Jack Posobiec (2:49)

Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard. Today's edition of Human Events daily. Today is January 5, 2026, Anno Domini. And we are back here, first live show of the year. And of course the first show after the stunning operation the United States military took this weekend in Caracas, Venezuela. The capture, extraction and now putting on trial of Nicolas Maduro, the former, I suppose you could say deposed president of Venezuela. What's this all really about? What's going on here? Is this a full on regime change? I've been on War Room a couple of times since then. I've said, look, I don't think this is full on regime change. We just did the entire we spent weeks working on this Tales of Regime Change series down in Human Events. We put it up the four parts. Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria. We dug down deep in all of them. But what we're seeing here is interesting is is this regime change or is it just getting rid of one guy? Because it seems as though all of the other elements of the regime are still there. The vice president, it now falls to her as the successor. Would you call that regime alteration? We will see. We will see what takes place because the opposition wanted Machado to get in there, but President Trump came up and said cold water over all of that. Very clear no to that. Which means essentially you're going to have Rubio, you're going to have Trump working directly with the regime that is currently in place. Now, of course, we also heard that Stephen Miller playing a huge role role in this as well and a lot of reporting out there that perhaps he may be stepping up. And we know that Stephen Miller's main focus has always been immigration and these flows, these flows of the migrants from South America, Latin America up to the United States, this has been the key singular focus for the administration since they took power all the way back in January. So the question is, does this play a role in the overall flows of migration from South America, Latin America to the United States? Is this perhaps going to be part of a move that is intended to shut down those flows and use. Because look, when you put Stephen Miller in the mix, we know that this is something that Stephen Miller thinks about constantly. Is he his play to take a look at the migration and say if we move this piece here and this piece here, take this piece off the board, does that stop flows coming up? We shall see. I'm not trying to argue that it's some 40 chess thing. I'm just trying to explain what I think the strategy is here. My analysis, you can take it or leave it. What do we also have one of the most stunning operations of one of the most stunning operations of the United States military that we've seen in years. Of course, we've got video footage of Maduro now. He was taken up to Guantanamo Bay where I got to spend some time. I'll simply say this. When we had detainees at Guantanamo Bay, we did not. When we were moving them through the Sally ports and we were putting them in handcuffs and restraints, we did not weren't smiling and laughing and we certainly weren't setting it up like this. So a lot of questions about that going through, but a lot of questions going forward as well. We also have the email up question of the day 1776 at human events.com 1776 at human events.com I know there's a lot of opinions on this. I have a lot of opinions on this, a lot of thoughts. Email us. We've already got a bunch coming in. Send us your messages. Send us what you think about everything that's happened and everything that you think will come next. We're going to read the best ones, the top emails, the top responses here on the show. Human Events daily lock in 2026 has begun. Is everyone enjoying the 4th? Turning.

Dan Caldwell (7:21)

Our way.

Unidentified Guest (7:21)

And our golden age has just begun.

Jack Posobiec (7:23)

