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Trump to Speak on Venezuela Strikes and Capture of President Maduro. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired January 03, 2026 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:59:40]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to bring back our panel of experts right now. CNN White House reporter Alayna Treene is with us, CNN global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh, CNN national security analyst Beth Sanner, and CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk.
Alayna, let me begin with you. What else are you hearing from officials at the White House right now?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. Look, I mean, clearly the president and his team are very happy with this operation. It was very precise. It was able to be kept under wraps, of course, the way that they wanted it. And they were able to execute it successfully.
The president said there were no casualties. There were some who were injured. We're going to hear a lot more, of course, whenever the president takes the stage momentarily.
A few things that we actually heard from the president himself though. He did a phone interview. He called into Fox News this morning that I found fascinating.
One, he said that he was watching this in real time. He actually said it felt like watching a television show. But he was, of course, giving you know, the due credit to all of the people involved in this.
And then he was also talking about next steps, and we briefly were discussing this, but I think that's really the big question of where things go now, because that has been a huge focus of the Trump administration.
Of course, you have the military, the CIA, intelligence -- all of that working on the actual operation of this. But then the bigger question was, once that is done, what are the next steps? And to make sure that this isn't just successful in the short term, but in the long term. And that's really the conversations that have been going on, we're told, since mid-December.
One thing that's also interesting as well is this attack or this operation was really supposed to take place a couple of days ago. The president confirmed this. We reported this morning that they wanted to do this four or five days ago and potentially even as early as on Christmas Day. But then the president had ordered some of those strikes in Nigeria.
And so they delayed this until today. The president said there was also waiting to have perfect weather for this operation, which he said they ended up having when they went in.
So a successful operation from that standpoint. But a lot of questions over what this means moving forward and the implications more broadly.
BLITZER: Sabrina, you're the former deputy press secretary at the Pentagon. What are you hearing from your sources now about the next steps? What should we be bracing for?
SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, a few people that I've spoken to, you know, have touted that this operation was a great success and they're very proud of what they were able to accomplish.
I think there are a lot of remaining questions of what does U.S. military involvement look like? You know, we have some, you know, 15,000 troops stationed off the coast of Venezuela. Donald Trump, I think we all know very, very candidly that this was never about, you know, just stopping narco terrorism or drugs coming out of Venezuela. It was always about a regime change.
But what happens to those assets in the Caribbean? Do they stay there? I mean, we have pulled assets out of the Indo-Pacific. We have pulled assets out of U.S. Central Command in the Middle East. So what is the long-term goal in Venezuela?
And I think that's actually a question that Congress doesn't even know the answers to. And so Congress is going to have to play a role here as well. I mean, they're going to be back on Monday, I think, with a lot of questions for this administration.
But in terms of just the asset and sort of what is the placement of our assets look like, not just outside of Venezuela, but globally. Does anything change now that Maduro has gone from power?
I think a lot remains to be seen. And that's what a lot of the people that I've been speaking to is what remains for this mission now.
BLITZER: You know, it's interesting when the president said, Brett, and you've been in the White House Situation Room on many occasions during these similar kinds of live events, a lot of these military personnel go in with body cameras and other technical devices, so that the president and officials in Washington can monitor what's going on. He says it was like watching a television show.
Give us a little background on that.
BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Usually what I've seen, Wolf, if you're usually watching overhead imagery, you're getting direct reports from both the field and from the chain of command, which is the president, the Secretary of Defense, and then to the theater commanders. You're getting real time reports of what is happening. You would have a report of when they enter the building, when they
enter a room, when they actually capture Maduro. So you're hearing it unfold in real time. That's likely what the president was saying.
I have to say, I've always been in the Situation Room for those types of those types of operations. I'm not quite sure how they have that set up in Mar-a-Lago.
But that's what you would have had. You would have had the chain of command plugged in directly to the president and giving him a kind of a blow-by-blow, literally and figuratively, of what is happening in real time.
BLITZER: Did the Trump administration, Beth, send a message to other U.S. adversaries right now -- Russia, Iran, for example, North Korea who knows, China -- about what the U.S. is capable of doing with this military action against Venezuela?
BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I mean, it definitely shows that the Trump administration is willing to conduct very audacious, bold operations. This is so much more involved than our strike against Iran, where, you know, very much from afar.
We had boots on the ground here, right. And so this was a much riskier, of course, closer to home and easier to operationalize. But this is a whole different matter in terms of what the United States is willing to do to see somebody in power that, you know, is illegitimate -- was not legitimately elected -- and taking them out. So it certainly sends a message.
But, you know, our ability to project this in the Asia Pacific is a completely different story. And our willingness to do that, I think also is something that's quite different.
[11:04:53]
SANNER: So, we'll have to see here how they react. But certainly for the short term, I would say were showing resolve and deterrence in terms of our adversaries.
BLITZER: Certainly a very dramatic moment right now in U.S. military and intelligence history. We're watching all of this unfold.
Everybody stand by. I want to go to New York, Erin Burnett is monitoring this. Erin, you and I have covered these kinds of stories for many years. Give us a little bit more background.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, wolf, obviously, it's a stunning moment and one that perhaps is not surprising to people given the setup and given, as our reporting shows, that this has been in the works since mid-December.
But still a stunning moment nonetheless, a moment that all Americans are now dealing with the uncertainty and questions of what comes next.
And in Caracas, Venezuela, where the U.S. carried out that large strike, we do have a reporter on the ground today. Journalist Mary Mena, on the ground for us.
