Secretary of State Marco Rubio was not interested in playing footsie with the Sunday show crowd this weekend, and CBS host Margaret Brennan found out in real time. Days after the Trump administration pulled off a daring, flawless operation to arrest Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, the corporate media decided the real scandal was that the United States did not arrest every bad guy in the country simultaneously.
Rubio appeared on CBS and immediately faced the kind of question that only makes sense inside a newsroom bubble. Brennan complained that while Maduro was captured, Venezuela’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, was still at large. She seemed genuinely offended that a single overnight raid did not magically dismantle an entire narco terror state in one go. “I’m confused,” Brennan said, asking why other wanted figures were not also arrested.
Rubio did not bother hiding his disbelief. “You’re confused? I don’t know why that’s confusing to you,” he shot back, before calmly explaining reality to someone paid very well to ignore it. He pointed out the obvious, that critics are already howling over one precision operation, and that the outrage would be deafening if U.S. forces had stayed for days trying to capture multiple targets across a hostile country.
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
Rubio then walked Brennan through what actually happened, something the media seems allergic to acknowledging. The top priority target, the man falsely claiming to be president, was arrested along with his wife. The mission involved landing helicopters inside the largest military base in Venezuela, breaching a secure location, grabbing the target, reading him his rights, and leaving the country without losing a single American or asset. That is not a movie scene. That is an extraordinarily complex military and law enforcement operation.
Rubio called it one of the most daring and sophisticated missions the United States has carried out in a very long time and gave full credit to U.S. military personnel. He also made clear that expecting five simultaneous operations in different locations is absurd. The fact that this even needs to be explained tells you everything about the mindset of legacy media.
What Brennan and others refuse to admit is that this was a historic success. A narco dictator is in U.S. custody. No American troops were killed. The mission was executed cleanly and decisively. For the Venezuelan people, this was a long overdue moment of accountability. For the media, it was apparently an inconvenience.
Once again, the priorities could not be clearer. Not American success. Not justice. Not the dismantling of a criminal regime. The only thing that matters to these outlets is denying President Trump and his administration any acknowledgment of competence or victory.
Rubio’s performance mattered because he did not play along. He did not apologize. He did not water down the truth to make it more comfortable for a hostile press. He told it straight, and the contrast between decisive leadership and media nitpicking could not have been sharper.
The mission succeeded. The law was enforced. And no amount of bad faith questioning is going to change that.