Investigate Earth Conspiracy Podcast - U.S. Military Raid in Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Captured

Episode Date: January 4, 2026

In a stunning overnight development, reports indicate that Nicolás Maduro has been taken into custody following a U.S. military operation inside Venezuela. For years, Maduro’s rule has been marked by disputed elections, allegations of cartel and narco-state ties, brutal crackdowns on political opposition, and the collapse of Venezuela’s economy that sent millions fleeing the country. Now, the man who once seemed untouchable is reportedly no longer in power. In this episode, we break down what is known so far, what remains unconfirmed, and why this moment did not come out of nowhere. We examine the long trail of election controversies, international criminal accusations, and why capture operations that resemble past CIA renditions appear to be making a return. We also explain the difference between Title 10 and Title 50 authorities, and what this operation signals for Venezuela, the region, and global power dynamics going forward. This is not just a breaking news story, it may be the beginning of a major geopolitical shift.Our Merch Store

Welcome to Investigator Podcast. I'm your host shout alongside my beautiful wife, Sherry. Last night, history shifted in a way few people ever thought they would see. Under the cover of darkness, U.S. forces carried out a direct operation inside of Venezuela, an operation that ended with the capture of Nicholas Maduro. And for years, his name has been synonymous with corruption, cartel ties, election fraud, and the steady collapse of a once wealthy nation. Now instead of issuing threats from a palace or hiding behind state media, Maduro is reportedly in U.S. custody. No sanctions, no speeches, no negotiations, just boots on the ground and a decisive move. And this did not come out of nowhere.

Tonight we're going to connect the dots from disputed elections to the mass exodus of Venezuelans to the resurgence of capture operations that look a lot like CIA renditions of the past. Guys, welcome to the show. It is January the 3rd, 2026. This is our first episode back in the new year. We hope all of you have an amazing 2026. We've been gone, I think, like 12 days now, which is. one of our longest breaks ever, I think.

Yeah, but I think it was a well-deserved and well-needed break. Oh, absolutely, for sure. She's been super sick during the holidays, so you've had to have time to recover, and we're working on some other things. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I've got a new song that's actually out, which will probably unveil on the next episode. We're going to be very, very busy for January, and we were actually going to do an episode

last night on the Minnesota fraud. We'll likely probably do that one tomorrow night. we have just so much to talk about in this coming week. And we were actually going to go to bed early last night until Trump decided to attack Venezuela and actually go and capture Nicholas Manduro. We pretty much stayed awake until 3.34 o'clock in the morning. We were watching X. We were watching all the feeds. Then obviously finally, it was like two hours later, mainstream media finally came around to actually break in.

They had to go wake somebody up from their house somewhere and say, hey, we actually have news to do, apparently. But yeah, so we've stayed up until 3.34 o'clock watching that. And yeah, I have been sick, actually, for probably about two weeks with stomach stuff. It's just been the stomach thing, which I've talked about on the show before. And this has been one of the hardest things to get over. I mean, it's not ruined Christmas, but it definitely put a damper on Christmas and New Year's. And so we've actually not had any alcohol for five or six days now. And we don't know exactly how long that will last.

It depends on how this episode goes with an alcohol. Yeah, because we are used to having a glass of wine while we're doing the podcast. So it is definitely something that is different for us. And it feels a little uneasy and I feel a little anxious because, you know, you just feel like it loosens you up a little bit. Oh, yeah. But we have to get through this because it's important that we focus on our health more than being loose for a podcast. Yeah, for sure.

Well, I mean, that's the thing about alcohol is this always been like a social lubricant, you know, and especially for me. And I think that's one of the reasons that. You know, it was like, it was just so much easier to talk in a podcast or talk to people if you had a couple drinks. That's why everybody goes out to a bar and they hang out with each other and do all that. But we rung in the New Year's from the couch pretty much by ourselves. And sober. Completely sober.

Started the year off the right way. And so like I said, we'll see how long that lasts. But as I said, guys, last night we witnessed something that we've not seen in a while. And it was so strange because I remember back in the day, like during the Operation Desert Storm days and kind of when we. he went into Iraq the first time with George Bush Sr. And I just remember watching the news. And I think it was late at night. It was like 10 or 11 o'clock at night.

I would come into the living room. And back then it was like you. It was CNN. Yeah, it was CNN. You would see these like night vision shots of like all of the fire and mortar rounds, everything going towards, you know, Baghdad or wherever it was that they were at the time. But I haven't really seen a kind of night raid type deal like this in a very long time. Some of the first videos actually that came out last night.

we actually have posted a lot of those videos on our Instagram and Facebook account. So if you guys want to check them out what we're talking about, just go there and look at them now. But there's one video in particular where Chinooks, Blackhawks, Apaches, everything. I mean, it looked like a full-scale invasion at mass going into the capital city of Caracas, which is in Venezuela. And I'm telling you, it was probably 50 helicopters. They also had guys on the ground. There was a specialized unit that actually went into Caracas and what they're,

job is, is to essentially capture and secure. So that was their mission. That was their goal. And they wanted to bring in Nicholas Maduro, you know, into New York, where actually he is facing charges, which we'll get into in just a moment. Now, as I said, Maduro is facing serious federal criminal charges in the United States, largely tied to narcotics trafficking, terrorism, and weapons offenses. These charges have been brought in the Southern District of New York, which is insane, especially considering the fact that this is basically where Trump, I believe, actually, all of his charges came from. And it's so interesting, as we're about to play the press conference in just a moment,

we're going to break that down. We're going to give you our thoughts. Do we think that this was the right move by the United States and the Trump administration, or do we not think this was the right move? Do we think there's something more sinister, kind of behind the closed doors that we don't really know about? We've covered the Venezuela story a couple of times. We've talked election fraud, for one.

We've talked about whether or not there is actually drug trafficking going on from Venezuela into the United States. or why are we not attacking Mexico, considering they are our border country right next to us. They have probably the most dangerous cartel in all the world. They have far more capabilities of actually trafficking drugs into the United States than Venezuela does. So for a lot of people, it just didn't make a lot of sense. Like, why are we going after Venezuela? And the other question is like, why are we also blowing up boats that are leaving Venezuela,

that we weren't even 100% positive of what's coming to the United States? A lot of these boats actually look like they were headed towards Trinidad or, Tobago. And so there, you know, a lot of people are like, we just don't understand while we're blowing up boats. And, you know, I think we've blown up like eight or nine or ten of them so far. And I think is this going to divide MAGA more with MAGA and America first? Is that going to make a huge divide between the Republican Party? Yeah, that's a good question. You know, there's really not a lot that could divide MAGA any further than what's already been going on the past few months. And so it's interesting kind of how I've thought through this. And we're going to

talk about this tonight is just what my initial reaction was versus like after hearing the press conference what I was thinking through as Trump was talking, you know, also Pete Hegeseth also talked the general I guess that was kind of over everything. He also talked and in my opinion, Marco Rubio did the best job. Out of any of them, Markerubio got up there and I was just kind of thinking through everything until Marker Rubio spoke and I was like, okay, he actually makes the most sense. Right. Well, and you've got to remember, he is from Cuba, and there is a lot of Cuban influence going on in Venezuela right now as well. And, you know, I think he is the one that is really talking to the now president that was vice president and trying to establish some kind of authority over there.

Yeah, for sure. No, I 100% agree. Well, so right here is the current charges, right? The 2026 indictment, according to the unsealed U.S. indictment that just came out, I believe today, that Pam Bondi's office released narco-terrorism conspiracy, alleged Maduro. conspired with drug cartels, including the Sinaloa cartel and his Venezuelan criminal groups to traffic cocaine into the United States. Now, he also, cocaine importation conspiracies being charged with centered on efforts to organize and facilitate cocaine shipments to the United States. Also, possession of machine guns and destructive devices linked to carrying illegal weapons in furtherance of drug and terror operations. And then also conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices, additional weapons-related charges, tied to criminal conspiracies.

Now, the interesting thing about all this is, obviously, he was the president of his own country, and yet the United States is charging him on gun charges, which is kind of asinine, and it makes almost no sense. But from what Trump said in the press conference, you said, hey, we have overwhelming evidence to this, that you all are probably going to see when it comes out. I don't know if this trial will be public or what will happen. But also, it wasn't just Nicholas Maduro that was captured. It was his wife as well.

So his wife is also arrested on similar charges. And so is his son. And that's what doesn't make sense to me. Why are they arresting his entire family when he was the president? Yeah, exactly. That would be like them arresting, I almost said Alania. Melania. Malania. And that'd be like arresting Melania. Yeah. You know, with all of his felony charges. Yeah. Now, Flores, which is his wife, are expected to be formally arraigned in federal court in New York, likely before a judge. He actually just landed there a few hours ago. they landed in at a New York airport and then helicopters took them into Manhattan, which is where then there were armored vehicles that picked him up. It was so much law enforcement presence.

They didn't do the park like they did Luigi Mangiong, but it was the exact same place. They brought Luigi once they capture him, which is the guy for those that knew not remember, the guy that shot the CEO of the healthcare company. So there's a lot to kind of cover here. What I want to start off with is Annie Jacobson's post. And I want to talk about that before we get into the press conference. Now Annie Jacobson is a very well-respected author. She's written so many books.

She's written books about nuclear war. She's written books about the CIA and kind of how their operations entangle with military operations in the past. And so she had actually wrote a post that says usually a surprise kill vanish. Surprise capture vanish is a rare feat. And, you know, typically like Silt Team 6 with Osama bin Laden, it was surprise, kill, and then vanish. That's exactly what Silt Team 6 did. This time they captured and vanished. And so she says, imagine how Delta did this.

