January 5, 2026 • 12 mins
Interview: Maduro Ouster & What's Next For Venezuela w/Rep. Brian Mast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Facts, integrity and trust. This is the Brian mud Show
from Durrel to mar Lago, Venezuelan's celebrating the ulster of
Nicholas Maduro fallowing Saturday mornings removal. Remarkable operation that ended
up taking place, resulting in no loss of life, and
(00:28):
you have the opportunity for real success in Venezuela again,
a country that per capita is the wealthiest in the
world prior to Hugo Chavez and subsequently his handpicked replacement
in Maduro. But not everybody's happy. Not everybody's happy about this.
You have people like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on
(00:50):
ABC's This Week, had this to say yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
They did not just do ships off the water. They
went inside Venezuela, bombed civilian as well as military places.
And it's a violation of the law to do what
they did without getting the authorization of Congress.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So about that. Speaking of Congress, the chairman of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee, South Florida Congressman Brian mast joins us. Now,
good morning, Brian, Good morning, Happy New Year, Happy New Year.
So what say you is, Chuck Schumer Wright, was this
an illegal operation?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
This was not a illegal operation. This was a law
enforcement function. It wasn't a military operation. To describe why
the military was involved. Just to put it very plainly,
Maduro was a narco terrorist trasking drugs to the United
States of America. The bounty on him, the fifty million
dollars bounty on him, that was even put on back
(01:49):
during the Biden administration, right, So they put this useless
gesture of this bounty on him because of what a
bad guy was. They just weren't willing to actually take
any action about it when this law enforcement function was
taking place of bringing him in. Bear in mind, he
is also the leader of a country, so what can
he bring to bear. He could bring to bear an
(02:10):
air force, a navy, and army. So it was a
very dangerous operation. That's why our law enforcement individuals, the FBI,
the ATF, others, that's the DEEA, that's why they were
supported by United States military because of the capabilities that
Maduro could bring to bear. This is to make sure
that our Americans that went in to do their job
(02:32):
came out safely, because we look out for Americans number
one unashamedly, and that's the way it's going to continue
to be that's the way that this operation took place.
It was not a military operation. It was a law
enforcement operation that had to be supported by the military.
But if you even bring it to military and war powers,
if it even came to that, which it doesn't, it
(02:53):
doesn't rise to that because that's not at all what
this was. But if you were talking about war powers,
which is what Schumer is talking about there, the administration
has forty eight hours in which they have to discuss
with Congress everything that's going on, and then up to
sixty days after that that to remove United States from
(03:13):
hostilities without that authorization from Congress. This was an operation
that was done before most people finished their breakfasts. So
you know, again Schumer's very off bates with this, to
say the least, But it's not surprising because again they're
just a party of useless gestures, like like they're bounty
on Maduro but unwilling to conduct any action on it.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
And Brian you laid that out very well. Of course,
there's also legal precedent for this Manuel Noriega eighty nine Panama,
which by the way, I ended up being highly successful
the outcome there ultimately, but you know, the the pretext
for this, it seems as though the critics side step
that that historical president that or Noriega represented.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, and this is something that you know, of course,
there's always cherry picking by the Democrats of what it
is that they want to look at historically. You know
what actions Biden or Obama took, you know, back when
they had presidencies against foreign powers, and of course they
like to ignore those things, and they always like to
play this up is that we're about to be engaged
in this protracted war. It's the same thing that they
(04:26):
said when President Trump took action against Syria Bashar al
Assad when they were gassing their own people. It's the
same thing the Democrats said when he killed Kassam Sulivani,
the Iranian general that had been responsible for killing so
many Americans. All America is going to be in this
protracted war with the ruck. It's the same thing they
said earlier this year when we destroyed the Iranian nuclear
(04:46):
infrastructure to make sure that they couldn't attack America or
anywhere else with nuclear weapons. All We're going to be
in this protracted war. They're constantly you know, cherry picking
and ignoring what their administrations has done. And trying to
accuse that we're this is going to bring America into
these protracted wars. And if anything we know about President Trump,
he is not the protracted war president. He is the
(05:09):
we are going to look at what is the mission
that needs to be accomplished, and we are going to
conduct a very limited operation like this one over before
breakfast in order to get that job done. And you know,
I think you make one of them. You know, maybe
to make one other point is as you look at this,
Democrats have embraced people like Maduro. I put up a
(05:32):
photo a couple of weeks ago of my colleague on
the other side, I chair the Foreign Affairs Committee, and
the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee a couple
of years back, with Maduro's arms wrapped around him. Right.
