Hey, everybody. It's me, Sam Stein. I am joined by Senator Mark Warner to discuss the situation that is currently unfolding in Venezuela.

This is a video for Bullwark Takes. If you are not a member, subscribe. Mark Warner.

Thank you so much for doing this, Senator. I really appreciate it.

Let's just dive right into this. When did you learn that we had undertaken this operation to essentially kidnap

McDerm, bring him to the United States? Secretary Rubio did try to call me, but it was after

the strike had started. So I was actually out west, a bit of vacation,, he tried my old number, but he did try to

reach me after the strike had started, and there was already on the news that Maduro had been

extracted.

And what was your initial reaction to seeing the news?

Well, first, I thought, you know, remarkable job by the military.

I mean, the idea that we'd heard all these stories about, you know, remarkable job by the military. The idea that we'd heard all these

stories about the Venezuela military and then this almost Praetorian guards that were

Cuban surrounding Maduro, I still got questions. How did this, you know, get carried out

so flawlessly? And second, you, I also, you know, first to acknowledge

Maduro is a bad guy and, you know, the Venezuelan people overwhelmingly voted him out in

2024. And I think that then Biden administration missed a huge opportunity to try to push him out

at that point. But all that being said, you to extract

a country's ruler and based upon simply a criminal charge. And again, even the kind of whole

notion about doing that I want to talk about that and what precedent it sets, but whole doing that we're somehow using that as a reason to go in and get him,

and he is a bad guy, but at the same time, you know, a week earlier or so, the president

had pardoned the former Honduran president, Hernandez, of the exact same kind of crimes around

drugs. And, you know, Hernandez had been convicted by an American court. So it was more than a little bit head scratching, and that even before we get to the, you know, the claim that they're going to run the country. Well, I want to get to the claim about running the country. Actually, let's do that now. I think the scariest thing, we can debate the notification process and the legality, which are huge issues.

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