Political Quotes

“for months, the Trump administration claimed that its campaign of blowing up boats in the Caribbean was about stopping drugs like deadly fentanyl coming to the United States-- never mind that fentanyl doesn't really come from Venezuela; it comes from precursors made in China and is predominantly smuggled in through Mexico; never mind that there are well-established, well-practiced operations for interdicting the drugs and apprehending alleged drug traffickers, not killing them; never mind that we don't even have clarity on what was on these boats or who was on these boats and where they were headed. No. Even as the U.S. military amassed unprecedented military firepower off the coast of Caracas that included multiple warships, thousands of troops, and the largest aircraft carrier ever put to sea, the administration still claimed this was about drug boats. You heard the administration say that time and time again to the public and to Congress until last weekend when the objective became clear: This was about Venezuela's oil, and if we could have that, we would leave the drug-running regime in place, albeit with its No. 2 corrupt leader instead of its No. 1, Nicolas Maduro. The rightful leadership of Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado and her election surrogate Edmundo Gonzalez--the ones who won the last election there--would have no place, no role in the new government because this was no more about democracy than it was about drugs. It was about oil.…”