SecState Rubio SCHOOLS Sunday Shows Over Capture and Extradition of Nicolas Maduro

Jorge Bonilla
January 4th, 2026 7:39 PM

Text to Speech

00:00 00:00
Font Size

The Elitist Media’s Sunday shows grappled with unexpected source material, due to the operation to capture and extradite former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro (and wife Cilia Flores) pursuant to indictments for narcotrafficking and other charges handed down in the Southern District of New York. Secretary of State Marco Rubio went on these shows to discuss the operation, and made quick work out of the hosts’ attempts to inject themselves into the story.

Watch as ABC’s George Stephanopoulos takes four passes at an attempted “quo warranto” takedown, implying that the operation was lawless because it was not first approved by Congress, and is made to pay by Rubio (click “expand” to view transcript):

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We're joined now by the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining us this morning. President Trump was pretty clear yesterday. He said the United States was going to run Venezuela. Under what legal authority?

MARCO RUBIO: Under -- well, first of all, what’s going to happen here is that we have a quarantine on their oil. That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interest of the Venezuelan people are met. And that’s what we intend to do.

So, that leverage remains. That leverage is ongoing. And we expect that it's going to lead to results here.

We're hope so -- hopeful that it does positive results for the people of Venezuela, but ultimately, most importantly for us in the national interest of the United States. We will no longer have, hopefully, as we move forward here, will set the condition so that we no longer have in our hemisphere a Venezuela that's the crossroads for many of our adversaries around the world, including Iran and Hezbollah, is no longer sending us drug gangs, is no longer sending us drug boats, is no longer a narcotrafficking paradise for all those drugs coming out of Colombia to go through into the Caribbean and towards the United States.

That -- and obviously, we want a better future for the people of Venezuela. We want them to have an oil industry where the wealth is -- goes to the people, not to a handful of corrupt individuals and stolen by, you know, pirates all over the world.

That's what we're working towards, and we intend to use the leverage we have to help achieve that.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Let me ask the question again. What is the legal authority for the United States to be running Venezuela?

RUBIO:  Well, I explained to you what our goals are and how we're going to use the leverage to make it happen.

As far as what our legal authority is on the quarantine, I'm -- very simple. We have court orders. These are sanctioned boats and we get orders from courts to go after and seize these sanctions. So there -- that's -- I don't know, is a court not a legal authority?

STEPHANOPOULOS:  So, is the United States running Venezuela right now?

RUBIO:  Well, I've explained once again. I'll do it one more time. What we are running is the direction that this is going to move- moving forward. And that is we have leverage. This leverage we are using and we intend to use. We started using already.

You can see where they are running out of storage capacity. In a few weeks, they're going to have to start pumping oil unless they make changes. And that leverage that we have with the armada of boats that are currently positioned allow us to seize any sanctioned boats coming into or out of Venezuela loaded with oil or on its way in to pick up oil.

And we can pick and choose which ones we go after. We have court orders for each one. That will continue to be in place until the people who have control over the levers of power in that country make changes that are not just in the interest of the people of Venezuela but are in the interest of the United States and the things that we care about.

That's what we intend to do.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  When the president was asked yesterday --  

RUBIO:  The legal authority is the court orders that we have.

The emphasis on authorities is not accidental. Recall that we are not even a month removed from the War Crimes Hoax, which in itself was a part of the "Don't Give Up the Ship” psyop run by the Democrat members of Congress collectively known as “The Seditious Six”, and with the aid and support of the media. The intent of the authorities question is not actually to have anyone explain authority but to plant the idea in viewers’ (and service members’) minds that these orders, because they come from President Donald Trump, must also be illegal.

Rubio saw right through this and walked Stephanopulos through his response the same time for each of his four passes. The Secretary, having raised four children, displayed here the kind of patience normally reserved for toddlers.

Stephanopoulos flailed about with additional questions about the transition, and about oil, before circling back to authorities and finally attempting a whataboutism related to the pardon of the former president of Honduras, all of which Rubio swatted away. 

Over at NBC’s Meet the Press, Kristen Welker took multiple passes at the authorities question and likewise got folded:

KRISTEN WELKER: White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair that an attack on Venezuela's mainland would require approval from Congress. Why didn't that happen? And will it happen with any future action the administration plans to take in Venezuela or elsewhere?

MARCO RUBIO: This was not an action that required congressional approval. In fact, it couldn't require congressional approval because this was not an invasion. This was not an extended military operation. This was a very precise operation that involved a couple of hours of action. It was a very delicate operation too. It was one that required all these conditions to be in place at the right time and the right place. You couldn't afford leaks. We couldn't afford anything out there that would have endangered the mission and gotten people killed or killed off the mission and the optionality. We didn't even know if the mission was going to happen. And how can you notify something you're not even sure if it can happen? Because in order for it to happen, you needed to have weather conditions in place. He needed to be at the right place at the right time. We needed to have forces prepared to go. There were a lot of factors in place. It was a trigger-based operation.

WELKER: But --

RUBIO: You can't notify that, number one, because you don't even know if it's going to happen if those will ever align --

WELKER: But --

RUBIO: And number two, you can't risk it being disclosed. But this was not an attack on Venezuela. This was a law enforcement function to capture an indicted drug trafficker. And of course we needed the Department of War to support it because they do have anti-aircraft missiles that could shoot down those helicopters--

WELKER: But will you --

RUBIO: We had to take down radars. We had to take down those anti-air elements on the way in and on the way out. And that's what this was limited to.

WELKER: But will you seek congressional approval for any further action in Venezuela or the region?

RUBIO: Well, we will seek congressional approval for actions that require congressional approval. But otherwise, they will get congressional notification. And this was not an operation that required congressional approval. In fact, this was an operation akin to what virtually every single president for the last 40 years has conducted.

WELKER:Is the --

RUBIO: The difference is that when it's Donald Trump, you know, all these Democrats go bonkers.

Here also, Welker tries to revive the specter of illegal orders handed down by a rogue president. Here also, Rubio shuts down his bad-faith questioner by calmly explaining the scope of authority required to conduct the operation. Lost in all the media coping and seething is this nugget within a response to a question about oil. “Root causes” has once again entered the chat.

It’ll be interesting to see whether this gets mentioned or cited anywhere else.

