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Iran Vows To Retaliate After U.S. Pounds Crucial Oil Hub; Trump Claims Countries Will Send Warships To Reopen Strait; Gridlock Deepens Despite Terror Attacks & Airport Delays. House GOP Campaign Arm: Trump "A Net Positive For Us Everywhere"; Trump's Fixation on Bill Fuels Republican Infighting; Race Cars to Zoom through Washington This Summer. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired March 15, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:30]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Fog of war.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We got to finish the job, right?

RAJU: The U.S. pounds a key Iranian oil hub as the president sends mixed signals. But will pain at the pump cause him pain at the ballot box?

Under threat.

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): They're essential. They're on the job. They're working today.

RAJU: Amid terror attacks and long airport lines, is the gridlock over homeland security only deepening?

And --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One two, three, go!

RAJU: An A.I. generated video draws attention, with race cars set to mark America's 250th.

INSIDE POLITICS, the best reporting from inside the corridors of power, starts now.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU (on camera): Good morning. Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Manu Raju. It was just four days ago when President Trump made a stunning

declaration that the U.S. had, quote, won the war in Iran. But there appears to be no end in sight as the U.S. struck a critical Iranian oil hub this weekend and Iran threatens retaliation with the U.S. embassy in Baghdad hit by two drones on Saturday.

Meantime, Iran's closure of the critical passageway known as the strait of Hormuz, continues to send gas prices soaring, up 77 cents from a month ago, putting pressure on Trump, who yesterday called on other countries relying on that passageway to be involved in a, quote, "team effort" to reopen the critical shipping lanes.

And new overnight, we learned the identities of the six men killed in Thursday's plane crash in Iraq. The deaths bring the number of U.S. troops killed in connection to the war to 13. This as the U.S. is sending a group of marines to the region.

So, for more on all this, let's go to CNN's Nic Robertson, who is live for us in Kuwait City.

So, Nic, are any countries biting Donald Trump's demand to help secure the strait of Hormuz?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It appears at the moment as if the Gulf countries are really trying to ride out the current situation. We heard, of course from the Iranians, the foreign minister, the IRGC, ramping up the rhetoric, saying that they're going to go after U.S. commercial, particular oil interests in the region. We've had the advisor to the president of the UAE, saying that the Gulf countries are doing their best to sort of find a resolution to this and that Iran is just upping the ante, making the situation more difficult.

In the skies here in Kuwait this is a gulf right behind me in the skies here, hearing fighter jets they generally go up to defend against incoming missiles. Overnight, there were strikes here hitting drone strikes, getting through defenses, hitting military air base in the south. A drone strike, getting through to the civilian international airport, damaging radar equipment. Three Kuwaiti service personnel injured.

South of here in Riyadh, 10 drones intercepted around the capital ballistic missiles fired at that key Prince Sultan Air Base just outside the capital again intercepted. But that is an air base where the U.S. Air Force operates out of. And in Qatar, there have been attempted strikes by Iran in the last few hours and in the UAE as well. They've been intercepting ballistic missiles, drones.

Bahrain the sirens going off there. Jordan also reports of sirens going off. So, Iran is keeping up its drumbeat of attacks, perhaps at a lesser pace. But the impact is being felt the country's here trying to stay out of it.

The mood is that potentially there could be some diplomacy, but they're not seeing it materialize indeed, what I'm hearing from sources here is that the that the message they're getting from Iran is that the price Iran wants for a diplomatic off ramp to unblock the Straits of Hormuz is too high a price to pay. Unclear what that is at the moment, but diplomacy really taking a sideline to the talk with Iran's weapons that's going on here right now.

RAJU: All right. Nic Robertson live for us in Kuwait City, thank you so much for that report.

And here in the room, I've got a terrific group of reporters to break this all down. NPR's Tamara Keith, David Sanger with "The New York Times," and Tia Mitchell with "The Atlanta Journal Constitution".

Good morning to you all.

David, you have covered military and war and for so many years for the New York times and you've seen were seeing how this is all playing out. Trump now says he's calling for a team effort to help with the Strait of Hormuz. He declared victory a couple of days ago.

He's said to NBC, Iran wants to make a deal. He told this to them yesterday, "Iran wants to make a deal. And I don't want to make it because the terms aren't od enough yet."