Were they sheep dip to CIA Title 50 authority versus Title 10? Uniforms will reveal no insignia equals CIA. Seals become CIA and bin Laden raid, which was Sill Team 6, which was not a capture incident there. And as AIS says here, a respected investigator, journalist, and author who focused on covert military programs, intelligence operations, DARPA and Nuclear Command and Control. obviously she's not a random commentator. So surprise kill and vanish versus surprise capture vanish. This is the real special operations concept. Surprise kill vanish is the standard model for JSOC, Delta Force, and Sill Team 6 raids.

Capture missions are far rare because they require long-term detention authority. They require legal jurisdiction and they require secure exploitation and holding facilities. So historically, capture operations are avoided unless the intelligence value is extraordinary. And then so sheep dip to CIA Title 50th. is basically just meaning Title 10 is a U.S. military operation. Title 50 is a CIA covert action. So when military operators are sheep dipped, they temporarily operate under CIA authority. They remove military insignia, become legally deniable, and fall outside of traditional

battlefield rules. This is not a conspiracy. It's actually a documented U.S. doctrine. So, for example, during the bin Laden raid, SIL-Team 6 operators were operating under CIA Title 50, not standard military Title 10 authority. And so what she's suggesting is the same legal framework is actually probably going to apply here, which she talks about the uniforms will reveal no insignia equals CIA. This is partially accurate, but there's no insignia does not necessarily automatically mean CIA. It does strongly suggest deniability.

And so CIA paramilitary units often wear plain uniforms, unmarked tactical gear, non-standard camera flage, so on and so forth. So it's, you know, obviously they went in. they had been in the region for quite some time. Actually, Nicholas Maduro said this. I believe we talked about it on our last podcast about Venezuela, where he said that they had captured some CIA operatives. And I think it was on the island of Trinidad. And at that point in time, there was a lot of people saying, oh, well, we don't know for sure

there was CIA. We didn't know any of this. They said that they captured them. They had operating manuals. Right. They had all of that stuff with them. And we thought it was just crazy because why would they have operating manuals? But it's already came out that there were some very close.

CIA operatives in his small closed group of people. Yeah. So like they got close to him. And it's also come out that the government of Venezuela were working with the CIA to help capture him. Yeah. Yeah. That's insane.

Well, I mean, and obviously when you go into a major city like Caracas and you go into some of the other cities, I also did some operations outside of Caracas. But when they went into the presidential palace, you know, and there was 40 lives lost from what we understand so far, at least that's what Venezuela is reporting. But when you actually go into the presidential palace, you take this guy right before he's about to get in a safe room, which Trump will talk about in just a moment, and you take him, put him on a black hawk and you're gone within minutes. That's pretty insane.

But, you know, that is our military. We are the most highly trained military, I believe anywhere in the world. And so Nicholas Madura was on video multiple, multiple times saying, come and get me, you cowards. you know, I will be right here waiting. Yeah. And so then there's all these memes. He knew he had his little safe room, but he got into the safe room, but didn't shut the door.

No, he couldn't quite shut the door. So without further ado, we're going to go ahead and get into the press conference. We're going to break it down as Trump talks about it as Pete Heggsess goes through it. And then we got some more important topics to talk about as far as like, what are we really in Venezuela for? Obviously, Trump's going to give you why we're there, what we're operating in Venezuela for. He's going to talk about the oil. he's going to talk about the charges. And Trump actually doesn't talk too long in this press conference.

But the most important thing is even if you've heard the press conference before, if you want to hear our thoughts on it as we were thinking it through as we heard it this morning, listen here. And then we got some more stuff to talk about on the backside. Here you go. Okay. Thank you very much. This is big stuff.

We appreciate you being here. Late last night and early today at my direction, the United States Armed Forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela. Overwhelming American military power, air, land, and sea was used to launch a spectacular assault. And it was an assault like people have not seen since World War II. It was a force against a heavily fortified military fortress in the heart of Caracas to bring outlaw dictator Nicholas Maduro to justice. This was one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history. And if you think about it, we've done some other good ones.

like the attack on Soleimani, the attack on al-Baghdadi, and the obliteration and decimation of the Iran nuclear sites just recently in an operation known as Midnight Hammer, all perfectly executed and done. No nation in the world could achieve what America achieved yesterday or frankly in just a short period of time. All Venezuelan military capacities were rendered powerless as the men and women of our military working with U.S. law

enforcement successfully captured Maduro in the dead of night. It was dark. The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain

expertise that we have it was dark and it was a k meaning you know they did cut power to most of the city or at least a large portion of the city and in particular the areas where they were going to actually have boots on the ground and so what he's talking about is you know we have ways of doing this and those ways by the way are the guys that were already on the ground the entire time likely that it either planted things on certain stations in that region or especially where they were going to hit you know for the United States military, it is to their benefit to go into locations in dark because they have some of the best night vision goggles you can possibly imagine. All of our aircraft are equipped with

the most high dollar, most advanced, most technological night capabilities of pretty much any military around the world. So it was to our benefit to actually cut the power in these areas. And it also disrupts communications. It disrupts all kinds of stuff for the actual military of it as well, whatever that military actually was. You know, as Trump's going to talk about here in a minute is they were pretty much waiting on the United States. I mean, they knew that the United States military was in full force. They were in the waters.

They had ships everywhere. They had planes flying all the time. I'm sure most of them knew this was coming. They just didn't know exactly when. And the one thing I would love to know, which I don't think Trump talks about here, is I just wish I knew like what the fight was if there was. On the ground. Yeah, on the ground.

especially going into Maduro's presidential palace because it was interesting if you guys go and look at the first image that was released of Maduro. I'll try to find it and post on our social media. He has his hands cuffed. He's not in a blindfold of this time. No, he has black glasses on. No, not in the first photo. In the very first photo, he has a white shirt on. They literally just take him out of the palace.

And he has blood stains like all over the front of his shirt. And I don't think it was his blood, but it was somebody's blood. I didn't see that photo. Oh, yeah. I saw the one with him in the gray jumpsuit and the blackened glasses on him. Yeah, the first photo they released this morning. The very first one I saw was him with a white shirt. He had a jacket on over it and he had all the people kind of around him.

And he had his hands tied it in the front, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, he had a lot, a good bit of blood on a white shirt. So I'm just curious where that blood came from. It wasn't him likely. It was probably one of his bodyguards or some military guy that just happened to be around him trying to protect him. I would assume. What we don't know and find out in this press conference is whether or not our guys got into any

firefights. But what we do know is that we did hear firefighting. Yeah. Throughout the night and it wasn't just from the helicopters. We actually heard it on the ground. So somebody was lighting somebody up. And I'm sure they had snipers in place in different places. They had all kinds of stuff.

Plus, obviously, the air support. You had Apaches that were attacking Air Force bases. You had Apaches that were attacking specialized military. compounds. You then also had Blackhawks, which obviously between the Blackhawks and the specialized Chinooks, which are operating the J-Sahawk unit of the Special Operations Command, which were likely carrying the special operators that were actually going into, I'm sure they probably repelled down into the palace area, just like they did, you know, when they went after Osama bin Laden. Probably a very similar situation. But I would assume there was firefighting in that, you know,

in particular instance, because you're not just going to hide away in a palace, especially when he had quite a bit of people around him, as Trump says here in just a moment. Deadly. But captured along with his wife, Celia Flores, both of whom now face American justice. Maduro and Flores have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. It's Jay Clayton for their campaign of deadly. narco terrorism against the United States and its citizens. I want to thank the men and women of our military who achieved such an extraordinary success overnight

with breathtaking speed, power, precision, and competence. You rarely see anything like it. You've seen some raids in this country that didn't go so well. They were an embarrassment. If you look back to Afghanistan or if you look back to the Jimmy Carter days, Carter days. They were different days. We're a respected country again, like maybe, like never before. These highly trade warriors operating in collaboration with U.S. law enforcement, caught them in a very ready position. They were waiting for us. They knew we had many ships out in the sea.

We were just sort of waiting. They knew we were coming. So they were in a ready, what's called a ready position. but they were completely overwhelmed and very quickly incapacitated. If you would have seen what I saw last night, you would have been very impressed. I'm not sure that you'll ever get to see it, but it was an incredible thing to see. Not a single American service member was killed. And I want to pause for a second because he talks about that there were other failures in the past. Obviously, he's mentioning the Biden pull out of Afghanistan, which was a catastrophic failure. even if you think about Hillary Clinton, although she was not president, she was the Secretary of State at the time when you're talking about the headquarters, Benghazi, right?

Benghazi was a complete failure. And a lot of people think it was almost on purpose that Clinton kind of let them guys high and dry. But then you think about the Bay of Pigs invasion. By the way, Ron, thanks for sending me that because I did want to talk about this as well. The Bay of Pigs invasion was a failed CIA-led covert operation in 1961. And that was aimed at overthrow and his communist government in Cuba. And so the plan was developed under President Eisenhower and approved after John F. Kennedy took office. And then the CIA trained and armed about 1,400 Cuban exiles known as Brigade 2506 and planned to land them on Cuba's southern coast to spark a popular uprising and remove Castro from power.

Now, you got to remember that this was something we've talked about a lot. Think about Ukraine. Think about how we had talked about the CIA that went over to Ukraine. This was back into 2014 maiden uprising. And the CIA went over there specifically to find people that they could then employ or put into play, create an uprising. That's what the CIA does so well. That's what they've always done. And that's exactly what the CIA did in the Bay of Pigs.

