Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth briefed members of the Senate today on the situation in Venezuela, and after, they took time to speak to the media before rushing off to brief members of Congress. They managed to pack a lot of information into a short seven-minute press conference.
First, here's something that'll make you laugh — Chuck Schumer spoke just before they came up to the microphone, and a smiling Rubio led with the line, "I'm against everything he says."
The secretary then launched into an explanation of what's next for Venezuela. He said he couldn't describe all of the operational details, but he did say that it's going to be a "threefold process."
Step one is the stabilization of the country. Here's more from Rubio:
We don’t want it descending into chaos. Part of that stabilization, and the reason why we understand and believe that we have the strongest leverage possible, is our quarantine. As you’ve seen today, two more ships were seized. We are in the midst right now, and in fact about to execute, on a deal to take all the oil – they have oil that is stuck in Venezuela; they can’t move it because of our quarantine and because it’s sanctioned. We are going to take between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil. We’re going to sell it in the marketplace – at market rates, not at the discounts Venezuela was getting. That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it is disbursed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people – not corruption, not the regime. So, we have a lot of leverage to move on the stabilization front.
Step two is what he's calling the "recovery phase."
...ensuring that American, Western, and other companies have access to the Venezuelan market, a way that’s fair; also, at the same time, begin to create the process of reconciliation nationally within Venezuela so that the opposition forces can be amnestied and released and – from prisons or brought back to the country, and begin to rebuild civil society.
The final step will be the transition of power back to the Venezuelan people. (He didn't say this, but I want to emphasize that we will not be handing power back to the regime. If we do, this was all a waste. Rubio and Trump are much smarter than that.)
Related: What's REALLY Next for Venezuela and What the MSM Gets Wrong
"Some of this will overlap," he said. "I’ve described this to them in great detail. We’ll have more detail in the days to follow. But we feel like we’re moving forward here in a very positive way."
As for a timeline, he said he's not going to make one because it's a process. He said they want to move as quickly as possible, but it's only been three or four days, and it's not something that will happen overnight.
One reporter told Rubio that some of the (presumably Democrat) senators said that the administration is just "winging it" and has no real plan for Venezuela going forward.
His response was exceptional: "Yeah, I know, they’re going to say that. I used to be a senator too; that’s what you always say when it’s the other party." He went on to explain that nothing could be further from the truth, and the plan is already taking place:
The bottom line is we’ve gone into great detail with them about the planning; we’ve described it to them. In fact, it’s not just winging it, it’s not just saying or speculating it’s going to happen – it’s already happening. Like, the oil arrangement that we’ve made with PDVSA on their sanctioned oil that they can’t move – understand, they are not generating any revenue from their oil right now. They can’t move it unless we allow it to move because we have sanctions, because we’re enforcing those sanctions.
This is tremendous leverage. We are exercising it in a positive way. The President described it last night. Secretary Wright will have more to say on it today, who is involved in running this portfolio, and we feel very positive that not only will that generate revenue that will be used to the benefit of the Venezuelan people – and we’ll ensure that that’s what the case is – but it also gives us an amount of leverage and influence and control over how this process moves forward.
On the topic of Greenland, Rubio didn't want to say too much, but he did admit that he will be meeting with leaders from Denmark and Greenland next week, and that Donald Trump's intention to buy the territory is nothing new.
Well, that’s always been the President’s intent from the very beginning. He said it very early on. I mean, this is not new; he talked about it in his first term. And he’s not the first U.S. president that has examined or looked at how could we acquire Greenland. There’s an interest there. But – so I just reminded them of the fact that not only did Truman want to do it, but President Trump’s been talking about this since his first term.
As for taking Greenland militarily, something many MSM outlets have run with in their headlines because the White House said yesterday that it's not off the table, Rubio cleared that up, too. "The President always retained the option, if he – every president, not this President, every president – always retains the option – I’m not talking about Greenland; I’m just talking about globally. If the President identifies a threat to the national security of the United States, every president retains the option to address it through military means."
You can watch Rubio's entire remarks here, and make sure you watch until the end when Hegseth lays into who appears to be a CNN reporter about their desire to "find any angle possible to undermine the success of one of the most historic military missions the world has ever seen." He was on fire!
Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth speak to media following briefing with Senators. pic.twitter.com/dOUyCzl7cQ
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 7, 2026
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