Where is this war in terms of the end game? Is there an end game yet? Is it any time? Is that any time soon in happening?

DAVID SANGER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICAL ANALYST: So there are a number of possible end games, but I don't think we're really close to any of them you know, when the president started out with this that first weekend, he told one of my colleagues he thought it would be four to six weeks, and White House officials I'm talking to are still saying they think it's probably four to six weeks. And of course, we're just finished with week two here.

Second, while the U.S. has achieved most of the big metrics that the military sets out, number of sites hit, number of ships sunk, number of missiles in the Iranian arsenal destroyed. There's no evidence yet, as you just heard from Nic that it has either silenced the Iranian barrages or that it has achieved their political objectives. So just think about this. Two weeks in, we still have a theocratic government in place one, we think by the injured son of the supreme leader, their nuclear program is still in place. Their missile arsenal is still able to fire on neighbors. As you have seen so clearly the big objectives are not yet there.

RAJU: And now, he's calling trying to create this coalition of the willing of sorts, calling for a team effort to help the Strait of Hormuz. And even just last week, he said on Truth Social about the U.K. He said the U.K. is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East. We don't need them. That's -- we don't need them any longer. That's okay, Prime Minister Starmer, he said that that was last week.

Now he's calling for a coalition of the willing. You've been talking -- you covered the White House. You've been talking to your sources. What are you hearing about the next phase here? TAMARA KEITH, NPR SENIOR WHITE CORRESPONDENT: So, the White House

feels for better or for worse, relatively okay with how they're doing on public opinion. They believe that if this can stay relatively short and that's a big if, but that if this can end the act of conflict can end the gas prices can the Strait of Hormuz can reopen, oil prices can come down. Gas prices can ultimately come down. They feel okay with how this will go politically, and they are pointing to polls that show some movement between the first week and the second week in terms of public support. But there are a lot of ifs here.

And as you say, the president, you know leaves no thoughts unuttered or unposted. But just going out there and saying, hey, you know, other countries, you have interest here, maybe you should get involved is very different than build, you know, and there were many problems and many flaws with the Iraq war, but they built that coalition of the willing well before they started you know, firing bombs.

And this war is just different. There are drones. There's technologies that allow a country that has lost, you know lost a large part of its navy or lost a large many of it, you know they hit the big conventional targets. And yet there are all of these small agile attacks that Iran has at its disposal that can really hurt the U.S. and its allies.

RAJU: And how does the war end when the leader of Iran is part of the same regime from before? The son of the supreme leader, the new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, we haven't seen him in public and Trump suggested yesterday, maybe he's not even alive. When he talked to NBC.

But still, if that regime is in place, how does the U.S. just walk away?

TIA MITCHELL, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: And I'm -- and I think that's one of the fundamental issues with this whole attack, conflict war is that not only was it not clear why we were getting into it, but it's not clear what the end game is. So, it's hard to suss out how the war is going to end if we aren't clear what President Trump's objectives are in the first place and how he can say, okay, this is success because he's called it success multiple times already. But we're still in this conflict and I think that's what's most confusing to people back home I would argue that's probably what's most confusing to some of our allies.

They're like, we weren't asked at the beginning we weren't told. We weren't informed. You all did this Israel and U.S., and now you want us to come in and support you. And were probably if were confused here in the U.S., I'm assuming that a lot of these other nations are as well.

[08:10:04]

And why would they then risk their people, their troops, their ammunitions, their ships for something that's not clear. The clarity is missing. And it's really troubling.

RAJU: It has been that way from the beginning in terms of clarity but one thing is clear is the impact this is going to have on people here in the United States. The gas prices increasing, so significant, so sharply. Just last month, the average for gasoline was 2.93. Now it is $3.70 and it's going to continue to rise.

And this is going to impact other items. Airfares many goods that are that go along by truck or plane or ship. So, it's going to have an impact all across the economy. How much is that weighing on Trump as he considers his end game here? The impact that this is going to have on people's wallets?

SANGER: Well, if you hear the official line that we're getting from the White House, it is look, the president knew there would be an impact on gas prices and oil products generally. But that the short- term cost of that is worth the long-term gain of eliminating a long- term threat to the United States and had he built a case for that? I think over time, he might have a little more support for it.

