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Maduro F'ed Around and Found Out | VINCE Episode 196 · V

0:00
Speaker 1: Everybody, welcome to Vince on a Monday. Great to be
0:03
Speaker 1: back with you in this, the year of our Lord, 2026,
0:07
Speaker 1: the 250th anniversary of our country. We've got a lot
0:12
Speaker 1: to talk about as we start off the new year.
0:14
Speaker 1: As always, it's great to have you with us. We
0:16
Speaker 1: have a very big show ahead. Our guys go into Venezuela,
0:20
Speaker 1: grab Nicolas Maduro, get out of there in less time
0:23
Speaker 1: than most major motion pictures in Hollywood. It's just incredible.
0:28
Speaker 1: what these guys were able to pull off. We'll talk
0:31
Speaker 1: about that experience, what happened, that operation, and then what
0:34
Speaker 1: it means for Venezuela, for the Western Hemisphere, and certainly
0:38
Speaker 1: for the United States of America. That's all ahead on
0:40
Speaker 1: this program. We'll be joined by Mike Gonzalez today as well.
0:44
Speaker 1: He's an expert on the commies, including people like Maduro and,
0:48
Speaker 1: for that matter, the new communist mayor of New York,
0:51
Speaker 1: Zoran Mamdani. We've got a lot to discuss with Mike Gonzalez.
0:56
Speaker 1: And a very big show. And in a moment, I
0:58
Speaker 1: want to just give you a quick summary of the
1:01
Speaker 1: the departure from the FBI of one Dan Bongino. He's done.
1:07
Speaker 1: What comes next? Well, I'm curious, too. It's all coming
1:11
Speaker 1: up on this edition of Vince. Great to have you
1:13
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2:43
Speaker 1: Walsh in the in the chat goes, you're curious, too. Yes,
2:47
Speaker 1: I'm curious, too. I'm very excited to hear that Dan
2:51
Speaker 1: Bongino is officially done at the FBI, that I'm confident
2:54
Speaker 1: that comes as a great relief to Dan and his family,
2:57
Speaker 1: his great family. It's you know, it's been it's been
3:00
Speaker 1: a crazy year. It's been an absolutely crazy year. And
3:03
Speaker 1: to summarize how Dan's year went, the FBI director, Kash Patel,
3:08
Speaker 1: sent him off last night, five o'clock Eastern time last
3:11
Speaker 1: night on X. He posted the following. He said Dan
3:15
Speaker 1: heads back to the private sector after helping orchestrate a
3:18
Speaker 1: record year for the FBI. And here's how Cash ran
3:21
Speaker 1: the numbers down. He said there was a historic 20
3:23
Speaker 1: percent drop in the nationwide murder rate. Nobody disputes that,
3:27
Speaker 1: by the way. That's all over the place that the
3:29
Speaker 1: homicide rate. has fallen to record levels, record lows. A
3:33
Speaker 1: 100% increase in arrests from year to year. That would
3:36
Speaker 1: be arrests being done by the FBI. 1,800 gangs and
3:40
Speaker 1: criminal enterprises disrupted. That's a 210% increase over the prior
3:45
Speaker 1: year under the Biden era. Let's see, what else? 2,000
3:49
Speaker 1: plus kilos of fentanyl that were seized. That's up 31%.
3:53
Speaker 1: That's enough to kill 130 million Americans. And just to
3:56
Speaker 1: be clear on what Cash is saying here, Have you
3:58
Speaker 1: noticed that drug overdose deaths, drug deaths in the United
4:02
Speaker 1: States have plummeted over the course of the last year?
4:04
Speaker 1: This is not a coincidence. When the FBI is pulling
4:07
Speaker 1: all this fentanyl off the streets, when we're blowing up
4:09
Speaker 1: ships that are trying to make their way to America
4:11
Speaker 1: carrying illicit drugs, when we lock down our border, it
4:15
Speaker 1: turns out it does save American lives.
4:17
Speaker 2: A lot of them.
4:18
Speaker 1: It's a huge deal. A huge deal.
4:20
Speaker 2: What else?
4:21
Speaker 1: Nihilistic violent extremism arrests are up. four hundred and ninety percent.
4:27
Speaker 1: You know what that is? Nihilistic, violent extremism. This is
4:31
Speaker 1: when people get on the Internet and they try and
4:34
Speaker 1: groom children into hurting themselves and others. Yeah, we're arresting
4:38
Speaker 1: those people. Thanks to Dan Cash and the FBI. That's
4:42
Speaker 1: up nearly five hundred percent. That's a that's a meaningful jump.
4:46
Speaker 1: Over six thousand child victims have been located. That's a
4:49
Speaker 1: twenty two percent increase over the prior year. espionage arrests,
4:53
Speaker 1: that would be spies in the United States, are up 35%,
4:58
Speaker 1: and multiple successful surges, including summer heat, that was violent crime,
5:02
Speaker 1: that was orchestrated by Dan. Remember, Cash came out and
5:05
Speaker 1: he gave that big press conference saying that Dan quarterbacked
5:08
Speaker 1: that whole thing. Over 9,000 arrests in just three months.
5:14
Speaker 1: And he goes on to say the FBI is saving
5:16
Speaker 1: lives and protecting innocent kids. None of it possible without
5:19
Speaker 1: Dan's leadership and support. Thank you, Dan Bongino. Yeah, thank you, Dan.
5:23
Speaker 1: Thank you for your service to your country. Pretty amazing stuff.
5:28
Speaker 1: And you know what wasn't even on the list that
5:31
Speaker 1: Cash didn't include? They caught the pipe bomber. Dan caught
5:35
Speaker 1: the pipe bomber too, something that he was obsessed with
5:38
Speaker 1: as a private citizen, goes in as deputy director of
5:40
Speaker 1: the FBI, they hunt this guy down, they take him
5:42
Speaker 1: into custody. So great. Honestly, as I said before, when
5:45
Speaker 1: we got the news that Dan was leaving, a lot
5:48
Speaker 1: of points on the scoreboard. And he can leave with
5:51
Speaker 1: his head held high, a lot to be proud of.
5:53
Speaker 1: And here's what I'm looking forward to. Look, I said before,
5:56
Speaker 1: somebody pointed out in the chat, I just cited, that
5:59
Speaker 1: I'm curious about what's going to happen too. Isn't that
6:00
Speaker 1: interesting that Vince is curious? Wouldn't Vince know? I don't know.
6:04
Speaker 1: All of this is up to Dan. Everything that is
6:05
Speaker 1: going to happen next in terms of Dan's schedule is
6:10
Speaker 1: up to him. And I can't wait to see it.
6:12
Speaker 1: I'm as eager as you are to see him back
6:15
Speaker 1: behind a microphone talking to an audience. and giving us
6:19
Speaker 1: his perspective on what exactly went down inside of that
6:22
Speaker 1: government and what the rest of us should make of it. Look,
6:27
Speaker 1: in media, there's something obviously true, but just intuitively, but
6:32
Speaker 1: I'll just lay it out, which is you turn to
6:35
Speaker 1: people that you feel like have a good sense of
6:38
Speaker 1: what's actually going on because you want their help in
6:41
Speaker 1: understanding the world in which you're living.
6:43
Speaker 2: Right.
6:43
Speaker 1: Like what's actually happening in Washington? Who should I trust?
