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Trump Says U.S. Will Run Venezuela Following Maduro's Capture; Trump Praises Venezuela Operation, Says No U.S. Troops Or Equipment Lost. Trump Says U.S. Will Run Venezuela Following Maduro Capture. Aired 12-1p ET
Aired January 03, 2026 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00]
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- Caine, he's a fantastic man. I've worked with a lot of generals, I worked with some I didn't like, I worked with some I didn't respect, I worked with some that just weren't good, but this guy is fantastic.
I watched last night one of the most precise attacks on sovereignty, I mean, it was an attack for justice, and I'm very proud of him. And I'm very proud of our Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, who I'm going to ask to say a few words. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, can you explain how the U.S. will run Venezuela?
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, thank you, Mr. President.
Finally, a commander-in-chief the world respects and the American people deserve. And as the President said, words can barely capture the bravery and the power and the precision of this historic operation. A massive joint military and law enforcement raid, flawlessly executed by the greatest Americans our country has to offer.
American warriors are second to none, the best in the world and the best of our country. What I, what all of us witnessed last night was sheer guts and grit, gallantry, and glory of the American warrior. I'm simply humbled by such men.
And I tip my hat to our chairman, Dan Raizin Caine and all those Americans who stood watch last night. Our warriors are the elite of America, and again, President Trump has your back. No other country on planet Earth, and it's not even close, could pull this kind of operation off.
And no other president has ever shown this kind of leadership, courage, and resolve. The most powerful combination the world has ever seen. As the President said, our adversaries remain on notice. America can project our will anywhere, anytime. The coordination, the stealth, the lethality, the precision, the very long arm of American justice, all on full display in the middle of the night. Nicolas Maduro had his chance, just like Iran had their chance. Until they didn't, and until he didn't. He f'd around, and he found out. President Trump is deadly serious about stopping the flow of gangs and violence to our country. Deadly serious about stopping the flow of drugs and poison to our people. Deadly serious about getting back the oil that was stolen from us. And deadly serious about reestablishing American deterrence and dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
This is about the safety, security, freedom, and prosperity of the American people. This is America first. This is peace through strength. And the United States War Department is proud to help deliver it.
Welcome to 2026. And under President Trump, America is back.
I'd like to welcome now our chairman, Chairman Raizin Caine, to give a few more details about the operation. Mr. Chairman?
GEN. DAN CAINE, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you, Mr. President. And good morning.
Last night, on the order of the President of the United States, and in support of a request from the Department of Justice, as the President said, the United States military conducted an apprehension mission in Caracas, Venezuela, to bring to justice two indicted persons, Nicolas and Cilia Maduro.
This operation, known as Operation Absolute Resolve, was discreet, precise, and conducted during the darkest hours of January 2nd, and was the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal, an operation that, frankly, only the United States military could undertake.
What I'd like to do this morning is talk to you through some of the preparation and the details, without compromising any of our tactics, techniques, and procedures. There is always a chance that we'll be tasked to do this type of mission again.
Our interagency work began months ago and built on decades of experience of integrating complex air, ground, space, and maritime operations. While the past two decades have honed the skills of our special operations forces, this particular mission required every component of our joint force, with soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and guardians working in unison with our intelligence agency partners and law enforcement teammates in an unprecedented operation.
We leveraged our unmatched intelligence capabilities and our years of experience in hunting terrorists, and we could not have done this mission without the incredible work by various intelligence agencies, including the CIA, NSA, and NGA.
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We watched, we waited, we prepared, we remained patient and professional. This mission was meticulously planned, drawing lessons from decades of missions over the last many years -- decades of many missions over these last many years. This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do.
It required the utmost of precision and integration within our joint force. And the word integration does not explain the sheer complexity of such a mission, an extraction so precise it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the western hemisphere in close coordination, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose, to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of tactical surprise.
Failure of one component of this well-oiled machine would have endangered the entire mission, and failure is never an option for America's joint force. Those in the air over Caracas last night were willing to give their lives for those on the ground and in the helicopters.
Let me talk a little bit about the preparation. After months of work by our intelligence teammates to find Maduro and understand how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets, in early December our force was set pending a series of aligned events.
Key was choosing the right day to minimize the potential for civilian harm and maximize the element of surprise and minimize the harm to the indicted personnel so, as the President said, they could be brought to justice. And as the President said earlier today, weather in Venezuela is always a factor this time of the year.
And over the weeks through Christmas and New Year's, the men and women of the United States military sat ready, patiently waiting for the right triggers to be met and the President to order us into action. Last night the weather broke just enough, clearing a path that only the most skilled aviators in the world could maneuver through.
Ocean, mountain, low clouds, ceilings, but when tasked with a mission, this organization does not quit. At 10:46 p.m. Eastern time last night, the President ordered the United States military to move forward with this mission. He said to us and we appreciated it, Mr. President, good luck and Godspeed. And those words were transmitted to the entire joint force.
Over the course of the night, aircraft began launching from 20 different bases on land and sea across the western hemisphere. In total, more than 150 aircraft, bombers, fighters, intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance, rotary wing were in the air last night. Thousands and thousands of hours of experience were airborne.
Our youngest crew member was 20 and our oldest crew member was 49. And there's simply no match for American military might. As the night began, the helicopters took off with the extraction force, which included law enforcement officers and began their flight into Venezuela at 100 feet above the water.
As they approached Venezuelan shores, the United States began layering different effects provided by space comm, cyber comm, and other members of the interagency to create a pathway. Overhead, those forces were protected from aircraft, were protected by aircraft from the United States Marines, the United States Navy, the United States Air Force, and the Air National Guard.
