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Venezuela's Maduro In New York After Capture By U.S.; White House Defends Maduro Capture; Congress Sharply Divided Over U.S. Military Operation In Venezuela; Court Declares VP Delcy Rodriguez The Acting President. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired January 04, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:39]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: This is our CNN special Breaking News coverage right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

Right now, the ousted Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, is being held at a detention center in New York City awaiting his first court appearance on federal drugs and weapons charges. And that could come as soon as tomorrow.

It follows the large-scale U.S. strike on Caracas early yesterday. Sources say Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were both dragged out of their bed in an overnight raid and flown out of Venezuela.

Last night, the White House posted a video of what appears to be Maduro's perp walk in New York City. He wished those in the room a good night and a happy new year in English.

President Trump says the U.S. will now, quote, "run Venezuela and take over its vast oil reserves". And the world is clearly watching to see what fate awaits the country and its people.

Let's start our coverage this hour over at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. That's where Maduro is being held.

CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez is on the scene for us just outside the facility.

What do we know about Maduro's first court appearance? We're told it could come as early as tomorrow.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. We're still waiting for the judge to provide those details of exactly when. We know that he will -- he is expected to appear tomorrow in federal court in downtown Manhattan. That is as much as we know at this hour from the court. We do expect it to happen tomorrow. And obviously, the fact that he is now on U.S. soil and the general

rule is that they have to present him before the federal court to hear the charges that have been that have been filed against him. Those are for federal charges, including narco terrorism and cocaine importation conspiracy.

Both him and his wife are now housed here behind me at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. And this is -- it's a place that has a very notorious reputation, Wolf. It's not a very nice place. It's a place that the Justice Department inspector general has assessed, you know, has problems with, for example, heating, people who have been held there have complained about rat infestations.

So, it is quite a turn of events for the Maduros to go from what would presume a pretty luxurious circumstance as president and first lady in Venezuela, to now being held at this facility here in Brooklyn, Wolf.

BLITZER: There have been some pretty famous former inmates at that facility, right?

PEREZ: That's right. There's some pretty noteworthy inmates. Remember that this is a facility that is now, really the only facility that the feds use to house inmates because the one across the river in Manhattan was shut down after Jeffrey Epstein's suicide.

So some notable people who've been held here include Sean Diddy Combs, El Chapo Guzman. And right now, obviously Luigi Maglione, who is accused of shooting the United Healthcare CEO. He's also housed here at this facility.

And it is, as I mentioned, not a very -- it's known to be a very notorious place because it's, you know, a former warehouse here on the former -- the Brooklyn waterfront. And it is pretty much still -- that's the way it is set up as a -- as a warehouse.

We know one of the things that they've done is they've -- they've set up a secure area for someone like Maduro, someone who requires a lot more security.

Obviously, one of the big (INAUDIBLE) is to make sure that he is safe, that he is secure. Typically, he'll be held in just in isolation by himself as well as his wife, to make sure that he is safe while he goes through these court proceedings here in New York, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Evan Perez on the scene for us in Brooklyn. Thank you very, very much.

[14:04:50]

BLITZER: A huge question hovering over this entire operation -- was it even legal?

We're joined now by CNN senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, a former prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. That's where Maduro is about to be charged with narco terrorism, conspiracy charges.

So the bottom-line question -- was the operation legal, Elie?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well Wolf, we don't know for sure, because we've never seen a situation exactly like this one. What we do know for sure is that Maduro's legal team is certainly going to argue, first of all, that the manner of his arrest was illegal. That it violated international law.

And relatedly, I would expect Maduro's team to argue that he's entitled to what we would call sovereign immunity, meaning he cannot be prosecuted for actions that he took as the head of a foreign state or a country.

Now we have very little guidance on those questions. The closest precedent, though, would be the early 1990s prosecution in the United States of Manuel Noriega. He raised similar arguments in his case. They were ultimately rejected by a U.S. court. Noriega was tried and convicted and sentenced here in the United States.

The other thing to keep in mind, Wolf, there's an old -- dating back to 1989 -- opinion within the Justice Department that essentially says it's not for the courts to get involved in this. Decisions about whether to make an arrest like this, whether to engage in a military action like this one, are reserved to the executive branch and are not there for the judiciary to second guess.

