| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
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Capitol Hill. | |
| House Speaker Mike Johnson released this statement that reads in part, Today's military action in Venezuela was a decisive and justified operation that will protect American lives. | ||
| Nicolas Maduro is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans after years of trafficking, illegal drugs, and violent cartel members into our country, crimes for which he's been properly indicted in U.S. courts and an arrest warrant duly issued. | ||
| And today, he learned what accountability looks like. | ||
| The Trump administration is working to schedule briefings for members as Congress returns to Washington next week. | ||
| Meanwhile, outgoing Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene felt differently and released a lengthy statement opposed to the military action. | ||
| Her post reads in part: Americans' disgust with our own government's never-ending military aggression and support of foreign wars is justified because we are forced to pay for it, and both parties, Republicans and Democrats, always keep the Washington military machine funded and going. | ||
| Welcome to today's Washington Journal. | ||
| We're glad you're with us. | ||
| Let's start with that Truth Social post from President Trump. | ||
| He posted this at 4:21 a.m. this morning. | ||
| The United States of America has successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country. | ||
| This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. law enforcement. | ||
| Details to follow. | ||
| There will be a news conference today at 11 a.m. at Mar-a-Lago. | ||
| And we will be showing you that news conference here on C-SPAN, so be sure to stay with us from that. | ||
| Well, the Venezuelan government also put out a statement. | ||
| Here's what they said according to CBS News. | ||
| Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the extreme, serious military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and people. | ||
| The whole country must be active to defeat this imperialist aggression. | ||
| They have declared a state of emergency. | ||
| We will keep our eye on any other news coming out of Venezuela as well and update you. | ||
| Here's a couple of posts on X from government officials, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, retweeted a post that he put that he had posted in July of last year. | ||
| Maduro is not the president of Venezuela and his regime is not the legitimate government. | ||
| Maduro is the head of the Cartel de los Solas, a narco-terror organization which has taken possession of a country and he is under indictment for pushing drugs into the United States. | ||
| Haley Britzki is a CNN reporter who put this on X. | ||
| The Senate Armed Services Committee was not notified ahead of any potential military action tonight, taken tonight in Venezuela, a source familiar says. | ||
| Here's Representative Jim McGovern. | ||
| He says, without authorization from Congress and the vast majority of Americans opposed to military action, Trump just launched an unjustified illegal strike on Venezuela. | ||
| He says, we don't have enough money for health care for Americans, but somehow we have unlimited funds for war. | ||
| Jim McGovern, he's a Democrat of Massachusetts. | ||
| This is Representative Maria Elvira Salazar, who is a Republican of Florida. | ||
| The narco-terror imposed by the Maduro regime is over. | ||
| Thanks to the leadership of POTUS and Secretary Rubio, now it's time for the rightful leaders of Venezuela to restore freedom and rebuild the nation. | ||
| Tonight, a new cry of freedom echoes across the hemisphere, loud and clear. | ||
| Senator Andy Kim, a Democrat of New Jersey, says this. | ||
| Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn't about regime change. | ||
| I didn't trust them then, and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress. | ||
| Trump rejected our constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict. | ||
| And this is Representative Carlos Jimenez, who is a Republican of Florida. | ||
| January 3rd, 2026, a day we will never forget. | ||
| Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, second unjustified war in my lifetime. | ||
| This war is illegal. | ||
| It's embarrassing that we went from world cop to the world bully in less than one year. | ||
| There is no reason for us to be at war with Venezuela. | ||
| And that is the reaction on Twitter. | ||
| Here is your reaction. | ||
| Let's start with Stephanie in Millersville, Maryland, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Stephanie. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Just another example of how this administration will twist themselves into legal pretzels to justify this action. | ||
| And again, it underlines the hypocrisy and just downright ridiculousness of the president claiming to be a peace president. | ||
| And yeah, this will get him a Nobel Peace Prize. | ||
| It's mind-boggling, and it's being done in my name and everyone else's name out there who's listening, who may not want this to happen, who may not want poor people in leaky boats being bombed by drones. | ||
| Anybody can be designated a narco-terrorist in their book. | ||
