January 5, 2026 • 32 mins
A fast‑moving breakdown of the dramatic Delta Force extraction of Maduro, the geopolitical shockwaves across Venezuela, Cuba, China, and beyond, plus the political chaos at home—from Harris County corruption to Tim Walz’s looming exit. Michael Berry cuts through media spin, exposes fraud networks, and unpacks how global actors, narco links, and local political players shape today’s biggest stories.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time time, time lucking load. So Michael
Very show is on.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The air.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Night looking into mic week. Gotta feed a beard. I
don't plan to shave, and it's you the thing, but
I just gotta see I'm doing all right. We'll go
mixing more.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's I'm beating Ridictu and that's true.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It's neither drink nor drug and noo, I'm just doing
all right. It's a dead I know it sounds still
shining in a close my eyes.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's had times in the bag, the biking, every day,
busy parts. A lot has happened that we need to
get to. I can remember when a number of big
stories would break in rush. On his first day back,
(01:17):
he said, no, you want to ever talk about this,
and you want to know about this. We will get
to it as the show rolls along, or as the
show develops. I worry that three hours won't be enough
to get through the morning show in two hours added
to it for all the things that have happened over
the last few days. But we will do our absolute best.
(01:39):
The most recent story and dominating the news is, of course, Venezuela,
and we will begin to discuss that and discuss that
almost exclusively for much of the show today, starting in
about ten minutes maybe less. There is a lot to
say about what has happened in Venezuela, the Democrat reaction,
(02:05):
including don't laugh, Lena Hidalgo with a very surprising reaction
to that. Democrats criticizing Trump as they must.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
That's what they do.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
They just criticize what he does for Venezuela after we
have them on record, Chuck Schumer among them, saying that
Trump is weak and ineffective because he has not removed Maduro.
So the moment he does, they criticize him for removing Maduro,
(02:39):
trusting as they do that. Most people won't remember they
ever said that, But we'll get to all of that.
There are some interesting stories in our own community. As
we turn the page. We also turn to the beginning
of what really is primary season now, which interestingly is
less than two months away. So we will sprint toward
(03:02):
that day as the campaigns will pick up spending in
all media. You won't be able to open your mailbox
for those of you who still receive mail without all
of My opponent is a terrible guy. My opponent is
a cannibal. My opponent is which speaking of cannibals, two
(03:27):
cannibals were eating dinner together Ramon. One of them says,
geez I hate my mother, and the other one says, well,
try the potatoes.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Let me try that again. You might have just need
you a little.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Somebody asked me if you were going to warm up
the dinger before the show started, so you wouldn't figure.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
We try that again. Two cannibals are eating dinner together.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
One of them says, geez I hate my mother, and
the other one says, well, then try the potatoes.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Indeed, yes, Superhero gets both of his front teeth knocked out. Friencess,
how are you feeling? He said, it's thor it's thor.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
All right, so we would get to Venezuela. But first,
to me the bigger, long term story. The reason we
have a thirty eight trillion dollar debt, as Dosee exposed,
was in goo transfers governmental waste.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
We could operate our government for ten cents on the.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Dollar what we do, but we have built in fraud
on a scale on a breadth that is beyond belief.
And let's be clear, it's not just in MOGADI issue Minneapolis,
it's in Houston, Texas as well. The operation at Harris County,
(05:00):
the twenty million dollar contract for the COVID outreach that
got Lena had Augo's top three people indicted, the money
that goes to her travels to Paris, and the entire
posse of security she wanted to bring. The fraud and
(05:21):
corruption that happens in Harris County might not be as
big as mogad issue, although we don't know, but it's massive.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
We will get to Venezuela. But the big news we
know things are bad for Tim Waltz.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Because and when I first heard this story, I thought no, no,
no no, because it was from a local political consultant
out of Mogodi issue that Tim Waltz would be resigning.
Today it looks more and more likely that that's going
to be the case. Local news there reporting at New
York Post had a big story this morning. A number
of folks reporting that the late morning press conference from
(06:01):
Tampon Tim is where he will announce that he is
dropping his reelection bid for this year, and that would
suggest that bad things are coming for Tampon Timmy Fox
nine out of Mogadishu.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
So I think we've heard for many days that there
was a lot of pressure from Democrats on Governor Walls
whether or not he was going to stay in this race.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
But I learned late today.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That he met with Senator Amy Kloeshard today and tomorrow
his schedule is an all staff meeting and then some
media briefings.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
They have not put out his public.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Schedule yet for tomorrow, but my sources are telling me
that he will make a major announcement tomorrow and that
it is likely that he'll drop out of the governor's race.
The idea that the fraud story is not going away.