I mean, this is this is a literal photo. This
wasn't photoshop. Right. These people embrace them, and then they're
upset when we're working to protect the American homeland by
(05:53):
getting rid of these individuals who are bringing drugs, bringing narcos,
heros and other things to our source.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, I think it's it's pretty evident who the communists
and communist sympathizers are Mom. Donnie at least is out
there and open and honest. Many of the others just
hide behind these talking points that you just ended up addressing,
like We're going to be second in some kind of
military quagmire, some situation like that one thing, Brian, And
this is I know, not friend center in the conversation,
(06:23):
but I would be shocked if it hasn't been big
in the overall thinking of President Trump and the administration
at large. For a very long time. I've articulated that
China isn't just China, that China is Russia, that China
is Iran, that China is North Korea with the Little
rocket Man, and China is also a Cuba, China is Venezuela,
(06:46):
and China is Nicaragua. They've been all of these various
different interests, and as we know, was about a year
ago when he was coming into the presidency that Trump
also was quite concerned about the Panama Canal because the
outside influence of China there, China's growing influence and their
existing alliance with Venezuela. When you take a look at
(07:09):
what the possibilities there could have been which China potentially
seizing in effect the world's largest oil reserves. How important
in the greater construct of America first policies because I
think one of the big things that even a lot
of Trump supporters take a look at, well, this is
an America first. Now, I would maintain that preserving the
(07:34):
energy for the Venezuelan people, for American interest that it
was stolen from when it was nationalized, but ultimately that
this is serving America's interest. For SIMI, lower energy prices
in the future will also be serving American interest first.
But when you take a look at that greater construct
of China of Russia in what this represents, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Let's break that down into a couple of different places.
So just number one, what you were talking about with China.
We all know different nations have very strategic allies, right,
we have strategic allies in Europe, in Europe through NATO,
we have strategic allies in Australia, in Japan, in Israel,
you know, all across the globe in different places. The
number one ally in all of Latin America, for China,
(08:22):
for Russia, for Iran, for Cuba was absolutely Nicholas Maduro
and Venezuela. He was their strategic partner, their their pipeline
to Latin America. And so to cut that off is
to cut off that most strategic partner for our largest
adversary that's trying to sow disruption directly into our backyard,
(08:44):
conducting espionas operations out there into our backyard. This entity
that was hosting you know, essentially Russian fleet weeks in
their ports and things like that, and China fleet weeks
in their ports. That's that's what was eliminated. That's the
effect that you have in art on American national security
is to cut off that strategic partner for those very
(09:06):
direct adversaries against the United States. Now, as you talk
about oil and you bring that in there, it's a
little bit of a mixed bag on that front. Yes,
they absolutely have large reserve. Now where it brings the
United States of America more into this is a you know,
there were American companies there that had their assets literally
stolen by Chavez and by Maduro. This is something that
(09:29):
there is expected there will be a pay for as
a result of what's taking place now that these American
companies are made right for everything that was stolen from them. Now,
as it relates to the infrastructure, that's they're in place
right now. The brain power that was there operating the
oil operations there has been gone for a long time.
(09:51):
These companies Chevron, you know, Excellon, Chevron, Kanicco, you know
all of these other companies, they've been gone largely for
a long time. So a lot of the infot structure
is very dilapidated. They would have to go in and
put in billions of dollars in order to bring that
back up to speed. And you kind of see that
playing out a little bit in the oil markets this morning.
