American Family Radio welcomes Walker Wildman on today's show
>> Walker Wildmon: In many ways, abortion was on the ballot this past election and there's reason for concern. There are many counties, cities and states who have radicalized abortion. And thousands of tiny babies will continue to lose their lives every day. Which is why the Ministry of preborn is on the front lines for at risk babies and mothers with unplanned pregnancies. Preborn sponsors clinics positioned in the highest abortion areas in the country. By providing them with resources that they need to rescue babies, PreBorn continues to expand their life affirming care. Their end of year goal is to equip 10 more clinics with ultrasound machines. These life saving machines cost $15,000 each, more than most clinics can afford. When a woman meets her baby on ultrasound, she is twice as likely to choose life. And when she comes to a preborn clinic, she will also be embraced with God's love. $28 sponsors one ultrasound. And now through a match, your gift is doubled. How many babies can you save? Please donate just dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 and say the keyword baby dot or you can go to preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr all gifts are tax deductible and PreBorn has a four star charity rating. We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are. We equip sacred honor is the courage to speak truth to live out your free speech. We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character hope. This is at the core on American Family Radio. Welcome to the corps here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon here with you on this brand new edition of the program just a week into 2026 and there's plenty to talk about. So that's what we'll be doing here on the program before we jump to our in studio guest and talk about some of the news going on.
Sometimes our weaknesses are used for the glory of God
John chapter nine is where we are this week. John chapter nine looking at verses one through three. Now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents that he would be born blind. Jesus answered them in verse three, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. And so what we want to point out today and this week on this passage is, is that sometimes our weaknesses are used for the glory of God. God uses our weaknesses not, only to humble us, but also to draw near to him and rely on his works and his power in our life. And that's what was being pointed out here in chapter nine of John 1:3.
Walker: Abraham Hamilton discusses President Trump's decision to extradite Nicolas Maduro
Well, I told you on Monday that we would talk more about Venezuela and what all is going on on Wednesday. And so here we are on Wednesday, and that's what we're going to do today. Abraham Hamilton iii, host of the Hamilton Corner, also general Counsel here, is with us. Familiar voice for our audience here. Abraham, welcome to the program.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Thank you. How you doing, Walker?
>> Walker Wildmon: Doing well. Well, you and I and others were talking on this on Monday, just a little bit. Yeah, it was the elephant in the room. Right. and the legal question was, is a very fascinating one. And I'll just set this up for our audience, those who aren't news nerds like some of us are. the president, gave the order to essentially arrest Nicolas Maduro, over the weekend. And it was done with multiple federal agencies and departments, Department of War, Department of Justice, etc. but the kind of, the core premise of it was, an outstanding arrest warrant, federal arrest warrant with multiple, charges and an indictment dating back from several years ago out of the Southern District of NewSong York. That was the legal premise that was used as a law enforcement action to basically extradite Nicolas Maduro under federal authority. Federal law enforcement authority, even though the Department of War did, some of the heavy lifting here. So with that being kind of the setup of the reasoning behind the White House signing off on this arrest. What, what's your, what are you thinking about this? I mean, you've had a couple days to kind of mull this over. What are you looking at and what are you thinking about from a legal perspective?
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Yeah, I've talked about this on Hamilton Corner as well, and we'll continue to, because this is, really an, a world shaping event, frankly. And I've explained it as, from my perspective, having a tension between, first of all, I am grateful that President Trump had the courage to do it. I know the Venezuelan people are rejoicing that this is happening. This is clearly something that is beneficial to the Venezuelan people as well as the United States of America. So I understand this on a policy front, when you consider, let's just be honest about something. Venezuela had become a hub in our own hemisphere for all of our enemies, our most potent enemies being the Venezuelan government working in alliance with Hezbollah to train the Venezuelan foot soldiers. I mean, it's no doubt about it that Maduro was a bad actor. The Venezuelan people needed this. Where they're sitting on the largest, verifiable oil reserves in the world while their people are starving.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: I mean, it's insane.
>> Walker Wildmon: And they were once very prosperous. Yes.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: The fourth. I, literally yesterday was talking about they were the fourth wealthiest country in the world.
