Morning Wire - Maduro Indicted Stateside & Mamdani’s Reign Begins | 1.5.26

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife are charged in New York City, nationwide anti-regime protests in Iran threaten to boil over, and Zohran Mamdani’s term as mayor begins with fresh controversy. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Ep. 2563 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsor: Equip Foods - Equip’s Prime Bar is a real food protein bar with nothing to hide: just 11 ingredients and 20g of clean protein - made from ingredients you can pronounce like collagen, beef tallow, colostrum, cocoa butter - and sweetened naturally with just date and honey. Bringing good, clean habits into 2026 is made simple with Equip. Morning Wire listeners will get 25% off one-time purchases, or 40% off first subscription orders for a limited time by heading to https://equipfoods.com/wire and using code WIRE at checkout. - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy morning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the smoke clears over Venezuela's capital, new details emerge about the daring capture of dictator Nicholas Maduro. To see how good they were, how professional they were, how incredible the equipment we have, and to see how it worked so perfectly. I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley, with Georgia Halm. It's Monday, January 5, 2026, and this is Morning Wire. Iran's Supreme Leader lashes out as nationwide protests against the Islamic regime spread, despite deadly, government crackdowns. And? We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.

Zoran Mamdani's reign in New York City begins with a series of controversial orders. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. If you're trying to hit your protein goals in 2026, you might want to actually read a protein bar label. Most often it's like reading a candy bar full of chemicals you can't pronounce, and then leaving you bloated and unsatisfied. Bars with weigh and processed junk that just don't work. That's why we're into Eclipse's prime bar.

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Starting today, our listeners will receive an exclusive discount on Prime Bar, which has become our team's favorite protein bar on the market with 20 grams of protein in every bar. Go to equipfoods.com slash wire and use code wire at checkout to get 25% off one-time purchases or 40% off your first subscription order for a limited time. That's EQUIPFoods.com slash wire and use code wire at checkout. New details have emerged surrounding the daring mission to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro. Daily Wire's senior editor Cabot Phillips has the latest on the strike that shocked the world and its continued fallout. A. Cabot. So an unexpectedly wild weekend kept us busy here. There's been some new revelation, some new details that have emerged. Let's start there. What have we learned?

Yeah, we're starting to get a clearer timeline of what transpired and crocus. And it is straight out of a Tom Clancy novel. So according to the Pentagon, back in August, the CIA placed a covert team in Venezuela to track Nicholas Maduro's movements. and according to General Dan Cain, quote, find out how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore. So everything about his life. President Trump reportedly approved this operation just before Christmas, but it wasn't until late Friday night that the weather finally cleared

and more than 150 American aircraft took off from more than 20 different bases across the Western Hemisphere. As helicopters carrying, the main extraction team approached the city, a barrage of missiles, disabled Venezuela's air defenses, and the capital city also went dark, almost entirely, reportedly thanks to a U.S. cyber attack or something of that nature. Here's Trump hinting at that aspect. Lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have.

It was dark and it was deadly. Moments later, a group of Special Forces operators arrived at Maduro's compound, where the tyrannical leader and his wife were ultimately captured as they attempted to open the door of a large steel safe room. By the way, those operators had reportedly been, built an exact replica of Maduro's safehouse so that they could be practicing ahead of time. All told, the entire operation took a little more than two hours. Venezuelan officials say that about 80 soldiers and potentially some civilians were also killed

in the fighting. Pentagon officials say that half a dozen American service members were wounded, but thankfully none killed. Yeah, thankfully, indeed. And a point Trump made repeatedly over the weekend. Now, what about Maduro? Where exactly is he now? So he and his wife were transported to New York on Saturday, and they've already been indicted. The pair now face charges of narco-terrorism, conspiracy, cocaine trafficking, possession of legal weapons. The list goes on. So they have plenty to go on from the prosecuting side. Essentially, he's being treated not as a foreign leader, but a cartel kingpin. Now, for their part, the White

House posted a video taunting Maduro with a clip of a recent speech where he was addressing Donald Trump, saying, quote, come for me, I'll wait here. Don't take too long, coward. According to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Maduro will now face, quote, the full wrath. of American justice on American soil and American courts. There is a good chance that his first court appearance will take place within the next 24 hours in New York City. And you can imagine what sort of attention that trial is going to get here over the next year. Yeah, quite a bit, I'm sure. Now, as far as the political fallout to this, what have we seen so far in terms of reactions abroad and at home?