6:47
Speaker 1: Who is untrustworthy? Who's a scumbag? The people that we
6:50
Speaker 1: choose to listen to or engage with in media are
6:53
Speaker 1: the people we think are giving us the best possible
6:57
Speaker 1: recitation of the facts without without fear or favor. That's
7:01
Speaker 1: the way it should be. And so one of the
7:04
Speaker 1: ways you do that is you try to accrue knowledge
7:06
Speaker 1: from the outside. I mean, this is what I have
7:08
Speaker 1: to do. I've been I've had a year of rather
7:11
Speaker 1: a career in journalism. where I try and get to
7:13
Speaker 1: know people, find out more information. I see a lot
7:16
Speaker 1: of news cycles come and go, and I get a
7:17
Speaker 1: clearer and clearer sense with each passing news cycle about
7:20
Speaker 1: where things are headed, the trajectory of these news events,
7:24
Speaker 1: what's going to happen next. For instance, we're going to
7:26
Speaker 1: talk about Venezuela in a moment, and there's a lot
7:28
Speaker 1: of comparisons being made to Iraq. People are like, oh,
7:31
Speaker 1: we're involved in regime change. It's going to be a
7:33
Speaker 1: complete disaster. It is really important to have a sense
7:38
Speaker 1: of history and a sense of– how these operations go,
7:45
Speaker 1: you know, what American benefits exist here. You've, you've got
7:49
Speaker 1: to think clearly about it. You have to, and you're
7:51
Speaker 1: going to turn to people to help you make sense
7:53
Speaker 1: of it. Dan has always had a talent for that
7:55
Speaker 1: on the outside. Now, yes, Dan had a career in
7:57
Speaker 1: government before as a secret service agent, as a police officer,
8:01
Speaker 1: those gave him excellent perspectives on the way things worked
8:05
Speaker 1: on the inside that he could use to inform his
8:07
Speaker 1: media career. But now imagine what he's got. Now, this
8:11
Speaker 1: is the thing. I was thinking about this this weekend. I'm, Like,
8:14
Speaker 1: you know, I don't envy the kind of job that
8:17
Speaker 1: Dan just entered into and spent the last year doing.
8:19
Speaker 1: I don't envy that at all. It just seems miserable
8:21
Speaker 1: to me. It seems miserable to me. And God bless
8:23
Speaker 1: him for doing it. What I do envy is the perspective.
8:27
Speaker 1: What I do envy is the insider knowledge. What I
8:30
Speaker 1: do envy is the ability to see what's going on
8:34
Speaker 1: on the inside and now take it to an audience publicly.
8:37
Speaker 1: I can't wait for it. I'm super pumped about it.
8:39
Speaker 1: So anyway, a lot to be excited about. All of
8:42
Speaker 1: Dan's announcements, whatever he wants to do, that's all on
8:44
Speaker 1: his schedule. Again, I'm as curious as you are. I
8:46
Speaker 1: can't wait to find out more. But congratulations once again
8:51
Speaker 1: to Dan wrapping up his time at the FBI and
8:54
Speaker 1: coming back to the rest of us in the private sector.
8:57
Speaker 1: Looking forward to that. And a nice send-off from Kash Patel.
9:00
Speaker 1: That's cool. All right. Let's see. No, don't make me
9:03
Speaker 1: the deputy director. Let's go.
9:04
Speaker 2: Let's go.
9:05
Speaker 1: No. Stop it. Stop that nonsense.
9:08
Speaker 3: All right.
9:10
Speaker 1: Maduro fucked around. And now he found out. In the
9:13
Speaker 1: FAFO sequence, Boyd did Maduro FO. Holy cow. So here's
9:19
Speaker 1: what we saw. And for those of you who've been
9:21
Speaker 1: following this show for a time, you know a lot
9:23
Speaker 1: of these details, but I want to recite some of
9:25
Speaker 1: the really clear facts about what's been happening in Venezuela.
9:29
Speaker 1: You understand that modern-day Venezuela, Venezuela, the flourishing country, really,
9:35
Speaker 1: up until the commies took it over in the form
9:37
Speaker 1: of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, was built by the
9:41
Speaker 1: United States of America. No, I didn't stutter. The country
9:45
Speaker 1: was built by the United States of America. The wealth
9:51
Speaker 1: as we know it in Venezuela has come to be
9:55
Speaker 1: because of the U.S. We built the oil industry in
10:00
Speaker 1: this country. And up until the communists stole it from
10:06
Speaker 1: American energy companies, that country was on an excellent trajectory.
10:14
Speaker 1: But just like everything else, just like every other country
10:17
Speaker 1: the commies have touched, they ruined– What we had built.
10:20
Speaker 1: They ruined what good, hardworking people had built for their
10:25
Speaker 1: own cruel purposes. We build all the oil infrastructure there. Everything. Venezuela,
10:33
Speaker 1: to be clear, has the largest proven oil reserves on
10:38
Speaker 1: the entire planet.
10:39
Speaker 4: Proven.
10:39
Speaker 1: In other words, we know how much oil is underground
10:43
Speaker 1: at the very least. And it is the biggest on
10:45
Speaker 1: the entire planet. The United States, through a variety of
10:50
Speaker 1: oil companies, goes in, drills for it, refines it, brings
10:55
Speaker 1: in all of the manpower to pull this oil from
10:58
Speaker 1: the earth. And then eventually what ends up happening is
11:01
Speaker 1: Hugo Chavez steals it. Steals it. Now they call it expropriate,
11:06
Speaker 1: which is a fancy word for steal. It's theft. They
11:10
Speaker 1: stole it from the American companies. And the only company
11:13
Speaker 1: that stuck around, Chevron, stuck around under duress. The way
11:17
Speaker 1: that worked was they said, Chavez said, okay, basically you
11:21
Speaker 1: own almost none of your company, but if you take
11:23
Speaker 1: a very tiny share of your own company, we'll steal
11:25
Speaker 1: the rest of it and you get to stay. So
11:27
Speaker 1: Chevron took the deal. All the other oil companies run
11:31
Speaker 1: right out of town, run right out of town. All
11:33
Speaker 1: their stuff was stolen. And so ever since then, what is,
11:37
Speaker 1: you know, and this was sold, obviously the Venezuelan people,
11:39
Speaker 1: this is going to enrich you. This is going to
11:41
Speaker 1: be good for you. This belongs to us. This is
11:43
Speaker 1: what these commies say. They'll say something like this. They appeal.
11:47
Speaker 1: to their national sensibilities or to the populace by saying,
11:50
Speaker 1: we're doing this for you. Well, how'd that work out? Well,
11:53
Speaker 1: it got to the point that Venezuelans were eating zoo animals.
11:55
Speaker 1: You remember that? Where Venezuela has reached desperate levels of
12:01
Speaker 1: poverty and despair. Now, how has Maduro done in the
12:05
Speaker 1: midst of all of this? Well, he's done great. Maduro
12:07
Speaker 1: gets to live in palaces. Maduro gets to live a
12:09
Speaker 1: luxurious lifestyle. He's surrounded by armed guards who protect him
12:14
Speaker 1: at every moment. Those armed guards, to be clear, are Cubans.
12:17
Speaker 1: They're not Venezuelans because if your family was eating zoo
12:21
Speaker 1: animals to subsist, chances are you might not be happy
12:24
Speaker 1: with your leader. So the Cubans, speaking of commies, have
12:28
Speaker 1: been protecting Maduro. And where's all that oil going? Well,
12:34
Speaker 1: certainly the proceeds are not going to the Venezuelan people.
12:36
Speaker 1: They're desperate and starving. The proceeds go to Maduro, and
12:40
Speaker 1: then the oil itself goes to all the authoritarian regimes.
12:43
Speaker 1: The Cubans get the oil. The Iranians get oil. The
12:46
Speaker 1: Chinese are the single biggest buyer of that oil from Venezuela.
12:51
Speaker 1: But I thought there were sanctions, Vince. Yeah, there are.
12:54
Speaker 1: And that's why they use false flags. They use ghost
12:57
Speaker 1: shipping in order to move that oil, starting through Cuba,
13:01
Speaker 1: all around the world. All around the world. Simultaneously, the
13:06
Speaker 1: way Venezuela operates... is as a narco state. Maduro is
13:10
Speaker 1: the head of the state-run cartel. And they've been sending cocaine,
13:16
Speaker 1: especially all across the planet and into the United States,
13:21
Speaker 1: into the hands of America's children, causing tremendous amounts of
13:26
Speaker 1: harm and despair. Maduro has been doing all of that.
13:29
Speaker 1: That led to an indictment in 2020. The Trump Justice
13:31
Speaker 1: Department began to hold Maduro accountable from afar. Now, they
13:39
Speaker 1: couldn't take him in, or they didn't take him into
13:41
Speaker 1: custody back then. And did the Biden administration get rid
13:45
Speaker 1: of the charges against Maduro? No, they didn't. They sustained them.
13:48
Speaker 1: They kept them in place. In other words, the Biden
13:50
Speaker 1: administration shared the assessment that Maduro was guilty of something.