>> Walker Wildmon: Ye.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: In the world. And just in a short amount of time. And sometimes people fail to remember these things. But Venezuela did not become a Marxist nation until 1998, after Chavez's election. Hugo Chavez was elected. So you're Talking about within 26 years, from 1998 to 2025, you've gone from the fourth wealthiest country in the world to where your citizens are breaking into zoos to, to barbecue, you know, the bubbles. Wow. From the monkey. So, I mean, this, this, this is, this is just true.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: So on the, on the policy front, I understand it, I agree with it. The action being taken, however, we have this thing called a constitution.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: And so that has to be reconciled. And so, to pit this as basically a federal extradition, kind of defines legal comprehension because usually extraditions are executed in coordination with, with the host or arresting nation initially. And so you got to pick and choose. We do have a War Powers Resolution, the War Powers act, that allows presidents to take military action without notifying Congress beforehand, as long as Congress is notified within 48 days that the action has been 48 hours. 48 hours. I'm sorry, 48 hours that the action has been taken. And that limited action can only persist for 60 days. So we have that. So when you try to put this, present this as an extradition, it kind of begins to strain the legalities, the concept of legalities, which I think as a free people, this is something we should wrestle with.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: We reconcile the reality of the positivity of the policy action. We need to wrestle with the constitutionality as well.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And obviously this foreign policy stuff gets pretty muddy and we've got agency like the CIA that do some covert stuff that probably isn't constitutional. but supposedly they're not doing it on our, Nonetheless, the reason we need to be struggling with this question is because as Americans and as the west, we've criticized and punished in many regards, other nations, such as Russia, for doing not exactly the same thing, but similar things where you just arrest people just because you can basically. and in this instance, there was no governing authority other than the Maduro regime to get consent from right because, the Maduro basically taken over Venezuela. but to your point, you can't have it both ways. Either this was an act by the Department of War in defense of the nation, or it was an act by the Department of Justice carrying out a extradition. Not a textbook extradition. Let me just say that. but. But, Abe, if you try to go down the war path, the War Powers act, then all of this Southern District of NewSong York, m. All of that kind of gets pushed to the side. I mean, it can't be both. It's one or the other. Right?
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. And I think, something that's good for the audience to keep in mind. I think the most analogous circumstance to what happened in Venezuela is what happened in 1990 in Panama with, Noriega, when the. Under the Daddy Bush administration, where we went in and did a little swashbuckling and got Noriega out. And it's interesting to know that Noriega was once a CIA asset. That's something else. That's an interesting little incident.
>> Walker Wildmon: He was until he wasn't.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: He was. Until he wasn't. one distinction from this scenario. There, didn't have a bounty from the federal government. And I mean. And I think the Trump administration is on the right trajectory when it says, hey, listen, the first Trump administration did not regard Maduro as the legal president, the legitimate president of Venezuela. The Biden administration didn't regard Maduro as a legitimate president of Venezuela. The European Union does not currently view Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela, nor did the current Trump administration. And you had the reality that both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration had a bounty on Maduro. So that.
>> Walker Wildmon: So from their vantage point.
The United States government had already placed a bounty on indicted Venezuelan criminal Maduro
From their vantage point, they're not arresting the president of Venezuela, they're arresting an indicted criminal.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Exactly right. That. And it's from that vantage point, an indicted criminal who the United States government has already placed a bounty on.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And that's what you said on Monday. That I was like, that's so true. And I know you've made some of these points on your show, but this is maybe a different audience, but, President Trump had a bounty. Fifteen million, I think, on Maduro's. On Maduro.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Biden bumped it up.
>> Walker Wildmon: Biden bumped it up to 25. And then now he's been arrested. But to your point, why would you have a 15, $25 million bounty on an individual that you don't legally. That you can't legally arrest?
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Exactly. That you cannot enforce.
