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Maduro En Route To New York Courthouse For First Appearance; Sen. Angus King (I-ME) On The Trump Administration's Upcoming Briefing To Members Of Congress On Venezuela Actions; Trump Demands "Total Access" To Venezuela, Including Oil. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired January 05, 2026 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[07:30:15]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We continue to track the breaking news as you're watching this helicopter make its way from Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan. Take a look at this. That is the now deposed ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores aboard that helicopter heading to that heliport.

This is the, kind of, caravan process -- movement that we've been watching since really just right at the top of the show for the last 30 minutes then as the leader and his wife are making their way to a federal courthouse in Manhattan to face a federal judge for the first time since the U.S. military operation that occurred in the early, early hours of Saturday morning in Caracas that then captured, detained, arrested, and now has indicted the former Venezuelan leader and his wife, Cilia Flores.

Let's keep an eye on this as this helicopter is going to land and then we will be seeing -- obviously, we would assume that we will then see the former leader and his wife leaving this helicopter and then continuing to make their way to lower -- to the federal courthouse where we have people staked out all along the way to bring you this.

We're going to keep a close eye on this as we continue this conversation. We're going to have this from multiple angles. We're going to keep a close eye on this as we move to the conversation here.

One of the many confusing declarations that President Trump has made around the U.S. intervention in Venezuela is that the U.S. is taking control of Venezuela's massive oil reserves and that he expects the U.S. oil companies to invest billions and billions of dollars to stabilize and revive the country's oil industry.

Venezuela has the world's -- is sitting on the world's largest oil reserves but it only accounts for about one percent of the world's oil production. An important note on this.

Let me pause here as we're now seeing Nicolas Maduro departing -- coming out of that helicopter. We're going to see his wife probably depart right after that. He's going to be now getting into -- we assume he'll be getting into another vehicle and heading to the courthouse. Just remarkable to see this.

It was just until early morning -- the early morning hours of Saturday that this man and his wife were running a country of more than 30 million people, and then that dramatic and violent U.S. military operation taking place that has now captured them and now making their way with their hands bound in those tan jumpsuits to be facing a federal judge.

Let's keep our eye on this. Actually, let's go to that federal courthouse where the Maduros -- where Maduro is going to be heading right now. Omar Jimenez is standing by watching this along with us. Omar, it's a pretty remarkable thing to see as he's making his way towards where you are right now.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, you know -- and the preparations for this have really been noticeable on the ground here. Obviously, there's always a stepped-up federal -- or security presence to begin with outside this federal courthouse. But here you have barricades up. You actually have a long line stretching outside the entrance of the courthouse waiting to go in once those doors actually open.

And as you see some of those images -- I mean, you see Nicolas Maduro -- you and I talked about this to start the show -- just how quickly things change where now he is literally being flanked by DEA agents in a tan suit alongside his wife -- walked down a very visible path from this heliport in the southern part of Manhattan here.

From there we're expecting -- obviously, they will be in vehicles and making their way to this federal courthouse where we expect that hearing to happen a little bit later this morning. But obvious -- but also to critically begin this legal process that the Trump administration has, in part, used as justification for the abduction and capture of Maduro. To have him face these drug trafficking and weapons charges that they say has contributed to, as they allege, tons -- hundreds of tons of importation of cocaine and things of that nature.

And so just to see how this has developed so quickly over the last few days.

And, you know, I heard you all talking about sort of the mode of transportation and sort of taking the helicopter over the water as opposed to taking the bridge. You know, that was something that we actually noticed Saturday night as well where traffic was -- would have been much lighter. And when they landed on the western part of Manhattan, rather than just driving, they took the helicopter across the water as well.

But again, critically, we are waiting for them by ground to arrive here at this courthouse to begin this next stage, Kate.

[07:35:00]

BOLDUAN: Absolutely, Omar, and we're so thankful that you're there watching it all play out -- to track this. They now back into another armored vehicle and will be leaving the heliport shortly, heading out with that caravan -- you would assume headed right to where Omar Jimenez is at that federal courthouse. Omar, thank you so much.

Let's keep an eye on this as we also head now to CNN's Brian Todd with a closer -- never mind. We're changing directions. Heading over to Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, Kate.

Joining us now is CNN political and global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh. Also with us CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas.

I'm going to start with you, Alex. You have gotten some new details about this operation -- about the extraction of the former president of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro as we have been watching these pictures -- historic pictures of him heading towards his first appearance in a Manhattan court.