Finally, Rubio went on CBS’s Face the Nation and dealt with Margaret Brennan’s…confusion.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But I'm curious, because you just described the regime as still in place, essentially. I mean, I'm curious why the Trump administration decided to leave it intact and only arrest Nicolas Maduro and his wife, the person who controls the police, the chief thug, Diosdado Cabellos, he's the interior minister. He's been indicted by the United States. He was in that indictment the Administration released. He's a narco-terrorist. There's a $25 million price on his head. He's still in place. The defense minister, who has deep ties to Russia, $15 million price on his head. He is still in place. I'm confused. Are they still wanted by the United States? Why didn't you arrest them if you are taking out the narco terrorist regime?

RUBIO: You're confused? I don't know why that's confusing to you--

BRENNAN: --they're still in power. 

RUBIO: I mean it's very simple. You're not going to go in and wrap up. You're going to go in and then grab up-- but yeah, but can't go in and suck up five people. They're already complaining about this one operation. Imagine the howls we would have from everybody else if we actually had to go and stay there four days to capture four other people. We got the top priority. The number one person on the list was the guy who claimed to be the president of the country that he was not, and he was arrested along with his wife, who was also indicted. And that was a pretty sophisticated and frankly, complicated operation. 

BRENNAN: It was. 

RUBIO: It is not easy to land helicopters in the middle of the largest military base in the country, the guy lived on a military base, land within three minutes, kick down his door, grab him, put him in handcuffs, read him his rights, put him in a helicopter and leave the country without losing any American or any American assets. That's not an easy mission. And you're asking me, why didn't we do that in five other places at the same time? I mean, that's absurd. I- I do think this is one of the most, you know, daring, you know, complicated, sophisticated missions this country has carried out in a very long time. Tremendous credit to the U.S. military personnel who did it. It was unbelievable, and a tremendous success. 

Imagine weeks of helping the Democrats pound a “regime change” narrative ahead of any action in Venezuela, only to not have a military action yield instant regime change. This totally ruins any comparisons to the Middle East. Brennan was naturally confused, and Rubio tried to guide her- to no avail.

To her credit, Brennan asked no authorities questions (saving those for a subsequent interview with Senate Intel Chair Tom Cotton (R-AR). Instead, she muddled through questions about oil and the scope of the operation, and on the potential military occupation of Venezuela.

As Venezuela coverage settles past the shock of the Maduro operation, it is shaping up to be more of the usual Resistance slop. 

Click “expand” to view full transcripts of the aforementioned interviews as aired on their respective shows on Sunday, January 4th, 2026:

ABC THIS WEEK WITH GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS

1/4/26

9:09 AM

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We're joined now by the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining us this morning. President Trump was pretty clear yesterday. He said the United States was going to run Venezuela. Under what legal authority?

MARCO RUBIO: Under -- well, first of all, what’s going to happen here is that we have a quarantine on their oil. That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interest of the Venezuelan people are met. And that’s what we intend to do.

So, that leverage remains. That leverage is ongoing. And we expect that it's going to lead to results here.

We're hope so -- hopeful that it does positive results for the people of Venezuela, but ultimately, most importantly for us in the national interest of the United States. We will no longer have, hopefully, as we move forward here, will set the condition so that we no longer have in our hemisphere a Venezuela that's the crossroads for many of our adversaries around the world, including Iran and Hezbollah, is no longer sending us drug gangs, is no longer sending us drug boats, is no longer a narcotrafficking paradise for all those drugs coming out of Colombia to go through into the Caribbean and towards the United States.

That -- and obviously, we want a better future for the people of Venezuela. We want them to have an oil industry where the wealth is -- goes to the people, not to a handful of corrupt individuals and stolen by, you know, pirates all over the world.

That's what we're working towards, and we intend to use the leverage we have to help achieve that.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Let me ask the question again. What is the legal authority for the United States to be running Venezuela?

RUBIO:  Well, I explained to you what our goals are and how we're going to use the leverage to make it happen.

As far as what our legal authority is on the quarantine, I'm -- very simple. We have court orders. These are sanctioned boats and we get orders from courts to go after and seize these sanctions. So there -- that's -- I don't know, is a court not a legal authority?

STEPHANOPOULOS:  So, is the United States running Venezuela right now?

RUBIO:  Well, I've explained once again. I'll do it one more time. What we are running is the direction that this is going to move- moving forward. And that is we have leverage. This leverage we are using and we intend to use. We started using already.

You can see where they are running out of storage capacity. In a few weeks, they're going to have to start pumping oil unless they make changes. And that leverage that we have with the armada of boats that are currently positioned allow us to seize any sanctioned boats coming into or out of Venezuela loaded with oil or on its way in to pick up oil.

And we can pick and choose which ones we go after. We have court orders for each one. That will continue to be in place until the people who have control over the levers of power in that country make changes that are not just in the interest of the people of Venezuela but are in the interest of the United States and the things that we care about.

That's what we intend to do.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  When the president was asked yesterday --  

RUBIO:  The legal authority is the court orders that we have.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  When the president was asked yesterday who will be running Venezuela, he said it was you. He said it was the defense secretary. He said it was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Are you running Venezuela right now?

RUBIO:  George, I've explained again that the leverage that we have here is the leverage of the quarantine. So, it -- that is a Department of War operation, conducting in some cases law enforcement functions with the -- with the Coast Guard on the seizure of these boats.

I'm obviously very intricately involved in these policies. And by the way, very intricately involved in moving forward and what we hope to see some of these changes being addressed.

Unfortunately, the person that was there before who was not the legitimate president of the country was someone we could not work with, was someone that we could not -- he had already suckered the Biden administration a couple years ago on a deal he didn't keep. And this is someone we simply couldn't work with.

We are hopeful that there are people in place now. We're going to find out. The proof will be in what they do or fail to do that will start making some of these changes that will ultimately lead to a Venezuela that looks substantially and dramatically different from what's been in place for 15 years.

But my number one objective is America. We care about Venezuela. We want it to do well moving forward. But our number one objective here is America.

No more drugs. No more drug -- no more Tren de Aragua gangs coming our direction. And no more -- an area of the country in our hemisphere that becomes a crossroads for every single adversary we have around the world. Hezbollah, Iran, all of them have turned it into their playground. That can't and will not continue under this administration.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  So, is it your position now that the vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, is now the legitimate president of Venezuela?