The force included F-22s, F-35s, F-18s, EA-18s, E-2s, B-1 bombers, and other support aircraft, as well as numerous remotely piloted drones. As the force began to approach Caracas, the joint air component began dismantling and disabling the air defense systems in Venezuela, employing weapons to ensure the safe passage of the helicopters into the target area.
The goal of our air component is, was, and always will be to protect the helicopters and the ground force and get them to the target and get them home. As the force crossed the last point of high terrain where they'd been hiding in the clutter, we assessed that we had maintained totally the element of surprise.
As the helicopter force ingressed towards the objective at low level, we arrived at Maduro's compound at 1:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, or 2:01 a.m. Caracas local time. And the apprehension force descended into Maduro's compound and moved with speed, precision, and discipline towards their objective and isolated the area to ensure the safety and security of the ground force while apprehending the indicted persons.
[12:10:31]
On arrival into the target area, the helicopters came under fire, and they replied with that fire with overwhelming force and self-defense. One of our aircraft was hit, but remained flyable, and as the President said earlier today, all of our aircraft came home, and that aircraft remained flyable during the rest of the mission.
As the operation unfolded at the compound, our air and ground intelligence teams provided real-time updates to the ground force, ensuring those forces could safely navigate the complex environment without unnecessary risk. The force remained protected by overhead tactical aviation.
Maduro and his wife, both indicted, gave up and were taken into custody by the Department of Justice, assisted by our incredible U.S. military with professionalism and precision, with no loss of U.S. life. After securing the indicted persons, the force began to prep for departure. Helicopters were called in to exfiltrate the extraction force, while fighter aircraft and remotely piloted aircraft provided overhead coverage and suppressive fire.
There were multiple self-defense engagements as the force began to withdraw out of Venezuela. The force successfully exfiltrated and returned to their afloat launch bases, and the force was over the water at 3:29 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, with indicted persons on board, and both Maduro and his wife were embarked aboard the USS Iwo Jima.
In closing, what we've witnessed today is a powerful demonstration of America's joint force. We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again, not to get it right, but to ensure that we cannot get it wrong. Our jobs are to integrate combat power so when the order comes, we can deliver overwhelming force at the time and the place of our choosing against any foe anywhere in the world.
I am immensely proud today of our joint force and filled with gratitude to represent them here today. There is simply no mission too difficult for these incredible professionals and the families that stand by them and support them. As we stand here this morning, our forces remain in the region at a high state of readiness, prepared to project power, defend themselves, and our interests in the region.
This operation is a testament to the dedication and unwavering commitment to justice and our resolve to hold accountable those who threaten peace and stability. In closing, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the brave men and women who executed this mission. Their courage and tireless commitment to our nation are what makes us strong.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and thank you, Mr. President.
MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, I don't have much to add to what you've heard now other than the following points. Nicolas Maduro was indicted in 2020 in the United States. He is not the legitimate president of Venezuela. That's not just us saying it. The first Trump administration, the Biden administration, the second Trump administration, none of those three recognized him.
He's not recognized by the European Union and multiple countries around the world. He is a fugitive of American justice with a $50 million reward, which I guess we say $50 million. And --
TRUMP: That's pretty sure.
RUBIO: Yes, exactly. But --
TRUMP: Don't let anybody claim it. Nobody deserves it but us.
RUBIO: But I want to be clear about one thing. Nicolas Maduro had multiple opportunities to avoid this. He was provided multiple very, very, very generous offers and chose instead to act like a wild man, chose instead to play around. And the result is what we saw tonight.
The other message here is the following. You have a guy -- like many people around the world, they like to play games. You have a guy who decides he's going to invite Iran into his country, is going to, you know, do the confiscation of American oil companies, is going to flood our country with gang members, is going to take Americans prisoner and try to hold them for hostage and trade them like he was able to do with the Biden administration. Basically likes to play games all this time and thinks nothing's going to happen.
[12:15:02]
And I hope what people now understand is that we have a president. The 47th president of the United States is not a game player. When he tells you that he's going to do something, when he tells you he's going to address a problem, he means it. He actions it.
I can tell you, I've watched this process now for 14, 15 years, been around it. Everybody talks, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. When I get there, we're going to do this, we're going to -- this is a president of action. Like I don't understand yet how they haven't figured this out.
And now if you don't know, now you know, because this is the way it's going to play out. And I think people need to understand that this is not a president that just talks and does letters and press conferences. And, you know, if he says he's serious about something, he means it. And this is something that was a direct threat to the national interest of the United States, and the President addressed it.
There's a president of peace, by the way. I told you what I just said earlier. This guy had multiple opportunities to find his way somewhere else and figure out another. He could have been living somewhere else right now, very happy, but instead he wanted to play big boy. And so now, you know, he's got other sets of problems on his hands.
And but I think the message here should be for the world. Look, the President doesn't go out looking for people to pick fights with. He's not generally wants to get along with everybody. We'll talk and meet with anybody, but don't play games.
Don't play games with this President's in office because it's not going to turn out well. And so I hope that, you know, I guess that lesson was learned last night and we hope it'll be instructive moving forward.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that message for Cuba?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said that the U.S. is going to run Venezuela, so who's in power right now?
TRUMP: Well, we're going to be running it with a group and we're going to make sure it's run properly. We're going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars. It'll be paid for by the oil companies directly.
They will be reimbursed for what they're doing, but that's going to be paid. And we're going to get the oil flowing the way it should be. As you know, it was just a minor flows, actually a minor flow for what they have, but we're going to run it properly and we're going to make sure the people of Venezuela are taken care of. We're going to make sure the people that were forced out of Venezuela by this thug are also taken care of.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, does the U.S. running the country mean that U.S. troops will be on the ground? How will that work? TRUMP: Well, you know, they always say boots on the ground. So we're not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to have. We had boots on the ground last night at a very high level actually. 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 run properly. We're not doing this in vain.