We're going to have more indictments, and the headlines are
just going to continue. And you know, most people, including
Democrats that I talked to, say they don't believe he
sees the issue early enough that he didn't take it
(07:01):
seriously early enough.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
And now we look at the last.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Two weeks, three weeks and the national and the federal
government really coming down on Minnesota. I wrote last year
what to watch in twenty twenty five was how Governor
Wallace re entered Minnesota, And I think it took him
a while to get his feedback under him after his
VP run, but I think he found his way and overall,
his approval ratings were, you know, in the mid forties,
(07:28):
solid for a second term governor in a divided state.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
So I feel like he caught his feet after the
VP run.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
But this is something that I don't think that he
thinks he can recover from. I also believe in my
heart that the tenor and tone is exhausting seeking a
third term being on the national stage, the tenor tone
of politics, losing speak, Garmatis Hortman, going through just the
tragedy of annunciation.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
That's got to wear on just the human soul. And
you know how much energy would he have for.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
A third term, especially if the pressure of Washington and
further kind of polarization and heightened threats to him, you know, continued.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Forest for the trees. Brother, you're too close to the
problem to see the scale of it.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
And now we understand why Tim Waltz was chosen as
the vice presidential candidate.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
They wanted to take this fraud nation wide. Venezuela talk
coming up.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Michael Berry, Well, our friend Chance McClain, part of the
show and small business owner and all around great guy
posted over the weekend or posted yesterday. Let's be honest,
tomorrow is the first day of the new year, and
you kind of feel that way if you've been off
(08:49):
from work for a few days, traveling or just relaxing.
You kind of feel like, well, this is the first
day of the new year that we're in our routine.
Although a lot of the schools haven't started back. The
young Roblist boys are downstairs today because they're off from school,
and I suppose a number of you have children who
(09:10):
are as well. But we're back to it, and frankly,
may I say glad to be so back in the routine.
So let's start with Venezuela. Is this a story of oil,
drug trafficking, human trafficking, Yes, yes it is.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
It's a story of all of that and so much more.
If you've listened to the show.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
For any length of time, you know that I am
against what is often called regime change, or particularly nation building,
and so this has caused a number of Democrats to
jump up and use that term, a term that they
are not necessarily opposed to, but they hear these terms
(09:56):
and they have to attack Trump with everything they have.
Look at everything thing else they've attacked him with It
doesn't matter. They sent the man to the court house.
They tried to send him to prison, so they'll stop
at nothing. This is a dangerous time and we have
to keep an eye on this because this is the
moment when the neocons insinuate themselves into power.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
That's what they do, those who love war. I saw Lindsey.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Graham so lathered up on television yesterday that I thought,
my goodness, Safe Harbor is overnight. This is damn near porn.
This guy is so horned up over the idea of war,
he doesn't know what to do. So we do need
to be careful at a time like this because the
neocons will have boots on the ground in the long
term war if they can possibly get it the bush,
(10:48):
the chainey Lindsey Grahamnesty, that group of people at a
moment like this is very, very excited at the opportunities,
and we must be mindful of that. One of the
questions that the media and the Democrats are asking is
under what power does the president invade a country? And
(11:10):
I suppose you could argue we didn't necessarily even invade them.
So twenty two minute Land and exfiltrate the leader of
a nation, or is he the leader of a nation?
Over fifty countries did not recognize him as the leader
of a foreign nation, a sovereign nation. In twenty thirteen
(11:33):
when he came to power, he stole that power and
a great number of countries, and including most of the
countries you would take seriously have not recognized him. In fact,
we did not recognize him, never have as the leader
of Venezuela. And the story of Venezuela is quite sad.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Actually.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
When Chavez came in in ninety eight and took out
office and took power in ninety nine, through what they
so desperately attempted to make a pay here to be
a legitimate government, that country went downhill. And interestingly, the
Chavez platform was to help the poor and reduce corruption.
(12:15):
And here we are twenty six years later. There was
a headline in the New York Times, Could eating rabbits
be the answer? Could eating household pets be the answer
to Venezuela's food woes. So we went from Mamdani's warm
embrace of collectivism, which is Marxist socialism, to eating your
(12:36):
family pet to survive. And that is the reason that
we have hundreds of thousands of TPS residents Protective Service,
temporary protective services, temporary and quotes residents in this country
from Venezuela. That is why you saw so many people
(12:57):
in Florida, a large popular of Venezuela's in New York,
where President Trump had a good sense to parade.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Moduro through the town. That is the reason.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
If you look at pictures of Venezuela's largest cities, you
see the crowds packing publicly where they've not been able
to get out in public and speak out against the regime.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
But we start with a question of the power with
which or.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Through which the President claims to be able to send
in delta force and extricate.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Moduro.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And it's interesting because the president does have a number
of powers. But the argument you could use is either
the Defense Department our military or the Justice Department our
legal system, if this is a national security risk. In
the twenty five page indictment, they appear to be not
only prosecuting an individual, but laying out the case that
(13:56):
this individual is a national secure party risk. And in fact,
the President used both delta force from the Defense Department,
one of our special ops organizations. I sent a message
to Marcus Sitral and I said, I thought about you,
or I thought about I said, watching those Delta Force boys,
I thought about a certain other special Ops Navy seal
(14:19):
from Willis, Texas and his exploits. And he said, all
I can say is I'm incredibly proud of those boys.
The mission was carried out with tactical precision, absolute tactical precision.
Not one American, not one died in that effort. You
(14:39):
think about landing in a country. Venezuela is not a
Banana republic, or at least wasn't. Venezuela has a real military,
They have real assets, although as you've come to learn,
it wasn't Venezuelan's who were protecting Maduro, it was Cubans.
In fact, the Cuban government says thirty two Cubans were
(15:00):
killed during the raid, thirty two Cubans who were guarding Maduro.
The relationship between Cuba and Venezuela goes like this. The
Cubans provided the muscle to keep the Maduro regime in power.
