Bannon's War Room - Episode 5042：＂We＂ Will Run Venezuela

00:00:00.000 okay welcome back uh you're here for the second hour of the war room uh we've got the slate

00:00:06.760 up they've given us from mara lagos that means momentarily the commander chief president trump

00:00:11.320 will uh step into the uh into the press briefing with the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff

00:00:17.820 general kane the secretary of war pete hegseth the secretary of state marco rubio about the

00:00:24.660 extraordinary events that's taken place over the last couple hours um we're going to try to get as

00:00:30.180 much in as possible before the press briefing and then we'll be around afterwards i just want to go

00:00:35.260 back todd you've done this before just just rewind for a second because i'm sure we're going to get

00:00:40.800 some details here in the press briefing i want to set the framework for the audience the complexity

00:00:45.840 of trying to do this this is just not a couple of gunships going in that like you we see the video

00:00:50.640 i think you see a couple of helicopters walk me through the complexity of this sir

00:00:53.960 so uh what first will happen is any targets that need to be softened up uh air defense or anything

00:01:01.300 that could restrict uh the extraction uh or the hit as you say uh needs to be taken care of so once

00:01:07.820 that's done you also have usually a ranger force which is kind of tier two special operations assets

00:01:13.980 take an airfield or somewhere where the up where the extraction can take place and then you have the

00:01:19.660 tier one assets uh like delta or st6 uh come in on rotary wing aircraft usually and and hit the

00:01:26.440 target and extract the precious cargo so that's what happened there's reports trump said that one

00:01:31.880 aircraft was hit these helicopters are extremely vulnerable in this position uh especially near the

00:01:37.240 target so with you got to have gunship cover overhead probably ac-130s in somalia clinton did not

00:01:44.040 allow that and that's why black hawk down happened after the successful extraction of that warlord

00:01:49.240 actually it was the ranger force that came under fire uh with no cover so i'm very happy that trump

00:01:55.740 gave them everything they needed and you know i asked a question about this in the pentagon press

00:02:00.260 briefing uh a few weeks back is there direct action scheduled in venezuela because we we saw the 160th

00:02:07.680 special operations aviation regiment uh in the area and that's a huge tell right if they're practicing and

00:02:13.020 they they had to have practiced this probably on some type of uh constructed target uh that they

00:02:18.860 could choreograph all of this with firepower with search and rescue with airstrikes with command and

00:02:25.120 control with the shooters uh any kind of airlift backup as trump mentioned himself that there was

00:02:29.900 another wave scheduled in case something happened so extremely complicated we used to call them

00:02:34.760 continent seizure packages of aircraft because there were so many airplanes aircraft involved uh and i'm sure

00:02:40.360 this was the same way well you know the chinese were there yesterday and the russians and the

00:02:47.080 chinese they've been bragging about the air defense and madura makes a big deal about the sophisticated

00:02:52.000 air defense in fact when they were talking earlier about a potential invasion the one of the things

00:02:56.280 people were talking about is knocking down the air defense taking railroad logistics centers

00:03:01.540 communications uh centers did it look like does it look like to you the chinese air defense for the

00:03:07.280 venezuelans or the russian air defense or some combo package uh ended up holding up against uh american

00:03:13.460 might sir uh it does not look that way uh obvious the fast movers probably came in and took out some of

00:03:21.180 that infrastructure so that the gunships which are slow could come in you saw cobra gunships uh likely ac-130s

00:03:27.660 overhead those can't operate uh in a threat environment they have to be uh you know the these air defense

00:03:33.340 threats have to be taken out so they likely were by fast movers or electronic warfare

00:03:38.440 and um the the aircraft that was hit that trump said likely was probably by triple a or an rpg i mean

00:03:45.380 you saw in lone survivor or in black hawk down you know these an rpg can really impact a helicopter

00:03:51.600 especially if it's a tail rotor or anything like that or the transmission so uh that's likely how

00:03:57.360 that happened to some high caliber gun or an rpg uh trump said it was hit hard but flew out which

00:04:03.600 means you know could have there could be injuries in that situation i don't know obviously they've

00:04:08.680 said there's no deaths uh but again that's all planned for you have uh search and rescue you have

00:04:14.520 medical nearby all of that they took them to the ship i landed on many ships in these type of operations

00:04:20.280 in the persian gulf back in the day and uh it's it's coordinated with the navy assets even space

00:04:26.540 assets you know with intelligence and where the targets are and all that it's highly coordinated

00:04:30.600 activity and really really impressive and yes there's no one else that can do this at this scale for sure

00:04:35.920 how do you get through i mean no one where he is because he's all these guys have high security in

00:04:43.020 the many different places they hang out to get in there as mike davis said not saying that some of his

00:04:49.040 security might have been on the payroll but it's it's pretty shocking that there weren't a high

00:04:54.120 number of casualties on their side at least has not been reported i think they said there may be

00:04:57.940 but on our side i mean how do you think that went down i'm sure there are casualties um you know we'll

00:05:04.920 all of that will come out in time but the fact that none of our guys were seriously hurt is fantastic

00:05:10.540 because that's a huge risk uh and i'm glad that that did not happen but i think we will find out that

00:05:17.140 there are other casualties uh from the venezuelan side whether it's in the air defense assets that

00:05:22.460 were hit command and control that was likely hit uh to as eric said you know make them uh so they

00:05:28.380 can't communicate so they can't uh find you know relay targets and that kind of thing from the the

00:05:33.960 target center to the actual forces in the field that can shoot at these aircraft etc so i i i think

00:05:40.920 we'll find casualties in those areas todd can you hang on because i do want to get your thoughts on

00:05:47.380 this on this press briefing so hang on i'll see you get a break i'll talk to you but just hang for right

00:05:51.620 now captain finnell uh maduro and his wife and he was sitting there you saw the video he's high-fiving

00:05:58.960 with the chinese communist party they're there yesterday a military delegation he's joking and laughing

00:06:04.140 and uh you know saying he's a lion or a tiger or whatever today's part of ship's company on the

00:06:10.800 iwo jima uh talk to me about the naval assets down there that made this possible our as president trump

00:06:16.460 said we have a vast armada off the coast of venezuela sir well steve yes we do the president's

00:06:24.100 right we have a the uss gerald r ford carrier strike group with a half a dozen or more ships warships

00:06:31.000 uh carrier air wing eight with uh you know 50 plus strike aircraft and all the support aircraft

00:06:37.400 that go with that along with the uh iwo jima amphibious ready group embarked a marine expeditionary

00:06:44.500 unit and their air wing and as we've seen through the operation and we'll hear more details in this

00:06:50.660 press conference it's clear that we had special operation forces staging off of the the flight decks

00:06:56.500 of probably both carriers uh the the iwo jima and the ford in some form or fashion to support these

00:07:02.920 operations so as uh as todd said uh you know the the strike aircraft from the carrier are providing

00:07:10.700 close air support air superiority to be able to suppress uh venezuelan air defenses and allow those

00:07:17.660 soft forces to get in and do the extraction and just to put it in perspective and i think jack

00:07:23.300 mentioned it earlier uh the ford's been underway since august uh of last year and uh or actually

00:07:31.160 since may of last year and the iwo jima has been underway since august so we have sailors on board those

00:07:36.560 warships that have been underway for you know six months for the the ford and several months for the

00:07:43.620 iwo jima so this is the power of this is the importance and the value of naval power because this

00:07:50.100 operation if it wasn't done uh from the decks of those carriers and those uh floating ships out

00:07:55.740 there would have been much harder to stage from the united states from florida from our special

00:08:01.020 operations bases for instance at holbert in florida we could have still done it but it would have been

00:08:06.540 much more difficult having the presence there on sustained presence uh for several several weeks is

00:08:13.600 very important especially as the political situation changes as we saw maduro respond to the uh the

00:08:20.520 president's uh narco uh boat strikes on the second of september he started flying uh you know venezuelan

00:08:28.280 aircraft against the united states and then what do you know uh all of a sudden maduro's in beijing

00:08:34.160 uh 8 through 14 uh september he didn't go to the big parade on 3 september in beijing but he made sure he

00:08:40.080 went there because he was very afraid that this day would come and it's come for him and this is uh

00:08:46.120 the enduring power of the american military and our ability to uh sustain and project power like this

00:08:52.840 uh we did something like this back in 2001 during operation enduring freedom when the uss kitty hawks

00:09:00.060 four deployed to japan went forward without its air wing to operate off of the the shores of iran

00:09:07.680 for the operations uh enduring freedom where we took special operations forces from the kitty hawk

00:09:14.080 that launched strikes into afghanistan so we've had this capability we've we keep perfecting it we keep

00:09:20.560 doing better but i would just advise we're doing it in a benign environment benign environment off the

00:09:27.120 coast of iran or or a benign environment relatively speaking off the coast of venezuela we need to be

00:09:34.360 concerned about what do we do if we have to operate and do operations in a hostile environment like we

00:09:40.660 have with the prc whether it's a in the south china sea right now or around taiwan these are the concerns

00:09:47.460 that i have yeah um i want to go back just in the benign environment i mean the uh when i went over for

00:09:57.120 the hostage crisis we were i was in the workup to that before uh we before we rotated out uh but it

00:10:04.840 was 24 hours a day you talk about the practice i mean and and that was one and you can even tell at

00:10:10.120 the time we we did we had you know we had blue light you didn't have you didn't have so calm you

00:10:15.460 didn't have special operators that work together we didn't have the helicopters or the assets like todd

00:10:20.800 would would fly later it was really kind of slapped together and i think there were a lot of lessons

00:10:25.260 learned by that disaster in the desert but just talk to people about the evolutions out there at sea

00:10:30.940 these sailors not simply they miss thanksgiving and christmas but every day to pull off something

00:10:36.760 like this you are working on this non-stop i mean these sailors and uh and the marines out there and

00:10:42.340 the special operators have been in air force assets they've been working on this to have a flawless

00:10:48.140 mission like you just had the the degree of uh of attention to detail and the different aspects

00:10:55.180 you have to bring together as todd wood said is is quite frankly breathtaking i think that that is

00:11:00.620 at least the initial part of this whatever happens you know in the country geopolitically what happens

00:11:06.960 with the civil war all of that you know lavrov just came out uh the hammer over there you know

00:11:12.100 putin's hammer and said he had a conversation with the venezuelan vice president and they stand in

00:11:16.500 solidarity with venezuela it's obviously a big ally of the russians as is a big ally of the mullahs and

00:11:22.440 a big ally of the chinese communist party but just give me a minute or two about the degree of tempo

00:11:28.020 of operations to be able to pull off something like this by our magnificent naval forces sir

00:11:34.820 yes steve it's you make the great point which is this kind of operation whether you're the the soft

00:11:42.540 special operations package that's going in to do the extraction flying helicopters or being the people

00:11:48.620 that actually go down and actually have to grab the individual or you're flying combat air patrol and

00:11:53.980 a fa18 hornet or an f-35 or you're the sailor on lookout to make sure that your ship doesn't collide

00:12:00.380 into another ship or while you're still looking for and doing operations to look for drug runners

00:12:06.300 that are coming out of venezuela that operation is still ongoing so the complexity of what's going on the

00:12:12.060 multitasking that's going on is incredible and i would just say you know a lot of us had a lot of

00:12:17.780 concerns about what happened to the the department of defense now the department of war during the four

00:12:22.580 years of the previous administration and we were very concerned about the corrosive effect of dei and

00:12:28.320 wokeism in the military and at least we can say today that there has been a demonstration that

00:12:33.980 there may have been bad impacts at the top end with guys like millie and things of that nature

00:12:39.520 but at least the structure of our military seems very very sound and the fact that they were able to

00:12:46.060 do that strikes in iran last year and now this event which is as the president said one of the most

00:12:51.580 complex if not ever in time an operation with this many forces with so many different things going on

00:12:58.860 with strikes in the pacific against narco boats that are going in the pacific along with those in the

00:13:04.360 caribbean and dealing with the the ghost fleet that they're trying to embargo the oil from the ghost

00:13:09.580 fleet oh by the way china is the largest importer of crude oil in the world in venezuela as it was

00:13:16.520 pointed out in your opening is the largest reservoir of crude oil in the world now they have trouble

00:13:21.340 getting it out right now because of 20 years of chavez and maduro's regimes but the fact of the matter is

00:13:27.640 china invested billions just in uh september they had a a new contract for another billion dollars from

00:13:34.740 a private company uh to pull oil out of china out of venezuela from china so there's a big impact there

00:13:41.960 uh in terms of the the global uh alignment of oil but the the fact that our military forces had to pay

00:13:48.840 attention to the the ghost fleet the narco terrorist boats that are coming out and then to do this special

00:13:55.360 operation to extract uh the you know maduro and his wife with with essentially i i would say you know

00:14:03.160 we the president said no american soldiers and sailors have been killed and we probably have very very few

00:14:09.120 if any uh civilian casualties in this operation because it was focused it was tailored so the intelligence

00:14:15.600 was precise and oh by the way these floating platforms on these carriers and arcs they have vast amounts of

00:14:22.540 communications capability so they're able to it's essentially they're as if they were in the

00:14:28.160 pentagon but they have it floating at sea so they can get all the intelligence that they need they can

00:14:33.220 go back and forth with experts at defense intelligence agency they can go back and forth with experts at

00:14:40.120 langley they can talk to the pentagon they can talk to southern command they can talk to special

00:14:46.300 operations command jsoc and so they have all this ability to communicate in real time with video and

00:14:52.860 other things uh to be able to provide that real time uh intelligence to the forces afloat and the

