Judging Freedom - Gilbert Doctorow Explodes: Trump’s Maduro “Kidnapping” Is an Impeachable Crime

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

Gilbert Doctorow Explodes: Trump’s Maduro “Kidnapping” Is an Impeachable CrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Undeclared wars are commonplace. Pragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood, understood and rejected it what if sometimes to love your country you had to alter or abolish the government what if Jefferson was right what if that government is best which governs least what if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong what if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave what if freedom's greatest hour of danger

is now. Hi, everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, January 7, 2006. Dr. Gilbert, Doctor, we'll be with us in just a moment. Just how serious internationally is the kidnapping of Nicholas Maduro and the invasion of Venezuela. But first this. History tells us every market eventually falls.

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Before we get into specifics, what is your general take on, the events in Venezuela over the weekend? I think they have changed the global order. I think that we are living in a new age and it's a very sad and dangerous period that we're undergoing. What I see the overriding issue that I see is that Donald Trump has done a deal with the devil. He has, I imagine, out of political calculations, He has decided to accept offers from the power ministries to raise his ratings by doing a little kicking in the ass here and there, by taking, as he's done in Venezuela, by taking over Greenland as he probably will do in the next month or two, and by staging another attack on Iran. These measures all have one thing in common. They are supported by the power ministry.

that is the Ministry of War, as it's known today, the CIA and the State Department. And whereas we believed when Donald Trump came in by some of his appointments, he was demonstrating that he, and by some of the people who removed from office after he came in, he was demonstrating that he had taken charge and that he was in control of the power ministries. But as I say, his ratings have been falling. The midterm elections are coming, and I'm certain that on this basis, he decided to throw in his fate and the country's fate to the power ministries. And they are the ones who performed so well by their own standards in abducting the president of Venezuela in this past weekend. Does the international community have caused to view the United States of America as a rogue state which will use brute force to achieve its hegemonic goals?

It depends on how you view the term rogue state. I think Europeans would be very cautious and nervous about applying that edgy to it. to the United States. What they, but most people would not be aware of, is that the ideologists behind what we are now doing, and they are, you call them neocons, the label isn't so important. The individuals, for example, in this case,

Robert Kagan, the husband of notorious Victoria Nuland, who was in 2008 an advisor to John McCain in his presidential bid, Robert Kagan had used with pride, This notion of the U.S. being a rogue state, not bound by the limits of civilized behavior that other states who are weaker and are less decisive than America and who don't stand as tall, as Madeline Albright would have put it, as the United States does. So in America's recent political history, the notion of being a rogue state hasn't been a pejorative. It's been a badge of pride.

I suppose Israel and the United States are in the same category. I mean, who would trust American negotiators to negotiate faithfully and to abide by their international commitments? You understand that the United Nations Charter is a treaty. It happens to have been drafted by American officials right at the end of World War II. A treaty under the American constitutional system is in the same category as the Constitution itself. It is the supreme law of the land. The President doesn't seem to care about treaties that restrain him or the Constitution,

which says he has to go to the Congress before he can invade another country. Well, there are precedents for what he's done. I'm sad to say. If you go back to 1989, then the invasion of Panama and the capture of the president, Noriega. That was a precedent for what has just happened. And it doesn't, it didn't attract all that much worldwide consternation as what has just happened this past weekend with Maduro. But the United States has behaved illegally in past decades and has gotten away with it. we even see now this most outrageous attack on venezuela this past weekend what did the europeans

do in the past couple of days to read my way of reaction 26 of the 27 member states of the european union signed to a a statement of position which is absolutely gutless it is uh doing there a sort of light tap on the wrist the americans haven't been behaving so nicely and that's it only one country among them of did not sign this and that was hungry and one country among them spain separately made a state declaration on the issue of venezuela and condemned american behavior but the europeans otherwise are a bunch are a collectivity of cowardice and regrettably that they are not alone i am waiting for Russia and China to react properly to what has just happened because, as I say, it changes all

