00:00They know that even if they are arrested, it's easy enough to get a pardon from him.
00:06The data shows that Donald Trump is one of the most pro-drug trafficking presidents in modern day history.
00:12Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the witnesses for being here.
00:15And it seems like we have a lot of students, otherwise y'all got real young faces in here.
00:22So I want to thank each and every one of you for being here today.
00:26Unfortunately, this is a conversation I never thought we should have.
00:30And so let's get into it.
00:32The so-called President of Peace has spent all his time in office dragging the United States into conflict all
00:38over the world.
00:39He's threatened our closest allies.
00:41He started another unauthorized regime change war in the Middle East.
00:46And in this instance, he invaded a sovereign nation and kidnapped its leader.
00:52Now, I don't want y'all to get it twisted and believe for any reason that I think Maduro is
00:57a saint.
00:59But there are processes.
01:01A lot of Republicans in Congress and on this committee will argue that Trump's attack on Venezuela will be for
01:07the good of the Venezuelan people, as the chairman has laid out.
01:10But let me be clear.
01:11Donald Trump does not care about the Venezuelan people.
01:14And let me give you the receipts on how I know.
01:17He said that Venezuelans were invading the United States.
01:20He terminated the protected status of more than 350,000 Venezuelans.
01:25He deported Venezuelans to El Salvador's terrorist prison, even though many of them had no criminal record.
01:31So this was never about helping the Venezuelan people.
01:35Donald Trump does not care about Venezuelans at all.
01:38To be clear, there is no legal basis for the United States government to invade a sovereign country and kidnap
01:43its leader.
01:44There is no legal basis for recklessly bombing people who pose no immediate threat to the United States.
01:50And the exact language that I believe the chairman used was that this was a precise operation.
01:55I don't know if his definition of precise includes the fact that there were at least 40 civilians killed in
02:03this operation in Venezuela, and there was a total of 83 persons that were killed during this invasion.
02:13But Donald Trump's unlawful military action in Venezuela was never about stopping illicit drugs from entering the United States.
02:20According to the DEA's National Drug Threat Assessment, Venezuela has little to no role in smuggling illicit fentanyl into the
02:28United States.
02:29In fact, DEA has never listed Venezuela as a fentanyl source or transit country.
02:36Coast Guard and military data do not show any fentanyl coming from Venezuelan-linked maritime routes.
02:42It's interesting because the last thing that I remember hearing about is that the president decided not to consult with
02:51Congress before going into Venezuela, but to consult with oil corporate executives.
02:59I'll just put that out there.
03:00And Donald Trump, he also pardoned former Honduran President Juan Hernandez, who was found guilty in a court of law
03:09in these United States of trafficking more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States,
03:16which is double the amount of cocaine that Trump's own State Department estimates was trafficked through the entire country of
03:24Venezuela.
03:24International drug traffickers love Donald Trump because they know that even if they are arrested, it's easy enough to get
03:34a pardon from him.
03:35The data shows that Donald Trump is one of the most pro-drug trafficking presidents in modern day history.
03:42Since he took office, prosecutions for drug trafficking have fallen to the lowest levels in decades because the agents tasked
03:49with going after drug cartels have either been fired
03:52or forced to be fired or forced to start raiding your local Home Depot or illegally breaking into the homes
03:59of American citizens or monitoring community schools and churches so that the government can disappear entire families.
04:06It was never about protecting Americans.
04:09It was never about bringing democracy to Venezuela.
04:12It was never about stopping illicit drugs from entering the country.
04:16Like everything else this administration does, it was about corruption.
04:20The president told oil executives about the planned attack days before it happened.
04:25Trump then promised that oil companies would be fully reimbursed by American taxpayers for any investments they make in Venezuela.
04:34And once the president illegally took control over Venezuela's oil reserves,
04:39the first sale went to the company of a man who donated $6 million to Trump's campaign.
04:46This is why the president attacked Venezuela.
04:50This was about greed.
04:51This was about controlling their oil so that the oil executives who donated to his campaign can make even more
04:58money.
04:58Not only was this illegal and corrupt, it's also extremely expensive for U.S. taxpayers.
05:05The operation to capture Maduro cost taxpayers at least $3 billion.
05:10And it is now costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain the oil tankers that the United States
05:17government has seized.
05:18And as a Texan, let me tell you, this is not helping those in my state that engage in oil
05:27work.
05:28This erratic and illegal foreign policy is now responsible for the death of 13 U.S. service members and has
05:36made the Republican-caused economic crisis even worse.
05:41The final point that I'll make is that, especially as we have young people here, I think there's a lot
05:47that we can learn from our youth.
05:49I remember as a little girl being told things like, two wrongs don't make a right, it is very clear
05:57that Maduro is a wrong guy.
06:00And he may have even been illegally in power.
06:06But the idea that you would meet illegality with further illegality does not necessarily make it a right.
06:13So as someone who is trained in the law, as someone who still respects the law, as someone who believes
06:20that law and order should matter in this country,
06:23I can't speak for others.
06:24It is a shame that we do not have enough people that understand the Constitution that are serving in the
06:33Congress and decide that they want to stand up and protect Americans
06:38as we have a lawless 34-count convicted felon that is continuing to engage in illegal actions that are harming
06:48both us here domestically as well as Americans and others abroad.
06:55With that, I will yield.
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