00:15:00.080 forces that are being integrated in from the united states as this operation unfolded so it was a

00:15:05.220 combination of everything very very complex and we just have to say you know god bless these folks

00:15:11.360 for doing it i mean it's just a flawless performance and we should be very very proud

00:15:15.660 of our uh of our soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines that were out there doing this

00:15:21.240 really impressive let me get hang there because i want to talk about the caribbean uh in the gulf of

00:15:28.980 america as a chinese communist party lake uh what this means for that hemisphere defense and also

00:15:34.160 the chinese communist party it shouldn't be lost as as um captain finnell just said maduro was actually

00:15:40.060 over there in mid-september uh sending a signal to the united states and everyone about where their

00:15:46.140 who their ally was and they had a big military delegation there last night with maduro preening

00:15:52.300 in front of them so hang on for a second captain finnell also got neil mccabe at the white house uh but i

00:15:57.600 want to go to our latin american uh correspondent uh and the host of our show in a spanish language javier

00:16:04.660 uh javier what has been the response i know that they're in the streets i think in in caracas right

00:16:11.280 now i think there's a celebration i understand in chile where there i think a million venezuelans

00:16:17.400 went to there's they're in the streets there uh i hear that mille mille came and uh and gave us a

00:16:23.920 an attaboy that we're fighting for freedom also steve cortez is down in argentina he told me today that the

00:16:29.440 the leadership down there could be more excited what's the general overall view coming out of

00:16:35.020 latin america on this uh dramatic uh extraction of one of the worst guys in the world to a court

00:16:41.760 in the united states of america sir

00:16:43.340 hello steve it's amazing what we feel in the hispanic community with the great leader that we

00:16:50.460 have to donald trump president trump is the best president that we can have and right now in

00:16:55.060 argentina right now in spain right now in ecuador right now in bolivia right now in chile right now

00:16:59.980 in mexico you can find out of venezolan citizens and other people from mexico from argentina

00:17:06.380 like celebrating in the streets and you have like the governments that come from the

00:17:13.660 foro de sao paulo like brazil president lula like shamebound the narco president told the world that

00:17:20.260 trump broke the international law but this president they didn't take care of the leaders of the

00:17:28.600 opposition that maduro today took to the jail the spanish government it's a socialist government

00:17:35.060 they are making a lot of business with maduro some of the socialist leaders are in jail because

00:17:41.140 business with maduro and now they are telling my citizenship my country that maduro that trump broke

00:17:49.820 the international law and that's not fair it's one of my the most happiest they in my life we have

00:17:56.640 nine millions of venezolans all over the world most of them are in spain i have venezolan employees i

00:18:03.720 have a lot of friends from venezuela i used to go to venezuela a lot but when i became journalist

00:18:09.780 i started to tell the people that maduro was a dictator and the government of maduro told me hey

00:18:17.240 we don't let you in and they attacked me they pay influencers they pay media in my country to attack

00:18:23.640 me and other colleagues in in the media and it's very important because after maduro after maduro falling

00:18:31.100 we can see other governments in risk today we saw how a trump changed his mind about the president

00:18:41.420 shamebound and trump was with her like talking to her like apparently in a good terms with shamebound

00:18:49.660 in the world cup a like last december in the draw and he said that she was doing a great job but i was

00:18:58.460 talking with other guys in the white house and they were talking to me like a other people in the

00:19:05.740 administration wanted to talk to trump because some drug dealers some cartels were running states were

00:19:15.100 controlling power and shamebound was doing nothing and today trump said like right now mexico is running

00:19:25.180 by cartels and shamebound is not doing nothing and and he said that he's gonna take part in the mexican

00:19:33.820 problem because you have a lot of mexican having a lot of troubles of security a lot of journalists

00:19:39.260 being shot politicians and it's very important and right now you have in south america and spain

00:19:44.940 the governments like argentina like bolivia with a little path like ecuador celebrating the trump

00:19:51.100 movement operation and in the other side the first but you've got let me let me just let me just let

00:19:57.980 let me just lula who president trump's been kind of working with right over the last couple months

00:20:05.100 and bolsonaro uh as you know we're huge supporters of bolsonaro the bolsonaro movement let me just read

00:20:10.780 to the audience lula just put a statement on maduro and i'm quoting here from lula the bombings on

00:20:17.180 venezuelan territory and the capture of its president cross an unacceptable line these acts represent a grave

00:20:24.780 affront to venezuela's sovereignty and yet another extremely dangerous precedent for the entire

00:20:30.700 international community attacking countries in flagrant violation of international law is the

00:20:36.460 first step toward a world of violence chaos and instability where the law of the strongest prevails

00:20:42.620 over multilateralism the condemnation of the use of force is consistent with the position that brazil

00:20:48.860 has always adopted in recent situations in other countries and regions the actions recall the

00:20:54.700 worst moments of interference in the politics of latin america and the caribbean and threatens the

00:21:00.220 preservation of the region as a zone of peace the international community through the united

00:21:05.660 nations organization needs to respond vigorously to this episode brazil condemns these actions and

00:21:12.620 remains available to promote a path of dialogue and cooperation javier for president trump has put out

00:21:20.540 an olive branch to lula and tried to work with him that's a pretty big slap in the face is it not sir

00:21:27.580 of course but lula is with the cartels lula is with the narco state in brazil the cartels controls the

00:21:34.940 country like mexico like other countries that are in the forest sao paulo and lula da silva has to be

00:21:43.740 removed and we have election this year and we have to support the son of bolsonaro because he's gonna

00:21:51.100 take freedom and the and trump is gonna promote the right-wing wave as he did in argentina as he did in

00:21:58.940 honduras but in brazil if you go to rio if you go to sao paulo have a lot of friends from brazil they're

00:22:04.540 having a big problems of security the narcos are on the street in uruguay the lefties are in the power

00:22:12.220 right now and right now uruguay is having a lot of trouble with drugs and trump did the correct

00:22:18.620 operation in two hours you know with a good movement because he's taking care of freedom he's taking care

00:22:26.460 of safety in united states and we are very happy and have some friends like colmo today that they were

00:22:33.980 really accepted like telling me like hey we don't believe in trump he's all the time like telling

00:22:39.900 lies about venezuela he wants to protect the interests of some oil companies and today they

00:22:45.820 call me hey you were right we have to vote trump so this movement with venezuela i think it's a really

00:22:52.220 good movement for freedom and for the interest of america because we have to win the midterms with the

00:22:59.020 hispanic voters because last month with the misinformation of channels like univision

00:23:04.940 or telemundo with the ice operation like telling lies to hispanic community we lost new york we lost

00:23:11.020 miami i think that trump showed today to hispanic community that he's man of god he's a peacemaker for

00:23:19.500 all hispanic community and he wanted to promote all the countries like the freedom in colombia we have to

00:23:26.140 take out petro no from the government we have peru is very important where the socialists want to take

00:23:32.620 the power in in some months and i'm pretty sure that michael rubio that christopher landau that

00:23:40.060 people in the trump administration they want to take freedom to all over the world and it's very

00:23:44.780 important that venezuela regime was financing was supporting with billions of dollars the international

00:23:51.420 terrorism hebola jamás and now we are more free javier we did javier we didn't take out

00:24:02.860 we extracted madura because of an indictment in the southern district of new york to stand uh

00:24:11.260 in in uh in front of justice in a new york city courtroom lower manhattan we didn't get the rest of the

00:24:17.980 bad hombres and he's got some very bad guys you could actually argue a couple of his guys are even

00:24:22.220 worse than maduro we didn't get that but your your anticipation of what's now people are taken to the

00:24:29.740 streets the last shots we saw in support of this given your sense of how deep that regime is and the

00:24:36.540 cubans that are there and hezbollah that's there and the chinese communist party is there and the russians

00:24:41.580 they're there i mean this is kind of like chechnya right or it was like fallucia in second fallucia

00:24:47.900 you've got every bad actor in the world has you has gone to venezuela and kind of had the umbrella

00:24:54.780 of uh of madura to protect him what do you anticipate your your best uh thoughts on what's

00:25:00.700 going to happen from here i think that after venezuela a lot of things are going to change because

00:25:08.140 cuba and venezuela was in the center with china with russia with hamas with hebola in all these

00:25:16.300 areas of evil and right now we have a man of god like trump and i love him because i'm very proud of

00:25:23.660 him because like one week ago i was talking manalago with some of people from his team um i told them hey

00:25:31.180 i have to go to argentina to take my marriage to washington dc uh do i do i have to be like worried

00:25:37.740 about if it's going to be any movement in the in the venezuela operation and they told me we don't

00:25:44.380 think so i think it's going to be like in some months we have to take care of some america first

00:25:51.820 things related with american companies involved we don't want to war we try to make like a deal with

00:25:59.020 peace and suddenly today it was a big present for us like it was a secret operation and it's a secret

00:26:06.620 operation against the but at least the international always of terrorism of anti-semitism of the agenda

00:26:15.980 woke so we have to take care of president trump we have to vote him and we have to explain the hispanic

00:26:22.620 community with most of the people in the hispanic community escape from countries like cuba like

00:26:28.460 venezuela like mexico and in miami they vote for a communist in new york they vote for a communist so we

00:26:36.220 have to make an effort in writing show in real america's voice on espanol every sunday 8 pm just

00:26:42.140 playing the people that trump is the president of law and order is the president of freedom no matter

00:26:48.300 if they gave the the nobel prize or not and right now we have a very beautiful situation in venezuela

00:26:56.460 to have a transitional a government with maricon y machado with el mundo gonzalez you have a very

00:27:02.700 incredible leaders in their position outside the country inside the country you have a lot of

00:27:08.540 people in israel you have a lot of people that have been kidnapped i have friends that they lost their

00:27:14.540 parents they lost their friends they have a lot of money that was stolen by the maduro regime and in

00:27:22.060 spain we have journalists in the left side that receive a lot of money billions of dollars politicians

00:27:31.500 to explain my audience to explain the the spanish citizenship like that the the maduro was in a

00:27:39.900 dictatorship and there is a problem very important right now a maduro a support by billions of dollars

00:27:47.500 fraud elections in a lot of countries so we now we are to be happy because now the election is going

00:27:55.660 to be more clear more transparent javier just hang over a second we're going to get back where you're

00:28:02.300 going to be with us to watch the press conference we're going to cut immediately to the press conference

00:28:07.180 as soon as the commander-in-chief the president united states comes out it's in mar-a-lago it's live

00:28:12.140 chairman of the joint chiefs of staff uh general kane uh is going to be there also secretary war

00:28:18.380 hexath and uh secretary of state marco rubio hopefully going to get a lot of um information

00:28:25.260 about the raid itself and the implications of it uh neil mccabe i think i've got neil mccabe at the

00:28:30.540 white house neil mccabe uh now there's uh social media saying there's going they're trying to uh put

00:28:37.820 together a big protest against this action uh at the white house today neil can you give me an update

00:28:43.820 on that yeah i don't see any protests here steve uh it's a lovely winter day in front of the white

00:28:52.140 house there's just tourists milling about i haven't seen any venezuelan flags no pots and pans no bull

00:28:58.940 horns uh so i guess that social media reach uh wasn't what they hoped it would be because i think

00:29:05.980 everybody's just sort of sleeping in today if there uh if there was any talk of protesting this

00:29:11.660 military police action steve uh neil you've been in the uh in the army reserve navy i think in

00:29:20.060 national guard also just give me your overview i mean a day whatever folks are saying the political

00:29:27.180 implications of this are in fact even nigel farage came out a moment ago about international law

00:29:32.540 uh he did say he thought it put the russians and the chinese communist party on on notice

00:29:37.580 but uh even some of our strongest allies are making observations about president trump's action leaving

00:29:43.820 that aside just the troops themselves an incredible operation and on top of the expeditionary operation

00:29:52.780 we had in july to basically end the 12-day war and end the uh iranians the persians nuclear um you

00:30:01.500 know nuclear program uh today just another one neil mccabe

00:30:08.380 well it's a huge win for the u.s military huge win for the department of war and everything that

00:30:14.060 president trump and secretary hegseth have been trying to do not so much to turn the culture around

00:30:20.540 at the pentagon but to sort of reach out and find those pockets of excellence find those pockets of

00:30:27.020 resistance uh you know the leftists have basically been running the pentagon since since obama the

00:30:33.740 the pentagon really didn't join the first trump administration and and it was it was horrible it

00:30:39.180 was a very horrible thing and now trump and hegseth have got control they're reaching out to those people

00:30:45.740 who never gave up on running the military as a military and really my first thought uh last night

00:30:52.220 as i was you know figuring out what was going on is it sort of balances out the stain of mogadishu

00:30:59.260 and block blackhawk down blackhawk down was supposed to be a quick and dirty strike where they went in

00:31:06.140 they extracted the warlord and then they went home and it turned out to be a horrible disaster and so

00:31:12.700 now we see what happened here that these guys absolutely executed flawlessly it was absolutely flawless and

00:31:20.220 this is a a huge signal to our allies that like hey when you do business with the united states

00:31:27.100 this is what you can expect if you're in trouble and our enemies hey you don't want to do business

00:31:32.380 with the united states this is what you can expect and i think it's also interesting that the justice

00:31:37.420 department is fully integrated into this with the superseding indictment on maduro and his wife

00:31:44.220 i am curious about what happened there was a general uh car uh carvajal who uh his nickname is el polo

00:31:53.100 is he he offered to cooperate with the united states there was sort of different factions inside

00:32:00.620 the justice department in the end it was decided hey we're not going to cooperate with him we're not

00:32:06.380 going to cut him a deal but he was being prosecuted carvajal was being prosecuted by the southern

