Dems’ TDS Leaves Them Defending a Narco-State
“Portland chants ‘free Maduro’ while actual Venezuelans celebrate in the streets.”
Perhaps the greatest beneficiary of the Trump administration’s capture of Nicolás Maduro — Venezuela’s illegitimate president, who completed the consolidation of power initiated by Hugo Chávez and is accused of drug trafficking and organized criminal activity — was Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D). Until the story broke, national attention had been focused on the sprawling welfare fraud scandal that has allegedly cost taxpayers in his state billions of dollars.
Not the Bee put it so well: “I have whiplash right now watching the dems pivot from supporting Somali fraudsters to cartel kingpins and illegitimate dictators.”
At any rate, as the people of Venezuela and neighboring countries celebrate the fall of Nicolás Maduro, the Left has been busy spinning a new narrative. The latest talking points center on the claim that President Donald Trump lacked the authorization to initiate a new war, that he once again trampled the Constitution, and that his actions were motivated not by concern over the dangerous drugs Maduro’s narco-state was funneling into the U.S., but by Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Protests have followed in American cities from Manhattan to Washington, D.C., and from Portland, Oregon, to San Antonio, Texas, with demonstrators calling on the president to “free Maduro.”
'FREE MADURO, FREE HIM NOW' — Portland protestors branded 'communists'
"USEFUL IDIOTS"pic.twitter.com/gx4tlZT6gG
— Capt Kyle (@CaptKylePatriot) January 4, 2026
Democrats have once again prioritized ideology over reality, which leaves them in the unenviable position of defending a narco-state.
Weighing in on X Saturday night — because, apparently, no debate is complete without her interjection — former Vice President Kamala Harris managed to echo each one of these claims.
Donald Trump’s actions in Venezuela do not make America safer, stronger, or more affordable.
That Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator does not change the fact that this action was both unlawful and unwise. We’ve seen this movie before. Wars for regime change or oil that…
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 4, 2026
Unfortunately for Harris, X users quickly reminded her of the reasons she lost the 2024 election.
Kamala Harris is the last person to say what’s “unlawful and unwise.”
She invited an invasion of millions of illegals into the US.
Also, Kamala is clearly a blithering moron.
We’ve all heard her talk.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) January 4, 2026
This you? pic.twitter.com/nrsKTtdibU
— Vance Murphy (@vancemurphy) January 4, 2026
Your administration owes President Trump $25 million, by the way. pic.twitter.com/fEtj21YDwD
— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) January 4, 2026
Likewise, the X post below compares remarks from former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg after Maduro took over the Venezuelan National Assembly in 2020 to his reaction to news of Maduro’s capture this weekend. His show of solidarity with opposition leader Juan Guaidó and the Venezuelan people as they “strive[d] to regain their democracy” in 2020 suddenly falls by the wayside because Trump was the one behind Maduro’s loss of power.
This you? https://t.co/yMIJZF8LyN pic.twitter.com/VN8LmOxIaz
— Ryan Saavedra (@RyanSaavedra) January 3, 2026
The shifting statements from Harris and Buttigieg are a fair representation of what we have heard from Democrats over the past two days, raising serious questions about just how deeply held their convictions truly are. In the age of Trump, principle too often appears to have given way to reflexive opposition: if Trump supports it, they reject it — substance notwithstanding.
[For more examples of the sheer lunacy coming from the Left after Maduro’s capture, see Congress Reacts as Trump Details Maduro Capture in Interview.]
In the X post below, the author zeroes in on the Left’s lack of conviction:
most political issues nowadays can be explained by understanding that american leftists don’t have positions, they have oppositions.
their entire belief system is defined by negation of whatever the right supports.
this is why portland chants “free maduro” while actual venezuelans celebrate in the streets.
they’re not pro-venezuelan or pro democracies, or pro tyrant, or pro maduro, they’re simply anti-american-right.they’ve outsourced their worldview to institutional narratives for so long that genuine self-reflection would require questioning everything.
for them it’s much easier to just oppose. the beliefs arent coherent because they were never meant to be coherent. they only need to signal tribal membership, and leftist membership is gained by opposing the right.…
no coherent word model. no logic. pure opposition
at some point you just have to stop engaging with it as if it’s a real political position. it’s not. it’s aesthetic opposition wearing the costume of ideology
most political issues nowadays can be explained by understanding that american leftists dont have positions, they have oppositions.
their entire belief system is defined by negation of whatever the right supports.
this is why portland chants “free maduro” while actual… https://t.co/EY5fLWaxG4— vittorio (@IterIntellectus) January 4, 2026
Last month, The Dallas Express published a letter written by Hugo Carvajal Barrios, “a former three-star Venezuelan general and once one of the most powerful figures within the Caracas socialist regime.”