I think he's got two big challenges with that. The first is while it would be nice to say either we play this out for the next six weeks or we pull back earlier, if he is hoping to keep gas flowing through an oil flowing through the strait, there's going to have to be a long- term presence in the strait. As long as there is an Iranian regime, because we have seen.

RAJU: What does that look like? What does that long term look like?

SANGER: Well, that's why it was so fascinating to see that that true social that you mentioned last night, where he suddenly saying, rightly so, hey, it's China that's getting its fuel from the strait. It's Japan. It's South Korea, it's Britain. In fact, the U.S. gets very little of its own oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

But guess what? Globalization still lives and the global price of oil depends on that oil moving through the strait. And that's why we're feeling it at the pump in the U.S. even if we don't get much of that oil ourselves.

RAJU: Because the White House is saying that they were prepared for the possibility that Iran could close the strait. But then if that's the case, why not do that stuff ahead of time, build that assume that Iran was going to retaliate in this way and have the plan in place to ensure that the strait can remain open somehow, some way, with support from allies?

KEITH: Yeah. This all happened very quickly. That is essentially the answer. It all happened very quickly. They saw a window. They went for it. That's at least the description that that I've gotten.

And just the truly remarkable thing is mere hours before this mission began, president Trump was in Texas talking about how he was bringing down gas prices and bringing down gas prices, $2 a gallon. Gas was a core part of his whole affordability agenda. Literally, it was his affordability agenda. And with this one decision that has now taken away this key component of his affordability agenda in a year where voters say the cost of living is the most important issue that will affect their votes? RAJU: Yeah, no question about it. We're going to dig a little bit

deeper into that later in the show.

And still ahead for us, multiple terrorist attacks here in the United States and the Homeland Security shutdown drags on. My new reporting on where the talks head next.

Plus, I speak to the House GOP leader battling to keep his party in power. How does he see the fight for the majority?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: It's going to be a knife fight. District by district. It sounds like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty night fights and 30 dark alleys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:25]

RAJU: The Iran war is unsettling communities here in the United States with the threat of terror attacks reminiscent of the days after 9/11, with four attacks since the war began, including two on Thursday at a synagogue in Michigan and at Old Dominion University in Virginia. But the Department of Homeland Security, created after 9/11, is still shut down, now in its 30th day.

And this weekend, TSA workers are missing their first paycheck, as Americans are feeling the pain with security lines getting even longer at airports nationwide. This week, President Trump's pick to run DHS, Senator Markwayne Mullin will sit for his confirmation hearing, all as Democrats dig in and demand changes to ICE before voting to reopen the department.

My panel is back.

And just a reminder why we are in this government shutdown for the Department of Homeland Security. The third of President Trump's second term a shutdown of a federal department because of what Democrats have been demanding changes the way ice agents are being deployed across the country. We saw those fatal shootings that happened in Minneapolis earlier this year and they've made a whole host of demands.

The White House is nowhere near agreeing to those host demands. So, as a result the department is shut down and is having this huge impact. I asked Democrats and Republicans last week if there's any give, particularly on the Democratic side, because they have the votes to block this bill from going forward and prevent the department from reopening if their demands are not met.

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RAJU: Is this politically tenable, though for Democrats to maintain this position right now?

[08:20:00]

SEN. DICK DURDIN (D-IL): Well, when we go to the floor and say, we'll open up everything except ICE and the Border Patrol and they say, no, keep it closed. I don't understand their logic either.

RAJU: But I mean, you're -- I mean, you guys are denying this from bill from going forward. Won't you guys suffer some political backlash?

DURBIN: We want the bill to go forward, except for two agencies.

SEN. KATIE BRITT (R-AL): We sent them an offer. The White House sent them an offer 14 days ago. They have not responded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And interestingly, in Michigan on Friday, Elissa Slotkin, who's a Democrat from Michigan, suggested that they separate out the ICE discussion altogether. She said, certainly we need to fund the Department of Homeland Security, in my view, cut away all the conversation on ice with, which is its own conversation from all the core missions of the Department of Homeland Security.

What are you hearing from your sources, Tia, since you're on the Hill, too, about whether or not there's any possibility that all this pressure could force a change in the logjam?

