Transcript: Secretary of State Marco Rubio on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Jan. 4, 2026
The following is the transcript of the interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Jan. 4, 2026.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We begin today with Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who joins us this morning from Miami. Good morning to you, Mr. Secretary.
SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO: Good morning. Good morning.
MARGARET BRENNAN: President Trump said that the United States will run the country and that Venezuela will be largely run by, he pointed to you and some of the other cabinet members when he spoke to the public yesterday. He said, The U.S. retains all military options, including boots on the ground until U.S. demands have been fully met. How do you plan to run the country?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, first of all, I think the important thing to point out is that the key to what that regime relies on and is the economy fueled by oil. And right now, it is an oil industry that is backwards and really needs a lot of help and work in terms of, not only that, but it doesn't help the people. None of the money from the oil gets to the people. It's all stolen by the people that are on the top there, and so that's why we have a quarantine. There's a quarantine right now in which sanctioned oil shipments, there's a boat, and that boat is under US sanctions, we go get a court order, we will seize it. That remains in place, and that's a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela. And so that's the sort of control the President is pointing to when he says that. We continue with that quarantine, and we expect to see that there will be changes, not just in the way the oil industry is run for the benefit of the people, but also so that they stop the drug trafficking, so that we no longer have these gang problems, so that they kick the FARC and the ELN out, and that they no longer cozy up to Hezbollah and Iran in our own hemisphere.
MARGARET BRENNAN: What you are talking about is more of a sanctions pressure, not boots on the ground. So just to be clear, there is no plan for U.S. occupation of this country of nearly 30 million people?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think first of all, the President always retains optionality on anything and on all these matters. He certainly has the ability and the right under the Constitution of the United States to act against imminent and urgent threats against the country. That said, and all of that said as right now, I think what you see as a force posture is one of the largest naval deployments in modern history, certainly in the Western Hemisphere, and it is capable of stopping not just drug boats, but stopping any of these sanctioned boats that come in and out, and really paralyzing that portion of how the regime, you know, generates revenue, so that will continue to be in place. What the President has said, obviously, is, you know, and I think what he's pointing to is that this obsession people have about boots and this or that. He,he does not feel like he is going to publicly, you know, rule out options that are available for the United States, even though that's not what you're seeing right now. What you're seeing right now is an oil quarantine that allows us to exert tremendous leverage over what happens next.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, he also said the U.S. is ready to stage a second and much larger attack, if we need to do so. But I'm curious, because you just described the regime as still in place, essentially. I mean, I'm curious why the Trump administration decided to leave it intact and only arrest Nicolas Maduro and his wife, the person who controls the police, the chief thug, Diosdado Cabellos, he's the interior minister. He's been indicted by the United States. He was in that indictment the Administration released. He's a narco-terrorist. There's a $25 million price on his head. He's still in place. The defense minister, who has deep ties to Russia, $15 million price on his head. He is still in place. I'm confused. Are they still wanted by the United States? Why didn't you arrest them if you are taking out the narco terrorist regime?
SECRETARY RUBIO: You're confused? I don't know why that's confusing to you--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --they're still in power.
SECRETARY RUBIO: I mean it's very simple. You're not going to go in and wrap up. You're going to go in and then grab up-- but yeah, but can't go in and suck up five people. They're already complaining about this one operation. Imagine the howls we would have from everybody else if we actually had to go and stay there four days to capture four other people. We got the top priority. The number one person on the list was the guy who claimed to be the president of the country that he was not, and he was arrested along with his wife, who was also indicted. And that was a pretty sophisticated and frankly, complicated operation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It was.
