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Airport Lines Grow As GOP Blows Up Deal & Congress Skips Town; Iran War Enters Second Month As Trump Warns "It's Not Finished". Anti- Trump "No Kings" Protests Draw Massive Crowds; Iran War Splits MAGA World as It Considers Future without Trump; Midterm Madness: GOP and DEMS both Hope for Cinderella Story. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired March 29, 2026 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:29]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Impasse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It really is as bad as they say it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congress should be the one not getting paid.
ZELENY: Republicans revolt over a deal to end the shutdown.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This gambit that was done last night is a joke.
ZELENY: Now that they own it, do they have a plan to end it?
And pivot point? As more troops arrive in the Middle East, President Trump dances around his end game.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's not finished yet. And Cuba's next, by the way.
ZELENY: But are fractures forming among his base?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The U.S. should not be in Iran. We need to focus on America first.
ZELENY: And people power.
PROTESTERS: This is what democracy looks like!
ZELENY: Massive crowds protest Trump nationwide.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, SINGER: This reactionary nightmare and these invasions of American cities will not stand.
ZELENY: Can Democrats turn that spring enthusiasm into fall votes?
INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.
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ZELENY (on camera): Good morning. And welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Jeff Zeleny, in today for Manu Raju.
With a partial government shutdown on its 44th day this morning, Americans are feeling the brunt of Washington's inaction. Just as millions gear up for spring break and easter travel, an anger at the government is growing even more palpable.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It really is as bad as they say it is.
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: How long have you been waiting in the line?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About an hour and 45 minutes.
MUNTEAN: Were you surprised by that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I wasn't surprised. I just wanted them to pay them people so we can move through a little swifter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congress should be the one not getting paid. And the TSA agents should get paid, while all this is being ironed out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: Now, meanwhile, the president spent Saturday at his golf club in Florida, a day after blowing up a bipartisan Senate deal that could have brought this all to a close.
That led to a remarkable rift among Republicans, as the House rejected that Senate bill, passed its own version, opening up yet another fight over immigration.
Now, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are now at an impasse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNSON: And I told him it shouldn't be a surprise to anybody that we would not be able to do that. We're not going to split apart two of the most important agencies in the government and leave them hanging like that. We just couldn't do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: So, Trump signed an executive order to pay TSA workers. But there are questions about how that will actually work and how soon it could make a difference for fliers. Lawmakers, they're home now for a two-week recess. Let's dive into all of this with my great panel this morning. CNN's
Alayna Treene, "The Dispatch's" Jonah Goldberg, and CNN's Lauren Fox.
Lauren, what a Friday and Saturday on Capitol Hill. I mean, the divisions seem so deep with the Republicans among themselves, never mind the Democrats. How do they get out of this impasse?
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, it's been a real roller coaster over the last 72 hours when it comes to the Republican Party and how to get out of this. You know, you saw early in the hours of Friday morning John Thune cutting a deal with Democrats getting a unanimous consent agreement. Basically, that means no one objected in the United States senate. Not a single Republican senator.
And then just a couple of hours later, you saw Mike Johnson there at the mikes, essentially highlighting pieces of the legislation, holding it up before cameras and saying that there was no way that Republican senators had actually read that they zeroed out funding for immigration enforcement around the country, and that stark divide between House Speaker Mike Johnson and John Thune was really riveting on Friday. And you started to really see so many people on social media, so many conservatives, even in the House of Representatives, starting to call for John Thune to no longer be the Republican leader.
It was a really remarkable string of events, in part because they really could have been out of the shutdown by now.
ZELENY: I mean, no doubt about it. And at the center of it all, Alayna, obviously, was President Trump, someone who could have ended it had he made some calls to House leaders. Obviously, he did not. He said he was going to sign this executive order to pay the workers.
Do you have any sense of how that actually is going to work and how he views this impasse now?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, look, and I do want to just say to what Lauren was saying, it really does seem like both the president and Johnson kind of threw thrown Thune under the bus. But I was --
ZELENY: And backed it up and drove over him again, I think.
