Speaker 1: And as to this commander in chief, he did something
Speaker 1: people talked about doing. You just wait for Cuba. Cuba
Speaker 1: is a communist dictatorship that's killed priests and nuns. They've
Speaker 1: prayed on their own people. Their days are numbered. We're
Speaker 1: gonna wake up one day, I hope in twenty six
Speaker 1: in our backyard. We're gonna have allies in these countries
Speaker 1: doing business with America, not narco terrorist dictators killing Americas.
Speaker 2: This is a.
Speaker 3: Big frigging day.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
Speaker 4: Good Monday morning. It's nice to have you with us
Speaker 4: on the forty seven Morning Update, and we've got a
Speaker 4: very big story. It's the President of the United States
Speaker 4: of America, Donald Trump's foreign policy FAFO. Nicholas Maduro found
Speaker 4: out exactly what happens when you don't listen to the
Speaker 4: President of the United States of America and his warnings.
Speaker 4: Now in a jail cell in New York City. So
Speaker 4: how did we pull off this incredible mission and what
Speaker 4: happens next? We have all the details for you. It's
Speaker 4: the forty seven Morning Update and it starts right now.
Speaker 4: Story number one, President Donald Trump announcing it in a simple,
Speaker 4: true social post. The United States of America has successfully
Speaker 4: carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader,
Speaker 4: President Nicholas Maduro, who has been along with his wife,
Speaker 4: captured and flown out of the country. This operation was
Speaker 4: done in conjunction with US law enforcement. Details to follow.
Speaker 4: He then said, there will be a news conference at
Speaker 4: eleven am at mar Lago. Thank you for your attention
Speaker 4: this matter, President J. Trump, and this is clearly the
Speaker 4: Trump doctrine FAFO, making it clear that you better play
Speaker 4: ball with us when we give you a warning.
Speaker 5: JD.
Speaker 4: Vance saying exactly that in his tweet, saying the President
Speaker 4: offered multiple off ramps, but was very clear through out
Speaker 4: the process the drug trafficking must stop and the stolen
Speaker 4: oil must be returned to the United States. Maduro is
Speaker 4: the newest person to find out that what President Trump says,
Speaker 4: what he means, is what he says. Kudos to our
Speaker 4: brave special operators who pulled off a truly impressive operation.
Speaker 4: The President then called into Fox News Chump to talk
Speaker 4: about it even before the press conference. Here's part of
Speaker 4: what he said.
Speaker 5: You tell us.
Speaker 2: Where Maduro and his wife are right.
Speaker 6: The second, well, they'll be heading to New York. You
Speaker 6: know they were indicted in New York and also so
Speaker 6: were they take it to.
Speaker 3: A ship first?
Speaker 2: And then and then.
Speaker 6: Yes, the Ewojima they're own a ship. Okay, they'll be
Speaker 6: heading into New York. The helicopters took come out and
Speaker 6: they went by helicopter to a nice flight. I'm sure
Speaker 6: they loved it. But they've they've killed a lot of people.
Speaker 6: Remember that, they killed a lot of people, and even
Speaker 6: people in their own country. They killed a lot of
Speaker 6: people to maintain power. He's a very vicious person.
Speaker 4: A very vicious person. The President wasn't done there. He
Speaker 4: also said this about Maduro as well, and why the
Speaker 4: operation took place.
Speaker 6: It just was the right time to do it. We
Speaker 6: had to do it because it's a war. We're losing
Speaker 6: three hundred thousand people a year. We don't lose that
Speaker 6: much in a war. Okay, if you look, and we
Speaker 6: had to do it. But he was in a house
Speaker 6: that was more like a fortress than a house. It
Speaker 6: had steel doors, it had what they call the safety space,
Speaker 6: whereas you know, solid steel all around. He didn't get
Speaker 6: that space closed. He was trying to get into it,
Speaker 6: but he got bum rushed so fast that he didn't
Speaker 6: get into that. We were prepared. We had, you know,
Speaker 6: massive blow torches and everything else that you need to
Speaker 6: get through that steel, but we didn't need it. He
Speaker 6: didn't make it to that area.