The difference was is this was very unsuccessful. And so we wanted Castro gone because after Castro took power in 1959, he basically nationalized U.S. own businesses. He aligned Cuba with the Soviet Union, declared himself a Marxist, Linus. And for Washington, this meant a communist state just 90 miles from Florida during the Cold War. The CIA believed Castro was vulnerable and unpopular, and the Cubans would rise up once an invasion began. So the invasion began on 1961, and almost immediately everything went wrong. Cuban government forces were fully prepared.

Castro's Air Force was not destroyed as planned. The landing site was a swampy, isolated area. Local civilians did not rise up in support. U.S. air support was reduced at the last minute to maintain deniability. And so within three days, Cuban forces overwerely, the invaders, and about 100 were killed, and nearly 1,200 U.S. service members were captured. And so obviously, the United States was completely humiliated on the world stage, very similar to Biden's pull out of Afghanistan, and very similar also, obviously, to Benghazi.

There are multiple books written about that, but that's obviously not the only failures that administrations have had in the past with covert operations like this. So for Trump, regardless of whatever you think about this, and for P. Hegseth and for the entire team, they executed a flawless mission last night inside of Venezuela. And especially when you were going after a president of a country and not only capturing him, but taking also his wife and then flying them back out of the country with no service members losing their lives whatsoever. I think that's pretty important to highlight. Not a single piece of American equipment was lost. We had many helicopters, many planes, many people involved in that fight. But think of that, not one piece of military equipment was lost.

Not one service member was more importantly killed. The United States military is the strongest and most fearsome military on the planet by far. With capabilities and skills, our enemies can... scarcely begin to imagine. We have the best equipment anywhere in the world. There's no equipment like what we have. And you see that, even if you just look at the boats, you know, we've knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by sea.

90%. Each boat kills 25, on average, 25,000 people. We knocked out 97%. And those drugs mostly come from place called Vinas well. And this is a part of the press conference I just don't agree with. I do not think that that many drugs comes from Venezuela, as we already talked about. I mean, if you look at our biggest issue with drugs, especially coming into our country, it's Mexico. No matter how you look at it.

I mean, you could try to say that a lot of those drugs are coming from Venezuela and through Venezuela, maybe China is sending drugs to Venezuela or Russia or some other country outside of the West. I just don't believe that's true because if that's the case, obviously Trump would be saying this. Well, China is sending fentanyl to Venezuela. Exactly. And we know that. And Russia's doing this.

And we just didn't hear any of that. Yeah. And it's the fentanyl that's killing people. It's not really cocaine. No. No. And the thing is, I mean, we know, especially during the Biden-Harris administration and the border invasion, we know that Mexico was facilitating the trafficking of fentanyl through Mexico.

And they were also using all these various people that were coming. across our border to also bring in fentanyl. We also know that there were Chinese nationals in South America on the western side. I don't remember the actual country at the time, but it was in Ecuador. It was close to Ecuador, Ecuador or something like it. It was northwest South America. And so they had like 40, 50, 60,000 Chinese nationals that were not even going through Mexico, actually.

Some of them were going through Mexico. Some of them were going by boat. But they were all being helped and assisted by Mexican drug cartels and so on and so forth. So I just do not believe at all that Venezuela was the biggest threat to the United States in terms of drugs. There's just absolutely no chance of this. Now, what I will say is obviously we talked about the Trend de Airwagua gangs that has been in Aurora, Colorado. They're pretty much in various places across the country. That was all happening under Biden and Harris.

But then I think about this as well. I was like, man, either way, they made a huge deal out of Trendy, I mean, it was all over. That was like one of the main things that the Republicans ran on was Trendyaragua. And then I think about it as like, damn, was this stuff maybe planned and set up just to make sure that story was big back then? So that when they did get in office, it's just kind of like, see, look, I mean, Trend de Aragua, Venezuela. Let's take, let's let's kind of put all the connections together so that when Trump and his administration get in, it's not as kind of like, what the hell are we doing in Venezuela? Right.

But it wasn't just the drug trade that was going on. on is also a lot of young women were getting murdered by them. Yeah, for sure. I mean, no, there's zero question that they're very bad people. We do know that, you know, that there were prisoners and a sane asylum people of court and Trump that were let out and they were, you know, coming across our border. Yeah, they're the worst of the worst, he said. Yeah, but although that's somewhat hyped up, and I'll give you some of that in just a little bit.

We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious, transition. So we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious because that's what we're all about. We want peace, liberty, and justice for the great people of Venezuela, and that includes many from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country, it's their homeland. We can't take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn't have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.

We've had decades of that. We're not going to let that happen. We're there now, and we're there now, What people don't understand, but they understand, as they say this, we're there now, but we're going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place. So we're going to stay until such time, we're going to run it, essentially, until such time as a proper transition can take place. As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time. they were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could have taken place. Now, Trump is saying we have taken over Venezuela and the United States or America

will now run Venezuela. You know, and obviously when Sherry talked earlier about how is this going to divide MAGA, you know, especially the America first crowd. How is this America first? And obviously, I don't know, I don't know if it was Pete Heggseth or it was Marker Rubio that mentions that in just a moment. But I kind of question that as well. I mean, we're going in, we're invading a country like Venezuela.

Do you understand how much money that's going to take to invade? Although, yes, he's going to say, well, we're going to take all this oil from them. But it just so eerily reminds me of what we did in Iraq, especially during the first goal for. You know, that's what we likely wanted in Iraq. That's what I think we wanted the second time. There was a reason why we invaded Iraq. It wasn't weapons of mass destruction in no way, shape, or form. and we know that now.

It was oil. And it's like we just now, I mean, we've always invaded countries we want because it's like, who cares? Like who's going to stop us? What, Russia's going to stop us? China's going to stop us. I mean, as long as they don't necessarily screw with China directly or maybe Russia directly, although I think that's what we saw with Ukraine.

Well, and this could easily become, I'm sorry, it could easily become a proxy war between Russia and China and America too with Venezuela because they have a huge interest in Venezuela. Well, you know what? The funny thing was, is like yesterday morning I actually had seen post. There was pictures from Venezuela media that Chinese delegates had just arrived in Venezuela. And there was pictures of them next to Maduro. This was yesterday morning in Venezuela. And then that night, we attacked Venezuela and then took and captured Maduro and his wife.

I was thinking last night, I was like, where the hell are these Chinese delegates at, if that's true? And I had saw five or six images of this. I had saw multiple videos of these Chinese delegates in country. in Caracas meeting with Maduro yesterday morning. And so my thing was, is like, I wonder if the Chinese delegates are still there because my thinking obviously was like, oh, shit, like what's going to come from this? Especially if these Chinese guys are still there, we're attacking the nation. Right.

And if we killed them, is that going to tick off China. Yeah. But the reality is like we don't even know for sure, like how much involvement that China actually has in Venezuela. We don't know how much involvement Russia really has in Venezuela. I mean, obviously the United States is going to say all these things, but is this just nothing more than just oil? We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country. and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so.

So we were prepared to do a second wave if we needed to do so. We actually assumed that a second wave would be necessary, but now it's probably not. The first wave, if you'd like to call it that, the first attack was so successful. We probably don't have to do a second, but we're prepared to do it. a second wave, a much bigger wave, actually. This was pinpoint, but we have a much bigger wave that probably won't have to do. This partnership of Venezuela with the United States of America,

a country that everybody wants to be involved with because of... The next wave would be huge. It'd be the biggest wave you ever saw. It'd be the best, most glorious a wave you've ever seen. Anyways. What we were able to do and accomplish will make the people of Venezuela rich, independent, and safe. And it will also make the many, many people from Venezuela that are living in the United States extremely happy. They suffered.

They suffered. So much was taken from them. They're not going to suffer anymore. The illegitimate dictator Maduro was the kingpin of a vast criminal network responsible for trafficking, colossal, of deadly and illicit drugs into the United States. As alleged in the indictment, he personally oversaw the vicious cartel known as Cartel de la Solis, which flooded our nation with lethal poison responsible for the deaths of countless Americans, the many, many Americans, hundreds of thousands over the years of Americans died because of him.

Maduro and his wife will soon face the full might of American justice and stand trial on American soil. Right now, they're on a ship they'll be heading to ultimately New York, and then a decision will be made, I assume, between New York and Miami or Florida. But we have people where the overwhelming evidence of their crimes will be presented in a court of law. And I've seen it. I've seen what we have. It's both horrible and breathtaking that something like this could have been allowed to take place. For many years after his term as president of Venezuela, expired Maduro, remained in power and waged a ceaseless campaign of violence, terror, and subversion against the United States.

States of America, threatening not only our people, but the stability of the entire region. And you all saw it. In addition to traffic in gigantic amounts of illegal drugs that inflicted untold suffering and human destruction all over the country, all over in particular, the United States, Maduro sent savage and murderous gangs, including the bloodthirsty prison gang, Tren de Aragua, to terrorize American communities nationwide. And he did it. Indeed, they were in Colorado. They took over apartment complexes. They cut the fingers off people if they call police.

They were brutal, but they're not so brutal now. And I just have to congratulate our military, Pete and everybody and our National Guard, because the job that they've done, whether it's in Washington, D.C., where we have a totally safe city where it was one of the most unsafe cities anywhere in the world, frankly. And now we have no crime in Washington, D.C. We haven't had a killing. We had the terrorist attack a few weeks ago. A little bit of a different kind of a threat.