MITCHELL: I think that's what Republicans are waiting for. They're waiting for enough Democrats to be willing to vote with Republicans to break the filibuster and move forward with funding the Department of Homeland Security, all agencies, including ICE, including Border Patrol. I think it might be getting the time where there are some Democrats, you know as you heard from Senator Slotkin, there may be some Democrats willing to move there.

Most Democrats are not, though and I think it will be, you know, a handful. And they know their base will likely be very angry if they do that, the same way that the base of Democrats were angry at the handful of Democrats who helped in the last shutdown. So, it's very risky.

But, you know, there are some retiring senators who may be willing to do it, given the pain, particularly at the airports, given the recent terrorist attacks, and given the fact that we do have some major weather events that are likely going to require FEMA in the coming weeks.

RAJU: Has the White House said, moving in any direction towards the Democrats. Or are they saying, look, were going to hold out and Democrats eventually will cave, as they've done in the past?

KEITH: So, they did send over this offer about two weeks ago. They're not talking about what is in the offer. Senator Lankford, in a floor speech, gave a hint of what's in the offer and as you say it's nowhere near what Democrats are asking for.

The White House does believe that this is going to become untenable for Democrats. And a reminder, the way the shutdown ended last fall was because TSA workers were calling out and others. And so, the White House tells me that 100,000 Department of Homeland Security workers missed a paycheck this week, this past weekend or, you know, Friday, 300 TSA officers have already quit their jobs during this shutdown. And that about the call outs, people calling out sick because they, you know need to go work another job is already double what it normally is.

So, they see this as pressure building on Democrats but the White House is still telling me that they are open to something, something of a compromise.

RAJU: But what exactly is that? It remains --

KEITH: Well, I mean, based on --

RAJU: Especially as the attention shifts away from ICE --

KEITH: Yes.

RAJU: -- Iran, will they actually agree to those changes now. That's a big question.

KEITH: And what Lankford said on the floor is that it would be wearing badges which, you know is one thing that Democrats are asking for, but they were also asking for masks to be taken off. They were also asking for judicial warrants instead of administrative warrants. And that that is definitely not on the table.

RAJU: And, David, how significant is it that the department is shut down right now? I mean, given all these we saw these four terror attacks happen just in the past two weeks. Is the agency able to respond effectively with it with these employees not getting paid?

SANGER: So the fundamental problem here is that the Iran conflict, the longer it goes on, is probably going to play to the administration because sooner or later, something big is going to happen. The Iranians can't reach us with their missiles. The only two ways they can reach us is with terror attacks. And what we've seen so far seem to be lone actors, don't seem to be operated by the Iranians. And with cyber.

And what's the other part of DHS? It's CISA, right? The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that was devastated by President Trump in last year. This year, it's in even worse shape. And so, one big cyberattack or one big Iran directed terror attack, I think is probably and I'm sorry to say this, what would change the nature of this?

RAJU: Yeah. Playing with fire really, really dangerous game on Capitol Hill at the moment. And, of course, there's concerns about what may happen at the Oscars tonight. There's a heightened security posture there as we head into tonight's Oscars. [08:25:00]

All right. My next -- my new interview with the Republican in charge of keeping the house in his party's control. Does he want Trump on the trail?

But first, "Saturday Night Live" had its own take on rising gas prices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kids were going to have to leave one of you behind.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What? Why?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gas prices, darling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dad, why does gas cost so much?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Epstein files.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: Rising gas prices, a war with Iran and an unpopular president. Could all of this tank Republicans' chances of holding the House majority in November?

Well, this past week I caught up with the chairman of the House GOP campaign arm during his party's annual retreat at Trumps golf club in Doral, Florida. He claims he's not worried at all.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Do you want this to be a referendum on Trump in November?

REP. RICHARD HUDSON (R-NC): I want it to be a choice between Trump's policies and Mamdani's policies, between common sense and crazy, which is what it is.

RAJU: Because the White House seems to want Trump to be out everywhere. Is that good for House Republicans?

HUDSON: I think it's great because our challenge is our voters are working class people that are less likely to vote.

RAJU: Even in the battleground districts, even in the districts that will determine the majority, whether it's in New York or California.

HUDSON: Absolutely.

RAJU: You're telling me you want President Trump out there stumping with those candidates? HUDSON: Absolutely. I mean with Mike Lipetri in New York 3, were going

to pick up a seat. I'd love to have Donald Trump in that district campaign turn out Republicans. I mean he's a -- he's a net positive for us everywhere.