TREENE: Yeah. And look, I mean, and to get ill get to the executive order in a moment, but I think, you know, this was no surprise to me when Johnson came out there, people were asking me, oh, is the president going to be upset with them? Of course not. Johnson, first of all, would have never come out and said that he was going against that bill if he didn't have the presidents backing on that.
And two, Trump had never been enthusiastic about that deal in the first place, about this idea of trying to take Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CBP funding out of that, and also drop the thing that he wants more than anything, which is to Save America Act, the voter I.D. restrictions and others. Other things in that bill, he wanted that to pass too. And so, now, the president is kind of gearing up, I know internally
for this other fight where he's kind of going back to the things that Thune and others had tried to walk him away from in the past, which is this idea of, blowing up the filibuster, something that Thune has repeatedly said. We just don't have the votes. No one actually wants that. He's going full bore on some of those things, now that he sees this opportunity with the House.
As for TSA and the executive order to fund that, it is still unclear exactly how they are going to get the money. He said that it's going to come from DHS. He's trying to find money around to move money around for that. We have some reporting who people have said they're going to maybe try to find it from the Big, Beautiful Bill that they passed last summer.
But there's a lot of legal questions about how that could work. And of course, the big thing is how long will this actually take? Because the problem right now is the pain that this TSA workers are feeling. And this is now at least, I mean, it's a partial government shutdown, but the longest shutdown that DHS has ever experienced in history.
ZELENY: And it's not just the TSA workers, it's a cybersecurity workers, some coast guard workers. I mean, at the core of all of this, obviously, is immigration. I mean, which was a strength for the president.
Let's look at the numbers that the president is facing on immigration here. Just a year ago, it was a strength for the president and the Republican Party. And now, of course, it is not just look at that. It is basically a reverse.
So, Jonah, as you look at this, basically a new immigration fight that has been opened up all over again, what is this? What does this mean for the Republican Party eight months before the midterms? Is this helpful?
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. So, I mean, one of the things I think that minimizes the damage for Senate Republicans, at least, is at least they're now on record. They have for at least the ones who were facing a competitive race of any kind. They can say, hey, look, we tried. It's those crazies in the House that screwed this up, and that helps them a little bit at the margins.
I don't know how much I also think the dog that's not barking here that I think is just sort of amazing to me. I was there, I was when I was watching this, writing about this when DHS was created. I think its a pretty terrible agency. Basically, every other agency passed their trash and the agencies, they didn't want any more into this one big omnibus thing.
But at the end of the day, DHS was created to deal with the terrorism. We are at war with Iran. And you have these massive soft targets outside the security perimeter at every major airport in the country, and it's -- to me, I'm a kind of a both sides guy. It's an embarrassment for the country that we're supposed to be in this war. And the one agency at the tip of the spear on the home front is supposed to be dealing with the war is just completely AWOL, and Congress is AWOL on it, too.
ZELENY: It is remarkable. I mean, obviously it was created in the wake of 9/11. I mean, President Bush set it up. Tom Ridge, the first secretary. It is just remarkable now, even though there is a new war and threat, that that is really not part of the conversation.
And, Lauren, I guess that brings me to a question. I mean, are Democrats at all overplaying their hand here, just given the potential threats and risks?
FOX: I think that without the Senate deal early Friday morning, that sort of felt like the case because I was talking to a lot of Republicans who are part of these negotiations, and they say, you know, we're having these side conversations with rank and file Democrats. We think we're close. We bring a deal to leadership, and all of a sudden, it drags out another 24, 48, 72 hours.
And that was the issue that Republicans kept accusing Democrats of. They are asking too much. They get what they want, and then they come back and say, actually, we don't just want to not have immigration enforcement covered. Now, we also want additional reforms for ICE, and a deal over immigration enforcement reforms was always going to be almost impossible. And they got very close to just covering every other part of the agencies.
Then when things move over to the House, I think House Republicans potentially hurt Republicans talking points because now all of a sudden, you had a bipartisan deal on the table. You turned away from it. And now Democrats have the ability to say, look, we have we passed something. And even Mike Lee passed it in the senate with us. It was Republicans in the House.