You see what's happening surrounding all of these different things,
(10:13):
from heavy crude to other things. But that's a little
bit of the play. Partially, it's just making these American
companies right that we're stolen from. It's protecting the American
homeland from these adversaries that are using Venezuela as a
launching point to hurt Americans and not just through drugs
and other things, but again using it as this base
(10:35):
of espionage operations and many other things. And that comes
to an end.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
So, Brian, what is it that you would like to
see happen here? What is the risk at this point?
And what you don't want to see happen.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
And I'm going to give this again from historical context
of how President Trump and his security apparatus operate these things.
Secretary Rubio and I were on the line the morning
that this was happening. Secretary hag Stephani, Secretary of War,
We've spoken about this and so what you don't ever
see out of President Trump. People like to use the
term nation building. You don't see nation building like what
(11:13):
was taking place back during the Afghanistan War, the Iraqi War,
you know, what happened with Libya and things like that.
You don't see those kind of actions at all out
of President Trump. He's a you know, in his foreign policy,
he takes strong actions. It's always very limited action, like
I said, this one being done before breakfast, But it
(11:34):
falls more under the idea, you know, you can lead
a horse to water, but then the horse has to
decide to drink. He's leading the Venezuelan people to water.
They have to decide to drink for themselves, just like
what's taking place in Iran right now. There are moves
made to get very significant obstacles out of the way,
(11:55):
like Iranian nuclear infrastructure in Iran, like helping with Syria,
but we're not there conducting regime change, and I don't
think you're going to see it there in Venezuela conducting
regime change. In the same way, there's an opportunity being
given to what was the vice president now the current
acting President Rodriguez, to go in there and right now
be a partner until there can be free and fair
(12:16):
elections there for whoever will take place. But we're getting
the obstacles out of the way. They have to ultimately
come to the well and start drinking the water. American
nation building in the way that so many others in
the past tried to do it. There's not something that
you see as President doing at all. Brian.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Appreciate the time and the expertise and will continue to
follow your work as you get back to Congress.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Great to speak to you.
Facts, integrity and trust. This is the Brian mud Show
from Durrel to mar Lago, Venezuelan's celebrating the ulster of
Nicholas Maduro fallowing Saturday mornings removal. Remarkable operation that ended
up taking place, resulting in no loss of life, and
(00:28):
you have the opportunity for real success in Venezuela again,
a country that per capita is the wealthiest in the
world prior to Hugo Chavez and subsequently his handpicked replacement
in Maduro. But not everybody's happy. Not everybody's happy about this.
You have people like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on
(00:50):
ABC's This Week, had this to say yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
They did not just do ships off the water. They
went inside Venezuela, bombed civilian as well as military places.
And it's a violation of the law to do what
they did without getting the authorization of Congress.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So about that. Speaking of Congress, the chairman of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee, South Florida Congressman Brian mast joins us. Now,
good morning, Brian, Good morning, Happy New Year, Happy New Year.
So what say you is, Chuck Schumer Wright, was this
an illegal operation?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
This was not a illegal operation. This was a law
enforcement function. It wasn't a military operation. To describe why
the military was involved. Just to put it very plainly,
Maduro was a narco terrorist trasking drugs to the United
States of America. The bounty on him, the fifty million
dollars bounty on him, that was even put on back
(01:49):
during the Biden administration, right, So they put this useless
gesture of this bounty on him because of what a
bad guy was. They just weren't willing to actually take
any action about it when this law enforcement function was
taking place of bringing him in. Bear in mind, he
is also the leader of a country, so what can
he bring to bear. He could bring to bear an
(02:10):
air force, a navy, and army. So it was a
very dangerous operation. That's why our law enforcement individuals, the FBI,
the ATF, others, that's the DEEA, that's why they were
supported by United States military because of the capabilities that
Maduro could bring to bear. This is to make sure
that our Americans that went in to do their job
(02:32):
came out safely, because we look out for Americans number
one unashamedly, and that's the way it's going to continue
to be that's the way that this operation took place.