RAJU: Are you concerned about breaking through when you have a war going on in the Middle East?

HUDSON: Not really. Because, you know, I think a lot of people when we first went to Iran, had flashbacks to Afghanistan 20-year war, Iraq long-term conflict for us.

The president, Secretary Hegseth, Secretary Rubio have made it very clear this is a short term. We have very specific objectives.

RAJU: It's just starting. And who knows where it ends up?

HUDSON: Well, we'll see. But you know, the president says it's going to be a short-term conflict. We're not in this for the long haul. We're not going to be in Iran in November.

RAJU: You think you're defying the odds in November. What's -- how many seats do you think you'll be in the majority if you're that bullish about your chances. How many seats will you are you predicting you'll pick up?

HUDSON: I'm not going to play that game. But you know I think the biggest difference is, most president's coming into office bring in a whole lot of seats that maybe we wouldn't have picked up otherwise. And so that first midterm is often a course correction.

That didn't happen this time because of extreme gerrymandering around the country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: And my panel is back with me now.

Now, one thing that's clear, the battleground for the House is much narrower because he's right. Gerrymandered districts, so it could maybe be a narrow majority if it's Democrat or Republican, unless there's a big wave and that changes the dynamics completely.

But will Trump actually be an asset on the campaign trail? Well this is the view of Trump and his job approval from the -- from Quinnipiac just a few days ago. 28 percent among Independents approve of Trump's job as president; 37 percent nationally. That's not so good.

An asset on the campaign trail in swing districts like New York and California?

TAMARA KEITH, NPR SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, they can talk about him going to New York and California. I will wait until they schedule that trip.

RAJU: But typically, midterms are a referendum on the president of either party --

KEITH: Absolutely.

RAJU: -- which is the real concern when you look at those numbers.

KEITH: And I think what the president and his team look at is the Republican number, and he is still extremely solid with Republicans. And that is seemingly what they are focused on.

But yes, this is going to be a challenging year, especially for House Republicans. And I am watching the president's travel schedule closely because so far he has -- the cadence of his trips hasn't really picked up as much as one might expect.

Of course there is a war and his message has had to sort of shift because of the war. He can't talk about the $2 gas right now because it doesn't exist.

RAJU: And the Republican plan or the hope is that this war will end sometime soon. You heard him say that, Hudson say, it's going to be over in November. Others say it's going to be over much sooner than that.

And the question is going to be, can it end? How soon will it end?

Israel just announced, David Sanger, that the campaign -- they believe the campaign will continue for at least three more weeks. Can it -- how -- is it possible that we could be still talking about the war in November?

DAVID SANGER, NEW YORK TIMES WHITE HOUSE AND NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: So three or four more weeks would fit right in with that two to six weeks that the president said at the beginning. But that's the fighting phase.

And then there's the effects phase. And we don't know whether there's going to have to be long-term patrolling of the strait. We don't know whether the U.S., by that time will have taken control of Kharg Island, which is the main island where Iran ships its fuel at.

You could imagine a huge upside for the president here if he can go into the midterms and say that he got rid of the dictator in Venezuela, that he toppled the Iranian regime, and that Cuba crumbled amid all of that.

That's the trifecta that they're thinking about. But we're a long way from that trifecta.

[08:34:44]

TIA MITCHELL, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: I just -- I don't know, though. I don't know if people at home who are worried about the cost of gas and worried about the groceries and just worried about affording their daily lives are going But he toppled the regime in Venezuela and now we are going to topple the regime in Iran. And that is going to make me so happy to keep Republicans in Congress. I just don't think that's what the voters who elected Trump in 2024

want him to do. And there is growing frustration among the MAGA movement now.

Yes, most Republicans are willing to give President Trump the benefit of the doubt they say we trust him. If he says were going in Iran and it's only going to be four to six weeks, so be it.

But that still isn't what they want him to be focused on. And I think that's what's becoming more and more of a problem for congressional Republicans.

RAJU: Yes. And that's the question too, right? If the affordability issue we've seen from last year and now into this year is the dominant issue. And with gas prices increasing, affordability becomes an even bigger issue.

