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Trump and the Texas Senate Runoff; Hany Farid is Interviewed about Netanyahu; Oscars 2026 Recap. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 16, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL): Our Coast Guard, and ensure that you fund the agencies that are not subject to negotiations. And we can focus on what the administration and Republicans need to sit down with us about. And that's ensuring that the overwhelming support that Americans have for reforming ICE, having them take off the masks, having them put I.D.'s and cop cameras on their -- on their uniforms, making sure that they're not busting down doors and violating our Constitution, ensuring that they function the way our law enforcement functions and municipalities across this country and not terrorizing communities.

So, fund the rest of the agency and Department of Homeland Security. We have a bill to do that. Republicans need to take it up and send it to the president so we can focus on negotiating how we can reform ICE and ensure that they function lawfully.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to ask you about something that's coming up in Congress as well that is not to do with the war. Senator John Thune says he will bring the SAVE Act to a vote in the Senate. Republicans say that this is just about voters having to show I.D. and proof of citizenship in order to vote. What's wrong with that?

SCHULTZ: This is about one thing, ensuring that it is much harder for people who are unlikely to go to the polls and vote for Republicans and that -- making it much harder for them to cast their ballot. Putting obstacles in the path of people who simply want to exercise their right to vote, which is the most precious right we have, is absolutely abhorrent. I mean we have I.D.s that are required in most states, but this legislation is singularly, and if you -- if they listen to Donald Trump, they're going to try to stop people from being able to vote by mail. I mean that is essential function of ensuring that people have access to the franchise. And Trump wants to go back, and Republicans want to go back to people voting on one day and only allowing them to vote if they are, like with a doctor's note, basically, and that they -- you know, or they're not going to be in their precinct.

In Florida we had no excuse vote by mail for over 20 years. It works well. It works effectively. There's zero evidence of fraud in its use. And it's very obvious that Republicans, like their redistricting effort, just want to make sure that people who are going to come to the polls and vote for anyone other than them can't do it. SIDNER: Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, thank you so much for

joining us this morning. I do appreciate you.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead for us, the Israeli prime minister posting a video over the weekend. It's almost like a proof of life video. And even nodding to rumors and speculation that was pushed by Iranian state media, really speaking to the role of A.I. generated images in the -- in the midst of this Iranian war. We're going to talk about this.

And the markets on Wall Street -- the market -- and getting to the markets. Wall Street is now -- the markets are open. You can see where they stand right now, in the green today. All eyes will continue to be on these numbers for the rising crude oil numbers that are push -- that are pushing U.S. gas prices to their highest point since 2023.

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[09:37:51]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, this morning, what is happening in Texas? It's been nearly two weeks since the primary set up a runoff between these two men for the Republican nomination for Senate. One of those men is the incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn, heads to a runoff against the attorney general, Ken Paxton. That runoff is supposed to be in June. But as soon as this primary happened two weeks ago, President Trump said he was going to endorse in the race. That has set up waves of speculation. Is he going to endorse Senator John Cornyn, who was seen by some as having a better chance to beat the Democrat, James Talarico. Again, this was two weeks ago and nothing's happened. So, why?

With us now --

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Why? Why?

BERMAN: CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

ENTEN: Why? Why?

BERMAN: So, let's talk about the one here, again, because they headed to a runoff. Trump said he was going to endorse. The world thought it was going to be John Cornyn. And then bupkis, as they say. So, in a general election, how do these two guys compare against the Democrat?

ENTEN: You know, President Trump, I believe, has said that he's not convinced necessarily that this gentleman on the right, John Cornyn, is more electable than this gentleman on the left, than Ken Paxton. And if you look at the polling data, it pretty much agrees that this situation -- look at this, choice for Texas Senate, Talarico, the Democrat, versus the GOP. Look at this, Talarico versus Cornyn, it's a one-point race. Talarico versus Paxton, it's a two-point race. In fact, in this particular poll, Paxton's actually polling one point better than Cornyn. But the massive takeaway from this is that neither Republican seems to

be more electable against James Talarico than the other one. No wonder President Trump isn't necessarily sold on the idea that either one is more electable because either candidate, at this point, whoever the GOP nominates, it looks like it's going to be a real race come the fall between James Talarico, the Democrat, and, of course, whichever Republican gets that nomination.

BERMAN: And the conventional wisdom, and I put that in quotation marks, was that Cornyn is more electable. What have Cornyn's approval ratings been?

ENTEN: Yes, I think that those who argue that John Cornyn is more electable may be living in the past, because just take a look at Cornyn's approval rating now versus when, of course, he was reelected six years ago.

[09:40:00]

Look at this, Cornyn's net approval rating in Texas. In October of 2020, according to the Texas Politics Project, he was about at even, zero points. There were some polls that even had him higher than that.

