Marco Rubio clashes with George Stephanopoulos on Venezuela leadership in heated exchange
Secretary of State Marco Rubio sparred with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday as the "This Week" host repeatedly pressed Rubio over whether the U.S. was going to run Venezuela.
After extracting Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, President Donald Trump said during a press conference that the U.S. was now "going to run the country" until there can be a safe transition of power.
Stephanopoulos asked Rubio what authority the U.S. had to run Venezuela.
"Well, first of all, what’s going to happen here is that we have a quarantine on their oil," Rubio said. "That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interest of the Venezuelan people are met. And that’s what we intend to do. So, that leverage remains. That leverage is ongoing. And we expect that it’s going to lead to results here."
Rubio added that the goal was to ensure Venezuela would no longer be "a narco-trafficking paradise" that aids U.S. adversaries and to give Venezuelans a better future.
"Let me ask the question again," Stephanopoulos repeated. "What is the legal authority for the United States to be running Venezuela?"
"Well, I explained to you what our goals are and how we’re going to use the leverage to make it happen," Rubio said. "As far as what our legal authority is on the quarantine, very simple. We have court orders. These are sanctioned boats and we get orders from courts to go after and seize these sanctions. So, I don’t know, is a court not a legal authority?"
Stephanopoulos then asked if the U.S. was currently running Venezuela.
"Well, I’ve explained once again. I’ll do it one more time," Rubio said. "What we are running is the direction that this is going to move moving forward. And that is we have leverage. This leverage we are using, and we intend to use. We started using already."
The ABC host then asked if Rubio himself was currently running Venezuela, leading the secretary to again repeat that the U.S. was focused on its "leverage" against the country. However, he said he was "very intricately involved" with some law enforcement operations involving the U.S. Coast Guard.
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"We are hopeful that there are people in place now. We’re going to find out. The proof will be in what they do or fail to do that will start making some of these changes that will ultimately lead to a Venezuela that looks substantially and dramatically different from what’s been in place for 15 years," Rubio said.
During the interview, Rubio also expressed doubts that Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was the current leader of the country and whether she should remain in office.
"This is not about the legitimate president. We don’t believe that this regime in place is legitimate via an election," Rubio said. "And that’s not just us. It’s 60-something countries around the world that have taken that view as well."
He said he believed a legitimate leader would come after a period of transition and elections.