Marco Rubio is having a big Venezuelan Wednesday.
This morning, he testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on our current Venezuelan policy. This afternoon, he's meeting with María Corina Machado. It's her second meeting in Washington, D.C. in as many weeks, and she's been in touch with Donald Trump and Rubio in between, so for those of you who fear that she's not involved in this process, let that put your mind at ease.
I can't say this enough: From Donald Trump to the remaining members of the regime in Venezuela, you can't go by words, only by what actually happens.
As for the hearing, I actually started writing this last night because I saw Rubio's prepared remarks and I wanted to dispel some other MSM rumors going around. I'd planned to finish this morning, but found out the hearing was public, so, I took one for the team and stayed home and watched all two-and-a-half hours of it.
Related: Trump's Berlin Wall Moment?
As I wrote on Monday, despite some jitters earlier this month, I now have total confidence in Rubio to handle the situation in Venezuela. He proved that today, putting on a Western Hemisphere master class, all while dealing with Democrats asking him the most asinine questions —just wait until we get to Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).
Either these people are complete idiots, or they just wanted some TV time to spew their anti-Trump talking points. I'd say a little of both, but such is the case with these things.
The man owned the room, but he has, after all, spent a decade and a half on this situation personally and professionally, and now he's literally running the place until a legitimate government takes over. Do not doubt that for a second.
The biggest takeaways? Delcy Rodríguez is cooperating because her life depends on it. She's a pawn, not the endgame. None of Nicolás Maduro's thugs are part of the future plan. Most of the country and the rest of the hemisphere — except the Democrats and commies — supports what we're doing. We are not at war with Venezuela, never have been, probably never will be. It was once a thriving and wealthy country and will be so again, though it won't be quick and easy — Rubio compared it to a critically ill patient who has a ruptured organ and a broken leg. You fix the organ first, then the leg, then the guy needs rehab to walk again. And if Delcy and her buddies decide to stop cooperating, we are not afraid to use military action again like we did with Maduro on January 3. It's not off the table no matter how hard Sens. Rand Paul (R-ish-Ky) or Tim Kaine (D-Va.) cry about it.
I also took from it that many members of Congress are not very knowledgeable about the Western Hemisphere. That's not a diss — many of them legitimately come across as ignorant, and that's sad. Some also seemed pretty upset that we're focusing more on Latin America and less on Europe.
There was not much in the lane of breaking news — especially if you've been ignoring the MSM and reading my articles — but now I'm going to shut up and let Mr. Secretary do the talking. I've got quotes and videos, and some of them are long, so bear with me.
What was our goal going in?
From Rubio's opening remarks:
We had, in our hemisphere, a regime operated by an indicted narcotrafficker that became a base of operation for virtually every competitor, adversary, and enemy in the world. It was – for Iran, their primary spot of operation in the Western Hemisphere was Venezuela. For Russia, their primary base of operation in the Western Hemisphere, along Cuba and Nicaragua, was Venezuela. In the case of China, China was receiving oil at a huge – about $20 a barrel – discount, and they weren’t even paying money for it. It was being used to pay down debt that they were owed. This is the oil of the people of Venezuela, and it was being given to the Chinese as barter at a 20 percent – at a $20 discount per barrel in some cases. And so you had basically three of our primary opponents in the world operating from our hemisphere from that spot.
It was also a place where you had a narcotrafficking regime that openly cooperated with the FARC and the ELN and other drug trafficking organizations using their national territory. It was an enormous strategic risk for the United States – not halfway around the world, not in another continent, but in the hemisphere in which we all live. And it was having dramatic impacts on us but also on Colombia and on the Caribbean Basin and all sorts of other places. It was an untenable situation, and it had to be addressed.
What's the endgame?
Rubio has a three-point plan to make this work, and he started his explanation with phase three.
...we want to reach a phase of transition where we are left with a friendly, stable, prosperous Venezuela, and democratic, in which all elements of society are represented. By the way, you can have elections. You can have elections all day. But if the opposition has no access to the media, if opposition candidates are routinely dismissed and unable to be on the ballot because of the government, those aren’t free and fair elections. That’s the end state that we went: free, fair, prosperous, and friendly Venezuela. We’re not going to get there in three weeks. It’s going to take some time.
🔥@SecRubio was having NONE of Tammy Duckworth's posturing during today's hearing on foreign policy. pic.twitter.com/Av9XwEgX3I
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 28, 2026
But first, stability.
Rubio talked of creating a short-term mechanism, which is what we're seeing right now, to stabilize the country. Here's more.
And so objective number one was stability. In the aftermath of the removal of Maduro, the concern was what happens in Venezuela. Is there civil war? Do the different factions start going at each other? Are a million people crossing the border into Colombia? All of that has been avoided. And one of the primary ways that it has been avoided is the ability to establish direct, honest – respectful but very direct and honest conversations with the people who today control the elements of that nation, meaning the law enforcement, the government apparatus, et cetera.
