[00:00:00] Speaker 1: There has been some talk about whether the president's actions in Venezuela would create a rift among his supporters, whether it goes against his long-held, quote, America first ideology. So what are we seeing in the polling? With us now, CNN Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten. So Republicans divided about what the president's done in Venezuela?

[00:00:20] Speaker 2: Let me be very clear. There is no rift in the Republican Party. Yes, there are some folks like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massey are quite skeptical of this. They are very much in the minority. What are we talking about here? Well, why don't we just talk the GOP on the U.S. military, Alistair Maduro, Ipsos, 65% support, 6% opposed. How about the Washington Post poll? 74% support, just 10% opposed. If you look among 2024 Trump supporters, we're talking about 80% support. The vast, vast majority of Republicans are with Donald Trump on this issue. Massey and Marjorie Taylor Greene are very much in the minority. Very few Republicans are with them. You say they're with him on this issue.

[00:01:07] Speaker 1: Do you even need those words, this issue?

[00:01:10] Speaker 2: No, I don't need the words, this issue, because the bottom line is this. Donald Trump has had an iron grip, an iron grip on that Republican base for a long period of time. And it is the same iron grip that he had six months ago. I know every so often people are trying to say, oh, I spot these little risks in the Republican base. Oh, oh, you know, they're finally starting to break. They're starting to break from Donald Trump. It ain't happening, at least when it comes to the approval rating. Look at this, 84% six months ago, 85% now. You don't have to be a mathematical genius to know 85% and 84% are basically the same number. In fact, 85% is one point higher than 84%. Show me iron grip again.

[00:01:51] Speaker 1: Grip strength is very important for people as they get older. Now, one of the people who's been central to this operation from the beginning, central to the policy in this entire region is Secretary of State Marco Rubio. How has interest in him been affected over the last few days?

[00:02:06] Speaker 2: Yeah, one of the ways you know that the Republican base is with the president on this issue is look at those who are, in fact, President Trump has delegated to be at least very much in charge. Just look at this. Google searches for Marco Rubio up 575% from last month. We're talking about the second highest since he ran for president back in 2016. You know, we spoke about it last hour, how the American people view this at this point as a successful operation, considerably more so than did prior to the operation backing, in fact, the ousting of Maduro. We now, of course, see as well that that success is being pushed on to Marco Rubio as well.

[00:02:45] Speaker 1: So the question is, why is this man smiling? What are the prediction markets saying about his chances to be the next Republican nominee?

[00:02:51] Speaker 2: Yeah, take a look here. I mean, Marco Rubio's chances to be the 2028 presidential GOP nominee 30 days ago was 8%. Look at that, more than doubled now up to 18%. It's him and J.D. Vance in a two person field at this point. Marco Rubio definitely getting the fruits of the fact the Venezuelan operation. Doubled in a week.

[00:03:09] Speaker 1: All right, Harriet, and thank you very much for that.

[00:03:12] Speaker 3: Joining me now in the group chat, Sabrina Singh, CNN global affairs commentator, Ashley Davis, former White House official under President George W. Bush, and Lulu Garcia Navarro, CNN contributor and host of The New York Times, The Interview podcast. You guys, welcome. I'm so glad to have you here. Got a defense expert, Bush era expert, and Lulu, who has done a lot of reporting in Venezuela in the past. So first, I want to start with you, Sabrina. You had all of these people come out of this briefing. And here is how House Speaker Mike Johnson described what he heard.

[00:03:47] Speaker 4: This is not a regime change. This is a demand for change of behavior by a regime. We have a way of persuasion because their oil exports, as you know, have been ceased. And I think that will bring the country to a new governance in very short order.

[00:04:04] Speaker 5: What do these words mean? You know, I think the Republicans in particular are doing—they have to jump through a lot of verbal poops right now, because I think Republicans are trying to justify what the president is doing and these actions, which really fly in the face of what the MAGA base really elected Donald Trump on, which was the idea that we're not going to get into endless wars and start this idea of nation building all around the world. And so I think when you see Mike Johnson, I've seen other Republicans join CNN as well.

[00:04:33] Speaker 3: I think it's a lot of, you know, like trying to— But if you basically have your naval fleet in position to use the oil and you have leverage with the government, are you effectively in charge?

[00:04:46] Speaker 5: Well, I think that really remains to be seen, because what does running the government of Venezuela look like? Because if we are running the government, that means we are running their entire process. I mean, think of the government that we run today. I mean, we're running their courts. Are we overseeing their election process? Donald Trump poured cold water on the idea that there's not going to be an election in 30 days. That's part of the Venezuelan constitution. So are we really running the government? I mean, that's also going to require law enforcement, which would mean boots on the ground. Now we're going to ask Ryan Zinke about later today, former Navy SEAL, someone who wore the boots. Yeah, and I think that's a great question of what that looks like. So running the country, I think, you can say those words, but in practice, what does that look like? And I think lawmakers on both sides of the aisles have questions about that.