>> Walker Wildmon: And I haven't heard anybody questioning the legality of the bounty for the last eight to 10 years. That hasn't been a discussion.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: That's exactly right. And then that begins to ask the question, well, what's the bounty for? Because you have a person who is a rogue agent who is acting against the interests of the United States of America and the American people. And that is what the bounty was for. And you won't have many people to try to reconcile that, because, let's just be honest, if President Trump sneezes and cures cancer, the media is going to have a problem with it. It's so true. They're going to have a problem with it. And so they want to try to use this as an opportunity to try to weaken, President Trump. But let's be honest about a couple other things. You want the president to confer with Congress, a Congress that has demonstrated quite a bit of ineptitude, let alone instances of potential corruption. How many people are, frankly, allies to Maduro prior to his detention, and that if you inform Congress beforehand, you might as well tell Venezuela, hey, we're on the way.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's right.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: So you have these things, and I think it's important for us as American people to wrestle with these things, because we must maintain our posture as being a nation of laws and not of men. And we need to think not only about the immediacy of the moment, but we need to consider what could happen down the line when there may be a person in office that we may not agree with or that we do agree with. No matter where we stand on the issue, we should wrestle with the constitutionality and the legality of our governmental actions.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. I'm still undecided on this. You know, one minute I say the legal footing here is very thin, if any, if existent at all. But then I think, well, if. If he wasn't the legitimate president and there was no governing authority to get consent from on, let's, let's call it an extradition, then what do you do other than just go get him? Right. I mean, we just basically intercepted him. But we've done this in the past, not at this scale, but in the Middle east, when our department, of Defense, and in some cases FBI were operating in, like, Syria and some of these other places where it's really unclear who's exactly in charge. We were arresting, we were apprehending terrorists frequently, like ISIS terrorists and others in Al Qaeda. And what were we doing? We were flying them back to Guantanamo Bay. Then the DOJ was pressing charges and then we were flying them to NewSong York and they were standing trial.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: And in some instances, it was even more extreme or egregious than this. For example, instances like Muammar Gaddafi, you know, we arrested, detained and shipped Maduro to NewSong York for prosecution. The United States government under Barack Obama killed Gaddafi. Yes, killed him on the spot. There was no confirmed with Congress, there was no indictment, there was no, War Powers act resolution discussing none of these things. You just killed the man. And there was hardly. In fact, the few people who were discussing it were largely conservatives, religious conservatives, and some, classic liberals who would talk about the reality of the illegality of these actions. But how long did that last?
>> Walker Wildmon: Right, right. Yeah. And I will say what. And we'll talk about. I'm going to talk about this more later in the show. But this is not your typical, regime change. This is a new way of doing it because in the past, we've toppled the whole government in the past. And right now the left is saying, well, Maduro's guys and gals are still in charge. Well, to a degree, but clearly they're cooperating. We didn't go in there and topple the whole government and then tell the Venezuelan people, you guys clean this up. So in some ways this is kind of a new approach. Not, not, not saying this has never happened, but at least in the last 30 years, this strategical or rather surgical approach of taking the head out, but telling the rest that you guys better straighten up. This is a new way of doing it as opposed to just creating a vacuum.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Because as we sit here, you and I having this conversation, the structure that was in place is still in place. You have, you know, the, the purported Vice president who is, who is the head of the Venezuelan state, who is apparently conferring with and, and cooperating with the US government. It's all. It also will be interesting to see, to get back to your point about an extradition, whether or not there were any governmental figures who weren't cooperating with the United States of America.
>> Walker Wildmon: I read a report that the vice, the vice president, now president, basically m signaled that she would cooperate with the.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: US before the raid, which then provokes the query, and this is something that could come out later, whether or not this was a coordinated extradition effort, knowing that the Venezuelans didn't have the wherewithal to execute the initial arrest and required, even courted the US's assistance in detaining the head of the Cartel de Solis, the Cartel of the Suns.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be interesting to see how Venezuela holds up and, and how well the government cooperates.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: Yeah, it certainly will be interesting. And $17 trillion worth of oil, I think, will be a great incentive.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. For that largest reserve in the world. I didn't realize that until this happened. I knew they were big. Not that big. Thanks, Abe.
>> Abraham Hamilton III: All right, thank you, Walker.
Tim Wildmon: Spiritual heritage tours coming up in 2026
>> Walker Wildmon: All right, folks, we're back shortly
>> Tim Wildmon: Hello everyone, I'm Tim Wildmon and I hope you're looking forward to a wonderful 2026. Let me tell you about a couple of things you might be interested in that we're going to go on. Those are tours. We call them spiritual heritage tours. We're going this year in June and September to Washington D.C. and George Washington's Mount Vernon. We're also going to Colonial Williamsburg and the historic Jamestown settlement. Then we're going also to Boston, Massachusetts. So all those tours are coming up in 2026. The D.C. and Williamsburg trip are both in June and September. So pick the month you want to go. The Boston trip is in September. So for all the information, the itinerary, the cost, everything you need to know about these tours. If you want to join us on a vacation with a purpose, that's what we call it. Go to wildmangroup.com Wildmongroup m.com is the website. Find out all the information and we'll see you on one of our 2026 tours.