This is not -- this is a very dangerous attack. This is an attack that could have gone very, very badly. Could have gotten very badly. We could have lost a lot of people last night. We could have lost a lot of dignity. We could have lost a lot of equipment.
The equipment is less important, but we could have lost a lot and we're going to make sure that this is 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 going to run very judiciously, very fairly.
It's going to make a lot of money. We're going to give money to the people. We're going to reimburse people that we're taking advantage of. We're going to take care of everybody. It's very important. We couldn't let them get away with it.
You know, they stole our oil. We built that whole industry there and they just took it over like we were nothing. And we had a president that decided not to do anything about it. So we did something about it. We're late, but we did something about it.
Yes, please?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, can you explain the exact mechanism by which you're going to run the country. Are you going to designate it to the U.S. officials to coordinate --
TRUMP: Yes, it's all being done right now. We're designating people. We're talking to people. We're designating various people and we're going to let you know who those people are.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) mention that would run Venezuela.
TRUMP: Well, it's largely going to be for a period of time. The people that are standing right behind me, we're going to be running it. We're going to be bringing it back. It's a dead -- you know, I talk about a dead country a year and a half ago, we were a dead country.
Now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. We're a country doing better than any country anywhere in the world. And it required leadership. Venezuela has a lot of bad people in there. A lot of bad people that shouldn't be leading.
We're not going to take a chance at one of those people take over for Maduro. So you can look at -- and others. We have fantastic people, including people in the military. So we're going to have a group of people running it until such time as it can be put back on track, make a lot of money for the people and give people a great way of life. And also reimbursement for people in our country that were forced out of Venezuela.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President Trump, Mr. President --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) would be --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said earlier today that you weren't going to back Machado to come back and be the opposition later (ph) in your Fox and Friends interview. And then you also mentioned the vice president of Venezuela. Are you going to work with vice president of Venezuela or how do you foresee the relationship going?
TRUMP: Well, I don't say -- she was just sworn in, but she was, as you know, picked by Maduro. So Marco's working on that directly. He's just had a conversation with her and she's essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple.
[12:20:17]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, so Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, you know, a couple of weeks ago you said he's got to watch his ass. And today he said he's not concerned about anything happening to him in the aftermath of this operation. So just what your messages about that.
TRUMP: Well, he has cocaine mills. He has factories where he makes cocaine. And, yes, I think I stick by my first statement. He's making cocaine. They're sending it into the United States. So he does have to watch his ass.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you notify any members of Congress in advance?
TRUMP: Marco, do you want to talk about that? Because you were involved.
RUBIO: Sure. We call members of Congress immediately after this. It was not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on. It was a trigger based mission in which conditions had to be met night after night. We watched and monitored that for a number of days.
So it's just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say, hey, we may do this at some point in the next 15 days, but it's largely a law enforcement function. Remember at the end of day at its core, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives of American justice and the Department of War supported the Department of Justice in that job.
Now there are broader policy implications here, but it's just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission.
TRUMP: Plus, if I could add one thing to that, Congress has a tendency to leak. This would not be good. If they leaked, General, I think it would have been maybe a very different result. But I have to say they knew we were coming at some point, you know, a lot of ships out there. They sort of knew we were coming. We wanted. But Congress will leak and we don't want leakers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, you were one of the only people to watch this all play out live. What was Maduro doing when the U.S. forces entered what I assume would be his home? And also, was there any point where the U.S. was considering if Maduro pushed back or resisted killing Maduro?
TRUMP: We could have happened. It could have happened. He was trying to get into a safe place. You know, the safe places all steel and he wasn't able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast. They went through the opposition so fast and there was a lot of opposition.
You know, people were wondering, do we get them by surprise? Sort of surprised, but they were waiting for something. It was a lot of opposition. There was a lot of gunfire. You saw some of it today. But he was trying to get to a safe place, which wasn't safe because we would have had the door blown up in about 47, I think 47 seconds, they say on average, regardless of how thick the seal was.
It was a very thick doors, a very heavy door, but he was unable to get to that door. He made it to the door. He was unable to close it.
Go ahead, Cherish (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is Maduro going to be in the time being right now? Do you know his exact events?
TRUMP: Well, eventually, ultimately in the near future, he's going to be brought to New York.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And where is he going to be held? Where is he going to be held in New York? Do you know?
TRUMP: That's going to be up to the officials that do these things.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, the U.S. has something of a mixed track record of ousting dictators without necessarily a plan for what comes afterwards. Did that weigh on your decision?
TRUMP: Well, that's why we had different presidents. But with me, that's not true. With me, we've had a perfect track record of winning. We win a lot and we win.
If you look at Soleimani, you look at al-Baghdadi, you look at the Midnight Hammer. Midnight Hammer was incredible right now. You wouldn't have peace in the Middle East. We have essentially peace in the Middle East because of that.
If you didn't -- if we weren't successful with Midnight Hammer, you wouldn't have peace in the Middle East. So with me, you've had a lot of victory. You've had only victories. You've had no losses. Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, can you -- how long do you expect the U.S. to run Venezuela and how soon do you want Venezuelan people to hold elections? TRUMP: So I'd like to do it quickly, but it takes a period of time. You know, we're rebuilding. We have to rebuild their whole infrastructure. The infrastructure is rotted. It's actually very dangerous. It's a, you know, blow up territory.
Oil is very dangerous. It's a very dangerous thing to take out of the ground. It can kill a lot of people. It has killed a lot of people doing just that. The infrastructure is old. It's rotted. Much of it is stuff that we put there 25 years ago. And we're going to be replacing it. And we're going to take a lot of money out so that we can take care of the country. Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you saying that Secretary Rubio in --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, China, Russia and Iran have interests in Venezuela. How does this operation affect your relationships with them when it comes to oil and drugs?