Speaker 4: Of the President Trump giving an update to the world, obviously,
Speaker 4: then having his press conference where he walked out and
Speaker 4: he said, this is his opening statement.
Speaker 5: Late last night and early today, at my direction, the
Speaker 5: United States Armed Forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in
Speaker 5: the capital of Venezuela. Overwhelming American military power, AirLand and
Speaker 5: sea was used to launch a spectacular assault, and it
Speaker 5: was a assault like people have not seen since World
Speaker 5: War Two. It was a force against a heavily fortified
Speaker 5: military fortress in the heart of Bracus to bring outlaw
Speaker 5: dictator Nicholas Maduro to justice. This was one of the
Speaker 5: most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might
Speaker 5: and confidence in American history.
Speaker 4: In American history. It was truly incredible what we'd accomplished.
Speaker 4: The President then went on to talk about the Venezuelan
Speaker 4: military capabilities and how we were able to take them
Speaker 4: out so quickly. Much of their military powered come from
Speaker 4: Russia as well as China, and some of their military
Speaker 4: were even mercenaries that were borrowed from Cuba to protect him.
Speaker 5: No nation in the world could achieve what America achieved yesterday,
Speaker 5: or frankly, in just a short period of time. All
Speaker 5: Venezuelan military capacities were rendered perilous as the men and
Speaker 5: women of our military, working with US law enforcement, successfully
Speaker 5: captured Maduro in the dead of night. It was dark,
Speaker 5: the lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to
Speaker 5: a c expertise that we have. It was dark and
Speaker 5: it was deadly, but captured along with his wife, Celia Flores,
Speaker 5: both of whom now faced American justice.
Speaker 4: No nation you listen to the President of the United
Speaker 4: States of America. They are saying, all Venezuelan military capabilities
Speaker 4: and their capacities were rendered powerless as the men and
Speaker 4: women of our military, working with US law enforcement, successfully
Speaker 4: captured Maduro in the dead of night. The President then
Speaker 4: explaining what happened to Maduro.
Speaker 5: Maduro and Floras have been indicted in the Southern District
Speaker 5: of New York Jay Clayton for their campaign of deadly
Speaker 5: narco terrorism against the United States and its citizens.
Speaker 4: Three hundred thousand Americans dying a year because of fetnol
Speaker 4: and the drug overdoses that are coming into the country.
Speaker 4: The President then, thinking, are men and women in uniform.
Speaker 5: I want to thank the men and women of our
Speaker 5: military who achieved such an extraordinary success overnight with breathtaking speed, power, precision,
Speaker 5: and competence. You rarely see anything like it. You've seen
Speaker 5: some raids in this country that didn't go so well.
Speaker 5: They were an embarrassment. If you look back to Afghanistan,
Speaker 5: or if you look back to the Jimmy Carter days,
Speaker 5: they were different. Days were a respected country again, like
Speaker 5: maybe like never before. I want to thank the men in.
Speaker 4: You listen to the President of the United States of America,
Speaker 4: it's very clear he was so thankful to those men
Speaker 4: and women in uniform. The President United States of America
Speaker 4: giving a very stark warning to the rest of the world,
Speaker 4: saying the dictator in arras Mandua is finally gone, and
Speaker 4: the Venezuelan and people are free. They're free again. It's
Speaker 4: been a long time for them, but they're free. I
Speaker 4: want you to hear one other thing real quick that
Speaker 4: I just want to play, and that is in Congress,
Speaker 4: there are some sane people among the insane. Tom Cotton
Speaker 4: saying this about Maduro on Fox News Sunday. Listen carefully.