GOLDBERG: Also, the failure to declare victory by Democrats by getting rid of Kristi Noem saying, hey, we got our scalp.
ZELENY: Right.
GOLDBERG: You know, more reforms to come. Let's work with Mullin. That seemed to me like a window of opportunity politically.
ZELENY: And you almost wonder if Secretary Mullin now if this is going to be sort of his first act, does he step in and try and open things? And we didn't hear from him much at the end of the week.
TREENE: We didn't. I mean, they had that cabinet meeting and he kind of very briefly was like, thank you. I'm here. And then they moved on and kept it focused on the Iran war.
I think it will be a big issue. Of course. I mean, this is something, unfortunately for him, that he has inherited. I think DHS right now is -- there's so many people there that are so unhappy. Many people were thrilled when Noem -- inside the agency, I should say -- when Noem finally left. And it's going to -- he's filling a vacuum there that I think a lot of people are looking for.
But the question will be how involved the president wants to bring him into this. Because at the end of the day, this really is going to be something, at least from the White House perspective, that President Trump is going to make a decision on. And right now, he's definitely, I think, happy with the way things have turned out because he doesn't want -- he didn't want, you know, border and immigration enforcement cut out of this bill. And so, now, I think they're going to try to -- perhaps we'll see Trump himself get more involved.
ZELENY: I mean, one thing is clear flying is still going to be a nightmare. And the anger is still so real.
Speaking of anger, "No Kings" massive crowds of people, including Bruce Springsteen, hit the streets yesterday to protest President Trump and his policies. So, what's next?
Plus, the strait of Trump? That's what the president floated, renaming the Strait of Hormuz. So, is he getting ready to ramp up the war? Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:15:55]
ZELENY: We've now entered the second month of the war with Iran, and there's still no clear end in sight. This weekend, 3,500 more U.S. sailors and marines arrived in the Middle East as a new front opened in the war.
And new this morning on the start of Holy Week, Pope Leo attacked leaders using God to justify the war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POPE LEO XIV, CATHOLIC CHURCH: He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war but rejects them, saying, even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: So, the big question here at home, as President Trump sends mixed signals, what's his next move?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They are begging to make a deal. Not me.
We have another 3,554 targets left and that will be done pretty quickly.
It's not finished yet. I'm not saying -- it's sort of finished, but it's not finished. It's got to be finished.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: My panel is back with me now.
Alayna, you've been tracking all week that. Not exactly consistent message from the president. It's finished. It's not finished. Where do things stand in terms of what the next options possibly are?
TREENE: Yeah. Look, I think there's a lot of pressure right now, obviously, on this administration and the president, because one, he himself and his team had self-imposed this deadline of were going to go in and this is going to be four to six weeks. We want this to be quick. We want this to be decisive. This is not going to be a protracted military involvement.
Now, we're entering month two and people are trying to figure out where is the end here. Is there an end in sight? And that has put the pressure on the president to really want to move forward with diplomacy if he can? So, where things stand now?
From my conversations with people at the White House and people in the intelligence community is that they really are prioritizing diplomacy here. They are hoping that they can find a way to set up a meeting. We had reporting that they were working toward one this weekend.
It's now looking likely. It's either going to be perhaps this week or down the line, but hopefully in the near future is what they're hoping to have a meeting with the Iranians and the mediators like Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, to see if there's a way to hash out some sort of end goal, you know, off ramp to this war that doesn't require this going on much longer.
However, if that fails, there are a number of options that the president and his team and the Pentagon really have put together. The problem with that is if you actually want a swift end to this war, all of the military options that could do that are essentially putting troops on the ground. And that is something that many people throughout the administration on Capitol Hill, many conservatives very much do not want. So, it's a bit of a problem right now.
ZELENY: And when you take together just the assets that are assembling there, it's really quite extraordinary. It's really been happening week by week by week. But let's take a look at some of these. The USS George H.W. Bush is expected to head to the region, the USS Abraham Lincoln, of course, the Army's 82nd Airborne Division has been mobilized, and 3,500 sailors and marines have already arrived.
