Officials on multiple oil tanker seizures

So here's a question for you, Charlie. Has Venezuela or Russia responded? Russia hasn't responded officially. We're certainly going to expect to hear from the Venezuelans. But you raise an interesting point, Vlad, because, yes, Maduro has been extracted, if you want to call it that, from the Venezuelan regime. But the fact that there are not only more of these cargo ships that are trying to leave, these oil tankers that are trying to leave, but some of them are now under Russian flags, which certainly suggests that the regime that's still in there is not cooperating with the United States in terms of agreeing to that blockade. So they're still attempting to get these cargo ships out, whether they have oil or not. And as we understand it, I don't think the Marineraactually has oil. They were going after the tanker itself because it had been on the US radar since 2024 for shuttling oil to Iran. So when they go after these ships, they go after the ships, not necessarily the oil on board because it's the transit ships that have been identified.

Charlie, before you go, I want to ask you a question about just the mechanics of your job. Because as you know, your reporting from our bureau in Washington, DC, normally, under normal circumstances, you and the Pentagon press corps would be at the Pentagon. And yet, the reporting that you're doing, the reporting that others who cover the Pentagon has been doing, there's as much information that you are sharing with our viewers as you ever have. And I wonder just if the administration thought that somehow that that wasn't going to be the case. It certainly hasn't proven to be. In fact, we know that there are some reporters who actually were well aware of this operation before it even launched and chose not to report it. Right. My own friend James LaPorta, who's walking behind me right there-- Yep, I just saw him. --was one of the first to report that, right?

Yep. That's right. Credit where credit's due. Eleanor Watson has been chasing this. So yes, while everybody has hopefully had a bit of a break over Christmas and New Year's, these guys and myself, we've been working the phones. So we call Southern Command. We have our sources there. James obviously has his own sources. Then we call European Command because as we see this ship go into another area. So it has become more difficult than just-- [PHONE NOTIFCATION SOUND] --pardon me-- to walking down the hallway to get those sources to speak to us within the Pentagon. It just means that we're working the phones more, getting those texts going, calling people. And to their credit, a lot of these sources that are working within the US military are providing us with the information that they can as urgently as they can. So if the goal, by kicking the journalists out of the Pentagon was to control the information, that hasn't necessarily been achieved. It's not that we're getting unauthorized information. We're getting it from our sources. It's become more difficult, more challenging, more problematic. But again, working the phones, working our texts, working the emails to get the information as quickly as we can. And again, CBS News was among the first reports about the Maduro seize.

Charlie D'Agata doing that incredibly important job for the American people. Thank you, Charlie. Appreciate it. Thank you.

For more on this, let's bring in CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, who's joining us from the White House. Good to see you, friend. So what are we hearing from the White House, specifically as it comes to these two tanker seizures? Great to see you, Vlad. And hello to everybody. The White House is not officially commenting yet on this. But it is notable that the secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, did post, saying that the "world's criminals are on notice. You can run, but you can't hide. We will never relent in our mission to protect the American people and disrupt the funding of narco terrorism wherever we find it, period." Because obviously the administration has linked Venezuela to narco terrorism, to working with sanctioned oil, which is precisely why we have these seizures now of a total of four ships linked to Venezuela. And Vlad, it's important to note that the US actually started tracking and following these ships a month ago, at least, because it was part of a broader pressure campaign on Venezuela and Maduro. What's notable is that these two that were seized today happened since Maduro's capture. And obviously, as Charlie laid out, the Marinerawas flying under the Russian flag. And The New York Timesreported that the Russian government officially asked the US to back off following and trying to seize this tanker, and that sets up a potential tension between Moscow and US, which obviously we are tracking as well.

So the Energy Secretary has suggested, Weijia, as you know, that the United States will control the money that comes from Venezuela's oil. But the president of the United States said he's going to control it! Can you help us understand what he means? I don't want to put words in his mouth. What does that mean, the president saying, "I'm" going to control the oil?

Well, what we have is his post in front of us, Vlad, without any specifics about the legal mechanisms to do this. So at this point, it's unclear what he means, although his message couldn't be more clear because he said that Venezuela would be turning over between 30 and 50 million barrels of high-quality sanctioned oil. Now, this was posted last night. He said it would be sold at its market price and that the money, the profit, would be controlled by him. And he has talked about this ever since Maduro was captured, really focusing on the oil component of the aggression toward Venezuela. And you're right. He has said that American oil companies will be pouring billions and billions of dollars into renovating Venezuela's crumbling oil infrastructure and then ultimately operating and controlling the reserves there. And we also confirmed this morning, Vlad, that the president will be meeting with top oil executives here at the White House on Friday to talk about their willingness to be on board with his big plan.

And finally, Weijia, in your piece earlier this morning, you referenced Secretary of State Marco Rubio. And our reporting is that he has indicated, which is in stark contrast to the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, suggesting that when it comes to Greenland and the noises that the president and some administration members like Stephen Miller are making about taking control of Greenland, where Karoline Leavitt says, in a statement to us, that the president reserves the right to use the military. Of course, we all understand that as the commander in chief, he does. But you've heard people suggesting that that is potentially something that could happen. Meanwhile, what are you hearing from Secretary Rubio and how he has spoken about this to the Gang of Eight and other members of Congress? Yeah, it's a really important distinction, Vlad, because there is so much alarm on Capitol Hill about the president's quest to take over Greenland and refusing to close the door to using US military action in order to do it. And so CBS News heard from multiple sources that in a congressional briefing, Rubio told lawmakers that Trump actually wants to purchase Greenland, to buy it, and not take it over with military force. But regardless of how Trump would like to acquire Greenland, the officials there, along with the leaders in Denmark, which of course Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, have made abundantly clear that Greenland is not for sale. And so to them, it doesn't matter how the president really is trying to go about this, even though he is meeting with his team. He is putting many options on the table. And to your point, he has said that the military remains one of those options, which is really complicated because Denmark is a NATO ally. And so, if the US were to attack Greenland, and Denmark by extension, in any way, the prime minister there says it would be an end to NATO.

Hmm. Really important context there from Weijia, as always. Weijia, thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right. Let's turn now to CBS News foreign correspondent Ramy Inocencio who's joining us from our London newsroom. So first, Ramy, let's talk about these operations with regards to these oil tankers. Put it into context for us with what is happening in Venezuela right now with the recent capture of Nicolas Maduro, but also the rhetoric around Greenland. Absolutely. The messaging that the White House apparently is trying to get out there is don't mess with the United States in, as President Trump put it, the US's backyard and larger, the Western hemisphere with what's happening over these past few hours with this seizure of the Marinerathere, along with this second seizure of the Sofiain the Caribbean. US European Command, just in the past hour or so, in a social media post, said that the seizure in the North Atlantic supports President Trump's approach, quote, "to its whole-of-government approach to protect the homeland," taking it back to national security. And then with Venezuela, this, as we reported yesterday, has impacts politically, economically on the US's strategic adversaries. China had its first toehold in South America, in Venezuela. Russia also has its interests in South and Central America. And then also today we're talking about US Southern Command there, announcing that seizure of the Sofia, that dark fleet motor tanker. Again, SOUTHCOM is positioning this as saying that this is to defend the homeland and, in their words, "to restore American security and American strength." So this may be the first days in another evolution of the chapter of the White House's force projection into South America, but now further east, into the Atlantic and towards Europe.

All right. Ramy Inocencio for us. Thank you, Ramy.