It's Tuesday, welcome to the

Ever-pointed in,

closer to-billet.

All right.

All right.

All right. Let's get briefed. First up, one of the biggest unanswered questions after Maduro's ouster, why the Trump

administration is apparently refusing to back or support Venezuela's opposition leader. New reporting

reveals what's driving that decision. Later in the show, Israeli defense

sources warned that Iran may be plotting to assassinate Syria's president Ahmed al-Shara

as quiet contacts open between Israel and Damascus. But first, our afternoon spotlight.

One of the big questions, frankly the biggest question that

obviously remains after Nicholas Maduro's ouster, is what comes next. And more particularly,

why the Trump administration has chosen not to embrace opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize

winner Marina Corrina DiMach, as the next leader of Venezuela.

Well, the new New York Times report is now shedding some light on why that decision was apparently made.

You may recall, President Trump publicly dismissed Machado in recent days, saying that she lacked sufficient support and respect inside Venezuela,

and made clear that she would not be backed by Washington as a successor, even as she praised

U.S. action and signaled plans to return home. Behind the scenes, according to the Times, that call was

not impulsive. In fact, the administration had already made the decision before

Maduro was removed. The reporting says the White House was persuaded by a combination of intelligence

assessments and internal frustration with Machado's political strategy, assessments that raised

serious doubts about the opposition's ability to actually govern. U.S. intelligence officials reportedly

...