What have you learned?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, DIRECTOR, COUNTER TERRORISM PROGRAM, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: So in speaking to CIA and Department of Defense officials over the weekend and then coming here this morning, this was the culmination of months of preparation and training. So it's clear the decision to do this or at least be prepared for it was made many months ago.

There was a full mock-up facility that was built very similar to what was done for the bin Laden raid that was trained on for months by the Army's Delta Force along with members of the FBI hostage recovery team who augmented the military because this was a law enforcement operation where they ended up arresting and extracting Maduro.

There is some contention over whether it's law enforcement or military if you listen to members of Congress, but for all intents and purposes those were the authorities it was executed under.

Why that type of thing is important is when you have a mock facility you use it to train and then to determine the timeline preparation. How long does it take to get there? How long will you be on the objective? And small details matter.

So, for example, the bin Laden raid -- when the CIA built the mock-up facility, they used a chain link fence around the perimeter as opposed to, like, the 18-foot thick walls at the compound. And so when they trained on it the rotor wash from the helicopter actually escaped during preparation and training. But when they were in Abbottabad afterwards and they were flying, that didn't happen and one of the Helios went down.

So those types of things are incredibly important for preparation.

SIDNER: Yeah. You're talking about sort of this planning very similar to the intense planning in Abbottabad to try and extract or to eventually kill Osama bin Laden. In this case they took pains to make sure that Maduro and his wife were kept alive. I do want to go to you, Sabrina, because we've been hearing a lot from

the president in the last 24 hours about what his plans are for Venezuela as we watch these historic pictures of the former president of Venezuela being taken into U.S. custody -- taken to court on a myriad of charges.

And the president has said that the United States will run Venezuela. He has been asked that over and over and his answer has been consistent.

So what would it take for the United States to actually run Venezuela when you consider all the complications going on there right now?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR, FORMER DEPUTY PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Yeah -- thanks, Sara.

I think to put things in perspective -- I mean, Venezuela is about twice the size of California or even Iraq. So to run a country with 30 million people -- and Donald Trump says that we are running Venezuela -- that -- I think there are a lot of outstanding questions. And I hope that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are pressing this administration for more details because if we are "running Venezuela" that is going to entail putting some type of military assets on the ground.

And you heard -- you know, yesterday, President Trump saying that we're going to extract the wealth from Venezuela from the oil fields. Well, if companies are going to go into Venezuela and start extracting oil these oil fields are also going to have be secured.

So again, I have so many questions on what it means that we're running Venezuela. What that means for our military buildup outside the coast of Venezuela. That's obviously putting incredible strain on our military force and our -- frankly, our readiness.

But I think also to the larger point that the president was making on Air Force One yesterday, it seems like we're not stopping at Venezuela. It seems like, you know, he has his sights potentially set on Colombia and Cuba. And, of course, we've obviously heard about Greenland.

So I think the question members of Congress and frankly, the president's base also need to be asking is how does this fit into the America First agenda that he ran on in the 2024 election? Because we are now in getting into the business of nation building, something that the president was pretty much against for the entire election season.

So I have a lot of outstanding questions on what it means for Venezuela but also the Western hemisphere more broadly.

SIDNER: Yeah. And again, I just want to mention the pictures we've been seeing -- watching -- as the former president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, is being taken to a court in Manhattan for his first appearance alongside his wife Cilia Flores. Alex, from your standpoint, you've talked about the intricacies --

that you've just brought us new details about the intricacies of how they were able to extract both Maduro and his wife. And now you're hearing the president again reiterate that they are talking about running the country.

[07:40:00]

From a national security standpoint what position does this put the United States in right now?

PLITSAS: Just a little bit of an uncertain one. I mean, we can sort of derive a little bit more detail from some of the actions that speak to things that were unsaid by the president of what the future looks like. As Sabrina just mentioned, you know, the military footprint -- what does that mean for the military running the country, et cetera?

So, the first part, for running the country, what we've heard over the last couple of days was he was -- the president was asked about the opposition leader Machado. Could she take over? And he said look, she doesn't have the credibility inside the country, et cetera. And he also followed up with well, Venezuela has a vice president.

Very quickly thereafter, within hours, the Venezuelan vice president came out and said look, we're not -- you know, we're not in support of this. You need to return Maduro. We'll defend the country -- which didn't exactly make it sound like there was some sort of coordination ahead of time, which meant OK, so what was the plan afterwards?