So, it really raises the question of what is the next step here. But when the president was in Miami over the weekend, on Friday night, he was talking to a Saudi investment group. And we've seen the president put his name on virtually everything or rebranded the Gulf of America. One example, other things, but take a listen to what he said about the Strait of Hormuz.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're negotiating now and be great if we could do something, but they have to open it up. They have to open up the Strait of Trump -- I mean, Hormuz. Excuse me for -- I'm so sorry. Such a terrible mistake. The fake news will say he accidentally said, no -- there's no accidents with me. Not too many.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ZELENY: So, Jonah, when you hear the strait of Trump, what do you think our partners in the region think of that?
GOLDBERG: They also did a little jokey video on the White House Arabic language social media feed about this. Look, I think it's embarrassing.
[08:20:03]
I also think it's -- it feeds into the general sense that this was a vanity project for Donald Trump more than a coherent strategy with an end goal in mind, we've heard every conceivable possible end goal here, from regime change to the Venezuela model.
And when he starts playing these stupid little games, of trying to accept the idea that we should call it the strait of Trump, I think it's -- it's fantastic propaganda for the Iranians. Because it suggests that this -- they're saying this guy's a madman. They're saying this guy is doing this as an ego trip, and now he's giving them video of himself saying, let's call it the strait of Trump. It's not helpful.
ZELENY: I mean, a remarkable moment there. Obviously, Congress is back home, so you can't ask members this week, but you have been talking to many Republicans just about what their view is, about how things have changed.
Let's listen to some of those dividing lines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NICK LALOTA (R-NY): I'm not supporting troops on the ground. I don't think that tactically it's a value add right now.
FOX: If there is a ground incursion, does Congress need to be brought back ahead of time for a vote?
REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): Yes. You know, we're not getting the classified briefing that we need to get.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: And that's been one of the remarkable things. I mean, there's been so much, you know, sort of churn from Republicans not getting the information. What did you pick up throughout the week as you talked to members? And is this a real divide?
FOX: Yeah, this is kind of starting to hit a fever pitch on Capitol Hill. I think Republicans were trying to give the president space. They were trying to give him some time. And now that this is dragging into the second month, they're starting to raise their voices, in part because there could be electoral repercussions back home for many of them, right? They're all up for reelection in November.
And people are drawing different red lines. But a consistent one has been if there are troops that go onto the ground in Iran, that for them is a red line where President Trump needs to at least come to Congress to have the discussion. And the other point that's going to be forced is when the administration has to come to congress and ask for money, there's going to be a lot of questions asked.
And we saw this earlier in the week when the House Armed Services Committee chairman came out and said he wanted more information. It wasn't just a handful of Republicans. You know, I talked to one conservative who serves on that committee. He said he didn't have any issues with the briefing they got, but he did say it was the most contentious one he had seen up until this point.
And the Armed Services Committee traditionally operates in a much more controlled manner than a lot of the other committees that you might see in the House of Representatives. They're really professional. It's made up of members who are very serious about what they're doing, and they were not satisfied.
ZELENY: And it's clear, obviously, members of Congress back home will likely be getting an earful about the biggest measure this of all, and of course, is gas prices, the rising cost of everything.
Let's just take a look at where we are now as we enter the second month here. The gas prices they started before the war at 298. The average right now is 3.98 a gallon. Obviously, diesel considerably higher than that. The cost of fertilizer and other things.
Alayna, as we sit here just eight months before the midterm elections, is the White House concerned or focused on this? The president often seems to sort of downplay it, saying, oh, I thought it'd be worse.
TREENE: Way worse. Yeah, I think there are. The White House is definitely concerned about this. There's no question about that. I think how much is the president himself as concerned?
He's actually less concerned than a lot of the Republicans, of course, that Lauren is talking about. And I would remind you, what's been fascinating is I know the White House and particularly, you know, they have different advisers outside the White House that they're working with ahead of the midterms. They had this whole plan when the new year started back in January, for how they wanted him to focus on domestic issues. They wanted him to go out and do a trip a week to somewhere in the country to tout the economy.