So the general response from the international community, especially in Europe, was celebration that Maduro's reign had ended, but also concerned over the potential implications and the potential again for escalation. Predictably, the harshest criticism came from Venezuelan allies like Cuba and Russia. They condemned the move as a violation of state sovereignty, which in Russia's case, obviously ironic for many reasons. Elsewhere, we saw enormous celebrations among Venezuelan refugee communities across Latin America and here in the U.S.

Here's what one of those demonstrations in Florida sounded like this weekend. Come celebrate with us. We love everybody because you, America, has loved us so much. So much. Thank you, America. But as you can imagine, not everyone here stateside is celebrating. A long list of prominent Democrats has slammed the attack as unconstitutional, reckless, and unnecessary. We heard from Kamala Harris and just a host of other Democrats saying that. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries echoed that sentiment from the left,

saying that Venezuela did not pose an immediate danger to the U.S. Well, there's been no evidence that the administration has presented to justify the actions that were taken in terms of there being an imminent. threat to the health, the safety, the well-being, the national security of the American people. Now, in response, the White House says that congressional approval was not needed because this was not, in their view, an act of war, but rather a law enforcement operation to arrest a wanted man. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also argued that they couldn't risk getting pre-approval from Congress. People talk a lot in Washington, and the concern was that that information would leak

and then potentially jeopardize the safety of our service members. Right, and the secrecy of this operation is a major part of this story. Now, the big question, what comes next? There's obviously lots of concerns about how America handles this. Yeah, we can spend the whole show talking about that, and I'm sure we'll spend a lot of time this week discussing it. President Trump has said the U.S. plans to, quote, run Venezuela until a peaceful transition of power can take place. Obviously, there's still a lot of questions regarding what exactly he means by that. And importantly, if U.S. troops will be involved.

In the meantime, Secretary Rubio on Sunday confirmed that the U.S. would not be running the country's day-to-day operations, but instead we'll use the ongoing oil blockade to exert pressure on the Venezuelan government. Over the weekend, Venezuela's vice president, Delci Rodriguez was sworn in to replace Maduro. Now, according to Trump, she is essentially, quote, willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. But in a weekend address to the nation, Rodriguez again pledged loyalty to the Maduro regime, saying, quote, there is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicholas Maduro. So there's still plenty of room. There's still plenty of for more friction here in South America.

Yeah, no doubt about that, and we'll be here for all of it. Cabot thanks for reporting. Absolutely. Look, Air Canada, did a sold world. Super, an offer for the assort. Station thermal, volcano. You've seen the price for the Japan?

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The conditions apply. Anti-regime protests continue to rock Iran as the government struggles to handle crises at home and internationally. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the state of Iran and the significance of this latest round of unrest. So Tim, catch us up to speed on the protests in Iran. Where are they happening and who's involved? Well, the protests started over a week ago, and when they began, they were largely relegated to merchants in Tehran.

But they've since spread around the capital and into dozens of smaller cities and towns across the country. The Tehran merchants were originally angered by the tough economic situation in Iran fueled by rampant corruption and currency devaluation, as well as sanctions pressure from the United States and the United Nations. But within the past week, the protests have grown larger than just discontent with the economy into calls for regime change. protesters have been chanting phrases such as death to Kamenei and freedom freedom. Now, this isn't the first time we've seen this. Over the past decade, we've seen a handful of protests like this in Iran. What's different about this round?

A couple things. No matter how they start, these protests have always generally blended into an anti-regime demonstration. But this time around, there appears to be a split in what activists want between either democracy or because of a newer nationalist strain in Iran. a return of the Pahlavi dynasty and Iran Shah currently in exile. The other new thing about this current round of protests is that it comes after the 12-day war. The Iranian regime was so thoroughly embarrassed and lost so many key people in leadership and among its security forces that it's given the anti-regime activists new resolve in these new protests. And it's had an impact on their regime as well.

Iranian President Pasekian admitted last month that concerning Iran's problems, he said, quote, I can't do anything. Don't curse me. Now, aside from just this internal unrest, Iran is also facing some international pressure. Tell us about that. Yeah, part of that pressure actually ties in with President Trump's recent decision to arrest Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, who was a big ally of Iran in South America. Here's Secretary of State Marco Rubio talking about that on Sunday. It's very simple, okay?