It was not a military operation. It was a law
enforcement operation that had to be supported by the military.
But if you even bring it to military and war powers,
if it even came to that, which it doesn't, it
(02:53):
doesn't rise to that because that's not at all what
this was. But if you were talking about war powers,
which is what Schumer is talking about there, the administration
has forty eight hours in which they have to discuss
with Congress everything that's going on, and then up to
sixty days after that that to remove United States from
(03:13):
hostilities without that authorization from Congress. This was an operation
that was done before most people finished their breakfasts. So
you know, again Schumer's very off bates with this, to
say the least, But it's not surprising because again they're
just a party of useless gestures, like like they're bounty
on Maduro but unwilling to conduct any action on it.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
And Brian you laid that out very well. Of course,
there's also legal precedent for this Manuel Noriega eighty nine Panama,
which by the way, I ended up being highly successful
the outcome there ultimately, but you know, the the pretext
for this, it seems as though the critics side step
that that historical president that or Noriega represented.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, and this is something that you know, of course,
there's always cherry picking by the Democrats of what it
is that they want to look at historically. You know
what actions Biden or Obama took, you know, back when
they had presidencies against foreign powers, and of course they
like to ignore those things, and they always like to
play this up is that we're about to be engaged
in this protracted war. It's the same thing that they
(04:26):
said when President Trump took action against Syria Bashar al
Assad when they were gassing their own people. It's the
same thing the Democrats said when he killed Kassam Sulivani,
the Iranian general that had been responsible for killing so
many Americans. All America is going to be in this
protracted war with the ruck. It's the same thing they
said earlier this year when we destroyed the Iranian nuclear
(04:46):
infrastructure to make sure that they couldn't attack America or
anywhere else with nuclear weapons. All We're going to be
in this protracted war. They're constantly you know, cherry picking
and ignoring what their administrations has done. And trying to
accuse that we're this is going to bring America into
these protracted wars. And if anything we know about President Trump,
he is not the protracted war president. He is the
(05:09):
we are going to look at what is the mission
that needs to be accomplished, and we are going to
conduct a very limited operation like this one over before
breakfast in order to get that job done. And you know,
I think you make one of them. You know, maybe
to make one other point is as you look at this,
Democrats have embraced people like Maduro. I put up a
(05:32):
photo a couple of weeks ago of my colleague on
the other side, I chair the Foreign Affairs Committee, and
the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee a couple
of years back, with Maduro's arms wrapped around him. Right.
I mean, this is this is a literal photo. This
wasn't photoshop. Right. These people embrace them, and then they're
upset when we're working to protect the American homeland by
(05:53):
getting rid of these individuals who are bringing drugs, bringing narcos,
heros and other things to our source.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, I think it's it's pretty evident who the communists
and communist sympathizers are Mom. Donnie at least is out
there and open and honest. Many of the others just
hide behind these talking points that you just ended up addressing,
like We're going to be second in some kind of
military quagmire, some situation like that one thing, Brian, And
this is I know, not friend center in the conversation,
(06:23):
but I would be shocked if it hasn't been big
in the overall thinking of President Trump and the administration
at large. For a very long time. I've articulated that
China isn't just China, that China is Russia, that China
is Iran, that China is North Korea with the Little
rocket Man, and China is also a Cuba, China is Venezuela,
(06:46):
and China is Nicaragua. They've been all of these various
different interests, and as we know, was about a year
ago when he was coming into the presidency that Trump
also was quite concerned about the Panama Canal because the
outside influence of China there, China's growing influence and their
existing alliance with Venezuela. When you take a look at
(07:09):
what the possibilities there could have been which China potentially
seizing in effect the world's largest oil reserves. How important
in the greater construct of America first policies because I
think one of the big things that even a lot
of Trump supporters take a look at, well, this is
an America first. Now, I would maintain that preserving the
(07:34):
energy for the Venezuelan people, for American interest that it
was stolen from when it was nationalized, but ultimately that
this is serving America's interest. For SIMI, lower energy prices
in the future will also be serving American interest first.