It seems that the U.S. very clearly had no intention of going in. There was a third of the U.S. deployed Navy off the coast. Only 2,000 Marines though in a Marine expeditionary unit. That's an insufficient force to take and hold Caracas, let alone the whole country.

So it seemed it was target and strikes, take out the air defense sites, insert the force -- which, by the way, they made look easy, but several members were shot and helicopters took a lot of fire coming in. It was actually pretty remarkable that they made it out OK and no one was killed.

So at that point it was up to whoever was going to step up to the microphone and say they were going to lead, and then the president was going to deal with what was left.

So there was a quick change in tone last night where the vice president said OK, we're willing to work with the U.S. on an agenda, which could be a potential off-ramp for additional military action.

But if they don't cooperate the president has made it clear and CIA and DOD officials made it clear to me there is definitely a second wave planned and if Venezuelan officials do not cooperate that is -- that is on the table for the president.

SIDNER: Yeah, and we'll be talking to members of Congress about the potential of that second wave as well and what they think -- and their involvement should be, as they were not briefed on this before it happened.

Thank you so much, Alex Plitsas. And thank you to your, Sabrina Singh for your analysis this morning -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining us now for more on this whole -- on all of this is Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine. He sits on truly the key committees that should be involved here, including Senate Intelligence, Armed Services, and Energy and Natural Resources. It's good to see you, Senator. Thank you for being here.

When are you going to be briefed? And maybe more importantly, when you are, what is your question for them?

SEN. ANGUS KING (I-ME) (via Webex by Cisco): Great question. I think there's going to be a briefing this afternoon of the leadership which, by the way, there should have been before this even happened. And I'm told there will be an all-senators briefing on Wednesday.

But there are just so many questions. I mean, the basic question is what does it mean, Mr. President, when you say you're going to run Venezuela, and how are you going to do that? Is this going to be one more part of Marco Rubio's list of things he has to do? I think it's very unclear.

And this is -- first, I should say Maduro is a bad guy. No question about it. He's a terrible guy -- drugs and all of those kinds of things. And the military did an amazing job -- just incredible competence and capability that they showed.

Having said all that, though, the argument that the administration is making -- well, they're making lots of arguments, but the one is this was a law enforcement action. Basically, the military helped us arrest a bad guy. That argument stood up for about 10 minutes in the president's press conference on Saturday when he then said but we're going to run Venezuela. And then 10 minutes later he said this is really all about the oil.

So it's very unclear what the -- what the motivation was here, particularly if they talk about drugs. Because a month and a half ago President Trump pardoned the president of Honduras who was an even bigger drug runner than Maduro. So, you know, it's very hard to tell what was actually going on here.

We're going to have lots of questions -- one, of course, which you touched on -- virtually no consultation with Congress and there's no plan that we can see for what comes next.

On Saturday, the president said well, we're going to work with the vice president. Then she rebuked him Saturday night and he said well, if she steps out of line, she'll have a worse fate than Maduro. Meanwhile, he says to the -- to Colombia you better watch your ass. And he talks about Greenland.

Uh, this is -- this is a mess, Kate, and it's going to be very difficult to get it squared away exactly what they have in mind. BOLDUAN: Marco Rubio was pressed multiple times yesterday on who is

running the country, and he dismissed it as if why are you even asking this question, saying that people are fixated on that question when what the United States is going to do is run policy in Venezuela.

I have to say the verbal gymnastics that's going on to explain this when they -- when they talk about actions taken for U.S. national interests is -- it's tough to follow.

[07:45:00]

What -- can you just cut through it?

KING: Yeah. Well, as assuredly, they --

BOLDUAN: When you -- why is there no clarity? What does that tell you, Senator, as the end result is a violent and dramatic, and geopolitically changing military intervention in another country?

KING: I don't think there's clarity, Kate, because they don't know what they're doing. They don't have a plan. It's pretty clear they didn't have a plan. He sort of arbitrarily said well, the vice president will take over. We're going to run Venezuela.

Well, they took out the president. They took out Maduro but his regime -- all the secret police and military, and people that are Maduro and Chavistas are still there. So I don't -- I don't think they have a plan. And, you know, the famous -- the famous line from Colin Powell is "If you break it, you own it."

But Kate, there's a much more important issue here that I think is really of concern that's a deeper issue, and that is what the president done in this case has essentially given Putin and Xi Jinping a hall pass. He's -- his whole thing is we have --

BOLDUAN: Well actually, this is very important and I was going to just ask you about that.