TRUMP: Well, in terms of China and Russia -- well, Russia, when we get things straightened out. But in terms of other countries that want oil, we're in the oil business. We're going to sell it to them. We're not going to say we're not going to go to. In other words, we'll be selling oil, probably in much larger doses because they couldn't produce very much because their infrastructure is so bad.
[12:25:02]
So we'll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries, many of whom are using it now. But I would say many more will come.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you saying -- Mr. President, are you saying that -- Mr. President, are you saying that --
TRUMP: Go ahead, beyond the (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, thank you. What is your message to the people of Venezuela today? Of course, the civilian population specifically, they have a lot of questions. What is your message to the people of Venezuela?
TRUMP: That you're going to have peace, justice. You're going to have some of the riches that you should have had for a long period of time. It was stolen from you. But you're going to have peace and you're going to have safety. You're going to have justice. You're going to have a country. You're going to have a real country. You're going to have potentially a great country.
You know, if you go back 20 years, maybe even a little longer ago, that was a great country and they destroyed it. Remember, I said that if we lose this election, the United States will be Venezuela on steroids. That's what would have happened had we lost the election, the 2024 election.
We suffered so badly. When you look at the border from 2020, what they did, what Joe Biden administration did to our country should never be forgotten. But if we had to go through another year that we wouldn't have -- we would be exactly where Venezuela was in terms. I used to say if they win, we're going to be Venezuela on steroids. And that's what would happen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President, thank you. Are you saying that Secretary Hegseth and Rubio are going to be running Venezuela? And will you be sending in U.S. military troops to provide --
TRUMP: They're going to be a team that's working with the people of Venezuela to make sure that we have Venezuela right. Because for us to just leave, who's going to take over? I mean, there is nobody to take over. You have a vice president who's been appointed by Maduro. And right now she's the vice president. And she's, I guess, the president.
She was sworn as president just a little while ago. She had a long conversation with Marco and she said, we'll do whatever you need. She -- I think she was quite gracious, but she really doesn't have a choice. We're going to have this done right. We're not going to just do this with Maduro, then leave like everybody else, leave and say, you know, let it go to hell.
If we just left, it has zero chance of ever coming back. We'll run it properly. We'll run it professionally. We'll have the greatest oil companies in the world going in and invest billions and billions of dollars and take out money. Use that money in Venezuela. And the biggest beneficiary are going to be the people of Venezuela.
And also, I can't stress this strongly enough, the people that got thrown out of Venezuela that are now in the United States. And, frankly, some want to stay and some probably want to go back. Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's being done to protect Americans in the country? And were any of the detained Americans --
TRUMP: Well, right now they're very protected because nobody's going to mess with us. They're very protected. The people of -- and we let them know that you better not touch one of them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you concerned that bad elements of the Maduro regime will remain in place?
TRUMP: Well, we know who they are. We're on them and they're acting much differently now than they would have acted two days ago.
OK, wait. Behind you, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, why is running a country in South America America first?
TRUMP: Well, I think it is because we want to surround ourself with good neighbors. We want to surround ourself with stability. We want to surround ourself with energy. We have tremendous energy in that country. It's very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves. We need that for the world. And we want to make sure we can protect it. Yes, sir, please. Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there a message for Cuba and the U.S. Canal?
TRUMP: Well, Cuba is an interesting case. Cuba is, you know, not doing very well right now. It -- that system has not been a very good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered for many, many years. And I think Cuba is going to be something we'll end up talking about because Cuba is a failing nation right now, very badly failing nation.
And we want to help the people -- it's very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba. But we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and living in this country.
Do you want to say something about that, Marco, please?
RUBIO: Well, I mean, I just gave you a statement a few minutes ago about, you know, when the President speaks, you should take him seriously. Suffice it to say, you know, Cuba is a disaster. It's run by incompetent, senile men and in some cases, not senile, but incompetent.
Nonetheless, there has no economy. It's in total collapse. And, by the way, you know, they were -- you know, all of the guards that helped protect Maduro, this is well known. Their whole spy agency, all that were full of Cubans. I mean, they -- it's amazing.
This poor island took over Venezuela in some cases. One of the biggest problems Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence from Cuba. They tried to basically colonize it from a security standpoint. So, yes, look, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I'd be concerned at least a little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turning up the oil flow to Cuba from Venezuela?
RUBIO: Well, the President already announced a week ago that. Anything that sanctioned oil, its not going to be allowed to get there. So that's --
TRUMP: Yes.
RUBIO: -- a preexisting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President?
TRUMP: The answer is yes. Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you aware of the location of opposition leader Machado and have you been in contact with her?
TRUMP: No, we haven't really.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hesitation about Machado --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On Monday -- TRUMP: I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country. She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect to --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, is it possible that the U.S. ends up administrating Venezuela for years? You know.
TRUMP: Well, you know, it won't cost us anything because the money coming out of the ground is very substantial. So it's not going to cost us anything. We will. Well, we want safety there. We want to be surrounded by countries that aren't housing all of our enemies all over the world. That's what was happening and you don't want to have that.
But we're going to be rebuilding and we're not spending money. The oil companies are going to go in, they're going to spend money. They're going to -- we're going to take back the oil that frankly we should have taken back a long time ago.
A lot of money is coming out of the ground. We're going to get reimbursed for all of that. We're going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend. So it's going to be -- it's going to be a very important. It's going to be a very important.
This is a very big evening that took place last night. We have to be surrounded by safe, secure countries and we also have to have energy. Very important. We have to have energy that's real energy, not where they're getting 4 percent and 5 percent of the energy out of the ground.
