggression. What is your message for Lebanon?

TRUMP: Well, we're working on it very hard. We love Lebanon. We love the people of Lebanon. And we're working very hard. We got to get rid of the Hezbollah. It's been a disaster for many years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, is the new oil refinery going up in Brownville, Texas. What do you want Americans to know about that?

TRUMP: About what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About the new oil refinery going up in Brownsville, Texas.

TRUMP: Oh, it'll be great. It's going to be the greatest anywhere in the world. There's never been anything like it. It's great that it's going up in Texas. You know, it's very hard to get refineries done. This will be like nothing else ever built. It's a great thing. Thank you for that question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible)?

TRUMP: Well, look, we've knocked out their Navy. We've knocked out their Air Force. We've knocked out all of their anti-defense. We've taken out 60 mine boats -- 59 mine boats. Nobody has ever seen anything like it.

[12:45:00]

We have the greatest military in the world by far, not even close. But you know what? They've been flicked (ph) at 47 years.

BASH: OK, we've been listening to President Trump there. Sorry if you need a little Dramamine watching some of that. That's what happens when there's a scrum at the White House. Jeff Zeleny, one of the things that we were talking about before we went to the president was about the SAVE America Act.

And he said that the Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, even though the question was whether Thune can actually get this done, and he said, well, he's got to be a leader and he's got to get them, meaning the votes. Our colleague, Kristen Holmes asked the president about CNN reporting that the belief is that it was a U.S. strike that led to the death of children and others at a school in the first days of the war in Iran. And his answer was, I don't know about that.

Actually, he's saying that now, but we've heard different things from him.

ZELENY: We've absolutely heard different things from him. Just a couple days ago, when he was in Doral, at his golf resort, at a press conference, he talked a little bit more about it. The reality is the administration knows much more about it. He clearly wanted to move on from there. The Tomahawk missiles that were found, or remnants at the site, almost certainly link back to the U.S.

So the president can say that there, at some point, these questions will continue to be asked. I mean, if not by reporters, then members of Congress. I mean, this is something that, as we've seen --

BASH: Yeah.

ZELENY: -- for many wars, they do not go -- evaporate.

BASH: Yeah.

ZELENY: -- regardless of his disinterest in answering it.

BASH: And it was a really important question for Kristen.

BASH: For sure.

RESTON: A really important question. And you know, it's part of a broader concern that a lot of people have about this administration and the extent to which they have cut the people in the government who are in charge of mitigating civilian casualties and ensuring that these kinds of incidents don't happen.

A lot of those departments have been completely hollowed out under this administration, and this kind of thing happens.

BASH: And at the beginning of the show, we were talking about some reporting about Iran putting mines in the Strait of Hormuz that intended, of course, to disrupt trade for the oil tankers that go through there. And he said the question was whether or not there are mines there.

And his answer was, we don't think so.

DAWSEY: Well, yeah, and then you saw his threat yesterday where he told them they better not put mines there, but certainly suggested that I think there could be. He said that today. I guess we don't really know the answer to that. I mean, one of the things that you've said, and we've all said here on this panel, whether it came from the Tomahawk strikes, what's going on in the Strait of Hormuz, basic facts about the war, it's sort of been hard to get clear and concise answers directly from the administration on this.

BASH: All right, we're going to sneak in a quick break.

Up next, President Trump takes his affordability message on the road. Soaring gas prices, as we've been discussing, certainly may undercut that pitch.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:52:54]

BASH: Gas prices are soaring. They're up about $0.60 a gallon in less than two weeks. The economy lost jobs last month. That was before the war began. Increasingly, economists are worried about stagflation, the deadly combination of low growth and high inflation.

President Trump, you saw him talking there. Well, he is taking off on Air Force One to go to Ohio and bring his economic pitch to the heartland. He's going to tour a pharmaceutical plant and then head to Northern Kentucky for a speech. My smart panel is still here.

Northern Kentucky, who represents Northern Kentucky, Jasmine? Oh, I know. The Republican he can't stand the most in the House of Representatives, Thomas Massie, who he wants defeated in a primary.