This is Human Events with Jack Posit. Now it's time for everyone to understand what America first truly means. Welcome to the second American Revolution. All right, Jack, here we are back Human Events Daily. Real America's voice. Folks, let me tell you something. If you're anything like me, the holidays were perhaps a little brutal. Every healthy habit totally gone. Desserts, late nights, skipped workouts. But now that we're in the new year, it is time to reset. So let's undo all that. Let's make a New Year's resolution to actually give our bodies what they need. For me and my family, the Poso family that starts begins with cov pure. Here's the thing. Everybody jumps into the new year buying new supplements, trying a new diet or workouts. But they completely ignore the most important basic thing, water. Even mild dehydration impacts energy, focus, metabolism. And when you think about all the garbage, garbage that's in our water, you're starting behind the curve before you even begin. Covure's new Clear Wave technology is certified to remove up to 99.9% of contaminants. Pretty much anything that isn't in water. PFAS, microplastics, pharmaceutical residue, fluoride, all gets removed. This is the Maha solution, is the purest water you can get. And what I love most about COVID Pure is the way it lets you choose the temperature of your water. Hot, cold, warm. And it makes your water taste so good. Pure, clean, no aftertaste whatsoever. Cofur makes it easy to get pure water with the push of a button. So this year, make it a New Year's resolution that sticks. Improve your health with clean water. Right now, you can get $200 off for a limited time if you use my link copure.com poso that's C O V E P U R E.com poso to start 2026, right? All right, folks, we're also now, by the way, I want to let you know, we're tracking and I mentioned about obviously Venezuela, Maduro, all the stuff going on there. We're also tracking this report of an attempted break in at J.D. vance's house in Ohio. Now, I saw some people saying, oh, the media say, oh, it's vandalism. It's not vandalism. The guy was up there with a hammer, smashing windows, trying to get in. Everybody knows that J.D. vance is. That's J.D. vance's house. Everybody knows it. You're not just driving by, throwing tp throwing some eggs at the house. No, this guy was up there with a weapon. We know what the left is like. We know what the left did to Charlie Kirk. They murdered Charlie and Now they're testing J.D. vance's defenses. It's really as simple as this. And it will not stop until it is stopped. And there is more and more information coming out on the perpetrator here. And we will bring that to you at the appropriate time. Want to bring in now. And by the way, so keep sending your emails in 1776 human events.com 1776 human events.com all your thoughts Trump Venezuela, Maduro, all the rest of it. Want to bring in now, my good friend, we were chatting over the weekend about all of this because I was actually trying to unplug a little bit with my family. You guys saw we had some social media posts, were on a ski trip up Pennsylvania, up through the Poconos, which we love so much. And I want to bring on now. Dan Caldwell, senior felt senior fellow for Foreign Policy at American Moment. Dan, how are you?

Dan Caldwell (11:00)

I'm doing well. Thank you for having me on. Jack.

Jack Posobiec (11:02)

You're going to work on getting your new title down. I was like, it's not flowing yet. I'll get it there. I'll get it there. Look, you and I talked a. We laid out scenarios for Venezuela for a potential Military operation in Venezuela a couple of weeks ago right here on the program. Now it appears the President has made his choice. As the world can see, one option has been chosen. The special operator insertion and extraction of the. Well, the, the highest HVT high value target in all of the country. President Maduro himself. Before we get into all the geopolitics of it, just walk us through. In a basic sense, are there really people out there who thought the United States didn't have the cybersecurity, the cyber warfare capabilities and the Special Operations Force to be able to do this?

Dan Caldwell (11:52)

Yes. And I do have to be honest about something, is that when you look at the record of Americans big military interventions over the last few years, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, is that in a broad sense there's been a lot of strategic failure, but at a tactical level, time and time again our military demonstrated an ability to adapt to changing conditions, to learn new tactics and integrate new technology rapidly into their operations. And you saw again and again enormous feats of bravery and tactical success. Look at the Bin Laden raid, look at the Captain Phillips rescue. Again, just because we failed at a strategic level doesn't mean that we don't have the ability to pull off these spectacular operations. And I just have to know from historical perspective, Jack, I heard you in the intro say that this is one of the most spectacular special operations in American history. I would say it's one of the most spectacular operations in global history. I think it's up there with Israel's Entebbe raid. And even if we find out that there was a lot of deals cut and there are a lot of things that were done to ensure that our special operators entered into Caracas and Venezuelan airspace safely, it is still very spectacular. And regardless of what people think about the decision, we have to acknowledge that. And again, one last thing I'd also point out too, is that they did this on practically a full moon. So there was very high levels of illumination which made the operation even more risky. And it was still 100% successful. There were a few casualties. My understanding is that those operators are going to recover, but it's still one of the most spectacular Special Forces operations in world history.

Jack Posobiec (13:51)

That's exactly right. I believe Entebbe is where Netanyahu lost his brother in that raid and his older brother, and they're both in the forces together. And no, when you look at, you look at the history of US Special Forces and you go back to like Operation Eagle Claw, which really wasn't that long ago in just in terms of history it was 1980, and this spectacular, unfortunate situation that happened with the attempted extraction, the freeing of the Iranian hostages. And now you fast forward. Here we are just a couple decades later and able to pull off something that I think to a lot of people seemed like it would be out of a movie. Guess what? That's actually what the US can do. And I really don't want, I really want to also point out the cyber capabilities that were showcased here because the power structures, the Chinese radars, so many of the things that went down. You and I talk about this all the time. That, that was not done kinetically. A lot of this was done through cyber warfare. So really shows the Trump administration's full embrace of cyber capability.