13:55
Speaker 1: And that brings us to the current day, because finally,
13:59
Speaker 1: somebody's done something about this. President Trump's Justice Department with
14:04
Speaker 1: the help of the United States military, the extraordinary help
14:07
Speaker 1: of the United States military, just went in and in
14:10
Speaker 1: the course of three hours were able to raid Caracas,
14:15
Speaker 1: grab Maduro, get him out on a helicopter and put
14:19
Speaker 1: him on the USS Iwo Jima and bring him back
14:21
Speaker 1: to New York. They did all of this in very
14:24
Speaker 1: rapid succession in a well-orchestrated, amazing, unparalleled military operation that
14:32
Speaker 1: happened like that. In fact, speaking of he effed around
14:36
Speaker 1: and he found out, here's the news this weekend from
14:40
Speaker 1: the press conference with the president and his cabinet members.
14:43
Speaker 1: Take a look. Cut one. Last night, on the order
14:48
Speaker 1: of the President of the United States, and in support
14:53
Speaker 1: of a request from the Department of Justice, the United.
14:57
Speaker 4: States military conducted an apprehension mission in Caracas, Venezuela, to
15:02
Speaker 4: bring to justice two indicted persons, Nicolas and Cecilia Maduro.
15:07
Speaker 1: Nicolas Maduro had his chance until he didn't. He yaffed
15:11
Speaker 1: around and he found out.
15:13
Speaker 3: This was one of the most stunning, effective, and powerful
15:17
Speaker 3: displays of American military might and competence in American history.
15:23
Speaker 5: I don't understand yet how they haven't figured this out.
15:26
Speaker 5: And now if you don't know, now you know. Because
15:29
Speaker 5: this is the way it's going to play out. And
15:30
Speaker 5: I think people need to understand that this is not
15:32
Speaker 5: a president that just talks and does letters and press conferences.
15:36
Speaker 1: If he says he's serious about something, he means it.
15:38
Speaker 1: Don't play games.
15:39
Speaker 5: Don't play games with this president's in office because it's
15:42
Speaker 5: not going to turn out well.
15:48
Speaker 1: Amazing video, the amazing piece of audio produced by the
15:50
Speaker 1: White House, kind of a wrap up on the weekend's events. Really,
15:55
Speaker 1: really phenomenal. So here's some of the pieces as we
15:58
Speaker 1: understand it. You had members of the FBI. Speaking of
16:02
Speaker 1: a reason I want to hear from Dan. You had
16:04
Speaker 1: members of the FBI involved in this operation to arrest
16:08
Speaker 1: and get Maduro out of the country. You had Delta
16:12
Speaker 1: Force involved. Delta Force. These are the most elite military
16:16
Speaker 1: members on the planet going in and grabbing this guy.
16:20
Speaker 1: You had the CIA, which, by the way, last year,
16:24
Speaker 1: for those of you who follow the news closely, you'll
16:25
Speaker 1: remember this. I think it was October of last year.
16:28
Speaker 1: When President Trump confirmed that the CIA had been deployed
16:32
Speaker 1: in Venezuela, a reporter just randomly asked the question, why
16:34
Speaker 1: did you send the CIA in? And President Trump just
16:37
Speaker 1: accepted the premise. It was like, hey, you got to
16:38
Speaker 1: do it. I forget what he said, the quote, but
16:40
Speaker 1: he confirmed that the CIA was was deployed. And obviously
16:44
Speaker 1: they were there laying the groundwork for this operation months
16:47
Speaker 1: in the making and pulled off with immense success. Everything
16:51
Speaker 1: from The airstrikes that were going on, they filled the
16:55
Speaker 1: air with aircraft in order to just create a lot
16:58
Speaker 1: of chaos in the air and to basically create this
17:04
Speaker 1: massive distraction of military air power. And then simultaneously they
17:09
Speaker 1: shut off power in the city. This is amazing. Don't
17:12
Speaker 1: mess with the U.S. We shut off power in Caracas.
17:15
Speaker 1: And then they get into the military base where Maduro
17:20
Speaker 1: was being held. And according to the president, he and
17:24
Speaker 1: his wife made a sprint for a safe room. They
17:27
Speaker 1: were trying to get behind a steel door for a
17:29
Speaker 1: safe room. And Delta Force got on them before they
17:32
Speaker 1: could close the door. And in the process, they killed
17:37
Speaker 1: 32 members of the Cuban military, Cuban guard that were
17:45
Speaker 1: there to protect Maduro, all killed. According to the Cuban
17:49
Speaker 1: government now, they say 32 were killed. Not a single
17:52
Speaker 1: American casualty. Not a single one. They grabbed Maduro and
17:57
Speaker 1: his wife. The door could not be shut. If it
18:01
Speaker 1: had been shut and sealed, the military was also ready
18:04
Speaker 1: for that. They had blowtorches and whatever devices you needed available.
18:09
Speaker 1: The president said it would have taken them approximately 47 seconds.
18:13
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if he chose that number on purpose.
18:16
Speaker 1: It's the 47th presidency, but 47 seconds. to get through
18:20
Speaker 1: that door. If it was locked, uh, not locked, they,
18:23
Speaker 1: they got ahold of them and they got them out
18:24
Speaker 1: of the country. Uh, the president said he's never seen
18:28
Speaker 1: anything like this. Here he is, uh, in some of
18:30
Speaker 1: his first public accounting on the subject, talking to Fox
18:33
Speaker 1: this weekend, cut.
18:34
Speaker 3: To, I've never seen anything like this. I was, I
18:37
Speaker 3: was able to watch it in real time and I
18:40
Speaker 3: watched every aspect of it. And I listened to the
18:43
Speaker 3: communication between you know, where we were in Florida and
18:48
Speaker 3: out in the field in Venezuela. And it was amazing
18:52
Speaker 3: to see the professionalism, the quality of leadership, the professionalism.
18:57
Speaker 3: General Raisin Cane is fantastic. Don't forget, we did another
19:01
Speaker 3: one not so long ago. It was called the knocking
19:04
Speaker 3: out of the Iranian nuclear threat, the nuclear power. And
19:09
Speaker 3: that was That was unbelievable what they did there. And
19:13
Speaker 3: this is something that, gee, I don't know, it's amazing.
19:16
Speaker 3: And to have a few injuries but no death on
19:21
Speaker 3: our side is really amazing.
19:26
Speaker 1: It really is amazing. He said a few injuries, a
19:28
Speaker 1: few injuries, but no death on the American side. Really
19:31
Speaker 1: an amazing thing. Meanwhile, dozens of Cuban guard killed. uh...
19:37
Speaker 1: in the uh... in the raid uh... wonderful stuff and
19:40
Speaker 1: i'm glad uh... i'm glad these guys are on our
19:42
Speaker 1: side aren't you aren't you glad delta force is on
19:44
Speaker 1: our side holy crap could you imagine what the chaos
19:48
Speaker 1: of that must have been like How are they reacting
19:50
Speaker 1: in Venezuela? How are Venezuelans reacting all around the world?
19:54
Speaker 1: You know, that's a country where millions upon millions of
19:58
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20:02
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21:36
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21:37
Speaker 2: Okay.
21:37
Speaker 1: So, We get this raid on Maduro. Maduro, who, by
21:41
Speaker 1: the way, was at a court hearing this morning in
21:45
Speaker 1: New York. They perp walked him. Did you see this?
21:48
Speaker 1: The DEA agents perp walking Maduro into New York this weekend.
21:52
Speaker 1: Take a look at this. Cut sticks. As Maduro's like,
21:56
Speaker 1: happy new year. Happy new year, he says. Yeah, happy
21:58
Speaker 1: new year. The filthy animal.
22:02
Speaker 3: He's walking. Good night.
22:03
Speaker 2: Good night.
22:06
Speaker 1: Happy new year. Good night. Happy New Year. Yeah, good night, son.
22:12
Speaker 1: DEA agents perp-walking him. Yeah, pretty wild. Trump tweeted a
22:17
Speaker 1: photo of him or posted a photo of him to
22:19
Speaker 1: Truth Social. He looked ridiculous. They had a hearing protection
22:26
Speaker 1: on him. They had the– like not the headphones, but
22:30
Speaker 1: basically to block his hearing. And then they had blinders
22:33
Speaker 1: on him too. to block everything out. So he didn't
22:37
Speaker 1: know where he was going and couldn't look at anything,
22:40
Speaker 1: couldn't hear anything. And so President Trump posted at the
22:43
Speaker 1: Truth Social kind of a wild image to see. People
22:48
Speaker 1: were saying it looks like a video game streamer called Dr. Disrespect.