00:32:11.980 district of new york and so i'm guessing the carvajal probably came to some kind of understanding

00:32:18.620 with the southern district of new york and i imagine he also fed them some intel that was helpful to this

00:32:24.780 operation steve neil hang on neil's outside the uh the white house room come right back to you they

00:32:31.500 have todd woods uh hey todd i want to go back to what neil just said about because you mentioned it

00:32:36.540 briefly but i want to make sure the audience understands this and why it's a new pentagon

00:32:40.460 and new leadership starting at the commander in chief down compare and contrast because you

00:32:45.180 mentioned about the a uh the ac-130 i think air cover that we had here you know gunships but you

00:32:51.980 didn't have in black hawk down explain to the audience what the difference was and how that decision

00:32:56.940 is made so far up the chain of command but can have massive implications for the troops on the ground

00:33:02.700 well the the preferred uh gunship for special operations is the ac-130 it's an attack version

00:33:08.780 of a utility health uh aircraft you know that hauls things around but it's full of guns it's got a

00:33:13.980 howitzer on it you know vulcan cannons all kind of weapons that can be very precise and take out very

00:33:20.620 precise targets because it literally circles overhead with sensors and can pick the targets out and take

00:33:26.860 out individuals as they approach these special operators so that is key to have that

00:33:32.540 kind of support overhead because as i said these helicopters these rotary wing aircraft

00:33:36.540 are extremely vulnerable to you know projectiles coming in like an rpg or any kind of anti-aircraft

00:33:42.460 cannon so uh what clinton did in mogadishu was he said well we that that's too much we don't want

00:33:48.140 the gunships there we'll just let the the soft guys go in and uh do what they need to do and get out

00:33:53.820 without we don't want to make a big splash so no gunships even though nobody would have seen them

00:33:57.980 they operate you know a mile above them uh with in a circle and nobody will will be able to touch

00:34:03.580 them or see them in that in somalia for instance so that decision uh had catastrophic consequences

00:34:09.660 because as i said the the delta guys came in and took out that warlord um very precisely and extracted

00:34:16.780 him but it was the ranger force that was their backup force that was shot down in the first blackhawk

00:34:22.300 and then they came bogged down in the city and they had to go in with you know apcs armored vehicles to

00:34:26.940 try to pull these you know guys out and so that's why it became such a disaster and so yes the decision

00:34:33.260 to not have gunships in blackhawk down uh was catastrophic and uh i'm glad trump just gave them

00:34:40.860 carte blanche whatever you need to get this done and i i did see some cobra gunship fire so that means

00:34:47.580 marines were involved hitting certain targets and i'm sure that an ac-130 was overhead as well but again

00:34:54.300 they're they can only operate in a threat environment where they can't be shot down one

00:34:58.540 was shot down in the gulf war because it stayed too late over the target and during the daytime as

00:35:03.900 dawn broke it was shot down and we lost you know 20 something guys in AFSOC so uh it's it's vulnerable

00:35:10.860 too but it operates in a certain threat environment and night is its friend and the fact that um you know

00:35:17.580 they didn't have any more uh firepower against these helicopter rotary wing assets means that

00:35:23.660 that that threat was taken down so i i appreciate president trump giving them what they needed to get

00:35:28.460 it done two things number one do we have any idea why would why would clinton not allow the gunships i

00:35:35.900 mean it's not like anybody uh it was there some reason specific reason that they said because i remember

00:35:41.100 later they had a board of inquiry on this but nobody was really held accountable why did clinton as

00:35:47.260 commander-in-chief now not allow them to have all the assets that they obviously needed

00:35:53.500 well that he'll have to answer that to the big guy someday but uh you know he i think it was because

00:36:00.060 they didn't want i mean there's a trail with these type of aircraft right they have to be based they have

00:36:04.380 to have people to maintain them uh there's a big uh logistics trail behind them because they're

00:36:08.940 very sophisticated aircraft uh but i i think that trump or clinton just didn't you know didn't want

00:36:15.980 the the press headache of having those aircraft in theater um and you know it's just horrible horrible

00:36:22.300 situation that these guys had to go through because of that um and i i can't answer for bill clinton

00:36:28.300 let me sure let let me let me ask you um i asked captain finnell when we did the the workup

00:36:35.980 for desert one right and i was there for the workup and then we rotated out uh it was every day i mean

00:36:42.460 it was 24 hours a day and then you didn't have the right helicopters it was all kind of mashed up

00:36:46.860 together we didn't have jsoc we hadn't back in 1979 1980 this was all a brave new world for everybody

00:36:54.220 right in fact the the asiatic fleet we didn't have an asiatic fleet anymore we didn't have great charts

00:37:00.300 for the indian ocean the persian gulf it was it was a new territory for the united states uh and even

00:37:06.140 some of our allies uh talk to the audience about just the workup for this the the level of intensity

00:37:13.820 that you have to practice to pull something off so flawlessly as clearly it was pulled off

00:37:20.140 over the last couple hours well you mentioned desert one my squadron commander at the 20th sos was

00:37:26.460 rotor rake up he was the only uh air force pilot on that mission and those marine pilots were

00:37:31.420 fantastic helicopter pilots but they didn't have the training or the equipment to do that mission

00:37:36.300 long range insertion extraction bad weather dust high threat um you know dark um terrain was was

00:37:43.980 challenging in the desert so after that debacle the air force and in the u.s military took the 40

00:37:50.780 something air force helicopters that had long range uh refueling capability from vietnam going in to get

00:37:56.380 pilots and they kind of made them these battle star galactica aircraft called the pueblo and they

00:38:01.580 put uh terrain following radar forward looking infrared satellite comms weapons a thing called

00:38:06.700 gps which we had that no we were the first ones to use it nobody knew about it and made them that

00:38:13.100 aircraft to do that mission so i can tell you that they probably select they put up a mock target

00:38:18.700 somewhere and they probably practiced this over and over and over with live weapons fire you know i

00:38:24.700 remember flying into you know targets that were that were not real but there was rounds coming

00:38:30.300 down from the ac-130 howitzers on top of the target like seconds before we landed with the

00:38:34.460 shooters so it's a highly complicated maneuver and and you have to practice that right you have to get

00:38:40.380 used to the gunfire so it doesn't it doesn't scare you you have to get used to the flashes as

00:38:45.580 you because you're flying on goggles at night you got to realize this is uh on night vision goggles

00:38:50.060 very challenging um you don't have a lot of visibility and when a howitzer round goes off

00:38:54.940 in front of you it can shut down your goggles for a few minutes or a few seconds so it's there's a lot

00:38:59.500 of things you got to get used to and a lot of practice that goes into this and i can tell you they likely

00:39:05.420 uh rehearse this many times on a mock target somewhere

00:39:11.500 todd hang on for a second todd's gonna stick with us through the press briefing as is javier and captain

00:39:16.380 finnell we've got team i want to bring in frank gaffney frank gaffney joins us now uh frank um

00:39:22.780 you know our already lula has come out and condemned this i mean in the most brutal sense

00:39:28.220 possible it's basically gunboat gunboat diplomacy okay here we go we're going to cut tomorrow thank you

00:39:33.500 very much this is big stuff and we appreciate you being here

00:39:38.300 late last night and early today at my direction the united states armed forces conducted an extraordinary

00:39:53.500 military operation in the capital of venezuela overwhelming american military power air land and

00:40:03.340 sea was used to launch a spectacular assault and it was a assault like people have not seen since

00:40:13.100 world war ii it was a force against a heavily fortified military fortress in the heart of caracas

00:40:23.340 to bring outlaw dictator nicolas maduro to justice this was one of the most stunning

00:40:30.380 effective and powerful displays of american military might and competence in american history

00:40:41.420 and if you think about it we've done some other good ones like the attack on soleimani

00:40:51.180 the attack on al baghdadi and the obliteration and decimation of the iran nuclear sites

00:41:01.180 just recently in an operation known as midnight hammer

00:41:08.780 all perfectly executed and done no nation in the world could achieve what america achieved

00:41:16.860 yesterday or frankly in just a short period of time

00:41:22.060 all venezuelan military capacities were rendered powerless as the men and women of our military working

00:41:29.580 with u.s law enforcement successfully captured maduro in the dead of night it was dark the

00:41:40.460 lights of caracas were largely turned off

00:41:45.340 due to a certain expertise that we have it was dark and it was deadly

00:41:52.540 but captured along with his wife

00:41:58.860 celia flores both of whom now face american justice

00:42:05.980 maduro and flores have been indicted in the southern district of new york

00:42:10.460 jay clayton for their campaign of deadly narco terrorism against the united states

00:42:18.300 and its citizens i want to thank the men and women of our military who achieved such an extraordinary

00:42:24.460 success overnight with breathtaking speed power precision and competence you rarely see anything like it you've

00:42:33.420 seen some raids in this country that didn't go so well

00:42:36.940 they were an embarrassment if you look back to afghanistan or if you look back to

00:42:43.180 the jimmy carter days

00:42:45.180 they were different days

00:42:46.220 we're a respected country again like maybe like never before

00:42:51.980 these highly trained warriors operating in collaboration with u.s law enforcement

00:42:57.980 caught them in a very ready position they were waiting for us they knew we had many ships out

00:43:05.100 in the sea just sort of waiting they knew we were coming so they were in a ready what's called a ready

00:43:11.340 position but they were completely overwhelmed and very quickly incapacitated

00:43:20.620 if you would have seen what i saw last night you would have been very impressed i'm not sure that

00:43:24.540 you'll ever get to see it but it was an incredible thing to see not a single american service member was

00:43:31.660 killed and not a single piece of american equipment was lost we had many helicopters many planes many

00:43:39.100 people involved in that fight but think of that not one piece of military equipment was lost not one

00:43:48.700 service member was more importantly killed the united states military is the strongest

00:43:54.460 and most fearsome military on the planet by far with capabilities and skills our enemies can

00:44:02.060 scarcely begin to imagine we have the best equipment anywhere in the world

00:44:06.620 there's no equipment like what we have and you see that even if you just look at the boats you know

00:44:11.740 we've knocked out 97 percent of the drugs coming in by sea 90 each boat kills 25 on average 25 000 people

00:44:22.380 we knocked out 97 percent and those drugs mostly come from a place called venezuela

00:44:29.580 we're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe proper and judicious

00:44:38.300 transition so we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same

00:44:45.980 situation that we had for the last long period of years so we are going to run the country until such

00:44:52.940 time as we can do a safe proper and judicious transition and it has to be judicious because

00:45:01.740 that's what we're all about we want peace liberty and justice for the great people of venezuela

00:45:09.420 and that includes many from venezuela that are now living in the united states

00:45:14.700 and want to go back to their country it's their homeland

00:45:18.540 government we can't take a chance that somebody else takes over venezuela that doesn't have the

00:45:24.780 good of the venezuelan people in mind we've had decades of that we're not going to let that happen

00:45:34.540 we're there now and what people don't understand but they understand as as i say this we're there now

00:45:42.620 but we're going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place so we're going

00:45:50.940 to stay until such time as we're going to run it essentially until such time as a proper transition can

00:45:56.860 take place as everyone knows the oil business in venezuela has been a bust a total bust for a long

00:46:03.980 period of time they were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping

00:46:12.700 and what could have taken place we're going to have our very large united states oil companies the

00:46:21.180 biggest anywhere in the world go in spend billions of dollars fix the badly broken infrastructure the

00:46:29.500 oil infrastructure and start making money for the country and we are ready to stage a second and much

00:46:39.260 larger attack if we need to do so so we were prepared to do a second wave

00:46:48.220 if we needed to do so we actually assumed that a second wave would be necessary but now it's probably

00:46:55.660 not the first wave if you'd like to call it that the first attack was so successful we probably don't

00:47:01.900 have to do a second but we're prepared to do a second wave a much bigger wave actually this was pinpoint

00:47:09.580 but we have a much bigger wave that probably won't have to do this partnership of venezuela with the

00:47:16.620 united states of america a country that everybody wants to be involved with because of what we were able

00:47:24.060 to do and accomplish will make the people of venezuela rich independent and safe and it will also make

00:47:32.540 the many many people from venezuela that are living in the united states extremely happy they suffered

00:47:40.060 they suffered so much was taken from them they're not going to suffer anymore the illegitimate dictator

00:47:47.180 maduro was the kingpin of a vast criminal network responsible for trafficking colossal amounts of

00:47:53.500 deadly and illicit drugs into the united states as alleged in the indictment he personally oversaw the

00:48:01.740 vicious cartel known as cartel de las solas which flooded our nation with lethal poison responsible for

00:48:11.420 the deaths of countless americans the many many americans hundreds of thousands over the years of

00:48:17.900 americans died because of him maduro and his wife will soon face the full might of american justice and stand

00:48:25.740 trial on american soil right now they're on a ship they'll be heading to ultimately new york and then a

00:48:35.020 decision will be made i assume between new york and miami or florida but we have uh

00:48:45.340 people where the overwhelming evidence of their crimes will be presented in a court of law and uh

00:48:53.660 i've seen it i've seen what we have it's uh it's both horrible and breathtaking that something like

00:49:00.620 this could have been allowed to take place for many years after his term as president of venezuela

00:49:07.980 expired maduro remained in power and waged a ceaseless campaign of violence terror and subversion

00:49:16.940 against the united states of america threatening not only our people but the stability of the entire

00:49:22.860 region and you all saw it in addition to trafficking gigantic amounts of illegal drugs

00:49:28.140 that inflicted untold suffering and human destruction all over the country all over

00:49:35.500 in particular the united states maduro sent savage and murderous gangs including the bloodthirsty prison