>> Walker Wildmon: At the Core podcast are [email protected] now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.
American Family Radio would appreciate it greatly if you chose to subscribe to our podcast
Welcome back to the Core. Walker Wildmon here with you on American Family Radio. We would appreciate it greatly if you chose to subscribe to our podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you can just type in the name of the program at the core and click the subscribe or the follow button and the program in, the form of a podcast will be queued up in your library each and every day. Well, we're going to Williamsburg, Washington and Boston in 2026. In the case of Williamsburg and Washington, we're actually going to be there in June and September and then Boston will just be in September. But if you would like to join us for one of our spiritual heritage tours brought to you by AFA, you can go over to wildmangroup.com wildmangroup.com and we will be glad to have you register, check out all the information there. but all of these tours are beginning to fill up and so we would greatly appreciate it if you go over there and check it out. And if you do want to go, then go ahead and register. I can't tell you how many times registration closes and people call us and, they say, oh, I just wanted to go, but, you know, I procrastinated and I'm not able to go this year. so if you want to go with us to Williamsburg, Washington or Boston, we would love to have you. WildmanGroup.com is the URL, and Steven McDowell and Timothy Barton are joining us in 2026. So you've got top, notch historians, from a Christian vantage point, joining us on these trips. Wildmangroup.com all right, let's continue our discussion of what happened in Venezuela and what is continuing to transpire related to this conflict.
Marco Rubio: US should not take over Venezuela's oil industry
ah, for this segment, since we talked, the legal perspective last segment with Abe, I want to, provide the context of why Venezuela and Maduro are bad. What was going wrong in Venezuela to push the White House to this point to expedite, extradite, rather, Maduro. So this is, Secretary, Rubio on the history of Venezuela over the last, let's say, 20 to 25 years, not only being, taken over by Marxists and Communists, but actually being influenced and taken over by our adversaries like Iran, like Hezbollah and Russia. This is going to be clip 1. If the purpose of the operation was to capture Maduro and bring him to justice, why does the United States, need to take over the Venezuelan oil industry?
>> Marco Rubio: Well, we don't need to. First let me go back up. We don't need Venezuela's oil. We have plenty of oil in the United States. What we're not going to allow is for the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the United States. You have to understand, why does China need their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They're not even in this continent. This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live. And we're not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries. Competitors and rivals of the United States.
>> Walker Wildmon: Have specific oil companies.
>> Marco Rubio: We also want to see that oil and the proceeds from it. Hold on. We want to see the oil proceeds of that country benefit the people of Venezuela. Why have 8 million people left Venezuela? 8 million. The single largest mass migration probably in modern history left Venezuela in 2014 because all the wealth of that country was stolen to the benefit of Maduro and his cronies in the regime, but not to the benefit of people of Venezuela. You know, how destabilizing 8 million migrants, is the number one fear that Brazil has, that Colombia has, that all these countries in the region have about what's happening in Venezuela. And our involvement is they're afraid of another mass migration event. That's what they fear. This is deeply destabilizing stuff. It's not going to continue to happen. They are not going to come from outside of our hemisphere, destabilize our region in our own backyard, and us have to pay the price for it. Not under President Trump.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's Marco Rubio, by the way. The Secretary of State is one of the best spokespersons on these topics. I mean, he's very clear, he doesn't overcomplicate things, and he's straightforward. And what's not mentioned there. And I meant to bring this in in the form of a clip, but let me just summarize. The presence of Russia, China, Iran, Hezbollah and others. And this is not even mentioning the cartel threat. The cartel problem in it of itself is justifiable enough for US intervention here. All right? Because listen up, we've been saying, at least I have for a long time, let's stop fighting everybody else's wars in the Middle east and in some cases in Ukraine, and let's fight our own wars in our own backyards against the cartels. There's no reason, both legal and moral, to not use all tools at our disposal, including the military, against the cartels. Do you realize that the, the carnage that the cartels have caused among the American people. This is very damaging stuff. Anybody who knows, put it this way, anybody who's had a loved one die of an overdose death can thank the cartels. So this, this is bad stuff. The reason we have the scale of illicit drugs in our country is because of the cartels. This is a multi billion dollar industry that thrived, by the way, under Joe Biden. That's not even mentioning the human trafficking angle, which is just as egregious. Okay, so between the human trafficking fiasco and the cartel carnage, there is, there is reason enough to go after countries like Venezuela. And let's talk about Mexico while we're here. Right, so that's. So that's kind of one reason that Venezuela is a very bad actor in the Western Hemisphere. All right? And that's not even mentioning the connections to Russia, China, Iran, Hezbollah, etc.