The Venezuelans provided the oil to sustain to the extent
(15:22):
that they do the Cuban government.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
And we'll find out.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
The Irani's, the Chinese, and the Russians are in on
this as well. It's a fascinating story. A lot has
been revealed and more will be coming up.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
He sold separately.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Fox News has now joined with CBS and a number
of others and they are confirming their belief that Tim
Waltz will resign in just will announce he is not
running for reelection, which means he will serve out his
term he was up this year and this yes tells
(16:00):
you a lot about why Tim Waltz was chosen to
be Kamala Harris's running mate.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
There are.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Nefarious forces at play who feed or feast off of
your tax dollars and redirect that money to immigrant immigrant groups,
Soros funded organizations, NGO's and evil the Somalis, this warlord
culture of fraudsters in this country who seemingly contribute nothing
(16:33):
other than the perpetuation of fraud in this country. Think
about the names that we've seen out of Minnesota, ilhan
Omar marrying her brother, the evil she has brought to
this country, declaring how much she loves Somali and hates America,
(16:56):
her husband, boyfriend. It's the whole thing that kind of
reminds me of Lena Hidalgo and her little nerd, although
he at least had the good sense to divorce her
after of course going through his entire life savings to
put her through the nuthouse. Ilhan Omar. You think about
(17:17):
Keith Ellison, the attorney general. There the very man who
should have been overseeing the prosecution investigation of fraud in
the state of Minnesota, and yet he's Keith Ellison.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
You think about Jacob Frye, the mayor.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
You think about the fact that in what was a
coordinated psyop, it was Mogadishu, Minnesota, where the entire George
Floyd event went down. There are black men who die
from a fentanyl overdose in the custody of the police
every day. That was the story they could control. And
(17:57):
mind you imagine Derek Chauvin when he finishes his cleanup
duty for the day and looks up on the screen
and realizes, see, I told y'all this place is corrupt.
Then of course you've got Tim Waltz, the governor. We'll
get to him in a bet. The indictment against Maduro
(18:19):
in Venezuela charged him with, among other things, and I
think this will turn out to be very important, selling
diplomatic credentials to Narco traffickers to travel to Mexico with
full diplomatic community to run cartel activities. That means that
(18:43):
using the power of the state a country, he was
able to give legitimacy to individuals who were traveling to
Mexico where they were coordinating cartel activities. He was able
to create an environment. And we're seeing this. The fellow
who's overseeing world peace and security for the United Nations
(19:08):
is from Somalia. This is what the criminal organizations now do.
They no longer want to be outside the government. They
have co opted governments themselves, which gives them the power
and the seeming legitimacy and in this case, immunity from prosecution.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Of being the real deal.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
These are criminal enterprises able to wear the uniform of
the state. That five I think it's twenty five page
indictment lays this in a number of other things out.
But if in fact that is true, that would mean
that you have the government operating as a criminal enterprise,
(19:58):
not a legitimate regime. As I mentioned, over fifty countries
have not recognized Maduro as the rightful, legitimate leader of
Venezuela going back to twenty thirteen, which means that it's
not really regime change at all. It's no different than
toppling the leader of the mafia, and that's going to
(20:23):
be the case that's going to be made. Enter the
involvement of the Cubans who have been providing Maduro with
his security in exchange for the Venezuelan Pact, where the
Venezuelans provide Cuba much needed oil and the Venezuelans needed
the muscle of Cuba. So Cuba has become the modern
(20:46):
day Swiss mercenaries of Marxism. They provide the muscle for
several countries, Venezuela the most important of which, and Gola
being one before that, to give legitimacy or security for
rogue nations who could not provide it for themselves.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
You also have the presence of China.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
This is going to turn out to be very important
in the meeting with Maduro within hours of the raid
on Mita Flores. The I'm a kind of over sentuate
some of the Spanish words, I don't mind ramon. You
had the Chinese envoy there. Interesting that this was not
(21:31):
a surprise raid in the purest sense. I think we
had something like fifteen thousand troops stationed there. The number
of military assets, the warships, it was rather obvious that
this was coming.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
It was just a question of when two am it
happened to be. But this was not a huge surprise
to the region.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
You can't hide that many warships and that many service
members of the tactical elements of this attack. It's quite
interesting that the helicopters that they were using, and some
of the folks with military experience know a lot more
about this. We're flying one hundred feet above the ground
(22:21):
at a high rate of speed, undetectable to most of
the defense systems air defense systems of Venezuela. When those
men landed, which interestingly it is by all accounts.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
All men, So I guess we don't have a DEI
in Delta force. When you need to land.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Some guys who are going to go in and do
the dirty work, and they have to be precise. I
have read and seen story after story all weekend above
the about these guys. I went by the name of
three per six, who led the operation that actually extricated
(23:04):
Maduro from his compound. You're talking about some of the
best of the best. I know every special ops units
will argue supremacy over the others, and I don't know,
I know they're all badasses. I'm grateful for them. I'm
grateful for every family that found out about this after
(23:28):
it was over, and when they found out were scared
to death that their baby boy was killed, because that's
still somebody's baby boy that's going in to taking.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
On these actions.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
You have the Chinese presence in Venezuela and the Chinese
reliance on Venezuela for their oil.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
What did I see? Five percent? Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
About five percent of China's total annual oil imports account
are sent from Venezuela. China is the largest buyer of
Venezuelan oil. That's not going to be easy to replace,
and I don't know that Cuba will be able to
(24:11):
because Cuba was basically engaged in a barn where rather
than paying for the oil, they were sending their mercenaries
to prop up Maduro.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
And it's what we do on the Michael Berrieshow isn't
it interesting.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
That the Axis of Evil, how these people just keep
finding each other and making alliances.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
You've got Venezuela now as the pivot point.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
You've got heavy Chinese involvement up to the very moment
that Maduro was extracted.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
You have Iran in their great involvement, and of course
you have Russia.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
We'll talk about Trende Ragua in a moment considered been
in the news as much of late, but consider one
of the baddest of the criminal operations working in the
United States. President Trump made reference to them and to
two Houston cases, Joscelyn Nungeri being one of them, and
(25:14):
the deaths of American citizens on American soil at the
direction of this criminal enterprise. And yes, it does appear
that Trenda aragw had a relationship with Maduro. That's part
of the indictment that will be part of the case.
