Rubio Pushes Back Against Cable News After Maduro’s Arrest
“Why does China need their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil?… This is the Western Hemisphere.”
Sunday morning’s cable news circuit once again demonstrated why senior administration officials so often spend more time correcting media narratives than explaining policy.
Appearing across Meet the Press and Face the Nation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was subjected to a familiar pattern of questioning: assumptions embedded as facts, motives ascribed rather than examined, and repeated demands to justify actions that were already explained. The pushback Rubio delivered was not theatrical, nor was it evasive. It was corrective. And it was necessary only because the framing itself was flawed.
The first line of attack centered on Venezuela’s oil industry, with the implication that American involvement following the capture of Nicolás Maduro must be driven by resource acquisition rather than security.
Marco Rubio is so good.
"This is the Western Hemisphere. We're not going to allow it to be a base of operations for our adversaries… They won't come from outside our hemisphere, destabilize our region in our own backyard, and us have to pay the price for it. It’s over." pic.twitter.com/GzLjNtBV3h
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) January 4, 2026
“Well, we don’t need to first, let me go back up. 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 on 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 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 in 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 the people of Venezuela.”
Rather than engage with the regional destabilization caused by Maduro’s corruption and the resulting mass migration, the questioning defaulted to a familiar suspicion that American action must be exploitative by design.
That pattern intensified on Face the Nation, where Rubio was pressed repeatedly on why the United States did not simultaneously arrest every remaining indicted regime figure. The premise suggested either incompetence or restraint bordering on negligence.
.@SecRubio: "It is not easy to land a helicopter in the middle of the largest military base… kick down his door, grab him, put him in handcuffs, read him his rights, put him in a helicopter… and you're asking me why we didn't do that in five other places at the same time!?" pic.twitter.com/Pm9Jy1AKp3
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 4, 2026
“You’re confused. I don’t know why that’s confusing. They’re still in power. We’re not going to go in and wrap up… You can’t go in and suck up five people. They’re already complaining about this one operation. Imagine the howls we would have from everybody else if we actually had to go and stay there four days to capture four other people.
…It is not easy to land helicopters in the middle of the largest military base in the country, kick down his door, grab him, put him in handcuffs, read him his rights, put him in a helicopter, and leave the country without losing any American or any American assets. That’s not an easy mission.”
Even after Rubio outlined the operational complexity and the successful extraction without American casualties or losses, the questioning continued, as though acknowledging competence would undermine the narrative.
Rubio also confronted a recurring media habit: importing Middle East analogies into a Western Hemisphere operation, flattening vastly different geopolitical realities into a single cautionary trope.
.@SecRubio: The "experts" are clowns. Venezuela looks nothing like Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, or the Middle East — other than the Iranian agents running through there plotting against America. These are Western countries. People need to stop ascribing apples to oranges. pic.twitter.com/QeotP0YPwq
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 4, 2026
“Most of the experts that people have on… It’s clown hour. These are people who have focused their entire career on the Middle East or some other part of the world. Very few of them know anything about Venezuela in 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.
…This is about the national interest of the United States. The alternative would have been to leave Maduro there as an indicted 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.”
The criticism was not directed at dissent but at laziness, the substitution of analogy for understanding and reflex for analysis.
As the interviews continued, Rubio returned repeatedly to a point that should have ended much of the speculation: the operation was grounded in longstanding indictments and law enforcement authority, not improvised regime change.
.@SecRubio: "In the Biden Administration, they had a $25 million reward for [Maduro's] capture — so we have a reward for his capture but we're not going to enforce it? That's the difference between President Trump and everybody else… President Trump did something about it." 🔥 pic.twitter.com/zdgFQSxjwG
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 4, 2026
“This was, in essence, at its core, a law enforcement function dating back to the Biden administration that had a $25 million reward for his capture. So we have a reward for his capture, but we’re not going to enforce it. That’s the difference between President Trump and everybody else.
…We went in, we grabbed him. He was arrested, and he’s now in New York. No Americans were killed. No equipment was lost.”
Even then, speculation persisted, particularly around the presence of U.S. forces and whether the administration would publicly limit its future actions.
.@SecRubio: "We don't have U.S. forces on the ground in Venezuela… What the President is saying is very simple — and that is as President of the United States, he is not going to go around telling people what he's not going to do." pic.twitter.com/IWhPABFdnT
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 4, 2026
“We don’t have U.S. forces on the ground in Venezuela. Everyone knows they were on the ground for about two hours when they went to capture Maduro. And what the President is saying is very simple. He is not going to go around telling people what he’s not going to do. He retains all this optionality.”