22:53
Speaker 1: Have you seen this at all? So here's what the guy,
22:57
Speaker 1: here's what it looked like. This is the White House post.
23:00
Speaker 1: Nicholas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima. Look at this.
23:05
Speaker 1: He looks a little Saddam Hussein-ish, actually. And then the Dr.
23:12
Speaker 1: Disrespect guy posted it. And he said, stop linking this
23:15
Speaker 1: to me. It's not funny. Because what does he look like? Oh,
23:20
Speaker 1: they've got it at the top. Fellas, can we fix
23:22
Speaker 1: the screen a little bit? Look at the top of
23:24
Speaker 1: the screen. He dresses up like this guy all the time.
23:27
Speaker 1: He looks like the exact same. There he is.
23:30
Speaker 3: Anyway.
23:31
Speaker 1: That's that's Maduro in custody. How are Venezuelans feeling about this?
23:35
Speaker 1: Any Venezuelans in the chat right now? How do you
23:38
Speaker 1: feel about this, that Maduro is no longer leading that country,
23:43
Speaker 1: that the United States is now subjecting him to justice?
23:46
Speaker 1: Because here's what it looks like among the Venezuelan diaspora
23:50
Speaker 1: in the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Cut three. They
23:53
Speaker 1: were thrown a hell of a party. Watch this. I'm
24:09
Speaker 1: telling you, I'm seeing these party videos. Did you guys
24:11
Speaker 1: see these? Isaac, did you see the party videos? Dude,
24:14
Speaker 1: I wanted to get down with these parties. I was like,
24:17
Speaker 1: I don't know what they've got, but they've got a vibe.
24:19
Speaker 1: There's a vibe going on. Cut four. Look, more dancing Venezuelans.
24:29
Speaker 6: Dude.
24:43
Speaker 1: What song is that? I got to get some AI
24:46
Speaker 1: research done on that song or something. I don't know
24:48
Speaker 1: if Shazam will tell me. I got to find out
24:50
Speaker 1: what song that is. That's a bop. I'm putting that
24:52
Speaker 1: on in the car. I don't know. That's a great rundown.
24:57
Speaker 1: It's really funny. And then, of course, there's no celebration
25:01
Speaker 1: of something that makes people happy that Trump's responsible for
25:03
Speaker 1: would be complete without YMCA and the Trump dance. Take
25:05
Speaker 1: a look. Cut five. Trump impersonator. So funny. I love that.
25:19
Speaker 1: People are telling me not to dance. You know what? No,
25:23
Speaker 1: I'm going to dance. It's so good. I love it, man.
25:29
Speaker 1: I just like happiness. I'm a big fan of joy.
25:31
Speaker 1: And I'm a big fan of commies being displaced. Now,
25:33
Speaker 1: what is this all about? What's what's going on here? So,
25:35
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, the American energy industry was like straight
25:38
Speaker 1: up stolen by the commies. Can I can I say
25:42
Speaker 1: something to the American left? Let me let me address
25:43
Speaker 1: them for a moment. How many times do lefties try
25:46
Speaker 1: and force you to do land acknowledgments and claiming that
25:50
Speaker 1: you live on something that you stole? Now, of course,
25:53
Speaker 1: they're lying about it. But let's let's just go with
25:55
Speaker 1: that for a moment. Oh, you stole this land. So
25:58
Speaker 1: you have to make a land acknowledgment. Oh, the Cherokee
26:02
Speaker 1: were once the owners of this land and we inherited
26:04
Speaker 1: it from them or we stole it from them or
26:06
Speaker 1: whatever they say. OK, well, then why shouldn't the Venezuelan
26:10
Speaker 1: communist government have to do oil acknowledgments that they stole
26:15
Speaker 1: our infrastructure from America? This oil industry was built by America. No,
26:21
Speaker 1: they don't have to subject them to that standard. Why
26:23
Speaker 1: is that exactly? Why is that? Why is it that
26:26
Speaker 1: I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that you just
26:29
Speaker 1: hate us, meaning Americans, at every turn? Right now, the
26:33
Speaker 1: left is freaking out that Donald Trump just enforced an
26:39
Speaker 1: actual criminal indictment against Maduro. And Maduro is not the president.
26:46
Speaker 1: Even in the Trump administration, they've been kind of referring
26:48
Speaker 1: to him as the president. They just said as a title.
26:51
Speaker 1: He's not the legitimate leader, was never the legitimate leader
26:55
Speaker 1: of Venezuela. He was there fraudulently. He seized power. If
27:01
Speaker 1: you listen to Venezuelans, they referred to him as an occupier,
27:06
Speaker 1: not as the leader of the country, somebody who seized
27:09
Speaker 1: power against the wishes of the country. And speaking of
27:14
Speaker 1: that country, you know, there's in a moment, we'll talk
27:16
Speaker 1: to Mike Gonzalez and get his his expert assessment of
27:19
Speaker 1: all of this. But I do want to focus on
27:22
Speaker 1: something for a moment. You know, there is a lot
27:25
Speaker 1: of legitimate concern about what comes next. Totally legitimate. You know,
27:29
Speaker 1: in the United States, I think we have developed a
27:32
Speaker 1: very cynical view for good reason about the use of
27:37
Speaker 1: our military in foreign countries, especially when it involves, quote unquote,
27:42
Speaker 1: regime change. But here's here's something that I'm thinking about
27:47
Speaker 1: right now and that I'd like you to think about
27:48
Speaker 1: as well. This is definitely not Iraq. This is in
27:53
Speaker 1: no way the same set of circumstances. Venezuela is within
27:58
Speaker 1: the Western Hemisphere. So in other words, it's in the
28:01
Speaker 1: most important sphere of influence for the United States. It
28:05
Speaker 1: is of paramount importance for national security that the Western
28:09
Speaker 1: Hemisphere be under American control. And I mean the whole
28:12
Speaker 1: Western Hemisphere. Additionally, China... has made, and all of our adversaries,
28:19
Speaker 1: but China especially, has made massive inroads into Venezuela as
28:23
Speaker 1: a staging ground for its adversarial relationship with us, buying
28:28
Speaker 1: illicit oil from them, stolen from the American people. And
28:34
Speaker 1: we're supposed to be just okay with that? No, we're
28:36
Speaker 1: not okay with that. We will assert ourselves again and
28:38
Speaker 1: reestablish dominance in our own hemisphere and push back our adversaries,
28:42
Speaker 1: big ones. The other piece here is when you look
28:45
Speaker 1: at Anytime a regime changes, anytime there is a military
28:50
Speaker 1: conflict of any kind, even if it's a short little
28:51
Speaker 1: tiny one like the one we just saw this weekend,
28:53
Speaker 1: 90 minutes, three hours, there's nothing. But then you displace
28:58
Speaker 1: the person who's acting as leader of the country. What
29:00
Speaker 1: comes next? Well, it helps to understand what the country
29:03
Speaker 1: looks like right now. Not every country that has withstood
29:08
Speaker 1: a change in the way its government is structured or
29:11
Speaker 1: regime change has ended up in complete disaster. famous examples
29:15
Speaker 1: of great successes have been Germany and Japan in the
29:19
Speaker 1: wake of World War II. Now, how did that happen? Well,
29:23
Speaker 1: both of those countries had more cohesive cultures than, say, Iraq.
29:27
Speaker 1: The Middle East is plagued with sectarian and tribal violence
29:31
Speaker 1: that you don't find in places with more homogenous cultures
29:35
Speaker 1: like Japan and Germany. So culture is probably the leading indicator.