That tactical mission in Venezuela is nothing short and amazing.
(25:35):
I heard one national security expert compare it to Israel
and the pager bombs that blew off the juebos of
the various Hesbal officials in Iran and Lebanon. It's incredible.
They were moving this man on a daily basis. He
was using burner phones, which of course they would discard
(25:59):
his location was changing constantly, and yet our boys went
in their Delta force and went directly to him. Now
that speaks to the fact that the CIA had incredible intelligence.
That's not all video intelligence, that's not all listening devices.
(26:20):
That is an infiltration of individuals who were providing information.
It's clear that Maduro did not have his administration locked down.
The fact that no US forces were killed, the fact
that the nation's power grid could be incapacitated so that
(26:41):
when our boys landed the country was in darkness. There
was no internal ability on the primary communications systems to
sound the alert. The surgical strikes throughout the country as distractions,
disabling the Venezuelan surfaced air capability for all intents and purposes,
(27:02):
not completely disabling the Venezuelan air response to engage and
kill thirty two Cubans the Cuban government number not mine.
Without the loss of a single American life, It's rather impressive.
And while he does not deserve all of the credit.
(27:24):
Think about Pete Hegseth. We were told how terrible Pete
Hegseth was going to be. We were told that he
had personal problems, and we were told that he was
not fit for the job.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
And yet.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Look at the job he has done. Look at the
job Pete Hegseth has done. The operations that have been
conducted on his watch. It really is amazing when you
think about the legacy he already has as Secretary of Defense.
Successful operation in the Panama Canal increased the ranks of
(28:06):
our military. It's constantly reported that our military is able
to recruit on a level they have never seen before
in the modern era. Shut down Iran's nuclear prowess, at
least for some period of time, smacked Muslim extremists in Nigeria,
that happening, of course over the break, causing them to
(28:28):
return hostages. And then just happened to take out Venezuela's
military bases and capture their leader without killing him, which
was important, and not one, not one of our men
died in the process of any of those operations. Remember
when Milly said that he would call China and tell
(28:53):
them he would warn them if President Trump was going
to attack, And now we've got Kin who another. You know,
if you remember when Schwartzkough emerged, it's a bad mammagemma
during a desert storm, and then desert shield and then
desert storm, and he seems to have been a man
(29:15):
who has met his moment.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Trump likes these kind of guys. He's charismatic, he's feisty.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
If you haven't seen his press conference, don't let that
be buried in the rubble of the transition from your
vacation to back to work. It is worth watching the
press conference. President Trump normally takes center stage at those,
but he stood back, and he seemed to be consciously
holding back to have Raisin Cain leading that press conference.
(29:47):
I thought that was quite interesting. I was not a
Marco Rubio fan as a senator when he joined with
the gang over the illegal immigration and the program, I
thought that exposed him for who and what he was.
When Donald Trump called him little Marco and effectively ended
(30:09):
his presidential campaign, I thought Marco Rubio was done.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
But I must say, and this.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Is one of those Doris Kerns Goodwin's Team of Rivals
references to Abraham Lincoln bringing his vanquished foes from the
presidential election of eighteen sixty into the administration. That was
an inspired choice Marco Rubio. I think the president understood
how important the Monroe Doctrine and Latin America was going
to be to his administration. I think he understood that
(30:39):
this guy had the cell phone numbers in a close
cloak room relationship with fellow senators, I think he saw
that this was a guy who was on the outs
and wanted back in. But Marco Rubio has been as
he should be, and, as he noted over the weekend,
a very loyal secretary of state to Donald Trump. I'll
remind you of techs of Rex Tillerson, the former head
(31:01):
of Exon, who betrayed Donald Trump as his secretary of State.
I think he thought he was his own president, kind
of with the Alexander Haig I'm in charge now mentality.
I just wanted to take a moment to recognize that
I think Marco Rubio is doing a fantastic job of
secretary of State. I don't know why that means that
(31:24):
people very excited about another presidential election in a couple
of years need to now talk about whether he's a
better presidential candidate than JD.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Vance. I don't know why that needs to be the case.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Those sorts of things are very disruptive to the internal
operation of the Trump administration and they need to stop.