Dan Caldwell (15:00)

Right. And I'm sure there's a lot of specifics that you and I don't know about and that we won't learn about for years, if not decades. But this was clearly a full spectrum operation that integrated all the capabilities of the United States military and the intelligence community to pull this off. And again, you can't deny the fact that this is very spectacular. And you brought up Operation Eagle Claw and Desert One. That was a disaster for Delta Force. That was their first big mission. And even after that, Delta Force and what eventually morphed into JSOC really struggled. Grenada, for example, there was a lot of failed operations leading in Grenada. And it really took over a decade for Delta Force and the broader Joint Special Operations Organization to really find its groove and, and to be able to start pulling off operations. And it's really amazing how much they've matured and how capable they've become over the last four and a half decades.

Jack Posobiec (16:09)

Since you mentioned Grenada, by the way, I always have to throw this out because a lot of people totally miss this one, that one of the young platoon leaders in the Grenada operation was a young. Not at the time. I think he was a. I think he was maybe either, you know, Lieutenant or Captain General Flynn. So General Michael Flynn served in Grenada and famously jumped off a 40 foot cliff at one point into the ocean. And he's a, he's a known surfer, and he actually was able to rescue two soldiers that were being swept away by rough currents. So, I mean, you look at some of the people that we have, you look at the capabilities that we have, the American people, the American soldier, it's. It's stunning. It's just absolutely stunning what these men are able to do even in the worst conditions. And so I'm glad that you said that because, you know, we talk about strategy and believe me, we're going to talk about strategy here. But we do need to take a moment to actually step back and say, hey, we need to be careful about this. And by the way, perhaps it's General Flynn's history of being in operations like Grenada that has made him somewhat skeptical of various types of operations going forward. And, and one of the reasons that he began blowing the whistle on how Barack Obama was not really fighting ISIS all the way back in 2014, 2015.

Dan Caldwell (17:30)

Right. And, you know, sorry to keep doing the history lesson. I know you love them, but you brought up General Flynn. He played a key role in transforming JSOC into the organization it is today. Completely revolutionized when he was in charge of the intelligence side of JSOC from 2004 to 2007 into the machine it has today. And a lot of the reforms he implemented probably led, not probably most likely enabled his success today. But yes, it is important, though, to note that JSOC at a tactical level in Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria was successful, but that did not change the fact that those were still strategic failures because the broader strategy didn't work and was not aligned with American interests. So that's going to be the key question going forward is what is our strategy and how does it connect back to American interests? And you talked a little bit about this in your opening monologue. How are we going to deal with the existing regime? And I do think the administration is off to a good start on how they're approaching it, but they're getting a lot of pressure to pivot to a full on regime change operation where they dismantle the Majoro Chavez regime in Venezuela. And that's where things could start to get dangerous and erase really this, this spectacular tactical success.

Jack Posobiec (18:55)

All right, we're going to get into that. Coming up next, Jack Posobic. Dan Caldwell, Human Events Daily continues.

Unidentified Guest (19:08)

Talk about influencers. These are influencers and they're friends of mine. Jack, Where's Jack? He's got a great job.

Jack Posobiec (19:21)

All right, Jack Paso. We're back Live Human Events Daily and we're talking all things Venezuela. We've got Dan Caldwell on, he's a senior fellow on Foreign policy from American Moment. Dan, when we look at this scenario, one of the things that, that has come up to my mind is Maduro is gone and yet the regime is largely still in place. I mentioned before how, I don't know if that requires you to call this, you know, does it, does it qualify then as regime change or is it more of a regime alteration where you're just getting rid of one guy. This isn't what we saw in Iraq. It's not what we saw in Afghanistan. So where do you come down on that question and the fact and really your analysis on this idea that Trump poured cold water on the idea on putting Machado in power.