Now we'll see those arguments made again, and we'll see how the judge rules here. I think it's unlikely that the case gets thrown out by this district court judge though.

BLITZER: And I remember the Noriega case was handled in the Southern District of Florida in Miami. Why is this case being handled in the Southern District of New York?

HONIG: So that was a specific tactical decision. Federal law says that you can charge a case and try it in any district where the actual criminality occurred. But if the criminality occurred overseas or in a foreign country, then you can charge and try the case wherever the person is first brought in the United States.

So last night when we saw that airplane touching down at that base in Newburgh, New York, importantly that's inside the Southern District of New York. So there was a decision made that this case will be charged and tried there.

And, Wolf, I worked at that office. It has a very long history of trying the world's most notorious gangsters, terrorists, drug traffickers from the people who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, the terrorists who bombed our U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, the terrorists who killed people on the West Side Bike path in 2017.

There's a long history of the SDNY taking on and handling and effectively prosecuting these case.

BLITZER: The premier district indeed, the Southern District of New York.

Thanks very much. Elie Honig, helping us understand what's going on.

I want to move on to some other important news that's coming up.

"Running" Venezuela, "running" Venezuela. President Trump says the United States will, quote, "run" the country for the time being. We're digging deeper into what that could look like on the ground and who from the administration potentially could be in charge of "running" Venezuela.

Also, massive oil reserves, Venezuela's home to the largest proven oil reserves in the world. President Trump, floating a plan for the United States to tap into Venezuela's massive reserves that potentially could put American companies in charge of billions of dollars in energy production.

[14:08:16]

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BLITZER: Welcome back.

With Nicolas Maduro captured, I want to take a closer look right now at what it will take to quote, "run" Venezuela and its vast oil reserves.

Inside of Venezuela, there are mixed reactions to Maduro's removal. Take a look at this. A live picture coming in from Caracas right now, where large crowds have gathered calling for the release of their president. We also have seen other events in support of his removal.

President Trump said the U.S. will, quote, "run" his word, "run" the country, at least for now. But he was vague on just how that will work.

After Maduro's capture, Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodriguez became the acting -- the acting president. Mr. Trump said in an interview that as long as Rodriguez, quote, "does what we want" there would be no U.S. troops on the ground in Venezuela.

So what does the United States want right now and how does it get it?

Here to discuss all of this and more are Sabrina Singh, the former deputy Pentagon press secretary; Carrie Cordero, CNN legal and national security analyst; and Retired U.S. Army Major General James "Spider" Marks, a CNN military analyst.

Sabrina, let me start with you. In this next phase and what's going on in Venezuela, how is the country likely to be run? Because Trump said the U.S. will be running the country. What do you think that means?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think that's one of the outstanding questions that not only do people here in the United States have, including members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, but also countries around the world.

Right now, we have Delcy Rodriguez sworn in as the acting president, as you said. But what does that look like in practice and in reality?

Trump says that were going to, quote -- the United States is going to, quote, "run the country". And I think a lot remains to be seen on what that means, because does that mean U.S. military boots on the ground? Because if we're going to run the country and were going to manage some of those oil fields that Venezuela has so much wealth in, that is going to require boots on the ground.

And then what does that mean? I mean, just pull it out a little, take it two or three steps more. Are we the becoming the law enforcement on the ground? Are we going to oversee their elections? Are we going to oversee their court systems?

So I think that is the question that everyone wants an answer to is who is running the country? And what does this mean for our long-term goals with Venezuela?

BLITZER: I remember I was in Kuwait, I was in Iran, in Iraq during the first Gulf War.

[14:14:47]

BLITZER: And I remember there were thousands of U.S. troops running the country after the U.S. moved in. So it's a big operation, presumably, if the U.S. is going to specifically run the country.

SINGH: Right. And I think what distinguishes this from what happened in Panama in 1989 is when the U.S. went in in Panama, the opposition leader was sworn in on December 20th when U.S. troops went in. That did not happen here.

And in fact, you know, we're -- according to Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, we are working with the, you know, installed head of Venezuela. But what does that really look like? I think there are a lot of questions.

BLITZER: There certainly are.

Carrie, let's talk a little bit about oil, which was a big subject yesterday when the president had his news conference with all of his top national security officials there.

