Secretary of State Marco Rubio went off on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, slamming the so-called experts on cable news networks for attacking the Trump Administration over Maduro’s arrest in Venezuela and schooling them on the United States’ national interests.
“I watch these experts, and it’s clown hour,” Rubio said of the fake news contributors, who are likely the same people who said Pete Hegseth was unqualified to serve as War Secretary. “These are people that have focused their entire career on the Middle East or some other part of the world, because that’s where all the action was. Very few of them know anything about Venezuela and the Western Hemisphere.”
Rubio added, “This is about the national interest of the United States, and what I’m confident of is we are in a safer and better place because we’re taking it seriously,” noting that “The alternative would have been to allow a drug trafficker to continue to use national territory and elements of nation state power to further drug trafficking organizations.”
WATCH:
Rubio: Most of the experts that people have on— I watch these experts and it’s clown hour, okay? These are people that have focused their entire career on the Middle East or some other part of the world, because that’s where all the action was. Very few of them know anything about Venezuela and the Western Hemisphere. Venezuela looks nothing like Libya, it looks nothing like Iraq, it looks nothing like Afghanistan, it looks nothing like the Middle East, other than the Iranian agents that are running through there plotting against America. Okay? These are Western countries with long traditions among their— on a People to People and cultural level and ties to the United States. So, this is nothing like that. So, I think people need to stop ascribing the apples and oranges here, the apples of the Middle East or the oranges of the Western Hemisphere.
Number two, this is about the national interest of the United States, and what I’m confident of is we are in a safer and better place because we’re taking it seriously. The alternative would have been to leave Maduro there as an indicted— the drug trafficker illegitimate President, running the country, open invitation for all of our adversaries to do whatever they want against the United States from Venezuela. That was not going to continue. The alternative would have been to allow a drug trafficker to continue to use national territory and elements of nation state power to further drug trafficking organizations. Read the indictment This guy used the levers of their security apparatus not to arrest drug traffickers, but to cooperate and facilitate the trafficking of drugs for the purpose of getting them into the United States, and that’s going to stop.
Rubio further schooled Welker on the reasons behind Maduro’s arrest, pointing to their empowerment of dangerous drug cartels like Tren de Aragua and flooding the United States with drugs and dangerous criminals.
“You cannot continue to have the largest oil reserves in the world under the control of adversaries of the United States, not benefiting the people of Venezuela, and stolen by a handful of oligarchs around the world, including inside of Venezuela, but not benefiting the people of that country,” he continued. “That is not going to happen under President Trump.”
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Rubio: What needs to happen for any of this to change, for our relations with Venezuela to change, and our whole approach for it to change, the things we have talked about are the ones I’ve highlighted already. You can’t flood this country with gang members. You can’t flood this country with drugs that are coming out of Colombia through Venezuela with the cooperation of elements of your security forces, you can’t turn Venezuela into the operating hub for Iran, for Russia, for Hezbollah, for China, for the Cuban intelligence agents that control that country. That cannot continue. Those things cannot continue to be in place.
You cannot continue to have the largest oil reserves in the world under the control of adversaries of the United States, not benefiting the people of Venezuela, and stolen by a handful of oligarchs around the world, including inside of Venezuela, but not benefiting the people of that country. You know, we’ve seen how our adversaries all over the world are exploiting and extracting resources from Africa, from every other country. They’re not going to do it in the Western Hemisphere. They’re not. That is not going to happen under President Trump. Read our national security strategy. He is serious about it, and he’s going to do something about it, and we’re doing something about it.
When asked why the United States needs to take control of the Venezuelan oil industry, Rubio said it’s not about the oil, and the United States does not need the oil, but “What we’re not going to allow is for the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States.”
“Why does China need their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They’re not even in this continent,” Rubio said before declaring the Western Hemisphere will not be controlled by foreign adversaries from other continuents.
“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live, and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States. We also want to see that oil and the proceeds from it. We want to see the oil proceeds of that country benefit the people of Venezuela.”
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Rubio: We don’t need Venezuela’s oil. We have plenty of oil in the United States. What we’re not going to allow is for the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States. You have to understand, why does China need their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They’re not even in this continent. This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live, and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States. We also want to see that oil and the proceeds from it. We want to see the oil proceeds of that country benefit the people of Venezuela.
Why have 8 million people left Venezuela? 8 million, the single largest mass migration, probably in modern history, left Venezuela since 2014 because all the wealth of that country was stolen to the benefit of Maduro and his cronies in the regime, but not to the benefit of people of Venezuela. You know how destabilizing 8 million migrants is? The number one fear that Brazil has, that Colombia has, that all these countries in the region have, about what’s happening in Venezuela and our involvement, is they’re afraid of another mass migration event. That’s what they fear. This is deeply destabilizing stuff. It’s not going to continue to happen. They are not going to come from outside of our hemisphere, destabilize our region, in our own backyard, and us have to pay the price for it, not under President Trump.
The post “IT’S CLOWN HOUR” – Rubio DESTROYS So-Called Experts Attacking Him on Cable News Channels, Schools Kristen Welker on Chinese, Iranian Influence in Venezuela (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.