Mary, just incredible that you're there. And with all of these questions, you know, where you stand obviously, it looks idyllic. I see the mountains, you know, the breeze. It looks beautiful. And yet you're in a country that that is in chaos and disarray in an incredible way.
What exactly are you seeing there? I know you've been on the streets. I know you have a feel for exactly how this is landing in Venezuela right now.
MARY MENA, JOURNALIST: Yes, there's mixed feelings there from Venezuelans. Some people have decided to stay at home, and that is why we are seeing empty streets and highways in Caracas mostly.
And with the reports from other cities in Venezuela with the same situation, most people are being very cautiously following the news, but trying to stay at home as much as possible.
Some people have decided to go to pharmacies, supermarkets bracing for the coming days. And some others, mostly the loyal, the supporters of President Nicolas Maduro they are approaching to the presidential palace.
The government has implemented a plan. They -- we need to remember that they were expecting some scenario similar to this one. Even President Nicolas Maduro himself says in public appearances that this was possible that he was taken out.
But the direction is for the people of Venezuela and especially his supporters, to stay in the streets. We are not seeing large gathering of people. We need to say that. A group of people, mostly supporters, government officials, members of the several entities close to the government that are approaching to the presidential palace in Caracas today.
But mostly it's a quiet Saturday -- unique, unprecedented for Venezuelan history.
BURNETT: And Mary, let me just ask you a question, because I know when you've seen on the ground, obviously it's a situation where you know, in a sense, lawlessness is part of the norm. And what you're seeing now, the quiet is what is so abnormal.
But are there gang presences on the streets? Are there checkpoints? Is there is there anything that would indicate the response to this with this now vacuum?
MENA: Yes. Mostly when you try to go to the west of the city, the west of the city concentrates the main government buildings. And that is why that area of the city remains more checked by authorities.
The members of the military forces, according to the ministry of defense are deployed -- massively deployed, he said. And also they said they are -- established a state of emergency. So we don't know what that exactly means. They are asking for a proof
of life of Nicolas Maduro. And in the coming hours, they say, we will know the aftermath of this.
They are saying some people might be killed in the incidents, but they don't reveal any details. They failed to provide more information of the extent of the damage caused by this kinetic (ph) strikes, or the amount of people injured or killed.
BURNETT: All right. Mary, thank you very much. We're going to be going back to you, of course, through the day -- sort of the shock and the silence after the shock. And then the real question, what is going to happen?
And around the world, we were getting immediate reactions. One of the first actually came in from Moscow, where the Russians were demanding an immediate explanation as to what was happening, with obviously a significant both Russian and Chinese involvement in Venezuela.
I'm joined now by Nick Paton Walsh, who is in London, our chief international security correspondent.
Nick, you know, I mean, it is pretty stunning to see what is -- what is happening. And obviously you're seeing, you know, some celebrations by Venezuelan expatriates who may have already, you know, fled the state, right, in places like Florida and Miami, you know, those who are celebrating or celebrating.
But around the world, a stunning moment, as I said, even though perhaps not surprising, it is still shocking and shocking to Moscow and to Beijing. What is the reaction that you're hearing?
[11:09:46]
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I mean, certainly surprising, I think, for anyone to awake today and see a sitting president removed by U.S. Special Forces from what should be his fortified capital.
We have in the last minutes been hearing from the Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, saying in a statement that she believes Venezuelans should now enforce the mandate they got in the elections, which they say they won legitimately recently.
And indeed, that the winner of that, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia should become the legitimate president of Venezuela and that the Armed Forces, importantly, should indeed back him.
Now, that's key because she is essentially, if you paraphrase here, calling for a popular uprising to continue or finish the job of removing the Maduro regime from power. Remember, Maduro's departure from the country does not necessarily mean that those below him relinquish their grip on power.
And President Trump has been clear that they're continuing to discuss exactly what indeed happens next. And indeed, he said, the future will be bad for those who remain loyal to Maduro.
But across the region where clearly this Trump White House is trying to exercise greater power in the western hemisphere, there is a mixed reaction.
Predictable Trump allies like Argentina's Javier Milei saying that this was freedom advances. Long live freedom (INAUDIBLE).
Ecuador's Daniel Noboa saying that this was a time. The time is now coming for all the narco Chavista criminals and that their structure will completely collapse across the entire continent.
Though Mexico's leader, more critical. Colombia's president, starkly critical. China, obviously an ally of Venezuela to a limited extent, talking about they are being deeply shocked and strongly condemning the U.S.' blatant use of force here. And indeed Brazil as well, talking about a dangerous precedent for the entire international community.
So a shock, I think, across southern America to see this stalwart, frankly, of authoritarian power in the region suddenly vanish and that announcement of his departure appear in a 74-word tweet or Truth Social post from the president.
We will learn more details about this going forward, but it's important to look now on the day-after planning. We'll surely hear from President Trump further details, frankly relayed with some degree of excitement, it seems in an interview with Fox News about exactly how this meticulous and very efficient operation went down.
But it's what comes next that really matters. Do they have the planning to potentially assist Machado in the opposition to seize power? Are they negotiating with the more moderate elements of the Maduro regime for their departure, or some kind of detente?
The hardliners under Maduro now step forward and try and seek a stronger grip on what remains of power there. Or has that extraordinary exercise of U.S. military power over the skies of Caracas changed many minds and perhaps eroded the loyalty of the military there?
Questions that the Trump administration will hopefully have tried to answer prior to launching something as unprecedented as this. And one hopefully that President Trump will be able to provide more clarity for in the minutes ahead, Erin.