Venezuela has a huge amount of oil in the country. The world's largest oil reserves, more than 300 billion barrels right now. That's about a fifth of the global reserves.

And so there's a lot of oil, a lot of money at stake in all of this. How do you see oil factoring into what's going on?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think one of the things that President Trump actually made quite clear in his press conference right after this was disclosed that this operation had happened, was that the U.S., from his perspective, national security objectives here are centrally focused on oil.

And that's very different than the justification that the administration, the Secretary of Defense and others made over the course of the last several months when they were implementing these strikes against boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, where the description that they were giving at that time, the justification was drugs and the threat that drug trafficking posed to the United States.

So I thought the president, first of all, made it clear that oil is really the national security objective, that he is focused on.

The second piece is, I think if that is in fact the case, then that presents a wide range of risks that I think U.S. policymakers, Congress in particular, need to really be questioning about as we move forward. Because if the intent is to, quote, "control the oil" or have that objective, then that may raise the risk that there is a substantial U.S. military potential engagement that is involved.

There is no assurance at this point from a geopolitical perspective, that the Venezuelan existing government, to the extent that it currently exists, or that the Venezuelan military or that Venezuelan armed groups such as terrorist organizations, other armed paramilitaries are going to simply acquiesce to the United States government saying that it is going to take control over the oil.

BLITZER: I want you to listen and I want our viewers to listen to what Republican Senator Tom Cotton, a key member of the Intelligence Committee, the Armed Services Committee, told our Dana Bash on "STATE OF THE UNION" earlier today. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Well, the president talked about oil in his press conference many, many times. Is that what this is about? Is it about --

(CROSSTALKING)

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): Right.

BASH: -- money? And to get American oil companies in there.

COTTON: Well, it's primarily about --

BASH: And economics.

COTTON: -- a communist dictatorship that was trafficking drugs into the United States, that was in league with Islamic radicals and Iran and Cuba and China and Russia. That was given many opportunities to step aside, as has happened throughout recent decades in Latin American history.

He refused those opportunities. Our military took bold, audacious, decisive action. And the United States is a safer place today for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So in your opinion, Carrie, is this about oil or is this about drugs?

CORDERO: Well, I think that Senator Cotton is articulating his perspective on why this operation could be in the United States national security interests.

But that's not what President Trump said. And if it's respect to drugs, the leading drug threat the United States faces is fentanyl. And fentanyl does not come from Venezuela.

And so that is a factual disconnect that exists in the administration's arguments they've been making for months with respect to drugs.

If the argument was that the United States was taking a significant military operation as it relates to stopping fentanyl trafficking, then the entire discussion over the last several months would be focused on Mexican cartels, not Venezuela.

BLITZER: Heroin comes from Venezuela more than fentanyl does, right?

CORDERO: Fentanyl comes from Mexico, and there are precursor drugs that come over from China. But the cartels, according to a spring DEA threat assessment, the leading threat from fentanyl comes from Mexican cartels.

BLITZER: Yes. Interesting.

All right. General Marks, I want to turn to you and ask you what kind of U.S. military presence are we likely to see soon in Venezuela?

GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, Wolf, we really -- we don't know. Look, we don't know what the strategy is. We've just spent the last three minutes talking about no strategy, right. We haven't heard it from this administration clearly stated.

[14:19:46]

GEN. MARKS: You could think for a second that it is about oil and it's getting ConocoPhillips and Exxon back running those things. Not certain that that's going to take soldiers to run that.

The experience in -- after the first Gulf War was we had to bring in some commercial enterprises. We had to pay for that, had to secure that with soldiers.

I don't know that this is a contested area, but there's a lot of unknowns here. But if it is about oil, well, here's a potential movement in the direction of a strategy.

Look, we can really make it difficult on China and Russia if we can take those 800 billion reserves that are available and cut those two competitors off, that works to our advantage.

There's certainly downstream effects, obviously, but we have to think about that up front. Now to the notion of we're talking about boots on the ground. Let's

not throw that term around anymore. We have to do what's called a troop-to-task analysis. What are we going to do? It's been described.

Are we going to get into governance of the national assembly? Are we going to get into their markets and the financial structures? Is this legal?