But it's the same mindset of people who, when their
team wins the World Series or the Super Bowl, before
the trophy is hoisted, to start talking about what our
team's going to look like next year.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Let's operate now.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Let's make this the best presidential administration of our lifetimes,
if not our country. As we enter the two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of this great nation,
I just want to say that while I have not
always been a fan, and far from it, I think
Marco Rubio is doing a great job as the Secretary
of State, and I think that Pete Hegseth has proven
(32:17):
his detractors wrong, certainly very popular within the military, and
the results certainly speak for themselves.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And I don't think I need to add to that
the credit President Trump deserves
It's that time time time, time lucking load. So Michael
Very show is on.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The air.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Night looking into mic week. Gotta feed a beard. I
don't plan to shave, and it's you the thing, but
I just gotta see I'm doing all right. We'll go
mixing more.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's I'm beating Ridictu and that's true.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It's neither drink nor drug and noo, I'm just doing
all right. It's a dead I know it sounds still
shining in a close my eyes.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's had times in the bag, the biking, every day,
busy parts. A lot has happened that we need to
get to. I can remember when a number of big
stories would break in rush. On his first day back,
(01:17):
he said, no, you want to ever talk about this,
and you want to know about this. We will get
to it as the show rolls along, or as the
show develops. I worry that three hours won't be enough
to get through the morning show in two hours added
to it for all the things that have happened over
the last few days. But we will do our absolute best.
(01:39):
The most recent story and dominating the news is, of course, Venezuela,
and we will begin to discuss that and discuss that
almost exclusively for much of the show today, starting in
about ten minutes maybe less. There is a lot to
say about what has happened in Venezuela, the Democrat reaction,
(02:05):
including don't laugh, Lena Hidalgo with a very surprising reaction
to that. Democrats criticizing Trump as they must.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
That's what they do.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
They just criticize what he does for Venezuela after we
have them on record, Chuck Schumer among them, saying that
Trump is weak and ineffective because he has not removed Maduro.
So the moment he does, they criticize him for removing Maduro,
(02:39):
trusting as they do that. Most people won't remember they
ever said that, But we'll get to all of that.
There are some interesting stories in our own community. As
we turn the page. We also turn to the beginning
of what really is primary season now, which interestingly is
less than two months away. So we will sprint toward
(03:02):
that day as the campaigns will pick up spending in
all media. You won't be able to open your mailbox
for those of you who still receive mail without all
of My opponent is a terrible guy. My opponent is
a cannibal. My opponent is which speaking of cannibals, two
(03:27):
cannibals were eating dinner together Ramon. One of them says,
geez I hate my mother, and the other one says, well,
try the potatoes.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Let me try that again. You might have just need
you a little.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Somebody asked me if you were going to warm up
the dinger before the show started, so you wouldn't figure.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
We try that again. Two cannibals are eating dinner together.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
One of them says, geez I hate my mother, and
the other one says, well, then try the potatoes.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Very nice, very nice.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Indeed, yes, Superhero gets both of his front teeth knocked out. Friencess,
how are you feeling? He said, it's thor it's thor.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
All right, so we would get to Venezuela. But first,
to me the bigger, long term story. The reason we
have a thirty eight trillion dollar debt, as Dosee exposed,
was in goo transfers governmental waste.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
We could operate our government for ten cents on the.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Dollar what we do, but we have built in fraud
on a scale on a breadth that is beyond belief.
And let's be clear, it's not just in MOGADI issue Minneapolis,
it's in Houston, Texas as well. The operation at Harris County,
(05:00):
the twenty million dollar contract for the COVID outreach that
got Lena had Augo's top three people indicted, the money
that goes to her travels to Paris, and the entire
posse of security she wanted to bring. The fraud and
(05:21):
corruption that happens in Harris County might not be as
big as mogad issue, although we don't know, but it's massive.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
We will get to Venezuela. But the big news we
know things are bad for Tim Waltz.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Because and when I first heard this story, I thought no, no,
no no, because it was from a local political consultant
out of Mogodi issue that Tim Waltz would be resigning.
Today it looks more and more likely that that's going
to be the case. Local news there reporting at New
York Post had a big story this morning. A number
of folks reporting that the late morning press conference from
(06:01):
Tampon Tim is where he will announce that he is
dropping his reelection bid for this year, and that would
suggest that bad things are coming for Tampon Timmy Fox
nine out of Mogadishu.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
So I think we've heard for many days that there
was a lot of pressure from Democrats on Governor Walls
whether or not he was going to stay in this race.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
But I learned late today.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That he met with Senator Amy Kloeshard today and tomorrow
his schedule is an all staff meeting and then some
media briefings.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
They have not put out his public.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Schedule yet for tomorrow, but my sources are telling me
that he will make a major announcement tomorrow and that
it is likely that he'll drop out of the governor's race.
The idea that the fraud story is not going away.
We're going to have more indictments, and the headlines are
just going to continue. And you know, most people, including
Democrats that I talked to, say they don't believe he
sees the issue early enough that he didn't take it
(07:01):
seriously early enough.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
And now we look at the last.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Two weeks, three weeks and the national and the federal
government really coming down on Minnesota. I wrote last year
what to watch in twenty twenty five was how Governor
Wallace re entered Minnesota, And I think it took him
a while to get his feedback under him after his
VP run, but I think he found his way and overall,
his approval ratings were, you know, in the mid forties,
(07:28):
solid for a second term governor in a divided state.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
So I feel like he caught his feet after the
VP run.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
But this is something that I don't think that he
thinks he can recover from. I also believe in my
heart that the tenor and tone is exhausting seeking a
third term being on the national stage, the tenor tone
of politics, losing speak, Garmatis Hortman, going through just the
tragedy of annunciation.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
That's got to wear on just the human soul. And
you know how much energy would he have for.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
A third term, especially if the pressure of Washington and
further kind of polarization and heightened threats to him, you know, continued.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Forest for the trees. Brother, you're too close to the
problem to see the scale of it.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
And now we understand why Tim Waltz was chosen as
the vice presidential candidate.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
They wanted to take this fraud nation wide. Venezuela talk
coming up.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Michael Berry, Well, our friend Chance McClain, part of the
show and small business owner and all around great guy
posted over the weekend or posted yesterday. Let's be honest,
tomorrow is the first day of the new year, and
you kind of feel that way if you've been off
(08:49):
from work for a few days, traveling or just relaxing.