In the 21st century under the Trump administration, we are not going to have a country like Venezuela in our own hemisphere in the sphere of control and the crossroads. For Hezbollah, for Iran, and for every other malign influence in the world, that's just not going to exist. According to human rights groups, at least 16 people have been killed during the civil unrest in Iran so far. Trump put out a statement on his true social on Friday that said if Iran violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. He added that the United States is locked and loaded and ready to go. Trump has, of course, already hit Iran once and did significant damage to its nuclear problem.

program in that one operation. And after Maduro's arrest over the weekend, the president's statement should carry a bit more weight for that as well. In addition to the United States, Iran is also facing some outside pressure from Israel, which was largely responsible for bringing the regime to its knees over the summer. Here's Israel's foreign minister expressing solidarity with the Iranian protesters. Your protests by women and men, young people and students, mothers and fathers are justified. You have the right for a better future. Be strong and determined. Justice is on your side. So the regime increasingly appears boxed in from pressure coming from outside as well as up from below. Well, a chilling warning from the president given the events of this weekend.

Tim, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. Democratic Socialist Zoran Mamdani was sworn in as the new mayor of New York City on New Year's, and he's already imposing some sweeping changes. Daily Wire political reporter Cameron Arcan joins us with more morning, Cameron. So we closely watched this race last year for New York's mayor and documented Mondani's really far-left platform. Now he's in power and is already making waves, correct? Good morning, John. Yes, and it's in many ways that we already predicted.

So he's already produced some headline makers after a swearing in, where he made a declaration that sounded like it was ripped straight from the Communist Manifesto, touting the quote, warmth of collectivism over frigid individualism, and really prioritizing the role of government. If our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York yearn for solidarity, then let this government foster it. Because no matter what you eat, how you pray, or where you come from, the words that most define us are the two we all share, New Yorkers.

Now, this is not too shocking, considering he quoted socialist leader Eugene Debs in his victory speech last year. He also revoked executive orders from former mayor Eric Adams after his indictment date. Now, he also signed some orders of his own on housing, specifically related to tenant rights. Now, one of his big campaign promises was to freeze rent on many of the city's rental properties. Those in rent-stabilized homes will no longer dread the latest rent hike because we will freeze the rent. We'll see if that ends up coming to fruition. So far, he's already launched two task forces on housing policy and taking inventory of city-owned land that could be turned into housing. Now, there were also concerns from the Jewish community about some of Mamdani's initial actions this weekend.

What's causing that alarm? Yes, that's right. Now, this was a much discussed issue during the lead-up to the election, especially surrounding Mamdani's campaign. The concerns boiled down to two executive orders that were meant to protect Jewish New Yorkers, while Mayor Eric Adams, was in office, but those have now been revoked. Now, the first was about how anti-Semitism is defined, and the second stopped people who worked for the city from backing BDS efforts against Israel. Now, the BDS movement targets Israelis and Israeli-owned businesses demanding divestments and boycotts. The mayor defended his actions by claiming that Jewish group said, quote, immense concerns around the

definition of anti-Semitism. He also insisted, according to Politico, that his administration, would, quote, be relentless in its efforts to combat hate and division, including anti-Semitism. He claims he'll do so by, quote, actually funding hate crime prevention and celebrating our neighbors and practicing a politics of universality. So not too many specifics there just yet. Right. The devil's in the details always. Now, tying this back to our first segment on Venezuela, Mamdani was also immediately vocal against the Trump administration's capture of the socialist dictator. What did we hear from him on that? Correct.

Now, many Democrats opposed the strikes and the capture of Maduro saying it's a play for oil. The mayor is certainly one of them, and he was very vocal right off the bat, like you said. Here he is at a press conference over the weekend telling his supporters that he actually directly protested Maduro's capture. I called the president and spoke with him directly to register my opposition to this act and to make clear that it was an opposition based on being. opposed to a pursuit of regime change? Of course, later that day, Saturday afternoon, Maduro and his wife were brought to a facility in New York City before they faced their trial on narco-terrorism charges in the Southern District of New York. All right, so despite his complaints,

Mamdani's forced to house the captured dictator. It's a bit ironic for sure. It is. Well, we knew that if he followed through on this campaign rhetoric, like he said, he'd be one of America's most far-left mayors. He's definitely tracking that way. Cameron, thanks so much for reporting. Thank you. Thanks for waking up with us. And for those listening to the show, now you can watch for free on Daily Wire Plus. We'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.