00:49:42.060 gang trend de aragua to terrorize american communities nationwide and he did indeed they were in colorado they

00:49:50.060 took over apartment complexes they cut the fingers off people if they call police they were brutal

00:49:57.100 but they're not so brutal now and i just have to congratulate our military pete and everybody

00:50:05.340 and our national guard because the job that they've done whether it's in washington dc where we have a

00:50:11.020 totally safe city where it was one of the most unsafe cities anywhere in the world frankly and now we have

00:50:19.180 no crime in washington dc we haven't had a killing we had the terrorist attack a few weeks ago

00:50:27.100 a little bit of a different kind of a threat but we haven't had a killing in a long period of time

00:50:36.220 six seven months we used to have two on average two a week in washington our capital we don't have

00:50:42.620 that anymore the restaurants are opening everyone's happy they're going they're walking their daughters

00:50:48.300 they're walking their children their wives they walk to restaurants restaurants are opening all

00:50:54.220 over washington dc so i want to thank the national guard i want to thank our military and i want to

00:50:59.660 thank law enforcement been amazing and they should do it with more cities we're doing it as you know and

00:51:06.780 we're doing it in memphis tennessee right now and crime is down we just sort of started a few weeks

00:51:12.780 ago but crime is down now 77 percent and uh the governor of louisiana called great person and he

00:51:22.620 wanted us to help him as you know and a certain very nice part of louisiana and we have done that

00:51:31.500 and it's a rough it was a rough rough section and we have climbed down i i understand it's down to almost

00:51:37.900 nothing already after two and a half weeks new orleans it's down to almost nothing and we've only

00:51:44.780 been there for two and a half weeks can't imagine why governors wouldn't want us to help we also helped

00:51:50.620 as you know in chicago then crime went down a little bit there we did a very small help because we had no

00:51:57.020 no uh we had no working ability with the governor the governor was a disaster and the mayor was a disaster

00:52:04.540 but it knocked down crime but we're pulling out of there when when they need us we'll know you'll

00:52:09.900 know you'll be writing about it and likewise los angeles where we saved los angeles early on

00:52:16.620 where the head of the police department made a statement that if the federal government didn't

00:52:22.300 come in we would have lost los angeles that's after long after the fires that's when they had the

00:52:28.060 riots in los angeles we did a great job got no credit for it whatsoever but that's okay it doesn't

00:52:32.300 matter we don't need the credit but we'll be pulling out when they need us they'll call or we'll

00:52:37.420 go back if we have to we'll go back but we did a great job in various cities but the thing the place

00:52:44.700 that we're very proud of is washington dc because it's our nation's capital we took it from being a

00:52:49.820 crime ridden mess to being one of the safest cities in the country but the gangs that they sent raped

00:52:58.060 tortured and murdered american women and children they were in all of the cities i mentioned trend

00:53:04.300 aragua and they were sent by maduro to terrorize our people and now maduro will never again be able

00:53:13.420 to threaten an american citizen or anybody from venezuela there will no longer be threats for years i've

00:53:21.420 highlighted the stories of those innocent american whose lives were so heartlessly robbed by this

00:53:28.620 venezuelan terrorist organization really one of the worst one of the worst they say the worst

00:53:35.260 americans like 12 year old jocelyn nun gary from houston beautiful jocelyn nun gary what happened to her

00:53:42.620 uh they uh as you know they kidnapped assaulted and murdered by trend aragua animals they murdered jocelyn

00:53:55.740 and left her dead under the bridge there was a bridge a bridge that will never be the same to so many

00:54:04.860 people after seeing what happened as i've said many times the maduro regime emptied out their prisons

00:54:10.860 sent their worst and most violent monsters into the united states to steal american lives and they

00:54:18.620 came from mental institutions and insane asylums they came from prisons and jails the reason i say both

00:54:26.380 they sound similar actually prisons a little bit more a little bit more hostile a little bit tougher

00:54:34.300 a mental institution isn't as tough as an insane asylum but we got them both they sent from their

00:54:40.620 mental institutions they sent from their jails prisons they were drug dealers they were drug kingpins

00:54:46.940 they sent everybody bad into the united states but no longer and we have now a border where nobody gets

00:54:54.300 through in addition venezuela unilaterally seized and stole american oil american assets and american

00:55:03.420 platforms platforms costing us billions and billions of dollars they did this a while ago but we never had

00:55:11.180 a president that did anything about it they took all of our property it was our property we built it and

00:55:19.340 we never had a president that decided to do anything about it instead they fought wars that were

00:55:24.140 ten thousand miles away we built venezuela oil industry with american talent drive and skill

00:55:33.500 and the socialist regime stole it from us during those previous administrations and they stole it through

00:55:41.340 force this constituted one of the largest thefts of american property in the history of our country

00:55:47.820 considered the largest theft of property in the history of our country

00:55:51.660 massive oil infrastructure was taken like we were babies so we didn't do anything about it

00:55:56.780 i would have done something about it america will never allow foreign powers to rob our people

00:56:03.180 drive us back into and out of our own hemisphere that's what they did

00:56:10.460 furthermore under the now deposed dictator maduro venezuela was increasingly hosting foreign

00:56:15.820 adversaries in our region and acquiring menacing offensive weapons that could threaten u.s

00:56:22.060 interests and lives and they use those weapons last night they use those weapons last night

00:56:27.500 potentially in league with the cartels operating along our border all of these actions were in gross

00:56:33.580 violation of the core principles of american foreign policy dating back more than two centuries

00:56:39.900 years and uh not anymore all the way back it dated to the monroe doctrines

00:56:49.500 and the monroe doctrine is a big deal but we've superseded it by a lot by a real lot

00:56:57.500 they now call it the donro document i don't know it's uh monroe doctrine we sort of forgot about it it was

00:57:07.420 very important but we forgot about it we don't forget about it anymore under our new national security

00:57:12.780 strategy american dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again won't happen

00:57:19.500 so just in concluding for decades other administrations have neglected or even

00:57:26.140 contributed to these growing security threats in the western hemisphere

00:57:31.420 under the trump administration we are reasserting american power in a very powerful way

00:57:37.980 in our home region and our home region is very different than it was just a short while ago the

00:57:45.100 future will be and we did this in my first term we had great dominance in my first sermon we have far

00:57:52.220 greater dominance right now everyone's coming back to us the future will be determined by the ability to

00:57:59.580 protect commerce and territory and resources that are core to national security these are core to

00:58:07.260 our national security just like tariffs are they've made our country rich

00:58:13.260 rich and they've made our national security strong stronger than ever before but these are the iron laws

00:58:20.940 that have always determined global power and we're going to keep it that way we will secure our borders we

00:58:29.420 will stop the terrorists we will crash the cartels and we will defend our citizens against all threats

00:58:36.860 foreign and domestic other presidents may have lacked the courage or whatever

00:58:42.700 to defend america but i will never allow terrorists and criminals to operate with impunity against the united

00:58:49.820 states this extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten american

00:58:56.780 sovereignty or endanger american lives very importantly the embargo on all venezuelan oil remains in full effect

00:59:05.420 the american armada remains poised in position and the united states retains all military options until united states

00:59:14.860 demands have been fully met and fully satisfied all political and military figures in venezuelans should

00:59:22.860 understand what happened to maduro can happen to them and it will happen to them if they aren't

00:59:29.580 just fair even to their people the dictator and terrorist maduro is finally gone in venezuela

00:59:40.060 people are free they're free again it's been a long time for them but they're free america is a safer nation

00:59:48.460 this morning it's a prouder nation this morning because it didn't allow

00:59:53.820 this horrible person and this country that was doing very bad things to us it didn't allow it to happen

01:00:02.540 and the western hemisphere is right now a much safer place to be so i want to thank everybody for being

01:00:08.300 here uh i want to thank general raisin kane he's fantastic man i've worked with a lot of generals i worked

01:00:16.380 with some i didn't like i worked with some i didn't respect i worked with some they just weren't good

01:00:20.940 but this guy is fantastic i watched last night one of the most precise attacks on sovereignty i mean

01:00:30.540 it was an attack for justice and i'm very proud of him and i'm very proud of our secretary of war

01:00:37.660 pete hegseth who i'm going to ask to say a few words thank you very much

01:00:43.420 can you explain how the u.s will run venezuela

01:00:46.700 well thank you mr president um finally a commander in chief the world respects

01:00:51.900 and the american people deserve and as the president said words can barely capture

01:00:57.020 the bravery and the power and the precision of this historic operation a massive joint military

01:01:02.140 and law enforcement raid flawlessly executed by the greatest americans our country has to offer

01:01:09.900 american warriors are second to none the best in the world and the best of our country

01:01:15.820 what i what all of us witnessed last night was sheer guts and grit gallantry and glory

01:01:23.180 of the american warrior i'm simply humbled by such men such men and i tip my hat to our chairman dan

01:01:30.700 raisin kane and all those americans who stood watch last night our warriors are the elite of america and

01:01:37.580 and again president trump has your back no other country on planet earth and it's not even close

01:01:45.740 could pull this kind of operation off and no other president has ever shown this kind of leadership

01:01:51.180 courage and resolve the most powerful combination the world has ever seen as the president said our

01:01:59.980 adversaries remain on notice america can project our will anywhere anytime the coordination the stealth

01:02:08.700 the lethality the precision the very long arm of american justice all on full display in the middle of the night

01:02:17.340 nicholas maduro had his chance just like iran had their chance

01:02:22.060 his chance until they didn't and until he didn't he effed around and he found out president trump is

01:02:30.860 deadly serious about stopping the flow of gangs and violence to our country deadly serious about

01:02:37.340 getting back the oil that was stolen from us and deadly serious about reestablishing american deterrence

01:02:49.260 and dominance in the western hemisphere this is about the safety security freedom and prosperity

01:02:57.100 of the american people this is america first this is peace through strength and the united states war

01:03:05.980 war department is proud to help deliver it welcome to 2026 and under president trump

01:03:14.460 america is back i'd like to welcome now our chairman chairman raisin kane to give a few

01:03:21.180 more details about the operation mr chairman

01:03:25.740 thank you uh thank you mr secretary thank you uh mr president and good morning last night on the order

01:03:32.220 of the president of the united states and in support of a request from the department of justice as the

01:03:38.060 president said the united states military conducted an apprehension mission in caracas venezuela to

01:03:43.740 bring to justice two indicted persons nicholas and cecila maduro this operation known as operation

01:03:51.100 absolute resolve was discrete precise and conducted during the darkest hours of january 2nd and was in the

01:03:58.620 the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal an operation that frankly only the united states

01:04:05.340 military could undertake what i'd like to do this morning is talk to you through some of the preparation

01:04:10.620 and the details without compromising any of our tactics techniques and procedures there is always a

01:04:18.300 chance that we'll be tasked to do this type of mission again our interagency work began months ago and

01:04:25.260 built on decades of experience of integrating complex air ground space and maritime operations

01:04:32.780 while the past two decades have honed the skills of our special operations forces

01:04:37.820 this particular mission required every component of our joint force with soldiers sailors airmen marines

01:04:46.540 and guardians working in unison with our intelligence agency partners and law enforcement teammates

01:04:52.780 in an unprecedented operation we leveraged our unmatched intelligence capabilities and our years of

01:05:00.380 experience in hunting terrorists and we could not have done this mission without the incredible work

01:05:06.140 by various intelligence agencies including the cia nsa and nga we watched we waited we prepared we

01:05:16.380 remained patient and professional this mission was meticulously planned drawing lessons from decades

01:05:24.460 of missions over the last many years decades of many missions over these last many years

01:05:30.620 this was an audacious operation that only the united states could do it required the utmost of precision

01:05:39.180 and integration within our joint force and the word integration does not explain the sheer complexity of

01:05:47.580 such a mission an extraction so precise it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the western hemisphere

01:05:56.940 in close coordination all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose

01:06:06.460 to get an interdiction force into downtown caracas while maintaining the element of tactical surprise

01:06:14.940 failure of one component of this well-oiled machine would have endangered the entire mission and failure

01:06:22.380 is never an option for america's joint force those in the air over caracas last night were willing to give

01:06:30.620 their lives for those on the ground and in the helicopters let me talk a little bit about the

01:06:36.460 preparation after months of work by our intelligence teammates to find maduro and understand how he moved

01:06:44.940 where he lived where he traveled what he ate what he wore what were his pets in early december our force

01:06:53.820 was set pending a series of aligned events key was choosing the right day to minimize the potential for

01:07:02.700 civilian harm and maximize the element of surprise and minimize the harm to the indicted personnel so as

01:07:10.220 the president said they could be brought to justice and as the president said earlier today weather in venezuela

01:07:18.540 is always a factor this time of the year and over the weeks through christmas and new years the men and

01:07:25.180 women of the united states military sat ready patiently waiting for the right triggers to be met and the

01:07:32.380 president to order us into action last night the weather broke just enough clearing a path that only the most

01:07:40.380 skilled aviators in the world could maneuver through ocean mountain low cloud ceilings but when tasked

01:07:49.500 with a mission this organization does not quit at 10 46 pm eastern time last night the president ordered the

01:07:58.860 united states military to move forward with this mission he said to us and we appreciate it mr president good luck

01:08:06.300 and godspeed and those words were transmitted to the entire joint force over the course of the night

01:08:12.540 aircraft began launching from 20 different bases on land and sea across the western hemisphere

01:08:19.660 in total more than 150 aircraft bombers fighters intelligence reconnaissance surveillance rotary wing

01:08:27.340 were in the air last night thousands and thousands of hours of experience were airborne our youngest crew