But we haven't had a killing in a long period of time, six, seven months. We used to have two, one average two a week in Washington, our capital. We don't have that anymore. The restaurants are opening. Everyone's happy. They're going. They're walking. their daughters, they walk in their children, their wives, they walk to restaurants.

Restaurants are opening all over Washington, D.C. So I want to thank the National Guard. I want to thank our military. And I want to thank law enforcement. It's been amazing. And they should do it with more cities. We're doing it, as you know. And we're doing it in Memphis, Tennessee right now.

And crime is down. We've just sort of started a few weeks ago. But crime is down now 77%. and the governor of Louisiana called great person and he wanted us to help him as you know a certain very nice part of Louisiana and we have done that it was a rough rough section and we have climbed down I understand it's down to almost nothing already after two and a half weeks New Orleans. It's down to almost nothing. And we've only been there for two and a half weeks. Can't imagine why governors wouldn't want us to help. We also helped, as you know, in Chicago.

Then crime went down a little bit there. We did a very small help because we had no, no, we had no working ability with the governor. The governor was a disaster and the mayor was a disaster. But it knocked down crime. But we're pulling out of there when they need us. We'll know. You'll know. You'll be writing about it. And likewise, Los Angeles, where we saved Los Angeles early on, where the head of the police department made a statement that if the federal government didn't come in, we would have lost Los Angeles. That's long after the fires.

That's when they had the riots in Los Angeles. We did a great job. Got no credit for it whatsoever, but that's okay. It doesn't matter. We don't need the credit. But we'll be pulling out when they need us. They'll call. Or we'll go back if we have to.

We'll go back. But we did a great job in various cities. But the thing, the place that we're very proud of is Washington, D.C., because it's our nation's capital. We took it from being a crime-ridden mess to being one of the safest cities in the country. But the gangs that they sent, raped, tortured and murdered American women and children. They were in all of the cities I mentioned, Trenda, Agua. And they were sent by Maduro to terrorize our people. And now Maduro will never again be able to threaten an American citizen or anybody from Venezuela.

There will no longer be threats. For years, I've highlighted the stories of those innocent American whose lives were so heartlessly robbed by this Venezuelan terrorist organization. Really one of the worst, one of the worst, they say the worst. Americans like 12-year-old, Jocelyn Nungary from Houston, beautiful Jocelyn. And then Gary, what happened to her? They, as you know, they kidnapped, assaulted and murdered by Tren de Aragua. Animals, they murdered Jocelyn and left her dead under the bridge. There was a bridge that will never be the same to so many people after seeing what happened.

As I've said, many times the Maduro regime emptied out their prisons, sent their worst and most violent monsters into the United States to steal American lives. And they came from mental institutions and insane asylums. They came from prisons and jails. The reason I say both, they sound similar. Actually, prisons a little bit more,

a little bit more hostile, a little bit tougher. A mental institution isn't as tough as an insane asylum, but we got them both. They sent from their mental institutions, they sent from their jail prisons. They were drug dealers. They were drug kingpins. They sent everybody bad into the United States,

but no longer. And we have now a border where nobody gets through. In addition, Venezuela, unilaterally seized and stole American oil, American assets and American platforms costing us billions and billions of dollars. They did this a while ago, but we never had a president.

that did anything about it. They took all of our property, was our property. We built it. And we never had a president that decided to do anything about it. Instead, they fought wars that were 10,000 miles away. We built Venezuela oil industry with American talent, drive, and skill, and the socialist regime stole it from us during those previous administrations, and they stole it through force. This constituted one of the largest thefts of American property in the history of our country. Considered the largest theft of property in the history of our country. Massive oil infrastructure was taken like we were babies, so we didn't do anything about it. I would have done something about it. America will never allow foreign powers to rob our people

or drive us back into. I do want to say something here just for a second because, you know, when he's talking about they released the prisons, they released the sane asylums. I do remember when Biden was president and all of the CNN's MSNBCs, ABC NBCs, and then also all the fact checking websites were saying that there is no proof whatsoever that Maduro was in any way releasing, you know,

the prisoners and the sane asylum patients and all this stuff to come across the U.S. border. But what we do know, that is fact, is that there was an unusual, like unusually, large number of Venezuelans that came across the border, especially for Venezuela being a somewhat small nation in comparison to everywhere else. And then also the amount of people that

were coming across the border from Venezuela that had criminal backgrounds and criminal histories and were recently released from prison. We do know that. So all of the political fact-checking BS and the mainstream media that tried to debunk it and say, oh, that's just a political talking point. That's something Trump's saying. That's likely true. And we do know that. trend de irogo the gang was in large part coming from venezuela they were coming through mexico and they were infiltrating our cities as if we didn't have enough issues in our cities as it is obviously with the minnesota fraud stuff that's going on we're seeing all the talk about the somalis um obviously samal or somalia for those that do i remember it was the place of black hawk down

which was the movie if you guys have ever seen it but somalians are um they can be pretty rough people i mean I'm not saying all of them are, but there is a lot of gang and a lot of trafficking, especially sex trafficking. There is, you know, Somalian pirates. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. What about the pirates? Yeah. So, I mean, we have people from all over the world in this country.

And there were millions of people that came across our border during the Biden administration. And so, you know, obviously with all of the protests against ICE, now I'm not necessarily saying I should be out there trying to get every single person that's illegal, especially people that are working or contributing. Obviously, I think the number one goal is to go out and find the people that we must get out because of our own safety for American safety, the people to have criminal backgrounds, the people that are in gangs, the people that are in cartels. That's the most important. And in large part, I do think the Trump administration ICE has went after mostly those people, although I can't guarantee that. But at the very least, what I'm saying here is, is that we do know that Venezuela, there was an unusually large amount of Venezuelans that were coming across our border.

and with a large percentage of them that were criminals. And also a large percentage were not criminals, but they left Venezuela because that country is so poor. The top 10% of Venice Williams are rich and the rest are dirt poor. Like they have dirt roads. They have nothing there. They have no infrastructure. I mean, we did a huge podcast about all that and how poor the people are. And it really should be that they should be all rich people because of what they have on their land.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it kind of reminds me somewhat of the United States or at least how the United States is becoming. You know, there's just a top 10% of the very rich and so many people are struggling. I mean, the United States is becoming that way. Obviously, we've seen that over the past like eight to 10 years. Obviously, not on the scale of Venezuela, not on the scale of Ethiopia or somebody's placed in Africa. But it's just like that's how all nations are becoming. The top 10% are the wealthiest. They take all the money. All the people pay the taxes and they don't really get a whole lot in return from their government. But if you look at Venezuela, yes, they should have a lot richer country. They should have a lot better living conditions for the people.

They don't. Right. And that's why I'm saying a lot of people fleeed Venezuela because of that because of their country, so poor. Yeah, for sure. All right. So let's listen to some more. And out of our own hemisphere, that's what they did. Furthermore, under the now deposed dictator Maduro, Venezuela was increasingly hosting foreign

adversaries in our region. and acquiring menacing offensive weapons that could threaten U.S. interests and lives. And they used those weapons last night. They use those weapons last night, potentially in league with the cartels operating along our border. All of these actions were in gross violation of the core principles of American foreign policy, dating back more than two centuries. And not anymore. All the way back, it dated to the money.

Monroe Doctrines. And the Monroe Doctrine is a big deal. But we've superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the Donro Doctrine. I don't know. It's Monroe Doctrine. All right. I want to stop for a second because I wanted to talk about the Monroe Doctrine.

It was declared that the Western Hemisphere off limits to European empires, position the United States as a dominant power in the Americas, and laid the ground. work for two centuries of U.S. foreign policy, both defensive and interventionists. So the modern interpretation is technically not around anymore, is no longer official policy, but the U.S. leaders still referenced it rhetorically when discussing foreign influence in the Americas, especially involved in Russia, China, or Iran. So I just wanted to point that out. Now, we're going to go ahead and skip the rest of what Trump has to say here because he goes on for a few more minutes. I want to get to, I believe it's Pete Hegseth first. Well, thank you, Mr. President.

Finally, a commander-in-chief, the world respects, and the American people deserve. And as the president said, words can barely capture the bravery and the power and the precision of this historic operation. A massive joint military and law enforcement raid flawlessly executed by the greatest Americans our country has to offer. American warriors are second to none, the best in the world and the best of our country. What I, what all of us witnessed last night was sheer guts and grit, gallantry, and glory of the American warrior. I'm simply humbled by such men, such men. And I tip my hat to our chairman, Dan Raisin-Kane and all those Americans who stood watch last night. Our warriors are the elite of America.

And again, President Trump has your back. No other country on planet Earth. and it's not even close could pull this kind of operation off. And no other president has ever shown this kind of leadership, courage, and resolve. The most powerful combination the world has ever seen. As the president said, our adversaries remain on notice. America can project our will anywhere, any time. The coordination, the stealth, the lethality, the precision,

the very long arm of American justice, all on full display in the middle of the night. Nicholas Maduro had his chance, just like Iran had their chance, until they didn't and until he didn't. He heft around, and he found out. President Trump is deadly serious about stopping the flow of gangs and violence to our country.

Deadly serious about stopping the flow of drugs and poison to our people, deadly serious about getting back the oil that was stolen from us and deadly serious about reestablishing American deterrents and dominance in the Western Hemisphere. This is about the safety, security, freedom, and prosperity of the American people. This is America First. This is peace through strength.

