Secretary of State Marco Rubio faced the media this morning and defended the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
On Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan questioned why the US only grabbed Maduro and not others who are wanted.
.@SecRubio: "It is not easy to land a helicopter in the middle of the largest military base... kick down his door, grab him, put him in handcuffs, read him his rights, put him in a helicopter... and you're asking me why we didn't do that in five other places at the same time!?" pic.twitter.com/Pm9Jy1AKp3
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 4, 2026
"This was not an action that required congressional approval... This was not an invasion," says @SecRubio.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 4, 2026
"We will seek congressional approval for actions that require congressional approval. Otherwise, they'll get congressional notification." pic.twitter.com/up6ZEJtmXd
Maduro was extradited to the U.S., where he was charged with narco-terrorism, importing cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, according to the 25-page indictment.
.@SecRubio: "The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan. This is not the Middle East, and our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere." pic.twitter.com/iQE0A69tpC
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 4, 2026
Rubio said that the US will press for change through its oil quarantine.
"Well, first of all, I think the important thing to point out is that the key to what that regime relies on and is the economy fueled by oil," Rubio said. "And right now, it is an oil industry that is backwards and really needs a lot of help and work in terms of, not only that, but it doesn't help the people. None of the money from the oil gets to the people. It's all stolen by the people that are on the top there, and so that's why we have a quarantine. There's a quarantine right now in which sanctioned oil shipments, there's a boat, and that boat is under US sanctions, we go get a court order, we will seize it. That remains in place, and that's a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela. And so that's the sort of control the President is pointing to when he says that. We continue with that quarantine, and we expect to see that there will be changes, not just in the way the oil industry is run for the benefit of the people, but also so that they stop the drug trafficking, so that we no longer have these gang problems, so that they kick the FARC and the ELN out, and that they no longer cozy up to Hezbollah and Iran in our own hemisphere."
.@SecRubio: "We retain all the options we had before this raid and this capture and this arrest... until such time as changes are made. I cannot overstate how crippling this is. On the other hand, there's an alternative... an oil industry that actually benefits the people." pic.twitter.com/iBhjs6wJ1k
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 4, 2026
.@RepLuna on the successful capture of Maduro: "We even had local press reporting that some people that were refugees coming to the United States from Venezuela are now making arrangements to head back home... it's been a very, very net positive." pic.twitter.com/i8QZNyDrnu
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 4, 2026
You see a lot claims that Venezuela has nothing to do with drugs because most of the fentanyl comes from elsewhere. I want to address this:
— JD Vance (@JDVance) January 4, 2026
First off, fentanyl isn't the only drug in the world and there is still fentanyl coming from Venezuela (or at least there was).
Second,…
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