CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan attempted to set a trap for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, demanding to know why the United States had only moved against Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro while other wanted narco-terrorists were left in power.

Rubio, who made several Sunday morning appearances across multiple media networks, walked Brennan through the strategy behind taking on one mission at a time — all while also pointing out the fact that the media reaction to a broader mission would have been much more dramatic: “Imagine the howls!”

WATCH:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio just took CBS’ Margaret Brennan to the woodshed on live TV over the Maduro raid.

“I don’t know why that’s confusing to you.”

Brennan spiraled over the fact that the operation did not seize EVERY narco terrorist in Venezuela, but Rubio hit her with… pic.twitter.com/6AtPJowG8A

— Overton (@overton_news) January 4, 2026

Referencing Maduro’s arrest on Saturday, Brennan noted that President Donald Trump’s administration had left a number of others — who had also been designated as narco-terrorists — holding power of some sort in the Venezuelan regime.

“The defense minister, who has deep ties to Russia, $15 million price on his head. He is still in place,” Brennan said. “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?”

“You’re confused? I don’t know why that’s confusing to you. I mean, it’s very simple,” Rubio pushed back, but Brennan interrupted.

“They’re still in power!” she protested.

“You’re not going to go in and … you’re going to go in and suck up five people?” Rubio’s tone was incredulous. “They are already complaining about the 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,” Rubio continued. “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 is also indicted.”

“That was a pretty sophisticated and frankly, complicated operation,” Rubio said, and Brennan voiced her agreement as he explained, “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?” Rubio asked. “I mean, that’s absurd!”

After American troops captured Venezuelan dictator in the early hours of Saturday morning, Washington quickly turned its attention to his number two: Vice President Delcy Rodriguez.

Rodriguez has remained loyal since Maduro’s capture.

“There is only one president in Venezuela, and his name is Nicolás Maduro,” she said in an address to Venezuela after his capture. Rodriguez, daughter of the Liga Socialista party founder, Jorge Antonio Rodriguez,  rose through the ranks alongside her brother, Jorge, who currently serves as the President of Venezuela’s National Assembly. Upon naming her vice president in 2018, Maduro said she was a “young woman, brave, seasoned, daughter of a martyr, revolutionary and tested in a thousand battles.”

But not everyone is sold on Rodriguez.

“I don’t think we can count on Delcy Rodriguez to be friendly to the United States until she proves it,” Senator Tom Cotton told CNN anchor Dana Bash on Sunday.

The Arkansas Republican acknowledged that, while it’s possible Rodriguez could attempt to work with the United States, it’s unlikely.

“There are recent examples of anti-American leaders around the world turning over a new leaf,” Cotton said, citing Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi and his reconciliation with the west in 2003. “But they made concrete concessions that benefited the United States. Delcy Rodriguez and other sanctioned and indicted ministers in Venezuela were in league with Maduro until yesterday so I don’t think we can count on them to be pro-American at all.”

On Saturday, Trump noted Maduro’s selection of Rodriguez had raised concerns, but said she was, for now, cooperating with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Well, I understand she was just sworn in, but she was, as you know, picked by Maduro. So Marco’s working on that directly,” Trump said. “He [Rubio] just had a conversation with her, and she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”

Cotton later said that her promised cooperation with the United States aligns with Trump’s remarks about Washington effectively “running Venezuela.”

“When the President said the United States is going to be running Venezuela he means the new leaders of Venezuela need to meet our demands,” clarified Cotton.

Rodriguez also served as Venezuela’s oil minister, presiding over an industry Trump has repeatedly singled out as requiring United States oversight.

“As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust, for a long period of time,” he exclaimed at Saturday’s press conference. “They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could’ve taken place. We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”

Beyond the energy sector, Trump argued that Venezuela needs a government capable of acting in the interests of its people: “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”

Cotton clarified that the Venezuelan government’s recognition of a new leader does not equate to recognition by the United States.

“We don’t recognize Delcy Rodriguez as the legitimate ruler of Venezuela. We didn’t recognize Nicholás Maduro as a legitimate ruler … It is a fact that she and other indicted and sanctioned officials are in Venezuela and have control of the military and security services. That does not make them a legitimate leader.”

Trump demonstrated that lack of recognition by issuing a warning to Venezuela’s remaining political and military figures, saying, “All political and military figures in Venezuela should understand what happened to Maduro can happen to them. It will happen to them if they aren’t just, fair, even to their people.”

For now, the president says he does not think the United States will need to initiate a second attack, but that if it becomes necessary the United States is prepared: “The first wave, if you’d like to call it that, the first attack was so successful we probably don’t have to do a second, but we’re prepared to do a second wave.”