29:39
Speaker 1: Venezuela is has that. Venezuela has cultural cohesion. The other
29:45
Speaker 1: is whether or not the country has a legacy of
29:48
Speaker 1: real democratic institutions. Iraq was a joke. Iraq was a
29:52
Speaker 1: joke run by the Hussein family, a complete authoritarian dictatorship,
29:57
Speaker 1: didn't have a reasonable legacy. of democratic institutions to fall
30:01
Speaker 1: back upon and as a result became a complete disaster
30:04
Speaker 1: in the wake of the overthrow of Saddam. But Germany
30:10
Speaker 1: had a history of democracy. Japan, we convinced the emperor
30:15
Speaker 1: to basically swear off his own divinity as we changed
30:18
Speaker 1: the government there. But again, had a homogenous culture. Venezuela
30:22
Speaker 1: does have a history of of functional and stable democratic
30:26
Speaker 1: institutions up until the communists took over in the form
30:29
Speaker 1: of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro. So you have people
30:33
Speaker 1: who grew up in a world where they recognize the
30:36
Speaker 1: stable and thriving democracy that they once had and they'd
30:39
Speaker 1: like it back, please, which is why you're seeing Venezuelans
30:42
Speaker 1: celebrate right now. So there's all sorts of reasons for
30:46
Speaker 1: optimism here that this is going to work out, but
30:49
Speaker 1: I'm going to explore it more with Mike Gonzalez in
30:51
Speaker 1: just a moment. Because, again, this really comes down to
30:54
Speaker 1: is it good for us or not? And I would
30:56
Speaker 1: submit it is. It is. More in a moment on this.
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Speaker 1: I'm very happy to tell you that I have joining
33:19
Speaker 1: me right now the great Mike Gonzalez at the Heritage Foundation.
33:24
Speaker 1: He's wonderful, and he's an expert on all of these
33:26
Speaker 1: commies and communist movements all around the planet, the Marxists. Mike,
33:31
Speaker 1: good to talk to you as always, sir. Glad to
33:32
Speaker 1: have you with us on a Monday.
33:34
Speaker 2: Vince, I'll tell you what I'm an expert on, the
33:36
Speaker 2: ketchup song. which is the song you were just celebrating,
33:39
Speaker 2: I put the link in the chat. It's a wonderful song.
33:42
Speaker 2: It came out in Spain in 2002. So I completely
33:45
Speaker 2: agree with you.
33:46
Speaker 1: It's super catchy. It's called the Ketchup Song?
33:48
Speaker 2: It's called the Ketchup Song by a group called The Ketchup,
33:53
Speaker 2: Las Ketchup, Las Ketchup. They're the daughters of a flamenco singer.
34:00
Speaker 2: It was called Tomatillo, Tomato. So they named themselves the
34:05
Speaker 2: Ketchup Group. And it's a great song. I just put
34:08
Speaker 2: the link in. Sorry, I don't want to take up
34:11
Speaker 2: your time, but you have the link there in the chat.
34:13
Speaker 1: Oh, I love it. I swear to you, I'm putting
34:15
Speaker 1: it on in the car as soon as I get
34:17
Speaker 1: out of here today. I've got to listen to this thing.
34:19
Speaker 1: It's really great. So, Mike, let's talk about this operation.
34:23
Speaker 1: It's a stunning operation to go in there, grab Nicolas
34:26
Speaker 1: Maduro and his wife, get out of the country all
34:28
Speaker 1: done within the course of about three hours, they said,
34:31
Speaker 1: to get it all done and over with. What did
34:33
Speaker 1: you make of it?
34:35
Speaker 2: It was land, sea, and air. We suffered very few casualties.
34:41
Speaker 2: We suffered about seven wounded. None of them are in
34:44
Speaker 2: critical condition. Apparently, we killed 40 to 50. It's not known.
34:51
Speaker 2: What is known is that 32 of those killed were Cubans.
34:56
Speaker 1: Yeah. 32.
34:57
Speaker 2: So if we killed 40, that means three-fourths were Cubans.
35:00
Speaker 2: More than three-fourths.
35:01
Speaker 1: Cubans. And why are Cubans protecting Maduro?
35:04
Speaker 2: Because he could not trust Venezuelans. The Cubans have been,
35:09
Speaker 2: there's about maybe an estimated 15,000 Cuban henchmen in Caracas
35:13
Speaker 2: right now. In Trump 1, according to Carlos Fuente, the
35:19
Speaker 2: former Mexican foreign minister, he was ready to leave. He
35:22
Speaker 2: was ready to get on a plane to Havana or
35:24
Speaker 2: New York, sorry, or Sochi in Russia. And the Cubans
35:28
Speaker 2: said to him, no, you're not leaving anywhere. You're the president.
35:31
Speaker 2: Go back to the palace and act presidential. And these
35:35
Speaker 2: Cubans were surrounding him. And the Cubans have always denied.
35:40
Speaker 2: We have nobody in Caracas until last night when they
35:44
Speaker 2: had to acknowledge that 32 of the people killed were
35:48
Speaker 2: Cuban agents.
35:49
Speaker 1: Yeah. OK, let's talk about the justification for this. Why
35:52
Speaker 1: is it in the American interest to see Maduro brought
35:55
Speaker 1: to justice in this way?
35:57
Speaker 2: So I think they just and more should be made
36:00
Speaker 2: of this. is that the people, the hundreds of thousands
36:03
Speaker 2: that are dying of drug overdose, a lot of them
36:07
Speaker 2: are in MAGA country. They're very important to Trump and J.D.
36:10
Speaker 3: Vance.
36:11
Speaker 2: If you read J.D. Vance's book, Hillbilly Elegy, you understand
36:15
Speaker 2: that these are people, if you travel America, like I
36:18
Speaker 2: travel America, you know, I went to a very beautiful
36:21
Speaker 2: town in Idaho, not in Idaho, in Iowa about two
36:25
Speaker 2: years ago. And I said to the waitress, this is
36:26
Speaker 2: a beautiful town. She goes, yeah, it's really beautiful. But
36:29
Speaker 2: 90% of the people here are cooking left. So a
36:33
Speaker 2: lot of these towns in America are falling into desolation, unemployment,
36:38
Speaker 2: and I think this is very serious to the administration.
36:40
Speaker 2: So in order to address these twin threats of narcotic smuggling,
36:46
Speaker 2: which Venezuela, you have to understand the Venezuelan government was
36:49
Speaker 2: not a government. It was a cartel. He was not
36:52
Speaker 2: the legitimate leader of anything. Maduro, he was the head
36:54
Speaker 2: of a cartel.
36:55
Speaker 1: What do they call it? The Cartel de los Solos.
36:58
Speaker 2: De los Solos. The Cartel of the Suns. And they
37:00
Speaker 2: were trying to not just sow havoc on our streets
37:05
Speaker 2: with narcotics, but I have, you know, I've talked to
37:08
Speaker 2: a Venezuelan defector, a former senior official who told me
37:12
Speaker 2: that Chavez gave a lot of money to Black Lives Matter,
37:15
Speaker 2: for example, to one of the founders of Black Lives Matter,
37:18
Speaker 2: even before the group was founded, to sow mayhem on
37:23
Speaker 2: our streets. So these are people who were committed to
37:27
Speaker 2: creating havoc. And if you want to if you want
37:31
Speaker 2: to take care of that. These are Americans who were
37:36
Speaker 2: absent under the Biden administration. And now they're not absent anymore.
37:40
Speaker 2: They matter a lot to Trump and Vance and to Rubio.
37:43
Speaker 2: And I think that's really at the bottom of this.
37:46
Speaker 2: And I think we'll be looking at activities in Mexico.
37:49
Speaker 2: Mexico has also lost control of its territory. I've talked
37:53
Speaker 2: to politicians in the North about They told me that
37:58
Speaker 2: extraditions are already taking place. American planes landing, taking out
38:03
Speaker 2: drug kingpins. Colombia also has to look out because Colombia
38:08
Speaker 2: is the world's top exporter of cocaine. And Petro, another
38:14
Speaker 2: Marxist president, does not really have control. He may be
38:18
Speaker 2: cooperating himself with the narco-traffickers, but not to the degree
38:21
Speaker 2: that Maduro was. So I think that this is really.
38:25
Speaker 2: An operation that is focused on America, on our streets,
38:29
Speaker 2: on our, on our urban areas and our towns and
38:32
Speaker 2: across the U S make sure that, that, that, that the, the,
38:36
Speaker 2: or the discourage of, of narcotics is wiped clean.