of the rules of international behavior. How will the invasion of Venezuela change the relationship between Russia and the United States? How, if at all, will impact the negotiations between Russia and the United States, which have been going on in informal, non-governmental channels. I'd like to be very cautious here and separate what I would like to see what happened from what I am seeing happen. What I'm seeing happen to date is nothing. I have not seen any measures other than a few newspaper remarks condemning what has happened, or Medvedia making his statements, but that the United States has given Russia reason to do the same and to capture people like Merz and bring him to trial. These are not serious statements

and they're not representing the Russian government. But I don't want to just single out what President Putin is or is not doing. The Chinese are doing still less. And this is beyond my comprehension unless they're preparing for some sort of action, because they are also victims of what President Trump has done last weekend. If you will limit his actions only to the Western Hemisphere in accord with his new version of the Monroe Doctrine, the Chinese are being chased out of the Western Hemisphere. And I have misunderstood the extent of dependence of the Chinese on Venezuelan oil. Apparently, it's only 5% of their oil imports

were coming from Venezuela. Nonetheless, the overriding principle is, both here in Venezuela, by capturing tankers carrying oil that was paid for by China, headed for China, by the United States pressure on Panama, very extreme pressure to ensure that the Chinese ownership of properties relating to the Panama Canal would be removed, that they would be replaced, that there is an effort, clear effort by the United States

to push, it's what has been called their adversaries out of any investments and political engagements with Latin America. So that remains strictly American hunting preserve. If it only were that, it would be bad, but not as bad as it actually is, because as I say, the Mr. Trump may have made his deal with the devil for the sake of furthering his concept of American primacy, hegemony in the Western hemisphere, but the people who are carrying it out, namely those power ministries, have not abandoned their pretensions, their ambitions for global hegemony, as we see from the other things that are going on in other parts of the world. An attack on Iran, which may be coming, has nothing to do with the Western Hemisphere. The sale of $12 billion in arms, including

arms, including missiles that can reach to Beijing, selling that to Taipei, is not a matter of the Western Hemisphere. And I raise this point, because what have the mainstream media been saying about what happened last weekend? They don't dare say, that Mr. Trump has violated all international law, has crossed every red line of his rules-based or of the American rules-based order by what he's done. So they take a different tack. All of them sing from the same notes, whether it's in New York, whether it's a financial times or CNN or Euro News. They all had one thing in common to say about what happened last weekend, that it is a very bad thing because it is a signal to China.

and Russia that they can establish their sphere of influence in their regions. Not true. As I just pointed out, the sale of these weapons to Taipei is against all of the interests of China. The American position on the negotiations to end the war in Ukraine now said to be very sympathetic to the document produced yesterday in Paris by the Coalition of the Willing. Well, that is against the existential interests of the Russian. So it is global hegemony we're talking about.

Well, the document yesterday was absurd because it offers, as I understand it, European troops as security guarantees in a post-war Ukraine. The Russians would never, in caps and underlined, except that. and yet the two American real estate agents that are there supposedly in behalf of the United States government but carrying no legal portfolio other than that they get to whisper into the president's ears agreed. I mean, this is so naive if they think that this kind of an offer is going to bring peace. What kind of negotiation does the American government engage in? It tells Putin what they think he wants to hear. It tells Zelensky what he thinks he wants to hear here, and it's the opposite.