You kind of feel like, well, this is the first
day of the new year that we're in our routine.
Although a lot of the schools haven't started back. The
young Roblist boys are downstairs today because they're off from school,
and I suppose a number of you have children who
(09:10):
are as well. But we're back to it, and frankly,
may I say glad to be so back in the routine.
So let's start with Venezuela. Is this a story of oil,
drug trafficking, human trafficking, Yes, yes it is.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
It's a story of all of that and so much more.
If you've listened to the show.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
For any length of time, you know that I am
against what is often called regime change, or particularly nation building,
and so this has caused a number of Democrats to
jump up and use that term, a term that they
are not necessarily opposed to, but they hear these terms
(09:56):
and they have to attack Trump with everything they have.
Look at everything thing else they've attacked him with It
doesn't matter. They sent the man to the court house.
They tried to send him to prison, so they'll stop
at nothing. This is a dangerous time and we have
to keep an eye on this because this is the
moment when the neocons insinuate themselves into power.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
That's what they do, those who love war. I saw Lindsey.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Graham so lathered up on television yesterday that I thought,
my goodness, Safe Harbor is overnight. This is damn near porn.
This guy is so horned up over the idea of war,
he doesn't know what to do. So we do need
to be careful at a time like this because the
neocons will have boots on the ground in the long
term war if they can possibly get it the bush,
(10:48):
the chainey Lindsey Grahamnesty, that group of people at a
moment like this is very, very excited at the opportunities,
and we must be mindful of that. One of the
questions that the media and the Democrats are asking is
under what power does the president invade a country? And
(11:10):
I suppose you could argue we didn't necessarily even invade them.
So twenty two minute Land and exfiltrate the leader of
a nation, or is he the leader of a nation?
Over fifty countries did not recognize him as the leader
of a foreign nation, a sovereign nation. In twenty thirteen
(11:33):
when he came to power, he stole that power and
a great number of countries, and including most of the
countries you would take seriously have not recognized him. In fact,
we did not recognize him, never have as the leader
of Venezuela. And the story of Venezuela is quite sad.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Actually.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
When Chavez came in in ninety eight and took out
office and took power in ninety nine, through what they
so desperately attempted to make a pay here to be
a legitimate government, that country went downhill. And interestingly, the
Chavez platform was to help the poor and reduce corruption.
(12:15):
And here we are twenty six years later. There was
a headline in the New York Times, Could eating rabbits
be the answer? Could eating household pets be the answer
to Venezuela's food woes. So we went from Mamdani's warm
embrace of collectivism, which is Marxist socialism, to eating your
(12:36):
family pet to survive. And that is the reason that
we have hundreds of thousands of TPS residents Protective Service,
temporary protective services, temporary and quotes residents in this country
from Venezuela. That is why you saw so many people
(12:57):
in Florida, a large popular of Venezuela's in New York,
where President Trump had a good sense to parade.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Moduro through the town. That is the reason.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
If you look at pictures of Venezuela's largest cities, you
see the crowds packing publicly where they've not been able
to get out in public and speak out against the regime.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
But we start with a question of the power with
which or.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Through which the President claims to be able to send
in delta force and extricate.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Moduro.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And it's interesting because the president does have a number
of powers. But the argument you could use is either
the Defense Department our military or the Justice Department our
legal system, if this is a national security risk. In
the twenty five page indictment, they appear to be not
only prosecuting an individual, but laying out the case that
(13:56):
this individual is a national secure party risk. And in fact,
the President used both delta force from the Defense Department,
one of our special ops organizations. I sent a message
to Marcus Sitral and I said, I thought about you,
or I thought about I said, watching those Delta Force boys,
I thought about a certain other special Ops Navy seal
(14:19):
from Willis, Texas and his exploits. And he said, all
I can say is I'm incredibly proud of those boys.
The mission was carried out with tactical precision, absolute tactical precision.
Not one American, not one died in that effort. You
(14:39):
think about landing in a country. Venezuela is not a
Banana republic, or at least wasn't. Venezuela has a real military,
They have real assets, although as you've come to learn,
it wasn't Venezuelan's who were protecting Maduro, it was Cubans.
In fact, the Cuban government says thirty two Cubans were
(15:00):
killed during the raid, thirty two Cubans who were guarding Maduro.
The relationship between Cuba and Venezuela goes like this. The
Cubans provided the muscle to keep the Maduro regime in power.
