JD Vance Slams Reports He, Tulsi Gabbard Were Kept in the Dark on Venezuela Operation – RedState
Vice President JD Vance criticized reports that US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was kept out of planning the Venezuela operation.
At the White House press conference on Thursday, Vance responded to questions from members of the press about reports claiming that he and Gabbard did not participate in meetings to discuss the removal of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. It starts at 27:30.
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“So I heard several things. One, I was kept out of the planning of the Venezuela operation,” Vance said. “It’s wrong.”
“And another that Tulsi was kept out of the planning of the operation in Venezuela,” he added. “That’s completely false. Look, we’re all on the same team. And one of the things that’s really amazing about this operation is that we’ve kept it very closely tied to senior cabinet officials and relevant officials in our government.”
“We kept this operation secret for a very long time,” Vance continued. “I’m very proud of it. I think it suggests that the team works very well together.”
The vice president then spoke about what he saw as his role following the impeachment of the former Venezuelan president.
“My role will be whatever the president asks me to do,” Vance said. “Every two days, I chair the meeting we organize on this subject [Venezuela] among White House leaders to discuss next steps in trying to ensure Venezuela’s stability.
“And as the president has asked us to do, ensure that the new Venezuelan government actually listens to the United States,” he added. “And does what the United States wants it to do in the best interest of our country.”
“So I’m going to be as involved as the president wants me to be,” Vance continued. “So far it has been very complex. And I will continue to do it for as long as the president asks me to.”
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The comments follow a Bloomberg report that said “people familiar with the matter” said:
The White House has excluded Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard from months of planning to oust Nicolas Maduro because her previous opposition to military action in Venezuela cast doubt on her willingness to support the operation, sources familiar with the matter said.
The decision to exclude Gabbard from the meetings was so well-known that some White House aides joked that the acronym in her title, DNI, stood for “Do Not Invite,” according to three of the people. They asked not to be identified in private conversations. A White House official denied the existence of such a joke.
Over the weekend, news broke of the highly successful U.S. operation in Caracas to extract Maduro and his wife and bring them to the United States to stand trial, as RedState’s RC Maxwell reported.
It read:
U.S. special operations forces executed a lightning-fast raid in Venezuela early Saturday morning, capturing and arresting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on charges of narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, was also captured in the raid.
It’s good to have a leader and an administration in the White House that understands that America’s security must come first.
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