You take a look. It was such a disaster. So what's going to happen with Venezuela, I think over the next period of a year is going to be a great thing. And the people of Venezuela will be the biggest beneficiaries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, thank you. What did you last speak to Maduro about when you spoke and is the --
TRUMP: Well, I don't want to get into the conversations, but I did have conversations with him and I said, you got to surrender. And I actually thought he was pretty close to doing so, but now he wished he did. Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, can you explain? You said that Maduro is responsible for drug trafficking. You recently pardoned the former president of Honduras who was convicted for many drug trafficking. Can you explain how these two situations are going to be --
TRUMP: I endorsed, as you know, the winning president the man who won in Honduras, I endorsed the man who won in Chile. I endorsed the man who won in Argentina. And we are doing very well with that whole group.
What the man that I pardoned was, if you could equate it to us, he was treated like the Biden administration treated a man named Trump. That didn't work out too well for them. This was a man who was persecuted very unfairly. He was the head of the country. He was persecuted very unfairly. And there are a number of them. And we felt that it was a very unfair situation that happened to him. He's also a party member of the man who won. So obviously the people liked what I did.
And one of the reasons that was done is because of the fact that the party in power felt very strongly that that man was treated very badly. I studied it very quickly and then I studied it in great detail. I went to a lot of the people standing behind me and they felt that man was persecuted and treated very badly. That's why I gave him a pardon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You referring boots on the ground earlier. Can you just sort of button this up? Do you envision the U.S. military having a presence in Venezuela as the U.S. runs that country?
TRUMP: Well, no, we're going to have presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil because we have to have. We -- we're sending our expertise in. So you may need something. Not very much. But no, we're going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground and that wealth is going to the people of Venezuela and people from outside of Venezuela that used to be in Venezuela, and it goes also to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused us by that country.
So I want to thank you all very much. Thank you. Do you have one? Yes, please. You were so nice before. I'm going to give you the final question.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Mr. President.
TRUMP: Unless it's a bad question, in which case I'll go one word.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's about -- it's about Putin. If you want.
TRUMP: I'm not Putin, that's always nice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. You had a phone -- you had a phone call with him on Monday. Did he talk at all about Maduro? Did you talk about that?
TRUMP: No, we didn't -- we never spoke about Maduro.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you mad at him right now? I mean, there's this --
TRUMP: I'm not thrilled with Putin. I'm not thrilled with Putin. He's killing too many people. I thought that would be. So I settled 8 one quarter war. You know what the one quarter was? Thailand and Cambodia. I did it again. They were -- they broke out and I did it in about five hours. And I settled it. I'm giving myself one quarter.
So I'm up to now eight and one quarter. In other words, I settled the war. But then they broke out. They had a pretty bad breakout over the last four days. I got them to go back to peace, so I only give one quarter. I thought the easiest one would be -- one of the easier ones would be
Russia, Ukraine. It's not. And they both have done some pretty bad things.
[12:35:09]
And look, that's Biden's war. That's not my war. But I want to stop the lives. Did you see where last month, 30,000. This last -- it was 27. 27,000 the month before. 30,000, mostly soldiers were killed this last month, 30,000. I want to stop that.
You know, I got NATO to pay 5 percent instead of the 2 percent that they weren't paying. They weren't paying 2, now they pay 5. And we send them a lot of munitions, we send them a lot of things, missiles and various other things, a lot. And they pay.
The United States is not losing money. We're probably making money on that. It's the last thing I care about. I just want to stop all those people. We're losing 25, 30,000 human beings that come from two places that are very far away. But if I can stop, because it's something I've been pretty good at, doing deals, I guess it's all a deal. Life is a big deal.
But if I can stop that war and stop 30,000 young people, in addition to the fact that people are being killed in Kyiv, people are being killed in other cities throughout, you know, a much smaller number, but they're being killed, viciously killed. So I'm not happy about it. I thought that would be something that would get solved.
We have Mr. Witkoff here. I think that we're making progress. But that's a war that should have never happened. If I were president, it would have never happened. Putin says it, everybody says it. If I were president, that would have never happened.
But I inherited that war. That was Joe Biden, Zelenskyy, and Putin. I came into the situation, and it's a mess. And I will say this. I watched an operation last night that was so precise, that was so brilliant. I mean, it was incredible. If we had our people like this general and our people involved, that war -- that war would not have gone on very long, that I can tell you.
That war, to use an old term, that war has become a bloodbath, and we want it to get stopped. Thank you very much.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right. So there you have I, the president of the United States. He started this news conference almost exactly an hour ago. It's been going on for a whole hour. Alayna Treene, our White House reporter, I want to start with you.
The president did say, we are going to run the country, referring to Venezuela. And then he said, we want peace, liberty, and justice for the people of Venezuela. Then he repeated, we are there now, but we're going to stay, we're going to run it. What is he talking about?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I mean, that is just remarkable, remarkable comments from the president. And he did appear, I mean, he didn't really answer some of these questions. Specifically, I commend some of the reporters in that room who are trying to get clarification.
What do you mean the U.S. is going to be running the country? Who is going to be running the country? What does that mean?
He seemed to kind of, you know, he kind of seemed to say that they would be working the administration in close coordination with a group of people inside Venezuela or Venezuelans themselves potentially. But again, this is me reading between the lines of what he said. It's not entirely clear in order to have, you know, temporarily essentially run the government for a period of time.
He said that eventually, you know, until elections can be called or I want to find the exact language to use that it's essentially until they can get up the proper jurisdiction, they'll be running it for the time being. But there's not a lot of clarity there. We also have --
BLITZER: Specifically, he said -- when he was asked who's -- what do you mean who's going to run the country? He said, the people behind me --
TREENE: Yes.
BLITZER: -- referring to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio --
TREENE: Right.
BLITZER: -- Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. That's one of the people behind me will be running the country.