Are we going to have activities to establish security apparatus? Are we going to try to work with the national military that exists and its different pieces?

Are we going to try to get together and go after terrorist organizations that have been operating at the acquiescence of the government for the longest time?

So there are a ton of unknowns here. But basically it's figuring out what must be done initially and then what is the minimum structure necessary to do that.

Otherwise we get ourselves caught into regime change, national involvement in levels that we have plenty of scar tissue, and we never really find our way through that well.

BLITZER: What kind of role General Marks will the U.S. military, the military, specifically play in developing or redeveloping, for that matter, Venezuela's oil infrastructure? How dangerous potentially could that be?

GEN. MARKS: Yes, it really could be. And I would think that on the surface, this is within the portfolio of the Southern Command. There could be established a sub-unified command to the Southern Command, or you could put that four-star down there, or much like we did in Iraq, it was run by Central Command, but we had a four-star in Central Command, but we also had a four-star in-country in Iraq working all the details.

If we go down that path, this is a very long involvement, but we need to be, again take those lessons learned from the past and realize there are some very specific things we need to do, and the assumptions need to be, look, this is going to be contested. And if its contested across the board and all those elements of power, then this is going to be a long engagement.

It's going to be very complicated, and it needs to require, in my mind, having done this for a living, it's going to require a very large military presence to provide the architecture and the safety necessary to conduct governance in that monstrous nation.

BLITZER: I want to go back to Sabrina and get her thoughts right now. Sabrina, we've talk about who's going to be actually holding power in Venezuela. We know the new acting president -- acting president, Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, President Trump seems to favor her right now.

But what do we think? Is she going to be in charge? SINGH: Well, we heard the president today say earlier that if she

doesn't -- sort of and I'm paraphrasing here -- follow what we want her to do, then, you know, there will be a price to pay. And so what does that look like?

But, you know, I think what remains to be seen is I think that exact question. Who is really running the country? And right now we really don't have a clear answer.

And I think both members on either side of the aisle are going to have to ask this administration for more clarity.

But I want to just go back to something that I think is really important right now, because in this whole idea of America First, this actually really flies in the face of what Donald Trump ran on. And the idea that we're going to start nation building again to what General Marks was saying earlier, you know, we have lessons from the past that show that historically, things have not really worked out for the United States involvement in other countries.

So I think it's a great question of who is running the country and how involved is United States really going to be? Because if we are going to continue to deploy or prolong military assets in the region, that's going to have a huge impact on our force, on our readiness.

And frankly, we are taking the eye off the ball when it comes to China as well and other adversaries and those adversaries are looking to what we're doing right now in Venezuela.

BLITZER: They're looking very, very closely.

All right. Sabrina, thank you. Carrie, thanks to you. General Marks, always appreciate having you here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Coming up, White House officials now clarifying President Trump's statement that the U.S. is running Venezuela. How the administration is justifying the capture of Nicolas Maduro and the decision to detain him in New York City.

[14:24:37]

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BLITZER: Welcome back.

President Trump insists the United States will now be in charge of Venezuela. CNN, by the way, has just learned that Maduro is set to face those charges in front of a judge tomorrow at 12:00 noon Eastern.

Facing a barrage of questions on the political talk shows earlier today and how that will work and who is actually running the country, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, tried to provide some clarity on the next phase.

CNN senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes, is here with me right now. You have some new reporting this afternoon, Kristen. First, tell us about what the president has said. A new threat in this interview in "The Atlantic Magazine".

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT; Yes. So this threat was leveled at the Venezuelan vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, who just for some context here, has assumed responsibility of acting president of Venezuela after the capture of Maduro.

HOLMES: And essentially, in this interview, Trump says that she's going to do the right thing because if she doesn't do the right thing, then she's going to pay a big price, potentially even bigger than Maduro.

[14:30:04]

And, of course, the message that he's sending there is that the right thing is to do whatever the United States wants Dolcy Rodriguez to do. And this comes after we heard Rodriguez really issue some scathing remarks directed at President Trump and the administration after Maduro's capture, saying that it was a savage and brutal attack, talking about how they won't be colonized again.

But I have to tell you, Wolf, in a larger scheme of things, when we're talking to U.S. officials, they are telling us that they're somewhat optimistic when it comes to Rodriguez. And working with the United States.