That's basically -- where is that plan? Because now, we have -- we had Venezuela. And of course, now we have Iran. It's a huge problem for him.
I will say, though, again, the president himself is not as concerned about this. And part of that is too I would, you know, remind people how much the president is obsessed with his legacy. And he really does believe that what he is doing in Iran, what he has done in Venezuela, he thinks that is a legacy defining moment. You actually heard Hegseth say that at the cabinet meeting. It's definitely something the president has more on his mind than I think he does. The midterms.
ZELENY: Of course, legacies are written in ways good and bad, as we've seen from other presidents. So certainly, a big challenge for him.
No thrones, just throngs of people, as crowds poured into the streets from coast to coast yesterday, and even as far north as above the Arctic Circle. Well, the "No Kings" rallies actually make a difference?
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:29:09]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPRINGSTEEN: This reactionary nightmare and these invasions of American cities will not stand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: It was a remarkable show of defiance across the nation, with more than 3,000 demonstrations unfolding on Saturday as part of the third "No Kings" protest, where people took a stand against President Trump and his policies.
In Minnesota, the site of two deadly immigration enforcement-related shootings, a massive crowd turned out with Renee Good and Alex Pretti top of mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPRINGSTEEN: Their bravery, their sacrifice and their names will not be forgotten.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: And the protests didn't just happen in blue cities, but in conservative leaning areas, too. And even other countries across Europe. People from all walks of life coming together with a single goal.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:29:16]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, MUSICIAN: This reactionary nightmare and these invasions of American cities will not stand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: It was a remarkable show of defiance across the nation, with more than 3,000 demonstrations unfolding on Saturday as part of the third "No Kings" protest, where people took a stand against President Trump and his policies. In Minnesota, the site of two deadly immigration enforcement-related
shootings, a massive crowd turned out with Renee Good and Alex Pretti top of mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPRINGSTEEN: Their bravery, their sacrifice and their names will not be forgotten.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: And the protests didn't just happen in blue cities, but in conservative-leaning areas, too, and even other countries across Europe. People from all walks of life coming together with a single goal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The message is that he is -- he's a bad guy. The president is a bad person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our democracy and our literal way of life is being quickly, very quickly stripped away from us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I stand here to defend with my life the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Full stop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: Such remarkable scenes, obviously, Jonah. But the question always is what comes from these protests? I was thinking yesterday, watching these -- gosh, is this reminiscent of the Tea Party in 2010 and the Obama administration, where it really rose up from a grassroots level?
Is this similar at all, or what do you think the ultimate end game is of all these protests?
JONAH GOLDBERG, CO-FOUNDER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE DISPATCH: Well, I mean, for some, some people just really like protesting, right? I mean, the guy with the makeup and whatever, I think that was not his first protest. I'll just venture that guess.
But more broadly, like this was a question a lot of people debated a year ago with the last big "No Kings" thing about, is there somebody out there collecting names, contacts, you know, all that kind of stuff. Will this enthusiasm be reflected in the off-year elections?
And so far, if -- we don't have any perfect metrics, but given how well Democrats have done in literally, I think every special election, off-year election that we've had over the last year, Democrats think that this is a sign of real enthusiasm and it's kind of hard to argue with.
You know, the Tea parties did not end well. So like, if this becomes a more formal organization, I think it would be bad. Keep this as a perspective as just a grassroots thing with all the people being -- having fun, doing their natural protest stuff.
But if it becomes an organization, it starts having spokesmen, it'll be written off as astroturf really quickly.
ZELENY: But it certainly did spell big problems for the Obama administration --
GOLDBERG: For sure.
ZELENY: -- in the midterm elections. But you make such a good point about enthusiasm. I mean, I think that is one thing, regardless of the number of millions of people who are protesting, the enthusiasm has been clear.