BURNETT: Yes, absolutely. Hoping for clarity on all of that. I mean, just a stunning moment to think that Nicolas Maduro and his wife right now are en route to New York, where the Justice Department has filed this indictment.
I mean, it is it is a truly incredible thing to think about. And an important moment that we are living through right now.
Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much from London. As we are monitoring what else you see on our screen. Of course, that
is the podium at Mar-a-Lago, where President Trump will momentarily -- it could be any moment could have started, as early as 11:00 Eastern. So perhaps they're in their final preparations discussing. This is going to be an address to the nation any moment in Palm Beach.
Let's send it back to you, Wolf, as we are awaiting -- everyone's in that room and waiting for the president to speak.
BLITZER: Yes, we're all waiting. He says he's going to be providing more information. He's going to be joined by the Defense Secretary and military generals as well. Let's see who shows up.
I want to bring in our White House reporter, Alayna Treene, who's getting some new reporting for us. What are you learning?
TREEN: Yes. That's right. So I was speaking with some of my sources this morning, and this just goes to the extent of how long this operation was in the making.
They told me that the CIA had actually installed a small team inside Venezuela in the summer that really began tracking all of his patterns, including his movements, his whereabouts. And that helped, of course, bolster the intelligence they had about where he would be exactly when this operation happened, where he would be sleeping.
This is what one of the sources told me. They said, quote, "The CIA covertly inserted a small team into Venezuela in the summer that was able to provide deep insight into Maduro's pattern of life, which made it possible to snatch him so easily when the time came."
All of this again, just showing how long this has really been an operation that they were laying the groundwork for, Wolf, if this was going, of course, back to the summer.
The other thing that I wanted to make clear here as well, is that, you know, this was an FBI team that really led a lot of these efforts that went in and actually helped capture Maduro and his family.
[11:14:49]
TREENE: And we're going to see them apparently in court, potentially as early as next week. We're still waiting to hear on the next steps on that.
But I think if you look at what the CIA has done, what the intelligence has done, all of that also made possible by what the president did earlier this year and essentially giving broad authorities and new capabilities to the CIA to operate with these covert actions both inside Venezuela and Latin America more broadly.
BLITZER: I'm sure that the Pentagon officials, and you're a former deputy Pentagon press secretary, will be asked if this was legal from the U.S. --
SINGH: Yes. BLITZER: -- point of view, an act of war in effect. There was no legislation passed in Congress. What's the reaction?
SINGH: Well, you'll remember, you know, just a month ago, I think it was when Secretary Rubio, Hegseth, I think Ratcliffe, all went up to the Hill and briefed members of Congress. I think it was Lindsey Graham that said, you know, there's no intention for regime change. And if they want to do something like that, they'd have to seek congressional approval for it to be legal.
I think, and I hope what you're going to see from the president is what are the legal ramifications and what were they operating under? I think you're going to see some justification from this administration. But I think Congress has a lot of questions on the use of military force.
And additionally to what Alayna was just saying. I mean, Donald Trump did give broad authorization for the CIA to start operating in Venezuela in the summer. And I think to what Beth was saying earlier, I mean, this was an operation that had boots on the ground, which made this so different from what we saw in Iran.
I mean, many things could have gone wrong. And I think the operation that we saw taking place in the early hours of this morning is that it did limit collateral damage. This was a very elite team that went in and was able to seize Maduro and his wife, of course.
But that wouldn't have been able to have been done if not for the CIA assets that you had on the ground, and you know, likely sources within the Maduro regime as well, that ultimately led for his capture.
BLITZER: The fact that the U.S. could go in in the middle of the night, 1:30 a.m. --
SINGH: Right.
BLITZER: -- the president of Venezuela is sleeping. His wife is sleeping -- go in, not just get into that presidential residence, but also make it their way up to the bedroom and take these two into custody. That's pretty dramatic.
SINGH: It's dramatic. And, you know, it's funny that President Trump was saying it's like watching TV. It does seem so cinematic in this moment. And I think, you know, under another administration, I think you'd see the president come out and talk about this.
And then you'd see the Secretary of Defense come out and explain the operation. And as you know, when we've talked about this, you know, we don't have a typical press corps that's in the Pentagon right now. We don't have a typical press -- would brief press right now. But, you know, some of the things that I want to know are what are (AUDIO GAP) were there injuries? You know, Donald Trump mentioned that some of the operators were injured.
So, you know, I have a lot of outstanding questions and I'm sure so do the American public and Congress. And we're not -- we're not getting all those answers that we would usually get.
BLITZER: The president will be making an opening statement and then answering reporters' questions. So hopefully we'll get some answers to all those questions that remain outstanding right now.
BLITZER: Zach Cohen is joining us right now. Zach, I understand you're getting some new reporting.
ZACH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. That's right. Just piggybacking on what Alayna was saying, our reporting is not only did the CIA have that small team on the ground in Venezuela tracking Maduro's movements since at least August, but the level of planning that was happening here for months has been done at the most senior levels within the Trump administration.
Sources telling me that Secretary of Defense Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller, a top White House aide, as well as CIA director John Ratcliffe has been working on this issue and this issue for months now (AUDIO GAP) since earlier this summer and briefing the president on (AUDIO GAP).
You know, we reported back in September that the goal here, as far as the administration was concerned, was to remove Maduro from power. Now, the preference at that point was for Maduro to effectively leave on his own, to read the tea leaves. That's what I was told by a source who was briefed at that time.
But the source said the administration was prepared to, quote, "do this the hard way". And I think that's what we effectively saw play out in the early morning hours today. And we saw this elite unit, this Delta Force unit, carry out this operation.