So what -- how should Republicans who are in charge of the Senate and the House deal with this? There is a divide within the Republican Party about how to message this and how to convince the American public that this is worth it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): If you think gas prices are high now, give the ayatollah a nuclear weapon to terrorize the region, to threaten the Strait of Hormuz, he will control gas prices forever, that regime would if they had a nuclear capability. And I think he's a homicidal maniac.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): Of course, gas is too expensive and Congress could do something about that.

RAJU: Are you worried that this may undercut the Republicans' message heading into the midterms? Cost of living, affordability especially if this drags on?

HAWLEY: Well, I mean not if Republicans in Congress act. I mean, Republicans in Congress need to do something.

RAJU: If you don't? If you don't do that?

HAWLEY: I wouldn't recommend that. Well because I think in general, people don't like it when you do nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEITH: Yes. In general, people don't like it when you do nothing. It's not clear what the agenda is right now. The president is mostly pushing for them to pass a voting ID law.

RAJU: Which we're going to talk about in the next segment.

KEITH: Which we'll talk, yes -- sorry.

RAJU: That's ok. Good teeing. KEITH: However, you know, the president has put such a focus on his

own executive power and has really de-emphasized Congress, except for the rare exceptions of things that he can't do without them.

He's put so much emphasis on his executive power that he's not really giving them a lot of fodder to run on.

RAJU: Yes. And that's the problem.

MITCHELL: Yes. It's the problem and, you know --

RAJU: There's no agenda right now.

MITCHELL: There's no agenda. And Republicans are conflicted between knowing the issues that are driving voters and knowing that's often in conflict with what President Trump wants them to focus on.

And I think it creates inertia because they don't want to get on Trump's bad side. They don't want to be publicly perceived as going against what President Trump wants them to do.

So that's why to me -- remember, Republicans are in charge and they're still doing nothing.

RAJU: Yes, no question about it. That's going to be a challenge come November. We'll see how it plays out.

All right. Coming up, President Trump is throwing his party into disarray as he demands Republicans prioritize a bill that has no chance of passing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): I get tired of Republicans being lazy and unstrategic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:38:06]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: It's an issue that has animated President Trump and his party's right flank -- the so-called Save America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote. But here's the problem. When it heads to the Senate floor this week, it has no chance of getting 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster.

And despite Trump's demands to gut the filibuster, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other top Republicans have rejected those calls.

And now the president is holding up a critical endorsement in the Texas Senate GOP runoff as a result.

Some Republicans, including Thom Tillis, are sounding off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TILLIS: People on my side of the aisle and people at the far right of the political spectrum are trying to swing for the fences, and they're not going to succeed.

RAJU: Trump seems to be holding up the Cornyn endorsement over this issue. Is that a mistake?

TILLIS: No I think it is. I think the more time we spend millions of dollars with Republican-on-Republican violence, Democrats are in the marketing department loving the idea of a competitive runoff between Cornyn and Paxton.

I get tired of Republicans being lazy and unstrategic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right, my panel is back.

What do you make of this fight? Because Trump is ginning up this fight against his own party in a lot of ways. And a lot of these conservatives are going after the Senate majority leader as well.

There's a bunch of social media posts from them going after John Thune, and he's saying, we don't have the votes. But Trump doesn't seem to listen.

MITCHELL: Yes, I think Trump thinks he can use the fact that Cornyn really wants his endorsement. The fact that Senate Republicans really want Trump to endorse Cornyn to push them to passing this legislation that is a top priority for him.

RAJU: But they're not listening to him.

MITCHELL: They're not. Because, again, it's the conflict. Senate Republicans understand, they want Trump on their side because they need him to win primaries.

But they also understand that they then have to go and win general elections. And most Senate Republicans are not in states where you can just cater to the right and still win a statewide election.

[08:44:47]

MITCHELL: There are, you know, there are a lot of states where that is not the case, and that's the conflict with them. That's the -- that is central to why they don't want to change the filibuster.

RAJU: Especially because one day they're going to be in the minority and they need to use the filibuster, which is why the John Cornyn flip-flop was so revealing this week because he has long-supported the filibuster.

And listen, this is what he wrote in "The New York Post", Why the Save Act matters more than the filibuster. And he was asked all week, including by me and other reporters, about why he flip-flopped on an issue that he called fundamental.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I support the talking filibuster if that's what it takes to get the Save America Act passed, and I would be open to reforms of the filibuster.