Dan Caldwell (20:12)

So I don't think you can call this a regime change, war or operation at this time as we sit here today. You know, as we mentioned in the previous segment, the Maduro and Chavez regime, its infrastructure still exists and the security forces are still in place. Its key leaders are still in place and they're still running the country day to day. And the president and his administration, in my view, have made the right decision to deal with the remnants of that regime. And I think that's the right decision for a number of reasons. First, there isn't an opposition force in the country that can swoop in and take over the Venezuelan government replacing all the ex Maduro and Chavez people that are either pushed out, flee the country, imprisoned or killed, as the President alluded to, as Secretary Rubio alluded to. They just are not in the country in enough force that they can effectively do that. So in that case, the administration has really limited options. They can either send in massive numbers of American troops, do we did in Iraq, and do a de Ba' athification effort where we remove the remnants of like in Iraq, we remove the supporters and the remnants of the Saddam Hussein's regime, which you get into in your new podcast. And that created a lot of chaos in the country. We could try and attempt something similar in Venezuela. And yes, Venezuela and Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya are different, but there's a high risk you'd have the same result. You'd have a civil war regime collapse. And that would undermine what the President is trying to do. It would make it harder to send illegal immigrants back to Venezuela. It'd be harder to rehabilitate the Venezuelan oil industry. It'd likely have spillover effects in the broader region. It could lead to more Venezuelans trying to illegally immigrate to the United States. So right now, the best option forward is to maintain a semblance of stability by working with the Maduro regime and then over time, potentially engaging in a transition that is not based on some desire to impose liberalism and democracy on Venezuela, but is based on what is ultimately best for the security and stability of Venezuela and the Western Hemisphere. And that is what should dictate it, not some desire to impose the Venezuelan opposition on the Venezuelan people. And they may be elected in a future election at some point. But right now the primary focus of the administration seems to be ensuring that Venezuela does not collapse and that there is stability. And I think that is the right approach. Despite what you're starting to see some neocons advocating which is engaging in a full on regime change in Venezuela. And they're not hiding from that term. They're using that term with we should do a regime change in Venezuela. And fortunately right now the Trump administration does not seem to be taking that, that, that advice.

Jack Posobiec (23:25)

That's right. And in fact, I remember saying this back during the summer about the regime change being an upsell. This idea that going into Iran, when they hit the Iran nuclear sites, that, that was a targeted operation, hit the nuclear sites and withdraw. Whereas the neocons came in and said they wanted full regime change. I said, well that's the change. Upsell. They're trying to upsell you on this regime change thing. Whereas President Trump said no limited operation. What are we seeing now in Venezuela? Very similar situation. Targeted operation. Yes. Now it is the leader. So you know, I'm not going to sit here and say that it's not, you know, that it's not changing the leadership of another country. Obviously it is and there's no question, but it is not the same thing. The regime that's in place, the, the, the Bolivar and regime, for lack of a better term, that's been in place since Chavez took over in the 90s, this is still largely the infrastructure of Venezuela. And I applaud the President for understanding that keeping it stable is much better than letting it completely descend into the madness of another, you know, Iraq in the tropics, we just don't need it. We don't need an Iraq in the tropics. And one of the reasons, by the way, and I think everybody knows this from the President on down, we talked about it before, what do we always say here on Human Events Daily if you want to understand world geopolitics, cherchez le petrol. The French have a phrase, cherchez la femme. Look for the girl over here. We say cherchez le petrol, look for the oil. And let's put up a chart break, ladies and gentlemen, because crude oil reserves, Venezuela, some of the largest absolutely in the world, 303 billion billion barrels, larger than the Saudis, larger than Iran, larger than the Canadian oil sands. Although there's some dispute about whether Canada has more larger than Iraq. Uae, Kuwait, Russia, the United States, Libya, larger than all of them. This is one of the keys here and yes, the economics of extracting Venezuelan oil are kind of tricky because it's a heavy oil, it's a dirty oil, the crude oil. So it need, it requires much more refining and what better refineries? And so of course, you know, you're going to see the Texas oil barons looking down saying, well, what better spot to refine that than right here in the Gulf of America? So clearly there are economic interests at play. And we're not going to, you know, we're not going to sit here and say this isn't about that. But if you want that to make sense, which by the way, and Dan, just in the final minute here before the break, we had a relationship with Venezuela for years prior to the current embargo.

