English transcript

Why does the administration oppose working with

the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado,

she's a Nobel Peace Prize winner, of course,

as well. Her coalition has the support of 70%

of Venezuelans. Why not work with her?

Well, a couple things. First of all, Maria Corina

Machado's fantastic, and she's someone I've

known for a very long time and and she uh she's

that whole movement is... but here's the...

we are dealing with the immediate reality. The

immediate reality is that unfortunately, and

sadly, but unfortunately, the vast majority

of the opposition is no longer present inside

of Venezuela. We have short-term things that

have to be addressed right away. We all wish

to see a bright future for Venezuela, a transition

to democracy, all of these things are great

and we all want to see that. I've worked on

that for 15 years on a personal level, both

in the Senate and now as National Security Advisor

and Secretary of State. These are things I still

care about, we still care about. But what we're

talking about is what happens over the next

two, three weeks, two, three months. And and

how that ties to the national interest of the

United States. And so we expect to see more

compliance and cooperation than we were previously

receiving. With Nicolas Maduro, you could not

make a deal or an arrangement.