SECRETARY RUBIO: It is not easy to land helicopters in the middle of the largest military base in the country, the guy lived on a military base, land within three minutes, kick down his door, grab him, put him in handcuffs, read him his rights, put him in a helicopter and leave the country without losing any American or any American assets. That's not an easy mission. And you're asking me, why didn't we do that in five other places at the same time? I mean, that's absurd. I- I do think this is one of the most, you know, daring, you know, complicated, sophisticated missions this country has carried out in a very long time. Tremendous credit to the U.S. military personnel who did it. It was unbelievable, and a tremendous success. And today, an indicted drug trafficker who was not the legitimate president of Venezuela--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Who we don't recognize, the Biden administration didn't recognize, 60-something countries don't recognize, the European Union doesn't recognize, and many countries in Latin America don't recognize. He was a convicted- he was a indicted drug trafficker. He was arrested. His wife was arrested also--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right but the others--
SECRETARY RUBIO: --and they are now facing justice in the American system of courts--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --The others who were also indicted are still in place. So that's the point of my questioning there. But you talked about not being the legitimate president--
SECRETARY RUBIO: --so you wanted us to land in five other military bases?
MARGARET BRENNAN: No, I'm asking why you chose that this was the limit of the military operation. But to your point that you just made that Maduro was not the legitimate president--
SECRETARY RUBIO: He was- he was the guy was claiming to be the president.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. Well, the opposition--
SECRETARY RUBIO:--He was the top target.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, the opposition leader María Corina Machado and Edmundo González won that 2024 election, by your own account. They were some of the first people you called when you were Secretary of State, you said, Edmundo González is the rightful president of Venezuela. Is that still the U.S. policy? And if so, are you working on a transition to have those elected leaders run the country?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think a couple things I have tremendous admiration for María Corina Machado. I have admiration for Edmundo. We have all those views about what the election that happened the last time, and not only us, but many other countries around the world, there's that. And there's and then- but there's the mission we are on right now. We have been very clear from the beginning, because I still think that a lot of people analyze everything that happens in foreign policy through the lens of what happened from 2001 through you know 2015 or 16. The whole, you know, foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan. This is not the Middle East. And our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere. Within the Western Hemisphere, we have a country, potentially a very rich country, that has cozied itself up under the control of this regime. Has cozied up to Iran. Has cozied up to Hezbollah. Has cozied- has allowed narco-trafficking gangs to operate with impunity from their own territory, allows boats with drugs to traffic from their territory. And we are addressing that. And by the way, for eight, nine million people and the largest mass migration event in modern history have left that country since 2014--
[CROSSTALK]
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, but that regime is still in place--
SECRETARY RUBIO: --also having an impact on us, that is what we are addressing now.
MARGARET BRENNAN: When you spoke yesterday--
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, again that- but we're not just addressing the regime. We are addressing the factors that are a threat to the national interest of the United States.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood you spoke with Delcy Rodríguez, who is now, according to President Trump, sworn in as the President, as the leader of Venezuela. Did she promise you that she is expelling all those American adversaries from Venezuelan territory? What exactly did she agree to do when she spoke to you?
SECRETARY RUBIO: We we are going to- our objectives when it comes to how Venezuela impacts the national interest of the United States have not changed, and we want those addressed. We want drug trafficking to stop. We want no more gang members to come our way. We don't want to see the Iranian and, by the way, Cuban presence in the past. We want the oil industry in that country not to go to the benefit of pirates and adversaries of the United States, but for the benefit of the people. We want to see all of that happen. We insist on seeing that happen--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Did you she promise that?
SECRETARY RUBIO: --and we are going to work to continue to see that happen- well, right now, the United- we are going to see what happens moving forward, let me just say that. I'm not obviously going to have these conversations in the media. These are delicate and complicated things that require mature statesmanship, and that's what we intend to do. But our goals remain the same. The difference is that the person who was in charge, even though not legitimately in the past was someone you could not work with. We just could not work with him. He is not a person that had ever kept any of the deals he made, broke every deal he ever made, made a fool out of the Biden administration on the deal they made with him, and we offered him, on multiple occasions, an opportunity to remove himself from the scene in a positive way. He chose not to do so- and now he's in New York--
[CROSSTALK]
MARGARET BRENNAN: But, his number two is now running the country- his number two is someone you can work with? And is that what you're implying here? And did she tell you that she will transition to democracy and the woman who won the election along with her partner there, María Corina Machado.
