CSPAN - Washington Journal Open Forum
Aired: 2026-01-07
Duration: 05:55


=== Venezuela's Oil and Democracy (05:49) ===

[00:00:00]  Democracy.
[00:00:01]  It isn't just an idea.
[00:00:02]  It's a process.
[00:00:04]  A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles.
[00:00:11]  It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted.
[00:00:17]  Democracy in real time.
[00:00:19]  This is your government at work.
[00:00:22]  This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered.
[00:00:31]  Rhonda from Sacramento, California, and Independent.
[00:00:36]  Good afternoon.
[00:00:36]  Good morning.
[00:00:38]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:00:40]  It is so nice to see you.
[00:00:41]  We don't get to see you often.
[00:00:43]  Thank you.
[00:00:44]  You're welcome.
[00:00:45]  My comment today is about Venezuela.
[00:00:48]  I'm looking at this in a positive, you know, a positive light here.
[00:00:53]  Their economy is a disaster.
[00:00:55]  They only get electricity, I think, four hours a day.
[00:00:59]  They don't have health care.
[00:01:01]  Many of their citizens are starving.
[00:01:04]  They're hungry.
[00:01:05]  From what I understand, they only have one meal a day per family.
[00:01:10]  So I'm looking at this in a positive light here.
[00:01:14]  If we go in there, we get those oil rigs to run, they're going to need workers to get those oils, the oil production going.
[00:01:23]  Also, hospitals, health care, so on and so forth.
[00:01:27]  If we go in there to get them back up on their feet economically, I think it will be positive for everyone all the way around.
[00:01:36]  If Stell and Chevron step in and help United States and other countries too to lift this South American country up on its feet, then I believe things will work out okay.
[00:01:53]  I'm not one to sit up here and call Trump names and this or that or what he is or what isn't.
[00:01:59]  I want to look at this positively so that we as a country can move forward.
[00:02:03]  Rhonda, can I ask, would you be comfortable if U.S. taxpayer dollars were to reimburse oil companies who invested in the infrastructure, the oil infrastructure in Venezuela?
[00:02:16]  And honestly, look at all the monies that we spent towards Ukraine.
[00:02:22]  If we could do that, and they're losing the war, forgive me for my honesty in that.
[00:02:27]  But I would want my tax dollars to go to something positive to lift them up, get them on their feet, because we'll get the payback in the long run.
[00:02:39]  I know.
[00:02:40]  You know, Trump, he's not going to do anything without getting something for it.
[00:02:44]  But I think it'd be a good thing.
[00:02:46]  Yeah, sure.
[00:02:47]  And just say, hey, you know, you're going to have to pay us back some of this, some of this money because we've helped you get back on your feet.
[00:02:53]  Why not?
[00:02:55]  So that's my comment.
[00:02:57]  And I thank you for taking my call.
[00:02:58]  Happy New Year.
[00:02:59]  And I'm so happy to see you.
[00:03:01]  Happy New Year, Rhonda.
[00:03:03]  Well, I'll be on once a week.
[00:03:05]  You'll have to see me then.
[00:03:06]  Okay.
[00:03:07]  Angela, California, Democrat.
[00:03:10]  You're next.
[00:03:12]  Yep.
[00:03:12]  Hi, good morning.
[00:03:14]  I was listening to the president's comments, and I'm just saying he's a walking contradiction.
[00:03:21]  As far as January 6th goes, I feel like what he did in Venezuela was what he tried to do here in America.
[00:03:28]  He tried to take the presidency, even though he didn't win.
[00:03:31]  And Maduro did something similar in Venezuela.
[00:03:36]  You know, it doesn't make sense to me.
[00:03:38]  And as far as Venezuela goes, we have no business in Venezuela.
[00:03:44]  You know, we're there for oil.
[00:03:47]  And I don't feel like we should be digging for oil.
[00:03:49]  Our earth is traumatized.
[00:03:52]  Our weather is messed up.
[00:03:54]  We are going through global warming.
[00:03:56]  Is anybody awake here?
[00:03:59]  If we go drilling for more oil in Venezuela, all we're going to do is ruin their rainforest and make our earth more polluted.
[00:04:08]  This is horrible.
[00:04:09]  This is horrible for us.
[00:04:12]  And we've already spent American tax dollars sending our troops over to Venezuela.
[00:04:18]  People died.
[00:04:20]  No one cares.
[00:04:21]  There's nothing positive.
[00:04:31]  Do they ever listen to the constituents and what we say?
[00:04:36]  Because I don't think that anybody wants our earth to be destroyed.
[00:04:41]  No one's thinking about that.
[00:04:44]  To be clear, no troops died in the military actions over the last week in Venezuela.
[00:04:52]  But take a listen here to Senator Tim Cain, a Democrat, who on the House, I mean, on the Senate floor yesterday, urged his fellow lawmakers to block any further action in Venezuela.
[00:05:05]  The vote we'll have Thursday on our bipartisan resolution to say no to war in Venezuela without congressional authorization is actually a vote about many things.
[00:05:14]  It's a short resolution, like a page and a half.
[00:05:18]  But it's a vote about many things.
[00:05:20]  It's about Venezuela.
[00:05:21]  It's about war.
[00:05:23]  It's about the use of U.S. troops.
[00:05:25]  It's about our complicated history in the region.
[00:05:28]  It's about the example we set and our position in the world.

=== Sorry We Kept You Busy (00:20) ===

[00:05:34]  Hello, everybody.
[00:05:35]  Good morning.
[00:05:37]  Yes, come on up, everyone.
[00:05:40]  Lovely officials with me today.
[00:05:43]  All right.
[00:05:44]  Dr. Carson, come on up.
[00:05:45]  Thank you so much.
[00:05:47]  Good morning, and happy new year, everybody.
[00:05:49]  It's great to see you.
[00:05:50]  It's great to be with a very packed room.
[00:05:51]  I'm sorry we kept you all very busy over the holiday break.