I want to just give a little insight into what this unit is all about. This is one of the most elite units within the U.S. Special Operations, you know, infrastructure. It was part of a several of the most infamous operations in recent memory, including the one made famous by the movie "Black Hawk Down". It was also involved in the operation that ultimately led to the capture of Panamanian leader Noriega. And that's -- that case and that operation is something Trump administration officials are pointing to as similar. And what the setting a precedent for this mission that targeted Maduro as well.
So a lot of planning, a lot of conversations leading up to this point. But ultimately, what we heard early on months ago about the ultimate goal here, this ultimate goal of removing Maduro from power, does seem to have come to fruition.
BLITZER: Yes. Certainly does.
[11:19:42]
BLITZER: He's aboard the USS Iwo Jima right now, U.S. Navy battleship making their way towards New York, where he will, in the coming days, wind up before a federal judge on these conspiracy charges, narco terrorism conspiracy charges that have now been filed against him and his wife, Cilia Flores. I want to go to our contributor, Stefano Pozzebon, right now. Stefano, I know you've reported extensively on Maduro from Venezuela over the years. Bring our viewers up to speed on how he actually ruled the country. And what do you anticipate the likely reaction inside Venezuela will be to his capture and his being headed towards this New York court?
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, indeed, Wolf. Well, you can question the legality of the operation, but you cannot feel for the millions of Venezuelans who mostly around the world, are celebrating for the capture, the detention of a person who was effectively an authoritarian leader who ruled this country with an iron fist for pretty much the last 13 years.
So Wolf, I'm saying out of the country because in fact, inside the country, inside Venezuela, not much has changed. The government structure is still in place. The vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, is operating as acting head of state, and they are demanding through the United Nations for an immediate return of Nicolas Maduro to his country. Of course, rejecting and denying all of these allegations of drug trafficking.
And that's why I think that you've seen that not many people are out in the streets of Caracas, perhaps celebrating or taking to the streets, because there is a climate of tension and fear, as always, it happens in an authoritarian, anti-democratic country.
But Maduro, make no mistake, is a person that has been under scrutiny for his records on human -- on human rights for over ten years. We have reports of extrajudicial killings and unprecedented violence in repressing the street protests in both 2014, 2017, 2019 to try to convince him to go via democratic ways.
This is a person that last year lost squarely an election and yet refused to concede his loss and simply waltzed his way into power, simply shrugged off the claims from the opposition that was sustained by the publication of voting ballot acts that the opposition had actually won that election in 2024. And Maduro simply pretended that nothing happened and he won once again.
So you can definitely understand the concern that the type of unprecedented action from the United States is raising around the world. The United Nations have, for example, issued a statement saying that there are concerning implications around the action from Washington in taking a sitting head of state and removing it from power and taking it to a foreign country in handcuffs.
However, we're still talking about one of the most anti-democratic and most brutal, and strongman, at least in the Americas, that is now out of power.
What happens now in Venezuela, however, is a different thing because, as my colleagues were correctly pointing out. Here, the objective was to remove Maduro from power, not to create a regime change in Venezuela. The opposition has issued a statement calling for their candidate in
the 2024 election to be installed into power. That will be long-time diplomat called Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who is currently in Madrid, Spain and would be ready to pick up power as a transition president perhaps towards a new democratic Venezuela.
But it is far from happening. Right now, the power remains pretty much in the hands -- and strongly in the hands of the Venezuelan military that up until today was loyal to Nicolas Maduro. And by the look of it today, are standing by Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez.
There will be definitely some power struggle and some moves in the power circuits in Caracas, especially with the different members of his government realigning themselves around whoever will pick up the baton from Maduro himself.
But the government doesn't appear to be on the brink of falling down. And nor, for example, the hundreds of political prisoners, including at least five U.S. citizens that have been detained in recent weeks in Venezuela, used as a tactic normally to negotiate as pawns in negotiations with the U.S.
That is one of the other tactics that Maduro has employed in the past in maintaining himself into power for so long. Well, that was a tactic that was -- that had allowed him to remain in power up until today with this truly unprecedented and surprisingly shocking action from the United States, Wolf.
[11:24:52]
BLITZER: Stefano Pozzebon, who has reported from Venezuela over the years, thank you very, very much. We'll get back to you.
I want to bring in our panel. We're waiting to hear directly from the president of the United States, Beth-Sanner. We're supposed to start what -- about 25 minutes or so ago. He's running a little bit late.
I wonder if he's getting new information he wants to share with our viewers here in the United States and indeed around the world. People are watching.
SANNER: Absolutely. I think he's probably also trying to figure out, as we were just talking about, what are these next steps and how to frame that for the American people? What role Congress will play in this?
There is a lot to be figured out here, and I wanted to pick up on one point about these Americans who are imprisoned --
BLITZER: Five Americans.
SANNER: -- at least five in the current -- in the current batch, you know, we negotiated two other releases earlier this year in this revolving door. But these people are reporting the ones that have been released in the past that they were treated -- they were beaten regularly. They were given, you know, barely edible food, dirty water. I mean, so there is definitely a case to be made here about the human
rights violations against the Venezuelan people writ large, but also about American citizens and how they have been treated.
And we still have these five people in jail somewhere in the prison system inside Venezuela right now and we have to be worried about what happens to them. Will there be retribution against them in the coming hours and days?
BLITZER: Yes. And the State Department had warned Americans stay out of Venezuela for the time being, right?
SANNER: Exactly. But one of these gentlemen that was picked up apparently was picked up on the other side of the border inside Colombia, a surfer, and he was nabbed by the Venezuelans and brought back into Venezuela.