All right, so you've really got two angles that you could go from justifying this action standpoint
All right, so you've really got two angles that you could go here from a justifying this action standpoint. But back to the. The, our enemies in our own backyard setting up shop in Venezuela. So Hezbollah has been running not only drug trafficking and money laundering in Venezuela. Hezbollah has also been, using, Venezuela as logistical hubs for the regional operations, including sending terrorists into our country through Venezuela as a route. also producing fraudulent Venezuelan passports to Iranian Revolutionary Guard members, that then come into the US Using these fake passports. And then lastly, there were Iranian and Hezbollah drone factories in Venezuela. These same drones were being sent to Iran and other places to be used against our troops and to be used against Israel. And the evidence might come out that these drones are being used against Ukraine by the Russians because Russia was in bed with Venezuela. All right? And we just seized the two tankers overnight, which we'll talk a little bit about. And we'll talk about whether there was actual oil on those boats or whether there was something else like weapons, which is why we, intervened on that situation. But so Venezuela, from all vantage points, is a very bad actor on the world stage and a very bad actor in the Western Hemisphere. And this is about more than just Maduro is a bad guy and he's not duly elected. All right? This is way bigger than that and way more egregious than just that one talking point. Because we can't just go in and extradite the president, the so called president or the leader or the dictator of any country just because their election wasn't run. Right? All right? So there's way more going on here than just Maduro is a dictator and he's a bad guy. All right? There's way more going on here than just those few talking points. And so that's the context, that's the setup. That's why Venezuela is important.
The shift to the Western hemisphere for our military focus is absolutely brilliant
Back to the fighting everybody else's wars versus fighting our own wars. the shift to the Western hemisphere for our military focus is absolutely brilliant because think about this. We've been spending the last. President Trump himself has been spending the last 12 months, when you include the transition, trying to fix the Russia, Ukraine conflict. All right? So not to mention Biden dealt with the Russia, Ukraine conflict. Now we're going on three plus years. Nobody's been able to fix it. They're still killing each other in, eastern Ukraine. So why would the US Continue to exhaust and spend all of our energy, all of our money, all of our focus on solving what's going on in Ukraine when we've got problems in our own backyard? so this is what people have been saying, like political commentators and some lawmakers have been saying for a long Time is, it's not that what's happening in Ukraine just isn't important or we shouldn't even worry about it, but on a list of priorities, it falls below what's going on in the Western Hemisphere, because President Trump has been trying to solve and appease both, Zelensky and Putin for 12 months and has effectively gained zero ground. And I'm not blaming President Trump for that. I just think that there's way more factors going on over there that are outside of the control of President Trump that they just can't reach a deal. And at this point, why would we keep exhausting all of our energy, all of our money, and all of our focus and attention all on a war that's been going on for three plus years and shows no signs of letting up when we've got a war in our own backyard? And so this refocusing on the Western Hemisphere is strategically brilliant. It's strategically brilliant.
This operation is distinctly different than previous regime change operations that have failed
Then let's talk about. Now let's talk about how this was carried out and what makes it different. Because if you're like me, within the first 15 minutes of this news breaking, you're thinking to yourself, boy, how is this going to work out? How is this going to end? Good, right? We just went in and kidnapped or arrested Nicolas Maduro in the dead of night. How is this going to go? Well? Did we just create a power vacuum in Venezuela? Is this another regime change operation like we've done in the past that's absolutely failed? How is this going to work out? Well, as time plays out and as the days go by, this operation is distinctly different than operations in the past, specifically operations in the past of regime change that have utterly failed and created power vacuums for even more bad actors. All right? What President Trump and his administration did here is they surgically removed the head of the snake, but they did so without creating a massive power vacuum for rogue actors like the cartels or like the Chinese or like Iran to come in and fill this void? And what they did here is they left. They left the rest of the government in place. And they told them, basically, you can work with us and we can play nice or we'll come arrest you, too. Because as far as building indictments, building a criminal case on these and these folks, no problem at all. It can be done very easily. All right? Because the evil that they're doing under the Maduro regime was. Was insurmountable. Okay? So the extraditing and removing other leaders in Venezuela is no problem at all. If that's how they want to play, but clearly that's not how they're playing, so they're cooperating. Let's play a clip here. This is going to be, clip for the White House talking about what actually running Venezuela looks like. Clip four.