38:40
Speaker 1: So priority one is to stop the deaths, the deaths
38:43
Speaker 1: due to drugs in the United States. And by the way,
38:45
Speaker 1: they've had a lot of success, massive plummeting in drug
38:48
Speaker 1: deaths over the course of the last year. Uh, they
38:50
Speaker 1: deserve a lot of credit for that, but also there's
38:52
Speaker 1: the oil component to all of this that I've been
38:54
Speaker 1: talking about, which is that America built Venezuela as we
38:58
Speaker 1: know it. We built the oil industry there. Hugo Chavez
39:02
Speaker 1: and Maduro in succession were both seizing all of this
39:05
Speaker 1: American energy infrastructure. And then they didn't, despite their false promises,
39:10
Speaker 1: give the wealth to the people or something like that. Instead,
39:13
Speaker 1: they used it to enrich themselves and then send all
39:15
Speaker 1: of that oil in illicit ways to our adversaries, especially China.
39:20
Speaker 1: Can you talk about the impact on the global oil
39:24
Speaker 1: economy now as a result of this?
39:26
Speaker 3: Yes.
39:27
Speaker 2: Chavez basically expropriated the oil resources. PDVSA, which was a
39:33
Speaker 2: very well-run company, oil company, was collectivized the same way
39:38
Speaker 2: that Mamdani and his tenant, person, Sia Weaver, want to
39:44
Speaker 2: expropriate property from landlords in New York and have the
39:50
Speaker 2: city buy it and run it because cities have such
39:53
Speaker 2: great landlords. Just talk to the people of Havana and
39:58
Speaker 2: Moscow about this. You know, Chavez and Maduro did the
40:03
Speaker 2: same thing to PDVSA. So what you end up after,
40:06
Speaker 2: you know, this whole thing begins in 1999. After 30 years,
40:09
Speaker 2: 30 plus years, of, of, of, of collectivism, you have
40:15
Speaker 2: a country with the deepest oil reserves, the proven oil,
40:19
Speaker 2: the best, the largest proven oil reserves in the world,
40:23
Speaker 2: which sells a fraction of what we sell in the
40:27
Speaker 2: open market because the government doesn't know how to run anything.
40:32
Speaker 1: It's wild. And so what president Trump says is that
40:34
Speaker 1: we're going to try and recoup the stolen, uh, the
40:38
Speaker 1: costs of all of this in for the American energy companies.
40:42
Speaker 1: and then simultaneously for the first time actually benefit the
40:45
Speaker 1: Venezuelan people. If you're Venezuelan, you must be dancing with
40:51
Speaker 1: joy right now. And they are. At your change in fortune.
40:57
Speaker 2: And they are. The Venezuelans are very happy. The only
41:00
Speaker 2: people who are not happy are the China-aligned groups here
41:04
Speaker 2: in the U.S., the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the
41:07
Speaker 2: ANSWER Coalition, All of these groups that you're seeing demonstrating
41:11
Speaker 2: on our streets, they're all China aligned. And they're there.
41:14
Speaker 2: These are the same people who were demonstrating for Hamas,
41:18
Speaker 2: for the terrorist group Hamas. These are the same people
41:20
Speaker 2: who were demonstrating with Black Lives Matter.
41:23
Speaker 1: So you mentioned the New York City mayor, unfortunately, now
41:26
Speaker 1: Zoran Mamdani. And I kind of want to talk to
41:28
Speaker 1: you about him a little bit. But there's a link
41:30
Speaker 1: here because he released a statement condemning the Trump administration
41:34
Speaker 1: for this action. uh, this weekend and suggesting that it
41:37
Speaker 1: was somehow illegal according to the constitution or international law
41:41
Speaker 1: or whatever. But it seems like, uh, just like every
41:44
Speaker 1: other communist I've, I've seen through the years, the only
41:47
Speaker 1: common cause they seem to share is with Marxists is
41:50
Speaker 1: with communists, not with American citizens. Is that, is that
41:53
Speaker 1: what's happening here? They basically, the commies in the United
41:55
Speaker 1: States are rooting against this progress for our country.
42:00
Speaker 2: We were told not to call Mandani a communist, and
42:02
Speaker 2: then on his first day at its inauguration, he said
42:06
Speaker 2: he was going to replace the frigidity of rugged individualism
42:10
Speaker 2: with the warmth of collectivism. Collectivism killed 100 million people
42:15
Speaker 2: in the world. The person he's appointed to run the
42:20
Speaker 2: tenant groups in New York City, Sia Weaver, has been
42:24
Speaker 2: very clear in her writings and her comments that she's
42:27
Speaker 2: going to put the screws to the landlords so they
42:31
Speaker 2: have no choice but to sell their property to the
42:34
Speaker 2: city of New York. This is expropriation that is taking place.
42:37
Speaker 2: He's a collectivist. He put out a ridiculous tweet yesterday
42:42
Speaker 2: saying he had been briefed on the Maduro arrest, just
42:46
Speaker 2: the same way as my wife briefed me yesterday morning
42:48
Speaker 2: on my need to blow the leaves. You know.
42:55
Speaker 1: So funny. Well, I want people to see this, what
42:58
Speaker 1: we're talking about. Here's cut nine, fellas. If we could
43:00
Speaker 1: put this up. This is Mam Donnie in his inaugural address.
43:05
Speaker 1: By the way, he was sworn in by Bernie Sanders.
43:07
Speaker 1: This is unbelievable. And here he is talking about the
43:12
Speaker 1: glowing warmth of collectivism or whatever. Cut nine. Watch this.
43:15
Speaker 4: We will draw this city closer together. We will replace
43:19
Speaker 4: the frigidity of rugged individualism with the.
43:22
Speaker 1: Warmth of collectivism.
43:24
Speaker 4: If our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York
43:28
Speaker 4: yearn for solidarity, then let this government foster it. Because
43:33
Speaker 4: no matter what you eat, how you pray or where
43:37
Speaker 4: you come from, the words that most define us are
43:40
Speaker 4: the two we all share.
43:42
Speaker 2: New Yorkers.
43:45
Speaker 1: By the way, a city whose population is dropping, especially
43:48
Speaker 1: if people have the means to get out of the
43:50
Speaker 1: city in light of all of the collectivism that's been
43:52
Speaker 1: happening for years there. He wants to take it to
43:54
Speaker 1: a new level. I'm sorry, refresh my memory on this.
43:57
Speaker 1: You're the expert on the subject. Isn't the warmth of
43:59
Speaker 1: collectivism responsible for the deaths of nearly 100 million people
44:03
Speaker 1: in the last century?
44:05
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah. Most of them in China and the
44:08
Speaker 2: Soviet Union, many in Cuba. I think one third of
44:13
Speaker 2: the population of Cambodia was wiped out by collectivism. It
44:16
Speaker 2: is beyond chilling, Vince, that the new mayor of New
44:20
Speaker 2: York says he's a collectivist and he wants to bring
44:23
Speaker 2: collectivism to New York. I have lived under many bad mayors.
44:28
Speaker 2: I lived under Beam in the 70s. I lived under
44:31
Speaker 2: Dinkins in the 90s. And New York is, I'm sorry
44:36
Speaker 2: to say, because I'm a New Yorker at heart, I'm
44:39
Speaker 2: a Yankee fan, a Giants fan, I'm sorry to say,
44:41
Speaker 2: New York is not going to fare very well if
44:45
Speaker 2: Mamdani is able to to do the things he wants
44:47
Speaker 2: to do. And he, so just another reminder that Maduro
44:51
Speaker 2: is not the only collectivist in New York.
44:53
Speaker 6: At the moment.
44:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.
44:54
Speaker 1: And, and by the way, it also, this is another
44:56
Speaker 1: reason why they should handle Maduro in Florida, not New York.
45:00
Speaker 1: I mean, New York, New York's a mess for a
45:01
Speaker 1: bunch of reasons, but now that ma'am Donnie's in charge
45:03
Speaker 1: of the city, I, my instinct is the last place
45:06
Speaker 1: that I want the communist, like fake dictator of Venezuela
45:11
Speaker 1: is to be in New York city right now.