So, you know, this is not a regime we should -- we should have no love lost here with this regime.
BLITZER: And we'll see what happens next with this new regime. There's a vice president that's taking over Delcy Rodriguez.
SANNER: Right.
BLITZER: We'll see how that unfolds as well --
SANNER: Exactly.
BLITZER: -- now that Maduro is on his way to a court in New York City, where he's going to be charged with conspiracy, narco terrorism conspiracy --
SANNER: Right.
BLITZER: -- specifically.
Alayna, let me get back to what you're hearing -- what else are you hearing from the White House right now?
TREENE: Yes. Look, I think one of the big things is going to be them laying out the legal justification for a lot of this, particularly because they had vowed multiple times, you know, informally, I should say I guess.
But the president, as well as the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, had kind of implicitly said that they were going to alert Congress before striking inside Venezuela.
And you've seen a myriad of responses today from Republicans and Democrats alike on social media. Many of them angered that they weren't briefed on this. We know that Senator Marco Rubio or, excuse me, former senator, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been calling around to lawmakers today following this operation, alerting them to a lot of this. And what I've been told in my conversations with my sources, we've
seen some of this posted online from what some of the lawmakers who have spoken with Rubio said, is that they are saying that it was the Article Two under the constitution that has provided the legal basis for the administration for this, but it's going to be very, I think, important to hear from the president.
I'm sure we're going to see some other officials as well, potentially Rubio, maybe Defense Secretary Hegseth. We'll have to see who actually joins Trump at this press conference momentarily.
But they're really -- they're going to need to kind of explain themselves here. And if he doesn't do it in this press conference, it's definitely going to be something they need to explain after the fact.
And I know a lot of lawmakers as well, just from the people I've been talking to, from my old sources on the Hill saying that they are very much expecting and demanding a full briefing on what happened today.
BLITZER: Has the top leadership in the House and the Senate, Democrats and Republicans on the Intelligence Committee and elsewhere -- the majority leader, the minority leaders, have they formally been briefed as they're supposed to be briefed on sensitive intelligence matters?
TREENE: You mean relating to this operation?
BLITZER: Yes.
TREENE: I'm not sure. I haven't seen that yet. What I have seen is, you know, a scathing statement from someone like Senator Mark Warner. He is you know, on the Intelligence Committee, the ranking --
BLITZER: The ranking Democrat.
TREENE: -- Democrat, exactly. He sent a scathing statement on this this morning. We've heard from a lot of other members on, you know, the rightful committees, the Intelligence Committee, the Foreign Services Committee, et cetera, essentially making clear that they did not.
So I think we're still -- I'm still learning that at least at this moment in time. But I know that they are expecting at least a briefing soon.
BLITZER: We'll see what happens on that front.
Evan Perez is with us as well. You're getting more information on these criminal charges that Maduro and his wife are now facing.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I mean, this is, obviously the other -- the other precedent that we're looking at here is the 1990 capture of Manuel Noriega, the president of Panama. That operation was not as seamless as this one.
[11:29:47] PEREZ: If you remember, the U.S. invaded, and it took a few weeks while he was holed up in the Vatican embassy before he surrendered on this date exactly, on January 3rd of 1990 is when he surrendered. And that led to a legal battle.
And so that's what we're expecting to see here with Nicolas Maduro. One of the things that obviously this is a -- these are criminal charges that are being filed against him, but he is the president of Venezuela, and he is likely to argue that he is entitled to be treated as that.
And so that means that he's going to be treated -- if he wins that fight -- he will be treated as a prisoner of war. That gives him some additional legal rights inside the U.S. system. And so we'll see how he goes forward on this.
But one of the things that we've -- our team has been learning, including Natasha Bertrand and some of our other team who've been reporting on this, is that they've been relying on this 1989 OLC opinion. This is an Office of Legal Counsel opinion from the Justice Department, which, overruled an earlier opinion.
Essentially what the Justice Department said in this opinion is that the FBI has the jurisdiction, has the right, if ordered by the president, to carry out an arrest on foreign soil, if, in contravention of international law, if the president says so.
And so that's one of the things we anticipate that the president and the administration is going to explain, that they have the authority to send in the U.S. military to carry out this operation. The FBI, the Hostage Rescue Team was part of this operation. They captured, and they brought him on to the Iwo Jima. And now they are trying to move him to New York.
The logistics of that are not that simple. Obviously, he's on a military ship. It's a little distance away from New York, so they have to figure out how to get him from there to New York. They're probably going to fly him to a U.S. base somewhere in the Caribbean, and then transfer him.
All of that is being done as we speak, Wolf. We expect that he could be in court -- Alayna, I think you've heard this as well -- that he could be in court as soon as Monday morning, and then we'll see this process begin where he's going to answer these charges related to narco trafficking that the U.S. says he's been participating in for decades.
BLITZER: The southern district of New York has been filing these charges --
PEREZ: Right.
BLITZER: -- against him. I'm just curious. Once he gets these charges against him, will he be out on bail? Will he be taken to a U.S. jail? What happens? PEREZ: No. No. He will not be allowed to go free. I don't anticipate
obviously, that's something that a judge will have to decide. I don't get to make that decision.
But yes, we expect that he is going to be held most likely at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. This is a high security federal prison, a jail that where a lot of high-profile people have been held. And that's where it's most likely he is going to be held alongside, by the way, some of the cartel members from that have been brought there to New York in the last few years.
And which the U.S. says Maduro has been actively helping, not only helping them bring drugs from South America through Mexico to the United States, but also helping them launder those proceeds over the last decades.