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NOTUS: Yeah, and from his Truth Social this morning, Thomas Massie is on the brain. The rent is being paid in his head there, and I'm sure that he is going to mention there --

BASH: We can put that up.

WRIGHT: Mention him --

BASH: Yeah.

WRIGHT: perhaps when he's on stage --

BASH: The worst Republican Congressman in the long and fabled history of the United States Congress.

WRIGHT: Yeah, he has a little condo in the president's head this morning. But, look, this is --

BASH: I think it's more like a penthouse, but go ahead.

(LAUGH)

WRIGHT: High real estate. But this is where the White House wants the president. They said that these things, him going across the country talking about affordability, that that would be a weekly thing. They haven't exactly been happening weekly, but they have been happening more now than in the last six months.

They want him talking about affordability. They want him touting the prescription drug part of his platform, something that White House officials point to as really the most popular part of what he talks about and what he does day to day, and you see them having multiple events on it.

Fundamentally, I think you are going to see these gas prices kind of muck up that affordability pitch, at least in the interim. But this is where the White House wants the president to focus on. They want him to talk to American people and tell them that things are not so bad, even as they're getting good CPI numbers today and other things like that.

BASH: You remember, in the State of the Union address, which actually wasn't that long ago, he barely talked about foreign policy. He talked almost exclusively about affordability.

[12:55:00]

And that was something that made every Republican in that chamber very, very happy, because they're all, at least in the House, on the ballot.

DAWSEY: Well, there's been a months-long effort by the president's advisers to get him to talk more about affordability. His pollster, Tony Fabrizio, has gone to the cabinet to try to talk more about affordability, about drug pricing, about various things that they think they can pitch in the midterms. His team has talked to members of Congress.

James Blair, his top adviser, about talking about affordability. But what the president's going to focus on any day of the week sort of remains to be seen. His advisers basically told the cabinet, the president is going to do what he's going to do. Here's what we want you guys to be doing.

So every day they can get him talking about some of the things he's done on affordability, I think they view as a win.

BASH: And you know, one of the questions as we continue to monitor the primaries in this primary season is the power of the Trump endorsement. And we talked yesterday about the Georgia primary, the special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene. And we'll show you the results right now.

There is going to be a runoff. And the top two, Shawn Harris, a Democrat, got 37.3 percent. Clayton Fuller, the Republican, got 34.9 percent.

Now, at first glance, you might say, wait, what? The Democrat in this ruby red district is slightly ahead of the Republican. But the story is that that candidate, Fuller, was President Trump's pick in a very big field of Republicans.

ZELENY: In a super crowded field of Republicans. It shows one thing, that Trump endorsement is still very valuable in a crowded Republican field, without a doubt. I mean, Clay Fuller got more than twice as many votes as the next Republican on the thing. So when you add up all of the votes here, yes, the Democrat, Shawn Harris, who's a retired Army Brigadier General, a very dynamic candidate, he has one problem. It's a deep Republican district here.

So when you add up the votes, Republicans got almost 70,000 votes and the Democrat got about 45,000 votes in a special. We do not know if the runoff in 27 days, April 7th, the same number of people will turn out. But the bottom line here is, it would be very difficult for a Democrat to win.

But for Clay Fuller, he is someone who Speaker Johnson wanted because he is effectively an establishment Republican. He is not going to be a thorn in the side of the president like Tom Massie is, at least in the president's view, or Marjorie Taylor Greene, of course --

(CROSSTALK) BASH: Or the person who was in the seat. Yeah.

ZELENY: So his endorsement is still valuable. That's why John Cornyn and most Republicans still are doing anything they can to get it.

BASH: Maeve?

RESTON: Yes, and absolutely, seeing folks like contort themselves as we have seen Cornyn doing, so --

But the power of that endorsement, you can't beat it, especially in an election, a special election where you have such low turnout and it's going to be the most fervent voters that get out for him.

BASH: Yeah, low turnout and a number of Republicans and clearly. The Republicans who were going to the polls in this special election, which is a micro, micro, micro level of the electorate said, who does the president want? OK, I'm for that person.

All right. Thank you so much, one and all. Thank you for joining "Inside Politics" today. "CNN News Central" starts right now.

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