Dan Caldwell (26:06)

Correct. In a military relationship, they are still flying American F16s. And if you look at some of the post raid pictures from Maduro's compound, there were American armored personnel carriers there. We had a very close relationship with their military for years up until the 2002 coup that was an attempt to overthrow Chavez and it failed. So we had a long economic and military relationship with Venezuela really until the election of Hugo Chavez in the late 1990s.

Jack Posobiec (26:42)

And so there it is, folks. The idea is turn that on. Citgo going to be expanding in the US we will see our Chevron, I should say Chevron expanding in the U.S. we'll see. Come back next Human Events Daily.

Unidentified Guest (27:08)

Where's Jack? Where is he? Jack, I want to see you. Great job, Jack.

Jack Posobiec (27:16)

Thank you.

Unidentified Guest (27:17)

What a job you do. You know, we have an incredible thing. We're always talking about the fake news and the bad, but we have guys and these are the guys who've been getting policies.

Jack Posobiec (27:29)

All right, Jack Paso, big we are back live Human Events Daily. Getting some emails in now on these, on our question of the day. What do you think of the US Policy in Venezuela? Some people. First one in from Jeff, he says terrible slippery slope to forever war. Then I'm also seeing people. Then we got another one in from Mongoose. Well, it's not okay for Cuba, a proxy for China, Russia to control Venezuela, but it was wrong for the US to do. But you think, but people think it was wrong to do anything about it. And let's go back and forth here from Paul, Overthrow, annex it, as they like to say, encourage our Latin population to go and establish a new American colony. We're accused of it. Maybe we should actually do it. Venezuela. Jeff, another Jeff. We should put a long straw straight into the ground that sucks the oil right out of the ground and brings it straight to the US So that's a reference to there will be blood email from Tony. I think any war that lessens the likelihood my kid will overdose on fentanyl is a fight worth fighting. So talking about these, you know, the, the fentanyl trafficking that was coming in from DN 25 years ago, the CIA would have done this as a covert action, but that's not Trump's style. I like that. However, so long as the CIA is actively trafficking in drugs, I don't see how it changes anything. Many countries are responsible for trafficking drugs into the US Email from Schiff head. If we can get Maduro, why are Schiff and Pelosi walking around? Another Jeff, that's like the third Jeff. What's up with all these Jeffs? Venezuela, the new US Territory. Let them vote for statehood. Yeah, I'm totally against that. Want to get Dan Caldwell back in here. So, Dan, we're, we're hearing, you know, just, just in my own, you know, kind of like, you know, AB testing there, you know, it seems that, it seems that conservatives are somewhat divided on this. Some people saying they're totally for it, they like it, they like the oil extraction. Other people saying that they like it because they believe it's gonna reduce fentanyl in the United States, stop the drug trafficking or at least, you know, partially. And others saying, of course, that, you know, that this is great. Shut down the strategic elements of China, of Russia coming into the area. Another person I'm seeing mentioned Lake and Riley, of course, and others who have been affected by trend, Aragua and other illegal aliens and these gangs, cartels coming out of Venezuela. So when we, when we look at all of this, when we look at all of this, what's the big picture for the American people and American interests in these operations?

Dan Caldwell (30:18)

