Secretary of State Marco Rubio ripped Kamala Harris and other Democrats over their criticism of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s arrest on Saturday.
Rubio — and other critics — pointed out that the Biden admin also offered a massive reward for Maduro’s arrest, they just failed to bring him in.
There had been a hefty price tag on Maduro’s head dating back to 2020, following his indictment on charges including narco-terrorism and drug-trafficking, but Rubio said no meaningful steps were taken besides dangling some cash.
“In the Biden administration, they had a $25 million reward for [Maduro’s] capture,” Rubio told NBC News’ Kristen Welker Sunday.
“So, we have a reward for his capture, but we’re not going to enforce it?” the secretary asked, incredulously.
“That’s the difference between President Trump and everybody else … President Trump did something about it.”
Saturday’s dead-of-night US special forces mission, dubbed Operation Absolute Reserve, saw the capture of the socialist Venezuelan dictator and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, just steps from the country’s heavily fortified Ft. Tiuna military compound.
Trump said US troops were able to breach the fortifications “in a matter of seconds.”
When news broke of the successful operation, failed 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris quickly took to social media to denounce it.
“That Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator does not change the fact that this action was both unlawful and unwise,” she wrote on X Saturday night.
“We’ve seen this movie before. Wars for regime change or oil that are sold as strength but turn into chaos, and American families pay the price.”
Harris further alleged the targeted mission wasn’t about deposing Maduro, but was about “oil” and “Donald Trump’s desire to play the regional strongman.”
Making the rounds on Sunday news programs, Rubio repeatedly said the US doesn’t need Venezuela’s oil, but rather wants to ensure its rich reserves don’t end up under the control of America’s adversaries.
Former President Biden’s social media history came back to bite him after Maduro’s capture, posting on X (then-Twitter) in 2020 that President Trump “admires” the ousted tyrant.
“Trump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro. As President, I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy,” Biden’s poorly-aged posting read.
The whiplash-inducing stances among Democratic pols extended into Congress.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), came out out strongly against what he called the “invasion” of Venezuela by the Trump administration on CNN’s “State of the Union,” accusing the president of starting an “illegal war” in the country.
“Listen, Venezuela is not a security threat to the United States. They’re not threatening to invade us. There is no terrorist group like al Qaeda operating there that has plans to attack the United States,” he told host Dana Bash.
Bash then presented him with a 2019 op-ed the senator penned in the Washington Post in which he wrote, “Let’s get one thing straight: There should no longer be any debate about Maduro’s lack of democratic legitimacy … The Trump administration is right to put restoring Venezuelan democracy at the center of our approach to this crisis.”
Murphy chuckled and claimed the remainder of his article was a “criticism” of President Trump’s “early moves to saber-rattle about regime change.”
Some 150 aircraft took part in the extraordinary operation, during which precision strikes were made around the Venezuelan capital city of Caracas, including Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base, Port La Guaira, Higuerote Airport and Fuerte Tiuna.
The incursion lasted just under two and a half hours. Trump said no American troops were killed, but officials in the embattled South American nation said at least 40 Venezuelans died, including soldiers and civilians, according to the New York Times.
An undisclosed number of US forces were wounded, but all of them are expected to recover.
Maduro, 63, and Flores were dragged back to the US, and are now waiting to face federal narco-terrorism charges at the Brooklyn Detention Center.
Maduro rose to power in 2013 following the death of fellow socialist dictator Hugo Chavez, and declared himself the victor of a 2018 presidential election.
However, in 2019 Venezuela’s national assembly declared he had taken the presidency by illegitimate means and was not the country’s rightful ruler.
He then again declared himself the victor in a highly contested July, 2024 presidential election, at which point the US joined a chorus of other nations in refusing to recognize him as the leader of Venezuela.
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