Reported U.S. Demands Tie Venezuela Oil to Geopolitics (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt was asked about our reporting during a Wednesday briefing, but she would not confirm it, saying that the allegations were made in a classified setting. The Trump administration has outlined a series of conditions that they want the Venezuelan government to meet in order to continue oil production and the sale of its oil reserves. Now, in my conversations with two senior White House officials, they say among those demands are they want Caracas to sever economic ties with the United States' foreign adversaries, countries like China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba. They also want the country's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, who I should note was previously Nicolas Maduro's vice president, they want her to favor the United States exclusively when considering doing business on their oil reserves. Now, all of this comes as Trump officials who I've spoken with say they believe that Venezuela can only operate financially for another few weeks without the sale of its oil.