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Trump Pledged Texas Senate Endorsement But Hasn't Given It Yet; Crypto & A.I. Industry Groups Pump Millions Into Primaries; Lt. Gen. Hertling Publishes Wartime Journals In New Book. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 10, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

SHAWN HARRIS (D), GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: And I told -- I said, guys, I'm a Democrat and they took him a few minutes and they said we still want to support you Shawn because you got what it takes.

[12:30:04]

CLAY FULLER (R), GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I feel like I'm the most dangerous candidate in the race. That's how I feel. We've got the President's endorsement. I spent my morning with my pastor so I feel like God's on our side and we just got to get out there continuing to contact voters make sure that they're getting out and voting so we feel really confident feel really great. Obviously the President's endorsement makes all the difference in the world in Georgia 14.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, military really matters here. Both men served in the military. But the other part is folks we're talking about were farmers and the fact they wanted to make sure they had a voice in D.C. and they felt like common sense wasn't happening there where you are. They wanted to make sure they got there and started making things happen for the folks here who really need some help.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Common sense in D.C., now that is a concept. Ryan, thank you so much. Appreciate your reporting.

Up next who will it be? What's taking so long? We're going to take you inside President Trump's decision on who to endorse in the very important Texas Senate Republican runoff.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:35:39]

BASH: It's been six days since President Trump promised to endorse one of the Republicans in the Texas Senate runoff and demand the other drop out. But incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn and State Attorney General Ken Paxton are still waiting.

I asked the President about this endorsement on Friday, and he told me, "I'm making a decision fairly shortly, but I want and then I feel very strongly that we have to have the full and complete Save America Act, OK? I want the Save America Act. It is more important than everything else we're working on other than the war."

Our smart reporters are back, including Texas native and expert Abby Livingston. What is taking so long?

ABBY LIVINGSTON, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: You know, I will say this. I talked to a Texas donor who supports John Cornyn on Friday, and he said that Trump's got about a week to endorse for it to have maximum impact. But even then, there are questions whether that it will be enough for John Cornyn.

It is absolutely necessary for him to win this endorsement. But it is -- he needs Paxton to make mistakes and he needs a lot of money. And now it's turning into what looks like a hostage negotiation of save this the Save Act versus the endorsement.

BASH: Well, on that note, Shane, the Senate majority leader, John Thune, spoke to our colleague Morgan Rimmer just in the last hour about this. And Thune -- and by the way, Thune has been pushing President Trump for months and months and months to try to get an endorsement from John Cornyn, didn't work. But he conceded that he's worried Trump's delay in endorsing a candidate could be related to inaction over that voter I.D. bill.

After Paxton said that he wouldn't drop out, Senator Thune said, I think you have to make decisions, political decisions independent of what the final disposition of that might be.

SHANE GOLDMACHER, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, I mean, look, the whole reason that Thune has been pushing Trump to get on board with Cornyn is he wanted to win exactly this situation. A runoff between Paxton and Cornyn that could get ugly and could cost them a lot of money.

Thune's allies have spent $70 million trying to get Cornyn through the first round of the primary, and it got him a virtual tie, a sitting senator, a virtual tie with his challenger. They're talking about spending that much more over the next couple of months. They'd like to avoid that, right? And the only way to avoid that is not just Trump's endorsement, but somehow convincing Paxton to step aside. Paxton said no way he's not stepping aside.

And he did something pretty smart here. He put out this idea that I could consider stepping aside if the Senate would do Donald Trump's absolute top priority. And Trump has seized on this instead of being the one getting squeezed. He's doing the squeezing.

BASH: Yes, that's exactly right. And just to sort of explain what's kind of really going on here is that President Trump really wants this what he calls the Save America Act to pass, because the White House is clearly very worried about November's elections.

And he sees this piece of legislation, which includes a lot of things that even some Republicans won't vote for, including proof of citizenship in order to vote, as critical to narrowing the pool, probably a short way to say it when you look at the voters. OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Sure. Well, and, you know, that's been the pushback against the bill that a lot of what's in there are either redundant or goes to a level that solves issues that aren't necessarily major issues at this point. I think one of the risks, I think, generally speaking, of trying to tie the timing of an endorsement or anything like that to the actions of Congress is you can't really control when Congress acts.

And it doesn't just come down to what the Senate majority leader might want. And the government has shut down. It is still shut down in some respects over DHS because timing has not aligned. So to do this when there is an end date for when this runoff actually happens and based on the timing as well, a date where there would be maximum impact, it just doesn't feel like a practical solution. But that's just me sitting here today.

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, REPORTER, NOTUS: It's remarkable that this race really is still about one voter who doesn't live in Texas. I mean, that's all they're talking about is how can I get Trump to this? How I can get Trump to that? There are a lot of Texans who still need to weigh in at some point on this. And I just wonder how much of this wrangling with the President, how that affects them down in Texas.