Look at where he is now. Way down there at minus 13 points. John Cornyn's boat has taken on a whole heck of a lot of water. And that is a big reason why he is not running away against James Talarico, because what you're essentially seeing here is that, in fact, you see that he is way underwater.

BERMAN: How about with specific groups, subgroups?

ENTEN: Yes, what about specific subgroups? I mean just take a look here. Cornyn's net approval rating in Texas, now versus October of 2020. Among Republicans he's got a massive problem. Look at that, dropping by 29 points.

But it's not just about the fact that the base has been running away from him. It's also among independents. Look at that, down by double digits as well. So, what you see is John Cornyn has big problems, not just on the right, but the center electorate as well. And that is a big reason why, if he gets the nomination, it's going to be a fairly close race (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: And this is a really interesting look at the prediction markets. How the prediction markets have looked at John Cornyn really over the last month.

ENTEN: Yes, OK. So, take a look over here. Take a look. Cornyn's chance to be the Texas GOP nominee for Senate. March 3rd he was just a 23 percent. Then the primary happens, right? And then there's this whole idea of these reports that, hey, maybe President Trump's going to endorse Cornyn. Look at that, through the roof, 85 percent. But now, as Trump has sat on the sidelines, look at that, back down to 60 percent. Basically a jump ball. That's how much Donald Trump's endorsement would matter in this runoff. He goes to Cornyn. Corny's most likely going to win. He goes with Paxton. Paxton's most likely going to win. President Trump, the ball is in your court.

BERMAN: It'll be interesting to watch this going forward.

Harry Enten, thank you very much for that.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

BERMAN: A lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.

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[09:46:19]

BOLDUAN: So, the Israeli prime minister posted a new video to his social media getting a cup of coffee and talking with an aide on Sunday. The reason why is -- the reason why he's doing this gets to an important aspect of this war with Iran. A new front, if you will. Netanyahu was responding to rumors that spread online and were pushed by Iranian state media that he was either dead or injured. In the video he -- this video, he makes a joke essentially saying that he's dying for coffee. Even going so far to raise his hands to the camera after the rumors spread online that his recent press conference was a fake itself because it appeared to show him having six fingers. At the coffee shop Sunday, Netanyahu made sure to show he had five. No joke.

This is just what this -- this is the latest in a series of, as "The New York Times" put it in a very good article, described it as a torrent of fake videos and images generated by artificial intelligence having overrun social networks during the first weeks of this war with Iran.

So, let's talk about this. Joining us right now is Hany Farid, the chief science officer of GetReal Security.

Thanks so much for joining us.

First off, what do you think of this Netanyahu thing? I mean the fact that in the midst of carrying out this war campaign he's feeling the need to put out essentially a proof of life video?

HANY FARID, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER, GETREAL SECURITY: Well, it's what you said, Kate, there's a torrent of fake video, and that cuts both ways. There are things that are fake out there that we have to debunk. But then when a real thing comes out, everybody has skepticism. And so now you have to prove the real. And this is sort of our new reality that we're living in where nobody trusts absolutely anything that they're seeing online, particularly in moments that are highly emotional and charged like this one.

BOLDUAN: And bring this kind of -- bring your perspective in working in this area for so many years for folks. Broadly speaking, I mean, they've really just swarmed -- these fakes have swarmed social media. Some examples I want to give for people that CNN has fact checked, a video of missiles supposedly hitting Tel Aviv, a fake, but it spread wildly. A video of people supposedly fleeing an Iranian attack on an Israeli airport, fake, but also spread wildly. I mean they're being debunked, but they're getting tens of millions of views. How different is this than what you've seen in the past?

FARID: Yes, that's a great question. So, we started to see A.I. generated content in the early days of the invasion of Ukraine. And -- but they were clumsy and not very realistic and didn't get the kind of widespread distribution. And then, when Venezuela -- the incident in Venezuela happened, when they came in and took Maduro out, you saw an uptick again. During the early days of Gaza you saw an uptick. And this one is completely different. And there's a couple of reasons for that.

One is that the A.I. technology has really matured. It's really, really good. You can make full blown videos, images, voices, all very good. It's gotten easy to use. There are many, many services out there. And of course, the social media companies are not doing a particularly good job of moderating this false content. And so, people are wanting to put it online to monetize it. And that's sort of the perfect storm. And, of course, it's an incredibly emotional time. And those are all the ingredients, creation, distribution, amplification.

And by the way, this is our new reality. This isn't a blip. This is where everything from now on will look like this, where everything is going to be questioned and we're going to be drowning in a sea of misinformation if we don't figure out how to authenticate content.