KING: -- the authority and the -- well, he's basically saying, "We have the authority to do whatever we want in our neighborhood." And he's already talking about Greenland. Talking about -- now in Venezuela talking about Colombia.

Well, what does that say to Putin about Eastern Europe, about the Baltics, about Ukraine, about Poland? And what does it say to Xi Jinping about Taiwan? Because basically, we're saying a great power can do what they want in their neighborhood and we're not going to worry too much about what the other great powers do.

One of the things that's happened here is that we have been reduced from a world power to a regional power by the voluntary action of this administration, and there's no plan for how this is going to be played out. But I'm really worried about the larger geopolitical issues, which is we've essentially abdicated to Xi Jinping and to Putin, you know, you can do what you want in Taiwan or Eastern Europe. BOLDUAN: This gets to the broader and most important question that is surprising why it remains unanswered, which is why do this and why do this now?

As we've talked about, President Trump and those around him have said it's about drugs, even though they're talking about cocaine now and they launched those boat strikes having -- talking nothing but about fentanyl the entire time and now they're talking about oil. And the rest of the administration is using that vague language that I'm talking about in trying to describe it.

In the end, do you think -- there has to be a reason why he went in. There has to be a reason why he greenlit the operation now. And I'm wondering if you're getting at kind of an important aspect that people aren't talking about, which is if it isn't about the oil, is it about the other actors in the region? Is it a way to threaten or hurt -- and you've made -- you're arguing, actually, the opposite -- countries that have been strengthening ties with and having more of a presence in Venezuela, like China, like Russia, like Iran?

KING: Well, I hate to say this Kate, but I think part of the motivation is political. The day before the Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher's approval rating was something like 30 percent and the day after it was 70 percent. I think part of this is political. Because as you say, if you go down the list of the reasons for doing this each one falls apart as you -- as you analyze it. And this just strikes me as, you know, why now?

And by the way, you don't have to have an aircraft carrier, a nuclear submarine, six destroyers, 15,000 troops in order to extract one guy. As we've already learned, that can be done with a very limited capability in terms of the size of the force. But why all the -- why the huge deployment?

And part of the answer is if you read the national security strategy this administration promulgated a few weeks ago, it basically talks all about the Western hemisphere and barely mentions Russia and barely mentions China, except as an economic rival. You'd think the whole world had just dramatically changed and --

But why now? It looks to me like some kind of distraction.

BOLDUAN: Big questions to be asked when you do get that briefing as a Congress is deserved.

Senator Angus King, thank you very much for your time this morning. I really appreciate you jumping on.

SIDNER: All right. Ahead, one person in custody after an incident at Vice President JD Vance's Ohio home. Photos from local news outlets show broken windows at the home. Exactly what happened unclear this morning. Authorities still trying to determine if this was a targeted incident. The Vance family wasn't home though when it happened.

[07:50:10]

That story and more, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning President Trump has made it clear -- crystal clear that a major reason for the seizure of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was for access to that country's huge oil reserves.

CNN's Brian Todd has been digging into what that means. Let's get right to Brian. Brian, what have you learned here?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well John, as you mentioned, since this operation took place on Saturday, President Trump has not hid the fact that much of this operation to oust Nicolas Maduro from power is really about the Trump administration wanting the U.S. to reassert its control and influence over Venezuela's oil industry.

Now this is a country that has been an oil-based economy now for about a century -- since the 1920s -- but it has been underperforming in that regard since about -- for about 2 1/2 decades now -- since before Nicolas Maduro took power when Maduro's successor predecessor Hugo Chavez took power in 1999. Just before that Venezuela was pumping out about 3.5 million barrels of crude oil a day, and it went down since that time. Sanctions hit in the mid-2000s.

Maduro takes power in 2013. Shortly after that oil prices take a hit and Venezuela's oil production goes down as a result of that and a result of sanctions.

Now, a key thing happened when the first Trump administration imposed a ban on Venezuela's crude oil imports -- exports to the United States in 2019. Then the pandemic hit in 2020, which caused Venezuela's oil exports to hit rock bottom. Maduro kind of got things turned around in 2021, ramping up production in 2022. Then President Biden gave Chevron a permit to operate in Venezuela. Production then went steadily up but still underperforming, John.

As of 2024, according to OPEC, Venezuela produced less than one million barrels of oil a day. Right now it's producing just over a million barrels of oil a day with -- and that's only about -- that's less than one percent of the total crude oil production around the world.