| And Congress had better get off their hands and start taking action. | ||
| And Stephanie, what do you want Congress to do? | ||
| I want Congress to do something to actually be a co-equal branch of government rather than an obsequious, knee-bending body. | ||
| The government, the Democrats are not in power, so I'm not sure what they could do. | ||
| But I cannot believe that the Speaker of the House will just stand by and the Senate majority leader will just stand by and let this happen. | ||
| All right, Stephanie, let's talk to Preston in Independent and Oxford, Ohio. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, good morning. | |
| I would think you start grassroots, talk to people locally. | ||
| The world's a mess, but the most you can do if you're feeling frustrated is reach out to your community, try to build it up, try to find people who think the same way you do and make it better. | ||
| Anything specifically on Venezuela, Preston? | ||
|
unidentified
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Pretty much now. | |
| All right. | ||
| Paul in Nampa, Idaho, Republican. | ||
| You're on the air, Paul. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, thank you for taking my call. | |
| There's three precedents that were Held up, not held up, but kept by the Supreme Court. | ||
| And the first one was a gentleman that got kidnapped because he had gotten in with some bad people and he was kidnapped basically for his own life. | ||
| Another one was Adolph Eichmann. | ||
| I don't know if you remember what happened with the Eichmann story. | ||
| He was kidnapped by the Israelis and taken back to Israel when he was found in Argentina, one of the masterminds of the Third Reich and the destruction of Israel and all Jews. | ||
| They hung him. | ||
| So, Paul, bringing us to Venezuela, you're seeing that that's the same kind of thing, the Eichmann issue and Maduro? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, it is. | |
| If you look at the past and the history, what the Supreme Court said, it is okay to do that. | ||
| It's not encouraged. | ||
| But the last one was Noriega, which was actually Maduro number one with Panama. | ||
| They did the same thing. | ||
| They went in and kidnapped him and took him out of there. | ||
| So it's not like I'm encouraging that type of behavior, but it's got to be done. | ||
| It's got to be done. | ||
| I mean, when you got somebody that's poisoning the United States of America one by one, something's got to be done. | ||
| Okay, so mentioning Noriega, that is an article on Axios that says this. | ||
| Maduro's capture draws echoes of Noriego Noriega in 1990. | ||
| That would have been under George H.W. Bush, president at the time. | ||
| It says, what comes next is likely years of court battles over how Maduro is charged, how he's treated, and where he's held. | ||
| In December of 1989, the U.S. invaded Panama, accusing dictator Manuel Noriega of drug trafficking and other crimes. | ||
| Noriega surrendered in January of 1990 to American forces who brought him back to the U.S. for trial. | ||
| As opposed to the lightning fast seizure of Maduro, Noriega's capture took weeks, during which time he holed up at the Vatican's embassy. | ||
| U.S. troops notoriously blasted the embassy with loud rock music to annoy him into surrender. | ||
| Once in U.S., in the U.S., Noriego fought a years-long court battle to be considered a prisoner of war rather than a common criminal. | ||
| We will continue to look at that, but that's at Axios if you'd like to continue reading that. | ||
| Sean is a Democrat in Hesperia, California. | ||
| Good morning, Sean. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning, Mimi. | |
| I am really appalled at what I woke up to. | ||
| And we need to stop when things happen. | ||
| Now we want to go to the past and talk about something and justify for what's happening. | ||
| I mean, that is not what we should be doing. | ||
| I mean, let's be real. | ||
| With the Union Confederate war, they should have hung the Confederates, but they let them go. | ||
| So we should stop going to the past and keep our mind focused on what's going on now. | ||
| In regards to Venezuela, this is a war crime. | ||
| I don't care what none of you Americans say. | ||
| This is a war crime. | ||
| Here it is. | ||
| We did not get Congress approval, not ran nothing by Congress, before we went into this country. | ||
| And they were dropping bombs in places over in this country. | ||
| So this is a war crime to me. | ||
| And also, secondly, we have a deranged president that I believe has dementia, sleepy Trump. | ||
| And then here it is. | ||
| Now we are going to attack the other countries. | ||
| And what is that saying to China? | ||
| China is probably looking like, oh, okay, let's go into Thailand now. | ||
| You know, America, especially our military, if y'all want to fight someone, go and fight someone in war that wishes to bite you. | ||
| I don't see Trump going after the M23s over in Uganda that's murdering people over there and starving people. | ||
| So, America, let's get it together. | ||
| This is a war crime. | ||
| Stop justifying this president and Congress needs to get back and foul for impeachment now. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And Sean is in Virginia, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, good morning. | |