BLITZER: All right. We'll see what happens. A lot of drama will unfold, to be sure.
Evan, thank you very, very much.
I want to get back to Erin in New York, Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Wolf. And as we're awaiting the president. As Wolf just said, the president's now about a half an hour late from the anticipated address in Mar-a-Lago, where we've been showing you the images, the press have been gathered in there now for well over half an hour. And so -- but we're awaiting the president.
Now, he did just post something on his own social media site. I want to show it to you. It is an image of Nicolas Maduro in custody. So President Trump just posting this image. We have just cleared it here.
So let me keep it up and explain this to you. He is putting this out and saying, this is Nicolas Maduro in custody. And as we just take a look at what he's wearing from the sunglasses, the thing around his neck, the water bottle, what he's wearing. Let's just keep this up.
I want to bring in "The New York Times" White House and chief national correspondent David Sanger. David, this is an incredible moment. Obviously, you have been covering moments analogous to this for decades.
But let's just look at this image that President Trump has just posted. And when we pull out, it's almost like as if it's a sweatshirt and some sort of a tied sweatpants hastily put together.
What do you see in this image of Nicolas Maduro that President Trump has just posted?
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it is remarkable and sort of reminds you of the photographs of Saddam when he was first grabbed. Noriega in 1989, when he came out of Panama.
[11:34:44] SANGER: Clearly Maduro was not planning to spend his evening the way that he was. And you see him there in what's -- what looks like sweatpants and so forth, holding his water bottle, but also his handcuffs on.
You know, I think this is going to raise all kinds of interesting issues. You just heard from Evan the legal pretext, and he has been under indictment since 2020. So I think the administration will lean heavily into enforcing that indictment and putting him in front of a judge.
But the president has made clear, in many different ways, that this is more -- about more than just drugs and Maduro. It is about access to oil. The president had a Truth Social on that a few weeks ago, where he demanded that the U.S. get restored rights that it had to that oil years ago.
It's about regime change. If you go into the president's national security strategy, you see something called the Trump Corollary that basically asserts that the United States has the right to go in and clean up governments that are causing disruption or threat within the region.
So it'll be interesting to see which one of these the president leans on.
BURNETT: And also, you know, when we look at an image like this, and I think your perspective here of talking about Saddam Hussein, right, Noriega. You know, when you look at an image like this, right, this is the first image. This now is an image that is going to stand for something.
And of course, we do anticipate seeing Maduro and his wife, his son, as they call him, the prince, you know, appearing in New York, right. We're going to see them in coming days, we expect. But we haven't seen him yet. So this is all there is for the world to look at.
How does an image like this land with Xi Jinping, with Vladimir Putin, with you know, in autocracies and dictatorships around the world that are looking at this moment as perhaps a crucial precedent for where we are headed? What does this image and what do they see in it, David?
SANGER: Great question, Erin. I mean, on the one hand, it shows the ability of the United States to get through multiple layers of security and grab an authoritarian leader. So that's the downside for them.
But I think the more they think about it, the more they may give thought to what the precedent enables them to do.
I mean, if it turns out that the United States can get away with doing this, could President Putin attempt this with President Zelenskyy, who he has declared is a, you know, a criminal?
Could, China's leaders do this with the president of Taiwan, which China has declared as a breakaway province. So I think on the one hand, it shows you the huge reach of the
American military. On the other hand, it creates a precedent others could well abuse.
BURNETT: And there's also, of course, the deliberate -- to show his disarray, his chaos, his lack of looking presidential or in charge.
SANGER: Yes.
BURNETT: Right? His sweatpants. It's a humiliating image and obviously purposefully so. They're sending that message on purpose.
David, in that context --
(CROSSTALK)
SANGER: He didn't forget his sunglasses, though.
BURNETT: Right. Right.
I mean, and I may -- perhaps there's a story -- a story behind that, but almost the sweatpants, like, half pulled up. They don't even appear to be up on his waist all the way.
SANGER: Yes.
BURNETT: David, just looking at the clock here. Eastern time right now, 11:37 in the morning. We had anticipated the president speaking at 11:00 a.m. Eastern at Mar-a-Lago.
And obviously, these things can shift on time, right? So that -- that isn't --
SANGER: Sure.
BURNETT: -- abnormal in and of itself. But we are almost 40 minutes past the time. What do you think could be happening in that time? You know, obviously Wolf's group has been discussing and Alayna has been reporting on possibly new information coming in or who's going to be present.
But what do you think this 40-minute delay could mean?
SANGER: Well, first, we don't know. But we have some guesses. The president in an earlier appearance on Fox said that they would be revealing some details of the operation, but not all details. And they may well be debating which ones they are going to release and which ones they are not. Obviously, there's a propaganda element to that, as there is with the release of this photograph.
Second, I think the president's got to figure out which of the explanations he leans on here.
And thirdly, I think he's got to go figure out what does he tell his MAGA base that was already worried that he was spending too much time on this? BURNETT: Oh here. Here he is. He is walking out right now. The president of the United States, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is with him. Let's listen in.
[LIVE EVENT]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much.
And we appreciate you being here. Late last night and early today, at my direction the United States Armed Forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela.
[11:39:50]
TRUMP: Overwhelming American military power -- air, land and sea was used to launch a spectacular assault. And it was an assault like people have not seen since World War II.
It was a force against a heavily-fortified military fortress in the heart of Caracas to bring outlaw dictator Nicolas Maduro to justice. This was one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history.