And I want to first kind of have us listen to the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who has been really the architect, or at least one of the chief architects of restructuring the Venezuelan government, when he was asked, what does it mean that the U.S. is going to run Venezuela?

(BEGIN VDEO CLIP)

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

This is a team effort by the entire national security apparatus of our country, but it is running this policy. And the goal of the policy is to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United States, first and foremost, because that's who we work for. But also, we believe, beneficial for the people of Venezuela who have suffered tremendously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So, Wolf, that's kind of a broad picture here. So, when we talk to officials about what exactly they're trying to do, the first two big focuses as they try to kind of build this or slap together this interim government is focused on administrative stability. And that is where Rodriguez comes in. And that's why they're not necessarily focused right now on democracy, despite the fact that they said that they were originally. The other part of this is rebuilding the country's oil infrastructure.

And so, they believe that Rodriguez can help with this. What's very interesting about all of this is that it seems as though the administration has completely disregarded the head of the opposition, Maria Machado, who felt like for months they have been saying the opposition was the rightful leader of Venezuela, not Maduro, because the opposition had won in that election.

Now, its not that surprising if you talk to some of his advisers, because I was told for months that while all of this has been going on, while these conversations about what it might look like the day after Maduro, there were a lot of advisers saying that Machado was untested, that she wasn't ready for this. And if they want this stability in the interim, then they need to go with the vice president. Of course, we're going to wait and see whether or not the vice president is going to play ball with the United States.

BLITZER: We will find out fairly soon. I know the U.S. vice president, J.D. Vance, addressed claims that the Trump administrations actions had nothing to do at all with drugs. Tell us about that.

HOLMES: Yes. So, this has been an ongoing theme, because one of the things that we've seen is this idea that president Trump said it was about drugs first, then it was about immigration, then it was about the fact that he had an indictment for his arrest, Maduro. And that's why they did this.

So, we saw J.D. Vance today actually trying to address the drug part of this, which seems to have at least somewhat gone wayward in the explanation of all of this.

And this is what he said. He said, "First of all, fentanyl isn't the only drug in the world, and there is still fentanyl coming from Venezuela, or at least was. Second cocaine, which is the main drug trafficked out of Venezuela, is a profit center for all of the Latin American cartels. If you cut out the money from cocaine or even reduce it, you substantially weaken the cartels overall. Also, cocaine is bad too.

It has been very confusing. You have him kind of here focusing on cocaine. We've heard the focus on fentanyl as to what exactly the line or the narrative coming out of the administration is for why they had to capture Maduro, because it has shifted, and that goal post has moved multiple times in the last several months.

BLITZER: Good point. All right. Thanks so much, Kristen Holmes, reporting for us.

There's more news coming up here in the NEWSROOM. House Democrats are holding an emergency meeting following the capture of Nicolas Maduro. I'll be joined by a key member of the House Intelligence Committee for his reaction to the stunning move and its potential global impact.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:38:23] BLITZER: We're back with a very sharp, divided Congress over the U.S. military operation in Venezuela and the capture of Nicolas Maduro.

I'm joined now by Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois.

Congressman, thanks so much for being with us. I know you sit on the House Intelligence Committee. I want to start by having you listen to what your Republican colleague, Marjorie Taylor Greene, had to say this morning when asked if this serves president Trump, so-called America first policy. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): My pushback here is if this was really narco-terrorist and about protecting Americans from cartels and drugs being brought into America, the Trump administration would be attacking the Mexican cartels. Now, I am not defending Maduro, and of course, I'm happy for the people of Venezuela to be liberated. But Americans celebrated the liberation of the Iraqi people after Saddam Hussein. They celebrated the liberation of the Libyan people after Gadhafi. And this is the same Washington playbook that we are so sick and tired of that doesn't serve the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, what's your reaction to that, Congressman?

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): I actually agree with a lot of her sentiments. She's correct. This is not about narcoterrorism. If it was, the president would not have pardoned the former president of Honduras who had been convicted in an American court of trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States. And my constituents and for that matter, whether they're Republicans and Democrats, not single one has said they want to run Venezuela.

[14:40:02]

They want to occupy Venezuela.

And so, this is something that is completely against the will of the American people, in my opinion.