And the United States War Department is proud to help deliver it. Welcome to 2026 and under President Trump, America is back. I'd like to welcome now our chairman, Chairman Raisin Kane to give a few more details about the operation. Mr. Chairman. All right. So Pete Hexas said that he effed around and he found out. And, you know, I think for a lot of those warriors that were on the battlefield last night, they want someone like that as their secretary of defense, not some old dude that is behind. a desk that's like 90 years old and you know he's been in government for a billion years um so for

this reason i do say that like that's inspirational for the people and for our military that is going to obviously bring more recruits into our military uh the recruiting for our military was horrific during the biden harris administration i know that under the trump administration they've brought a lot of recruitment back to regular numbers or even exceeded that but you know the reality of it is, is that if all of this is because of, say, for example, which is what Mark Rubio is going to talk about here in just a moment, is things that our government has been chasing Maduro for a while. And it's not just the Trump administration. It happened under the Biden administration. And I also believe Obama as well, they've kind of all somewhat

agreed on Venezuela and Maduro. And I think in large part of that is because, as they just said, even though I think they didn't necessarily explain it, you know, they're still in our oil, which is their oil, but what he's really saying is that China or Russia or Iran is stealing Venezuelan oil out of our backyard. And we're not benefiting from it whatsoever. They actually became our enemy. Yeah. And we also are the ones that started the whole infrastructure of getting the oil producing

capabilities there. Yeah, for sure. And then we left it. And, you know, it's kind of the same thing in Afghanistan. It's taken over by the wrong people. Yeah. Well, and that's what's going to happen always. Now, as Trump is saying here, we're going to take over Venezuela.

We're going to run Venezuela until such time that there are elections. He does later on say that, although I think I took that part out. You know, they're going to have fair elections, free and fair elections. We're going to talk in just a little bit about the election fraud and some of the conspiracies and how Venezuela might be tied even to the 2020 election here in the United States. But we're going to get to General Raising Kane. He was essentially the guy that was over this entire operation last night. here he is. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you, Mr. President. And good morning.

Last night on the order of the President of the United States, and in support of a request from the Department of Justice, as the President said, the United States military conducted an apprehension mission in Caracas, Venezuela, to bring to justice two indicted persons, Nicholas and Sassia Maduro. This operation known as Operation Absolute Resolve was discreet, precise, and conducted during the darkest hours of January 2nd, and was in the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal, an operation that, frankly, only the United States military could undertake. What I'd like to do this morning is talk to you through some of the preparation and the details without compromising any of our tactics, techniques, and procedures. there is always a chance that we'll be tasked to do this type of mission again. Our interagency work began months ago and built on decades of experience of integrating complex air, ground, space, and maritime operations. While the past two decades have honed the skills of our special operations forces, this particular mission required every component of our joint force with soldiers, sailors,

airmen, Marines, and guardians working in unison with our intelligence agency partners and law enforcement teammates in an unprecedented operation. We leveraged our unmatched intelligence capabilities and our years of experience in hunting terrorists. And we could not have done this mission without the incredible work by various intelligence agencies, including the CIA, NSA, and NGA. We watched, we waited, We prepared. We remained patient and professional. This mission was meticulously planned, drawing lessons from decades of missions over the last many years. Decades of many missions over these last many years. This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do. It required the utmost of precision and integration within our joint force. And the word integration does,

not explain the sheer complexity of such a mission. An extraction so precise it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere in close coordination, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of tactical surprise. Failure of one component of this well-oiled machine would have endangered the entire mission, and failure is never an option for America's joint force. Now, I do want to say something here briefly because, you know, obviously we have criticized the Trump administration quite a bit since he has taken office, especially over the Epstein

files, which we're not going to forget about. We're going to continue to pressure, and we're going to continue to talk about it. And I hope that everybody else out there continues to also put pressure that we actually find out what is in the Epstein files, who are the actual people that they were trafficking girls, too. Like, we need to know that. And the Trump administration did a horrible job on the Epstein files so far. So, you know, if you want to talk about like military precision versus how they handled the Epstein files, there is very, very stark differences. But you also have a difference in Pete Heggseth, the Department of Defense, general race. and Kane here, all of that. And then you have Pam Bondi Cash Mattel. Okay. So that side is doing a

horrible job. This side seems like they're doing their job the correct way. And at the very least, as far as the United States goes, look, I'm a patriot number one. I love my country. I love the United States or America. I only want what is best for this country. And we do have a lot of adversaries. And in large part, some of that is for our own doing from the wars, the situations that we've got in in the past, the enemies we have created and made. I think a lot of U.S. service members and veterans will tell you that themselves, even the wars that they've been in. A lot of them kind of look back on some of those things. And they say, you know, I think that we shouldn't have been there or, you know, we shouldn't have been involved in this or whatever the case is. But

either way, we do have adversaries. We do have other countries that want to destroy us. We do have enemies. We do have people. We do have terrorists that want to take out America. We do have people that want to bomb and blow up the United States for America. Russia is one of them. And some parts of that is for our own doing. China's another. Probably Iran now, considering, you know, we did just blow the shit out of whatever we blew up because of Israel.

But either way, we have enemies. And at the very least, the Trump administration made a very, very clear statement, a very bold statement last night, just saying, like, this is what our military can do. We can go into Venezuela. We can operate with precision. We can send it. a not only ground force, but an air force and an air raid like we haven't seen in a very long time. It's just like Trump said. I mean, you know, it's like Normandy when we kind of stormed

the beaches of Normandy. Now, obviously it wasn't on that scale, but as you see that video, if you go to our social medias and look at that video with all the Chinooks and Blackhawks and everything, just flying over into the city and then missiles and everything else are precisionally dropped on targets. And in the same time, we have our guys that are repelling out of helicopters going in getting the president of this country where he has guards surrounded this whole area, including inside. I'm sure most of those people are probably dead now. And then you hear all those gatling guns.

You hear the aim 9-9 side wander. I mean, everything was done with extreme precision. I got it at the very least, regardless of how you feel about the raid, whether you think it's Americaverse or not, you have to tip your hat to Pete Heggseth being, you know, one of the coordinators is, obviously General Raising Kane, obviously Trump. and like I said, I think at the very least, the United States of America, we have looked like a weak bastard for a very long time. And I think nations are going to see this as a signal of strength and power rather than weakness. And I think that the Biden administration, we consistently saw weakness from him.

We saw it under Obama. We've seen it under many presidents. Although I do not want more war. Trump ran on no more new wars. And right now this is not a new war, but if we are taking over Venezuela, I don't think this is just going to be as easy as we are making it out to be. It's not like the raid last night is going to be the end of everything. There are going to be terrorists that come out of this.

There are going to be adversaries in this country that are going to want to attack whoever is on the ground that is, you know, essentially trying to run Venezuela. It is going to create more enemies likely. But it depends on how we operate that. It depends on how we actually operate Venezuela. Do I think that we should be there? I don't personally think, no, we should be there. But, you know, and the reason I said that is because if we're going to do some type of

operation like this to a country that I think is the most important, especially to when it comes to the drugs and the cartels, it's Mexico. It's not Venezuela for me. But either way, I do think that this was not for nothing. I do think oil was a large part of this. And I also think that Maduro and just the rhetoric that between Trump and Maduro and Trump and the amount of bad people that they essentially sent across our border into the United States over the past four years and we're talking about probably millions of

just Venezuelans, I don't know. I mean, that's for you guys' call. All I'm saying is that the military operation at the very least was a bold statement from the United States and kind of something to say it to the world. This was also a welcomed attack by the Venezuelans themselves because most of those videos we saw last night were the people with their own cell phones videoing. And all I could see in all the videos was voino, whino, which means good, good. This was welcomed by the Venezuelan people. Yeah.

And I've seen actually a lot of subsequent videos to your point on that. Yeah. They're all celebrating in the streets now. Yeah, it is pretty interesting. I mean, obviously they're not very happy there. and as Sherry already said, I mean, the government there in it, and actually the government in a lot of countries like South America, they don't treat their people very good. And there is a very, you know, top tier people that make all the money and they keep all the money and they don't give their people anything. Right.

So, and most of a lot of these countries in South America, they operate on drug money. That's a large part. If they don't have oil, they have drugs. And that money never goes to the people. It always goes to the higher ups. It goes to the elites in those countries. So, you know, is it a bad thing that Maduro's gone? Is Maduro a good guy?

Absolutely not. I mean, I think that's pretty damn obvious. So is it good that he's out of power? I'm sure it is. And it just depends on who we put in power, right? I don't know. The interesting thing, though, is the fact that he's still alive, that we actually went in to capture him.

That was the mission. The mission was to capture him and his wife. The question is why? Because, you know, we've been blowing up drugboats like it's nothing. And especially with the rhetoric between Trump. Trump and Maduro. You know, they could have easily just went in, killed everybody in there, including him and his wife or whoever, took the body, took a picture of him and said, Maduro's gone.

We're going to bring in whoever now, right? That would have been a pretty big statement as well. But for some reason, we captured him and we're going to hold him on charges in the United States of America. So that's interesting. And for me, I think it has something to do with they want to see what kind of intel they can get from him on something that they're looking for, whether it's Chinese involvement, Iranian involvement, Russian involvement, whatever.

I think they have him captured to get information. I don't know how much involvement the United States government will have, like, who will actually house him. They're saying New York, they're saying the actual federal prison I'm assuming is who's going to hold him. So, but I am wondering, like, how many times they'll take him out to torture him during this process. I hate to be him right now.