| This is a trying time for all those forward operations going on. | ||
| Let's pray for everything to get immediately calmed down over there. | ||
| Get the Secretary of State to do his job. | ||
| Get Congress back in yesterday, not today. | ||
| They should have already been involved in this. | ||
| And I pray for the troops on the ground, and they're very capable, but things can get out of hand really quickly if it's not planned correctly. | ||
| And God bless America. | ||
| God bless the people. | ||
| All right, Sean, let's hear from Kent in Erie, Illinois, Republican. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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I have to kind of truck hold of a couple of the ladies that called this morning. | |
| The last lady was so, she was just stricken with grief. | ||
| She said, Well, he didn't go in front of Congress. | ||
| He didn't ask Congress. | ||
| Well, when Obama was in office and he was sending drones off to kill people all over everywhere, and Clinton was in office, you didn't hear any of these Democrats calling, asking how come they didn't ask Congress. | ||
| And before you let me go, when I hear these ladies talk about, you know, fuck Trump, he's just a bad guy. | ||
| He calls people names. | ||
| He's rude. | ||
| He's crude. | ||
| This is the reason that women weren't allowed to vote in the first place. | ||
| Oh, come on, Kent. | ||
| Rick in Hardin, Kentucky, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Rick. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, there's a law that was put in effect by Chuck Schumer that was put in the NB Defense Authorization Bill that allows what's going on happening, especially blowing up the drug boats. | |
| You can look that up and it's in law. | ||
| And nobody, the Mockingbird media does not want to look into what exactly the legality of this problem has been. | ||
| So you said there's something in the NDAA that allows for military action against Venezuela? | ||
|
unidentified
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Chuck Schumer sponsored the law and put it in the bill. | |
| And it's in the bill in 1986. | ||
| 1986? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes. | |
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
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Still in effect. | |
| Got it. | ||
| Stephen in Wyndham, Connecticut, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning, Stephen. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hey, hey, good morning. | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I have two observations. | ||
| One, it was really a brilliant military operation. | ||
| They got in, they got out, they got their guy. | ||
| Two, we capture cartel heads all the time. | ||
| We got El Chafo in Mexico. | ||
| He said it was a drug organization. | ||
| So we're going to go back in there every month and capture new cartel heads. | ||
| I'm not into foreign wars after Iran and Iraq and Afghanistan. | ||
| So I think we got to be wary of what comes next. | ||
| Who is next? | ||
| Does this change anything? | ||
| Thanks. | ||
| Robert in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Republican. | ||
| Go ahead, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, morning. | |
| I just wanted to say that, you know, I am happy that Trump has done this. | ||
| I think he's making the world a better, safer place. | ||
| He's bringing law and order not only to the U.S., but also to foreign nations. | ||
| I have a handful of Venezuelan friends who have been texting me this morning, you know, that are very happy that this has happened. | ||
| They have, you know, had to seek asylum in places like Brazil and the Dominican Republic, you know, to get away from the violence that Maduro was causing. | ||
| So, really, I just want to say thanks to Trump and to our American military for liberating Venezuela. | ||
| So, God bless America. | ||
| So, Robert, are you still there? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes. | |
| What do your Venezuelan friends say about what they think might come next? | ||
| The previous caller just said, you know, it all depends on what comes next. | ||
| If one of his generals or the vice president take over, it could be just more of the same. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, they're hoping that the woman that was elected will somehow take over, but that is yet to be seen. | |
| But that's what they're hoping for. | ||
| And do they want to see more U.S. military action in Venezuela? | ||
|
unidentified
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And would you agree with that? | |
| I hadn't talked to them about that, but I feel like to really erase what's going on right now, it may be. | ||
| We'll break away here as Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is talking with the press about the U.S. strikes on Venezuela and the capture of Nicolas Maduro. | ||
|
unidentified
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Totally. | |
| Live coverage on C-SPAN. | ||
|
unidentified
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To hear President Trump say that he intends for the United States to run Venezuela. | |
| It was reckless. | ||
| It was dangerous. |