TREENE: Yes, but of course you wouldn't expect them to actually be inside Venezuela doing so. So it's a question of who are going to be the people on the ground. And also are they going to try and set up some sort of allied government beyond, you know, this short term period that the president referred to. Do they want an allied government to be running it for years from now? That's essentially what the president seemed to be saying, that he wants to ensure that this operation goes beyond that.
The other key part to this whole idea of running it means, will there be U.S. boots on the ground? The president, in another remarkable statement, said that he's not afraid of U.S. boots on the ground. But he wasn't very clear.
Our own Kevin Liptak asked this question to have him clarify and he said, well, we're going to have a presence on the ground as it relates to oil. And he kept kind of referencing that he wants to have the United States help take over and kind of have different oil companies go in to kind of remake the energy infrastructure inside Venezuela now that Maduro is no longer there.
And so a lot of questions still that had have gone unanswered. But I think him saying that the U.S. will run it and this idea of not being afraid of boots on the ground, major implications moving. [12:40:3]
BLITZER: And Sabrina, he did say that the U.S. had boots on the ground last night when they took over and captured Maduro. And he was very proud of that, repeatedly praising the military operation, the U.S. boots on the ground.
So should we anticipate that the next phase of whatever is going to happen in Venezuela will involve U.S. military personnel, significant numbers of boots on the ground based in Venezuela?
SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, I think two things. I think you saw General Caine lay out the details of operation --
BLITZER: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
SINGH: Yes, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. And you know, this was an incredibly complex operation with 150 aircraft use, you know, for just some, you know, taking a step back for Operation Midnight Hammer in Iran, you know, I think it was 125 aircraft used there.
So it was a very complex operation in terms of boots on the ground. And to what Alayna was saying earlier, I think this press conference was remarkable, but it was so alarming because if we're going to take over the country and we're going to, you know, so called run it, that is going to require boots on the ground.
And when you're talking about some of these oil fields that, you know, Donald Trump saying we're going to extract so much wealth from this country, I think this administration is almost assuming that we're going to be welcomed with open arms. And history shows that just is not the case. When you look at Libya and Iraq as some examples of the past.
And so absolutely, if we are going to so called run this country, I mean, what does that mean for U.S. boots on the ground? Are we running their courts? Are we overseeing their election procedures and system? Are we the law enforcement? How do we embed with local law enforcement on the ground?
I think what this press conference did was raise so many more questions than it did give answers. And frankly, if I am a member of Congress on either side of the party, I am alarmed. I am calling the White House asking for more details. I'm going to ask for hearings both closed and open on the American people to serve as accountability and answers.
And I think lastly what I'll say here is what is so remarkable about this press conference is that Donald Trump basically ran on the exact opposite of what he said, that we're going to extract ourselves from these endless wars. And what you saw today is pretty much flies in the face of what he ran on in 2024. So I'm interested to see how his base responds.
BLITZER: And it's interesting. I want to go to Kevin Liptak, our reporter who was there at the news conference. Kevin, you've been watching all of this unfold. And what also jumped out at me was how significant the President made the oil industry. And that's taking place right now in Venezuela. And that the U.S. is going to be getting a lot of money from that oil industry taking charge. He was suggesting repeatedly that the Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro had stolen the U.S. involvement in the oil. Take that money.
He wants that money for the United States because Venezuela does export a lot of oil right now. And that jumped out at me that one of the main reasons that he wants U.S. boots on the ground is to take charge of Venezuela's oil industry.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And we know that this has been kind of a fixation of the President throughout this entire pressure campaign. His mind has been, of course, on the drugs and the migrants, but it has been almost single handedly focused on the oil. And we've heard that from officials behind the scenes.
And of course, it has spilled out into public view as well. Venezuela obviously sitting on the world's largest proven oil reserves, but mostly not operating at capacity because the country is under so many world sanctions. And the President seeming to suggest that now that Maduro is gone and now that the U.S. is what the President described as running Venezuela, that could essentially be opened up.
But it was, you know, pretty striking. You know, I asked the President, you know, towards the end of this press conference, does he envision a prolonged American military presence on the ground in Venezuela? Because throughout it all, he was quite vague about what actually it meant for the U.S. to be running that country. And his answer was focused almost entirely on the oil.
And so I think if you were watching and perhaps concerned that the U.S. was now becoming, you know, embroiled in a foreign country, I'm not sure his answer there would have necessarily been reassuring.
But, you know, it was, I think, for the President quite a victorious moment. The mood over at Mar-a-Lago was one of celebration almost, but also, you know, seriousness about what the tasks will be ahead. It was a very small room. We saw the President's top national security advisor joined him there.
But, you know, I think for the President, we had a lot of information about what went into the planning for this and what it looked like on the ground, but not a whole lot of information about what happens next. I think that will be questions that the President will need to provide some answers for going forward.
[12:45:00]
BLITZER: Yes, there's going to be a lot of drama that's going to be unfolding. Beth Sanner, our CNN national security analyst, is with us. I know that at one point in your life, you worked in the U.S. intelligence community, and you were specifically paying attention to what? BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I mean, when I'm
looking at this, I am wondering. I think that there is probably a CIA team still on the ground, and there's kind of hints about that, what he said. But the idea that you can have a CIA team that is absolutely essential for conducting this operation, somehow being the remnants that's going to organize the rest of this regime change, I think is a huge leap.
How are we going to get from where we are today to this idea that he's put out here of Venezuela being this free and prosperous country? There is so much ground and so many assumptions being made. One of the things I wanted to add to the conversation is this idea that Maria Corina Machado is not popular in the country and will not be running the country.
That, to me, was a shocking statement for the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is the most popular person in the country, who is the only person who has united a very contentiously disparate opposition for the first time. And the dismissiveness that he stated that with was just kind of shocking to me.
So who are they working with on the ground?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it suggests that they actually --
SANNER: They picked somebody.