BLITZER: I know, Congressman, you just left an emergency meeting of congressional Democrats. What can you tell us about those conversations?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, I don't want to get into the details, except that I can tell you there were three -- I mean, large concerns that people are reflecting from their constituents. One is that, again, our constituents don't want us to be occupying Venezuela or to be in the middle of a civil war, with -- or to be in an Iraq or Afghanistan style occupation or endless war.

Secondly, I think that people are very concerned that what has happened is emboldening our adversaries, whether they're in Moscow or Beijing or elsewhere, to basically pursue similar actions, whether its in Taiwan, Ukraine or other parts of the globe, thus lowering our national security.

And then the third and final point is we should not be distracted by trying to occupy another country when we have so many pressing domestic problems right now, and our constituents are losing their health insurance, they can't afford their groceries. The businesses are going bankrupt because of tariffs.

And so, we are basically in a situation where appears to be, in some ways, distracting attention from pressing domestic issues for this foreign adventure in Venezuela.

BLITZER: The Trump administration, as you know, Congressman, carried out this military operation without consulting Congress at all. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said it was the kind of trigger-based mission you can't notify Congress about. They were worried about potential leaks that could undermine the operation and endanger U.S. troops.

What do you make of that?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, look, we always want to safeguard our troops and make sure that their well-being is always taken care of. However, in this particular situation clearly, we basically had our armed forces engaged in hostilities in Venezuela. That is the textbook example of when the War Powers Act is supposed to be invoked. And Congress only has the power to decide when to go to war. And that's why War Powers resolution is so appropriate now because if the Republicans want to come to Congress and convince the American people that we should occupy or run Venezuela in order to access its oil, they can feel free to do so.

But they need the will of the American people to take any further actions. Certainly, military actions in Venezuela.

BLITZER: Going forward. Congressman, what do you expect from the Trump administration about future -- future military involvement in Venezuela? What do you need to know?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, I think right now, we need to know exactly. You know, how many troops are going to be deployed in Venezuela. We need to know for what duration, what is the transition? How do we make sure that we work with our friends, partners and allies to get to a better place now versus what where we -- where we're at even yesterday?

I think that there's so many questions with regard to the use of our military power. And I think that the president must come to Congress at this point to seek authority for any further exercise of those powers.

BLITZER: And if he doesn't, what kind of recourse do you have?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, as you know, the War Powers resolution allows Congress to block or to prevent the president from deploying such troops in harms way. And so, again, we don't need all Republicans necessarily to join Democrats, although I think Democrats will be unified on this particular issue.

But we need some, whether it's Marjorie Taylor Greene or Mr. Massie or others who've expressed severe doubts about what has happened. We need to make sure that, again, this president is held accountable. We don't need another Iraq or Afghanistan style occupation in Venezuela.

BLITZER: I know you and others, Congressman, have expressed deep concern that this military operation will embolden U.S. adversaries like Russia and China. How do you think it emboldens them?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, basically, just think of Vladimir Putin. He could say that Zelensky is a narco terrorist, and he's going to go after Zelenskyy in Ukraine. Or think about Xi Jinping and saying that, well you know, some pretext justifies the invasion of Taiwan for reunifying with China, you can see any number of instances where, again, our adversaries are going to use this as the justification or use this as an example of why we employ a double standard, why they should be able to do as they will in their spheres of influence, ultimately creating disorder in the international system.

[14:45:21]

At the end of the day, I think this really hurts the American people because it lowers our national security. It makes it more likely that somehow our interests will be harmed and worse, that somehow, we may be engaged in some type of armed conflict elsewhere on the planet.

BLITZER: Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, thanks so much for joining us.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you so much.

BLITZER: And coming up, Venezuela's Supreme Court now says its vice president is in charge of the country after the capture of President Nicolas Maduro. We're going to take a closer look at what her role could look like as the United States says it plans, it plans to run the country

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:50:24]

BLITZER: Venezuela's Supreme Court has ordered Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to assume the powers and duties of acting president. The order was announced last night after the court determined Maduro can no longer exercise his functions as president. Rodriguez has demanded Maduro's release.

CNN's Paula Newton is joining us right now. She's done a lot of reporting on this.