>> Marco Rubio: It's running policy. The policy with regards to this, we want Venezuela to move in a certain direction because not only do we think it's good for the people of Venezuela, it's in our national interest. It either touches on something that's a threat to our national security or touches on something that's either beneficial or harmful. And are you involved in that transition?
>> Marco Rubio: So obviously I'm very involved in this.
>> Marco Rubio: I mean, I think everyone knows I'm pretty involved on politics in this hemisphere. Obviously a Secretary of State, a national Security advisor, very involved in all these elements. The Department of War plays a very important role here, along with the Department of Justice, for example, because they've got, they're the ones that have to go to court. So this is a team effort by the entire national security apparatus of our country, but it is running this policy. And the goal of the policy is to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United States first and foremost because that's who we work for, but also we believe beneficial for the people of Venezuela who have suffered tremendously. We want a better future for Venezuela and, and we think a better future for the people of Venezuela also is stabilizing for the region and makes the neighborhood we live in, a much better and safer place.
>> Walker Wildmon: so running Venezuela, what the White House is talking about is running the policy of Venezuela. We don't have a US Ambassador in Venezuela calling the shots or, we haven't, quote, installed a leader in Venezuela to run the interim government. But what has clearly taken place, whether the news reports confirm this yet or not, you can't convince me that the Trump administration went in, extradited Maduro without any idea of how this was going to play out in the days afterward. There's just no way you can convince me that the Trump administration took that risk. It's just not going to happen. There's way too many things that could go south if you take out Maduro and don't have some type of partnership agreement or guarantees with other leaders within Venezuela. So this leads me to believe that the Trump administration had some type of off, clearly off the record agreement, conversation guarantee from whether it be the vice president or others, or the military leaders. We don't know who yet, but the White House had to have in My opinion, some type of guarantee with leaders in Venezuela that obviously weren't Maduro, that they would take control of Venezuela, they would assume control of Venezuela, and they would cooperate with the US Government. I just don't think that the White House was willing to take the risk of extraditing Maduro without any idea of how this would play out in the days and weeks ahead. And now we find out that Venezuelan government is fully cooperating with the US on all things related to the policy vantage point. Lastly, and then we'll talk, more and wrap this up in the last segment. The White House confirmed and Secretary Rubio confirmed firm today that the Venezuelan government actually signed off on the oil tanker, both oil tankers in the Caribbean and in the North Atlantic being apprehended and, taken over by the U.S. coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security. So Venezuelan leaders said, hey, let's get the oil that Maduro shipped off. We'll be back in a few. This is at the Core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.
Walker discusses the situation in Venezuela on American Family Radio
Welcome, back to the Core here on American Family Radio, where we're continuing to break down the situation in Venezuela and how it impacts our country and the future of the West. And, there's so many points that we could make here. I feel like I am doing a little bit of rambling, but we'll try to keep things as focused and making sense as possible. one thing, a caller just called in and made a point that I haven't brought up, at least on this program, and that is the Monroe Doctrine, which is now being called the Donro Doctrine. this is not really a legal agreement or even a treaty in this case. But the Monroe Doctrine is significant here because it brings up the point that this problem has been around before, and previous administrations have addressed this, and that is our adversaries being in our backyard. All right, but the Monroe Doctrine is referring to President James Monroe. This goes back to the early to mid. Really the early 1800s, 1823, to be specific, on his speech. But in essence, the Monroe Doctrine brought to you by President James Monroe was a message aimed at Europe that they ought not be colonizing anymore in the West. All right? They basically need to get out of our hemisphere, get out of our backyard, and not further expand any territories, in the West. And then in partnership with that, the US Would not interfere with existing European colonies or in European affairs broadly, in their backyard, so to speak. so that's the Monroe Doctrine, and President Trump kind of joked about it. The other night and said, now it's the Donroe Doctrine. but that's a little bit of historical background as to how this issue has been addressed in the past and, handled in the past as well. So there's a lot of history here, when it comes to how to handle, adversaries setting up shop in the Western Hemisphere.