Speaker 7: I've heard from too many Arkanson families who have been
Speaker 7: devastated by illegal drugs flowing into this country, who's lost
Speaker 7: a loved one, who've struggled with addiction. Those stories have
Speaker 7: been repeated thousands of times across the country. President Trump
Speaker 7: has been clear all along that he wants to the
Speaker 7: flow of drugs from Venezuela to stop. Venezuela is really
Speaker 7: unique in Latin America. They weren't just tolerating drug traffickers
Speaker 7: on their territory or lack control of their territory where
Speaker 7: drug traffickers had taken control. They were in league with
Speaker 7: drug traffickers. Also, Venezuela is in league with America's adversaries
Speaker 7: Cuba and Iran and Hezbala and other Islamic radicals. President
Speaker 7: Trump made clear yesterday and his remarks that he gave
Speaker 7: Nicholas Maduro multiple chances to change his ways and ultimately
Speaker 7: to leave and go into exile elsewhere, and Maduro refused
Speaker 7: to do that, and our military executed an amazing operation
Speaker 7: that I highly command. President Trump for authorizing Secretary Hegseth
Speaker 7: and General Kine and all of our frontline warriors for executing.
Speaker 7: It's hard to overstate just how complex it was. The
Speaker 7: United States military is the only one that could have
Speaker 7: pulled off this operation.
Speaker 4: That's a former veteran now member of the United States
Speaker 4: Congress and the Senate saying what we pulled off is unbelievable,
Speaker 4: and saying Nicholas Muduro was indicted drug trafficker responsible for
Speaker 4: thousands and thousands and thousands of American deaths, which bring
Speaker 4: me to the rage in Cajun a man that I
Speaker 4: just love. And this is a moment where you say,
Speaker 4: how did we pull it off? I want you to
Speaker 4: hear the timeline in the story. This will be a
Speaker 4: movie one day, but this is the man in charge
Speaker 4: explaining how we pulled this off, how we were able
Speaker 4: to do it. Listen.
Speaker 3: This operation, known as Operation Absolute Resolve, was discreete precise,
Speaker 3: and conducted during the darkest hours of January TEWOD and
Speaker 3: was in the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal.
Speaker 3: We watched, we waited, we prepared, We remained patient and professional.
Speaker 3: This mission was meticulously planned, drawing lessons from decades of
Speaker 3: missions over the last many years. Decades are many missions
Speaker 3: over these last many years.
Speaker 5: This was an.
Speaker 3: Audacious operation that only the United States could do. It
Speaker 3: required the utmost of precision and integration within our joint force,
Speaker 3: and the word integration does not explain the sheer complexity
Speaker 3: of such a mission, an extraction so precise. It involved
Speaker 3: more than one hundred and fifty aircraft launching across the
Speaker 3: Western Hemisphere in close coordination, all coming together in time
Speaker 3: and place to layer effects for a single purpose to
Speaker 3: get an interdiction force into downtown Caraccas while maintaining the
Speaker 3: element of tactical surprise. Failure of one component of this
Speaker 3: well oiled machine would have endangered the entire mission, and
Speaker 3: failure is never an option for America's Joint Force. Those
Speaker 3: in the air over Caraccas last night were willing to
Speaker 3: give their lives for those on the ground and in
Speaker 3: the helicopters. Let me talk a little bit about the preparation.
Speaker 3: After months of work by our intelligence teammates to find
Speaker 3: Maduro and understand how he moved, where he lived, where
Speaker 3: he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were
Speaker 3: his pets. In early December. Our force was set pending
Speaker 3: a series of aligned events. Key was choosing the right
Speaker 3: day to minimize the potential for civilian harm and maximize
Speaker 3: the element of surprise, and minimize the harm to the
Speaker 3: indicted personnel, so as the President said, they could be
Speaker 3: brought to justice. And as the President said earlier today,
Speaker 3: weather in Venezuela is always a factor this time of
Speaker 3: the year, and over the weeks through Christmas and New
Speaker 3: Year's the men and women of the United States Military
Speaker 3: sat ready, patiently, waiting for the right triggers to be
Speaker 3: met and the President to order us into action. Last night,
Speaker 3: the weather broke just enough, clearing a path that only
Speaker 3: the most skilled aviators in the world could maneuver through ocean,
Speaker 3: mountain low cloud ceilings. But when tasked with a mission,
Speaker 3: this organization does not quit. At ten forty six pm
Speaker 3: Eastern time last night, the President ordered Cofford with this mission.