[12:40:03]

BASH: Well, he want -- they want Paxton to drop out, full stop, if and when the President endorses Cornyn. But it sounds like that's a very tough call.

LIVINGSTON: I don't know if he has that power. And on top of that, every day of delay during this period makes the seat more competitive in the fall. And I think there is a very real scenario where Texas could be very expensive or the seat could flip.

BASH: All right. Coming up, cash is king, especially crypto cash. The industry's support could decide who controls Congress next year. We're going to explain after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:45:01]

BASH: The Illinois primary is a week away, and the ad wars there are reaching a critical mess.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Melissa Bean didn't just talk about helping families. She did the work. In Congress, she returned over $21 billion to consumers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jesse Jackson Jr. has spent his life fighting for our community. As a former member of Congress, he expanded health care to millions of Americans.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Juliana Stratton isn't being honest about who she is. In fact, Stratton's massive Super PAC is funded by the very contractor running Chicago's largest ICE detention center.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Here's what you don't see in any of those ads. That is, who's paying for them, and why the groups are really supporting their preferred candidate. The positive ads for Melissa Bean and Jesse Jackson Jr. are both run by an A.I. industry group. The negative ad against Democrat Juliana Stratton is one of many from the top crypto industry Super PAC Fairshake's targeting Democrats across the state.

My panel is back here. This is so fascinating, the way crypto is playing into these races, particularly the Democratic races.

GOLDMACHER: Yes, I mean, these candidates knew entering 2026 that the A.I. industry and the crypto industry had a combined $250 million that they were going to spend to shape Congress in order to win regulation fights in the coming years. And so some of these candidates have gone out of their way to signal to those industries, guys, you should spend for me, right?

So you saw Jesse Jackson Jr. just a few weeks ago. He wrote an opinion piece saying we should really incorporate A.I. into caregiving. Sure enough, two weeks later, they announced a million dollars for him. Melissa Bean signals on Twitter and just out of the blue, I just think that some of this sort of echoes the talking points of the A.I. industry she thinks were for regulations, but also for growth and innovation.

BASH: Well, and I just I want to put up on the screen the great story that you wrote about this, how candidates are using winks and posts to seek crypto and A.I. catch -- cash, which you're describing here. And just to sort of put a finer point on it, they're not supposed to talk to one another.

GOLDMACHER: Yes.

BASH: Which is why you do the winks and the nods the way that they do. But it's still pretty clear.

GOLDMACHER: Or you even go out of your way and you fill out industry questionnaires. You have whole sections on your website devoted to crypto and artificial intelligence. I should say this is not just Democrats. Republicans are doing this in their primaries, too. Everybody knows that these are the groups with the most industry cash ready to spend this year. And they don't want to spend against them. They want to spend for them.

BASH: And Evan, Bloomberg wrote about this. One of these groups, a Fairshake, the crypto Super PAC undefeated in the 2024 elections, $135 million campaign. And they were involved in 48 races.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Yes. One of those -- one of the big races about this is actually happening right here in New York, right, to replace Jerry Nadler. There's Alex Boris is a state legislator who is a former Palantir engineer and is running on the idea of some regulations of the A.I. industry and is being just inundated with these attack ads. This is a lot of money, but the politics around this has also changed a great deal since 2024. We have seen as these data centers have popped up, we've seen them really divide politics in a strange way, not necessarily ideological, not necessarily partisan way.

The conversation around these tools is different now. They have a lot of money. It has a lot of impact, but I'm not sure if it's going to be the exact same playbook and map that they had in 2024.

BASH: Right. I mean, so there's crypto, there's A.I. and what you're talking about. And back to crypto, you wrote late last month, Abby. They are about crypto's $200 million war on House incumbents. They're becoming really, really organized. A Democratic strategist said a Fairshake.

And much like the A.I. lobby, they're spending a lot investing more and more in electoral races. It's so fast moving and the politics of it is unsettled. Probably no surprise. One of the Democrats speaking out most loudly about this is Elizabeth Warren.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): It's actually funding these ads, AIPAC, crypto billionaires and the A.I. industry. And they are hiding who they are. Their ads don't even mention special interests that they represent. So don't fall for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIVINGSTON: So when I've talked to sources, the way they explain this is, is that when they look at a Democrat, they sort of decide if they fall into the Elizabeth Warren tribe or if there may be a Democrat who's pro regulation but wants to play ball.

But what I think is so fascinating about this, this development is how it catches people off guard. And so you mentioned Jesse Jackson, Jr. He has not raised hardly any money for this campaign. Obviously he's got name I.D., but he's got this huge boost, and he's been convicted of taking -- using campaign money for personal reasons. And so this man could be coming back to Congress. So that's an open seat race where this is impactful.

[12:49:58]

But where I also see this, along with AIPAC, is big money coming in against an older Democrat who is not prepared. And that is where they can do significant damage if the member is not able to get their campaign together fast enough.