According to The Miami Herald, Carvajal, who once served as Venezuela’s director of Military Intelligence, “defected from the Maduro government in 2017 and fled” to Spain before being extradited to the U.S. in 2023. He recently pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges and is now awaiting sentencing in a U.S. federal prison.
His stated reason for writing the letter was to warn “the American people about the reality of what the Venezuelan regime truly is — and why Trump’s policies are not only correct, but absolutely necessary to the United States’ national security.”
He noted that under Chavez, the Venezuelan government “became a criminal organization,” and has remained one ever since. “The purpose of this organization, now known as the Cartel of the Suns, is to weaponize drugs against the United States. The drugs that reached your cities through new routes were not accidents of corruption nor just the work of independent traffickers; they were deliberate policies coordinated by the Venezuelan regime against the United States.”
“This plan was suggested by the Cuban regime to Chávez in the mid-2000s and has been successfully executed with help from FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia], ELN [Colombia’s National Liberation Army], Cuban operatives, and Hezbollah. The regime has provided weapons, passports, and impunity for these terrorist organizations to operate freely from Venezuela against the United States,” Carvajal explained.
Carvajal detailed how the Tren de Aragua criminal gang was methodically organized and expanded under Chavez, including the “recruitment of criminal leaders inside and outside prisons” to build its ranks. Chávez, he said, began “exporting this criminality and chaos abroad” — a strategy that was continued under Maduro.
It appears Trump’s accusation that Venezuela was emptying its prisons and sending these individuals into the U.S., long ridiculed by the Left, is accurate.
Carvajal’s perspective was fascinating, and I highly recommend reading the whole letter.
If his allegations are accurate, then the narco-state’s leadership has effectively been at war with the U.S. for decades, and the Trump administration’s intervention has neutralized a very serious threat to our national security. Maduro’s connections to U.S. adversaries, including the leadership of Cuba, Iran, Hezbollah, and others, made him a very dangerous man, and his removal from leadership will have worldwide repercussions.
I will leave you with the following message from a Venezuelan national who is interested in setting the record straight:
This is a message for my American friends watching the news today in English. There is a serious inaccuracy in the coverage. Venezuela is not undergoing a regime change. Venezuela already has a democratically elected president. Edmundo González. He is the president. Nicolás Maduro is not the president. He never was. He stole the last election and led a criminal organization linked to terrorism and drug trafficking. El Cartel de Los Solis. And today, thanks to the vision and courage of the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the decisive leadership of President Donald Trump, and the actions of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, the United States has finally recognized a fundamental truth: Protecting our hemisphere from terrorism, drug cartels, and authoritarian ideologies is a matter of national security for the United States.
Must Watch: A message from a Venezuelan citizen telling us the truth about what was really going on in his country, who the real president should have been, and how grateful he is to President Trump and his administration. pic.twitter.com/JuPE0q8p0w
— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) January 3, 2026
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
Ron Coleman posted this article by Asra Nomani..These protests were not organic.. not by a country mile.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/second-front-how-socialist-cell-us-mobilized-pro-maduro-foot-soldiers-within-12-hours
We know what to expect from the Left; non-stop braying with no attempts at rational thought or consistency of position.
It keeps their NPCs in a constant state of outrage, which is what they require to find validation in their meaningless lives.
Odi, ergo sum; I hate, therefore I am.
Just a slight additional point. The Democrats and the Left are now openly defending a narco-state. They have given up all deniability of which side they are on.
Subotai Bahadur
I would be willing to be that narco-state and the cartels generally have given billions in contributions to the Democrats. There is a reason that the Biden regime allowed the cartels to operate with impunity, and it isn’t because they are such good guys. The Democrats always are able to fund their campaigns with limitless resources. You have to wonder why.
Just in case anyone had any doubts about what kind of traitors Democrats are
Haven’t doubted that since the sixties!
1. Nothing in the constitution says the president can’t attack anyone without Congress’s advance approval. The only power it gives Congress is that of “declaring war”. But no declaration is necessary for a state of war to exist, or for the president to take whatever military actions he believes to be in the US interest.
2. His motives are irrelevant. The indictment provides the legal justification for arresting Maduro. The president decided it was in the USA’s interest to act on this indictment, in this manner and at this time, so he did so. Nothing else matters.
And PRESIDENT Trump informing the Dems, any Dems, would be identical to sending Maduro a heads up.
https://geo-media.beatsource.com/image_size/500×500/3/d/0/3d0dea77-3e76-47aa-b908-cb9031bf2f44.jpg
Tell me which leftist org is NOT a criminal organization. I’ll wait…….
