Watching Jasmine Crockett fumble her way through a take on the U.S. operation in Venezuela was a reminder of how divorced much of the left is from reality. On ABC’s The View she flailed through a comparison of President Trump and Nicolás Maduro, an absurd equivalence that left the hosts and viewers doing double takes. Dave Rubin did what real journalists do and resurfaced the moment for conservatives to see just how thin the left’s arguments are when confronted with hard facts.
Crockett’s claim — that Trump somehow mirrors Maduro — is not only ahistorical, it ignores the reason the United States acted in the first place: Maduro’s regime has been a crime cartel, not a legitimate government. Democrats on daytime TV can gasp and clutch their pearls, but they refuse to reckon with the decades of brutality and narco-trafficking that Maduro and his allies have inflicted on Venezuelans and Americans. It was reckless grandstanding from a congresswoman more interested in cable-friendly theatrics than national security.
Make no mistake: this was an extraordinary and lawful enforcement action to apprehend indicted narco-traffickers who had been shielded by a corrupt dictatorship. The operation — carried out in the early hours of January 3, 2026 — resulted in Maduro and his wife being taken into U.S. custody and flown to New York to face charges that were already on the books. Americans who want law and order should applaud a government that seizes the moment to bring dangerous international criminal actors to justice.
Of course the usual suspects on cable and in the talk-show circuit immediately shrieked about “illegal” action and “kidnapping,” but patriotic Americans remember that Presidents have Article II authority to protect the homeland and enforce federal law. Attorney General Pam Bondi and other conservative legal minds have explained why the mission fit squarely within the president’s powers and the Justice Department’s long-standing indictments. If liberal hosts want to lecture on constitutionalism, they should stop picking and choosing when it suits their narrative.
The truth that The View refuses to address is simple: Maduro’s regime trafficked drugs, abetted gangs that spilled violence into our cities, and clung to power through brutality and corruption. The American people are tired of soft-pedaling evil because it makes for a cute op-ed; they want leaders who will act decisively to protect this country and hold international criminals accountable. If left-wing elites want to defend tyrants and mock decisive action, they’ll find voters increasingly uninterested in their morality plays.
Dave Rubin’s decision to share the clip was a service to the public, exposing the hollow posturing of a Democratic politician who prefers soundbites to substance. Conservatives should use moments like this to push back hard — not with soft equivocations but with clear-eyed facts about Venezuela, law enforcement, and the stakes of leaving dictators unchecked. The people who work, pay taxes, and keep this country running deserve leaders who will act, not hosts who gasp for effect while the country’s enemies laugh.