The Venezuelans provided the oil to sustain to the extent
(15:22):
that they do the Cuban government.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
And we'll find out.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
The Irani's, the Chinese, and the Russians are in on
this as well. It's a fascinating story. A lot has
been revealed and more will be coming up.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
He sold separately.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Fox News has now joined with CBS and a number
of others and they are confirming their belief that Tim
Waltz will resign in just will announce he is not
running for reelection, which means he will serve out his
term he was up this year and this yes tells
(16:00):
you a lot about why Tim Waltz was chosen to
be Kamala Harris's running mate.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
There are.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Nefarious forces at play who feed or feast off of
your tax dollars and redirect that money to immigrant immigrant groups,
Soros funded organizations, NGO's and evil the Somalis, this warlord
culture of fraudsters in this country who seemingly contribute nothing
(16:33):
other than the perpetuation of fraud in this country. Think
about the names that we've seen out of Minnesota, ilhan
Omar marrying her brother, the evil she has brought to
this country, declaring how much she loves Somali and hates America,
(16:56):
her husband, boyfriend. It's the whole thing that kind of
reminds me of Lena Hidalgo and her little nerd, although
he at least had the good sense to divorce her
after of course going through his entire life savings to
put her through the nuthouse. Ilhan Omar. You think about
(17:17):
Keith Ellison, the attorney general. There the very man who
should have been overseeing the prosecution investigation of fraud in
the state of Minnesota, and yet he's Keith Ellison.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
You think about Jacob Frye, the mayor.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
You think about the fact that in what was a
coordinated psyop, it was Mogadishu, Minnesota, where the entire George
Floyd event went down. There are black men who die
from a fentanyl overdose in the custody of the police
every day. That was the story they could control. And
(17:57):
mind you imagine Derek Chauvin when he finishes his cleanup
duty for the day and looks up on the screen
and realizes, see, I told y'all this place is corrupt.
Then of course you've got Tim Waltz, the governor. We'll
get to him in a bet. The indictment against Maduro
(18:19):
in Venezuela charged him with, among other things, and I
think this will turn out to be very important, selling
diplomatic credentials to Narco traffickers to travel to Mexico with
full diplomatic community to run cartel activities. That means that
(18:43):
using the power of the state a country, he was
able to give legitimacy to individuals who were traveling to
Mexico where they were coordinating cartel activities. He was able
to create an environment. And we're seeing this. The fellow
who's overseeing world peace and security for the United Nations
(19:08):
is from Somalia. This is what the criminal organizations now do.
They no longer want to be outside the government. They
have co opted governments themselves, which gives them the power
and the seeming legitimacy and in this case, immunity from prosecution.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Of being the real deal.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
These are criminal enterprises able to wear the uniform of
the state. That five I think it's twenty five page
indictment lays this in a number of other things out.
But if in fact that is true, that would mean
that you have the government operating as a criminal enterprise,
(19:58):
not a legitimate regime. As I mentioned, over fifty countries
have not recognized Maduro as the rightful, legitimate leader of
Venezuela going back to twenty thirteen, which means that it's
not really regime change at all. It's no different than
toppling the leader of the mafia, and that's going to
(20:23):
be the case that's going to be made. Enter the
involvement of the Cubans who have been providing Maduro with
his security in exchange for the Venezuelan Pact, where the
Venezuelans provide Cuba much needed oil and the Venezuelans needed
the muscle of Cuba. So Cuba has become the modern
(20:46):
day Swiss mercenaries of Marxism. They provide the muscle for
several countries, Venezuela the most important of which, and Gola
being one before that, to give legitimacy or security for
rogue nations who could not provide it for themselves.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
You also have the presence of China.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
This is going to turn out to be very important
in the meeting with Maduro within hours of the raid
on Mita Flores. The I'm a kind of over sentuate
some of the Spanish words, I don't mind ramon. You
had the Chinese envoy there. Interesting that this was not
(21:31):
a surprise raid in the purest sense. I think we
had something like fifteen thousand troops stationed there. The number
of military assets, the warships, it was rather obvious that
this was coming.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
It was just a question of when two am it
happened to be. But this was not a huge surprise
to the region.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
You can't hide that many warships and that many service
members of the tactical elements of this attack. It's quite
interesting that the helicopters that they were using, and some
of the folks with military experience know a lot more
about this. We're flying one hundred feet above the ground
(22:21):
at a high rate of speed, undetectable to most of
the defense systems air defense systems of Venezuela. When those
men landed, which interestingly it is by all accounts.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
All men, So I guess we don't have a DEI
in Delta force. When you need to land.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Some guys who are going to go in and do
the dirty work, and they have to be precise. I
have read and seen story after story all weekend above
the about these guys. I went by the name of
three per six, who led the operation that actually extricated
(23:04):
Maduro from his compound. You're talking about some of the
best of the best. I know every special ops units
will argue supremacy over the others, and I don't know,
I know they're all badasses. I'm grateful for them. I'm
grateful for every family that found out about this after
(23:28):
it was over, and when they found out were scared
to death that their baby boy was killed, because that's
still somebody's baby boy that's going in to taking.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
On these actions.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
You have the Chinese presence in Venezuela and the Chinese
reliance on Venezuela for their oil.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
What did I see? Five percent? Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:49):
About five percent of China's total annual oil imports account
are sent from Venezuela. China is the largest buyer of
Venezuelan oil. That's not going to be easy to replace,
and I don't know that Cuba will be able to
(24:11):
because Cuba was basically engaged in a barn where rather
than paying for the oil, they were sending their mercenaries
to prop up Maduro.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
And it's what we do on the Michael Berrieshow isn't
it interesting.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
That the Axis of Evil, how these people just keep
finding each other and making alliances.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
You've got Venezuela now as the pivot point.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
You've got heavy Chinese involvement up to the very moment
that Maduro was extracted.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
You have Iran in their great involvement, and of course
you have Russia.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
We'll talk about Trende Ragua in a moment considered been
in the news as much of late, but consider one
of the baddest of the criminal operations working in the
United States. President Trump made reference to them and to
two Houston cases, Joscelyn Nungeri being one of them, and
(25:14):
the deaths of American citizens on American soil at the
direction of this criminal enterprise. And yes, it does appear
that Trenda aragw had a relationship with Maduro. That's part
of the indictment that will be part of the case.