01:08:34.620 member was 20 and our oldest crew member was 49 and there's simply no match for american military might

01:08:42.380 as the night began the helicopters took off with the extraction force which included law enforcement

01:08:47.900 officers and began their flight into venezuela at 100 feet above the water as they approach venezuelan

01:08:54.940 shores the united states began layering different effects provided by spacecom cybercom and other members of

01:09:01.500 the interagency to create a pathway overhead those forces were protected from aircraft were protected by

01:09:09.020 aircraft from the united states marines the united states navy the united states air force and the air

01:09:15.180 national guard the force included f-22s f-35s f-18s ea-18s e2s b1 bombers and other support aircraft as well as

01:09:26.860 numerous remotely piloted drones as the force began to approach caracas the joint air component began

01:09:34.860 dismantling and disabling the air defense systems in venezuela employing weapons to ensure the safe passage

01:09:43.980 of the helicopters into the target area the goal of our air component is was and always will be

01:09:52.540 to protect the helicopters and the ground force and get them to the target and get them home as the

01:10:00.220 force crossed the last point of high terrain where they'd been hiding in the clutter we assessed that

01:10:06.860 we had maintained totally the element of surprise as the helicopter force ingressed towards the objective

01:10:14.700 at low level we arrived at maduro's compound at 101 a.m eastern standard time or 201 a.m caracas local time

01:10:25.180 and the apprehension force descended into maduro's compound and moved with speed precision and discipline

01:10:33.020 towards their objective and isolated the area to ensure the safety and security of the ground force

01:10:39.420 while apprehending the indicted persons on arrival into the target area the helicopters came under fire

01:10:46.780 and they replied with that fire with overwhelming force and self-defense one of our aircraft was hit

01:10:52.780 but remained flyable and as the president said earlier today all of our aircraft came home and that

01:10:58.220 aircraft remained flyable during the rest of the mission as the operation unfolded at the compound our air

01:11:04.700 and ground intelligence teams provided real-time updates to the ground force ensuring those forces

01:11:11.020 could safely navigate the complex environment without unnecessary risk the force remained protected by

01:11:18.220 overhead tactical aviation maduro and his wife both indicted gave up and were taken into custody by the

01:11:26.140 department of justice assisted by our incredible u.s military with professionalism and precision

01:11:32.700 which with no loss of u.s life after securing the indicted persons the force began to prep for

01:11:40.460 departure helicopters were called in to exfiltrate the extraction force while fighter aircraft and

01:11:47.340 remotely piloted aircraft provided overhead coverage and suppressive fire there were multiple self-defense

01:11:54.940 engagements as the force began to withdraw out of venezuela the force successfully exfiltrated

01:12:02.780 and returned to their afloat launch bases and the force was over the water at 3 29 a.m eastern standard time

01:12:11.580 with indicted persons on board and both maduro and his wife were embarked aboard the uss uajima

01:12:20.540 in closing what we've witnessed today is a powerful demonstration of america's joint force

01:12:26.860 we think we develop we train we rehearse we debrief we rehearse again and again not to get it right but to

01:12:39.340 ensure that we cannot get it wrong our jobs are to integrate combat power so when the order comes we can

01:12:48.540 deliver overwhelming force at the time and the place of our choosing against any foe anywhere in the world

01:12:58.460 i am immensely proud today of our joint force and filled with gratitude to represent them here today

01:13:06.460 there is simply no mission too difficult for these incredible professionals and the families that stand

01:13:13.340 by them and support them as we stand here this morning our forces remain in the region at a high

01:13:20.700 state of readiness prepared to project power defend themselves and our interests in the region

01:13:28.940 this operation is a testament to the dedication and unwavering commitment to justice and our resolve to

01:13:36.540 hold accountable those who threaten peace and stability in closing i want to express my heartfelt gratitude

01:13:45.500 to the brave men and women who executed this mission their courage and tireless commitment to our nation

01:13:52.700 are what makes us strong thank you mr secretary and thank you mr president

01:14:00.380 well i don't have much to add to what you've heard now other than the following points

01:14:04.060 nicolas maduro was indicted in 2020 in the united states he is not the legitimate president of venezuela

01:14:10.460 that's not just us saying it the first trump administration the biden administration the

01:14:14.700 second trump administration none of those three recognize them he's not recognized by the european

01:14:18.860 union in multiple countries around the world he is a fugitive of american justice with a 50 million

01:14:23.820 dollar reward uh which i guess we save 50 million dollars and uh sure yeah exactly but don't let

01:14:30.860 anybody claim it nobody deserves it but i want to be clear about one thing nicolas maduro had

01:14:37.340 multiple opportunities to avoid this he was provided multiple very very very generous offers and chose

01:14:44.140 instead to act like a wild man chose instead to play around and the result is what we saw tonight uh

01:14:49.900 the other message here is the following you have a guy like many people around the world they like

01:14:53.980 to play games you have a guy who decides he's going to invite iran into his country is going to

01:14:58.860 you know do the confiscation of american oil companies is going to flood our country with

01:15:02.860 gang members is is going to take americans prisoner and try to hold them for hostage and trade him like

01:15:08.620 he was able to do with the biden administration basically likes to play games all this time and

01:15:12.700 thinks nothing's going to happen and i hope what people now understand is that we have a president the

01:15:17.500 47th president united states is not a game player when he tells you that he's going to do something when

01:15:22.540 he's good tells you he's going to address a problem he means it he actions it i i can tell you i've watched

01:15:28.140 this process now for 14 15 years been around it everybody talks i'm going to do this i'm going

01:15:31.980 to do that when i get there we're going to do this we're going to take this is a president of action

01:15:35.900 like i don't understand yet how they haven't figured this out and now if you don't know now you know

01:15:41.340 because this is the way it's going to play out and i think people need to understand that this is not

01:15:44.780 a president that just talks and does letters and press conferences and you know if he says he's serious

01:15:49.740 about something he means it and and this is something that was a direct threat to the national interest

01:15:54.300 to the united states and the president addressed it there's a president of peace by the way i told

01:15:58.380 you what i just said earlier this guy had multiple opportunities to find his way somewhere else and

01:16:03.420 figure out another he could have been living somewhere else right now very happy but instead

01:16:06.780 he wanted to play big boy and so now you know he's got other sets of problems on his hands and uh but

01:16:12.140 i think that the message here should be for the world look the president doesn't go out looking

01:16:16.220 for people to pick fights with he's not generally wants to get along with everybody

01:16:19.740 we'll talk and meet with anybody but don't play games don't play games with this president's in

01:16:25.420 office because it's not going to turn out well and so i hope that uh you know um you know i guess

01:16:31.500 uh that lesson was learned last night and um and we hope it'll be instructive moving forward

01:16:36.380 is that the message for cuba mr president mr president mr president mr president you said that the

01:16:44.700 us is going to run venezuela so who's in power right now well we're going to be running it with

01:16:49.580 a group and we're going to make sure it's run properly we're going to rebuild the oil infrastructure

01:16:54.220 which will cost billions of dollars it'll be paid for by the oil companies directly

01:16:59.820 they will be reimbursed for what they're doing but that's going to be paid and we're going to

01:17:06.140 get the oil flowing the way it should be as you know it was just a minor flow it was actually a

01:17:10.220 minor flow for what they have but we're going to run it properly and we're going to make sure the

01:17:14.220 people of venezuela are taken care of we're going to make sure the people that were forced out of

01:17:18.460 venezuela by this thug are also taken care of

01:17:26.060 president does the u.s running the country mean that u.s troops will be on the ground how will that

01:17:30.780 work well you know they always say boots on the ground oh so we're not afraid of boots on the

01:17:35.340 ground if we have to have we had boots on the ground last night at a very high level actually

01:17:40.620 we're not afraid of it we're we don't mind saying it but we're going to make sure that that country is

01:17:45.740 run properly we're not doing this in vain this is not this is a very dangerous attack this is an

01:17:50.460 attack that could have gone very very badly could have gone very badly we could have lost a lot of

01:17:55.580 people last night we could have lost a lot of uh dignity we could have lost a lot of equipment the

01:18:00.940 equipment is less important but uh we could have lost a lot and we're going to make sure that this is

01:18:06.780 proper we're there now we're ready to go again if we have to we're going to run the country right it's

01:18:13.420 going to be run very uh judiciously very fairly it's going to make a lot of money we're going to

01:18:19.900 give money to the people we're going to reimburse uh people that we're taking advantage of we're going to

01:18:26.060 take care of everybody it's very important we couldn't let them get away with it you know they stole

01:18:31.340 our oil we we built that whole industry there and they just took it over like we were nothing and

01:18:37.820 we had a president that decided not to do anything about it so uh we did something about it we're late

01:18:44.060 but we did something about it yeah please explaining the exact mechanism by which you're going to run the

01:18:49.500 country are you going to designate it yes yes it's all being it's all being done right now we're

01:18:54.620 designating people we're talking to people we're designating uh various people and we're going to let

01:18:59.260 you know who those people are that would run venezuela it's largely going to be for a period of time

01:19:06.860 the people that are standing right behind me we're going to be running it we're going to be bringing

01:19:11.500 it back it's a it's a dead you know i talk about a dead country a year and a half ago we were a dead

01:19:16.380 country now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world we're a country doing better than any

01:19:21.980 country anywhere in the world and it required leadership venezuela has a lot of bad people in

01:19:29.100 there a lot of bad people that shouldn't be leading we're not going to take a chance at one of those

01:19:33.260 people take over for maduro so uh you can look at and and others we have fantastic people including

01:19:40.540 people in the military so we're going to have a group of people running it until such time as it can be

01:19:45.900 put back on track make a lot of money for the people and give people a great way of life and also

01:19:51.580 reimbursement for people in our country that were forced out of venezuela

01:19:59.020 you said earlier today that you weren't going to back machado to come back and be the opposition

01:20:02.940 later in your fox and friends interview and then you also mentioned the vice president of venezuela

01:20:07.580 are you going to work with vice president of venezuela or how do you foresee the relationship

01:20:11.020 i understand she was just sworn in but she was as you know picked by maduro so marco's working on that

01:20:17.500 directly he's just had a conversation with her and she's essentially willing to do what we think

01:20:23.740 is necessary to make venezuela great again very simple mr president uh so colombian president gustavo

01:20:31.340 petro uh you know a couple weeks ago you said he's got to watch his ass um and today he said he's not

01:20:36.700 concerned about anything happening to him in the aftermath of this operation so uh just what your message

01:20:40.860 just well he has cocaine mills he has uh factories where he makes cocaine and yeah i think i stick

01:20:47.340 by my first statement he's making cocaine they're sending it into the united states so he does have

01:20:53.020 to watch his ass did you notify any members of congress in advance marco do you want to talk about

01:21:00.220 that because you were involved sure we call members of congress immediately after this was not the kind

01:21:04.380 of mission that you can do congressional notification on it was a trigger-based mission in which conditions

01:21:09.340 had to be met night after night we watched and monitored that for a number of days so it's just

01:21:13.420 simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say hey we may do this at some point in the next

01:21:17.260 15 days but it's largely a law enforcement function remember at the end of day at its core this was an

01:21:22.540 arrest of two indicted fugitives of american justice and the department of war supported the department

01:21:28.460 of justice in that job now there are broader policy implications here but it's just not the kind

01:21:32.620 of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission

01:21:35.500 plus if i could add one thing to that congress has a tendency to leak this would not be good

01:21:44.700 if they leaked general i think it would have been maybe a very different result

01:21:48.940 but i i have to say they knew we were coming at some point you know a lot of ships out there they

01:21:53.660 sort of knew we were coming we weren't but but congress congress will leak and we don't want leakers

01:21:59.500 you were one of the only people to watch this all play out live what was maduro doing

01:22:06.540 when the u.s forces entered what i assume would be his home and also was there any point where

01:22:11.020 the u.s was considering if maduro pushed back or resisted killing maduro we could have happened

01:22:17.100 it could have happened he was trying to get into a safe place you know the safe places all steel and he

01:22:22.940 wasn't able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast they went through the opposition

01:22:28.700 so fast and there was a lot of opposition you know people were wondering do we get him by surprise sort

01:22:33.740 of surprised but they were waiting for something it was a lot of opposition there was a lot of gunfire

01:22:39.260 you saw some of it today uh but he was trying to get to a safe place which wasn't safe because we would

01:22:45.980 have had the door blown up in about 47 i think 47 seconds they say on average regardless of how

01:22:53.340 thick the seal was it it was a very thick door it was a very heavy door but he was unable to get

01:22:58.860 to that door he made it to the door he was unable to close it

01:23:05.500 where is maduro going to be in the time being right now do you know his exact well eventually

01:23:09.740 ultimately in the near future he's going to be brought to new york and where is he going to be

01:23:13.900 where's he going to be held in new york that's going to be up to the officials that do these

01:23:17.900 things mr president mr president mr president the u.s has something of a mixed track record of ousting

01:23:23.420 dictators without necessarily a plan for what comes afterwards did that weigh on your decision

01:23:27.980 that's why we had different presidents but with me that's not true with me we've had a perfect track

01:23:33.100 record of uh winning we win a lot and we win if you look at suleimani you look at al-bagdadi you look at

01:23:40.540 the midnight hammer midnight hammer was incredible right now you you wouldn't have peace in the middle

01:23:46.700 east we have essentially peace in the middle east because of that if you didn't if we weren't

01:23:51.340 successful with midnight hammer you wouldn't have peace in the middle east so uh with me you've had

01:23:57.500 a lot of a lot of victory you've had only victories you've had no losses yeah can you uh how long do you

01:24:03.580 expect the u.s to run venezuela and how soon do you want venezuelan people to hold a life so i'd like

01:24:09.020 to do it quickly but it takes a period of time you know we're rebuilding we have to rebuild their

01:24:13.500 whole infrastructure the infrastructure is rotted it's actually very dangerous it's a you know blow

01:24:18.940 up territory oil is very dangerous it's a very dangerous thing to take out of the ground uh can kill

01:24:25.340 a lot of people it has killed a lot of people doing just that the infrastructure is old it's rotted much

01:24:32.300 of it is stuff that we put there 25 years ago and we're going to be replacing it and we're going

01:24:38.140 to take a lot of money out so that we can take care of the country mr president china russia and iran

01:24:47.980 have interests in venezuela how does this operation affect your relationships with them when it comes to

01:24:53.180 terms of china and russia uh well russia when we get things straightened out but in terms of other

01:25:00.780 countries that want oil we're in the oil business we're going to sell it to them we're not going to

01:25:05.260 say we're not going to go in other words we'll be selling oil uh probably in much larger doses because

01:25:11.180 they couldn't produce very much because their infrastructure was so bad so we'll be selling

01:25:15.100 large amounts of oil to other countries many of whom are using it now but i would say many more will come

01:25:21.580 one of them are you saying that mr president are you saying that mr president are you saying that

01:25:28.300 mr president thank you what is your message to the people of venezuela today of course

01:25:32.860 the civilian population specifically they have a lot of questions what is your message to the people

01:25:37.260 of venezuela you're going to have peace justice you're going to have uh some of the riches that you

01:25:42.940 should have had for a long period of time it was stolen from you but you're going to have peace and

01:25:47.340 you're going to have safety you're going to have justice you're going to have a country you're

01:25:50.300 You're going to have a real country.