Yeah. But there's actually a new video that was just released a few minutes ago and it shows him being brought in. And the video says, and this just happened. And I guess this was after they got him off the helicopter in Manhattan, took him in, and then I guess kind of took him through the process. But I guess he's smiling in one of the videos. So he seems pretty happy for whatever reason.

So I don't know. Maybe he's happy to be alive. Yeah, maybe so. Maybe that is true. Those in the air over Caracas last night were willing to give their lives for those on the ground and in the helicopters. Let me talk a little bit about the preparation. After months of work by our intelligence teammates to find Maduro and understand how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets.

In early December, our force was set pending a series of aligned events. He was choosing the right day to minimize the potential for civilian harm and maximize the element of surprise. and minimize the harm to the indicted personnel, so as the president said, they could be brought to justice. And as the president said earlier today, weather in Venezuela is always a factor this time of the year. And over the weeks through Christmas and New Year's, the men and women of the United States military sat ready, patiently waiting for the right triggers to be met and the president to order us into action. Last night, the weather broke just enough, clearing a path that only the most skilled aviators in the world could maneuver through. Ocean, mountain, low cloud ceilings, but when tasked with a mission, this organization does not quit. At 10.46 p.m. Eastern time, last night, the president ordered the United States military to move forward with this mission.

He said to us, and we appreciated it, Mr. President, good luck and Godspeed. And those words were transmitted to the entire joint force. Over the course of the night, aircraft began launching from 20 different bases on land and sea across the Western Hemisphere. In total, more than 150 aircraft, bombers, fighters, intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance, rotary wing were in the air last night. Thousands and thousands of hours of experience were airborne. Our youngest crew member was 20, and our oldest crew member was 49, and there's simply no match for American military might. As the night began, the helicopters took off with the extraction force,

which included law enforcement officers, and began their flight into Venezuela at 100 feet above the water. As they approached Venezuelan shores, the United States began layering different effects, provided by spacecom, cybercom, and other members of the interagency to create a pathway. Overhead, those forces were protected by aircraft from the United States Marines, the United States Navy, the United States Air Force, and the Air National Guard. The force included F-22s, F-35s, F-18s, E-2s, B-1 bombers, and other support aircraft,

as well as numerous remotely piloted drones. As the force began to approach Caracas, the joint air component began dismantling and disabling the air defense systems in Venezuela, employing weapons to ensure the safe passage of the helicopters into the target area. The goal of our air component is, was, and always will be, to protect the helicopters and the ground force, and get them to the target and get them home. As the force crossed the last point of high terrain

where they'd been hiding in the clutter, we assessed that we had maintained totally the element of surprise. As the helicopter force ingress towards the objective at low level, we arrived at Maduro's compound at 1.01 a.m. Eastern Standard time or 201 a.m. Caracas local time. and the apprehension force descended into Maduro's compound and moved with speed, precision, and discipline towards their objective, and isolated the area to ensure the safety and security of the ground force while apprehending the indicted persons. On arrival into the target area, the helicopters came under fire, and they replied with that fire with overwhelming force and self-defense. One of our aircraft was hit, but remained flyable, and as the president,

said earlier today, all of our aircraft came home, and that aircraft remained flyable during the rest of the mission. As the operation unfolded at the compound, our air and ground intelligence teams provided real-time updates to the ground force, ensuring those forces could safely navigate the complex environment without unnecessary risk. The force remained protected by overhead tactical aviation. Maduro and his wife, both indicted, gave up and were taking up. And were taken into custody by the Department of Justice, assisted by our incredible U.S. military with professionalism and precision, with no loss of U.S. life. After securing the indicted persons, the force began to prep for departure. Helicopters were called in to exfiltrate the

extraction force while fighter aircraft and remotely piloted aircraft provided overhead coverage and suppressive fire. There were multiple self-defense engagements as the force began to withdraw out of Venezuela. The force successfully exfiltrated and returned to their afloat launch bases, and the force was over the water at 3.29 a.m. Eastern Standard Time with indicted persons on board,

and both Maduro and his wife were embarked aboard the USS Uuajima. In closing, what we've witnessed today is a powerful demonstration of America's Joint Force. We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again, not to get it right, but to ensure that we cannot get it wrong. Our jobs are to integrate combat power, so when the order comes, we can deliver all. overwhelming force at the time and the place of our choosing against any foe anywhere in the world. I am immensely proud today of our joint force and filled with gratitude to represent them here today. There is simply no mission too difficult for these incredible professionals and the families that stand by them and support them.

As we stand here this morning, our forces remain in the region at a high state of readiness, prepared to project power, defend themselves, and our interests in the region. This operation is a testament to the dedication and unwavering commitment to justice and our resolve to hold accountable those who threaten peace and stability. In closing, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude. to the brave men and women who executed this mission. Their courage and tireless commitment to our nation are what makes us strong. Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you very much. As you can hear, it was a very, very complex mission, likely going to be a movie probably someday, which would probably be a pretty good movie. As he said, they did encounter resistance. They did fireback of self-defense, they say. They want to say, hey, it was self-defense because we F these people up. but someone shot at a helicopter, which I don't know who the hell would have decided to do that. But, you know, when the might of the United States military is on you and you decide you're going to shoot at the helicopter, I mean, that's, you know, that was your choice, I guess.

And, you know, that is your country. So you're going to fight for your country, but they didn't work out for them. And, you know, our guys, I will say, I mean, the special forces operators and stuff, I'm sure whoever they took in here don't know who it was exactly. But, you know, they're the best of the best. They're the best in the world. So I will be curious to see if a movie comes out about. this. I'm sure there probably will be. I did want to get to Marco Rubio before we get into some other things before we close. Here you go. Well, I don't have much to add to what you've heard now,

other than the following points. Nicholas Maduro was indicted in 2020 in the United States. He is not the legitimate president of Venezuela. That's not just us saying it. The first Trump administration, the Biden administration, the second Trump administration, none of those three recognize him. He's not recognized by the European Union in multiple countries around the world. He is a fugitive of American justice with a $50 million reward, which I guess we saved $50 million. We should make sure. Yeah, exactly. Don't let anybody claim it.

Nobody deserves it but us. But I want to be clear about one thing. Nicholas Maduro had multiple opportunities to avoid this. He provided multiple, very, very, very generous offers and chose instead to act like a wild man, chose instead to play around. And the result is what we saw tonight. The other message here is the following. You have a guy, like many people around the world, they like to play games.

You have a guy who decides he's going to invite Iran into his country, is going to do the confiscation of American oil companies, is going to flood our country with gang members, is going to take Americans prisoner and try to hold them for hostage and trade him like he was able to do with the Biden administration, basically likes to play games all this time and thinks nothing's going to happen. And I hope what people now understand is we have a president. The 47th president of the United States is not a game player.

When he tells you that he's going to do something, when he tells you he's going to address a problem, he means it. He actions it. I can tell you, I've watched this process now for 14, 15 years, been around it. Everybody talks. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. When I get there, we're going to do this. This is a president of action.

Like, I don't understand yet how they haven't figured this out. And now if you don't know, now you know. Because this is the way it's going to play out. And I think people need to understand that this is not a president that just talks and does letters and press conference. and, you know, if he says he's serious about something, he means it. And this is something that was a direct threat to the national interest to the United States, and the president addressed it. There's a president of peace, by the way.

I told you what I just said earlier. This guy had multiple opportunities to find his way somewhere else and figure out another. He could have been living somewhere else right now very happy, but instead he wanted to play big boy. And so now, you know, he's got other sets of problems on his hands. But I think the message here should be for the world. Look, the president doesn't go out looking for people to pick fights. He's not generally wants to get along with everybody.

We'll talk and meet with anybody. But don't play games. Don't play games with this president's in office because it's not going to turn out well. And so I hope that, you know, I guess that lesson was learned last night. And we hope it will be instructive moving forward. Is that much for you? Mr. President. All right.

So there you go. Then they have questions, which I was thinking about we'd play them, but I don't think so. They basically cover everything here. Now, Marco Rubio here says that, like, this was an indicted individual. This was not just done the first Trump administration, but the Biden administration, nobody wanted him in office because they believe that he was not the rightful president of Venezuela. And so this was not just a Trump administration. This was also agreed upon by the Democrats and the Biden and Harris administration as well. I think it's also important to note that one of the questions did come up.

And right when you stopped when they started questioning, they were asking about any method. messages to Cuba. And Trump comes back on and says, well, you know, I can't remember exactly what he said, but he better watch his ass or something like that because of that. And then, you know, Mark Rubio comes on and remember he is from Cuba. And he comes on and talks about a lot of the government inside of Venezuela were Cubans. Yeah. And they were bad, bad people. And we need to get rid of them. Yeah. Well, and so, you know, I agree with that. Right. And we have this interest, obviously, in Venezuela. But as I said, there's a lot of people right now. They're like, we should not be going into Venezuela under no circumstance. We have our own set of problems. We have so many issues going on already. Why are we going to get involved in Venezuela? Now, you're also going to hear people that are like Tucker Carlson. Now, I like Tucker Carlson. We play him all the time. I think that I agree with like 95% of what he always says. And this is just one thing that he had said. And this is something I just kind of want to dispel a little bit.