And if you think about it, we've done some other good ones, like the attack on Soleimani, the attack on al-Baghdadi, and the obliteration and decimation of the Iran nuclear sites just recently, in an operation known as Midnight Hammer all perfectly executed and done.
No nation in the world could achieve what America achieved yesterday, or frankly, in just a short period of time. All Venezuelan military capacities were rendered powerless as the men and women of our military, working with U.S. law enforcement successfully captured Maduro in the dead of night.
It was dark, the lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have. It was dark and it was deadly.
But captured along with his wife, Cilia flores, both of whom now face American justice. Maduro and Flores have been indicted in the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, for their campaign of deadly narco terrorism against the United States and its citizens.
I want to thank the men and women of our military who achieved such an extraordinary success overnight with breathtaking speed, power, precision and competence.
You rarely see anything like it. You've seen some raids in this country that didn't go so well. They were an embarrassment.
If you look back to Afghanistan or if you look back to the Jimmy Carter days, they were different days. We're a respected country again like, maybe like never before.
These highly trained warriors operating in collaboration with U.S. law enforcement, caught them in a very ready position. They were waiting for us. They knew we had many ships out in the sea. Were just sort of waiting. They knew we were coming, so they were in a ready -- what's called a ready position.
But they were completely overwhelmed and very quickly incapacitated. If you would have seen what I saw last night, you would have been very impressed. I'm not sure that you'll ever get to see it, but it was an incredible thing to see.
Not a single American service member was killed, and not a single piece of American equipment was lost. We had many helicopters, many planes, many -- many people involved in that fight.
But think of that. Not one piece of military equipment was lost. Not one service member was, more importantly, killed. The United States military is the strongest and most fearsome military on the planet by far with capabilities and skills our enemies can scarcely begin to imagine.
We have the best equipment anywhere in the world. There's no equipment like what we have. And you see that even if you just look at the boats, you know. We've knocked out 97 percent of the drugs coming in by sea, 90 percent. Each boat kills 25 -- on average, 25,000 people. We knocked out 97 percent.
And those drugs mostly come from a place called Venezuela. We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. So we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.
So we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious because that's what we're all about.
[11:44:54]
TRUMP: We want peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela. And that includes many from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country. It's their homeland.
We can't take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn't have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind. We've had decades of that. We're not going to let that happen.
We're there now, and what people don't understand, but they understand as I -- as I say this, we're there now, but we're going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place. So we're going to stay until such time as -- we're going to run it essentially until such time as a proper transition can take place.
As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could have taken place.
We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.
And we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so. So we were prepared to do a second wave if we needed to do so. We actually assumed that a second wave would be necessary, but now it's probably not.
The first wave, if you'd like to call it that, the first attack was so successful, we probably don't have to do a second. But were prepared to do a second wave, a much bigger wave actually.
This was pinpoint, but we have a much bigger wave that we probably won't have to do this.
This partnership of Venezuela with the United States of America, a country that everybody wants to be involved with because of what we were able to do and accomplish, will make the people of Venezuela rich, independent and safe.
And it will also make the many, many people from Venezuela that are living in the United States extremely happy. They suffered. They suffered. So much was taken from them. They're not going to suffer anymore.
The illegitimate dictator, Maduro, was the kingpin of a vast criminal network responsible for trafficking colossal amounts of deadly and illicit drugs into the United States, as alleged in the indictment, he personally oversaw the vicious cartel known as Cartel de los Soles, which flooded our nation with lethal poison responsible for the deaths of countless Americans -- the many, many Americans, hundreds of thousands over the years of Americans died because of him.
Maduro and his wife will soon face the full might of American justice and stand trial on American soil.
Right now, they're on a ship. They'll be heading to ultimately, New York. And then a decision will be made, I assume, between New York and Miami or Florida.
But we have people where the overwhelming evidence of their crimes will be presented in a court of law. And I've seen it. I've seen what we have. It's both horrible and breathtaking that something like this could have been allowed to take place.
For many years after his term as president of Venezuela expired, Maduro remained in power and waged a ceaseless campaign of violence, terror and subversion against the United States of America, threatening not only our people but the stability of the entire region. And you all saw it.
In addition to trafficking gigantic amounts of illegal drugs that inflicted untold suffering and human destruction all over the country -- all over, in particular, the United States.
Maduro sent savage and murderous gangs, including the bloodthirsty prison gang Tren de Aragua, to terrorize American communities nationwide. And he did indeed. They were in Colorado. They took over apartment complexes. They cut
the fingers off people if they call police. They were brutal but they're not so brutal now.
[11:49:51]
TRUMP: And I just have to congratulate our military, Pete, and everybody and our National Guard because the job that they've done, whether it's in Washington, D.C., where we have a totally safe city where it was one of the most unsafe cities anywhere in the world, frankly. And now we have no crime in Washington, D.C. We haven't had a killing.
We had the terrorist attack a few weeks ago, a little bit of a different kind of a threat. But we haven't had a killing in a long period of time, six or seven months. We used to have two -- on average two a week in Washington, our capital. We don't have that anymore.
The restaurants are opening. Everyone's happy. They're going. They're walking their daughters. They're walking their children, their wives. They walk to restaurants. Restaurants are opening all over Washington, D.C.
So I want to thank the National Guard. I want to thank our military, and I want to thank law enforcement. They've been amazing.
And they should do it with more cities. We're doing it, as you know, and we're doing it in Memphis, Tennessee right now. And crime is down. We've just sort of started a few weeks ago, but crime is down now 77 percent.
And, the governor of Louisiana called, great person, and he wanted us to help him, as you know, in a certain very nice part of Louisiana. And we have done that.
