00:00White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said that the U.S. would need congressional approval
00:04to conduct ground strikes in Venezuela. Do you share that view? And I know your response today
00:09on regime change. Wiles already acknowledged that the point of the boat strikes was to pressure
00:15Maduro, i.e. have him leave. Why not just acknowledge that this is a regime change?
00:20Do you have the quote she said?
00:22That this is a-
00:23No, no, but do you have the quote?
00:24To cry uncle.
00:25Yeah, so, okay, so cry uncle, all right? I guess in Spanish,
00:29you would have to say tío. But I think, I don't know how that, I mean, you can interpret
00:38any way you want. But at the end of the day, it is clear that the current status quo with
00:44the Venezuelan regime is intolerable for the United States. The status quo, that they operate
00:48and cooperate with terrorist organizations against the national interests of the United
00:52States. Not just cooperate, but partner with and participate in activities that threaten
00:57the national interests of the United States. So yes, our goal is to change that dynamic.
01:03And that's why the President is doing what he's doing. Change that dynamic by ensuring
01:06that no one wants to get on drug boats anymore. People were just going out there openly without
01:11any fear of the reaper. And now, I think people understand it's not a good idea. By the way,
01:16we haven't had a strike in the Caribbean Basin in almost five weeks. Do you know why? It's
01:19not because we stopped looking. It's because no one wants to get on a boat anymore and do that.
01:23So it's been effective at cutting that down. Now, there's been strikes in the Pacific.
01:27So the bottom line is that, sure, our goal is to – I mean, what's the point of doing
01:32something? But the change – people want to focus on regime this and this and that.
01:37The goal here is very simple – the national interest of the United States. The President
01:40of the United States was elected to protect the American people, to protect America.
01:44That's what he was elected to do. It's one of his fundamental promises that Donald J.
01:47Trump made when he was elected President of the United States is, I am going to protect
01:51this country. Protect us from what? From the threat of terrorism, from threats to our economy,
01:56and from threats – these drug organizations and these terrorist organizations pose against
02:00the United States. And if you are an ally, a friend, a partner, or cooperate or participate
02:04in activities that threaten the United States, you're going to have a problem with President
02:08Trump. I think the only shocking thing here is that a lot of people say that. People run
02:12all the time for office. I'm going to take on the cartels. I'm going to do this.
02:15He's actually doing it. He's not doing anything he didn't say he was not going to do during
02:19this campaign. He said he was going to go after the cartels. And now he's going after
02:23the cartels and everybody's shocked. Everybody's – don't be shocked. This is a man who was
02:28elected President because he says and then he does. He doesn't just say and then forget
02:32about it.
02:33In congressional approval on land strikes, do you think that the United States does
02:36need to go to Congress in order to conduct land strikes in Venezuela?
02:39MR. Well, look, I'm not going to speculate about things that haven't happened and may
02:43never happen. I'm not going to speculate on that. All I'm going to tell you is that – two things.
02:47And I remind Congress all the time – by the way, I was very consistent on this position
02:50because it was my position when I was in the Senate. Number one, no administration, Republican
02:54or Democrat, has ever accepted the War Powers Act as being constitutional. That said, multiple
02:59administrations, including this one, have sought congressional approval and or certainly
03:05congressional notification of actions taken. Why? Because American action is always strongest
03:10when it has the buy-in and the participation of a broad set of actors. Now, given our current
03:14political climate, that's not always easy because we do have people today in politics
03:18that are against everything that President Trump is for. It doesn't matter what it is.
03:22It doesn't matter if they themselves had the same position. If it's President Trump's
03:25idea, they're against it reflexively. Okay? That's the nature of the current climate in
03:28our politics. But I can tell you that to this point, nothing has happened that requires us
03:33to notify Congress or get congressional approval or cross the threshold into war. We have very
03:38strong legal opinions. We have now briefed Capitol Hill 23 times, 23 briefings, bipartisan briefings
03:45on Capitol Hill. I have personally participated in six of those 23 at the highest levels of
03:50the committee, but then the full House and then the full Senate, which, by the way, are
03:53always interesting. Okay, get it. I've been there before. Okay? So I was part of this thing
03:58in the past as well. But you do this briefing. You answer all their questions. Then they go out
04:02and tell people, we heard nothing. We saw nothing that we were pleased with. They already had their
04:06answer before they went in. But we do them anyways. And we continue to do them, not to mention
04:10the individual calls I've had with leaders in Congress. And I'm not going to disclose
04:14what those are. So everybody over there knows what we're doing. They know why we're doing
04:17it. And we've kept Congress fully apprised, and we'll continue to do so.
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