[00:05:26] Speaker 3: Okay, so here's what I want to ask you guys. I feel like whenever there's military action, Lindsey Graham gets his wings. And here is what he had to say in recent hours about what he thinks should happen next.

[00:05:40] Speaker 6: No military in the world could have done it. You just wait for Cuba. Cuba is a communist dictatorship that's killed priesthood nuns. They prayed on their own people. Their days are numbered.

[00:05:54] Speaker 7: So I pray and hope that 2026 will be the year that we make Iran great again.

[00:06:04] Speaker 3: The list is getting longer. I just have to play this reaction from Rand Paul, who was occasionally good for a laugh. Kentucky Senator, shout out. Here's what he had to say on Monday.

[00:06:16] Speaker 8: Apparently, this attack's been under planning for three or four months. And so there's plenty of time to ask Congress's permission. I think it's disdainful.

[00:06:24] Speaker 4: Lindsey Graham's fingerprints and all this.

[00:06:27] Speaker 8: Yeah, there needs to be a law and he needs to be banned from going to the White House. Ban Lindsey Graham.

[00:06:34] Speaker 3: From the plane. But I was surprised to see him on the plane right there, right? Like, oh, what are we talking about? I think he's on the plane a lot.

[00:06:42] Speaker 9: The hawks are back and the GOP, they're here. They never left. I want to be clear. They were lying in wait. They were lying in wait. I mean, I think this is the DNA of the Republican Party, you know, for good and for ill. It has always been something that people have seen them as very strong on foreign policy. The problem that we have at the moment, though, is not only just the lack of a plan, but also, you know, here we have the Trump administration basically saying that they run Venezuela. And they're saying that they run Venezuela because they can do it through this threat of the armada. So what is the plan here, that we're just going to leave the U.S. Navy and Marines off the coast of Venezuela intermittently as sort of a Damocles sword over their head? And meanwhile, inside Venezuela, what we're seeing is an enormous amount of repression. We're seeing a consolidation of power with a new government. That always happens, right? Because there are always internal divisions. There's a power vacuum. There are internal divisions. There are many different players within the Venezuelan elites. And so the Venezuelan people are the ones that are actually facing not regime change, not any actual change, but increased repression. And who is delving that out, dealing that out is the U.S. government. What does America stand for at this point? Are we now?

[00:08:08] Speaker 3: Let me bring in, Ashley, because these are almost beat for beat, the same questions that were asked about the Middle East and Iraq specifically. What do you think of those comparisons?

[00:08:18] Speaker 10: Well, first of all, I think we're like two or three days into this. So I think everyone needs to, I want to start out first of all and foremost, what Lindsey Graham did say, which was important is our military is the best military in the world. And I think we should thank our military for what they accomplished for the Venezuelan people. I know we can sit here and debate what the next plan is and whatever. No one can sit here and argue that it's better off that Maduro was in power or still in power.

[00:08:42] Speaker 3: The American people are unsure. I just want to flag these two polls for you. One is, do you support the U.S. taking control of Venezuela and choosing a new government? The number I always pay attention to is independence, just 18%. And the other thing is U.S. taking control of Venezuela and choosing a new government. People are pretty split on this, but just 24% support it. Everyone else is like no or not sure. So the question is not being asked of the American people, do you think our military is great? I think the question being asked is why are they doing this particular mission?

[00:09:18] Speaker 10: I think this is exactly what was said earlier about the base of the Republican party, but also in general, there are people in this country that are worried about their day-to-day lives. And so for them, I don't think that they care one way or the other what's happening in Venezuela, because they're worried about how they're going to pay for their groceries.

[00:09:34] Speaker 5: And I think that's actually a good point that you bring up though, because the American public does not want to see, I think, the United States getting involved in these nation-building exercises like Venezuela, potentially Cuba, Greenland, who knows. And I think at the end of the day, this is the problem with Ukraine.

[00:09:49] Speaker 3: So that's what we mean, even though it's two to three days in, the ghosts of all the interventions past haunt this.

[00:09:55] Speaker 10: What I'm having a little bit of PTSD about is, and listen, I don't think that the American people need to know the day-to-day what the next plan is. Obviously the Venezuelan people do, but I'm hoping because if not, it's going to be a big problem that the Secretary Rubio is coming up with some sort of plan to make Venezuela a better place.