And when you look at Venezuela's massive oil reserves that really gives you kind of a stark look at how Venezuela has been underperforming. Look at this. They have about a fifth of the world's total oil reserves in Venezuela. Look at this -- 303 billion barrels of oil, according to OPEC, as of 2023. It kind of dwarfs the nearest competition, Saudi Arabia, which has 267 billion. So you get a sense there of just Venezuela's massive oil reserves and how they've been underperforming.

[07:55:00]

Where do they export it to? Well, China is the big -- is the big buyer at almost 70 percent. About a quarter of Venezuela's production goes to the United States. That's produced by Chevron. And I can tell you John that Chevron's stock has really bumped up this morning as a result of them being the only American oil company left operating in Venezuela.

BERMAN: We'll see how long that lasts as other companies no doubt circle to see whether and how they can get in.

Brian Todd tracking this for us. Thanks, Brian, so much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, let's continue this conversation. With me now is CNN senior political commentator Ana Navarro, and Democratic strategist and former White House director of message planning Meghan Hays.

First to you, Ana. I know that you've been watching these pictures closely. I know that you have spent your time in Miami seeing the reactions of Venezuelans who are in Miami who are just ecstatic about all this.

I just wanted to get your read on what you saw today with Maduro and his wife both in handcuffs as they're being taken to a Manhattan court.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I was actually in Madrid when Maduro got ousted, and there's also a huge Venezuelan community there and they also took to the streets in celebration.

Look, what this means to me -- and Sara, you're from South Florida as well. You understand that there are communities there -- exiled communities. Venezuelan community, Cuban American community, Nicaraguan American community, like me. And we have an unfortunate kinship in solidarity of having had to flee our countries because of cruel, sadistic dictators.

What it means to me to see Maduro in handcuffs and prison garb, being held to some sort of accountability -- look, it makes me emotional because I know what it means for the millions of Venezuelans who have had to flee their country. The people he has inflicted suffering on. This guy --

Look, you can disagree all you want with the way this was done. You can ask serious questions. You can critique it. And you can still be overjoyed at the fact that a sadistic, cruel, corrupt, murderous, son a bitch is out of Venezuela. And that's where I am.

SIDNER: Yeah, two things can be true at the same time. You can have questions about how the administration did this and why they did this -- staying in the country. But you can also understand the people who have suffered under his rule there in Venezuela are rejoicing at all this.

Now to you, Meghan. I want to let folks hear what the president said about who is running Venezuela and what Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the last 24 hours about who was in charge in Venezuela. Just take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Don't ask me who's in charge because I'll give you an answer that will very controversial.

REPORTER: What does that mean?

TRUMP: It's we're in charge.

KRISTEN WELKER, MODERATOR, NBC "MEET THE PRESS": President Trump we're going to run the country. So is it you, is it Secretary Hegseth? Who are those people who will be running the country specifically?

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, it's not running the -- it's running policy. The policy with regards to this. We want Venezuela to move in a certain direction because not only do we think it's good for the people of Venezuela, it's in our national interest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Meghan, are you confused? Isn't this confusing to the American public?

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION CONSULTANT: Yeah, it's very confusing to the American public. It's also confusing why we can't run the United States but we're now going to run another country.

Unfortunately, now this means that the United States is going to own the success of Venezuela economically, politically, and secure all of the things that now make them successful we are now in charge of and that should make everybody nervous.

But this is why elections have consequences. You choose leaders you think are going to follow the Constitution and do things that are at the best interest of the United States. Unfortunately, this is not in the best interest of the United States to be running another country. We've seen how this movie ends.

SIDNER: And I do want to ask you about this politics where Trump's saying he's going to run the country. What explains to you why Donald Trump wouldn't want to see the woman who just won a Nobel Peace Prize for her leadership in Venezuela and who the citizens have backed her 70 percent-plus in a poll who say that, you know, she should be the rightful person in place and they're backing the opposition party in which she leads? Why do you think that the president is saying that she's not necessarily the person for the job?

NAVARRO: Well, reports are that he's never warmed up to her and she is a very strong-willed, brave, courageous woman who speaks up for her people. And so I can see why he wouldn't warm up to her.

I don't understand what's happening right now and I don't get it. I don't understand how if all these U.S. administrations -- the Biden administration and the Trump administration now never recognized Maduro as the legitimate president of the United -- of Venezuela but we can somehow recognize his handpicked vice president as the now sworn-in president of Venezuela. That just, to me, makes no sense.