Ben Shapiro was just saying they're being interviewed by Megan Kelly and said something, he said something like, well, Tucker Carlson's, you know, for Maduro, Maduro, the communist leader of Venezuela, who I guess were on the way to killing or something, forcing out regime changing him. And he defended Maduro. Didn't, actually. And Megan Kelly says, well, Tucker said in his show, that Maduro, most people didn't know this, whatever his many faults, I wouldn't hire him as an economist, okay? But whatever's many faults has the most socially conservative country, probably

in the hemisphere. So Venezuela is just a fact. I mean, I didn't make this up. I'm not in charge of Venezuela, just noticing that Venezuela has banned pornography, banned abortion, ban gay marriage, ban sex changes, and banned usury. You don't have credit cards with 40% interest. in Venezuela. Okay. Ben Shapiro responded this way. Tucker's made the point. I'm not going to be Tucker's defender, but he's made the point that Maduro

is culturally conservative. Who gives a shit? The guy's a communist dictator. Everyone in his country's eating dog. He's shipping fentanyl to the United States to kill Americans. Why don't we give a shit? Whether he's anti-LGBQ rights. Who gives us shit? I do.

I do. I'm not moving to Venezuela. I'm not pro-Modaro. But I care about that. Why wouldn't I care about that? I've got kids. Like, first of all, I'm against abortion. Sorry, unpopular. I feel that way. I think it's really sad. I would personally become poorer to end abortion, voluntarily become poorer to end abortion in the United States. That's not a choice. Don't want to become poorer, but I would because I care about it. Maybe you don't. Maybe you're offended that I do, but I care about it. Lots of people care about it. I don't think pornography is good. that really hurts people. You know, I don't think pretending that the sexes are the same is good.

That's what Tucker Carlson had to say. And I just wanted to point out, pornography is not banned in Venezuela, number one. Adult pornography is legal. Only child pornography is criminalized. Abortion is effectively banned. It is only legal to save the mother's life with no exceptions for rape or incest. Same-sex marriage is not legal, and there are no civil unions. The Constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

There is no explicit legal ban on sex change surgeries, but legal gender changes are extremely restricted and not supported by the public health system. Usory is banned. Venezuela enforces strict interest rate caps and criminal penalties for excessive lending. Now, the thing about this is, it's not Maduro that brought all this stuff in. Most all of this reflects longstanding legal and cultural frameworks in Venezuela. So Maduro did not bring this into the framework. And we're going to start seeing some of this stuff come out that says, like, you know, Maduro was this. and, you know, he was actually more conservative-based.

And that's not true because Maduro was a piece of shit and he still is. And Tucker arguing this claim and he says, you know, all of this stuff. And he's like the most conservative socialist or socially conservative president in South America. But that's just not really true. Yes, it is kind of a longstanding thing. All of those things that are in place in Venezuela. But that's not because of Nicholas Maduro. It's just not.

Now, also something I do think is maybe not coincidental. maybe it is coincidental and this is what a lot of people have sent us messages and ask us to talk about is the fact that benjamin net yahoo has been at marilago he was there during nars eve seems like i think he's been in country for about a week this was obviously leading up to the attacks in venezuela um does israel have anything to do with venezuela i am not a hundred percent sure i do know that the opposition was heavy support for israel i do know that recently Benjamin Netanyahu told Greta Van Susseran or whatever, however to hell you say her name, this is what he said about Venezuela when he was talking about Hamas.

Listen. We've had an unbelievable success. And by degrading Iran, which was the first rate power, now it's a second rate or third rate power. They were throwing their weight all over the place, exporting terrorism, not only to every part of the Middle East, but to Venezuela. They're in cahoots with the Maduro regime, you know. they're exporting terrorism to America, to the American hemisphere. And then they want these Hezbollah and Hamas to get their guys into the United States. So Hamas and Iran's and its proxies are a threat not only to us, but to all, to Israel,

all America's allies in the Middle East, and to America itself. So he obviously recently said this. He's trying to convince the world. He's trying to convince the United States. And I'm sure that he's been trying to convince the Trump administration that Hezbollah and Hamas, and Hamas are working with the Madura regime and they're exporting terrorism into the United States via Venezuela. I don't believe any of that.

I just personally don't. Number one, two very different cultures. Number two, definitely probably would not work out. You have Hezbollah and Amas meeting up with the Trinday, Aragua, and all of the gangs in Venezuela. It just doesn't make sense. I don't believe the bullshit at all. But yet I've been hearing this.

We've been hearing this. Benjamin Netanyahu's been saying this. Israel's been saying this. They've been saying this on various media outlets. And then obviously you also have the opposition of Venezuela's possibly his new leader. We don't know for sure. But this is Karina Machado. Now, we do not know if this will be the new leader of Venezuela.

But this is what she had to recently say about Israel. And this is someone that I know the Trump administration liked. I know Israel likes. Listen. I'd like to thank Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of the state of Israel. I promise we'll one day will have a close relationship between Venezuela and Israel. I myself look forward to visit the state of Israel as soon as we conquer freedom. We will prevail.

And I can announce this that our government will move our Israeli embassy to Jerusalem. So, yeah, so that is the opposition to Nicholas Maduro. And so a lot of people were asking questions. was this about Israel considering Benjamin Netanyahu was with Trump for like a week and he was hanging out with him on New Year's Eve and he was, you know, he was there and he was around for quite some time. And so we've got so many messages about that. And to be honest, I don't know. I mean, I can't tell you for sure. I do know that, you know, Bibi and Israel and people they've been sending on mainstream media have been talking about the Hezbollah and Amas and export and terrorism to Venezuela and they're sending them to the United States.

I don't believe any of that at all. As I said, I've already made that clear. But it just seems like that everywhere we turn, I don't know, I don't think that as people pointing the finger at Israel all the time, I think it's Israel themselves that continue to go on TV all the time in U.S. media talking about how Americans should behave or how Americans should talk and how the United States should act on Venezuela or how the United States should pivot themselves towards this particular point. That's why people blame Israel for stuff, which is, we're by the way, going to have an episode coming up because there's some craziness. I mean, they're starting to call for the dissolve of the First Amendment in the United States of America. I have a slightly different opinion, as you guys probably know, but you have to think about in Venezuela. The main opposition there was Russia, China, and Iran. Iran's proxies are Hezbollah in Hamas.

So, of course, they're there with them and in cahoots with them. I'm not necessarily saying gangs from Venezuela are teaming up with him, Isbalah, but I think they have something to do with it. Yeah. I mean, it's possible, right? I'm not saying it isn't possible. I'm not going to say that I know because I don't. To your point, it is possible.

My point is that I just think it's very unlikely. I know that mostly Iran or... But Iran is teaming up with Russia in China. Supposedly. But here's the other thing about the Iran situation in Venezuela. You know, we were told, number one, that the United States seized an oil tanker that was going or headed towards Iran from Venezuela. But then Trump also talks about that Venezuela is barely even producing oil from Venezuela. Yeah, like 5 to 10% of what they're capable of.

Yeah, but do we understand like who Iran is? Do we understand that Iran is one of the biggest oil producers in the world? Do we really think that Iran really needs Venezuelan oil? I mean, really? Do we really think that? Do we really think that China is so heavily involved in Venezuela and that Russia is so heavily involved? Well, maybe they're trying to make it more like in a monopoly. I don't know.

Where they control all the world's oil. I doubt it. I mean, it's possible, but I doubt it. And that's going to be tough, though. Like, if there was any of those people, I feel like would have interest in trying to have some type of, I guess, what you can say, authority or some type of place in Venezuela, it would be Russia. Only because of the fact of what we're doing.

Ukraine. We're essentially operating a proxy war through Ukraine on behalf of the United States to fight Russia. And so who would be the most likely to operate in Venezuela? I would think Russia. Yes, China does have interest in getting close to us as well. We know that. We knew it about Panama. We knew what happened during the Russian missile crisis with Cuba. I mean, those things make sense. And Iran wants to get close to us too. There are adversary. I mean, yeah, there are adversary mostly because of Israel. and especially now. I mean, you know, when we bombed Iran because of Israel.

But even before that, they were adversary. Yeah, they're our adversary, Sherry, but it's just not in the way that I think that as much as what Bibi Netanyahu and Israel and the United States wants you to believe. Now, here's the other thing, too. They've been trying to push us in the war with Iran for a while, and Israel has been doing this. They want us to go and help them in war with Iran. And I don't know if you guys have seen recently, but like over the past three or four

days, all of this uprising in the streets of Iran. And they're taking over government buildings and Iran's, I guess, ministry of government or whatever to hell you call Iran's government, they have told the banks to be ready for a total bank collapse. And so they're saying all this, they have all of these massive uprisons all at once. And what does that sound like? It sounds like an intelligence operation. It sounds like they are going into Iran and they are about to create a overthrow of the government and that's when some country, maybe it's Israel, maybe it's the United States, because it'll be one of them that will go in and take over Iran. This is what the intelligence agencies do. We just did it in Venezuela. I think we've obviously, we've done it in Ukraine. We've done it

in places all across the world and it looks exactly like what is exactly happening in Iran right now. Do you think the tariffs have anything to do with the uprising in Iran? I doubt it. I mean, I don't I think the the uprising in Iran is because we're about to go into Iran. I honestly do. I mean, this happens every single time. But they're like in an economic collapse right now. And in my belief, I think it's because of the tariffs, President Trump is put on them. I don't know.

I'm not sure about that. I haven't looked into that. I don't know. All I'm saying is is that it looks very classic for an intelligence operation for getting ready for an overthrow of a government, overthrow of a president. and then installing a new president. And listen, I mean, when you install a new president in a country like Iran, who's going to be in charge of that? It'll be the United States and Israel and primarily Israel.