Paula, what more can you tell us about Venezuela's new leader now and how she's responding to Maduro's departure?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Wolf, in nearly 15 years in covering Venezuela, I do not remember a time when Delcy Rodriguez was not at the side of its leader, whether it was Hugo Chavez or Nicolas Maduro.

And she is intense. She is formidable. And right now, it does seem like the U.S. is content for her to be in charge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON (voice-over): Just hours after the dramatic extraction of her president by U.S. forces, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was the picture of defiance. Surrounded by regime loyalists, she called the U.S. operation barbaric.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

NEWTON (voice-over): -- declaring Nicolas Maduro is the only president of Venezuela.

Known to many in the country simply as "Delcy", Rodriguez has been an influential and reliable regime enforcer for nearly two decades. She began in the government of Hugo Chavez, faithfully implementing the tenets of Chavismo, the nationalist populist movement that brought the Venezuelan economy to its knees.

When Chavez died in 2013. She remained an assertive voice within President Maduros government. Uncompromising in her rhetoric, she vilified the Venezuelan opposition and frequently warned the country about the threat of foreign intervention.

Crucially, as energy minister, she also has been a steady hand in funneling Venezuela's dwindling energy revenues to the regime. Seen here last month with state workers, she says, "We have something to tell Mr. Trump. Venezuela doesn't owe the U.S. anything."

And yet, Rodriguez has for many years been sanctioned by Canada, the E.U. and the United States. CNN attempted to question her in 2016 after a CNN investigation uncovered a scheme to illegally sell Venezuelan passports out of the country's embassy in Iraq.

Rodriguez, then the foreign minister, refused to comment to CNN on every occasion. In keeping with her political pedigree, Rodriguez has a less than subtle message for the Trump administration, as she demanded Maduros release. Her involvement in any future transition in Venezuela will be challenging.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: What's interesting here, Wolf, is that the Trump administration, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, really dismissing a lot of that defiance, saying, lets wait to see what she does. It is clear that they believe she can offer the country a little bit of stability, especially when it comes to the crucial oil industry in Venezuela.

In fact, Rodriguez herself, in the last few weeks on social media trumpeted the fact that she could protect oil and the oil reserves under international law. And that includes, Wolf, I should tell you, Venezuelan oil from Chevron going to the United States. I do want to add one thing, though, that's important. If you're in

Venezuela right now. Wolf, you are looking at this and you're saying there may not be any change for them at all. The repression will continue. The economic demise will continue, and so will the graft and corruption that really Ms. Rodriguez has presided over now for years.

BLITZER: So, basically, what I'm hearing, Paula, correct me if I'm wrong, is that Delcy Rodriguez will just continue Maduro's policies if in fact, she's the new president?

NEWTON: Absolutely. That is what Venezuelans are seeing right now. Been monitoring state media and allied media now for the last 24 hours, Wolf. They continue to call Trump a fascist. They say this is imperialist. And more than that, Wolf, for 15 years, I have heard these governments claim that the CIA and the United States wanted their oil.

Well, then, here now they believe this operation gives proof. Crucially, here, though, you do not know -- we cannot know what is going on behind the scenes and what kind of cooperation Delcy Rodriguez might offer here.

The problem, though, is will, even if the United States is satisfied, really, will that bring any change for the Venezuelan?

BLITZER: Do we know quickly, Paula, if there have been any direct conversations between Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for example, and Rodriguez?

NEWTON: Well, they indicate that just before this operation happened that there was a conversation.

[14:55:02]

The problem is, has anything happened so far? We do not know. We know that Marco Rubio himself, when he sees those addresses, when he sees this rhetoric on state television, he's dismissing it.

So, I think it's safe to assume, Wolf, that those backroom conversations with the Trump administration will continue.

BLITZER: Paula Newton, excellent reporting as usual. Thank you very, very much.

And right now, I want to take our viewers live to Caracas, Venezuela. There is a rally underway this afternoon in support of President Maduro.

You can see some of those big crowds on the screen right now. Take a look at this. You've seen a number of people carrying firearms, but things have been peaceful there. There have also been a number of celebrations around the world, and here in the United States over the removal of Nicolas Maduro.

Stay with us here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Our breaking news coverage over the removal of Venezuelan President Maduro will continue in just minutes.

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