SECRETARY RUBIO: We are going to make- we are going to make our assessments of people. You're asking me to make an assessment. We're going to make assessment- we're going to make an assessment on the basis of what they do, not what they say publicly in the interim, not what you know some what they've done in the past in many cases, but what they do moving forward. So we're going to find out. You're asking me, why- do I know what decisions people are going to make? I don't. I do know this, that if they don't make the right decisions, the United States will retain multiple levers of leverage to ensure that our interests are protected, and that includes the oil quarantine that's in place, among other things. Well, so we but we are going to judge moving forward. We're going to judge everything by what they do, and we're going to see what they do.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, because yesterday, President Trump said María Corina Machado doesn't have the support or respect within the country, and by your own admission, she walloped Nicolas Maduro in the last election. So it does sound like a decision was made, but--
SECRETARY RUBIO: She wasn't on the ballot in the last election.
MARGARET BRENNAN: No, but her, her party was.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Edmundo was.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Correct. So it was an illegitimate election, and that's why he's not a legitimate president.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, but is there an agreement to transition to democracy? It sounds like there's not.
SECRETARY RUBIO: I think what the president pointed out is the obvious. Well, I think what the point, but there has to be a little realism here. Okay, a transition to the market — They've had this regime. They've had this system of Chavismo in place for 15 or 16 years, and everyone's asking, why 24 hours after Nicolas Maduro was arrested, there isn't an election scheduled for tomorrow? That's absurd.
MARGARET BRENNAN: No, no, I'm asking what you talked about.
SECRETARY RUBIO: These things take time. There's a process.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. And you are —
SECRETARY RUBIO: I'm not going to have, I'm not going to publicly get into details about any of those things, other than to tell you that our expectations remain the same, and we are going to judge whoever we're interacting with moving forward by whether or not those conditions are met. We want, of course, we want to see Venezuela transition to be a place completely different than what it looks like today. But, obviously, we don't have the expectation that's going to happen in the next 15 hours. What we do have an expectation is that, that it move in that direction. We think it's in our national interest, and frankly, in the interest of people of Venezuela.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The president used the word oil 20 times this press conference. You talked about these tremendous oil assets that Venezuela have, has. But the president's last envoy to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, is publicly arguing that you know better than the policy you're backing. He said, quote, "Venezuelan plutocrats, or US oil executives seem to be coming to Mar-a-Lago and whispering about how easy life would be if we just made a deal with the regime once Maduro was gone." Is that what happened here?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, that's not what happened here. What happened here is that we arrested a narco trafficker who's now going to stand trial in the United States for the crimes he's committed against our people for 15 years, and the person who helped him, of course, his wife, who was co-located with him, so she was arrested as well. That's what happened here. As far as oil, look, oil is critical, not just to fueling economies all over the world. It's critical to Venezuela's future. Their oil industry is completely destroyed. It's destroyed, all those oil fields that used to produce a lot and wealth for their country and their people. Those things are decrepit. They're bankrupt. They need to be reinvested in. It's obvious, you, they do not have the capability to bring up that industry again. They need investment from private companies who are only going to invest under certain guarantees and conditions. That has to go to the benefit of the Venezuelan people. Right now, all of that wealth is stolen. It's stolen, and it goes into the hands of oligarchs around the world and the oligarchs inside of Venezuela. A handful of people benefit from it. The people don't benefit from it. On top of that, it's very simple, okay, in the 21st Century, under the Trump administration, we are not going to have a country like Venezuela in our own hemisphere, in the sphere of control and the crossroads for Hezbollah, for Iran and for every other malign influence in the country, in the world. That's just not going to exist.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, would love to keep talking to you, but I'm told you are out of time. I have to leave it there.
MARCO RUBIO: Thank you.