Look, I think what those emails lay out and what a lot of your listeners and viewers are, are, are saying and working through is actually healthy. Because, look, I think that it is good to be inherently skeptical and at the outset of any type of offensive military action, particularly considering the history of the last 30 years. However, that doesn't mean that military action and military options should always be off the table. And when we're talking about our own hemisphere, the stakes are fundamentally different, and I would say higher than in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Eastern Europe, Ukraine. Is that what matters here is absolutely critical to our safety and our prosperity. And so what was going on in Venezuela when it comes to the degradation of the Venezuelan government and the immiseration of the Venezuelan people and the refugee flows that that created, and the emergence of more and more drug organizations in Venezuela that had a negative impact on the United States that needed to be acknowledged and ultimately in some way dealt with. And so when you're looking at Venezuela, I would say is that absolutely immediately when you see a military operation, first and foremost you should pray for the safety of our troops in the middle of that operation. But it is not a bad thing to be skeptical. However, it needs to be acknowledged that not every part of the world means the same thing to the United States. And when it comes to our own hemisphere, we have more interests at stake. And whether it's ensuring that foreign powers can't use our own hemisphere to hurt American safety, to degrade our economic prosperity, or use it as a way to undermine our society through things like drugs or immigration or other types of criminal enterprises. So when you're looking at the situation in Venezuela, you should apply the lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya. But there's not a perfect apples to apples comparison. And you need to take each situation differently. And I just finally say is that if you go back to our founding and really the first 150 years of our foreign policy, almost the sole focus of our foreign policy up until World War I was what happened in our Western hemisphere because our founding fathers knew that it was important that the United States be the dominant power in our own hemisphere and that it is not used by foreign powers or ultimately non state actors to undermine our security. So this is part of of a long tradition of American foreign policy. And it's really a return to the foreign policy that made America successful and helped us become strong. So that's how I would encourage people to look at it now. Again, we don't know what the future holds for Venezuela. We should all hope that the Trump administration is successful. Even if you disagreed with the operation, you should be rooting for its success and talking about what the administration should be doing to be successful. And there's a lot of mistakes that could be made. But we have to acknowledge that what happens here in our own hemisphere is fundamentally important and should be looked at differently than other parts of the world.

Jack Posobiec (34:10)

I certainly agree. And that's why when people have talked about when President Trump gave one of his first speeches at the end of the campaign, so he wins, the campaign flies out to Arizona and he speaks on stage at Turning Point at the America Fest out there. And he comes up and I'm sitting there, I don't know, probably like row two, row Three, I've got my family and I got producer Foz next to me. And for the first time all year in 2024, President Trump starts talking about the Panama Canal. And I just got up out of my seat, put up to put up two, two arms and, and started clapping and said, yes, that is our canal and it deserves, it is ours by right. It is ours by right of creation. We are the ones who made it. It is ridiculous. It is a national embarrassment that the United States does not maintain full control of the Panama Canal. And as such, it should be ours. And I've said for years, just park an aircraft carrier, one in the aircraft in the Atlantic, one in the Pacific until it is turned back over. It's really as simple as that. In addition, Greenland, Greenland is something that has now been talked about again, these are key for our hemispheric defense. So hemispheric defense does give us the direct control of our own safety and security. By the way, the United States fought a massive war with the Spanish, with, with the Spanish kingdom, the Spanish empire, to kick them out of Cuba, kick them out of, of the Caribbean. This is what sort of bequeathed U.S. guantanamo Bay, if you will, 1898, our longest over our oldest overseas based, longest running for since 191898 on the Philippines as well, which could have been a US Colony, but instead we gave them their independence. Same with Cuba, of course, we saw how that turned out. So when we look at the history of the United States in this region, it does make direct sense for the, for the US to be the great power of the Western Hemisphere and as such, it must act like the great power of the Western Hemisphere. Certainly we certainly see the Russians and the Chinese doing this. We certainly see other countries acting in their own interests. There's no question that the United States should do the same. Dan, last minute and a half to you. Give us your coordinates and then give us a wrap up on just what do you think we'll see next in the next coming, you know, the coming days and weeks.

Dan Caldwell (36:37)

So the best place to find my work is on X at dandcaldwell and of course at americanmoment.org, so I think the big question over the next coming weeks and months is how the president chooses to proceed with the existing Venezuelan regime and how deferential they are to us and then ultimately what the transition away from Maduro looks like. Are there going to be elections very rapidly? I don't think so. Based on President Trump's remarks about the need to have law and order and Stability before that happens, is there going to be an effort to ensure that the foreign actors from adversarial countries like Iran and China and Russia that they're removed from Venezuela or they leave as part of a deal? I think those are things to be watching. I think finally is how do other countries in the region respond? Does tensions increase with countries like Colombia that's been very vocally against what we did in Venezuela, or is there a lot of public, you know, gnashing of the teeth and pounding of the table? But is there a lot of stuff behind the scenes that we don't see that is actually smoothing away or smoothing away to a them actually supporting what we do in Venezuela? I wouldn't be surprised, surprised if that's happening behind the scenes.