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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And perhaps this is why that-flip flop from last week to 2022, why that happened is what Trump said to NBC yesterday said that a lot has to do with the Save America Act when asked if when he will endorse in the Texas runoff. It's pretty incredible.

KEITH: It is incredible and just a sign of how wild this this campaign is for one man's endorsement, one man's vote, a pro Paxton super PAC is running ads in Palm Beach this weekend for Paxton. So it is -- they are --

RAJU: And the race is in Texas, by the way.

KEITH: And the race is in Texas, not Florida. But this is all about Donald Trump and proving loyalty to Trump. I mean, I think for Cornyn, other than looking like he's completely flip-flopped, it's sort of a low-risk policy shift because there's a low risk that this is actually going to happen.

RAJU: The strength within the party for the Texas race is fascinating on so many different levels. One, because it has a huge impact on the majority, because the reason why Republicans are so concerned is that they're worried about Paxton's viability in a general election.

They're also concerned that if Trump does not endorse in the runoff, which is on May 26th, the party is going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to push Cornyn through or to push Paxton through. They're going to waste money that could be spent in all these battleground states.

But what's so revealing about all this is still the power of Trump to really drive his party, to pick a winner in all these races, and to force a discipline among people who have been in power for so long.

SANGER: Well, Thom Tillis had it right there where he said, you know, the Democrats are sitting back really enjoying watching the Republicans pick each other apart. And I wish that Senator Tillis had been so quotable earlier.

RAJU: Suddenly the -- when retirement is coming, it's --

SANGER: It's coming. (CROSSTALKING)

RAJU: -- amazing how it loosens lips in the U.S. Senate.

SANGER: But there is a more serious undercurrent to this. Let's assume for a minute that this bill is going to fail, because I don't see any way in which it gets through.

That may also fuel the administration's effort if it decides to make one, to make the case that elements of the 2026 election have been fixed when there are individual states or individual districts where they don't like the outcome, and they're going to claim that there was, you know voting by illegal immigrants, non-citizens, and so forth.

And so I think you're seeing both a Plan A and a Plan B.

RAJU: Yes. No question. We're already seeing these efforts by the administration to sow doubt into the election results. We'll see what happens in November.

All right next, get your motor running. New details this week on the Indy Car race set to zoom through the nation's capital this summer in a video that's driving the discussion.

[08:48:45]

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RAJU: This summer, the nation's capital will play host to Indy Car drivers zooming past monuments at over 180 miles per hour. And this week, we got new details about what it will all look like.

We also got this. A.I.-generated video released by the group running the Grand Prix race. It's all part of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of America's founding.

There's Trump giving a thumb's up to a bald eagle, race cars speeding along the National Mall, Trump waving the starting flag and even Abe Lincoln turning his head as they speed by.

Now, organizers also released a map of the track. You'll see the race doesn't go by the capitol because that would have required Congress' approval to do that and that did not happen.

Now President Trump, who has made a point of attending sporting events while in office, has made this race and the 250th anniversary celebrations a priority, signing an executive order back in January that got the wheels turning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Celebrating greatness with American motor racing. It's going to be so exciting and I love the race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: But the race is getting mixed reviews on Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Donald Trump over and over seems to think that it's all about the fireworks.

We have millions of people who've lost their access to health care. We have millions of people who are now paying more for their electricity.

[08:54:48]

WARREN: Millions of people who are paying more for gasoline, who are paying more for groceries, who are paying more for housing. All because Donald Trump's policies have driven those costs through the roof.

RAJU: Some Democrats say like, you know, this is a waste of taxpayer money, that sort of thing.

HAWLEY: Oh, they're always such killjoys, Manu. They're against like fun, and pretty soon they'll be against ice cream. And come on, lighten up. It's always, just always so negative, you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now most of the funding for this race scheduled for August 22nd and 23rd will come from private sources. But federal funds could be used for security and creating the race course. Just how much it will cost is not clear.

That's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. You can follow me on X @mkraju; follow the show @INSIDEPOLITICS and you can find me on TikTok and on Instagram. And you can also stream INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY on the CNN app.

Up next, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH." Jake's guests include U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Mike Walz, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, and former Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Thanks again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. We'll see you next time.

[08:55:56]

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