PEREZ: Well, they've made a deal with someone else.
SANNER: Right.
PEREZ: What that --
TREENE: He also said learning contact which to me was another huge. Because they. I will say the Trump administration has been in very close contact with Machado for months now.
SANNER: Exactly.
TREENE: About their plans, about what they believed the future of Venezuela should look like, about how to approach this. The fact that the president said that they are not in contact with her. One reporter actually asked, you know, do you even know where she is? Because she's not inside the country, inside Venezuela right now. He didn't answer that part of the question. That didn't --
BLITZER: He didn't even want her to come.
TREENE: He said that he was not in contact with her. That, to me, was one of the most shocking parts of that.
PEREZ: Instead, it appears Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, has actually talked to the current vice president, who has been sworn in as the leader of Venezuela right now. So again, that suggests that they've made a deal with other people to -- SANNER: Right.
PEREZ: -- be the interim government of Venezuela, which is a remarkable turn for the U.S. government, which obviously has held up Machado as the person.
BLITZER: Who also jumped out of me, Beth. And I just want your assessment?
SANNER: Yes.
BLITZER: He made it clear that the Trump administration decided not to share any information with the top leadership in the intelligence committees in the House and the Senate and the leadership. Because he said this is what Trump said and Marco Rubio said basically they were afraid that there would be leaks that would undermine the operation.
SANNER: Yes, I mean, it is pretty unprecedented to do this kind of operation with not without making a call, having a sit down with a Gang of Eight, even --
BLITZER: Gang of Eight, the top Democratic and Republican leadership in the intelligence community.
SANNER: In Armed Services and Intelligence committees.
BLITZER: Yes.
SANNER: And even if you can't do that, you would probably take just the top people and notify them in advance. The idea that you cannot trust Senator Thune, I mean, you know, come on. So I think that's a little odd.
SINGH: Well, I mean, you know, when we did operations, that was one of the things that we always did notify Congress. There is the concern of leaks, but something of this magnitude, this is not just a one off precision strike. This is -- this is a regime change.
And you know, we would do middle of the night notifications through a system called CapNet to Congress to notify these leaders. And sometimes we would have people get on the phone and do emergency briefs so they are read in. Even sometimes it does happen because these operations are so sensitive. It happens while the operation is ongoing.
We heard General Caine say that this operation was over two hours. So there was -- at no point was there a reason why Congress couldn't have been notified at that time. Yes, it was in the middle of the night. But these are people that represent American, you know, the American public, American interests.
And frankly, I know from having gone through experience with this when we did notify Congress about some of our operations well in advance, I mean, we faced a lot of heat for that and there were hearings. And I, you know, I do hope that Congress holds this administration's feet to the fire because they do deserve to know, and especially in an operation like this.
BLITZER: And so many of those, the Gang of Eight, as we call them, so many of those House Armed Services and Senate Armed Services, House Intelligence, Senate Intelligence Committee, they are all veterans. Almost all of them have a military background in which they were personally involved in sensitive, very sensitive classified operations.
TREENE: No, absolutely. And I think the word choice of Secretary Rubio was so important there.
[12:50:00]
He said that he immediate -- he notified members of Congress immediately after. So clearly making clear that it didn't happen before or during as Sabrina pointed out. And then he said it's just not the kind of mission that you can pre notify because it endangers the mission. That is not a line that is going to fly, I think with these members of Congress, particularly given the history. Some of these exact members, as you said, well, have been in this situation before where there have been very sensitive, very dangerous operations carried out. The expectation and really in the Constitution says you need to go to Congress first on a level of an operation of this.
BLITZER: Almost all of them have the highest security clearances as well.
TREENE: Right.
BLITZER: And they know that if they release this kind of sensitive information could endanger U.S. military lives. So they keep quiet. They keep silent. They don't want to talk about it because they have a lot of experience in that area.
Everybody stand by. We're just beginning our massive coverage of what's going on a huge operation. The President of the United States saying that the U.S. is going to take over Venezuela, whatever that means. We'll find out. I want to go back to Erin right now for more.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, well, I mean just an absolutely stunning moment to sit there. I'm sure anyone listening has that same reaction. Of course, just to keep in mind, some of the basics here matter. Venezuela has a population of 30 million people and now that is owned by the United States. Just to think about it from such a simple black and white set of numbers like that brings home the magnitude of this moment.
And I want to bring in Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, served on the House, serves on the House Armed Services Committee. Also a veteran himself of the Marine Corps and Congressman, I appreciate your time.
So the United States is now going to be administering a country of 30 million people of Venezuela. You just heard that hour long press conference. So let's just go with what's your reaction here? REP. SETH MOULTON (D) ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: I mean is anyone going
to just stop for a second and be honest? This is insane. What the hell are we doing? I mean we've got a lot of problems in America today and invading, occupying, running Venezuela does not solve any of them.
This is illegal, it's unjustified, it is not in our national interest and there seems to be no plan whatsoever for what happens next.
BURNETT: And to your point, the President actually I think would agree with that. He's not saying there's a plan other than that there's a group who's going to be running Venezuela. And when he referred, Congressman, he was asked by a reporter, the follow up, who is the group? His response was, well, they're largely behind me making a physical gesture.
All right. And physically behind him was Secretaries Rubio, Hegseth, CIA Director Ratcliffe, and Joint Chief Chairman General Caine. So these individuals are now running Venezuela. And that appears to be the plan other than what the President said, which is we're going to be taking a lot of wealth out of the ground, referring to U.S. oil companies going back into Venezuela.
MOULTON: Again, no plan. He hasn't even been able to say what the goals are. Let's -- let's recall that every step of the way, he's lied about what he's doing. He said that he's not doing regime change. This is exactly what he's done. He said this war was about the drugs. I think we all know that it's not going to stop drugs. He first said it was about fentanyl. Then it turns out fentanyl doesn't come from Venezuela.
