[00:00:00] Speaker 1: The breaking news as you're watching this helicopter make its way from Brooklyn to lower Manhattan. Take a look at this. That is the now deposed, ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores aboard that helicopter heading to that heliport. This is the kind of caravan process movement that we've been watching since really just right at the top of the show for the last 30 minutes then as the leader and his wife are making their way to a federal courthouse in Manhattan to face a federal judge for the first time since the U.S. military operation that occurred in the early, early hours of Saturday morning in Caracas that then captured, detained, arrested, and now has indicted the former Venezuelan leader and his wife Celia Flores. Let's keep an eye on this as this helicopter is going to land and then we will be seeing, obviously we would assume that we will then see the former leader and his wife leaving this helicopter and then continuing to make their way to the federal courthouse where we have people staked out all along the way to bring you this. We're now seeing Nicolas Maduro departing, coming out of that helicopter. We're going to see his wife probably depart right after that. He's going to be now getting into, we assume, getting into another vehicle and heading to the courthouse. Just remarkable to see this. It was just until early morning, the early morning hours of Saturday that this man and his wife were running a country of more than 30 million people and then that dramatic and violent U.S. military operation taking place that has now captured them and now making their way with their hands bound in those tan jumpsuits to be facing a federal judge. Let's go to that federal courthouse where Maduro is going to be heading right now. Omar Jimenez is standing by watching this along with us. Omar, it's a pretty remarkable thing to see as he's making his way towards where you are right now.

[00:02:07] Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and the preparations for this have really been noticeable on the ground here. Obviously, there's always a stepped up federal security presence to begin with outside this federal courthouse. But here, you have barricades up. You actually have a long line stretching outside the entrance of the courthouse waiting to go in once those doors actually open. And as you see some of those images, I mean, you see Nicolas Maduro, you and I talked about it to start the show, just how quickly things change where now he is literally being flanked by DEA agents in a tan suit alongside his wife, walked down a very visible path from this heliport in the southern part of Manhattan here. From there, we're expecting, obviously, they'll be in vehicles and making their way to this federal courthouse where we expect that hearing to happen a little bit later this morning. But also to critically begin this legal process that the Trump administration has in part used as justification for the abduction and capture of Maduro, to have him face these drug trafficking and weapons charges that they say has contributed to, as they allege, hundreds of tons of importation of cocaine and things of that nature. And so just to see how this has developed so quickly over the last few days. And I heard you all talking about sort of the mode of transportation and sort of taking the helicopter over the water as opposed to taking the bridge. That was something that we actually noticed Saturday night as well, where traffic would have been much lighter. And when they landed on the western part of Manhattan, rather than just driving, they took the helicopter across the water as well. But, again, critically, we're waiting for them by ground to arrive here at this courthouse to begin this next stage, Kate.

[00:03:59] Speaker 1: Absolutely, Omar. We're so thankful that you're there watching it all play out. To track this, we're now back into another armored vehicle and we'll be leaving the heliport shortly, heading out with that caravan, you would assume, headed right to where Omar Jimenez is at that federal courthouse.

[00:04:14] Speaker 3: Thank you, Kate. Joining us now, CNN political and global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh. Also with us, CNN national security analyst Alex Plitzus. I'm going to start with you, Alex. You have gotten some new details about this operation, about the extraction of the former president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, as we have been watching these pictures, historic pictures of him heading towards his first appearance in a Manhattan court. What have you learned?

[00:04:43] Speaker 4: So in speaking to CIA and Department of Defense officials over the weekend and coming into this morning, this was the culmination of months of preparation and training. So it's clear the decision to do this, or at least be prepared for it, was made many months ago. There was a full mock-up facility that was built, very similar to what was done for the Bin Laden raid that was trained on for months by the Army's Delta Force, along with members of the FBI hostage recovery team, who augmented the military because this was a law enforcement operation where they ended up arresting and extracting Maduro. There's some contention over whether it's law enforcement or military, if you listen to members of Congress, but for all intents and purposes, those were the authorities it was executed under. Why that type of thing is important is when you have a mock facility, you use it to train and then to determine the timeline, preparation, how long does it take to get there, how long will you be on the objective, and small details matter. So for example, the Bin Laden raid, when the CIA built the mock-up facility, they used a chain-link fence around the perimeter as opposed to like the 18-foot thick walls at the compound, and so when they trained on it, the rotor wash from the helicopter actually escaped during preparation and training, but when they were in Optimus afterwards and they were flying, that didn't happen when the helos went down. So those types of things are incredibly important for preparation.