RUBIO:  Well, this is not about the legitimate president. We don't -- we don't believe that this regime in place is legitimate via an election. And that's not just us. It's 60-something countries around the world that have taken that view as well, including the European Union.

But I -- we understand that they are -- there are people in Venezuela today who are the ones that can actually make changes. So, for example, when we want to send in the migrant flights, even though we never recognized the Maduro regime as legitimate, we had to deal with the authorities that controlled the airport. We had to deal with the people who had guns and the people had control of the airports. We had to deal with them to achieve these objectives.

That's different from recognizing their legitimacy. Ultimately, legitimacy for their system of government will come about through a period of transition and real elections, which they have not had. And by the way, it's the reason why Maduro was -- is not just an indicted drug -- an indicted drug trafficker. He's an illegitimate president. He was not the head of state.

And I continue to see these media reports referring to him as President Maduro and the head of state. He was not the head of state. He was not the head. And it's not just us saying it. The Biden administration said it, and so did 60-something countries around the world hold that position.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  The President said that you spoke with the Vice President Rodriguez and that she promised to do whatever the United States needs. But in her televised statement, she was pretty defiant, saying that Maduro is still president, and that the Venezuelan people will no longer be slaves or the colony of an empire. That's a quote.

What exactly did she say to you, and what comes next?

RUBIO:  Well, we’re not going to judge moving forward based simply on what’s said in press conferences. We want to see action here at the end of the day. Rhetoric is one thing. You see rhetoric for a lot of different reasons. There’s a lot of different reasons why people go on TV and say certain things in these countries, especially 15 hours or 12 hours after the person who used to be in charge of the regime is now in handcuffs and on his way to New York.

So, what I will say is, moving forward, it’s very simple, we’re not going to be reactive here to statements at press conferences or what people say in a certain interview or what some media posts -- some media post somewhere.

What we are going to react to is very simple, what do you do? Not what you’re saying publicly. What happens? What happens next? Do the drugs stop coming? Are the changes made? Is Iran expelled? Is Hezbollah no longer able -- and Iran no longer able to operate against our interests from Venezuela? Does the migration pattern stop? Do the drug trafficking boats end? Do you deal with the ELN and the FARC, two narco-terrorist organizations who control territory and operate with impunity from the territory of Venezuela against the interest of Colombia and the United States?

These are the things we want addressed. If they are addressed, that’s how we’ll judge it. If they’re not addressed, that’s how we’ll judge it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And what happens if they’re not addressed?

RUBIO: Well, as I said, we retain all the options we had before this raid and this capture and this arrest was made. We continue -- the quarantine is in place right now. If you are a sanctioned boat and you are headed toward Venezuela, you will be seized either on the way in, or on the way out, with a court order that we get from judges in the United States. We will continue to enforce our sanctions. And we -- and that is going to continue to happen until such time as changes are made.

I cannot overstate how crippling this is for their future. That -- on the other hand, there’s an alternative to that. And here’s the alternative. And that is, an oil industry that actually benefits the people, that actually goes to the benefit, not of people, of “the people,” not just two or three or five people who are stealing it, and certainly not to Iran or any of the other sanctioned entities that we’re going after.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But how does the United States intend to secure the oil fields? Won’t that take U.S. troops?

RUBIO: Well, ultimately, this is not about securing the oil fields. This is about ensuring that no sanctioned oil can come in and out until they make changes to the governance of that entire industry.

Because right now, that industry is non-existent in the traditional way. These oil fields basically are pirate operations. People literally steal the oil from the ground, a handful of -- that’s how they hold this regime together. A handful of cronies benefit from this oil -- specific oil wells. They’re producing at like 18 percent capacity because the equipment is all decrepit and they basically pocket the money to their benefit. They sell the oil at a discount on global markets, you know, 40 cents on the dollar, 50 cents on the dollar.

But all that money goes to them. Those oil fields have not benefited the people of Venezuela in over a decade. They have -- but they have made multi-millionaires, billionaires out of just a handful of people. And that’s what’s held this regime together. That’s what needs to be addressed.

The way to address it to the benefit of the Venezuelan people is to get private companies that are not from Iran or somewhere else to go in, invest in the equipment that hasn’t been invested in, in 20 years, because none of the profits that have been made from the oil has been reinvested. It’s all been stolen. And that’s going to take outside companies that come in and know how to do that. That -- the people who do this stuff will know how to do it. But it all begins with dramatic changes at the way the government -- on the way that the authorities that are in charge of that industry behave. And until those changes happen, this quarantine will remain in place.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Chevron is the only American company working in Venezuela right now. The only American oil company working in Venezuela right now. Have you gotten commitments from any other U.S. oil companies to go in?

RUBIO: I haven’t spoken to U.S. oil companies in the last few days, but we’re pretty certain that there will be dramatic interest from Western companies. Non-Russian, non-Chinese companies will be very interested. Our refineries in the Gulf Coast of the United States are the best in terms of refining the heavy crude. And there’s actually been a shortage of heavy crude around the world that -- so, I think there will be tremendous demand and interest from private industry if given the space to do it, if given the opportunity to do it.

And that will spin off tremendous royalties for the people of Venezuela, to benefit the people of that country, not the handful of people at the top, but the people. And, you know, that can -- that can happen. There will be interest.

I haven’t spoken to the companies since all of this has happened. I'm certainly aware of who they are. And I have spoken to Secretary Wright and Secretary Burgum and others on -- I know they’ll soon be sort of taking an assessment and speaking to some of these companies. But I don’t have any concerns that there won’t be interest. There will be tremendous interest if it can be done the right way.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I'm still not clear on what the legal authority is for the United States to run the country of Venezuela, but several members of Congress and other legal experts have said this operation to take Maduro was illegal because you didn’t seek congressional authorization. Why wasn’t congressional authorization necessary?

RUBIO: It wasn't necessary because this is not an invasion. We didn't occupy a country. This was an arrest operation. This was a law enforcement operation. He was arrested on the ground in Venezuela by FBI agents, read his rights and removed from the country. Have you -- I encourage everyone. I know it's Sunday. People are busy. But I -- you know, the indictment has now been unsealed.