Jack Posobiec (37:58)

I wouldn't surprise me at all. Dan Caldwell, American moment. Give him a follow, folks. We're right back. Take you to the ground. New York City, where Maduro was on trial.

Unidentified Guest (38:05)

Jack is a great guy. He's written a fantastic book. Everybody's talking about it.

Dan Caldwell (38:10)

Go get it.

Unidentified Guest (38:11)

And he's been my friend right from the beginning of this whole beautiful event.

Dan Caldwell (38:15)

And we're going to turn it around.

Unidentified Guest (38:16)

And make our country great again.

Jack Posobiec (38:18)

Amen. All right, folks, Jack, we're back here live. Human Events Daily want to go now to the ground. We've got David Zier, rap correspondent, who's there in Manhattan at the courthouse. Just outside the courthouse, where I'm told Maduro has just finished being processed, was made his way back to the corrections facility. David Zier, how are you? Hi.

David Zier (38:45)

Good afternoon, Jack. Yeah, an incredible day here. Historic day in lower Manhattan. And as you know, Maduro and his wife Cecilia were flown from the Metropolitan Detention center in Brooklyn to the courthouse this morning, but left by convoy. And I think they came by helicopter this morning to avoid logistics snares and rush hour traffic. First day back from the New year holiday, right, for workers here in New York City and other. But he was taken by truck. There was some drama in the courtroom at the end. Now, I was in the overflow room next door because there was hundreds of media trying to get in there. But we heard at the end someone in the audience shouted out, you're gonna pay for what you've done. I believe that person was escorted out. And on his way out, Medoro was saying, you know, I was, I'm a prisoner of war. And I could give you a little bit of the summary of what happened in the arraignment if you want. And other.

Jack Posobiec (39:41)

Well, sure, we do want to hear that because I think in general people want to know what exactly are the charges that he is facing and what essentially the penalties will be if he's, if he's convicted.

David Zier (39:57)

Yes. And Nicholas Maduro was flanked by Barry Pollock of Julian Assange. You know, he represented him along with Marty Tankleff, who's great a accused of killing his parents in the 80s and high end lawyer. And he said that Maduro was a victim of a military abduction during the arraignment. And you know, Judge Hellerstein is in there and he's the judge that denied Trump to move the trial from state to federal for the hush money. He also blocked the Alien enemies Act of 1798 to deport a leg of Trende Aragua. But this indictment has been going on for about 14, 15 years in New York City with the Southern District here. And it's just something to note that the judge asked Nicolas Maduro and his wife if they wanted bail. And Maduro said no, not at this time. They may put an application in writing for that. Also, a lot of things were discussed. He was informed of his rights that he should know he can talk to his consulate and others for communication purposes. The prosecution agreed to that here. But there's bigger issues here. This is part of the 2011 Southern District case that Helenstein presided over. They just convicted General Armando Caraval Barrios, right from the known as El Pollo the Chicken. He worked with Hugo Chavez and he was indicted. And I don't know if he cut a deal or not, but he might get life in prison. But his sentencing is going to be next week. And it's similar charges to Maduro. Now, this was a superseding indictment to the original indictment from Maduro from 2020, which added charges, added people into this, including Maduro's son and known as Nicolasito and former Minister of Interior Justice Ramon Rodriguez Chaqua, Joaquin and Hector Flores, who said that he was a leader of Chandelier Agua. And I guess they're trying to make the connection, the prosecution here, between actual kidnappings and murder and human rights and all kinds of other stuff, maybe even expanding the superseding indictment going forward. I'm not sure. But they're trying to make that connection here.