And look at these numbers here. I mean, when people are asked how excited voters are for the upcoming midterms; high interest Democrats 74 percent, Republicans, 61 percent.
Lauren, when you talk to House Republicans who are trying desperately to hold on to their majority, even Senate Republicans, are they aware of this enthusiasm gap?
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think they're starting to see the impact of the enthusiasm the Democrats are getting from their base in some of the legislative moves that Democrats are making. I think we were talking about the shutdown. That was part of the reason why Democrats kept holding out. They see enthusiasm for doing more on immigration enforcement. They believe that that's helping them.
Do Republicans worry about an enthusiasm gap? I think it's just a little early to tell whether or not they are going to face at the polls in November.
People just exhausted by perhaps a prolonged war in Iran, perhaps high gas prices, perhaps just soaring prices across the board.
They are worried about the fact that they don't have a clear and concise message to turn people out right now.
If your message was, Donald Trump is going to keep America first, well, that's very hard to argue right now. If your message was the big, beautiful bill. Well, that also has been hard to argue because there were so many pieces of that piece of legislation. And a lot of people just don't know what was in it.
Even if their tax bill didn't go up, they didn't see it go down either. And I think that that is one of the challenges that Republicans have is an enthusiasm gap, perhaps, but also just a messaging issue.
ZELENY: One thing we did not see a lot of yesterday were actually some of these highly-touted Democratic candidates joining the protests. We saw Bernie Sanders out there, of course, Elizabeth Warren. But some
of these, sort of middle-of-the-road Democratic candidates who they're counting on to win back the majority were not front and center.
And that raises the question of what is the Democratic brand? I mean, that also has some issues.
I mean, take a look at this, a recent polling about how people view Democrats. Unfavorable, still 56 percent of voters in a poll this week have said that the Democratic Party, they have an unfavorable view of it. Only 31 percent have a favorable view.
So, Alayna, is that one thing that sort of gives the White House some hope? The Democratic brand here is still sort of in play. And is that something that the president hopes to try and exploit?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. At least his team does. I mean, I'd remind you, the people who surround the president in this White House, are all the people who are with him on the campaign, and they are all political minds. It's actually where they you know -- that's where their experience and kind of prowess is.
[08:34:49]
TREENE: And so they're thinking of all of this, of course. And I hear this all the time in my conversations with people in the White House or outside advisors, people who were with the president on his campaign, who are no longer in the administration. That Democrats still don't have a unifying message either, and that even though a lot of --
ZELENY: Except opposing Trump.
TREENE: -- except, exactly.
And look, Trump is obviously such a polarizing figure, but is he really going to be the person without his name on the ballot in November that's going to drive out all of that enthusiasm? That's a huge question.
And they argue that that is an opening for them Republicans to try and find some sort of forward movement on ahead of the midterms, this idea that Democrats aren't necessarily unified or have this great message pushing back either, apart from we don't like what the president is doing. Look what's happening.
So we'll have to see, though, what that actually materializes to in the weeks before and months before the midterm elections.
ZELENY: Of course, the White House, while aware that history is not on their side, it's not on the side of any president's party in power.
Still ahead, Vance or Rubio -- conservatives vote on their picks for 2028.
Plus the huge MAGA split over the war taking center stage this weekend (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAISY THOMASON, CPAC ATTENDEE: I support President Trump and what he's trying to do and Secretary Rubio. I hope that we do not have boots on the ground. I think that in this day and time, that is not necessary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[08:36:11]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZELENY: This weekend, the split in the president's base over his war with Iran was on full display at the Conservative Political Action Conference, better known as CPAC. This, as we get an early sense of how Republicans are feeling about the 2020 presidential election and two key players in the war.
A new straw poll of CPAC attendees taken, found that 53 percent would want Vice President JD Vance as their nominee if the election was held today. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was the top choice next at 35 percent.
More on that in just a moment.
But first, our Steve Contorno was at CPAC and has a temperature check of where the base is when it comes to Iran.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: President Trump skipped CPAC for the first time in a decade, but his war with Iran loomed large over the gathering just outside of Dallas.