People should read this indictment. They should read this indictment. They should read what this man did for 15 -- the last 15 years of his life against the United States. Him and his wife. He was arrested. Obviously, this was not a friendly territory. So in order to arrest him we had to ask the Department of War to become involved in the operation. The Department of War went in. They hit anything that was a threat to the agents that were going in to arrest him, and they hit anything that was a threat on the way out.

And they hit anything that was a threat to them while they were on the ground. And that a very limited and targeted operation. If we -- it is also a trigger-based operation. All kinds of conditions had to be in place. The weather had to be right. He had to be staying in a certain spot. Everything had to be in place in order for that to happen. You can't congressionally notify something like this for two reasons. Number one, it will leak. It's as simple as that.

And number two, it's an exigent circumstance. It's an emergent thing. You don't even know if you're going to be able to do it. You can't -- we can't notify them we're going to do it on a Tuesday or on a Wednesday, because at some points, we didn't know if we were going to be able to carry this out. We didn't know if all of the things that had to line up were going to line up at the same time in the right conditions.

You know, it had to be at the right place at the right time with the right weather, and all things like that. So those are very difficult to notify, but the number one reason is operational security. We would have put people --

STEPHANOPOULOS: As you know --

RUBIO: Carry this on -- in harm's way, and frankly a number of media outlets had gotten leaks that this was coming and held it for that very reason, and we thank them for doing that, or lives could have been lost.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And you know --

RUBIO: American lives.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The congressional Gang of Eight has a history of not leaking. But you mentioned the indictment of Mr. Maduro, and of course it does detail his drug running operations in the same jurisdiction, the former president of Honduras was actually convicted on similar charges, yet the president pardoned him.

And here's what the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Mark Warner had to say about that. He said, "You cannot credibly argue that drug tracking charges demand invasion in one case while issuing a pardon in another."

What's your response?

RUBIO: Well, the president has the pardon authority. He's the one that reviewed the file with the folks at the White House to make these pardon decisions, and I refer questions do them because I was not involved in the pardon process so I can't comment on that because I wasn't involved in that process. But the president outlined yesterday that he felt that in that particular case there was unfairness, and that there was unfairness in the way that that individual was treated and he also pointed to the fact that the party that's now won the elections in Honduras had asked for this.

And so I would point to those comments as the rationale for it. In the case of Maduro, look, it's very simple. This guy was indicted. No one ever did anything about it. He didn't think he was under threat, that the indicted was every going to be enforced.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hernandez was convicted.

RUBIO: It was enforced yesterday.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hernandez was convicted by a jury.

RUBIO: I understand. You're asking me -- the pardon authority is something that, you know, I'm not involved in my role. I'm not criticizing it. I can't just comment on it because I just wasn't involved in those deliberations.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you support it?

RUBIO: I wasn't involved in those deliberations. I haven't looked at the case file. I haven't looked at the arguments made by -- you know, I've got a bunch of other things going on that are within my purview as secretary of state and national security adviser. But pardons aren't one of them. So I just -- I can't comment on a case that frankly I'm aware of but not deeply familiar with. And I don't want to comment on something that I haven't had a chance to be involved in reviewing the file and the rationale behind it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. Secretary, thanks for your time this morning.

RUBIO: Thank you.

NBC MEET THE PRESS

1/4/25

9:02 AM

KRISTEN WELKER: Joining me now is Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Secretary Rubio, welcome back to Meet the Press.

MARCO RUBIO: Thank you.

WELKER: Thank you so much for being here. I want to start with this big picture question: Is the United States now at war with Venezuela?

RUBIO: There's not a war. I mean, we are at war against drug trafficking organizations, not a war against Venezuela. We are enforcing American laws with regards to oil sanctions. We have sanctioned entities. We go to court. We get a warrant. We seize those boats with oil. And that will continue. And we will continue to reserve the right to take strikes against drug boats that are bringing drugs towards the United States that are being operated by transnational criminal organizations including the Cartel de los Soles. Of course their leader, the leader of that cartel, is now in U.S. custody and facing U.S. justice in the Southern District of New York. And that's Nicolás Maduro. So we made a big progress in that regard.

WELKER: Mr. Secretary, who is in charge? Are you running Venezuela right now?

RUBIO: Yeah, I mean, I keep people, you know, fixating on that. Here's the bottom line on it. We expect to see changes in Venezuela, changes of all kinds, long-term, short-term – we'd love to see all kinds of changes. But the most immediate changes are the ones that are in the national interest of the United States. That's why we're involved here because of how it applies, it has a direct impact on the United States. We are not going to be able to allow in our hemisphere a country that becomes a crossroads for the activities of all of our adversaries around the world. We just can't allow it. We can't have a country where the people in charge of its military and in charge of its police department are openly cooperating with drug trafficking organizations. We can't. We're not going to allow that. These things are direct threats to the United States. And we intend to use every element of leverage that we have to ensure that that changes. The one I would point everyone to is that our military is helping the Coast Guard conduct a law enforcement function which is not just the capture of Maduro, but the enforcement of our sanctions. We go to court. We get a warrant. We seize the boat. And we think this is tremendous leverage, incredible crippling leverage, which we intend to continue to use until we see the changes that we need to see that are benefit to the American people, and by the way we believe for the people of Venezuela as well.

WELKER: But Mr. Secretary, I think there's a lot of questions about who the point people are during this transition. President Trump said, "We're going to run the country." So is it you? Is it Secretary Hegseth? Who are those people who will be running the country specifically?

RUBIO: Well, it's running policy, the policy with regards to this. We want Venezuela to move in a certain direction because not only do we think it's good for the people of Venezuela, it's in our national interest. It either touches on something that's a threat to our national security, or touches on something that's either beneficial or harmful to our --

WELKER: And are you involved in that transition, Secretary --

RUBIO: So obviously I'm very involved in this – well, of course. I mean, I think everyone knows I'm pretty involved on politics in this hemisphere obviously as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, very involved in all these elements. The Department of War plays a very important role here along with the Department of Justice, for example, because they're the ones that have to go to court. So this is a team effort by the entire national security apparatus of our country. But it is running this policy. And the goal of the policy is to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United States first and foremost, because that's who we work for, but also we believe beneficial for the people of Venezuela who have suffered tremendously. We want a better future for Venezuela. And we think a better future for the people of Venezuela also is stabilizing for the region and makes the neighborhood we live in a much better and safer place.