But when you take a look at that greater construct
of China of Russia in what this represents, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Let's break that down into a couple of different places.
So just number one, what you were talking about with China.
We all know different nations have very strategic allies, right,
we have strategic allies in Europe, in Europe through NATO,
we have strategic allies in Australia, in Japan, in Israel,
you know, all across the globe in different places. The
number one ally in all of Latin America, for China,
(08:22):
for Russia, for Iran, for Cuba was absolutely Nicholas Maduro
and Venezuela. He was their strategic partner, their their pipeline
to Latin America. And so to cut that off is
to cut off that most strategic partner for our largest
adversary that's trying to sow disruption directly into our backyard,
(08:44):
conducting espionas operations out there into our backyard. This entity
that was hosting you know, essentially Russian fleet weeks in
their ports and things like that, and China fleet weeks
in their ports. That's that's what was eliminated. That's the
effect that you have in art on American national security
is to cut off that strategic partner for those very
(09:06):
direct adversaries against the United States. Now, as you talk
about oil and you bring that in there, it's a
little bit of a mixed bag on that front. Yes,
they absolutely have large reserve. Now where it brings the
United States of America more into this is a you know,
there were American companies there that had their assets literally
stolen by Chavez and by Maduro. This is something that
(09:29):
there is expected there will be a pay for as
a result of what's taking place now that these American
companies are made right for everything that was stolen from them. Now,
as it relates to the infrastructure, that's they're in place
right now. The brain power that was there operating the
oil operations there has been gone for a long time.
(09:51):
These companies Chevron, you know, Excellon, Chevron, Kanicco, you know
all of these other companies, they've been gone largely for
a long time. So a lot of the infot structure
is very dilapidated. They would have to go in and
put in billions of dollars in order to bring that
back up to speed. And you kind of see that
playing out a little bit in the oil markets this morning.
You see what's happening surrounding all of these different things,
(10:13):
from heavy crude to other things. But that's a little
bit of the play. Partially, it's just making these American
companies right that we're stolen from. It's protecting the American
homeland from these adversaries that are using Venezuela as a
launching point to hurt Americans and not just through drugs
and other things, but again using it as this base
(10:35):
of espionage operations and many other things. And that comes
to an end.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
So, Brian, what is it that you would like to
see happen here? What is the risk at this point?
And what you don't want to see happen.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
And I'm going to give this again from historical context
of how President Trump and his security apparatus operate these things.
Secretary Rubio and I were on the line the morning
that this was happening. Secretary hag Stephani, Secretary of War,
We've spoken about this and so what you don't ever
see out of President Trump. People like to use the
term nation building. You don't see nation building like what
(11:13):
was taking place back during the Afghanistan War, the Iraqi War,
you know, what happened with Libya and things like that.
You don't see those kind of actions at all out
of President Trump. He's a you know, in his foreign policy,
he takes strong actions. It's always very limited action, like
I said, this one being done before breakfast, But it
(11:34):
falls more under the idea, you know, you can lead
a horse to water, but then the horse has to
decide to drink. He's leading the Venezuelan people to water.
They have to decide to drink for themselves, just like
what's taking place in Iran right now. There are moves
made to get very significant obstacles out of the way,
(11:55):
like Iranian nuclear infrastructure in Iran, like helping with Syria,
but we're not there conducting regime change, and I don't
think you're going to see it there in Venezuela conducting
regime change. In the same way, there's an opportunity being
given to what was the vice president now the current
acting President Rodriguez, to go in there and right now
be a partner until there can be free and fair
(12:16):
elections there for whoever will take place. But we're getting
the obstacles out of the way. They have to ultimately
come to the well and start drinking the water. American
nation building in the way that so many others in
the past tried to do it. There's not something that
you see as President doing at all. Brian.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Appreciate the time and the expertise and will continue to
follow your work as you get back to Congress.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Great to speak to you.
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