Did Venezuela play a part in manipulating elections? Um, very possible
All right, there's also the, you know, the, the Dominion voting machines, ah, story that I believe Sandy Rios has addressed some in her podcast. I don't know. I just, I'm just not convinced that played a big part here once. again, there's so much m. Once again, there's so much that we know that is verified and confirmed as far as, the aggressions, and the sins, if you will, of Maduro and the cartels in Iran and Hezbollah, that I just don't think that the Trump administration was sitting in the skiff talking about voting machines. I just don't think they were. not to mention President Trump just won the last election by a landslide. now, you know, were these, you know, did Venezuela play a part in manipulating elections and kind of serving as a hub for how to manipulate elections? very possible. There's a lot of evidence to actually suggest that, and that their elections were not fair and square, that's for sure. but as far as that playing a role in this massive military and foreign policy decision, I'm just not sure that that was in the discussion. At least there's not any indication that it was.
The interim government in Venezuela is fully cooperating with the US government
All right, let's, continue some of these clips. I want to get to, the, Okay, this is from the White House actually today. This is Caroline Levitt at the podium of the White House first press conference since the extradition of Maduro, where Caroline Levitt lets, us know that the interim government in Venezuela is fully cooperating with the US government. Clip 5.
>> CAroline Leavitt: With respect to Venezuela, the Trump administration, led by Secretary Rubio, the Vice President and the president's entire national security team is in close correspondence with the interim authorities in Venezuela. We obviously have maximum leverage over the interim authorities in Venezuela right now. And the President has made it very clear that this is a country within the United States, the Western Hemisphere, close by the United States that, is no longer going to be sending illegal, drugs to the United States of America. It's no longer going to be sending and trafficking illegal people and criminal cartels to kill American citizens as they have in the past. and the President is flying fully deploying his peace through strength foreign policy agenda. so we're continuing to be in close coordination with the interim authorities, and their decisions, are going to continue to be dictated by the United States of America.
>> Walker Wildmon: All right, well, there you have it. That's the White House on full cooperation from the Venezuelan government. it's important to note as well that the two tankers that were seized overnight were seized with the consent and the knowledge of the current Venezuelan government. that's important to note as well. That was out from Secretary Rubio earlier. when it comes to seizing these tankers, these oil tankers, let's remember the kind of the audacity that our adversaries have grown to possess over so many weak administrations over the last several decades. This is a decades long problem in the making. This isn't a last six months or last, last 12 months problem. We've had our foreign adversaries in our own backyard operating uninterrupted, unimpeded for a couple decades. And that's coming to an end. That's coming to an end. And on the seizing of the tankers the Biden White House bragged about, we're placing all these sanctions on Vladimir Putin, but they don't enforce half of them. And so These seizures are 100% legal. This is not a question of can this be done or not. This is textbook sanction enforcement that's been going on for a long, long time, whether or not the Venezuelan authorities agree to it or not. President Biden and others, including Obama, they talked big and they talked bad about people like Putin and Xi and these other foreign leaders that are our adversaries, but they didn't do a thing about them. And what Russia was doing and Iran with these oil tankers is they were shipping this oil, this unrefined oil from Venezuela to their docks to their ports. And guess where they were going? Right through the Caribbean, right up the US east coast in the North Atlantic, straight to Russia. And then if you want to talk Iran, they're going through the Suez Canal, through the Mediterranean. That's the way this oil tanker came from. And, and then it was heading to Russia to deliver oil. And so you've got Russia buying oil from Venezuela using technology and platforms that the US built through our monies back in the heydays of Venezuela. And then he's shipping it through the Caribbean, which is now the Gulf of America, in part, and, shipping it to, ride up the US east coast to Russia. I mean, the audacity to be this bold, this shows the power vacuum that the US has allowed to happen. When we play weak, we play weak. We're conflicted. All we want to do is talk, but we don't want to do anything about it. The Democrats have effectively zero talking points on this other than, thank you, President Trump. That's the only talking point they have. Because President Biden put out a tweet. This goes back to, like, I think it was 2020 when President Trump was running for reelection. President Biden put out this, this, this tweet. Once again, all they do is talk. They don't actually do stuff. Talking about how President Trump, likes dictators, like Maduro, you know, he won't do anything to Maduro, basically, is what President Biden said. President Biden went four years, up the bounty to 25 million and could have easily performed this extradition of Maduro. But guess what? He did nothing. He did nothing. And he didn't even seize, these sanctioned tankers. And so this has completely changed the game of how Washington operates. And we've had so many administrations, both Republican and Democrat, that talk the talk, but they don't walk the walk. And that has created and emboldened our foreign adversaries to do whatever they want, wherever they want. And that's how we got to this situation with Venezuela. And Secretary Hegseth and Secretary Rubio were on Capitol Hill today briefing lawmakers, and here's what they had to say about seizing both of these oil tankers overnight.