WELKER: President Trump said the administration is working with Maduro's vice president Delcy Rodriguez. Why does the administration oppose working with the opposition leader, María Corina Machado? She's a Nobel Peace Prize winner, of course, as well. Her coalition has the support of 70% of Venezuelans. Why not work with her?

RUBIO: Well, a couple of things. So first of all, María Corina Machado's fantastic. And she's someone I've known for a very long time, and that whole movement is. We are dealing with the immediate reality. The immediate reality is that unfortunately and sadly, but unfortunately the vast majority of the opposition is no longer present inside of Venezuela. We have short-term things that have to be addressed right away. We all wish to see a bright future for Venezuela, a transition to democracy. All these things are great. And we all want to see that. I've worked on that for 15 years on a personal level both in the Senate and now as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. These are things I still care about. We still care about. But what we're talking about is what happens over the next two, three weeks, two, three months and how that ties to the national interests of the United States. And so we expect to see more compliance and cooperation that we were previously receiving. With Nicholas Maduro you could not make a deal or an arrangement, although he by the way was given very generous offers. He could have left Venezuela as recently as, you know, a week and a half ago. There were opportunities available for him to avoid all of this because he's not someone we can work with. He suckered the Biden administration into stupid deals. He's made a career out of not keeping deals and figuring out how to save himself by buying time. And President Trump was not going to fall into that trap. So now there are other people in charge of the military and police apparatus there. They're going to have to decide now what direction they want to go. And we hope they will choose a different direction than the one Nicolás Maduro picked. Ultimately we hope this leads to a holistic transition all the way around in Venezuela, societal, political, all of that – we're in favor of all of that. But right now, we have to take the first step. And the first steps are securing what's in the national interest of the United States and also beneficial for the people of Venezuela. And those are the things that we're focused on right now. No more drug trafficking. No more Iran Hezbollah presence there. And no more using the oil industry to enrich all our adversaries around the world and not benefiting the people of Venezuela or frankly benefiting the United States and the region.

WELKER: You talk about a holistic transition. I think there's a lot of focus on potential elections. How soon will elections be held, within 30 days, Mr. Secretary?

RUBIO: Elections? Well, this is a country that's been governed by this regime now for 14 or 15 years. The elections should have happened a long time ago. The elections did happen. They lost them and they didn't count the votes or they refused to count the votes. And everyone knows this. So all of that I think is premature at this point. But there's a lot of work to be done here. Let's be realistic here. What we are focused on right now is all of the problems we had when Maduro was there, we still have those problems in terms of them needing to be addressed. We are going to give people an opportunity to address those challenges and those problems. Until they address it, they will continue to face this oil quarantine. They will continue to face pressure from the United States. We will continue to target drug boats if they try to run towards the United States. We will continue to seize the boats that are sanctioned with court orders. We will continue to do that and potentially other things until the things we need to see addressed are addressed. Because ultimately above everything else, we care about elections, we care about democracy. We care about all of that. But the number one thing we care about is the safety, security, well-being and prosperity of the United States. And that's what we're going to focus first and foremost here. And that's what these changes we need to see made are about.

WELKER: Okay, significant there: You say you will continue to seize boats when necessary. I want to ask you about boots on the ground. A lot of attention on that. The president was asked about the possibility of U.S. boots on the ground. He said, quote, "We're not afraid of it." How many U.S. forces are on the ground right now in Venezuela? Are there any?

RUBIO: We don't have U.S. forces on the ground in Venezuela. No, we don't have U.S. forces on the ground. Everyone knows they were on the ground for about two hours when they went to capture Maduro. And I think what the president's saying is very simple. And that is as president of the United States, he is not going to go around telling people what he's not going to do. He's not going to go around saying, "I won't do this. I won't do that. Yes, I care about this issue, but I'll only go so far." He retains all this optionality. In the particular case he was citing, this was in essence at its core, a law enforcement function, okay? The Department of Justice, dating back in the Biden administration had a $25 million reward for his capture. And so we have a reward for his capture, but we're not going to enforce it? That's the difference between President Trump and everybody else. It's easy to make a wanted poster and say, "$50 million for the capture of Maduro." But no one takes that seriously because you're not going to anything about it. President Trump did something about it.

WELKER: Let me ask you --

RUBIO: He did something about it. We went in. We grabbed him. He was arrested. And he's now in New York. No Americans were killed. No equipment was lost. It had to be done. And it's been done. And I assure you the people left behind in Venezuela now that are in charge of the police and everything else, I assure you they're going to probably be a lot more compliant than, than Maduro was as a result of this.

WELKER: Well, President Trump told the New York Post there won't be troops in Venezuela as long as Delcy Rodríguez, quote, "does what we want." She's already, though, demanding the release of Nicolás Maduro, as you know. She's insisting that her country never become a colony. What exactly does Rodríguez need to do to keep U.S. troops out of Venezuela?

RUBIO: Well, forget about the U.S. troops portion of it. What needs to happen for any of this to change for our relations with Venezuela and our whole approach with the change, those things we have talked about are the ones I've highlighted already. You can't flood this country with gang members. You can't flood this country with drugs that are coming out of Colombia through Venezuela with the cooperation of elements of your security forces. You can't turn Venezuela into the operating hub for Iran, for Russia, for Hezbollah, for China, for the Chi -- Cuban intelligence agents that control that country. That cannot continue. Those things cannot continue to be in place. You cannot continue to have the largest oil reserves, you know, in the world under the control of adversaries of the United States not benefiting the people of Venezuela and stolen by a handful of oligarchs around the world including inside of Venezuela, but not benefiting the people of that country. You know, we've seen how our adversaries all over the world are exploiting and extracting resources from Africa, from every other country. They're not going to do it in the Western Hemisphere.

WELKER: Yeah.

RUBIO: They are not. That is not going to happen under President Trump. Read our national security strategy. He is serious about it. And he's going to do something about it. And we're doing something about it.

WELKER: Let me ask you about oil. The president says the U.S. is taking over the oil. The question is, I guess, if the purpose of the operation was to capture Maduro and bring him to justice, why does the United States need to take over the Venezuelan oil industry?