45:13
Speaker 2: He should have been sent to Miami, which is where
45:15
Speaker 2: Noriega was sent. Obviously, the model here is Manuel Antonio Noriega,
45:20
Speaker 2: the dictator of Panama, who, by the way, imprisoned me
45:24
Speaker 2: and threw me out of the country when I was
45:26
Speaker 2: a young journalist in my 20s in the 1980s. And
45:30
Speaker 2: a year later, George H.W. Bush arrested him the same
45:34
Speaker 2: way we just arrested Maduro. And he was tried and
45:37
Speaker 2: ended his life in a prison in Miami. which I
45:40
Speaker 2: think Maduro will do. Maduro is going to cooperate. I
45:44
Speaker 2: think he will be very cooperative. I hope he tells,
45:49
Speaker 2: he gives the goods on how much money he's given
45:51
Speaker 2: to U.S. groups, how much money he gave to Black
45:54
Speaker 2: Lives Matter or to Antifa. He was also a big
45:57
Speaker 2: supporter of Antifa. These groups that are demonstrating in the
46:02
Speaker 2: streets of New York today on his behalf went to Caracas,
46:06
Speaker 2: trained in Caracas, attended conferences in Caracas. It's all connected, Vince.
46:11
Speaker 1: I want to talk more about that in a moment,
46:12
Speaker 1: but you just brought up something about your own biography
46:15
Speaker 1: that's super interesting. So Noriega arrests you for your journalism
46:19
Speaker 1: in the 80s. And then a year later, you see
46:24
Speaker 1: Noriega captured and brought to the United States to stand
46:26
Speaker 1: trial in Florida. So if you could give me the
46:32
Speaker 1: perspective of what a Venezuelan must feel right now, how
46:34
Speaker 1: elated were you by the capture of Noriega?
46:39
Speaker 4: Oh, I.
46:41
Speaker 2: Was very, very happy, along with most Panamanians. Panama, by
46:45
Speaker 2: the way, I was just there. I visited the president
46:47
Speaker 2: in the palace last year, and all he wanted to
46:50
Speaker 2: talk about was my being captured by Noriega, because he
46:52
Speaker 2: was also captured by Noriega. And I was a member
46:56
Speaker 2: of a delegation. I said, look, sir, we're here to
46:58
Speaker 2: talk business. And he said to me, you cannot deny
47:01
Speaker 2: your history. This is part of your history. So don't
47:04
Speaker 2: try to deny it. So I'm like, I'm not trying
47:05
Speaker 2: to deny it. This just happened many years ago. And
47:08
Speaker 2: I was only put in prison overnight. So, yeah, no,
47:12
Speaker 2: I think Venezuelans are going to be super happy about this.
47:15
Speaker 2: They do not want Maduro. Can you imagine a country
47:19
Speaker 2: run by a cartel? This is what we've had. And
47:23
Speaker 2: the person that we're trying to work with right now,
47:27
Speaker 2: the vice president... Delcy Rodriguez is also a drug kingpin,
47:32
Speaker 2: but we're going to try to make her do the
47:34
Speaker 2: things we want to do.
47:35
Speaker 1: Yes, we kind of got her in a headlock right now.
47:38
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people are being like, well,
47:40
Speaker 1: she's a commie too, so how have things changed? Well,
47:42
Speaker 1: it really comes down to whether or not Trump and
47:45
Speaker 1: Secretary of State Rubio and others, if they feel like
47:48
Speaker 1: they can control her through this transition phase, because that's
47:51
Speaker 1: really the key math here.
47:53
Speaker 2: I was talking to an administration person somebody in the
47:58
Speaker 2: administration yesterday. And I said, well, what if she doesn't
48:00
Speaker 2: want to cooperate? And he said to me, we have options.
48:04
Speaker 2: Two hours later, Trump pretty much said, if she doesn't cooperate,
48:07
Speaker 2: we're going to kill her. And immediately after that, she
48:10
Speaker 2: issued a statement saying that she was going to be very,
48:13
Speaker 2: very cooperative. Yeah.
48:15
Speaker 1: Sometimes, sometimes a little bit of muscle goes a long way. Um,
48:18
Speaker 1: especially after what they just experienced, we shut the power
48:21
Speaker 1: off in the whole city and grabbed the, grabbed the
48:23
Speaker 1: guy who was pretending to be leader. Um, Let me
48:26
Speaker 1: let me end on a point that you just made
48:27
Speaker 1: a moment ago that I think is worth dwelling on.
48:29
Speaker 1: This is a feature that you and I have talked
48:30
Speaker 1: about for years of these Marxists around the planet. And
48:34
Speaker 1: so far as they interfere with American politics, which they
48:36
Speaker 1: do a lot, they often do it by fomenting the
48:40
Speaker 1: kind of chaos we see from regions like Antifa and BLM,
48:45
Speaker 1: these operations that cause a lot of trouble in the
48:47
Speaker 1: United States. The point you keep making, Mike, is that
48:51
Speaker 1: it's often orchestrated by these communist governments outside of our country,
48:54
Speaker 1: places like Venezuela and the CHICOMs, for instance. How often
49:00
Speaker 1: is that a feature of all of this?
49:02
Speaker 2: Well, I tell you, I'm going to come out with,
49:03
Speaker 2: I'm going to bring news here. I have a paper
49:06
Speaker 2: coming out this week, a very long paper on how
49:08
Speaker 2: really the whole thing is orchestrated by Cuba. And in fact,
49:11
Speaker 2: we have two senior Venezuelan officials in prison, In December,
49:17
Speaker 2: they both issued road letters to President Trump saying the
49:20
Speaker 2: whole thing is a Cuban plan to sow dissent here
49:24
Speaker 2: in your country. And it's Cuba's ideas with Venezuelan money
49:29
Speaker 2: and muscle from the Colombian guerrillas, the narco-Marxist guerrillas in Colombia.
49:35
Speaker 2: And these are the people who have been smuggling drugs
49:40
Speaker 2: Cuba has really been behind all of this since 1959.
49:42
Speaker 2: I'm going to get chapter and verse on this in
49:45
Speaker 2: a paper. But yes, obviously China today, very much a
49:50
Speaker 2: lot of the groups that are creating havoc in New
49:54
Speaker 2: York and other cities today on behalf of Venezuela are
49:57
Speaker 2: paid for by a millionaire who lives in Shanghai with
50:01
Speaker 2: very close connections to the CCP. I write about him often.
50:05
Speaker 2: Many people do. Asra Nomani has done a fantastic job
50:09
Speaker 2: on this. Data Republican on Twitter also does a very
50:13
Speaker 2: good job on this, on detailing all these networks. I
50:17
Speaker 2: don't know why we allow these networks to exist, since
50:20
Speaker 2: they're really Chinese and Cuban agents. The People's Forum is
50:24
Speaker 2: run by a Cuban agent who trained in Havana for years.
50:27
Speaker 2: Manolo de los Santos, he is, again, involved. The People's
50:31
Speaker 2: Forum is headquartered in New York. Again, very involved in
50:34
Speaker 2: these demonstrations. So Just as a rule of thumb, if
50:39
Speaker 2: you see pro-Maduro demonstrations, they're not grassroots. They're organized by
50:45
Speaker 2: pro-China groups. If they're anti-Maduro, these are really spontaneous outpourings
50:51
Speaker 2: of emotion by Venezuelans who have been suppressed for decades now.
50:55
Speaker 1: Amazing. It's just amazing. What a change in fortune for them.
50:58
Speaker 1: Thank you, as always. Mike Gonzalez, great to get your insights.
51:01
Speaker 1: And Happy New Year to you, sir.
51:03
Speaker 2: Happy New Year to you, Vince. You're looking great.
51:06
Speaker 1: You're doing great. I'm going to go listen to that music.
51:09
Speaker 1: I'm going to go be all pumped up in the car.
51:10
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, brother. Good to see you. There's
51:14
Speaker 1: Mike Gonzalez from the Heritage Foundation. He's been through it.
51:18
Speaker 1: He's been through it. Can you imagine? Imprisoned by Noriega? Yeah,
51:21
Speaker 1: he's got some perspective for sure. Mike's great. Okay. So today,
51:27
Speaker 1: as we're launching today's program, we get the breaking news.