And one of the tools that’s available to us is the fact that we have sanctions on oil. There is oil that is sanctioned that cannot move from Venezuela because of our quarantine. And so what we did is we entered into an arrangement with them, and the arrangement is this. On the oil that is sanctioned and quarantined, we will allow you to move it to market. We will allow you to move it to market at market prices – not at the discount China was getting. In return, the funds from that will be deposited into an account that we will have oversight over, and you will spend that money for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.
Next, recovery.
Phase two of Rubio's plan is to recover the nation's oil industry, and he reaffirmed the exhausting Democrat talking point that this is not about us getting their oil or anything that ridiculous.
Again, this is – look, we’ve got plenty of oil. There’s plenty of oil all over the world. Canada produces heavy crude, so it’s not like Venezuela’s oil is unique in that regard, despite the fact they have the largest known reserves in the world. It’s not irreplaceable. But we understand that that is the lifeline. Their natural resources are going to allow Venezuela to be stable and prosperous moving forward. And so we created the – what we hope to do is transition to a mechanism that allows that to be sold in a normal way, a normal oil industry – not one dominated by cronies, not one dominated by graft and corruption.
To that end, the authorities there deserve some credit. They have passed a new hydrocarbon law that basically eradicates many of the Chavez era restrictions on private investment in the oil industry. It probably doesn’t go far enough to attract sufficient investment, but it’s a big step from where they were three weeks ago. So that’s a major change.
It won't be easy.
Rubio isn't going into this with rose-colored glasses. He even invoked a little Coolio (IYKYK — I think this is the second time he's used hip-hop lyrics to describe this situation this month.)
"And I recognize that it won’t be easy," he said. "I mean, look, at the end of the day we are dealing with people over there that have spent most of their lives living in a gangster paradise, so it’s not going to be like from one day to the next we’re going to have this thing turn around overnight."
🔥 @SecRubio DEFENDS the Administrations seizing of Maduro:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 28, 2026
"I recognize that it won't be easy... We are dealing with people over there that have spent most their lives living in a gangster PARADISE.
So ... we’re not going to have this thing turnaround overnight, but I think… pic.twitter.com/ftvfGw2FyT
Democrats gone wild
And now for the entertainment portion of the program, watch Democrats lecture at him like he's a school, and watch him fire back.
Kaine seemed to think that he was there to mock Trump for saying "Iceland" instead of "Greenland" once. Rubio got him back with a snarky Joe Biden reference.
LMAO—Krazy Kaine tries to catch Rubio in a trap & FAILS!
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 28, 2026
KAINE: POTUS said ICELAND but meant GREENLAND! He misspoke! Right?!
RUBIO: "Yeah he meant to say Greenland. But I think we're all familiar with Presidents who have verbal stumbles...Some made a lot more than this one."🤣 pic.twitter.com/BBsKzMTHzv
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) was very upset that Trump and Rubio didn't call him up to let him know they were capturing Maduro in the middle of the night.
Cuckoo Coons is ANGRYYYY that @SecRubio didn't tell him about the Maduro Heist!
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 28, 2026
RUBIO: "The truth of the matter is that this mission could NOT have been briefed the Congress, because it wasn’t even in the realm of POSSIBLE until very late in December.
It was also trigger based… pic.twitter.com/xU1riBC1bv
Not a Democrat exactly, but I really thought Paul was smarter than this. He's become such a disappointment.
🚨 BREAKING: Sec. Marco Rubio CLAPS BACK at Rand Paul opposing the Venezuela attacks
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 28, 2026
PAUL: We violated the Constitution, removed an elected official!
RUBIO: We did NOT remove an elected official! We removed an unelected, indicted DRUG TRAFFICKER! 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/Jr8QyL5d9Z
And last but not least, this exchange with Duckworth sounded like a political version of "Who's on First?"
Or, as JD Vance put it, "Watching Tammy Duckworth obsessively interrupt Marco Rubio during this hearing is like watching Forest Gump argue with Isaac Newton."
She was just making stuff up and trying to combine two different things to make a point that's not true...or something. I felt bad for Rubio. This must be exhausting.
🔥@SecRubio was having NONE of Tammy Duckworth's posturing during today's hearing on foreign policy. pic.twitter.com/Av9XwEgX3I
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 28, 2026
And as for Cuba?
Oh, he went there: "We'd love to see the regime change there!"
🚨 JUST IN — DEM SEN. SCHATZ: Will you publicly commit to NO regime change in Cuba?!
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 28, 2026
SEC. MARCO RUBIO: "Regime change? No, we'd LOVE to see the regime there change!"
🔥🔥🔥pic.twitter.com/BibR3vBxSH
America First.
I'll leave you with this one. It might be the most important case Rubio can make for why the Western Hemisphere is now top priority: China.
🚨@SecRubio lays out a PHENOMENAL case for why the United States needs to be WEARY of China, and remain the Global Hegemon:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 28, 2026
"The Chinese are Very interested in telecommunication, very interested in building and controlling key infrastructure, they’re very interested in critical… pic.twitter.com/IWgf8B5gtJ
If you're so inclined, you can watch all two and a half hours of it here. It was so good, I might watch it again tonight.
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