RUBIO: Well, we don't need to. First of all, let me go – back up. We don't need Venezuela's oil. We have plenty of oil in the United States. What we're not going to allow is for the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States. You have to understand: why does China need their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They're not even in this continent. This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live. And we're not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operations for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States, simple as that --

WELKER: Have specific oil companies --

RUBIO: We also want to see that oil and the proceeds from it -- hold on. We want to see the oil proceeds of that country benefit the people of Venezuela. Why have 8 million people left Venezuela? Eight million, the single largest mass migration probably in modern history, left Venezuela since 2014? Because all the wealth of that country was stolen to the benefit of Maduro and his cronies and the regime, but not to the benefit of people of Venezuela. You know how destabilizing 8 million migrants is? The number one fear that Brazil has, that Colombia has, that all these countries in the region have about what's happening in Venezuela and our involvement is they're afraid of another mass migration event. That's what they fear. This is deeply destabilizing stuff. It's not going to continue to happen. They are not going to come from outside of our hemisphere, destabilize our region in our own back yard, and us have to pay the price for it. Not under President Trump.

WELKER: Let's talk big picture here. U.S. regime change, historically speaking has not gone very well for the United States, in Iraq, in Libya, to name a few examples. Can you assure Americans, the people of the United States, that this time will be different?

RUBIO: Well, here's what's happened. We've got this phobia built up in this sort of thing – number one, most of the experts that people have, I'll tell you. I watch these experts and it's clown hour, okay? These are people that have focused their entire career on the Middle East or some other part of the world because that's where the action was. Hey, very few of them know anything about Venezuela or the Western Hemisphere. Venezuela looks nothing like Libya. It looks nothing like Iraq. It looks nothing like Afghanistan. It looks nothing like the Middle East other than the Iranian agents that are running through there plotting against America, okay? These are Western countries with long traditions, on a people to people and cultural level, and ties to the United States. So there's nothing like that. So I think people need to stop ascribing apples and oranges here. The apples of the Middle East or the oranges of the Western Hemisphere.

WELKER: But do you --

RUBIO: Number two, this is about the national interest of the United States. And what I'm confident of is we are in a safer and better place because we're taking it seriously. The alternative would have been to leave Maduro there as an indicted drug trafficker, illegitimate president, running the country, open invitation for all of our adversaries to do whatever they want against the United States from Venezuela. That was not going to continue. What the alternative would have been to allow a drug trafficker to continue to use national territory and elements of nation-state power to further drug trafficking organizations. Read the indictment. This guy used the levers of their security apparatus not to arrest drug traffickers, but to cooperate and facilitate the trafficking of drugs for the purpose of getting them into the United States.

WELKER: And --

RUBIO: That's going to stop.

WELKER: And yet, Mr. Secretary, a month ago President Trump pardoned the former president of Honduras who was just starting a 45-year sentence for trafficking more than 500 tons of cocaine. Does that not undercut the administration's stated goal as you just said to go after these narco-terrorists?

RUBIO: Number one, the former president of Honduras. So this is not someone who was in power, had any influence on the politics of Honduras any longer. Number two, I don't do the pardon file. I'm not against it or for it. I just didn't review the file. So I can't speak to you about the dynamics that led the president to make the decision that he made. I think he talked about yesterday at the press conference. He reviewed the file. He went through the arguments in it. And he felt that the former president of Honduras was treated very unfairly by the previous administration and made the decision that he made. But I think the answer, whether you agree with that decision or not, people can disagree. I mean, there's people out there who make a living out of disagreeing with anything President Trump does. That doesn't mean you leave Maduro in place. That doesn't mean you don't go after Maduro. That's not the answer. I see people saying that. It's like, "Well, you know, how can you go after Maduro if you didn't do this?" That's absurd. The answer to that, whether you have a problem with it or not, is not to leave in place someone who's been indicted, who hasn't even faced American justice yet, but now will.

WELKER: Yes, and you're absolutely right. I was referencing, obviously, the former president. White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair that an attack on Venezuela's mainland would require approval from Congress. Why didn't that happen? And will it happen with any future action the administration plans to take in Venezuela or elsewhere?

RUBIO: This was not an action that required congressional approval. In fact, it couldn't require congressional approval because this was not an invasion. This was not an extended military operation. This was a very precise operation that involved a couple of hours of action. It was a very delicate operation too. It was one that required all these conditions to be in place at the right time and the right place. You couldn't afford leaks. We couldn't afford anything out there that would have endangered the mission and gotten people killed or killed off the mission and the optionality. We didn't even know if the mission was going to happen. And how can you notify something you're not even sure if it can happen? Because in order for it to happen, you needed to have weather conditions in place. He needed to be at the right place at the right time. We needed to have forces prepared to go. There were a lot of factors in place. It was a trigger-based operation.

WELKER: But --

RUBIO: You can't notify that, number one, because you don't even know if it's going to happen if those will ever align --

WELKER: But --

RUBIO: And number two, you can't risk it being disclosed. But this was not an attack on Venezuela. This was a law enforcement function to capture an indicted drug trafficker. And of course we needed the Department of War to support it because they do have anti-aircraft missiles that could shoot down those helicopters--

WELKER: But will you --

RUBIO: We had to take down radars. We had to take down those anti-air elements on the way in and on the way out. And that's what this was limited to.

WELKER: But will you seek congressional approval for any further action in Venezuela or the region?

RUBIO: Well, we will seek congressional approval for actions that require congressional approval. But otherwise, they will get congressional notification. And this was not an operation that required congressional approval. In fact, this was an operation akin to what virtually every single president for the last 40 years has conducted.

WELKER:Is the --

RUBIO: The difference is that when it's Donald Trump, you know, all these Democrats go bonkers.

WELKER: Is the Cuban government the Trump administration's next target, Mr. Secretary? Very quickly.

RUBIO: Well, the Cuban government is a huge problem. Yes, the Cuban government is a huge problem, first of all --

WELKER: So is that a yes?

RUBIO: – for Cuba. But I don't think people fully appreciate-- I think they're in a lot of trouble, yes. I'm not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard. But I don't think it's any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro. His entire internal security force, his internal security apparatus, is entirely controlled by Cubans. One of the untold stories here is how in essence, you talk about colonization, because I think you said Delcy Rodriguez mentioned that.

