Why Did the US Arrest Maduro but Leave Other Venezuelan Officials in Power

I'm curious because you you just described the regime

as still in place essentially.

I mean, I'm I'm curious why the Trump administration decided to leave it

intact and only arrest

Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

The person who controls the police,

the chief thug,

Diosdado Cabello, he's the interior minister.

He's been indicted by the United States.

He was in that indictment the administration released. He's a narco-terrorist.

There's a $25 million price on his head. He's still in place. The defense minister,

who has deep ties to Russia, $15 million price on his head. He is still in place.

I'm confused. Are they still wanted by the United States?

Why didn't you arrest them if you are taking out the narco-terrorist regime?

You're confused?

I don't know why that's confusing to you. They're still in power.

I mean it's very simple. You're not gonna go in and wrap up... you're gonna...

But yeah, but you can't go...

you're gonna 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. We got the top priority.

The the the number one person on the

list was the guy who claimed to be the president of the country that he was not,

and he was arrested along with his wife who was also indicted.

And that was a pretty sophisticated and frankly complicated operation. It was.

It is not easy to land helicopters in the

middle of the largest military base in the country.

The guy lived on a military base. Land within three minutes,

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.

And you're asking me why didn't we do that in five other places at the same time?

I mean that's absurd. Of...

I I do think this is one of the most, you know,

daring, uh, you know, complicated,

sophisticated missions this country has carried out in a very long time.

Tremendous credit to the US military personnel who did it.

It was unbelievable. Yeah. And uh, tremendous success.

And today, an indicted drug trafficker who was not the legitimate

president of Venezuela, who we don't recognize,

the Biden administration didn't recognize,

60-something countries don't recognize,

the European Union doesn't recognize,

and many countries in Latin America don't recognize, he was a convict...

he was a indicted drug trafficker. He was arrested.

His wife was arrested, also indicted.

Right, but the others... the others who were also indicted are still...

And they are now facing justice in the American system of courts. The others who

were also indicted are still in place, so...

that that's the point of my questioning there.

But you talked about not being the legitimate president...

But you wanted us to land in five other military bases? No, I'm asking why you

chose that this was the limit of the military operation. But to your point

that you just made that that Maduro was not the legitimate president...

Well because he was the guy who was claiming to be the president. Right.

Um, well...