01:25:51.320 You're going to have potentially a great country.

01:25:53.100 You know, if you go back 20 years, maybe even a little longer ago, that was a great country.

01:25:57.880 And they destroyed it.

01:25:59.480 Remember I said that if we lose this election, the United States will be Venezuela on steroids.

01:26:06.700 That's what would have happened had we lost the election, the 2024 election.

01:26:11.500 We suffered so badly.

01:26:13.280 When you look at the border from 2020, what they did, what Joe Biden administration did

01:26:18.840 to our country should never be forgotten.

01:26:21.680 But if we had to go through another year of that, we wouldn't have.

01:26:24.420 We would be exactly where Venezuela was in terms.

01:26:28.280 I used to say if they win, we're going to be Venezuela on steroids.

01:26:32.360 And that's what would have happened.

01:26:34.340 President, thank you.

01:26:35.280 Are you saying that Secretary Hegseth and Rubio are going to be running Venezuela?

01:26:38.860 And will you be sending in U.S. military troops to provide?

01:26:41.920 There's going to be a team that's working with the people of Venezuela to make sure that we have Venezuela right.

01:26:46.560 Because for us to just leave, who's going to take over?

01:26:49.880 I mean, there is nobody to take over.

01:26:52.140 You have a vice president who's been appointed by Maduro.

01:26:55.920 And right now she's the vice president.

01:26:57.980 And she's, I guess, the president.

01:26:59.420 She was sworn as president just a little while ago.

01:27:02.140 She had a long conversation with Marco.

01:27:03.960 And she said, we'll do whatever you need.

01:27:08.280 I think she was quite gracious.

01:27:10.260 But she really doesn't have a choice.

01:27:13.100 We're going to have this done right.

01:27:14.440 We're not going to just do this with Maduro, then leave like everybody else.

01:27:17.920 Leave and say, you know, let it go to hell.

01:27:20.360 If we just left, it has zero chance of ever coming back.

01:27:24.560 We'll run it properly.

01:27:25.960 We'll run it professionally.

01:27:27.140 We'll have the greatest oil companies in the world going and invest billions and billions of dollars and take out money.

01:27:32.960 Use that money in Venezuela.

01:27:35.500 And the biggest beneficiary are going to be the people of Venezuela.

01:27:38.500 And also, I can't stress this strongly enough, the people that got thrown out of Venezuela that are now in the United States.

01:27:46.280 And frankly, some want to stay and some probably want to go back.

01:27:49.100 Yeah.

01:27:50.580 What's being done to protect Americans in the country?

01:27:54.040 And were any of the detained Americans?

01:27:55.460 Well, right now they're very protected because nobody's going to mess with us.

01:27:58.840 They're very protected.

01:27:59.780 The people of them.

01:28:00.480 And we let them know that you better not touch one of them.

01:28:03.420 Are you concerned that bad elements of the Maduro regime will remain in place?

01:28:09.400 Well, we know who they are.

01:28:11.440 We're on them.

01:28:12.640 And they're acting much differently now than they would have acted two days ago.

01:28:17.140 Okay, wait.

01:28:18.000 Behind you, please.

01:28:18.740 Mr. President, why is running a country in South America America first?

01:28:23.000 Well, I think it is because we want to surround ourselves with good neighbors.

01:28:26.540 We want to surround ourselves with stability.

01:28:29.560 We want to surround ourselves with energy.

01:28:31.900 We have tremendous energy in that country.

01:28:34.060 It's very important that we protect it.

01:28:35.760 We need that for ourselves.

01:28:37.120 We need that for the world.

01:28:38.620 And we want to make sure we can protect it.

01:28:41.400 Yes, sir.

01:28:42.020 Please.

01:28:42.500 Go ahead.

01:28:43.080 Is there a message here for Cuba and Diazcanal?

01:28:45.540 Well, Cuba is an interesting case.

01:28:47.380 Cuba is, you know, not doing very well right now.

01:28:50.640 That system has not been a very good one for Cuba.

01:28:53.320 The people there have suffered for many, many years.

01:28:55.280 And I think Cuba is going to be something we'll end up talking about because Cuba is a failing

01:29:01.220 nation right now, very badly failing nation.

01:29:04.200 And we want to help the people.

01:29:05.740 It's very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also

01:29:10.120 help the people that were forced out of Cuba and living in this country.

01:29:13.840 Do you want to say something about that, Marco, please?

01:29:15.860 Well, I mean, I just gave you a statement a few minutes ago about, you know, when the

01:29:20.540 president speaks, you should take him seriously.

01:29:22.440 Suffice it to say, you know, Cuba is a disaster.

01:29:24.700 It's run by incompetent, senile men and in some cases not senile but incompetent nonetheless.

01:29:32.240 It has no economy.

01:29:33.160 It's in total collapse.

01:29:34.020 And by the way, you know, they were, you know, all of the guards that helped protect

01:29:38.640 Maduro, this is well known, their whole spy agency, all that were full of Cubans.

01:29:42.260 I mean, they basically, it's amazing.

01:29:43.400 This poor island took over Venezuela in some cases.

01:29:47.380 One of the biggest problems that Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence

01:29:49.980 from Cuba.

01:29:50.600 They tried to basically colonize it from a security standpoint.

01:29:53.140 So, yeah, look, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I'd be concerned at

01:29:56.700 least a little bit.

01:29:57.380 Do you not think oil flowed out of Cuba from Venezuela?

01:30:00.360 Well, the president already announced a week ago that anything that's sanctioned, it's

01:30:04.020 sanctioned oil, it's not going to be allowed to get there.

01:30:06.720 So that's an existing...

01:30:08.320 Mr. President, the answer is yes.

01:30:13.400 Mr. President, is the U.S. aware of the location of opposition leader Machado, and

01:30:18.320 have you been in contact with her?

01:30:19.860 No.

01:30:20.420 We haven't.

01:30:21.200 We haven't.

01:30:22.160 Mr. President, on Monday...

01:30:27.720 Oh, I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader.

01:30:29.780 She doesn't have the support within, or the respect within the country.

01:30:33.260 She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect to be the leader.

01:30:35.720 Mr. President, is it possible that the U.S. ends up administrating Venezuela for years,

01:30:40.140 you know, in a situation...

01:30:40.640 Well, you know, it won't cost us anything, because the money coming out of the ground

01:30:45.460 is very substantial, so it's not going to cost us anything.

01:30:48.300 We will...

01:30:49.260 Well, we want safety there.

01:30:51.100 We want to be surrounded by countries that aren't housing all of our enemies all over the

01:30:56.060 world.

01:30:56.500 That's what was happening, and you don't want to have that.

01:30:59.760 But we're going to be rebuilding, and we're not spending money.

01:31:04.840 The oil companies are going to go in.

01:31:06.240 They're going to spend money.

01:31:07.460 We're going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago.

01:31:12.000 A lot of money is coming out of the ground.

01:31:14.160 We're going to get reimbursed for all of that.

01:31:15.880 We're going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend.

01:31:18.600 So it's going to be...

01:31:19.700 It's going to be a very important...

01:31:22.360 It's going to be a very important...

01:31:23.640 This is a very big evening that took place last night.

01:31:26.560 We have to be surrounded by safe, secure countries.

01:31:31.180 And we also have to have energy.

01:31:33.560 Very important.

01:31:34.640 We have to have energy that's real energy, not where they're getting 4% and 5% of the

01:31:39.540 energy out of the ground.

01:31:40.880 You take a look.

01:31:41.600 It was such a disaster.

01:31:42.880 So what's going to happen with Venezuela, I think, over the next period of a year is

01:31:47.980 going to be a great thing.

01:31:48.980 And the people of Venezuela will be the biggest beneficiaries.

01:31:51.560 Mr. President, thank you.

01:31:57.720 What did you last speak to Maduro about when you spoke?

01:32:00.740 And is the U.S. that war with Venezuela?

01:32:01.320 Well, I don't want to get into the conversations, but I did have conversations with him.

01:32:04.820 And I said, you've got to surrender.

01:32:10.180 And I actually thought he was pretty close to doing so, but now he wished he did.

01:32:15.280 You said that Maduro is responsible for drug trafficking.

01:32:20.760 You recently pardoned the former president of Honduras who was convicted of many drug

01:32:25.220 trafficking.

01:32:25.880 Can you explain how these two situations are different?

01:32:27.280 And would you ever pardon Maduro?

01:32:29.100 I endorsed, as you know, the winning president, the man who won in Honduras.

01:32:33.380 I endorsed the man who won in Chile.

01:32:36.340 I endorsed the man who won in Argentina.

01:32:39.000 And we are doing very well with that whole group.

01:32:42.000 The man that I pardoned was, if you could equate it to us, he was treated like the Biden

01:32:48.100 administration treated a man named Trump.

01:32:50.480 That didn't work out too well for them.

01:32:52.480 This was a man who was persecuted very unfairly.

01:32:55.820 He was the head of the country.

01:32:57.240 He was persecuted very unfairly.

01:32:59.020 And there are a number of them.

01:33:00.980 And we felt that it was a very unfair situation that happened to him.

01:33:04.780 He's also a party member of the man who won.

01:33:07.680 So obviously the people liked what I did.

01:33:10.320 And one of the reasons that was done is because of the fact that the party in power felt very

01:33:16.320 strongly that that man was treated very badly.

01:33:18.760 I studied it very quickly.

01:33:20.400 And then I studied it in great detail.

01:33:22.760 I went to a lot of the people standing behind me and they felt that that man was persecuted

01:33:27.480 and treated very badly.

01:33:28.960 That's why I gave him a pardon.

01:33:29.900 You referenced boots on the ground earlier.

01:33:34.060 Can you just sort of button this up?

01:33:35.400 Do you envision the U.S. military having a presence in Venezuela as the U.S. runs that country?

01:33:40.460 Well, no, we're going to have a presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil because we have to have.

01:33:45.500 We're sending our expertise in.

01:33:48.480 So you may need something.

01:33:49.960 Not very much.

01:33:50.640 But no, we're going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground.

01:33:55.640 And that wealth is going to the people of Venezuela and people from outside of Venezuela that used to be in Venezuela.

01:34:02.000 And it goes also to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused us by that country.

01:34:09.460 So I want to thank you all very much.

01:34:11.200 Thank you.

01:34:11.600 Do you have one?

01:34:12.160 Yes, please.

01:34:13.320 You were so nice before.

01:34:14.620 I'm going to give you the final question.

01:34:16.100 Thank you, Mr. President.

01:34:16.680 Unless it's a bad question, in which case I'll go one word.

01:34:19.940 It's about who?

01:34:20.260 It's about Putin, if you want to.

01:34:21.420 About Putin.

01:34:22.100 It's always nice to talk about Putin.

01:34:24.680 You had a phone call with him on Monday.

01:34:26.720 Did he talk at all about Maduro?

01:34:28.700 Did you all talk about this?

01:34:29.660 No, we didn't.

01:34:30.100 We never spoke about Maduro.

01:34:31.400 Are you mad at him right now?

01:34:32.620 I mean, there's this intelligence.

01:34:33.520 I'm not thrilled with Putin.

01:34:34.780 I'm not thrilled with Putin.

01:34:37.260 He's killing too many people.

01:34:38.980 I thought that would be so.

01:34:42.080 I settled eight and one quarter war.

01:34:44.940 You know what the one quarter was?

01:34:46.640 Thailand and Cambodia.

01:34:48.780 I did it again.

01:34:49.680 They were, they broke out.

01:34:51.860 And I did it in about five hours.

01:34:55.140 And I settled it.

01:34:56.220 I'm giving myself one quarter.

01:34:57.700 So I'm up to now eight and one quarter.

01:34:59.720 In other words, I settled the war, but then they broke out.

01:35:01.960 They had a pretty bad breakout over the last four days.

01:35:05.060 I got them to go back to peace.

01:35:07.820 So I only give one quarter.