Well, what happened yesterday in Paris, in what role the American participants played is a matter of controversy. Listening to Macron, listening to Zelensky, and listening to Europe, to your news of the Financial Times this morning. you would come to the conclusion that you just stated, that Whitkoff agreed. Listening to a gazette, Rue, the most important newspaper in Russia and the mouthpiece of the Kremlin, you would say that nothing of the sort happened. And then listening to Politico today, you would find the same line as Moscow took, that nothing happened, that Wittkoff did not sign the declaration. He was simply a witness to what was going on,

and he let the Europeans think that America supported it, but it didn't put its signature there. So they're playing a very cute coy game, just as the Europeans are playing with America by not denouncing Trump for this greatest, gravest violation of international law. Coming back to the question of what the Europeans what the media are saying about the event,

is they are diverting attention from the criminality of what Trump did. And they're simply saying it's given this signal to Russia and China to do bad things. Will the Russians continue to want to speak to the Americans in light of this behavior? I will not speak for the Russians because, frankly, we don't know. I said, I don't want to confuse what I would like to see happen with what is happening. What I would like to see happens is the Russians do something as to pre-cuff all negotiations. But I don't hear anything of the sort. Mr. Putin is keeping his cards very close to himself.

We can only hope that he will be decisive and will make it clear that relations with the United States the improvement of relations is, frankly speaking, impossible because this United States is a rogue state. Yesterday, Russian missiles destroyed three facilities in Ukraine that are owned by a company in St. Louis, Missouri, obviously trying to send and sending a message to Washington. This on the heels of irrefutable evidence, of CIA involvement in the assault on President Putin's home. How is this playing in Europe? I say Europe is very, very nervous, with good reason.

The defenses of Europe at this particular moment are very weak. If they should find themselves in a war with Russia, at this moment, they will lose very, very quickly. So they are doing everything possible, everything, unimaginable, to stay in the good graces of Mr. Trump and to avoid his letting them down and leaving them to their own devices to face a very enraged Russian bear. But the only good thing that may come out of the awful things that Mr. Trump is doing is that in the eubristic manner of the current administration posture when the when the power ministries are in charge and mr trump is only a mouthpiece for them they may move quickly on greenland and that

puts the prime minister of greenland in an impossible position she has already come out and said forthrightly an attack on there on greenland's um belonging to Denmark would be the end of NATO. Well, perhaps it would. If so, in the most unimaginable way, Trump would have achieved an important mission of a positive nature in the midst of all the wreckage that we see around us.

Should Donald Trump be impeached because of his lawlessness? Well, unfortunately, his lawlessness is of such a nature. in nature that it doesn't interest congressmen they're only interested in sexual piccadillos like like what uh Clinton did that is a sort of thing that they find convenient or the the Russia Russia Russia business that Hillary Clinton and her colleagues were used against Trump that's sort of nonsense they can accept as a very good impeachable crime.

But when you take something so important as what Trump did this this past weekend, I think they're all left speechless. They don't know what to say or do. They don't know how their constituents are going to appraise this. Even within MAGA,

we don't know how they are going to take this and swallow this. So I think it's too early to take a reading on Congress because Congress has to take make a reading on their voters. And we are in the electoral season. But if you had your dredders, if you were a member of Congress,

would you argue in favor of impeachment? Absolutely. What he's done was to, which was an act of war, which had not been pre-approved in any way by Congress. Hey, well, who knows where all this is going to go? I think most Americans are still stunned and, and shout,

by it. My colleagues and I, notably Max Blumenthal, have analyzed the indictment. The charges are exaggerated, in some cases absurd, in some cases not even a criminal, like dispatching cocaine to fly from Caracas to Paris. Even if he did that, that doesn't violate American law. Possession of a machine gun in Caracas, which, had he possessed it in Washington, would be illegal. Well, these are absurd charges intended to beef up the indictment and crafted the last minute. So we'll see where it goes. The judge is a 92-year-old Orthodox Jew, who is pretty courageous when it comes to telling the government that the Bill of Rights applies to everybody in his courtroom. So we'll see.

Professor, Dr. I will pleasure, my dear friend, no matter what we talk about, a belated, happy New Year. I mean it sincerely, even though the events around us are not happy ones, and we'll look forward to seeing you next week. Well, thank you so much. Sure. All the best to you. And coming up later today at 11 this morning, Colonel Douglas McGregor at 1 this afternoon, Professor Glenn Deeson, at 3 this afternoon, Phil Giraldi. Judge Napolit, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.

Thank you.