Speaker 3: President good luck and godspeed, and those words were transmitted
Speaker 3: to the entire joint force. Over the course of the night,
Speaker 3: aircraft began launching from twenty different bases on land and
Speaker 3: sea across the Western Hemisphere. In total, more than one
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty aircraft, bombers, fighters, intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance, rotary
Speaker 3: wing were in the air last night. Thousands and thousands
Speaker 3: of hours of experience were airborne. Our youngest crew member
Speaker 3: was twenty and our oldest crew member was forty nine.
Speaker 3: And there's simply no match for American military might. As
Speaker 3: the night began, the helicopters took off with the Extraction Force,
Speaker 3: which included law enforcement officers, and began their flight into
Speaker 3: Venezuela at one hundred feet above the water. As they
Speaker 3: approached Venezuelan shores, the United States began layering different effects
Speaker 3: provided by Spacecom, Cybercom and other members of the Inner
Speaker 3: Agency to create a pathway overhead. Those forces were per
Speaker 3: detected from aircraft were protected by aircraft from the United
Speaker 3: States Marines, the United States Navy, the United States Air Force,
Speaker 3: and the Air National Guard. The force included F twenty
Speaker 3: two's F thirty fives, F eighteen's, EA eighteens, E twos,
Speaker 3: B one bombers, and other support aircraft, as well as
Speaker 3: numerous remotely piloted drones. As the force began to approach Caracas,
Speaker 3: the Joint Air Component began dismantling and disabling the air
Speaker 3: defense systems in Venezuela, employing weapons to ensure the safe
Speaker 3: passage of the helicopters into the target area. The goal
Speaker 3: of our air component is was and always will be
Speaker 3: to protect the helicopters and the ground force and get
Speaker 3: them to the target and get them home. As the
Speaker 3: force crossed the last point of high terrain where they'd
Speaker 3: been hiding in the clutter, we assessed that we had
Speaker 3: made maintained totally the element of surprise. As the helicopter
Speaker 3: force ingressed towards the objective at low level. We arrived
Speaker 3: at Maduro's compound at one one am Eastern Standard time
Speaker 3: or two to one am Caracas local time, and the
Speaker 3: apprehension force descended into Maduro's compound and moved with speed, precision,
Speaker 3: and discipline towards their objective and isolated the area to
Speaker 3: ensure the safety and security of the ground force while
Speaker 3: apprehending the indicted persons. On arrival into the target area,
Speaker 3: the helicopters came under fire and they replied with that
Speaker 3: fire with overwhelming force and self defense. One of our
Speaker 3: aircraft was hit but remained fliable, and as the President
Speaker 3: said earlier today, all of our aircraft came home, and
Speaker 3: that aircraft remained fliable during the rest of the mission.
Speaker 3: As the operation unfolded at the compound, our air and
Speaker 3: ground intelligence teams provided real time updates to the ground force,
Speaker 3: ensuring those forces could safely navigate the complex environment without
Speaker 3: unnecessary risk. The force remained protected by overhead tactical aviation.
Speaker 3: Maduro and his wife, both indicted, gave up and were
Speaker 3: taken into custody by the Department of Justice, assisted by
Speaker 3: our incredible US military with professionalism and precision, which with
Speaker 3: no loss of US life.
Speaker 4: Truly incredible. That is the story of American resilience, of leadership,
Speaker 4: of President trumping the right people to be in the
Speaker 4: right positions of power, and also I think in God
Speaker 4: protecting them. God bless America. God bless our President, God
Speaker 4: bless his cabinet, and God bless our men and women
Speaker 4: in uniform.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
Speaker 2: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
Speaker 2: you're listening to this right now and for more in
Speaker 2: depth news. Also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast and
Speaker 2: we will see you back here tomorrow.