Vice President JD Vance slammed reports alleging that the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was kept out of planning for the Venezuela operation.
During the White House press briefing on Thursday, Vance took questions from members of the press about reports claiming that both he and Gabbard were not included in meetings discussing the removal of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. It starts at the 27:30 minute mark.
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“So, I have heard a couple of things. One, that I was kept out of the planning for the Venezuela operation,” Vance said. “That’s false.”
“And another that Tulsi was kept out of the planning for the Venezuela operation,” he added. “That’s completely false. Look, we’re all part of the same team. And one of the things that is really amazing about that operation is that we kept it very tight to the Senior cabinet-level officials and related officials in our government.”
“We kept this operation secret for a very long time,” Vance continued. “I’m very proud of that. I think that it suggests that the team works very well together.”
The vice president then talked about what he saw as his role following the removal of the former Venezuelan president.
“My role is going to be whatever the president asks me to do,” Vance said. “Every other day, I’m chairing the meeting that we do on this [Venezuela] among White House principals to talk about next steps to try to ensure that Venezuela stays stable.”
“And as the president has directed us to do, to ensure that the new Venezuelan government actually listens to the United States,” he added. “And does what the United States needs it to do under our country’s best interest.”
“So, I’m going to be as involved as the president wants me to be,” Vance continued. “So far, that’s been very involved. And I’ll keep on doing that so long as the president asks me to do it.”
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The comments came following a Bloomberg report that “people familiar with the matter” claimed the following:
The White House 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, people familiar with the matter said.
The move to cut Gabbard out of the meetings was so well-known that some White House aides joked that the acronym of her title, DNI, stood for “Do Not Invite,” according to three of the people. They asked not to be identified discussing private conversations. A White House official denied there was any such joke.
Over the weekend, news broke of the very successful U.S. operation in Caracas to extract Maduro and his wife and bring them to the U.S. for trial, as RedState’s RC Maxwell reported.
It read:
U.S. Special Operations forces executed a lightning-fast raid in Venezuela in the early-morning hours Saturday, capturing and arresting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on charges of narco-terrorism, 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.
Nice to have a leader and an administration back in the White House who understand that America’s security must come first.
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