And what are they going to do? Well, they're going to put a president in Iran that has Israel's interest at heart. Right. That's who they're going to install into Iran if the president there is actually overthrown. What's going to happen in Venezuela is the exact same thing. It'll basically be just a little United States. The Iran, if this happens, it'll be like a big Israel. And so that is Israel's goal.

I don't think Israel just wants to keep Israel. I think Israel wants to expand across the Middle East. That's what I truly think. And I think Iran is one of their big targets. I think that they want the United States involved. They want us to help them overthrow this government. I'm sure that we already have probably CIA guys in Iran. I'm sure there's Mossad in Iran.

Oh, sure. And I'm sure that they're also helping this uprising kind of explode right now. We did it, like I said, in Ukraine during the maiden uprising in 2014. We know that the CIA director was there then, weeks, prior to this maiden uprising. And then what happens? Well, they take out the Russian, I guess, pro-Russian or the Russian-backed president in Ukraine.

And they install a Western president in Ukraine, someone that really liked the United States, someone the United States controlled. And that has happened ever since then. So, you know, when we talk about the Ukraine-Russia situation, we've had many episodes on that, you know, you've got to think, like, if this is happening at your back door and you're Putin

and you know all this is going on, And especially during that time when you had Biden and Harris that was pretty much instigating Putin to attack Ukraine because that's what we wanted. That's what our military industrial complex wanted. That's what is about to happen in Iran. Just make no mistake, that's what's going to happen. And I, for me, do I agree with this invasion of Venezuela? I don't know because I really truly don't know what the actual causes of this invasion were. Are they not at our back door?

Yes, they are at our back door. But I mean, so are so many other countries at our back door. Are we going to take over all of them because they may not like, you know, the way we do things or maybe they operate in drugs? Are we going to take over all of South America? We can't do that. I mean, obviously, we're not even taking over Mexico. And Mexico is literally, like I say, the most dangerous close nation to us by far. I mean, if we're talking about drugs, which, listen, make no mistake, we did not invade Venezuela for drugs.

I just don't believe that whatsoever. We did not invade Venezuela because Maduro is a bad person even, I don't think. And I really almost don't even think that we invaded Venezuela because of oil. I mean, maybe. That's probably the top of my list if it isn't for something bigger, right? Why? Because Russia and China? I don't know.

What I will say, this is what Alex Jones said. I don't really play Alex Jones a lot anymore because I don't trust a lot of what he says. A lot of people think he's been compromised. but this is what he had to say about the invasion last night. It's only a minute long, but then we'll talk about this briefly and then we'll close. Are they going to now have Maduro expose Pelosi and the Democrats and the Clintons and the Bushes for the drug dealing they've been involved in? I wouldn't hold your breath with the prosecutors. But definitely Trump is ending the U.S. sanctioning and laundering the money and supporting it and the election fraud.

because it's not Venezuela and China running it. It's the CIA deep state through China, through Venezuela and Cuba doing it. So Cuba's in deep trouble. Mexico and Shine bomb its operations in trouble. Their mothership, Venezuela, that had all this incredible budget and all this incredible money, not for its people, but for control, that's gone. And so Trump's leaving this current government in there. They'd already had been about to go and put in this new puppet.

He's like, we're not going to have your puppet. it. We're coming and stabilize it. Crank up your production again. Turn your standard living back on. And we're going to fix this. And it's going to work because they have so much wealth. So this is a big deal, folks. So what Alex is trying to say here is that Venezuela is potentially linked to election fraud in 2020. And so if we just look at Venezuela, they've had a long history of kind of election fraud.

and particularly under regimes of Hugo Chavez and Madura. And independent observers, including organizations like the Carter Center and the Organization of American States or OAS, has documented issues such as voter intimidation, media bias, and manipulation of electoral processes. For instance, in 2017, Constituent Assembly elections, Smartmatic, the company providing the voting technology, publicly stated that turnout figures had been tampered with by at least one million votes. This led to widespread international condemnation and accusations that Maduro government was engaging in systematic fraud to maintain power. And then most recently, the 2024-Venezuelan presidential election was marred with claims of fraud with opposition figures and independent monitors, asserting that Maduro's declared victory was legitimate, prompting U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan officials for their role in fraudulent process. So then Venezuela's electoral system had relied on electronic voting machines since the early 2000s that was supplied by companies like Smart. Matic, which was founded in 2000 by three Venezuelan engineers.

Now, Smart Maddox technology was first deployed in Venezuela for the 2004 recall referendum against Chavez and has been used in subsequent elections. And while the company has defended its systems as secure, critics have pointed to close ties between Smartmatic founders and the Chavez government, including allegations that the software was designed to allow manipulations. However, Smartmatic ceased operations in Venezuela after the 2000. 2017 fraud accusations, and they have not been involved there since. But the interesting thing was, during the 17 fraud accusations, there were investigations,

and there were investigators that were going to come down, and that was after they shut down and took all their machines, and I don't believe anyone know where those machines actually ever went to. So then here's maybe the connections to the U.S. election fraud. So the primary claims Lincoln, Venezuela to U.S. election fraud revolve around voting technology companies, particularly smartmatic and dominion voting voting vote. voting systems and surfaced prominently during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Now, those theories were popularized by figures like Sidney Powell, a lawyer associated with

former President Trump, who alleged that the Venezuelan officials, in collaboration with Smartmatic and Dominion, rigged the election by flipping votes through backdoor algorithms. Powell cited Venezuela's history of using Smartmatic for fraudulent elections as evidence that similar tactics were employed in the United States. So here's the claim and how maybe this is connected. Smart Maddox Venezuelan origins were founded in Venezuela. The company has been accused of enabling fraud in Venezuelan elections, e.g. the 2017, which we just talked about.

There are many theorists to extend this to the U.S. elections claim in Smartmatic software was used to alter results. And then Dominion's alleged ties. Dominion, a separate Canadian-based company, which we know all about Dominion voting. That's the company that sued Fox News. That's partly why Tucker Carlson was gone. basically you weren't even allowed to speak about Dominion or you would get sued. Well, a separate Canadian base, they acquired assets from Sequoia voting systems in 2010.

Sequoia had earlier been owned by SmartMatic from 2005 to 2007, and this is what led to claims of indirect Venezuelan influence. In 2006, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment investigated Sequoia's Venezuelan connections due to concerns over foreign ownership of voting technology. And so some allegations of a supposed Supercomputer called Hammer or ties to George Soros and the Chavez regime claiming votes were routed

through servers in Venezuela and other countries to be manipulated. These were amplified by Trump's legal team and the supporters including Rudy Giuliani. And of course the fact

checkers say none of this is true. So this is how Venezuela and all of this whole thing is tied to the election fraud or the alleged election dealing of the election. in 2020, this is how Venezuela is potentially tied to all this, right? It's because of Dominion voting.

Obviously, everybody alleged that Dominion voting, it was a large part was the ones that were allowing votes to be flipped. And Dominion came out and said, well, our machines are not even online. And then there was subsequent investigations, I believe, that they found out maybe they were online, I believe. And then, ultimately, Dominion voting buying stuff from Smartmatic or a company that was once owned by Smartmatic, which then Smartmatic seems like a system that was used, to cheat in elections. That's where Alex Jones is coming from. Is it all actually connected?

Well, I don't know. Is it all just a coincidence? I don't know. But we do know that certain voting machines were used in 2020. And then we do know that certain company is somehow tied to Smartmatic, which was the number one way that Venezuela cheated throughout elections and I think other countries as well. It's likely some type of deep state program, deep state system. deep state software, deep state algorithms, and deep state actual physical machines that they gave Venezuela that then worked their way in somehow to other machines to be able to better utilize, you know, overturn of elections.

Think about how beneficial this would be for globalists or for foreign nations that wanted a certain president in or a certain president out. It would be massive. Is this maybe why Nicholas Maduro is not dead and he is captured? and he is now in custody? I don't know. These are all theories and we have no idea. As things go on, you know, we might find out more. I have no idea.

Do I agree with the raid? I don't know. It's hard to say because I literally have no idea why we're there. We can make accusations and we can say it's because of drugs. It's because of oil. It's because of election voting machines and the conspiracy there. It's because of Israel. And will we ever know?

I'm not sure. But either way, we just. want to let you guys know what we thought about this. Sorry if we were a little jumping on this episode because, you know, like we said, we have not drink anything during this episode. So it's a little different for us. We didn't drink on every episode, but, you know, it just helps you loosen up usually on podcast.

So this is 2026. We'll see how long that we continue this, not drinking on shows. You let us know what you think. Guys, feel free to reach out to us. Obviously, we have all the social media. We still do have our store, which we're about to change over all of our merchandise. and we'll let you know. I think it'll be changed over in a couple days.

That is investigate earth store.com. We still do have a telegram. You guys are welcome to come in and chat with us anytime. You just have to join the main channel. Look for the chat link and just join the chat link. We do have lives on there very often. And so I guess that's probably going to do it for us. I got to remember how to do this closing thing because it's been a while since we've actually

done an episode. But guys, we hope that you all have an amazing 2026. Thank you all so very much for all the support in 2025. And we cannot wait. to share 2026 with you. We love you all. Have a good night. Peace out, guys.

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And myself on the flower flights Couple nights at the flat To be real, could you see me making moves Why I'm at I'm still on the crying limit time when I chat Burn it down sage keep the demons to wave When I ready give a piece of myself to the page I'm doing for the praise love

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