Across five exchanges, Rubio was not defending recklessness but correcting mischaracterizations. The throughline was clear. The media was less interested in understanding the operation than in rhetorically boxing it in.
That Rubio was able to dismantle those premises so methodically does not excuse the need for the exercise. It simply underscores how deeply ingrained the bias has become, and how routinely officials are required to argue against narratives that never should have framed the conversation to begin with.
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The Corporate Media represent a betrayal of America and American values as great as that of the Democrat Party itself.
Is there a difference?
Rubio showed why he is a serious candidate to be president some day.
That question crossed my mind as I wrote the comment.
Rubio is good. Very good. I’ve always like him but not all his policies.
You can’t hate the media enough. You really can’t. They are stupid, vain, ignorant, lazy, and too too overpaid,
I’ve said before, anyone who got their education and is 50-55 years or younger. got cheated. They were denied the basics of the uniqueness of our Founding. Students are NOT and have been taught real US History.
This includes the intentional omission of understanding the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. ALL those documents can be covered starting in fifth grade; repeated at a higher level in seventh grade and a final, deep understanding somewhere between ninth and twelfth grades.
This is needed or freedom goes out the window.
“This includes the intentional omission of understanding the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. ALL those documents can be covered starting in fifth grade; repeated at a higher level in seventh grade and a final, deep understanding somewhere between ninth and twelfth grades.”
They used to be – before the implementation of the Common School and “education via government bureaucracy”.
I’m tired of all this leftist scum. Maybe if Biden would have sealed the border against illegals and drugs we may not had to have taken this action.
Rubio has been the greatest surprise of Trump 2.0.
He and Vance will make a good ticket. Both are intelligent, well-spoken, charismatic, know the media’s games, and are unapologetically America-first.
Is this because of him not having to run for election? That could explain the sad lack of performance of the legislative branch.
“This was, in essence, at its core, a law enforcement function dating back to the Biden administration that had a $25 million reward for his capture. So we have a reward for his capture, but we’re not going to enforce it. That’s the difference between President Trump and everybody else.
…We went in, we grabbed him. He was arrested, and he’s now in New York.”
Look at all the time we are going to be saving from now on, not having to deal with all those extradition treaty thingies.
Around five months before Donald Trump announced that US Army has captured Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, the US government had announced a reward of up to $50 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro.
Extradition treaties are the easy way to arrest wanted criminals who are in other countries, but they don’t always work. So there are other options.
Jesus, that retarded lady. Just stop going on those shows as no one watches them anymore
I worry Rubio form is earl years
Always “working” with Dems for amnesty after running as a tea party candidate
I know, Vance didn’t like Trump in his early years
I actually like Rubio more than Vance for President…if he’s for real
Rubio has really matured since his small hands days, his failed primary run vs Trump in 2016.
I like the new give no fucks Rubio. Sleeper candidate in the 2027 gop primary. Hes also a shoe-in for governor of FL.
If it was anyone besides Trump, there would be near universal acclaim. It’s the ONLY reason behind most all opposition, no matter the virtuous claims. Compared to Trump, even the world’s worst become heroes. Cutting of the nose to spite the face
No, any Republican president would face the same opposition, from the same sources. Every Republican is Literally Hitler™ Democrats had no problem with Trump while he was one of them; he only became Literally Hitler™ when he joined us.
I think the answer is somewhere between the two approaches; yes, any Republican would catch the same level of hell (remember “Bushitler” and “Raygun Ronnie” Reagan?), but TDS, now in the acute phase, attracts additional ire from the Dem socialists, mostly because he is usually proven to be right on most issues, and they hate him on a visceral level.
Acclaim would only be awarded to a Dem if they had done the same thing (as opposed to the debacle in Afghanistan, for example).
Meet the Press and Face the Nation have become Meat the DePressed and DEface the Nation….
There is a definite contrast emerging between the weak, effeminate, cowardly, DEI and pearl clutching wreckage that now dominates the progressives and their media toadies, as compared to the heroes emerging at last from the Right, who now exemplify the attitudes and attributes that have made this a nation of winners. They are revealing a stark contrast that is rekindling national respect for our strengths and our disgust with those who arrogantly seek to label Americans as losers. Trump sure knows how to pick them this time around, and he is unleashing a long overdue reckoning that seems to be gaining momentum. So I’m ok with the no more Mr. Nice Guy approach, and if that causes the press to throw conniption fits, then let them have at it. I think most people are getting quite tired of the histrionics, and are ready to ensure peace with strength again.