01:35:09.300 I thought the easiest one would be, one of the easier ones would be Russia, Ukraine.

01:35:14.740 It's not.

01:35:15.680 And they both have done some pretty bad things.

01:35:19.320 And look, that's Biden's war.

01:35:22.020 That's not my war.

01:35:23.080 But I want to stop the lives.

01:35:24.640 Did you see where last month, 30,000, this last, it was 27, 27,000 the month before.

01:35:32.700 30,000, mostly soldiers, were killed this last month.

01:35:38.620 30,000.

01:35:39.380 And I want to stop that.

01:35:41.160 You know, I got NATO to pay 5% instead of the 2% that they weren't paying.

01:35:47.140 They weren't paying two.

01:35:48.100 Now they pay five.

01:35:49.740 And we send them a lot of munitions.

01:35:51.800 We send them a lot of things, missiles and various other things.

01:35:54.560 A lot.

01:35:55.600 And they pay.

01:35:56.380 The United States is not losing money.

01:35:58.740 We're probably making money on that.

01:36:00.400 It's the last thing I care about.

01:36:02.040 I just want to stop all those people.

01:36:03.880 We're losing 25,000, 30,000 human beings that come from two places that are very far away.

01:36:10.420 But if I can stop, because it's something I've been pretty good at doing, deals, I guess.

01:36:16.020 It's all a deal.

01:36:17.160 Life is a big deal.

01:36:18.720 But if I can stop that war and stop 30,000 young people, in addition to the fact that people

01:36:24.880 are being killed in Kiev, people are being killed in other cities throughout, you know,

01:36:28.260 a much smaller number, but they're being killed, viciously killed.

01:36:32.480 So I'm not happy about it.

01:36:34.060 I thought that would be something that would get solved.

01:36:36.840 We have Mr. Whitcoff here.

01:36:38.080 I think that we're making progress.

01:36:39.920 But that's a war that should have never happened.

01:36:42.880 If I were president, it would have never happened.

01:36:45.360 Putin says it.

01:36:46.220 Everybody says it.

01:36:47.380 If I were president, that would have never happened.

01:36:49.820 But I inherited that war.

01:36:51.600 That was Joe Biden, Zelensky, and Putin.

01:36:55.080 And I came into the situation, and it's a mess.

01:36:59.020 And I will say this.

01:37:00.380 I watched an operation last night that was so precise, that was so brilliant.

01:37:05.280 I mean, it was incredible.

01:37:07.380 If we had our people, like this general and our people involved, that war would not have

01:37:14.260 gone on very long, that I can tell you.

01:37:15.960 That war, to use an old term, that war has become a bloodbath.

01:37:23.080 And we want it to get stopped.

01:37:24.420 Thank you very much.

01:37:25.380 Thank you, Mr. President.

01:37:55.380 of somehow, but no commitment of American boots on the ground.

01:37:59.460 Let's go.

01:37:59.820 I want to go to the military part of this first.

01:38:01.880 Todd Woods, what did you hear from General Cain about the operation itself?

01:38:08.340 Well, you know, I mentioned there were hundreds of aircraft.

01:38:11.460 He said there were over 150, which kind of matches.

01:38:15.400 He also said there were, the president said there were a lot of troops on the ground.

01:38:19.780 I'm probably 300 to 500 soldiers, and that means a lot of airlift to get these guys in

01:38:25.020 there.

01:38:25.280 There were Chinooks, which can carry, you know, 40 fully loaded guys approximately.

01:38:30.400 And the other thing that interested me was the aircraft that got shot up on the way in.

01:38:35.960 And it kept flying.

01:38:37.160 You know, we used to practice, if you get the golden BB through your dash and your electronics

01:38:42.540 go out or whatever, you just slide, especially if you're in the flight lead, you slide back

01:38:46.140 and you follow the rest of the flight.

01:38:48.020 And that's literally, I think, what happened.

01:38:50.740 In a helicopter, you're worried about the transmission, the hydraulics, the rotors.

01:38:54.640 As long as those are functional, you can keep flying, but you may not know where you're

01:38:57.880 going.

01:38:58.220 So you have to follow somebody else, especially if they hit the navigation equipment and the

01:39:01.720 comms equipment.

01:39:02.280 So that's what I took that, you know, obviously one of the helicopters took fire.

01:39:07.040 I imagine, I read somewhere that there were a couple injuries, probably, you know, guys

01:39:12.180 take rounds through legs, through arms or whatever, even with the armored plating that they have

01:39:17.920 on these aircraft.

01:39:18.740 But that's what I took out of it, Steve.

01:39:24.380 What about the actual extraction himself?

01:39:28.120 It sounded like Maduro Security Forces.

01:39:30.680 I mean, were, had they flipped or didn't sound like a big, they said we knew exactly where

01:39:37.120 he was, exactly what his habits were.

01:39:39.300 It was two o'clock in the morning, 2 a.m., but it didn't sound like his internal security

01:39:44.420 forces around him were either on, were either on the job or were looking the other way because

01:39:50.680 there wasn't a number of casualties.

01:39:53.760 Well, Trump said there was a lot of gunfire.

01:39:55.580 So I took that to mean that, well, first of all, he said that some of their military was

01:40:00.940 helping us.

01:40:01.520 So I think we had people inside that were feeding intelligence and likely backed away when the

01:40:07.240 force arrived.

01:40:08.160 But he said there was a lot of gunfire.

01:40:10.300 So that means there was some opposition.

01:40:12.620 And he said a lot of opposition once they got inside the target area, inside the hit.

01:40:17.360 So, you know, there's likely a lot of casualties on their side.

01:40:22.460 These guys are, the shooters that, you know, tier one shooters are, they can shoot with their

01:40:28.140 eyes closed and take out targets.

01:40:29.680 I mean, they're just extremely good, extremely accurate, extremely efficient on rounds used.

01:40:35.100 And so I think these guys probably didn't know what hit them.

01:40:38.620 They moved like a knife through butter, direct to Maduro and got him before he got in the safe

01:40:44.160 room.

01:40:44.900 That's what I took out of that.

01:40:46.180 OK, hang over a second, Todd.

01:40:49.840 We have Mike Davis by phone.

01:40:51.620 Mike, I don't know if you saw.

01:40:53.240 Did you get a chance to actually see the press conference or hear it?

01:40:56.440 I did.

01:40:57.280 I did, yes.

01:40:59.040 So, Mike, so we have the indictment.

01:41:01.560 We have the extraction of Maduro and his wife to stand, you know, to face justice in the United

01:41:07.460 States.

01:41:08.240 But President Trump then said, kind of dropped a bombshell that we're going to remain.

01:41:12.100 There may be boots on the ground and we're going to, we're going to, quote unquote,

01:41:14.860 and these are his words.

01:41:16.520 We're going to run Venezuela until we can do a safe transition for those folks.

01:41:22.860 Can you help me think that through?

01:41:25.360 Because as you can imagine, there are a number of MAGA people that are going, what's going

01:41:28.960 on here?

01:41:29.340 Well, I remember, since President Obama let Chavez and Maduro destroy Venezuela, we've

01:41:39.100 had 8 million Venezuelan refugees around the world.

01:41:43.620 And Venezuela was not sending their best to America.

01:41:48.060 They were sending Trande Aragua terrorists to America.

01:41:52.300 They were sending their drug dealers, the fentanyl that was killing hundreds of thousands

01:41:57.060 of Americans.

01:41:58.320 And so I think the president's right.

01:42:00.540 You have to stabilize the country.

01:42:02.840 We had a lot of money, American money spent in Venezuela to build the oil infrastructure.

01:42:10.860 And Chavez and Maduro just took that from us.

01:42:14.460 And so I think it's very responsible for the president to say that we're going to keep

01:42:23.160 the country stabilized until the Venezuelans can figure out who they want as their next

01:42:28.600 leader.

01:42:29.140 And we're not going to let another Marxist take over the country that's going to threaten

01:42:36.220 the United States again and kill Americans with their fentanyl.

01:42:39.460 In that, up front, he says, hey, we didn't brief Congress.

01:42:46.320 I didn't want leaks.

01:42:47.140 In fact, my understanding is that only certain members of the administration knew this.

01:42:51.400 This is a very close-run thing, as the British say.

01:42:56.020 He's already being hit by Lavrov.

01:42:58.740 Even our ally, Nigel Farage, said this was counter to international law.

01:43:04.560 How do you walk through this stabilization?

01:43:08.040 We're going to, quote unquote, run the country until it's stabilized, given the fact that we

01:43:12.100 predicated this on extracting a bad guy, not the people around him, to go face an execution

01:43:20.760 of an indictment from the Southern District of New York?

01:43:24.580 Well, it's similar to what we did in Panama.

01:43:26.420 I mean, when you indict the leader of a country and arrest him, you have to have a plan in

01:43:33.840 place to run the country until they can come up with their next leader.

01:43:38.780 I mean, that just makes sense.

01:43:40.260 We're not going to just let Venezuela go into total chaos because we indicted and arrested

01:43:46.880 the leader of Venezuela.

01:43:49.560 And I would say this, the president has a great deal of power as the commander-in-chief

01:43:55.960 under Article 2.

01:43:56.960 He has a great deal of power as the chief magistrate to execute the laws.

01:44:01.580 He was executing an arrest warrant issued by a federal judge in the Southern District of

01:44:07.800 New York after a grand jury, a federal grand jury, indicted Maduro and his wife on these very

01:44:15.000 serious drug and weapon charges.

01:44:18.780 Again, this is absolutely in our national security interest.

01:44:24.800 In America, Maduro was killing Americans.

01:44:28.640 He was killing a lot of Americans with this drug trade, with this fentanyl.

01:44:34.480 No, and Marco Rubio said that a couple of times.

01:44:36.720 This is, I don't think you would find an argument, the difference in Ukraine or the difference

01:44:41.400 in the Middle East, is that this is, you know, Monroe Doctrine 2.0, the Trump corollary.

01:44:48.260 This is hemispheric defense.

01:44:49.580 This is in the vital national interests of the United States.

01:44:52.380 That being said, how do you envision, you know, we call you the viceroy, right?

01:44:56.820 But how do you envision, I think he said Marco and Pete, so it looks like Secretary of War

01:45:01.160 Hegseth and Marco Rubio, at least at first.

01:45:04.420 Will they go in with some mandate?

01:45:06.000 I mean, how do you actually make them essentially viceroy's of this until you've got, you know,

01:45:11.040 we had the disaster with Bremer in the, with the provisional authority there in Iraq.

01:45:17.320 As you remember, you were part of the Bush guys.

01:45:19.640 That turned out to be a disaster.

01:45:21.300 How do you empower Marco or Pete Hegseth to actually have a better grip on this?

01:45:25.760 Well, I mean, I don't think this is going to be a long-term government by the United States.

01:45:33.640 I think it's in our interest to get in there, get the country stabilized, let the Venezuelans

01:45:40.340 have a free election and elect their next leader.

01:45:46.280 Presumably, if they have a free election, the Venezuelans are going to elect a leader that

01:45:50.100 shares American values, and then we can get the hell out of there.

01:45:54.260 We have to make sure that we're protecting our interests.

01:45:57.180 We want to make sure we, I mean, look, we've already had 8 million Venezuelans

01:46:00.660 flee the country, 20% of the population.

01:46:03.880 We can't have a situation where millions or even tens of millions more Venezuelans are fleeing

01:46:10.780 Venezuela.

01:46:11.960 That will be a disaster for America.

01:46:14.600 It will be a disaster for the Western hemisphere.

01:46:16.720 The difference between Ukraine and these other Middle Eastern countries is the,

01:46:22.360 the Venezuelans will come to America.

01:46:24.260 We're these, you know, they, they, they, they can't come to America from Ukraine and the

01:46:29.800 Middle East, unless we fly them in and Venezuela, they can just come up through Mexico and try

01:46:34.860 to come into our country.

01:46:35.820 I mean, so it's absolutely in our interest to stabilize this country, to make sure that,

01:46:41.980 that, that there's a free and fair election and they elect the next leader who's aligned with

01:46:47.560 America.

01:46:48.040 Mike Davis, social media.

01:46:52.080 I know people are going to be all over it this weekend until we come back on Monday.

01:46:55.900 Where do people get you?

01:46:58.640 Article three project.org, article number three project.org.

01:47:02.280 Follow us on social media, donate.

01:47:04.500 And then the war room posse superpowers, action, action, action.

01:47:08.380 And thank you, Steve.

01:47:09.060 Thank you, sir.

01:47:11.860 Appreciate you.

01:47:12.560 Do I have Javier up?

01:47:13.800 Javier, your thoughts.

01:47:15.760 You heard Lula throw down hard.

01:47:18.700 This was violating international law, all of that.

01:47:20.780 You heard the president say, we're going to run Venezuela, at least for some time.

01:47:24.840 What's your response?

01:47:26.220 And how is folks in Latin America taking this?

01:47:30.080 God bless him.

01:47:31.000 I love him.

01:47:31.980 Trump press conference was impressive for me.

01:47:34.000 I've never seen a president anywhere in the world with such determination.

01:47:38.040 He has shown that he's a president of action, a man of peace, because he defeated Maduro,

01:47:43.840 he arrested Maduro without a single death, and that he's going to take control of Venezuela

01:47:48.220 so it can become a great country.

01:47:51.440 Again, I have a strong relationship with American companies.

01:47:54.360 So he believes in America first.

01:47:56.260 He sent a message to Colombian President Petro, like, watch your ass because you are making

01:48:01.480 cocaine, so this military intervention is justified because he was a dictator, like, I mean,

01:48:08.040 like Maduro, and that within his downfall, one of the sources of funding for international

01:48:13.320 tourism and the woke agenda will be eliminated with the fall of the Venezuelan regime.