From the stage, leading conservative voices debated this war with some, like former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, warning that this could send a new generation of Americans to the Middle East. Others expressing more optimism for a quick conclusion.
And his supporters were just as divided, most especially by age.
LUKE ROSATI, CPAC ATTENDEE: The U.S. should not be in Iran. We have no need to be in Iran. We have way better things to do to focus. As he's even quoted himself, we need to focus on America first.
And now we're focusing on another country spending billions of dollars funding a war that I personally, you know, as a conservative young man, don't believe we should be doing.
LISA BISE, CPAC ATTENDEE: There are deep divisions. I think they're probably a little bit more age-related, because those of us who were in high school and above in, you know, 47 years ago, this should have been done. We did this and we should fix this.
I would say when you're kids, everybody wants to be a grown up. And you got to understand that sometimes doing the laundry is part of being grown up.
And unfortunately, we -- we are involved in the world. That's a fact. There's -- that's never going to change. It's never going to be different. And unfortunately, even when you're young, you're going to have to realize there's just hard things we have to deal with. It's not always easy.
CONTORNO: Now, Trump has outlined the case for military action against Iran at CPAC several times over the years, going all the way back to 2015. And many of his older supporters trust him on this decision.
But his younger supporters, most remember his 2024 campaign promise for no new wars, and they view this latest military action as a betrayal of that.
I have to tell you, Jeff, I have spoken to many young people here, and I have not found a single person under 30 who supports this war. A potentially troubling sign for the GOP heading into the midterm elections.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZELENY: Steve, thank you for that. A fascinating look at the age divide there.
And, Jonah, we have seen President Trump speak at so many CPACs where he has made such strong declarations about not getting involved in long wars. Do you think that this divide inside the MAGA coalition at least, is real? And is it problematic or is it still too early to say that?
GOLDBERG: I think it's wildly exaggerated. If you actually look at the polling, the strongest group to support Trump and approve of the war are self-described MAGA Republicans.
It's the ones who say they're just normal Republicans or whatever adjective they want to use, who are less supportive but still supportive. Something like, you know, three quarters of them support it.
One of the things that makes me happy. I mean, look, just full disclosure, I was the CPAC journalist of the year 15 years ago. I have a long. Yes, I'm very proud.
CPAC has always been a bit of a mess and, you know, grifter palooza, but it's got -- Kellyanne Conway was right when she said in 2017, it's become TPAC. It really has become a Trump cargo cult for -- at least on the professional side.
So the straw poll, all these things are interesting, but they're not dispositive of anything.
[08:44:41]
GOLDBERG: At the same time, I think one of the best things about this moment for domestic politics is it exposed people like Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson, and these people actually don't have huge bases of support in the conservative movement, in the Republican Party. They don't speak for a large constituency.
They're discovering what people like me discovered ten years ago is that the party just likes Trump. And if you disagree with Trump, that's your problem.
ZELENY: There's no doubt. I mean, a self-selected group always for this poll. But the numbers were striking when you look at the straw poll yesterday for JD Vance and Marco Rubio, 53 to 35.
But a year ago, Marco Rubio just had a fraction of that support. Perhaps not surprising. I mean, obviously the last year President Trump has spent talking him up.
But Alayna, what do you make of that? Is that the entire possible field there or is there anything to take into Rubio's rise?
TREENE: I think, look, definitely Rubio's rise has been remarkable over the last year because he's, you know, always --
ZELENY: Confident?
(CROSSTALKING)
TREENE: And you look at the memes of him always on the couch putting on all the different hats. People recognize that and they love that. And they see him consistently by the president's side.
But to Jonah's point, I think you're spot on about it being, you know, the party of Trump. CPAC being TPAC is very much true when it comes to a lot of the people who are looking at who is going to be the torchbearer.
And I remind people as well, you know, part of the reason the president picked JD Vance to be his VP, his number two was because he had in mind who did he want to carry the torch, the MAGA torch, after he's out of office. And that was Vance.