He said it was about drugs coming to the United States, even though the cocaine from Venezuela goes largely to Europe. Every step of the way, he and Rubio have lied to the American people, lied to members of Congress about what's going on here. So maybe this is all about the oil and he's just trying to steal their oil.
But we don't know because we can't trust anything the President says.
BURNETT: I will also note just on the oil, just as, and this is something we're going to be delving into as the coverage continues here, obviously the Venezuelan oil, such that it is a heavy sour crude. The biggest buyer of it right now is China, up to 60 to 80 percent. So now you have the United States controlling oil that was going to China just to make the geopolitical potential implications extremely and excruciatingly clear here, Congressman.
Were you briefed on any of this? Rubio saying that right afterwards, they didn't trust Congress before because you guys would leak, but now, that they called afterwards. When did you find out?
MOULTON: I mean, let's just be clear. There's no instances of Congress leaking stuff, or at least not certainly the Armed Services Committee leaking things in recent memory. The Department of Defense, the Secretary of Defense himself, of course, has leaked classified information. So the issue is with -- the issues with leaks comes exactly from the
people standing behind the President. When we had briefings on Venezuela, we asked, are you going to invade the country? We were told no. Do you plan to put troops on the ground in Venezuela? We were told no. Do you intend regime change in Venezuela? We were told no.
So in a sense, we have been briefed. We've just been completely lied to.
BURNETT: Well, as you describe it, those would be obviously point blank lies.
[12:55:04]
OK, just take invasion here as one point. You know, obviously General Caine was laying out the minute by minute of what happened. President Trump was talking about that big steel door and how Maduro was trying to get through it. And the way Trump described it, he couldn't actually shut the door that they were able to snatch him before he was able to get into that safe area. So they were describing the actual raid itself.
Then they said, OK, as part of this General Caine laid out, Congressman, you heard this. 20 bases, that assets from 20 bases were involved in this. Over 150 aircraft which Sabrina Singh just laid out is actually 25 more than were used in the Iran operation.
What does the scale of this operation signal to you in both your role as Armed Services Committee, but also as a veteran?
MOULTON: It signals that the President is willing to put a lot of troops, a lot of young Americans and a lot of taxpayer dollars. I suspect, northward of a billion taxpayer dollars --
BURNETT: Wow.
MOULTON: -- into his little war of revenge here against Maduro. And this is all money, by the way, that he's not willing to spend to pay for your health care, that he's not willing to spend to make things more affordable here in America, that he's not willing to spend to actually pursue his America first agenda.
This is a lot of resources that we're putting into Venezuela that we're not putting into the United States right now.
BURNETT: Congressman, one other thing that the President said, I mean there were many, but there was something he said at the beginning which I want to come back to. And that was when he specifically and explicitly brought up the Monroe Doctrine. Right. Which was the doctrine set up that gave the United States control over this hemisphere, right, and that he was going to reassert that. And then he called it the Donroe Doctrine, obviously playing off of his own name.
What do you think is really at stake here, Congressman Moulton? If you look at any country in this hemisphere and say what is more of a potential spark point, it would be hard to find one more than Venezuela, where I just mentioned China is the biggest buyer of the oil. Russia also has a notable presence.
MOULTON: It just means once again the President is showing that under his so called leadership, you cannot trust the United States. You know, when I was in the ground and in the on the ground in Iraq, our Marine general, General Mattis had a saying for the Marine division. Our motto was no better friend, no worst enemy. That meant that you took being an ally of the United States Marines seriously. You also took being an enemy of the United States Marines, seriously. Our allies could trust us to be by their side. Our enemies could trust us to be against them.
Well, we don't know what that means anymore because Putin is our friend, according to Trump. And yet Maduro, who poses no imminent national security threat to the United States, is an enemy worth committing American troops to. Our allies in Europe don't trust us. We're pulling out of Asia, where we should be there, preventing a war with China.
We are all over the place, and that's why this is so insane. And it's also worth saying that the parallels with Iraq are unmistakable. You know, Bush said there was WMD in Iraq. Turns out that was a lie. Trump just made up fentanyl being WMD, which doesn't even come from Venezuela, just to justify this war.
We said that this wasn't about regime change, but it is. We said we would be in and out of Iraq. Same with Venezuela. We were in Iraq for 20 years. Now we're going to run Venezuela. And at the end of the day, the cost is your taxpayer money and the lives of American troops put on the line for a president's whim. This is not in our national interest. It's not what we should be doing. And that's why it's got to stop.
BURNETT: Congressman Moulton, I very much appreciate your time and a crucial point you raised there. Of course, if the standard is fentanyl and other drugs, the United States, I guess by that logic, would be taking over other countries, including we could go anywhere.
MOULTON: We could go in.
BURNETT: I appreciate your time in this very crucial and sober moment. I want to be joined now by CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh. Nick, into this giant vacuum of power which is the United States of America now in charge, ostensibly Trump and his leadership team in charge of a country now with 30 million additional people.
You are doing reporting, have had a chance to speak to some of the, well, I guess the question is, what are they now leaders in Venezuela? What are you finding out?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN Chief International Security Correspondent: Look, I mean, it is fascinating to pick apart exactly what President Trump said there. He said, we will run Venezuela. But he later went on to seemingly explain a bit more the mechanism.
He said that his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, stood behind him, had a long conversation with somebody, Delcy Rodriguez, the vice president of Nicolas Maduro, essentially his deputy, and I quote here Rubio had a conversation with her. She is willing to do what we need to make Venezuela great again.
[13:00:00]
Essentially suggesting Trump went on to clarify that Delcy Rodriguez, the vice president, has in fact been sworn in now as president of the --