BASH: We're going to have to leave it there. Thank you all. Don't go anywhere, though, at home, because when we come back, retired General Mark Hertling will be back to talk about his new book. Really remarkable, really raw, sharing a moving journal and entries he wrote for his sons while he was serving in Iraq.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:55:06]

BASH: A Dover Air Force Base 26-year-old Army Sergeant Benjamin Pennington of Kentucky was brought home in a dignified transfer last night. He's the seventh U.S. service member who died in the conflict in Iran.

More than 30 years ago, now retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling deployed to the Middle East with the Army. The mission had the possibility of a 50 percent casualty rate. Fearing the worst, he began writing what he wanted to tell his young boys about leadership, love and service.

Those journal entries were the start of his new book, which is out today. "If I Don't Return: A Father's Wartime Journal." And General Hertling joins me now. Thank you so much for being here. Just -- I got the chills so many times reading this book. It's just so beautiful on so many levels.

You write about being a good leader a lot in this. And you say that there are stone-faced generals who try to command strength. But, "I often found their teams allowed," excuse me, "I often found their teams followed orders but didn't follow them." What do you mean by that?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), FORMER COMMANDING GENERAL, U.S. ARMY EUROPE AND SEVENTH ARMY: Leadership is something that's fascinated me all my life, Dana. It's an essence of who -- what your character is, how you exert your presence, your intellect, how you think and how you see the world, how you train others and help build them into stronger people. It's how you act.

And people can sense that. There's a line in a great book called "Once an Eagle" that when a guy is asked, hey, I'm trying to be a good lieutenant colonel, and the answer comes, well, in order to be a good lieutenant colonel, you have to be a good person first. And I've always believed that.

BASH: But you can be a good person and not emote. You're -- the point I think you were trying to make here is, you know, you think of a general and a tough guy as somebody who is stoic and doesn't emote, but you do.

HERTLING: I try to, yes. And you would not believe how many people say to both my wife and I, hey, you're not the typical general. You're not the typical general's wife. And I don't know if that's true or not, but it's -- I'm glad they say that.

BASH: Less than 1 percent of Americans serve. Many are seeing firsthand on their television screens and hearing about the cost of war right now because of what's going on in Iran. And I just mentioned the dignified transfer last night.

HERTLING: Yes.

BASH: You wrote about how you honor the sacrifices of those who died in your command group. And you talk about going into a cigar store in Virginia Beach and getting a cigar box and putting the words on it, make it matter. And in that box now, which you said sits on your desk, holds 253 reminders to make it matter.

HERTLING: Yes, well, this was actually my boss's idea when I was a one-star general, Marty Dempsey was our division commander. And we would go to memorial services in Baghdad in 2003 and 2004, and he would see soldiers who were mourning the loss, the sacrifice of one of their comrades. And he didn't know how to, you know, how to comfort them.

And one day he said, you know, we just got to tell them, make it matter. Go back out there and make their sacrifice matter. So that's what we try to do. It's kind of the reflection of "Saving Private Ryan" at the end of the movie when he says, earn this. And so, unfortunately, the cards accumulated in the box. I found the box in a cigar store, as you said.

And three of us have that box, General Dempsey, General Mike Scaparrotti and me. And I think all three of us honor them the same way. Because you pick up those cards and you see --

BASH: So you do it every day.

HERTLING: Well, I don't look at all of them every day.

BASH: Yes. No, no. Sure.

HERTLING: I pick four or five of them. And it just -- it's a reminder that they lived forever as an 18-year-old in that box. And what could have been with their life. Yes.

BASH: And that's a big reason why you wrote this book. And you wrote the journal initially in your first tour of duty in Iraq during the first Gulf War for your then young sons. And you write so eloquently about what you think it means to be a man. A real man, you boys need to see, doesn't need to bolster his ego or courage with alcohol or treat others badly or crow about how good he is at his sport or job or a particular task. A real man proves his masculinity by being considerate, protective, concerned and confident, and by demonstrating it.

HERTLING: Yes, that's the essence, isn't it? I mean, you know, you don't become a man by swagger or speaking loudly. You are manly, in my view, because of the way you act toward others, how you respect them. And by the way, those are our national values too, respect for one another, speaking kindly to one another, treating all people equally.

[13:00:07]

And I think those are the lessons that come out of book. It's not just about war, as you know, because you've read it.

BASH: No. Yes.

HERTLING: It's about who you are -- BASH: Yes.

HERTLING: -- how you lead, what your character is all about, and then how you face crises, no matter what kind of crisis you're in.

BASH: Yes. I mean, it just happens to be set in in a war zone. And the lessons that you impart here are universal. And I was telling you that I want my 14-year-old son to read this. There's a lot of good lessons.

HERTLING: Thank you. That's kind.

BASH: Thank you for being here.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts right now.