That tactical mission in Venezuela is nothing short and amazing.
(25:35):
I heard one national security expert compare it to Israel
and the pager bombs that blew off the juebos of
the various Hesbal officials in Iran and Lebanon. It's incredible.
They were moving this man on a daily basis. He
was using burner phones, which of course they would discard
(25:59):
his location was changing constantly, and yet our boys went
in their Delta force and went directly to him. Now
that speaks to the fact that the CIA had incredible intelligence.
That's not all video intelligence, that's not all listening devices.
(26:20):
That is an infiltration of individuals who were providing information.
It's clear that Maduro did not have his administration locked down.
The fact that no US forces were killed, the fact
that the nation's power grid could be incapacitated so that
(26:41):
when our boys landed the country was in darkness. There
was no internal ability on the primary communications systems to
sound the alert. The surgical strikes throughout the country as distractions,
disabling the Venezuelan surfaced air capability for all intents and purposes,
(27:02):
not completely disabling the Venezuelan air response to engage and
kill thirty two Cubans the Cuban government number not mine.
Without the loss of a single American life, It's rather impressive.
And while he does not deserve all of the credit.
(27:24):
Think about Pete Hegseth. We were told how terrible Pete
Hegseth was going to be. We were told that he
had personal problems, and we were told that he was
not fit for the job.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
And yet.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
Look at the job he has done. Look at the
job Pete Hegseth has done. The operations that have been
conducted on his watch. It really is amazing when you
think about the legacy he already has as Secretary of Defense.
Successful operation in the Panama Canal increased the ranks of
(28:06):
our military. It's constantly reported that our military is able
to recruit on a level they have never seen before
in the modern era. Shut down Iran's nuclear prowess, at
least for some period of time, smacked Muslim extremists in Nigeria,
that happening, of course over the break, causing them to
(28:28):
return hostages. And then just happened to take out Venezuela's
military bases and capture their leader without killing him, which
was important, and not one, not one of our men
died in the process of any of those operations. Remember
when Milly said that he would call China and tell
(28:53):
them he would warn them if President Trump was going
to attack, And now we've got Kin who another. You know,
if you remember when Schwartzkough emerged, it's a bad mammagemma
during a desert storm, and then desert shield and then
desert storm, and he seems to have been a man
(29:15):
who has met his moment.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Trump likes these kind of guys. He's charismatic, he's feisty.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
If you haven't seen his press conference, don't let that
be buried in the rubble of the transition from your
vacation to back to work. It is worth watching the
press conference. President Trump normally takes center stage at those,
but he stood back, and he seemed to be consciously
holding back to have Raisin Cain leading that press conference.
(29:47):
I thought that was quite interesting. I was not a
Marco Rubio fan as a senator when he joined with
the gang over the illegal immigration and the program, I
thought that exposed him for who and what he was.
When Donald Trump called him little Marco and effectively ended
(30:09):
his presidential campaign, I thought Marco Rubio was done.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
But I must say, and this.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Is one of those Doris Kerns Goodwin's Team of Rivals
references to Abraham Lincoln bringing his vanquished foes from the
presidential election of eighteen sixty into the administration. That was
an inspired choice Marco Rubio. I think the president understood
how important the Monroe Doctrine and Latin America was going
to be to his administration. I think he understood that
(30:39):
this guy had the cell phone numbers in a close
cloak room relationship with fellow senators, I think he saw
that this was a guy who was on the outs
and wanted back in. But Marco Rubio has been as
he should be, and, as he noted over the weekend,
a very loyal secretary of state to Donald Trump. I'll
remind you of techs of Rex Tillerson, the former head
(31:01):
of Exon, who betrayed Donald Trump as his secretary of State.
I think he thought he was his own president, kind
of with the Alexander Haig I'm in charge now mentality.
I just wanted to take a moment to recognize that
I think Marco Rubio is doing a fantastic job of
secretary of State. I don't know why that means that
(31:24):
people very excited about another presidential election in a couple
of years need to now talk about whether he's a
better presidential candidate than JD.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Vance. I don't know why that needs to be the case.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Those sorts of things are very disruptive to the internal
operation of the Trump administration and they need to stop.
But it's the same mindset of people who, when their
team wins the World Series or the Super Bowl, before
the trophy is hoisted, to start talking about what our
team's going to look like next year.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Let's operate now.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Let's make this the best presidential administration of our lifetimes,
if not our country. As we enter the two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of this great nation,
I just want to say that while I have not
always been a fan, and far from it, I think
Marco Rubio is doing a great job as the Secretary
of State, and I think that Pete Hegseth has proven
(32:17):
his detractors wrong, certainly very popular within the military, and
the results certainly speak for themselves.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And I don't think I need to add to that
the credit President Trump deserves
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