[00:05:46] Speaker 3: Yeah, you're talking about sort of this planning very similar to the intense planning in Abbottabad to try and extract or to eventually kill Osama Bin Laden. In this case, they took pains to make sure that Maduro and his wife were kept alive. I do want to go to you, Sabrina, because we've been hearing a lot from the President in the last 24 hours about what his plans are for Venezuela as we watch these historic pictures of the former President of Venezuela being taken into U.S. custody, taken to court on a myriad of charges, and the President has said that the United States will run Venezuela. He's been asked that over and over, and his answer has been consistent. So what would it take for the United States to actually run Venezuela when you consider all the complications going on there right now?

[00:06:44] Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks, Sarah. I think to put things in perspective, I mean, Venezuela is about twice the size of California or even Iraq. So to run a country with 30 million people and Donald Trump says that we are running Venezuela, I think there are a lot of outstanding questions, and I hope that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are pressing this administration for more details, because if we are, quote, running Venezuela, that is going to entail putting some type of military assets on the ground. And you heard yesterday President Trump saying that we're going to extract the wealth from Venezuela from the oil fields. Well, if companies are going to go into Venezuela and start extracting oil, these oil fields are also going to have to be secured. So again, I have so many questions on what it means that we're running Venezuela, what that means for our military buildup outside the coast of Venezuela. That's obviously putting incredible strain on our military force and, frankly, our readiness. But I think also, to the larger point that the president was making on Air Force One yesterday, it seems like we're not stopping at Venezuela. It seems like, you know, he has his sights potentially set on Colombia, Cuba, and, of course, we've obviously heard about Greenland. So I think the question, you know, members of Congress and, frankly, the president's base also need to be asking is, how does this fit into the America First agenda that he ran on, you know, in the 2024 election? Because we are now in getting into the business of nation-building, something that the president was, you know, pretty much against for the entire election season. So I have a lot of outstanding questions on what it means for Venezuela, but also the Western Hemisphere more broadly.

[00:08:16] Speaker 3: And again, I just want to mention the pictures we've been seeing, watching as the former president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, is being taken to a court in Manhattan for his first appearance alongside his wife, Celia Flores. Alex, from your standpoint, you talked about the intricacies that you've just brought us new details about the intricacies of how they were able to extract both Maduro and his wife. And now you're hearing the president again reiterate that they are talking about running the country. From a national security standpoint, what position does this put the United States in right now?

[00:08:52] Speaker 4: Still a little bit of an uncertain one. I mean, we can sort of derive a little bit more detail from some of the actions that speak to things that were unsaid by the president for what the future looks like. As Sabrina just mentioned, you know, the military footprint, what does that mean for the military running the country, etc. So first part for running the country, what we've heard over the last couple of days was the president was asked about the opposition leader Machado. Could she take over? And he said, look, she doesn't have the credibility inside the country, etc. And he also followed up with, well, Venezuela has a vice president. Very quickly thereafter, within hours, the Venezuelan vice president came out and said, look, we're not in support of this. You need to return. Maduro will defend the country, which didn't exactly make it sound like there was some sort of coordination ahead of time, which meant, OK, so what was the plan afterwards? It seems that the U.S. very clearly had no intention of going in. There was a third of the U.S. deployed Navy off the coast. Only 2,000 Marines, though, in a Marine expeditionary unit. That's an insufficient force to take and hold Caracas, let alone the whole country. So it seemed it was targeted strikes, take out the air defense sites, insert the force, which, by the way, they made look easy, but several members were shot and the helicopters took a lot of fire coming in. It was actually pretty remarkable that they made it out OK and no one was killed. So at that point, it was up to whoever was going to step up to the microphone and say they were going to lead and then the president was going to deal with what was left. So there was a quick change in tone last night where the vice president said, OK, we're willing to work with the U.S. on an agenda, which could be a potential off-ramp for additional military action. But if they don't cooperate, the president's made it clear, CIA and DOD officials made it clear to me there is definitely a second wave planned. And if Venezuelan officials do not cooperate, that is that is on the table for the president.