Evening Edition: Turkey Props Up Venezuela, Helps Avoid Sanctions

The Fox News Rundown

FOX News Podcasts

News, Daily News, Politics

3.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The United States continues to squeeze and isolate the Venezuelan regime led by Nicolas Maduro with another oil tanker being seized, steady military action against narco-terrorist drug boats, and the recent daring extraction of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Both Russia and China tight relationship with Venezuela dates back to the reign of Hugo Chavez, but now Turkish relations with Venezuela have become a major source of support for the Maduro regime. Turkey being a NATO member while supporting Maduro seems raise some eyebrows but why are they so committed to any sort of investment into Venezuela. FOX’s Eben Brown speaks with Dr. Sinan Ciddi, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Director of the Turkey program, who says the tightening relations between Turkey and Venezuela needs to monitored more closely, and he breaks down what the two countries are getting from each other. Click Here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Ben Dominic.
0:01.0	I'm Ainslie Your Heart.
0:02.0	I'm Trey Gowdy, and this is the Fox News rundown.
0:08.0	Monday, December 22nd, 2025.
0:11.8	I'm Evan Brown.
0:12.9	The U.S. is putting the pressure on Venezuela to rid itself of its drug trafficking
0:17.1	and sanctions evading President Nicolas Maduro.
0:20.6	But should the Trump administration be
0:22.6	turning its attention to a NATO member doing business with the rogue Central American state?
0:28.2	Turkey is a major transit hub for narcotics, specifically cocaine. We estimate is going through
0:34.5	Turkey, specifically Venezuelan cocaine and Turkish. All of this is very
0:37.5	profitable for Erdogan and his sort of close cronies, but it's also very profitable for Venezuela
0:42.0	and those around Maduro and Maduro is so called because it props up the regime, but it also
0:46.8	divides up spoils. This is the Fox News Rundown evening edition.
0:55.8	In recent weeks, we've seen the U.S. step up its enforcement of oil sanctions and its
1:00.6	defense against drug runners, all connected to the Maduro regime in Venezuela.
1:05.5	We've seen the U.S. Navy, letharming, suspected drug-running boats in the Caribbean,
1:10.6	and this past weekend saw
1:11.9	U.S. forces seize yet another oil tanker, the Trump administration says, is improperly
1:17.4	flagged and being used to send Venezuelan oil to China outside of sanctions.
1:22.4	Now, we've talked about on this podcast Venezuela's connection to radical Islamic terrorists,
1:26.9	namely Hezbollah, but it may surprise
	...

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