And I think a lot of this, I think a lot of those high numbers for Vance are not even about Vance himself, but a lot because he's seen as the president's number two. He's seen as the pick that the president wants to push up as we near 2028.
That could obviously change. There's a long time until then, but I think some of that is reflexive.
GOLDBERG: Vance has also really networked with TP USA, Heritage -- all those kinds of groups who send large numbers of people.
TREENE: That's very true.
ZELENY: Right. I mean, it also makes you wonder, does the outcome of Iran -- is that going to determine the strength of JD Vance?
I mean Lauren, when you talk to Senate Republicans, obviously Rubio and Vance were both a part of those ranks, are there any other Senate Republicans lurking and watching this very carefully to possibly throw their names in?
FOX: I mean, I think, a lot of senators always think that they would make a great president. Obviously, people talk about Ted Cruz. He did run for president. That is obviously someone in the mix but --
ZELENY: And he got like 1 percent in the straw poll.
TREENE: Yes.
FOX: I think the reality is like the Senate is just not it anymore in terms of where you cut your teeth to be the president in an era of social media, in an era of who can go viral. And the president obviously is in a place where he can really catapult people very quickly.
The Senate is probably more of a liability for you at this point than it is a place to really learn how to be an effective presidential candidate.
It's just -- there's too many tough votes. It's too difficult to find a path forward. And things are changing so quickly. And, you know, in the Senate, things are very, very slow moving.
ZELENY: Tough votes. I mean, that is such a key because the most recent senator becoming president, Barack Obama, didn't have any of those tough votes.
He was against the war, but he did not have to vote on him like others did. So certainly very interesting.
Guys, thank you very much.
Coming up, March Madness meets midterm madness from Texas to Michigan to Iowa. The race to win the Senate is getting tighter and tighter. Who has a leg up and will either party have a Cinderella story?
[08:48:10]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZELENY: This weekend, March Madness is narrowing down to the final four, but midterm madness is just tipping off. The fight for the Senate is starting to look a lot like this year's men's college basketball tournament. Power players, tough matchups and no easy path forward with Texas, Michigan and Iowa front and center.
Let's start in the south, where the runoff in the Texas Republican Senate primary between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton is laying bare a deep divide within the Republican Party, with Trump's promise of endorsement still hanging over the race.
Paxton was embraced by CPAC attendees on Friday, while Cornyn was a no-show.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEN PAXTON (R-TX), SENATE CANDIDATE: I have been looking for somebody since I got here earlier today, and I was wondering if you all could help me find this guy. I heard he was invited, but I really I've walked all around this place and I cannot find this guy.
So has anybody seen John Cornyn here? Because I have not seen him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: Now, Texas Democrats are united behind their nominee, James Talarico, and hoping for a bracket-busting opportunity in a state that's long leaned red.
Now meanwhile, in the Midwest, Michigan Democrats are locked in a tight three-way primary with no clear frontrunner.
Haley Stevens is gaining momentum with recent backing from Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and moderate groups, while Abdul El-Sayed has the support of Senator Bernie Sanders and many progressives. Mallory McMorrow recently added Senator Elizabeth Warren to her team.
All three Democrats with very different playbooks, and the primary still four months away.
And finally, in Iowa, Republicans are trying to defend an open seat to keep their grip on the Senate. While Democrats sought out a competitive primary, hoping to pull off an underdog upset in the fall.
Now, each state will have to pull out power plays to flip the Senate. And unlike the NCAA's Elite Eight coveted spots that slipped away from Iowa and Texas over the weekend, the list of competitive Senate contests could grow as the year goes on.
[08:54:52]
ZELENY: The bottom line, Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win control of the Senate. We'll find out in November the outcome of that final four.
That's all for this edition of INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. You can follow me on X and Instagram @JeffZeleny. Follow the show @INSIDEPOLITICS.
And remember, in the United States, you can now stream INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY live or catch up later on the CNN app. Visit CNN.com/watch for more.
Up next "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Jake's guests include White House border czar Tom Homan and New Jersey Senator Andy Kim.
Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. We'll see you next time.
[08:55:32]
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