51:33
Speaker 1: And this just happened ahead of us beginning to do
51:36
Speaker 1: the podcast today. Tim Walz, Tampon Tim Walz, is officially
51:43
Speaker 1: bowing out of his race for reelection as the governor
51:46
Speaker 1: of Minnesota. In other words, we've reached, I guess it
51:51
Speaker 1: takes $ 19 billion in fraud to run a Democrat out,
51:56
Speaker 1: or at least you knowing about it, to run a
51:58
Speaker 1: Democrat out of office. Tim Walz has announced today that
52:02
Speaker 1: he is no longer seeking reelections in Minnesota. And his
52:08
Speaker 1: statement is about as absurd as it gets. Let me,
52:11
Speaker 1: I'll just summarize it this way. He claims the reason
52:15
Speaker 1: he's not running anymore is because he wants to spend
52:17
Speaker 1: more time pursuing the fraudsters. That's like a spit take.
52:22
Speaker 1: That's unbelievable. That's unbelievable. That's him. No, come on. That's
52:27
Speaker 1: him waving with both hands and saying, please stop focusing
52:30
Speaker 1: on me, please. This guy is, deserves to be behind bars.
52:34
Speaker 1: Forget the fact that he shouldn't be on a ballot.
52:36
Speaker 1: It's good that he's not running for office. This guy
52:38
Speaker 1: should be behind bars. At the very least, he knew
52:44
Speaker 1: this was going on and turned a blind eye to
52:45
Speaker 1: it because it was a political coalition that supported him.
52:49
Speaker 1: It's as simple as that, at the very least. Worse
52:53
Speaker 1: than that, he was involved in aiding and abetting it.
52:55
Speaker 1: And there's already plenty of evidence that this guy was
52:58
Speaker 1: a campaign beneficiary in terms of political money. You see
53:02
Speaker 1: how these backscratching operations work is the same is true
53:05
Speaker 1: in California with greasy Gavin Newsom. What ends up happening
53:09
Speaker 1: is these left wing disastrous operations, outright fraud. They get
53:15
Speaker 1: money from taxpayers and in return for receiving that money,
53:20
Speaker 1: they turn around and they give cash to Democrats for
53:25
Speaker 1: their election campaigns. And then those Democrats in turn don't
53:29
Speaker 1: scrutinize or allow law enforcement to pursue them. That's what
53:32
Speaker 1: happened here. where you get like these, these fraudulent operations
53:35
Speaker 1: through something called feeding our future, taking all this money,
53:39
Speaker 1: pretending like it's about feeding hungry children. In the end,
53:42
Speaker 1: all it's doing is lining the pockets of Somali fraudsters
53:44
Speaker 1: who are stealing a ton of cash. The same is
53:47
Speaker 1: true of the daycare operations run by these Somali fraudsters
53:51
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, just stealing tons of cash, no kids being
53:54
Speaker 1: taken care of. And in fact, there's a massive intersection
53:57
Speaker 1: between these things, massive intersection. Um, Did you know that
54:01
Speaker 1: some of the daycare operations that were taking money were
54:05
Speaker 1: also part of the Feeding Our Future scam? Look at this.
54:09
Speaker 1: This is a Daily Caller headline on the subject. Vacant
54:13
Speaker 1: Somali daycares in viral videos, you know, the ones captured
54:16
Speaker 1: by the great 23-year-old reporter Nick Shirley. These vacant Somali
54:21
Speaker 1: daycares are also linked to $ 300 million in the Feeding
54:26
Speaker 1: Our Future fraud. Multiple Somali daycare centers highlighted by Nick
54:30
Speaker 1: Shirley are at the center of a $ 300 million scam,
54:34
Speaker 1: according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. The now infamous videos
54:38
Speaker 1: from Nick Shirley posted on December 26th, Merry Christmas, showed
54:42
Speaker 1: several purported Somali-run daycares receiving millions in taxpayer funds despite
54:46
Speaker 1: any evidence that children were actually present at the facilities.
54:49
Speaker 1: Now it turns out that five of the 10 daycare
54:51
Speaker 1: centers that Nick Shirley visited were operating as so-called meal
54:55
Speaker 1: sites for Feeding Our Future. which is the Minnesota-based nonprofit
54:59
Speaker 1: implicated in a massive fraud scheme that has already produced
55:04
Speaker 1: dozens of convictions. So not only do you have daycare
55:10
Speaker 1: fraud going on, the very same people who are committing
55:13
Speaker 1: fraud there are committing fraud with the food program in Minnesota.
55:18
Speaker 1: And the end result is we're looking at upwards of
55:20
Speaker 1: $ 19 billion in of either proven or suspicious payments that
55:26
Speaker 1: are all believed to be fraud at the hands almost
55:28
Speaker 1: entirely of Somalis in the state of Minnesota allowed to
55:32
Speaker 1: do that by the Democrats who run the state. And yes,
55:35
Speaker 1: that includes tampon Tim Walz, who is now bowing out
55:39
Speaker 1: of his race for governor because he's annoyed that you
55:43
Speaker 1: noticed his role in all of this. Now, of course,
55:47
Speaker 1: he's pretending like I just need to focus on the fraud.
55:50
Speaker 1: I can't focus on a political campaign. He's just bullshitting.
55:53
Speaker 1: It was just a lie. He's been caught. And now
55:57
Speaker 1: he's become once again, just like last year, a liability
56:01
Speaker 1: for Democrats and their electoral ambitions in 2026. You know
56:06
Speaker 1: what happened here. Tim Walz didn't just step aside of
56:09
Speaker 1: his own volition. They gave him the heave ho. They
56:13
Speaker 1: gave him the Biden treatment. They threw a hook around him.
56:15
Speaker 1: They dragged him off the stage. This is how Democrats operate,
56:18
Speaker 1: by the way, as a party. They got rid of
56:22
Speaker 1: him because he's an albatross around the neck of the
56:25
Speaker 1: entire party. It just reached a level of noticing that
56:28
Speaker 1: they couldn't withstand anymore. Now, one of the things that's
56:31
Speaker 1: hilarious is Democrats are running around saying that some Democrats
56:34
Speaker 1: are claiming that, oh, this is awful. You allowed a
56:37
Speaker 1: conservative media campaign to take out Tim Walz, a conservative
56:41
Speaker 1: media campaign. What campaign are you talking about? The one
56:45
Speaker 1: where we just simply tell you the truth? If the
56:48
Speaker 1: truth leads to your extinction as a political candidate, you
56:53
Speaker 1: should have never been a political candidate. Sorry, we noticed
56:57
Speaker 1: what you were up to. One more person to thank
57:02
Speaker 1: in the midst of all of this while we're on
57:03
Speaker 1: the subject. Thank you to Kamala Harris for taking the
57:07
Speaker 1: bright light of a vice presidential nomination and putting it
57:10
Speaker 1: right on tampon Tim Walz. The best decision Kamala Harris
57:15
Speaker 1: ever made was to put Tim Walz in front of
57:17
Speaker 1: the rest of us so we could spend a couple
57:20
Speaker 1: of minutes just observing his two-handed waving and his theft
57:26
Speaker 1: of the American people and his role in it. Thanks, Kamala.
57:31
Speaker 1: You did something useful. Tampon Tim Walz no longer running.
57:35
Speaker 1: They say Amy Klobuchar wants the job, though, the senator. Yeah,
57:40
Speaker 1: she's something else. We'll get to her. We'll get to her.
57:43
Speaker 1: I got a big national radio show coming up today,
57:45
Speaker 1: The Vince Show. You can get your local listings, thevinceshow.com,
57:48
Speaker 1: to find out where you hear me on radio. Or
57:50
Speaker 1: you can watch us on Rumble, rumble.com slash Vince. We
57:52
Speaker 1: do it live. We got the chat going.
57:54
Speaker 3: It's amazing.
57:55
Speaker 1: And we're going to have a great program today. And
57:58
Speaker 1: I'll be back with you tomorrow. It's an exciting new year,
58:01
Speaker 1: and I'm glad to be doing this with you, the
58:03
Speaker 1: best audience anywhere. See you soon. The Dan Boncino Show.
58:11
Speaker 6: I think a lot of people are underestimating the Trump
58:14
Speaker 6: effect in this midterm. You've heard it yourself. Act like
58:17
Speaker 6: I'm on the ballot. Why is he saying that? You
58:20
Speaker 6: think he doesn't know what he's doing? That is the
58:23
Speaker 6: X factor. Folks, elections are a math issue.
58:27
Speaker 3: That is it.
58:27
Speaker 6: This is not a football game. If you vote, we
58:31
Speaker 6: will win. It is not complicated.
58:33
Speaker 1: The Dan Boncino Show. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.