Or based in socialism/communism, fully using their tactics of intimidation and ruthlessness.
Would someone explain to failed presidential candidate Harris that Venezuelans would not need TPS if they did what PRESIDENT Trump just did; they would rule their own country without the socialist, Chavez/Maduro brutality.
No drug gangs, not drug boats, no association with Cubans, ChiComs and Russians.
But they couldn’t possibly go after a fellow socialist, could they? Best to bring the Venezuelans here and try to buy their votes.
Can’t expect logic from any of these idiots. They simply hate the United States, freedom and democracy. They want strong men controlling their lives and giving out cheap handouts while repressing everyone and living high on the hog themselves. Basically Mamdopey’s governing strategy. Venezuela has a horrible human rights record under Maduro and Chavez and that’s what these idiots are supporting just like their support of Hamas and the Iranian theocracy. Free Palestine indeed: from these morons.
I live in Florida and know many ex patriot Venezuelans. They are overjoyed by the dictator’s removal and feel hopeful for the future. Several of my friends are gay and have told me the horrible repression of LGBTQ. People there . So our useless media is literally supporting a regime that revels in brutalizing gay people their favorite protected class. I think actual Venezuelans opinion should matter more than Code Pink or Students for Justice in Palestine or all the rest of these paid agitators, who literally know nothing about global politics and don’t care to learn. They just like violence and feeling self righteous. Their outrage, hatred and anger is their religion; and should be treated as such as it’s a zealotry that no logic can undue.
“So our useless media is literally supporting a regime that revels in brutalizing gay people their favorite protected class.”
It’s not a new hypocrisy. They also prefer Muslims, who also murder gays, as well as oppress and disfigure their own women.
Of course, since they started this, they’ve also come out in favor of oppressing and disfiguring domestic women as well, perhaps in some crabbed and grotesque search for consistency,
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/01/you-cant-make-this-up-92-year-old/
WTF
YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP: 92-Year-Old Clinton Judge Who Denied Trump’s Hush-Money Removal to Federal Court and Blocked Venezuelan Gang Deportations Now Assigned to Preside Over Maduro Case in New York
Have you ever considered that there may be no other type of judge LEFT in New York?
I don’t think this is the case as this is a Federal case not bent heard in a district court? 🤔
Huh? Yes, it’s a federal case. And like all federal cases, it’s being heard in a federal district court, in the Southern District of New York.
It’s a federal case in the Southern District of New York. This is the court that issued the indictments against Maduro.
One correction to the first tweet. They are not useful idiots. They are USELESS IDIOTS. Absolutely useless,
The analogies are awesome!
Like Maduro, our “resident” (read it: invading) illegal aliens were given the chance to leave voluntarily, with all their belongings and a lovely parting gift, but most chose not to, and are now being forcibly removed.
Both had honest, easy ways out, and they refused. They learned that PRESIDENT Trump does not bluff.
Note that the Democrats support both illegals and international narcoterrorist socialist tyrants.
Has it be raised anywhere that the Maduro extraction might be the deal that was negotiated? I mean before our boys rolled up.
Maduro and his wife get to live in relative safety.
It technically is possible, but I would consider this to be highly unlikely. A few points behind my reasoning:
1. The USA has established history of deposing narco presidents and putting them on trial for related charges. To wit: Noriega and Panama. If I were a narco president, I would look carefully at what happened there before engaging the USA in negotiations of that sort. Such a deal would be unlikely to be comfortable.
2. Maduro controlled the security state, military, drug and oil business of the entire country. His predecessor did the same for decades. Coup attempts were put down harshly. Losing an election was ignored. Why would he think that he needed to get out of his sweet gig now?
3. Up until this point, Trump has not effected regime change in any country. At most, Trump has blown up a bunch of military targets in Iran & Yemen. Maduro considers himself to be the head of state for Venezuela, which would traditionally put him off the target list (we haven’t tried to take out Putin, the Ayatollah, etc.). So why would he consider himself to be under threat?
One of the many Democrats’ bleeding heart programs was the clean, free needles exchange and safe shooting up havens for drug addicts (SF and NYC for example). Democrats need the narco lords to keep their righteous altruistic bleeding hearts beating.
I review this website and the Libertarian website Reason daily. I find the contrast very interesting when it comes to US policy. Where as Legal Insurrection takes a very pragmatic view of the world and US positions, Reason seems to dwell on legal minutiae when it comes to Trump and US policies in general. In my opinion, Reason also has a mild case of TDS. I equate it to “Stomping on ants while the elephants are stampeding”. On the subject in this thread, I feel that Legal Insurrection has the winning argument.
Dems are just panicking because Trump is draining their coke supply.