>> Secretary of War Pete Hegseth: Clip 6 Senate just was briefed on, and the House was briefed on a classified level. is something only the United States of America can accomplish. The world is taking notice of that. Certainly Venezuela is taking notice of that. And it continues because two oil tankers, two overnight, were seized by the United States of America. Stateless or sanctioned? Because the oil blockade, the quarantine of oil out of unsanctioned or stateless, sanctioned or stateless, vessels continues. That leverage will continue, as Secretary Rubio outlined. So our military is prepared to continue this. As he said, the president, when he speaks, he means lit. Means it. He's not messing around. We are an administration of action to advance our interests. And that is on full display. We're happy to brief the House.
>> Marco Rubio: Two quick things. Okay. Number one, because we have to go because we got to brief the House. And if we don't in there, we're gonna. You guys better defend us. That was because we were talking to you. I would make one more point. It's a very interesting Point one of those ships that was seized that had oil in the Caribbean, you know what the, interim authorities are asking for in Venezuela? They want that oil that was seized to be part of this deal. They understand. They understand that the only way they can move oil and generate revenue and not have economic collapse is if they cooperate and work with the United States. And that's what we see are going to happen.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. that was Secretary Hegseth and Secretary Rubio on seizing the two ships and how the Venezuelan government consented to having these two vessels, seized and the oil basically sent back to Venezuela or sold and the proceeds sent back to Venezuela. the, oil aspect here is big.
The talking point you hear is that America is occupying Venezuela
Now let's talk about this, because the talking point you hearing and will hear is that, America is occupying Venezuela. We're colonizing Venezuela. We're robbing and looting and stealing their resources like nations have done in the past, etc. Etc. Completely untrue. Completely unfounded. Here's what's happening. And this is the difference in the way things used to be, the way they are now. Okay? The way things used to be is nations would invade other nations and they would loot and rob and steal all of their natural resources and they would just take over the land. Okay? That's how the world worked for thousands of years before we got to where we are now over the past several hundred years, okay? And so spare me this, this moral outrage that, you know, acting as if countries have never taken over other countries and use their natural resources, okay? Secondly, that's not what we're doing here, okay? We are telling Venezuela that you're not going to ship oil to Iran and China and Russia. You can ship oil to any other unsanctioned country in the world and make billions of dollars from the oil. And so, so this is not we're blockading the oil. We're seizing the ships. We're then stealing the oil and bringing it to America and refining it and paying $0 for it. No, no, no, no, no. That's not happening. It's never suggested that it would happen. That's just a flat out lie. Anybody who's suggesting that doesn't know what they're talking about or they're lying. What the US has said and Secretary Wright has confirmed as of today is that the US Market is open to buying Venezuelan oil. So we will pay market price, which thankfully is pretty low right now for barrels of oil from Venezuela. We will bring it to the Gulf of America and we will refine it. And we will either consume it ourselves or we will resell it to our allies. All right? So Venezuela is on the precipice of making hundreds of billions of dollars from the oil that can be used to re enrich their nation and have free and fair elections and set up an ally in the Western Hemisphere for decades to come. And so it's brilliant. All right? There's no theft going on here. There's no, you know, rummaging going on here. This is free and fair. This is just this what happened. This is what happens when Western Christian values enter the scene and figure out how to handle a situation like this. It's just, all right, and so we are buying the Venezuelan oil, all right? We're not stealing the Venezuelan oil, although if it's sanctioned and we seize it, we do have the right to keep it without paying for it. All right? But the rest of the oil in Venezuela, we're buying, ok? And so if you're in Venezuela and you're the leader and you're a semi rational actor, you're looking at this going, why would we not take this deal? Why would we not take this deal? We can be buddies with the US the biggest and the greatest country in the world, with clearly the best military of which we just experienced firsthand. Or we can keep playing footsie with China and Russia and Iran and Hezbollah and we can continue to be impoverished, unstable, non prosperous, poor and corrupt. Any rational actor would look at that and go, I want to hang out with the U.S. all right? And I will. I want to sell billions of dollars a year in oil and make this country prosperous again. And by the way, the US Is protected again. We'll see you next time. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