Jack Posobiec (42:11)

And I remember that when the DNI put out their report a while back, Joe Ken said, and this became a huge point of contention in the media as to whether or not Maduro was directly operating and executing Trend Missions was, you know, were they acting on behalf of the regime or were they acting with the support of the Regime or simply with the blessing of the regime. All of this, of course. So we see the charges, narco terrorism, conspiracy, cocaine importation, Asian conspiracy, the weapons charges. So whether or not they're able to prevent, provide the evidence on this will probably get back to the heart of what Joe Kent was saying back in that ODNI report to say that we do have this connection. Now the DOJ is going to have to put that together. The Southern District of New York, of course, would be able to do that as well. And, you know, and it certainly looks like he would be facing decades in prison at the very least. Least. Should he be. Should he be found guilty on all this? David, do you know when is the next. When is their next hearing? When is their next arraignment?

David Zier (43:17)

Yeah, they're going to reconvene on March 17th. There's about a 60 day reprieve here. I think they're going to start the discovery process. We probably won't see a trial date for some time. Within that time, he may ask for bail. I'm not sure. And just to note, Jack, that corruption and violence, including sell selling of diplomatic passports to cartels and ordering kidnappings and murders are part of this indictment. Like you said, now they got to prove it. But a dramatic day in court here and Celia Flores claiming she received injuries and her lawyer saying she might have a fracture during the arrest and that he needs some help. Nicholas Maduro, he may have underlying medical conditions. A lot going on inside the court. Courthouse. Patrick Moynihan, courthouse here, 500 Pearl Street, Lower Manhattan.

Jack Posobiec (44:04)

All right, David's here. Thank you very much for your intrepid reporting on. On a day that I know is a little bit chilly up there in New York.

David Zier (44:12)

It's freezing.

Jack Posobiec (44:14)

Yeah, I could see your rosy. I know that Rob Sake wasn't paying the makeup department to get those rosy cheeks on. You know, that's the real thing, baby. Thanks, David. Appreciate it, man. Really appreciate it. So, folks, we have to look at where we're at. We are in the middle of the fourth turning. This is going on. This is happening whether you like it or not. The question is there are a lot of people and I see these emails and I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back to them because I want to pull this up a little bit more. People saying, here, here's another one from Leon. I voted for Trump three times. I want cheaper groceries, cheaper affordable housing, closed borders, deep state arrests, no new wars. It's that simple. So you're seeing this split. You're Seeing this disparity between people saying they like it, they're not against it, but other people saying they don't know whether or not this is direct. In the direct support of the American people. They want to know, what do we get out of this? How does this help me now, by the way, one thing I could certainly point you to is that this is absolutely something that is going to lead to lower gas prices. Should it all work right? Should it all work out? Should it all take place? And that dude over at Gas Buddy who always loses his mind on me because he's got such bad Trump derangement syndrome. So the guy. I don't know if you guys know Gas Buddy, the site. I've been in this, like, Twitter war with this guy for like, like a year now because every. Because he went full panic in over the tariffs and he said price increase alert. And Gas Buddy pinned it to their site is all price increase alert. You got to be careful. The gas prices are going to go way, way up. Because the tariffs is about a year ago now, right? I think it was. It was March. Okay? It was March of 2025. And. And I put out, I said, I don't think the gas prices are going to rise. Oh, you don't understand what you're talking about. About. Because I. I'm the one who understands this. I'm the Gas buddy. I'm the leader of the gas price. I'm like, okay, well, we'll see what happens, man. And what happened? Gas prices went down. Everyone who was panicking over the tariffs was proven completely wrong. Gas prices are currently down, I believe, under $3 across the country nationwide average, which, by the way, you can check on GasBuddy, which I'll do right now. GasBuddy national average. Let's do it. Boom. Let's just see GasBuddy national average. And we are looking at $2.82. And that's the highest. $2.82. $2.77 is the lowest average. So we've seen that just over the last couple of days. It's sort of fluctuating. Folks, here's what happens. If that Venezuelan oil floods back onto the market, you're going to see gas prices go down again. That'll help you directly. And that's going to lead to lower groceries, plus lower prices for housing, because anything that's carried transport, lumber, construction equipment, the building materials for houses, that's all going to come down as well. Now, none of this means that we should stop our focus on domestic policy and be very clear about that. Main quest. Stay Main quest. Clean up the United States. Get the illegals out of here. Get the people that are here on that are paper Americans on these ridiculous visas. Get them out as well. America will be made great again. Ladies and gentlemen, as always, you have my permission to lay ashore.