BOLDUAN: And the way you describe it I think is so important. People -- we're just going (ph) and people are going to continue to be just drowning in disinformation if there isn't a faster, easier way to do this.

[09:50:04]

Talk to me really quickly about what the social media platforms I'm going to say aren't doing in terms of enough. And in the absence of it, how do people avoid being duped?

FARID: Yes. Well, OK, so let's start with the second one. The second one is stop getting your news and information from Twitter and Facebook. It's not what it was designed for and it's not what it's good at.

You know what it is? Organizations like CNN, BBC, NPR, mainstream media outlets. Why? Because they have really, really talented people who work hard to try to get you reliable information. And so, social media was never meant to be a place to get reliable information about world events. It's just not. And, in fact, it favors mis and disinformation. So, what can the social media companies do? Well, what they can do and what they will do are very different things. But what they can do is start to demonetize accounts that push misinformation at times of war, that have real implications for real lives or around elections. Will they? That's a different question. You can ask Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg that question.

They can get better at content moderation, both human and automatic. They can get better at monitoring their accounts. But they haven't done that over the last, well, decades now. But certainly the last few years. But we need also, if I may, the A.I. companies who are creating this content need to start using things like invisible watermark and content credentials so that we can identify this content faster upstream. And, of course, we need better regulatory guardrails to have there be consequences when people push this kind of dangerous disinformation.

BOLDUAN: Yes. In summary, you're on your own, at least for now, is what it feels like.

Hany, thank you so much for the work you do and for coming on. I really appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, this was the security line outside Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas this morning. That's right, outside. The line so long it went outside. The partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security snarling travelers as TSA workers go without pay, leading some to quit or call out sick. Some airports are telling travelers to arrive at least three hours before flights.

We've got disturbing new video of a taxi hitting two women outside of a deli in New York City. CNN obtained footage from different -- two different angles of the moment of impact. Now, both the women and the driver, said to be a 25-year-old woman, were taken to a hospital and are said to be in stable condition this morning. That's good news. Police are investigating.

Sara.

SIDNER: Hate watching that video.

OK, history made. Emotional goodbyes and two films dominated at the Academy Awards. "One Battle After Another" and "Sinners" just couldn't stop winning categories. "One Battle" took home best picture. "Sinners" delivered a best actor win for Michael B. Jordan, who played two of its lead characters.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the Oscar goes to Michael B. Jordan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Joining me now is CNN entertainment reporter Lisa Respers France.

It looked like everyone was genuinely happy for them. Sometimes you get like the happy clap but it doesn't look -- this looks like people were genuinely happy for him.

LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: People really were happy for him, Sara. That was so real. And then he got up and he gave a deeply emotional speech, which also resonated with the audience. Let's take a listen.

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MICHAEL B. JORDAN, BEST ACTOR WINNER: I stand here for -- because of the people that came before me, Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Will Smith. And to be amongst those giants, amongst those greats, greats, amongst my ancestors, amongst my guys, thank you everybody in this room and everybody at home for supporting me over my career.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCE: And what a career it's been, Sara. I mean I think about him as a young kid in "The Wire." I think about him as an even younger kid on "All My Children." So, to see him win the Academy Award, it was something.

And, you know, someone else who gave a speech that I loved, Jessie Buckley, who had the luck of the Irish. She won best actress for her phenomenal performance as Shakespeare's wife in "Hamnet." And she got up and offered some words, which also really moved the audience.

Let's take a listen.

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JESSIE BUCKLEY, BEST ACTRESS WINNER: This incandescent woman and journey to understand the capacity of a mother's love is the greatest collision of my life. It's Mother's Day in the U.K. today. So, I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCE: Sara, this is why we love award shows, right? Because when people win, you just feel the joy radiating off of them. So, did you have a favorite moment last night, by the way, Sara?

SIDNER: It was Michael B. Jordan. It was -- his mama was with him. I mean, that was -- I was like, he brought his mom. That's so cute.

[09:55:01]

But there were some really hard -- there were some hard things to watch. The in memoriam was expanded, as I understand it. Tell us what you saw.

FRANCE: It was. And it was kicked off by Billy Crystal offering an extremely moving tribute to Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner.

Let's take a listen to some of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY CRYSTAL, ACTOR: I want you to know, here and around the world, how many times Rob told me that it meant everything to him that his work meant something to you. And for us, who had the privilege of working with and knowing him and loving him, all we can say is, buddy, what fun we had storming the castle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCE: Such a heartfelt moment. Of course they were tragically murdered. And people are still mourning that loss. And we saw that last night with that tribute, Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, really appreciate it. Lisa Respers France, thank you for all the updates. Appreciate it.

FRANCE: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And thank you all so much for joining us today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

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