Secretary of State Rubio spars with Stephanopoulos over Venezuela

As Secretary of State Marco Rubio debated ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, the “This Week” host repeatedly pressed Rubio on whether the United States should rule Venezuela.

President Donald Trump, who dismissed Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, said at a press conference that the United States will now “rule the country” until a safe transition of power is achieved.

Stephanopoulos asked Rubio what authority the United States has to govern Venezuela.

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“First of all, what’s going to happen here is we’re going to quarantine their oil,” Rubio said. “That means their economy can’t move forward until conditions are met that are in the national interest of the United States and in the interest of the Venezuelan people. That’s what we plan to do. So that pressure continues. That pressure continues. And we expect that to lead to consequences here.”

Rubio added that his goal is to ensure that Venezuela is no longer a “drug trafficking haven” aiding the enemies of the United States and to provide Venezuelans with a better future.

“Let me ask the question again,” Stephanopoulos repeated. “What is the legal authority for the United States to rule Venezuela?”

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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured by the US military on Saturday. (Pedro Rances Mattey/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Well, I told you what our goals are and how we’re going to use that power to achieve it,” Rubio said. “It’s very simple what our legal authority is regarding quarantine. We have court orders. These are sanctioned boats and we are getting orders from the courts to go after and seize these sanctions. So I don’t know, isn’t the court a legal authority?”

Stephanopoulos then asked if the United States currently rules Venezuela.

“Well, I’ve explained it one more time. I’ll do it one more time,” Rubio said. “What we’re running in is the direction that this is going to move forward. And that is we have leverage. We’re using that leverage and we’re considering using it. We’ve already started using it.”

The ABC host then asked if Rubio was currently running Venezuela, and Rubio reiterated that the United States was focused on “leverage” against the country. But he said he was “very intricately involved” in some law enforcement operations involving the U.S. Coast Guard.

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Marco Rubio claimed that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is not the “legitimate” leader of the country. (Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters)

“We’re hopeful that there are people out there right now. We’ll find out. The evidence will be in the things they do or fail to do, that they will begin to make some of these changes that will ultimately lead to a Venezuela that looks significantly and dramatically different than the one that’s been in place for 15 years,” Rubio said.

During the interview, Rubio also expressed doubts that Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, is the current leader of the country and whether he should remain in office.

“This is not about the legitimate president. We do not believe that the current regime will be legitimate through elections,” Rubio said. “And it’s not just us. More than 60 countries around the world have adopted this view.”

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He said he believed that a legitimate leader would come after a period of transition and elections.