And it's a rough -- it was a rough, rough section and we have crime down. I understand it's down to almost nothing already after two and a half weeks. New Orleans, it's down to almost nothing. And we've only been there for two and a half weeks.
I can't imagine why governors wouldn't want us to help. We also helped, as you know, in Chicago, and crime went down a little bit there. We did a very small help because we had no -- no -- we had no working ability with the governor. The governor was a disaster and the mayor was a disaster, but it knocked down crime. But were pulling out of there, when -- when they need us.
We'll know. You'll know. You'll be writing about it.
And likewise, Los Angeles, where we saved Los Angeles early on, where the head of the police department made a statement that if the federal government didn't come in, we would have lost Los Angeles.
That's after long after the fires. That's when they had the riots in Los Angeles. We did a great job, got no credit for it whatsoever. But that's ok. It doesn't matter. We don't need the credit. But we'll be pulling out when they need us. They'll call or we'll go
back if we have to. We'll go back. But we did a great job in various cities.
But the thing, the place that we're very proud of is Washington, D.C., because it's our nation's capital. We took it from being a crime- ridden mess to being one of the safest cities in the country.
But the gangs that they sent raped, tortured and murdered American women and children. They were in all of the cities I mentioned, Tren de Aragua. And they were sent by Maduro to terrorize our people.
And now Maduro will never again be able to threaten an American citizen or anybody from Venezuela. There will no longer be threats.
For years, I've highlighted the stories of those innocent Americans whose lives were so heartlessly robbed by this Venezuelan terrorist organization, really one of the worst. One of the worst, they say the worst.
Americans, like 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray from Houston. Beautiful Jocelyn Nungarya. What happened to her? They, as you know, they kidnapped, assaulted and murdered by Tren de Aragua animals. They murdered Jocelyn and left her dead under the bridge. There was a bridge, a bridge that will never be the same to so many people after seeing what happened.
As I've said many times, the Maduro regime emptied out their prisons, sent their worst and most violent monsters into the United States to steal American lives. And they came from mental institutions and insane asylums. They came from prisons and jails.
The reason I say both they sound similar. Actually, prisons are a little bit more -- a little bit more hostile, a little bit tougher. A mental institution isn't as tough as an insane asylum. But we got them both.
They sent from their mental institutions. They sent from their jails, prisons. They were drug dealers. They were drug kingpins. They sent everybody bad into the United States. But no longer. And we have now a border where nobody gets through.
[11:54:46]
TRUMP: In addition, Venezuela unilaterally seized and stole American oil, American assets and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars. They did this a while ago, but we never had a president that did anything about it. They took all of our property, it was our property. We built it. And we never had a president that decided to do anything about it. Instead, they fought wars that were 10,000 miles away.
We built Venezuela oil industry with American talent, drive and skill. And the socialist regime stole it from us during those previous administrations, and they stole it through force. This constituted one of the largest thefts of American property in the
history of our country. Considered the largest theft of property in the history of our country. Massive oil infrastructure was taken like we were babies and we didn't do anything about it.
I would have done something about it. America will never allow foreign powers to rob our people or drive us back into and out of our own hemisphere. That's what they did.
Furthermore, under the now-deposed dictator Maduro, Venezuela was increasingly hosting foreign adversaries in our region and acquiring menacing, offensive weapons that could threaten U.S. interests and lives. And they used those weapons last night. They used those weapons last night, potentially in league with the cartels operating along our border.
All of these actions were in gross violation of the core principles of American foreign policy, dating back more than two centuries.
And not anymore. All the way back -- it dated to the Monroe doctrines and the Monroe doctrine is a big deal. But we've superseded it by a lot, by a real lot.
They now call it the Don-roe doctrine. I don't know, it's Monroe doctrine. We sort of forgot about it. It was very important, but we forgot about it. We don't forget about it anymore.
Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again, won't happen.
So just in concluding, for decades other administrations have neglected or even contributed to these growing security threats in the western hemisphere.
Under the Trump administration, we are reasserting American power in a very powerful way in our home region. And our home region is very different than it was just a short while ago.
The future will be -- and we did this in my first term -- we had great dominance in my first term, and we have far greater dominance right now. Everyone's coming back to us.
The future will be determined by the ability to protect commerce and territory and resources that are core to national security. These are core to national -- our national security just like tariffs are.
They've made our country rich and they've made our national security strong -- stronger than ever before. But these are the iron laws that have always determined global power. And we're going to keep it that way.
We will secure our borders. We will stop the terrorists. We will crash the cartels, and we will defend our citizens against all threats, foreign and domestic.
Other presidents may have lacked the courage or whatever to defend America. But I will never allow terrorists and criminals to operate with impunity against the United States.
This extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.
Very importantly, the embargo on all Venezuelan oil remains in full effect. The American armada remains poised in position, and the United States retains all military options until United States demands have been fully met and fully satisfied.
All political and military figures in Venezuela should understand, what happened to Maduro can happen to them. And it will happen to them if they aren't just fair even to their people.
The dictator and terrorist Maduro is finally gone in Venezuela. People are free. They're free again. It's been a long time for them, but they're free.
America is a safer nation this morning. It's a prouder nation this morning because it didn't allow this horrible person and this country that was doing very bad things to us. It didn't allow it to happen.
[11:59:52]
TRUMP: And the western hemisphere is right now a much safer place to be.
So I want to thank everybody for being here. I want to thank General Raisin 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 and for justice and I'm very proud of him.
And very proud of Pete Hegseth, who I'm going to ask to say a few words.
Thank you very much.