01:48:18.120 We will learn which other players are involved in drug trafficking, international tourism

01:48:23.720 business.

01:48:24.500 And I think left-wing governments like those in Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, or in Spain with

01:48:29.960 Pedro Sánchez or with Zapatero, they are making business with the dictatorship like

01:48:35.560 the Venezuelan regime, and they have people in jail for corruption.

01:48:40.100 So it's a really big battle against Foro Sao Paulo.

01:48:45.340 Trump won this battle.

01:48:46.740 And I think that after we can see peace and freedom in countries like Cuba, like Brazil,

01:48:54.520 like Colombia, I think with this press conference and with this operation, Trump is going to

01:49:01.220 win a lot of votes in the Hispanic community because he deserves it, because he's promising

01:49:06.940 peace, justice, security, and he's going to make Venezuela and other countries like Honduras,

01:49:12.860 like Argentina with Mele, like Salvador with Bukele, great again.

01:49:17.660 So God bless him in the Hispanic community.

01:49:20.040 A lot of people that don't believe in Trump, now they love him.

01:49:27.200 Javier, where do people go to get you for your new show?

01:49:29.980 What's your social media?

01:49:32.060 Yeah, you can follow me on Right New Show in all the social media platforms, Javier Negri on

01:49:37.860 Instagram, and tomorrow we're going to have a special show, Right New Show at 8 p.m.

01:49:42.540 Miami time, Esther time.

01:49:44.780 So we are going to tell the Hispanic community how brands like Telemundo or Univision is telling

01:49:51.720 lines about the ICE operation, about the Maduro regime.

01:49:55.620 And we are in battle, we're fighting against misinformation.

01:50:00.000 And we want to avoid cities like Miami or New York that now are in the hands of communists

01:50:06.160 do the same.

01:50:07.760 And so we have to do the battle in the media, in the Hispanic media, because we have to win

01:50:13.080 the election.

01:50:13.640 We have to support Trump because he's the best president ever for South America, for the

01:50:19.260 Hispanic community, because he brings freedom and he supports presidents like Millet, Casa

01:50:24.960 in Chile, Honduras, with Titorzura.

01:50:27.040 And it's really important.

01:50:28.060 We feel proud of him.

01:50:32.120 Javier, thank you so much.

01:50:33.340 I look forward to seeing 8 p.m.

01:50:34.700 Eastern Standard Time tomorrow.

01:50:36.100 You're going to do a special on this.

01:50:37.200 Look forward to seeing it from live from Miami.

01:50:40.960 Oscar Blue Ramirez, you were just down in Venezuela.

01:50:43.620 Your thoughts today, particularly from the deck place, the working people in Venezuela.

01:50:47.020 When the president says we're going to run Venezuela for a while, that shocks people.

01:50:50.860 Your thoughts.

01:50:53.100 Well, a lot of the people, the American people do not know that the Venezuelan country was

01:50:58.300 run by American companies, and it was particularly run by the American people.

01:51:02.740 And then socialism came over and completely destroyed that country.

01:51:06.760 Now, this is an enormous accomplishment, Steve.

01:51:10.280 This is a historical accomplishment.

01:51:12.160 I have suffered a lot of the consequences with these people.

01:51:15.200 We have seen them die in the middle of the jungle.

01:51:17.140 We have seen them drown in the middle of the jungle, running away from a regime and a

01:51:21.700 dictator and a narco-terrorist that is Nicolás Maduro.

01:51:24.620 This is historic.

01:51:25.660 Never in history has ever happened something like this.

01:51:28.420 Donald Trump has accomplished something that it will marked history for the rest of time

01:51:33.300 in Latin America, and it is a complete change.

01:51:36.200 Now they need to go after, and this is one of the most important things they need to go

01:51:40.140 after, Diosdado Cabello and also Padrino Lopez, that they're in charge of the defense

01:51:45.460 of justice in the part of Venezuela.

01:51:47.860 Those are the ones that also they're running this regime, that they're part of the Cartel

01:51:51.800 de los Soles, that they're part of the fractions of the dangers of Tren de Aragua.

01:51:57.020 And I said to you, Steve, you know, when it was last week, when I was there in the borders

01:52:01.720 of Venezuela, I said there's high tensions on these borders.

01:52:05.140 There's a huge deployment of the National Guard of Venezuela through these particular borders.

01:52:10.440 There's high tension between the people.

01:52:12.380 They are basically telling the citizens of Venezuela, if you have something in your phone

01:52:17.300 that is against Nicolás Maduro, you will be charged with terrorism and traitors to your

01:52:21.700 country up to 30 years in prison.

01:52:23.860 So a lot of the people knew that something was going to happen.

01:52:27.380 And guess what?

01:52:28.580 This is what just, you know, the capture of Nicolás Maduro was just a historical event,

01:52:33.560 Steve.

01:52:36.000 Where can people get you over the weekend?

01:52:37.880 We got a punch here at the top of the hour.

01:52:39.680 Where do people go and get you over the weekend, Oscar?

01:52:42.520 We're having you back on a Monday.

01:52:44.440 Oscar, Blue, Ramirez, all around, sir.

01:52:45.920 Real America's Voice News.

01:52:47.120 And also just wanted to plug in real quick.

01:52:49.420 Informative reports coming in from inside of Venezuela.

01:52:51.840 Our contacts are saying that a huge deployment to every border, huge tanks, military tanks

01:52:56.540 to every border are being deployed right now on the ground.

01:52:59.660 There's high tensions and there is a lot of uncertainty on what can happen inside of Venezuela,

01:53:03.420 sir.

01:53:03.520 Well, isn't that the issue when you say, I mean, how does it, how do you interpret that

01:53:09.240 for President Trump saying we're going to put people in and run the country?

01:53:13.400 Are Maduro's guys prepared to sit there and work with the Americans?

01:53:17.420 That's one of the things.

01:53:18.400 That's what I'm saying.

01:53:19.120 They need to capture the other two that they're basically destabilizing.

01:53:22.260 And they are, you know, the accomplices of Nicolás Maduro, that that is Diosdado Cabello

01:53:27.140 and Padrino López.

01:53:28.440 Those are the two individuals and the two fractions that they are part also of the Cartel

01:53:33.820 de los Soles and also Trenderagua.

01:53:35.820 These people are not, they're already threatening the population.

01:53:38.840 They're already telling them, if you go against and if you celebrate the capture of Nicolás

01:53:43.140 Maduro, you will be charged with terrorism.

01:53:45.080 So they're already terrorizing the population to not celebrate, to not go out, to not try to

01:53:49.820 protest, to not try to rise.

01:53:51.680 So it's going to be a battle and it is going to be also an enormous strategy by the Trump

01:53:56.620 administration to go in there and to try to remove these two individuals, that they

01:54:00.420 have control of the justice system and also the part of the executive power that they

01:54:04.840 have control also.

01:54:05.920 So it's going to be a battle and it's going to be, you know, a lot of strategies that

01:54:08.840 they're going to do, Steve, to basically remove these two individuals so they can go

01:54:12.120 over there and have control of what they're trying to do.

01:54:16.420 Oscar, one more time, where do people get you over the weekend?

01:54:18.720 Because I'm sure people are going to want to know more about this as things develop.

01:54:25.160 Oscar Blue Ramirez and Getter, sir.

01:54:27.100 Oscar Blue, Oscar Ramirez, TJ on X.

01:54:30.260 You can find me there.

01:54:31.400 And also Real America's Voicing, sir, will be possibly, possibly heading back towards the

01:54:37.580 borders down south, sir.

01:54:38.900 So we can give an informative report and a more amplified information, seeing things on

01:54:43.840 the ground, sir, over there in the borders with Venezuela.

01:54:45.740 Look forward to talking to you after the show.

01:54:49.480 Thank you, Oscar.

01:54:50.760 Frank Gaffney, isn't this the devil's in the details here?

01:54:54.260 You had this magnificent extraction.

01:54:56.140 You've got Maduro now in the Iwo Jima he's going to face.

01:54:58.780 He's just been open.

01:55:00.000 They've unsealed the indictment.

01:55:01.520 But you hear from Oscar right there, a very uncertain situation inside the country.

01:55:06.420 And a lot of the bad hombres that ran the country with Maduro are still, looks like,

01:55:11.300 in charge or in control, the president says, we're going to step in with Marco Rubio, and

01:55:16.120 it looks like Pete Hegseth, and somehow stabilize the country.

01:55:19.900 Is this harken back to our fiasco in Iraq under Bush, sir?

01:55:26.400 Well, it could be in a way worse, Steve, in the sense that what you're dealing with really

01:55:35.360 is an existing array of very bad actors.

01:55:42.960 Oscar's just mentioned a couple of them.

01:55:44.900 In addition to them, you've got the Chinese and the Cubans and the Russians and the Iranians

01:55:55.400 and Hezbollah and the, you know, Cartel de los Solos, which is actually what many people

01:56:04.820 think is running Venezuela these days.

01:56:08.740 All of that is in place.

01:56:10.660 All of that is operating with a single individual and his wife now removed.

01:56:18.400 And I must say, I'm a little troubled by the president's comment that this gal, Delce Rodriguez,

01:56:26.740 who was the vice president under Maduro and has now been sworn in as the new president,

01:56:34.680 well, she's up to her eyeballs in all of this as well.

01:56:38.400 You know, she's been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department since 2018 and is widely

01:56:44.220 thought to be implicated as he was in this cartel.

01:56:50.040 So, and saying that the gal who, you know, won the Nobel Peace Prize for being an opposition

01:56:59.440 figure that is widely believed to have actually won the last election doesn't have popular support,

01:57:07.460 but Delce does.

01:57:09.440 I have the feeling some of this is just a function of, you know, suddenly we're in the midst of a successful operation

01:57:17.600 and the rest of it hasn't been thought through quite as carefully as it needs to be.

01:57:24.800 That's what I'm saying.

01:57:25.540 We have to bounce.

01:57:26.500 We're going to punch at one o'clock.

01:57:27.960 I'm going to be up on social media.

01:57:29.840 You are Captain Fennell, or Captain Fennell gives his thoughts over American greatness.

01:57:35.220 Just real quickly, because there's a lot of confusion out there.

01:57:38.260 People saying, well, President Trump says he's not, you know, afraid of putting boots on the ground.

01:57:42.900 If you had one recommendation for the president, the commander in chief right now,

01:57:47.320 given this enormously successful extraction of Maduro, which nobody in a million years could think have happened so perfectly,

01:57:54.540 we got about a minute.

01:57:56.100 What would you recommend to the president, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth right now?

01:58:01.200 Well, I personally would recommend that they go with the team that won the election,

01:58:07.540 that represents the people of Venezuela,

01:58:10.140 and that is not going to be implicated with most of the mad, very, very odious activities of the previous regime.

01:58:19.060 There's going to need to be a house cleaning, and, you know, short of American occupation forces,

01:58:26.220 and I don't think anybody has that in mind, the people of Venezuela are our best hope.

01:58:31.680 We need people power to demonstrate against these cartels and the foreign enemies of the United States and all the rest.

01:58:40.320 And that's the way forward, I believe, and I hope that that's what we're going to wind up supporting intensively as a country.

01:58:47.400 Frank, what's your social media?

01:58:48.600 You're going to be with me in Texas this week.

01:58:50.400 We're going to take on this ismalization of Texas.

01:58:53.140 Real quickly, what's your social media?

01:58:55.100 I'm at Frank Gaffney on X, usfuture.org for the Institute for the American Future,

01:59:00.420 and securingamerica.substack.com.

01:59:04.740 We'll see you on Monday, sir.

01:59:05.960 Thank you very much.

01:59:06.700 By the way, if Grace and Moe can put up, they're still, we're going to expand out.

01:59:11.020 I think we've sold 600 tickets.

01:59:12.640 It looks like we'll maybe sell another 100 if we get more room.

01:59:16.520 I'll put it up all weekend.

01:59:17.880 I want to thank Real America's Voice.

01:59:20.460 Historic couple of hours.

01:59:22.640 A lot of uncertainty.

01:59:25.480 President Trump is correct.

01:59:26.640 We can't have the vital national security and interests of the United States are the borders and the sovereignty of the United States.

01:59:32.940 Venezuela has been a big problem.

01:59:34.400 But, man, oh, man, is this complicated.

01:59:36.040 It's going to be quite complicated.

01:59:37.640 I know a lot of people are shocked by that.

01:59:39.860 We're going to be in charge for a while, but we'll work it all out.

01:59:41.960 I want to thank Captain Finnell, everybody, Eric Prince, Real America's Voice, all of it.

01:59:45.960 See you back here Monday, 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, when you will be back in the war room.

01:59:51.160 Today we're going to have to take care of the population.

01:59:58.900 We'll be back in the war room.

02:00:00.660 Bye now.

02:00:01.220 Bye now.

02:00:01.340 Bye now.

02:00:01.360 Bye now.

02:00:02.080 Bye now.

02:00:03.100 Bye now.

02:00:03.160 Bye now.

02:00:03.280 Bye now.

02:00:04.000 Bye now.

02:00:04.320 Bye now.

02:00:04.820 Bye now.

02:00:05.120 Bye now.

02:00:05.440 Bye now.

02:00:05.880 Bye now.

02:00:06.100 Bye now.

02:00:06.600 Bye now.

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02:00:19.580 Bye now.

Bannon's War Room - January 03, 2026

Episode 5042：＂We＂ Will Run Venezuela

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