WELKER: Yes.

RUBIO: The ones who have sort of colonized, at least inside the regime, are Cubans. It was Cubans that guarded Maduro. He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards. In terms of their internal intelligence, who spies on who inside to make sure there are no traitors, those are all Cubans.

WELKER: All right, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, thank you for joining us after an incredibly busy--

RUBIO: Thank you --

WELKER: – 48 hours. Really appreciate it. 

CBS FACE THE NATION

1/4/25

10:32 AM

BRENNAN: We begin today with Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who joins us this morning from Miami. Good morning to you, Mr. Secretary. 

MARCO RUBIO: Good morning. Good morning.

BRENNAN:  President Trump said that the United States will run the country and that Venezuela will be largely run by, he pointed to you and some of the other cabinet members when he spoke to the public yesterday. He said, The U.S. retains all military options, including boots on the ground until U.S. demands have been fully met. How do you plan to run the country?

RUBIO: Well, first of all, I think the important thing to point out is that the key to what that regime relies on and is the economy fueled by oil. And right now, it is an oil industry that is backwards and really needs a lot of help and work in terms of, not only that, but it doesn't help the people. None of the money from the oil gets to the people. It's all stolen by the people that are on the top there, and so that's why we have a quarantine. There's a quarantine right now in which sanctioned oil shipments, there's a boat, and that boat is under US sanctions, we go get a court order, we will seize it. That remains in place, and that's a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela. And so that's the sort of control the President is pointing to when he says that. We continue with that quarantine, and we expect to see that there will be changes, not just in the way the oil industry is run for the benefit of the people, but also so that they stop the drug trafficking, so that we no longer have these gang problems, so that they kick the FARC and the ELN out, and that they no longer cozy up to Hezbollah and Iran in our own hemisphere.

BRENNAN: What you are talking about is more of a sanctions pressure, not boots on the ground. So just to be clear, there is no plan for U.S. occupation of this country of nearly 30 million people?

RUBIO: Well, I think first of all, the President always retains optionality on anything and on all these matters. He certainly has the ability and the right under the Constitution of the United States to act against imminent and urgent threats against the country. That said, and all of that said as right now, I think what you see as a force posture is one of the largest naval deployments in modern history, certainly in the Western Hemisphere, and it is capable of stopping not just drug boats, but stopping any of these sanctioned boats that come in and out, and really paralyzing that portion of how the regime, you know, generates revenue, so that will continue to be in place. What the President has said, obviously, is, you know, and I think what he's pointing to is that this obsession people have about boots and this or that. He,he does not feel like he is going to publicly, you know, rule out options that are available for the United States, even though that's not what you're seeing right now. What you're seeing right now is an oil quarantine that allows us to exert tremendous leverage over what happens next.

BRENNAN: Well, he also said the U.S. is ready to stage a second and much larger attack, if we need to do so. But I'm curious, because you just described the regime as still in place, essentially. I mean, I'm curious why the Trump administration decided to leave it intact and only arrest Nicolas Maduro and his wife, the person who controls the police, the chief thug, Diosdado Cabellos(sic), he's the interior minister. He's been indicted by the United States. He was in that indictment the Administration released. He's a narco-terrorist. There's a $25 million price on his head. He's still in place. The defense minister, who has deep ties to Russia, $15 million price on his head. He is still in place. I'm confused. Are they still wanted by the United States? Why didn't you arrest them if you are taking out the narco terrorist regime?

RUBIO: You're confused? I don't know why that's confusing to you--

BRENNAN: --they're still in power. 

RUBIO: I mean it's very simple. You're not going to go in and wrap up. You're going to go in and then grab up-- but yeah, but can't go in and suck up five people. They're already complaining about this one operation. Imagine the howls we would have from everybody else if we actually had to go and stay there four days to capture four other people. We got the top priority. The number one person on the list was the guy who claimed to be the president of the country that he was not, and he was arrested along with his wife, who was also indicted. And that was a pretty sophisticated and frankly, complicated operation. 

BRENNAN: It was. 

RUBIO: It is not easy to land helicopters in the middle of the largest military base in the country, the guy lived on a military base, land within three minutes, kick down his door, grab him, put him in handcuffs, read him his rights, put him in a helicopter and leave the country without losing any American or any American assets. That's not an easy mission. And you're asking me, why didn't we do that in five other places at the same time? I mean, that's absurd. I- I do think this is one of the most, you know, daring, you know, complicated, sophisticated missions this country has carried out in a very long time. Tremendous credit to the U.S. military personnel who did it. It was unbelievable, and a tremendous success. And today, an indicted drug trafficker who was not the legitimate president of Venezuela--

BRENNAN: Right. 

RUBIO: Who we don't recognize, the Biden administration didn't recognize, 60-something countries don't recognize, the European Union doesn't recognize, and many countries in Latin America don't recognize. He was a convicted- he was a indicted drug trafficker. He was arrested. His wife was arrested also--

BRENNAN: Right but the others--

RUBIO: --and they are now facing justice in the American system of courts--

BRENNAN: --The others who were also indicted are still in place. So that's the point of my questioning there. But you talked about not being the legitimate president-- 

RUBIO: --so you wanted us to land in five other military bases? 

BRENNAN: No, I'm asking why you chose that this was the limit of the military operation. But to your point that you just made that Maduro was not the legitimate president--

RUBIO: He was- he was the guy was claiming to be the president. 

BRENNAN: Right. Well, the opposition--

RUBIO:--He was the top target. 

BRENNAN: Okay, the opposition leader María Corina Machado and Edmundo González won that 2024 election, by your own account. They were some of the first people you called when you were Secretary of State, you said, Edmundo González is the rightful president of Venezuela. Is that still the U.S. policy? And if so, are you working on a transition to have those elected leaders run the country?

RUBIO: Well, I think a couple things I have tremendous admiration for María Corina Machado. I have admiration for Edmundo. We have all those views about what the election that happened the last time, and not only us, but many other countries around the world, there's that. And there's and then- but there's the mission we are on right now. We have been very clear from the beginning, because I still think that a lot of people analyze everything that happens in foreign policy through the lens of what happened from 2001 through you know 2015 or 16. The whole, you know, foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan. This is not the Middle East. And our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere. Within the Western Hemisphere, we have a country, potentially a very rich country, that has cozied itself up under the control of this regime. Has cozied up to Iran. Has cozied up to Hezbollah. Has cozied- has allowed narco-trafficking gangs to operate with impunity from their own territory, allows boats with drugs to traffic from their territory. And we are addressing that. And by the way, for eight, nine million people and the largest mass migration event in modern history have left that country since 2014--

[CROSSTALK] 

BRENNAN: Right, but that regime is still in place--

RUBIO: --also having an impact on us, that is what we are addressing now. 

BRENNAN: When you spoke yesterday--

RUBIO: Well, again that- but we're not just addressing the regime. We are addressing the factors that are a threat to the national interest of the United States.

BRENNAN: Understood you spoke with Delcy Rodríguez, who is now, according to President Trump, sworn in as the President, as the leader of Venezuela. Did she promise you that she is expelling all those American adversaries from Venezuelan territory? What exactly did she agree to do when she spoke to you?

RUBIO: We- we are going to- our objectives when it comes to how Venezuela impacts the national interest of the United States have not changed, and we want those addressed. We want drug trafficking to stop. We want no more gang members to come our way. We don't want to see the Iranian and, by the way, Cuban presence in the past. We want the oil industry in that country not to go to the benefit of pirates and adversaries of the United States, but for the benefit of the people. We want to see all of that happen. We insist on seeing that happen--

BRENNAN: Did you- she promise that? 

RUBIO: --and we are going to work to continue to see that happen- well, right now, the United- we are going to see what happens moving forward, let me just say that. I'm not obviously going to have these conversations in the media. These are delicate and complicated things that require mature statesmanship, and that's what we intend to do. But our goals remain the same. The difference is that the person who was in charge, even though not legitimately in the past was someone you could not work with. We just could not work with him. He is not a person that had ever kept any of the deals he made, broke every deal he ever made, made a fool out of the Biden administration on the deal they made with him, and we offered him, on multiple occasions, an opportunity to remove himself from the scene in a positive way. He chose not to do so- and now he's in New York--

[CROSSTALK]

BRENNAN: But, his number two is now running the country- his number two is someone you can work with? And is that what you're implying here? And did she tell you that she will transition to democracy and the woman who won the election along with her partner there, María Corina Machado.

RUBIO: We are going to make- we are going to make our assessments of people. You're asking me to make an assessment. We're going to make assessment- we're going to make an assessment on the basis of what they do, not what they say publicly in the interim, not what you know some what they've done in the past in many cases, but what they do moving forward. So we're going to find out. You're asking me, why- do I know what decisions people are going to make? I don't. I do know this, that if they don't make the right decisions, the United States will retain multiple levers of leverage to ensure that our interests are protected, and that includes the oil quarantine that's in place, among other things. Well, so we but we are going to judge moving forward. We're going to judge everything by what they do, and we're going to see what they do.

BRENNAN: Okay, because yesterday, President Trump said María Corina Machado doesn't have the support or respect within the country, and by your own admission, she walloped Nicolas Maduro in the last election. So it does sound like a decision was made, but--

RUBIO: She wasn't on the ballot in the last election. 

BRENNAN: No, but her, her party was.

RUBIO: Edmundo was. 

BRENNAN: Yes.

RUBIO: Correct. So it was an illegitimate election, and that's why he's not a legitimate president.

BRENNAN: Right, but is there an agreement to transition to democracy? It sounds like there's not.

RUBIO: I think what the president pointed out is the obvious. Well, I think what the point, but there has to be a little realism here. Okay, a transition to the market — They've had this regime. They've had this system of Chavismo in place for 15 or 16 years, and everyone's asking, why 24 hours after Nicolas Maduro was arrested, there isn't an election scheduled for tomorrow? That's absurd. 

BRENNAN: No, no, I'm asking what you talked about. 

RUBIO: These things take time. There's a process.

BRENNAN: Right. And you are —

RUBIO: I'm not going to have, I'm not going to publicly get into details about any of those things, other than to tell you that our expectations remain the same, and we are going to judge whoever we're interacting with moving forward by whether or not those conditions are met. We want, of course, we want to see Venezuela transition to be a place completely different than what it looks like today. But, obviously, we don't have the expectation that's going to happen in the next 15 hours. What we do have an expectation is that, that it move in that direction. We think it's in our national interest, and frankly, in the interest of people of Venezuela.

BRENNAN: The president used the word oil 20 times this press conference. You talked about these tremendous oil assets that Venezuela have, has. But the president's last envoy to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, is publicly arguing that you know better than the policy you're backing. He said, quote, "Venezuelan plutocrats, or US oil executives seem to be coming to Mar-a-Lago and whispering about how easy life would be if we just made a deal with the regime once Maduro was gone." Is that what happened here?

RUBIO: No, that's not what happened here. What happened here is that we arrested a narco trafficker who's now going to stand trial in the United States for the crimes he's committed against our people for 15 years, and the person who helped him, of course, his wife, who was co-located with him, so she was arrested as well. That's what happened here. As far as oil, look, oil is critical, not just to fueling economies all over the world. It's critical to Venezuela's future. Their oil industry is completely destroyed. It's destroyed, all those oil fields that used to produce a lot and wealth for their country and their people. Those things are decrepit. They're bankrupt. They need to be reinvested in. It's obvious, you, they do not have the capability to bring up that industry again. They need investment from private companies who are only going to invest under certain guarantees and conditions. That has to go to the benefit of the Venezuelan people. Right now, all of that wealth is stolen. It's stolen, and it goes into the hands of oligarchs around the world and the oligarchs inside of Venezuela. A handful of people benefit from it. The people don't benefit from it. On top of that, it's very simple, okay, in the 21st Century, under the Trump administration, we are not going to have a country like Venezuela in our own hemisphere, in the sphere of control and the crossroads for Hezbollah, for Iran and for every other malign influence in the country, in the world. That's just not going to exist.

BRENNAN: Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, would love to keep talking to you, but I'm told you are out of time. I have to leave it there. 

RUBIO: Thank you.

 

Donor Privacy Policy